Planque

Planque fills two railway arches in Haggerston and describes itself as a clubhouse for wine drinkers, with a wine list emphasising small-scale and low-intervention producers. The restaurant is centered around a long oak communal table running down the middle of the vaulted room, and at the back a glass-walled cellar holds the bottles that members store and age on site. Seb Myers, formerly of P. Franco, runs the kitchen, and his cooking is modern French in spirit. His menu is arranged by portion size, and the dishes look simple at first but reveal real skill in the making. Most are built on three main ingredients that balance one another, as in a beef tartare with a rich pepper sauce and wafer-thin crisps, Cornish tuna belly with fried alexanders, or John Dory with pistachio and puntarelle.