All done with decent de-Corum

This review was published in April 2002

Corum opened at the end of 2001, and is still a new-ish 'clean and keen' sort of place. It is a perfect example of a gastrobar. The bar part is a runaway success. It is that crowded that locals have been known to 'book' a particular sofa ahead of time.

Towards the rear the bar opens out into quite a large restaurant, looking as if it is a page torn from the design manual of modern London restaurants. Blond wood floor - check. Plain walls with modern art - check. Subtle lighting - check. Honey-coloured leather chairs, chocolate leather banquettes - check. It looks great, like a thousand other places, but great.

The menu is also an essay in gastrobar philosophy. Starters include crab risotto with roasted peppers, Caesar salad, eggs Benedict with hash browns, smoked duck salad and pan-fried scallops. Nothing alarming there. The surprise is in the standard of cooking which is very high. The scallops are perfectly cooked, a decent portion and markedly fresh - they come with rocket and a Tuscan bread salad.

This dish works very well. The Caesar salad is very good, classical even, to the point of omitting the anchovies now in vogue, plus a great lemony dressing. The eggs Benedict is comforting and made with Kasseler (smoked pork loin). Main courses tread the line between 'classics' and 'dull'. There are pork-and-leek sausages, a Thai green curry, rib-eye steak, roast cod, salmon fishcake, char-grilled chicken salad, calf's liver and pancetta.

These dishes are grand when well-made, and at Corum the chef knows his job. The fishcake is large, light and almost fluffy. The calf's liver is perfectly cooked and topped with crisp pancetta, all sitting on a cake of very decent bubble and squeak made with sage. These are the kind of dishes everybody likes to eat, and when they are well-executed they stand any comparison. Perhaps the new gastrobars like Corum mean a resurgence in simpler, more careful, more satisfying cooking?

Corum
30 - 32Queenstown Road, Clapham, London, SW8 3RX