(menu)

Magdalen

Address:	152 Tooley Street SE1 2TU
Tel	020 7403 1342
Email:	info@magdalenrestaurant.co.uk
Website:	Visit Magdalen website
Price: £38.00	Wine: £13.50	Champagne: £30.00
Opening Hours:	Mon-Fri 12N-2.15pm Mon-Sat 6.30-10pm

Square Meal review of Magdalen:

Co-owned by a team of young chefs who met while working at Chiswick’s well-regarded La Trompette, this two-storey restaurant (no bookings on the ground floor) is appealingly decorated with bentwood chairs, aubergine walls, big mirrors & even bigger sprays of fresh lilies. Good things on a menu more British than the Parisian-bistro-like surrounds would suggest include a starter of smoked eel with apple & celeriac remoulade &, to follow, a really superb confit duck accompanied by nutty, emerald-green Brussels sprout leaves & a creamy mustard sauce. But not all of the cooking is so precisely flavoured: sliced ox tongue needs beetroot & horseradish with more oomph to save it from plainness, while rhubarb compote tastes mainly of sugar. However, characterful touches do make amends, including a daily-changing menu based on seasonal ingredients sourced from nearby Borough Market & a French-leaning wine list offering 12 bottles by the carafe. Reasonable prices, too, are refreshingly different.