The Clove Club

The Clove Club occupies the old rooms of Shoreditch Town Hall, a Grade II-listed building, and has held two Michelin stars under Isaac McHale for years. It is one of the small group of restaurants that made east London a serious dining destination rather than a cheap one.

McHale is Scottish and came up through Noma under Rene Redzepi and The Ledbury under Brett Graham, which explains a lot about the cooking: Nordic precision applied to British produce, without the po-faced solemnity that combination sometimes produces. The format is a tasting menu, and the room is deliberately relaxed, high-ceilinged and bright, with the kitchen open at one end.

The dish everyone talks about is the buttermilk fried chicken with pine salt, served as a one-bite opener. It is a refinement of the chicken pakora that first made McHale want to cook, and it is a good signal of the whole restaurant’s temperament: technically exact, not remotely precious. The flamed Cornish mackerel is the other signature.

Our verdict: the most enjoyable two-star meal in London, largely because it never asks you to behave like you are having one. The fried chicken is worth the trip on its own.

Go if: you want serious cooking in a room with no starch. Skip if: you dislike tasting menus, since there is no a la carte.

Book well ahead. Shoreditch Town Hall, Old Street.