Chef Gabriel Waterhouse to relocate The Water House Project to permanent Hackney home
Relocating from where it currently resides on Mare Street to neighbouring Corbridge Crescent, this new iteration of Waterhouse's ‘social fine dining’ restaurant will occupy a larger, contemporary space positioned close to Regent’s Canal.
Established in 2015, the The Water House Project's first guise was within the titular chef's own house in Hackney, but eventually moved to a semi-permanent bricks-and-mortar spot on Mare Street in early 2020.
The concept has made its name for 'challenging the perceptions of fine dining', offering an experience akin to a dinner party rather than a typical restaurant dining room.
Dishes and drinks are designed to spark conversation amongst strangers, including between diners and chefs.
The restaurant’s new location, a short walk from Bethnal Green station, will provide space for a borderless kitchen, a standalone reception area, and an open-plan dining room with space for up to 40 covers.
Diners can choose to enjoy the experience from one of two communal tables, or more intimately on one of eight, smaller tables dotted about the room.
Waterhouse's nine-course tasting menu, which changes in entirety every month, depicts 'an elegant cooking style that uses earthy flavours, whilst also incorporates nods to Nordic flavours through techniques including pickling and fermenting.
The September menu will begin with a trio of snacks to include British lops pork belly donut with plum chutney; Craster kipper mousse with shiso; and cucumber soup with dill and yoghurt sorbet.
Plates such as girolles, tarragon and mushroom consommé; St Austell mussels and Jerusalem artichoke with chive and lemon; Herdwick lamb, black garlic, polenta and mint follow.
For dessert, dishes will include stilton ice cream with compressed pear and oat crumble; and celeriac, salted caramel and chocolate truffle.
Waterhouse, who honed his craft cooking at Galvin la Chappelle, will work with former Hide chef Thomas Lemercier to develop the regularly changing dishes. Alongside the main tasting menu, an exclusively vegetarian menu is also available.
