Highly rated for its breakfast, brunch and lunch, The Table should also be applauded for its excellent dinner menu.

The Venue
Just around the back of the Tate Modern on Southwark Street, The Table is a cute open-plan, informal eatery, with communal wooden benches and tables – these are divided up in the evening for more private sittings – pretty fairy lights and a huge wicker basket spilling its contents onto a table that looks like a still life piece of art has come to life.

The Atmosphere
Absolutely heaving at lunch, especially during the working week, in the evening it is a more serene affair, one basked in the glow of candles and fairy lights. A small but very effective team of staff comprise of just two servers and a couple of chefs. Despite being small in numbers, they ensure that every customer is well attended to and the food that comes out the kitchen is to a very high standard.

The Food
The kitchen is on view so if you’re the sort of person who likes to watch chefs at work, you can get a front row sea. The evening sittings are lesser known in comparison to its award-winning daytime trade, but they dish up quality dishes whatever time of day you attend.

Toasted bread, chilli-infused olives and Pedro Ximenez olive oil and balsamic vinegar get things off to a great start and this form continues through excellent starters, including an earthy, silky smooth mushroom soup with a delicate poached duck egg positioned at its centre. Alternatively, a duck black pudding, using a higher ratio of meat than you might imagine, is intense and meaty and it is served with whelk, which is kind of like a sea snail. The love of unusual ingredients and all cuts of meat extends across other menu choices, to dishes using pig trotter for example.

An aged cut of onglet steak – also known as the butcher’s cut – is particularly well received. The full-flavoured beef is tender and it is served with huge chunks of roasted sweet potato, a simple salad and a watercress-based sauce. Another well-executed and quite unusual dish is the slow-cooked oxtail parcel, that turns into shreds of meat on impact and conceals a bevy of salty crayfish. Add to this a lingering jus and sweet parsnips and you have a dish to savour.

Desserts keep things simple. The crème brulee has a chewy surface and creamy, vanilla filling – a simple but effective classic.

The Drink
Bottles of wine start around the £16 price point but spend an extra few quid and you’ll be rewarded by the powerful spice and fruit-forward flavour of the Preece Shiraz (£21). The short list peaks at £37 for a zinfandel from California.

You can also find a decent selection of ales by the bottle here. Always welcome.

The Last Word
While it has long had a great daytime reputation, the quality of cooking on offer in the evening at The Table makes it very much a destination for dinner. Next time you visit the Tate Modern, head here for a bite to eat and a drink. You’ll be very glad you did.

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