If you’re geographically challenged, Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room is the perfect place for a rendezvous. So long as you can find your way to Aldgate East tube, the Gallery is helpfully signposted along the platforms. You come out on to Whitechapel High Street, turn sharp left and. . . you’re there.

The Venue
If Angela Hartnett — a former protégé of Gordon Ramsay whose star is most definitely in the ascendant — puts her name to anything, you can bet it will be worth a visit. The Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room is excellent — but it’s also rather small. The tables for two are tiny and, once covered with glasses, condiments, plates and bottles, they become dangerous to navigate. At a pinch, the Dining Room can do 33 covers, although they have a mind-boggling 51 booked in for the following Friday. Booking is therefore probably a good idea.

The Atmosphere
Its modest dimensions mean that the Dining Room is cosy, just what you want on a rainy January evening. Efficient double-glazing keeps out the noise of the busy high street and a wall of mirrors gives the illusion of more space. Wood paneling, parquet flooring and oxblood leather banquets all add warmth. Although the gallery is shut — it closes at 6pm, apart from Thursdays, when it’s open till 9pm — plenty of people have already discovered this little gem.

The Food
Instead of starters and mains, the menu is divided into 'small plates' and 'large plates', the idea being that you mix and match depending on how hungry you are. Do make sure you sample some 'nibbles' first — they include excellent olives with almonds (£2.85) and whipped goat's curd with roasted garlic (£2.75). The latter is served on little pieces of crunchy toast and is heavy on the garlic. If you’re single, you won’t get a date for about a month; if you’re in a relationship, make sure you both eat some.

The small plates are certainly small, a palm-sized portion. But a salad of sweet potato, beetroot and goat's cheese (£4.85) — much better than it sounds — and grilled mackerel with pickled fennel (£4.95) are so well thought-out and well executed that they satisfy despite the size. The salad is dressed simply, with pine nuts adding an extra dimension of crunch to the lovely rustic flavours, while the fennel’s sharpness complements the fish perfectly. It has lost its aniseed tang, but this may make it more appealing to some.

Rabbit makes a rare appearance among the large plates. A vastly underrated meat, bunny is cheap and plentiful and, for the health-conscious, very lean. Forget the diet, though — here, it appears as a hotpot in its own little cast-iron dish, layered lovingly with a golden potato crust, its rich, tasty gravy studded with onions and carrots. It needs only a quick grind of black pepper to lift it to ambrosial heights.

Veal meatballs are accompanied by a tomato sauce (£11.50) and initial disappointment that there are only two is soon transcended by something close to ecstasy. This is the thing with diet fare, you see — if food is tasty enough, a small amount suffices. If it is bland, you eat more of it. And speaking of more — chips just have to be done. Advertised as truffle chips, they are quite simply the best chips you may ever eat, deeply crisp, piping hot and served in a dinky steel bucket. You may not taste truffle, but really, who cares? A small plate of broccoli with pecorino cheese, recommended by the waitress, goes beautifully with everything. The staff in the Dining Room know their stuff.

They know their cheeses, too. The Dining Room’s offerings are traditional British, but that’s not to say boring. A nutty Berkswell nestles against Colston Basset Stilton, with a Brie-like Waterloo, its creaminess complemented by an almost woody finish. A warm Agen prune and almond tart comes in a surprisingly generous portion, but when you crunch through the light crust, the Armagnac-soaked prunes are snuggled into a light, fluffy sponge, a dollop crème fraiche providing a perfect foil. All puddings and the cheese are a very reasonable £4.50.

The Drink
The waiter recommends a Verdejo, rather than the Trebbiano Chardonnay, as it has a longer finish and goes better with food. He’s right, too. The wine list is good value, starting at £13.95 for the Trebbiano and the same for the house red, a Sangiovese. The most expensive white, a Chablis, is £31.60, while the house Champagne, a Jacques Cartier NV, is £30.60. The Dining Room also offers some wines in a 500ml carafe. But the revelation is a pudding wine to accompany the cheese — a delightfully named Stump Jump Sticky Chardonnay from Australia’s McLaren Vale. It tastes of honey, lychees and grapefruit, lusciously sweet but not cloyingly so, and has legs that Elle Macpherson would die for.

The Last Word
Service, in the Dining Room, reaches new heights. In between bustling to and fro from the kitchen, staff are even able to look up train times for a couple of fellow diners. Meanwhile, at the helm, Australian chef Rob Thompson is innovative and the menu is a very impressive work in progress, making return visits all the more rewarding. The gallery itself may be shut when you visit, but you’ll find works of art in the Dining Room.

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