Much of the beauty lies in the details at Waterhouse, the follow-up to Bethnal Green’s Waterhouse Project that opened last week just off Columbia Road. Clusters of small flowers spring from the cracks between bricks in the bathroom; drinks – including non-alcoholic sips and a Negroni made with mugwort foraged in Hackney – benefit from the fermentation and infusions used on the food menu; and the kitchen is effortlessly circular: the shell of a tart filled with golden beetroot and trout is made with whey that’s left over from making butter that’s served alongside the rye bread. The bread also includes leftover whey, as does a palate cleansing sorbet of sorrel.
It all speaks to chef-patron Gabriel Waterhouse’s exacting approach, which culminates in a tasting menu (11 courses when Broadsheet visited) served in a serene dining room shaped from a Victorian-era warehouse. While the menu follows the seasons, each is several years in the making.
“We’ve got some misos that are about three or four years old,” Waterhouse tells Broadsheet. “We’ve been making loads of things for quite a while – loads of misos, [and ferments] made from wild garlic and rose petals, things that bring a lot of depth to the dishes.”
Waterhouse and wife and business partner Patricia Waikamba say Waterhouse is the product of their most refined vision of a restaurant yet, the next step on a trajectory that started almost 10 years ago as a supper club in Waterhouse’s flat and was most recently canal-side in Bethnal Green for five years. “When we discovered this place on Ezra Street it presented lots more opportunities,” Waterhouse says. “It was a really beautiful building to [extend] what was the Waterhouse Project into this new, more focused view of what I wanted my cooking to be.”
Diners enter from Ezra Street into a garden filled with raised beds of herbs and flowers, which make it into dishes. Behind original Crittall glass doors lies a wine bar, where guests can perch at an oak and stainless-steel oval bar handmade by London furniture maker Herb Palmer before they head into the main dining room. In the coming weeks, guests will also be able to drop into the bar for a glass of wine or a cocktail, and snacks that will include oysters, bread and cultured butter, and house pickles made from tomatoes, as well as a potato cake served with butter made from the roe left over from a scallop dish that will remain on the menu year-round.
The 24-seat dining room is the result of months of work in the midst of successive summer heatwaves by Waterhouse, Wakaimba and head chef Sam Coleman. Waterhouse says the building – a former potter’s workshop – reminds him of a derelict water mill his father repaired when he was growing up in rural Northumberland, with its thick exposed brick walls and “beautiful imperfections”. It’s been designed with Rees Architects, and features painted brick and bespoke joinery, with British oak furniture by Winchester-based maker Steven Baker. Wakaimba is behind the floral installations.
The menu speaks to Waterhouse’s upbringing in rural Northumberland, and also takes in the wider north east and Scotland. It will change around four times a year, but Waterhouse says two dishes are likely to remain, whatever the season: meaty scallops given depth with koji (a mould traditionally grown on rice in Japan, but here grown on more British barley), and a savoury custard made from leftover scallop roe that’s topped with orange spheres of quince-infused tapioca. Waterhouse is determined for each dish to make its mark – there’s no build up to a pivotal protein dish, and indeed red meat hardly makes an appearance. Instead, he’s aiming to create a menu that’s “stimulating”.
“I don't think you really want to pay quite a lot of money [to] experience sort of the flavours that you might have had before,” Waterhouse says. “Not everyone’s going to get on with every dish, but the main focus obviously should be that something is tasty.”
Waterhouse
7A Ezra Street, E2 7RH
Hours:
Thu & Fri 6.30pm–11pm
Sat 12.30pm–4pm, 6.30pm–11pm
Sun 12.30pm–5pm
