Vanilla Restaurant

Vanilla Restaurant is never sold to its customers as a sit down meal but as a tasting experience and I really feel that I did not properly take that on board when I first entered the thick doors into the small - black and white styled restaurant. Made up of a few small booths and a selection of other tables the atmosphere was very sophisticated. Seated by a friendly and smart waiter we were taken through the simple yet restricting set menus. The experience to follow was out of this world.The small menu was plenty of food, unlisted surprises kept popping onto the table and with each course the waiter laid out the full instructions for eating along with the verbal label of exactly what we were consuming. New potatoes in an edible clay, rare African vegetables, an egg cooked for 45 minutes at 64 degrees, venison with a pear puree, pallet cleansing seeds that left your mouth numb, red berry foam and salted caramel left me and my date somewhat blown away. It felt as though we had consumed an entirely alien set of foods which all tasted remarkably good. The staff were also highly attentive, reassuring and polite, they were not at all pedantic and made the experience very welcoming.

Overall Vanilla is an incredible place to take a date, it is luxurious, eye opening and splendid.  So powerful was the cuisine that I am not sure it is something I would opt for in the next six months but it was a night I will never forget. It is ashame it remains relatively undiscovered, leaving a small and unencouraged gem in the seat of Fitzrovia - 9/10