Perilla - Shoreditch, London

The fine dining movement in east London started as a ripple - The Young Turks and Nuno Mendes' supperclubs - before it gained inertia and became a wave with Michelin-starred Lyle's and Clove Club, and now continues to peel off from Shoreditch into Hackney and Stoke Newington with Ellory, Pidgin and now Perilla on the corner of Newington Green. Whether the latter receives the Michelin anointment remains to be seen, but on a Wednesday evening visit it appeared to have the all of the markings of that office.

The dining room offers a masterclass in soft tones and distressed surfaces, with floor-to-ceiling windows that offer bucolic views of Newington Green that coalesce with the interior's rustic wooden joists, sanded light wood tables, whitewashed brickwork and exposed plaster render. In the near corner of the restaurant an aperture into the kitchens offers views of founder Ben Marks putting his skills to work, gleaned from a career with stints at Noma, The Square and Claridge's.

The tasting menu is a steal at £38 for five exceptional courses, with an amuse bouche of crisp roasted kale peppered with pockets of intriguingly iodine smoked cod roe. This was followed by a wedge of seaweed sourdough baked with a chunky crust and served with a ramekin of lamb fat which we slathered on accordingly. Both dishes went beautifully with a Dominio de Tharsys Cava. Our first proper dish was cuttlefish 'bolognese', which switched out pasta for monk's beard then dusted down the entire ensemble with a generous grating of Sardinian bottarga. It was coupled with an exceptional Ametzoi Txakoli from the Basque region which cut away the creaminess with a raw apple backbone. So far so great.

Our meal continued with pot-roasted broccoli served atop pickled cucumber and immersed in an incredible hung yoghurt sauce. The brassica has become increasingly popular as a prestige ingredient and this impressive dish continues the trend nicely. This was followed by our main course of the evening, tender roast chicken served with wild garlic and bitter grilled puntarella, paired with an exceptional Franco Mondo orange wine. We finished off the meal with a blood orange custard drizzled with olive oil, which went well with a sweet Riesling Auslese. All in, Perilla is a well-oiled fine-dining machine that competes with east London's swelling ranks of Michelin-starred operations. Whether it receives the coronation remains to be seen, but we wouldn't be surprised if it did!

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