The Clove Club

Fine Dining Without the Funeral Face

4 of 5

Shoreditch Town Hall is a Grade II listed building with enough old grandeur to make you stand up straighter. The Clove Club lives inside it and does the opposite of stiff. Isaac McHale calls it relaxed fine dining, and the room backs him up. Two Michelin stars, a place on the World's 50 Best list, and a time as the Sunday Times pick for the UK's top restaurant.

The plan is a seasonal tasting menu, modern and elegant, and I will not pretend to know what the kitchen is plating on the night you go, because it changes. That is the point. The cooks here read the market the way a good bartender reads a crowd. You get a long meal with a lot of small moves, and each of them is trying to be precise without being precious. If you have spent a week in hotel conference rooms eating sad chicken, this is the antidote.

Expect to spend serious money and a good part of the evening. Book ahead and tell them what you cannot eat. Shoreditch has changed a thousand times since people started calling it cool, and this room stayed standing because the cooking justified the rent. Book it for a long, patient dinner.

Order this: The seasonal tasting menu
The damage: $$$$
Go: Whenever the tasting menu fits the season you like best
Find it: Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT