3-in-1 review: Corner Room, Bonnington Cafe and Ephesus

A heat-wave's hit London, so I've been eating out a lot recently. When it's boiling hot here, everyone goes out. The thing is, if London was sunny and warm the whole time, it just wouldn't be London. But when it is... it's the best place in the world. My favourite place, and the one I have literally just discovered (tonight) is Corner Room in Bethnal Green. I won't lie to you - aesthetics are incredibly important to me in a restaurant. Not more important than the food, no way, but on a par with, definitely. And Corner Room, aesthetically speaking, is so cool

We decided that the look was 'inter-war period industrial-surreal"

You can't book a table - you just turn up

The portions are laughingly small and you have to ask the staff to please stop topping your water up becasue it's so frequent that it's annoying...

Yet it's an original (I would say beautiful, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder) place with incredible food

I would order the pigeon again, but not the Japanese radish (?) sorbet you can see up here with what looks like snail slime around it. The main point here is that with some places, it's worth taking a risk. Another one of these places is the Bonnigton Cafe in Vauxhall. It used to be a squat and now it's a lucrative community project. Every night is a different cook, but you can always get two courses for a tenner, and bring your own wine. You also have to book a table way in advance by emailing the chef on duty that night

And you always leave this place feeling both full and extremely healthy

It's not haute-cuisine, as you can see, but if you like trying new things, then it's worth a pop. Then there was Ephesus on Broadway Market. It's a new place with lots of lamps hanging from the ceiling -actually, this is something it has in common with Corner Room

The food is also delicious, except the portions are massive

I don't know why I am trying to compare the two, because you can't really. Ephesus is homely, healthy Greek/Turkish food, while Corner Room is edgy, avant-garde Spanish. I'd say both are worth a visit. But if you have to choose just one, then I'd always go weird