As the name implies, The Modern Pantry is a mix of old fashioned style and contemporary, creative cooking.

The Venue
Located in two Georgian buildings in Clerkenwell, The Modern Pantry is essentially three venues. On the ground floor is the cafe, upstairs is a slightly more formal restaurant, and a traiteur that serves cakes, pies, sandwiches and more to take away completes the list. Both the downstairs cafe and the upstairs dining area have a similar style, very clean and modern, but with an old fashioned twist – the cafe is painted in subdued white, the restaurant in a pretty shade of grey. Large windows in the restaurant overlook Clerkenwell Road and the courtyard in front of the building, making it a great spot for people watching. The shabby chic wooden floors and tight staircase leading to the first floor make it feel like you’re eating dinner in someone’s well decorated home.

The Atmosphere
Early on in the evening The Modern Pantry is depressingly empty, with lone sounds echoing around the clean, sparsely furnished room. Happily though, it picks up around about 8.30pm, with trendy East London couples on dates and groups of friends studiously discussing chef Anna Hansen’s London restaurant pedigree. Service is polite but not intrusive; staff are good with recommendations and happy to answer questions about the menu.

The Food
The food at The Modern Pantry may at first seem like fusion, but look a bit closer and the combinations will surprise you with how much sense they make. The menu is a mix of several different styles (Vietnamese, Spanish and Moroccan all make an appearance) and often includes traditional dishes with an unusual side or sauce. Presentation is simple, letting the flavours of the food speak for itself, and prices aren’t unexpected for the area, with a limit of about £8.50 for starters and £19 for mains. A Sunday roast menu is also available; for £22, you get a choice of sharing plate-style starters, including dishes like swordfish ceviche with coconut, lime and wasabi tobiko. Three roasts are on offer, such as pork loin paired with curry leaf and mustard seed roast potatoes and parsnips, cavolo nero and spiced pear and apple relish.

From the main dinner menu, though, sugar cured prawn omelette with spring onions and smoked chilli sambal (£8.20) is one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes. The omelette is cooked well, the prawns nice and moist and there’s a fragrant, herby flavour throughout. Seared king scallops with squid ink risotto and aioli (£8.50) is a Spanish tapas standby, recreated faithfully here, with plump scallops and well textured, purplish black rice.

A main of roast organic salmon with carrot and miso puree with seaweed, liquorice and sesame relish is another good choice; the salmon is an attractive pinkish-orange, with a layer of crispy skin. Its distinctively rich flavour is a good match for the inventive accompaniments. Slow roast lamb shank ras al hanout is an enormous portion, served on the bone on a bed of parsnip mash with fennel and parsley salad and pear chutney on top. Ras al hanout is an aromatic Moroccan spice, which in this case really brings out the flavour of the lamb. The pear chutney sweetens things up nicely, whilst the smooth, creamy parsnip mash and the fresh, light fennel salad add an interesting combination of textures.

Desserts include ice cream and sorbet, three different flavours at £1.50 per scoop. Coffee and Kahlua ice cream is strong and boozy, whilst Hokey Pokey is vanilla mixed in with crunchy bits of toffee. Coconut sorbet is the best of the trio, however – a rich, sugary sweet and tangy flavour. Poached rhubarb with goat’s curd custard brulee (£6.50) looks a bit disappointing when it arrives, served unceremoniously in a small bowl. Within a bite, however, it becomes one of the best dishes of the night. The brulee has a strong, but not unpleasant, taste and a wonderfully crisp topping, but the best part is that the rhubarb is actually cooked inside the dish, not just flavoured by it like most other flavoured creme brulees. The sharp taste of the scattered rhubarb chunks are the perfect complement to the custard.

The Drink
A four page wine list also reveals cocktails (£7 - £8.50), beers and cider, sherry, dessert wines, port and sparkling wine and Champagne (the priciest being a £135 bottle of Krug Grande Cuvee NV). Six reds, six whites and one rose are available by the glass and the carafe, starting at a very reasonable £3.25 and £9. Wines start at only £13 and are divided up into categories such as young and fruity and rounded and rich – there’s a large range of new world choices as well as more traditional French options. A bottle of Le Lesc, Vin de Pays du Gers 2008 (£13.50) is sharp but light, with a hint of citrus flavours.

The Last Word
If you’re tired of unoriginal restaurant offerings, the creative and interesting menu at The Modern Pantry is a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.

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