First printed in Spectator Scoff!

You’ve got to admire Nuno Mendes’ tenacity. Having once tried, and once failed, with Bacchus – a restaurant serving his elaborate, inventive cuisine from the run-down depths of Hoxton – forcing him to create a supper club (and a very successful one at that) from his loft apartment – he’s back for another stab, from an equally unlikely location. Viajante, with its light, open kitchen, is spread over the ground floor of a very ambitious redevelopment of Bethnal Green Town Hall, and it’s the restaurant the chef has been working towards for his entire career. The menus, which are set and not revealed to the guest (unless specifically requested), are testimony to this, reflecting his travels across the globe in their ingredients and flavour combinations.

We had the three course lunch menu, carefully matched to ‘beverages’ (mostly wine but one delicious artisan sour ale), but there were a number of bites in the meal’s preamble. Crostini with olives, red pepper and almonds was a tasty morsel, and he even managed to make soy milk taste good in a smoky set with aubergine consommé and a babaganoush side pastry. ‘Thai explosion’ – chicken confit with Thai spices and quails egg was delightful (crispy chicken skin is a favourite of the chef). I normally find beetroot a bit offensive, but enjoyed a dish of its ‘textures’, with ribbons of pickled beetroot, round roasted pegs of the stuff, sweet green apple, crab meat and creamy dots of goats curd. It was a nice combination – earthy, minerally and replenishing.

The stand-out dish overall was the main course of Iberian pork neck (cooked sous vide but pan-seared to a nice finish) with grated egg, cabbage purée and crispy deep-fried capers on anchovy emulsion. The deep-fried capers were a stroke of genius, offsetting the pork perfectly. Hearty but refined, carefully prepared and well-cooked, it showed that Mendes is very capable of bashing out honest and flavourful food alongside his more fey creations. Whether it can succeed in this locale is another thing entirely. I hope it can.

Vıajante Patriot Square, London E2 9NF Tel: 020 7871 0461. www.viajante.co.uk