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Albion at The Boundary Project
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Budget choice
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© Michael Franke
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By Guy Dimond
The big daddy of London’s restaurant revolution is back. The management buy-out of Conran Restaurants in 2006 – handing Quaglino’s, Blue Print Café, Orrery et al over to the stewardship of D&D London – did not spell the end of Terence Conran as a restaurateur, as everyone predicted. Instead, over the last couple of years, Terence and his wife Vicki have been collaborating with their former operations director Peter Prescott on the new Boundary Project. Their new company is called – you guessed – 'Prescott & Conran'.
Fittingly, its location is on Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, inside the shell of a former light industrial building; it’s just across the street from Shoreditch House, the fashionable members’ club, in what has become one of the most vogueish streets in London.
Boundary Project looks, and is, an astonishingly professional operation in the otherwise dishevelled-looking Shoreditch. Albion is the ground floor ‘caff’ (their description), food shop and bakery; Boundary is the smarter French restaurant in the basement of the same building. The rooftop bar-grill, Boundary Rooftop, opened in summer 2009.
Albion’s room is a looker, with lots of natural light bathing the white tiled interior, open kitchen, and pendulous factory lights. The food shop is at one end, though – excellent baking apart – it’s chiefly a window-dressing exercise, unless you feel the need to stock up on tins of treacle and quinces on the way out. But it looks lovely, and sends the right signals: wholesome, traditional, but also knowingly chic. There’s wit in the design too, from the stools made from tractor seats to the Brown Betty teapots covered in hand-knitted woollen tea cosies.
British nostalgia-revival menus are everywhere at the moment, but the execution of the even simple dishes such as welsh rabbit or fish pie can disappoint. At worst, they only remind us why British food fell out of favour in the first place. But not here. The little appetiser plate of crackling is the best roasted pork skin you’ll find: crisp, light, crunchy, and packed with pork-fat flavour.
The meat in a proper Irish stew isn’t browned before simmering, but this hasn’t detracted from the flavour in any way; the slow-cooked stock in Albion’s version gave a richness to the dish, yet the root vegetables were still firm, not cooked into a mush. The rice of the kedgeree was light and delicately flavoured, more like a pulao than school dinner kedgeree. Puddings include nursery favourites such as egg custard, apple and blackberry crumble, or bread and butter pudding.
None of the main courses cost more than a tenner, which is great value for such skilful cooking in such an appealing setting. Service was perky, polite, and prompt. But perhaps best of all, Albion is open all day, every day, making it an ideal meeting place when you’re in the East End and want to meet friends somewhere reliably well-run and pleasant.
Albion easily trumps the quality of British cooking and ambience at nearby Canteen, and has a less challenging menu than the champions of offal, St John Bread & Wine (dishes such as ox heart or smoked eel isn’t to everyone’s taste). Make sure you book though, because Albion gets very busy – and take note of some of the customer comments below.Time Out London June 2009
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
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Details
- 2-4 Boundary Street, Shoreditch, E2 7DD
- Area: Shoreditch
- Tel: 020 7729 1051
- www.albioncaff.co.uk
- Category: British
- Travel: Liverpool St tube/rail or 8, 26, 48 bus
- Times: 8am-midnight Mon-Sun
- Services:
- Outdoor tables: Several tables outside in traffic-free Boundary Street
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Belinda22
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I went on a Sunday and overall I was thoroughly impressed with the Albion Cafe. The finely designed environment was fresh and comfortable and suitably complimented by the excellent service I received, which was friendly, attentive and without fault. Clearly a very well run ship. The only reason I have not awarded 5 stars in this review is down to the fact that that there is very little consideration to vegetarians on the menu. Hopefully a consideration which will garnish quick attention as otherwise regular visits will soon need more than delicous breads to flesh out a meaty and satisying munch.
The Caff setting is very nice, love the design and brick walls add a great sense of warmth and homey-ness. Also nice crowd, the kind that never has a bad hair day but is not too weary of it.
I ate at the Restaurant downstairs yesterday. Not impressed. The design is much colder than upstairs but fails to fall within a "standard" category: it would be too formal for a date but probably not formal enough for a work dinner. The one aspect which is most disturbing is the service: we waited 40 minutes to be seated, then once we had ordered only got our wine after the starter because a "sommelier" allegedly was going to assist us!!! Prices are fairly reasonable and food is good, in line with prices. But really, the service just overshades all of this and makes the experience rather frustrating. Worth a visit but is not going to become a regular for me.
I was a little scared in trying out Albion after reading some of the other reviews on here. But I needn't have been!! Wow four people 2 courses and drinks for a little under £100. Beetroot salad was great, as was the kedgeree. We were too full to even attempt the lovely cakes and puddings. Service was friendly and efficient. I will with out a doubt be going back
Just back from lunch at The Albion.
I guess I got them on a good day? Everything was seamless and lovely. The food is not out of this world, but a very nice piece of salmon for under a £10, you cant complain. The styling and service was topnotch. And the cup cakes are excellent!
What an overrated overhyped disappointment the Boundary Rooftop was. Design wise the furnishings and ambience are mediocre at best, not what I expected at all for a Conran Project. After waiting for over an hour last friday to go up and sit at a table on the terrace where the smoke from the grill was blowing directly onto us (why could people not wait at the bar instead to create some sort of ambience?), we were served overpriced small dishes that left us wanting much more. And not in the good way. The food that we were served was decent enough, but nothing special and definitely could have been made at home. We ordered the Grilled Poussin with salsa verde, and Whole Mackerel ,with sides of grilled vegetables and chips. The highlight was the vegetables, which were cooked to perfection, but the chips were dried out, and the mains needed to be much larger. There was no point ordering dessert- the petit pot au chocolat ordered by the table next to us was a bit tres petit to be worth the effort. Tart of the day almond and apricot looked downright boring, and other options were strawberries, ice-cream, or cheese. (Did somone say supermarket?) Would they have been serving the full restaurant menu up on the roof, the place may have been passable. I'm not sure I would be going back to try the full menu after this experience.
Boundary Rooftop is essentially the poor (or untrendy) man's Shoreditch House where you can spend your mediocre meal gazing wistfully across the street wishing you were there instead. And truth be told no-one with access to SH would be caught dead lining up for an hour to get in here when poolside heaven awaits them across the road.
Just went down to Albion for a quick coffee and bit of breakfast. Ordered a coffee and tea, waited over 15 minutes and decided to leave... It really doesn't take that long to make a hot drink, even if it's busy.
I echo everyone elses views, disappointing.
Still, it was rammed, and I guess a 'place to be seen' can rely on it's name rather than it's service.
I have eaten on the rooftop, restaurant and at the Albion and got in every time. The best thing is the bourbon biscuits. All the food is delicious. Nice cocktails too. Rooftop is hard to get served/ places on a nice day. Albion is a great second choice. Although the cauli cheese was a bit disappointing - too runny.
THIS PLACE IS VERY FRUSTRATING. i was chaining a the bit for this place to open back in december, as options in the area are fairly limited. the potential is there - great refit, main courses under a tenner and open til midnight - great. but the shop is a waste of space. bottles of sarsons vinegar/tins of golden syrup - window dressing much! who on earth would go there to shop. moving through to the fridges etc. the recession hit pricing disappears - £20 chicken anyone? loads of cakes that no-one seems to eat. there are tons of offices in the area so where are the hot/savoury dishes to take to the office or back home in the evening - how about a decent pastie/hot pot/tod in the hole . . . if you must maintain the brit theme? take a look at al little's gaff 'tavola' on westb'ne grove/the ginger pig or la fromagerie on moxon st for great ingredients and how to present great quality/appetising food to take away. through to the restaurant - the steak & kidney is the star dish apart from that it's all pretty serviceable at best. MUST DO AND CAN DO BETTER.
After the type with its opening, I was really disapointed. Went with a friend, and neither of us was impressed with the food. I would not recommend it.
Awful service, surly staff, inconsistent quality of food - a general feeling that the Albion is 'doing you a favour'. This place is a real let down, surprisingly receiving a lot of good reviews in various publications, I can only guess people are so wowed by the admittedly impressive styling that the poor quality of the food goes unnoticed.