I have written about restaurants for this newspaper for some 15 years – but my latest visit to City institution Galvin La Chapelle was a first: reviewing a menu designed to celebrate winning a City AM award.
Last year we hosted the first Toast the City awards, celebrating the things that make the Square Mile the exciting hub of hospitality and placemaking we know today, voted for by a panel of expert judges and the public. Among the most prestigious awards is Restaurant of the Year, which went to Galvin. It was praised by the judges for being a bastion of quality and consistency, and received a surge of votes from the people of the Square Mile.
It’s no surprise Galvin is thought of so fondly – since it opened in 2009 it has helped to define dining in London’s oldest district. Back then the City was a very different place, a five-day operation that started early and emptied out as people boarded trains back to West London or out to the shires. By 8pm the remaining visitors had hunkered down in a pub and you largely had the streets to yourself. Galvin, located on the edge of the City at Spitalfields Market, joined 1 Lombard Street and Coq d’Argent (founded within a week of each other in 1998) as fine dining destinations offering a reason for bankers to get a later train home.
Housed within a spectacular former girls’ school, which before that was a church, Galvin has become a byword for a traditional kind of hospitality, although the Mediterranean menu runs the gamut from timeless classics to adventurous modern fare.
Some dishes have been on the menu since day one – apparently they get hate mail if they’re taken off – such as the crab raviolo, crab lasagne, apple tarte tatin and rum baba. As Chris Galvin, who owns the restaurant alongside his brother Jeff (they were the first British brothers to earn separate Michelin stars at different restaurants, Jeff at L’Escargot and Chris at Orrery), said in an interview with City AM last year: “We’re like a pair of Dr Martens – our food never goes out of fashion”.
I first ate here some time in 2010, although every time I’ve visited since I get the same sense of awe at how well this building has been converted. It is a place of extravagantly vaulted ceilings and golden brickwork and swooping arches perched upon ionic columns. Many restaurants would feel lost in such an imposing space but Galvin somehow feels intimate.
Here some of the finest waiters and sommeliers in London glide gracefully between tables. Everything feels honed and balanced and effortless, like a complex piece of machinery, cogs and springs and gears purring in unison.
The new menu, entitled Toast & Taste and available until 24 February, offers five courses and a glass of fizz for a frankly bargainsome £49 a head. It starts with an Oreo-shaped “sandwich” of pane carasau, sometimes called carta di musica, or “Italian music bread”, so-called because of the distinctive, melodious crunch when you crack the thin, crisp Sardinian flatbread. Inside is a decadent truffled ricotta and honey, which rather sets the scene for a menu that is the polar opposite of January restraint.
Next is a rectangle of duck liver parfait covered in smashed popcorn and glued to a cloud of bread with pear chutney – as close to a dessert in taste and appearance as you can get with a dish whose primary ingredient is liver. Gavin regulars will be pleased to see the crab raviolo in beurre blanc is on the menu – no hate mail today! – and it’s as good as ever: a giant patty of crab meat coated in a golden sauce studded with roe and chives. This is the good stuff.
There’s a choice of mains: a cube of impossibly rich deer shoulder encased in king cabbage and drizzled with bagna cauda (garlic, anchovies, butter and olive oil). Alternatively there’s beef fillet with celeriac gratin and smoked haddock, a delicate balancing act of flavours made to seem – that word again – effortless. This is the stuff Galvin does so well, iterating on classics, allowing ingredients to lead the way and ending up somewhere you might not expect. Someone should give these guys an award!
I took dessert home; it is January after all and this is not a meal that skimps on calories. I’m glad to confirm the rum baba tastes just as good the morning after – indeed, that satisfying squelch of sugary booze through sponge is guaranteed to set you up for the day.
As Galvin approaches its third decade, the Toast & Taste menu shows why it’s become such a City staple. This is how a restaurant should feel – self assured, confident, fun. It will be a tough one to beat at the next Toast the City awards.
• To book go to the website here