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Categories: Delis, Breakfast & Brunch [Edit]
47-48 St John's SquareLondon EC1V 4JJ
Neighbourhood: Clerkenwell-Finsbury
020 7250 0833
- Nearest Transit:
-
Farringdon (Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan)
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 8:00 - 23:00
Sat 9:00 - 22:00
Sun 10:00 - 21:00
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
££
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Children:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good For:
- Brunch
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
13 reviews for The Modern Pantry
All Reviews
This place is awesome. Awesome comes in the form of miso-encrusted steak with pockets of spicy cheesy goodness, inexplicably delicious fries, and some roasted tomatoes then when melded together caused a party in my mouth.
Went for dinner with 3 incredibly successful females. It was like Sex and the City but no one had to be Miranda. We ordered starters and mains and washed it down with a delicious Australian wine. Waiter was knowledgeable, helpful and good-natured about our goofiness (unexpected given the chic crowd that night).
Was impressed with the menu's a) reasonable prices b) seasonably adjusted ingredients and c) embracing of the owner's Kiwi roots with some Asian inspired dishes (loved my shrimp omelette) as well as more mainstream "country-fresh" stuff.
Great place for a date, lovely atmosphere, beautiful people, and delicious food.
La la la, looking for Exmouth Market on a Saturday (wait it's not even open on the weekends anymore, sigh).
Forgot to take a turn and then stumbled to Modern Pantry. I clearly remembered their delicious stall at the Taste of Christmas 2009 and decided to hit it - also caffeine was clearly needed as seen by my dull headache and the shakes. We sat down to some lovely nibbles and legit drip coffee and 3 hours later, the sun was still out and good times were had.
Although we only had some bits and pieces, the cassava chips come highly recommended - with some of the best green tomato chilli chutney/sour cream ever. It was one of those o-face moments. My friend didn't seem too blown away by his chocolate cake but from the speed of devour-age it looked mighty fine to me.
Great place for outdoor seating on the weekend, and you can do some nice people watching and judge the mixed crowd strolling in to this slightly overpriced establishment.
The venue: 4 stars
The food: 3 stars
The value for money: 2 stars
The restaurant occupies an epic three stories in this beautifully decorated building. Everything looked clean and modern. The front door had a sign on it insisting that patrons use the side door (I can only imagine so as to prevent cold air blasting through the dining area, which I very much appreciated at 8am on an unseasonably chilly mid-March morning).
For £2, I got a stainless steel tea pot with a tea bag chucked in. For £4.50, I got two (perfectly cooked) soft-boiled eggs in egg cups along with the equivalent of two (quite small) slices of toasted granary bread. Tasty, but uninspired and not exactly worth nearly a fiver. Sure, I could have been more adventurous and ordered one of the posh fry-ups, but I didn't really want to spend £7.80 for the privilege.
So, yeah. There you have it. It was a nice experience. Nice food. Not-so nice price.
But if I'm looking for breakfast along Clerkenwell Rd in the future, I will most certainly go to J&A Cafe instead. Because they'll give me loose-leaf tea and beautifully seasoned scrambled eggs on big slices of fluffy toast for no more than £5.50.
"M'eh, I've had better." It's like the biggest insult you can give a man but as far as brunch/breakfast places in London goes it's pretty much interpreted the same.
TMP don't take this personally but really you didn't perform to standard. I little on the pricey side with okay coffee and toast that scratched the roof of my mouth, it was tasty but disappointing. Now the feel to the place is lovely and I can't fault the service but the climax of your cooked breakfast left sausages flaccid and eggs a little undercooked. What more can I say, I held you up with the greats to only be let down. You may damn me as a demanding and fussy woman but hey, I have a right to want more!
First of all: reserve your table for brunch in advance or you might show up only to discover the restaurant fully booked for the day.
Now that you do have a table, sit down, enjoy the light flooding through the huge windows even on the greyest London day, and immediately get a must-have muffin with a pot of tea. Take your time: it won't be easy to arrive at the decision on what to order.
The delicately tender ricotta pancakes, eggs with fried haloumi cheese, and just about anything else on the menu would be fresh, delicious, and happiness-inducing.
With a constantly changing menu of fresh ingredients, it's really hard to beat. The brunch in particular is amazing. Get the poached rhubarb if it's in season. It sounds really bougie, but is heartily Anarchist-Approved. They can also prepare a reasonable cup of coffee with milk, which instantly puts them leagues ahead of most restaurants in the UK.
A little on the pricey side, and a touch out of the way if you're not in the neighbourhood, but very much worth it.
I was really excited the first time we came here for brunch. It reminded me of brunch in the West Village, our old neighborhood in NYC. The atmosphere was relaxed, as was the service. The food was fine - nothing to write home about but no complaints either. Overall, an enjoyable experience.
We came back a week later and I don't know why but the service was ridiculously slow and when our food finally came it was just bleah. So still on the look out for a regular brunch place but curious to try Modern Pantry for dinner one night.
The Modern Pantry is the kind of place you'd have to wait an hour+ in line for in NYC... no matter what hour of the day. An absolutely adorable hidden gem. I will be coming here for brunch every chance I get in London. (Minus one star only because our food took ages to arrive).
Top 3 favorite things:
1) My waitress looked like Maggie Gyllenhaal. Which added to the entire "we're an adorable restaurant that can be chic if we want to be, but can also just as easily switch into 'hometown favorite' mode when the occasion requires, which makes you love us all day, every day" ambiance.
2) We sat outside in the sun, but upon closer inspection of the interior there really wasn't a bad seat in three-story house. Everything was light and airy. Comfy, but not too crowded; clean, but not too modern; chic, but not expensive.
3) Everything on the menu looked amazing, and judging by the plates being whisked past our table and the smiling faces of the patrons around us, everything is. My bircher muesli was perfectly creamy, and my latte was delicious. I plan to make my way down the menu on what will surely be many more visits.
I had read quite a lot of magazine review of the Modern Pantry and was eager to go there but very prepared to be disappointed. The Sugar Club used to one of my favourite restaurants but I was suspicious of whether this could could, many years later, many to recreate and improve on the original.
We went there on a very quiet Monday night in the middle of recession stressed London and had a complete experience. The building and setting is wonderful; a cute little square right of clerkenwell road which is central but also has a air of privacy to it. Georgian windows, nice light decor, open feeling and kind waitresses.
The food was, as you would guess, fusiony. They seem to operate a bit of a mix and match policy where you can grab lots of smaller plates or a few bigger ones.
We had some 'bar snacks' to start. The bread was great and had three different types which were all cooked perfectly. We then had a form of croquette with an addictive dipping sauce - excellent.
For mains/ starters we had sea bass/ prawn omelette and a lamb couscous mix. Each of them was very well done and a touch more interesting due to asian/ australian inspired background.
We had a panna cotta (good but overcomplicated) and a rhubarb/ peacn tart (great and comforting).
Please go - great.
my friend recommended the spot for dinner. we were seated upstairs, which i quite liked more than the modern downstairs. i felt like i was eating in someone's home rather than a restaurant. had the grilled miso marinated onglet steak, cassava chips, marinated feta for my entree. the meat was cooked a bit unevenly. some bits were medium rear and some a bit medium well. i still devoured it. the lychee sorbet was a refreshing dessert too.
My dear friend Nina treated me to a post-birthday dinner invitation at the Modern Pantry yesterday. Topline: It was simply divine.
After a hectic, multi means of transport trip - courtesy to 'Transport for London' - we arrived at quiet and beautiful St John's Square.
2 Lychee Bellinis and the airy and open atmosphere of the restaurant made us settle in very comfortably ,very quickly.
We went for steak and grilled sea bass which were both prepared and cooked to perfection. The staff are lovely and very attentive. Their recommendations on deserts were spot on. Szechuan Pepper mixed with meringue and fresh rasberry colis did not seem a natural fit, but our waiter was so convincing (lovely smile btw) that we overcame our traditional preconceptions on what works in deserts. Our reward: Instant happiness and delight.
I could keep on raving - but as I truly believe in personal experiences all I will say is: Go there and try for yourselves, you will not regret it'.
Oh, and yes, it is also a perfect place to bring your parents to. In fact, they will love you for bringing them there...
My husband and I visited The Modern Pantry during our trip to London, in hopes of finding a good combination between his desire for a proper Sunday lunch and my preference for a lighter meal.
Our visit was a comedy of errors. I ordered the mint/blackcurrent fritters and yogurt with granola, etc. My husband had the two-course Sunday lunch. My fritters were brought along with his first course and were simply inedible -- black, bitter, and unpleasant, like a hush puppy gone very wrong. Meanwhile, I could see that my yogurt had been brought to the pass directly after the order was placed (though I requested to have it brought with my husband's second course) and was simply sitting there -- for the 20+ minutes for which we waited for the first course. It presumably would have continued to sit until his roast was served (approximately 45 minutes after our order was placed), had I not requested to change my order, based on the poor quality of the fritters and the fact that the yogurt had been sitting out.
The staff was quite accomodating about changing my order to an English muffin and fruit salad, though my view of the pass made it quite clear that both the kitchen and front-of-house staff were very confused generally, which is of concern giving that they were not busy during our visit. My food was bought almost immediately after I placed my second order; however, my husband continued to wait over 20 minutes for his second course. As a result, I ate my full meal while he sat and watched; he then ate his full meal while I sat and watched. None of the staff inquired into this situation or apologized for it. The fruit salad and English muffin were perfectly acceptable, as was the majority of my husband's roast (though his Yorkshire pudding was rock hard). However, it was hardly worth the cost and the inconvenience of deadling with the poor service. For a meal we were truly looking forward to, The Modern Patnry was a huge disappointment.
It's also worth noting that The Modern Pantry is a bit out of the way/off the beaten path. This wouldn't be a problem if it were a lovely dining experience -- but it just wasn't.
The Modern Pantry has it all. As it name states it is modern cuisine, ingredients and fusions found in their cabinet, housing the necessities of life; great food in a heavenly ambience.
You begin to feel a sense of who they are when you walk through the trafficless square in Clerkenwell, in order to reach the grade II listed Georgian house. Bistro like feel, with restaurant like food. The painted white wooden tables are arranged in a canteen like manner, the attention to detail is exceptional. Some of them have birds or leaves etched on a corner. And you cannot avoid being friendly to your neighbours. The exposed brick work juxtaposes the airy ambience of the decor, and the cooking styles from around the world have no affiliation to any region. For instance, the Grilled miso marinated onglette steak, braised cherry tomatoes, cassava chips (£15.50), it is an inexpensive cut of french beef served with cassava chips instead of potatoes. Cassava is a very Latin American vegetable so I was really glad to find it here. I truly regret not having time for dessert, but before we left I took a detour to the back were they have pastry and drinks on the go. My dessert ended up being a freshly baked brownie (£1.75) which was the perfect end to my perfect meal.
