East End Star

Typing Room sits in a space with a rich history, residing in the Town Hall Hotel built back in 1910, having once served as a secretarial typing room. In a typing room, all the communications from mayoral, council and judicial governments were put to paper. New boss Lee Westcott runs the kitchen and has pledged to use local and seasonal British ingredients; dishes are creative, modern, pan-European. Their rye IPA sourdough bread served with whipped Marmite butter and popped barley, and the Pigeon smoked in pine, are just plain spectacular.

Before Typing Room, the space was home to Viajante, where Chef Mendes managed to get gourmets and Michelin inspectors to travel all the way to London’s then still relatively undiscovered East End. Typing Room is well on it’s way to accomplishing the same feat, having basked in the glory of patrons equally curious to carry on in the tradition of exceptional cooking. The place has an exclusive air about it with marble, oak and brushed brass; professional service having gone casual in jeans and blue Oxford shirts, bringing back to mind everything that’s worth exploring about the East.