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A plush Canary Wharf dining room and bar, No 35 may be keen to distance itself from neighbouring mega-chains All Bar One and Slug & Lettuce, but it has a secret past: it was once a Café Rouge. Not that you’d guess it now, from the stone décor, leather banquettes, peach accents and waterside alfresco loungers that whisper Miami.
On a midweek evening, the ambience was eardrum-punishing and we weren’t sure whether this was a place for dinner. But the serving staff swiftly organised a cute table in what we realised was the restaurant section, noise levels from the bar cunningly muted.
And the cooking? Not bad. Most memorable – we would have mainlined it if we could – was the smoked paprika aioli, a sidekick to tender spicy squid, armed with fennel, coriander and spring onion. Fierier still was a trio of slow-cooked beef tacos, their heat calmed by pickled ‘wonky’ cucumber and tiny cubes of blue cheese.
Least impressive? A lemon tart. Pause for a second and imagine one at its most basic: yep, that’s it. But mains were decent: a chunkily breaded chicken schnitzel proved lip-smackingly moist, the celeriac remoulade a tad sharp, while well-cooked sea bass, on a vivid pea purée, needed a couple more minutes on the grill to crisp up the skin. But moreish skinny chips compensated.
One to file under ‘Canary Wharf’, then: we’ll return in summer when that twinkling terrace may yet stand in for somewhere more far-flung.
BY: STEPHEN EMMS