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Friday, 20 December 2013

Tanner and Co, 50 Bermondsey St, London SE1 3UD

Tanner and Co, 50 Bermondsey St, London SE1 3UD
20/12/2013

She said: A curious place kitted out as a school gym from the 80’s with pommel horse booths and leather banquettes. The dining space is long, open and bright with plenty of British fare on the menu. It was disappointing that the soup he ordered for lunch ‘wasn’t ready yet’; vegetable soup not being available when a restaurant opens for lunch is to me like saying a swimming pool has no water in it when you’re already in your bathing suit. Anyway, I ordered mushrooms on toast to start which took a while to arrive but when it did was delicious. My hake main course was cooked perfectly but unfortunately the leeks it came with were hard, chewy and drowned by a very salty, heavy buttery sauce which went cold within a few moments making it all a bit gloopy. At £20 a head for two courses it’s your standard mid-range London price. There seems to be a new genre of restaurants we’ve been going to lately which is the ‘lovely place, shame about the food’ category. With this genre, you really, really want to like the food because the setting is so great and so you make allowances. Tanner and Co is one of those places where I would probably come back thinking a different food order may generate a different outcome because I enjoyed the space so much...

He said: Bermondsey High Street is hip: White Cube's there, as are innumerable
coffee shops. Not edgy hip (there's not a single betting shop or stabby youf in sight) but more cosy, been there done that hip. Among the half dozen restaurants on the street, the cool kid is Tanner's. It certainly looks good with its devil-may-care, mix-n-match and stylishly distressed interior, full of knick knacks salvaged from some condemned comprehensive (local, I hope!) including monkey bars and the dreaded beam from the gym, diagrams from science class, maps, etc. Luckily the comparison ends there - no sight of fag ash in the mash, or mystery-meat burgers.  I tried ordering the soup which, alas, wasn't 'ready yet'. Being a benevolent dictator I give chef the benefit of the doubt, and instead happily munch my way through a too small mushrooms on toast.  Next a veggie pie with Jerusalem artichoke (brrppp!) and more mushrooms, which worked very well, the crust kept nice and crisp by one of those baked-in clay valves (bird shaped!) to let excess steam out. Simple and nice. My only negative was that we had 3 different people waiting our table, a bug-bear for an impatient sob like me. Tanner's could be a top choice in the area if it took things more seriously and applied itself. A for effort, C for attention to detail.

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