Lyle's is the restaurant equlivant of a handlebar moustache, a new tattoo and a vintage bicycle. A bicycle ridden by the most beautiful waifish looking young women in a flowing summer dress and an oversized hat, on her way to a picnic on a hazy summers day with some kind of elderflower beverage. It is modern British Hispter food served in a modern open hip dining space in a currently “so hot right now” borough of inner London.

Located in the old Lipton Tea building on the Shoreditch high street the location is best described as, quite simply, chaotic. A taxi drivers worst nightmare. Cars, lorries and people of all description doing, well, whatever they want, in every direction at once. Man walking his dog in a purple leotard and a top hat, check...no one bats an eyelid. I half expected to see a Frank Constanza (of Seinfeld fame) walking down the middle of the high street, exclaiming "Serenity Now! Serenity Now!" as chaos swirls around him. Step inside the restaurant and that wish has been granted. Calm, quite, open and spacious. This is a space for young urban creatives, those that aspire, and those that like a good meal and wish to enjoy the show both inside and out.

Led to the table facing the open kitchen, we were presented with some delicious brown sour dough bread. Gentle delicious sourness with a chewy open crumb and texture served with excellent butter. Very smart.

Sea Trout Belly, Honey and Fennel Blossom

The lunch menu consisted of eight entrees, three mains and four desserts, and in the evening, is a set menu with only two choices per course. Fascinating, particularly from a diner's point of view, but even more so from a chefs. Not exactly what one would learn in menu writing class, but I love the fact that the rules here are broken, and to such success. My friend and I ordered a series of three different entrees and two mains all of which are to share. Disappointingly, the chef, who we were hoping to meet was off foraging, picking fruit and what not for the restaurant. This is the vision of Lyle's; the modern bespoke foraging menu were the only the freshest, foraged, interesting and seasonal ingredients make up the menu. A refined and contextualised for London version of Christian Puglisi's restaurant Relae, or Rene Redzepi's, Noma perhaps? Who cares, Lyle's is it's own vision.

Before I continue on about the food I have to mention the wine list, it is a very interesting and well thought out. I wanted to try everything on it. But time and my liver intervened, so I ended up having to settle for five different wines by the glass in no particular order or weight or theme. Italian, French and Slovininian all hit the mark, and importantly all were very food friendly. I may have also been converted to gamay, a red I often find a little too light and best left for the summers day brunch crowd. But in this context worked a treat.

Below are the list of wines with my rather obscure tasting notes. My complete lack of wine and food matching was, for the aficionado, possibly a jail-able offence. But worked quite well on the day, even though I started with the Barbera and ended with the Riesling.

Barbera D’Asti 2013, Carussin “Lia Vi”’ Piedmonte, Italy £6.30 ; Classic Barbera
Artois Ploussard 2013, Lucien Aviet, Jura, France £8.0 ; Perfumed and food friendly.
Terra Rossa 2005, Cotar, Kras, Slovenia, £8.70 ; Tobacco and chewy but not so much to overwhelm the food.
Morgon 2012, Daniel Bouland, Beaujolais, France £7.0 ; Strawberries and summer fruit with a surprising backbone.
Riesling 2008, Domaine Dirler, Alsace Grand Cru, France £9.1 ; Sweet yet steely yet German, great with the eel.

My particular favourite was the Slovenian red, chewy, tobacco and the Grand Cru Riesling that had just enough residual sugar to make it a great match with the smoked eel.

The first dish's arrive; Grilled mussels with Sea Aster £7.5 followed quickly with (House made) Cured Dexter Topside & Saddleback Collar and Lardo £7.9. Reading this menu is not for the faint of heart or the shy. Im reminded of the most recent Tim Winton novel, Eyrie. The authors Australian view of the every day often leads me to laughter and this paragraph where the main protagonist sits down for lunch at a rather modern new restaurant has repeatedly given a me giggle and stuck with me every time I read a menu.

"Every vegetable, every bit of protein on the list had a provenance more complex than a minor Rembrandt, and he didn't know what half of it mean’t. What the #### was a coxcomb of Serrano solar? Or was he just obtuse? Christ he was starting to sweat. He was leaving smudgy fingerprints. Food, she said, wasn't always this stressful”. Tim Winton; Eyrie. Penguin Books 2013.

Does this mean that Lyle's is pretentious, no, not at all. It means that the menu is interesting, contextually daring but well written and a joy to read. The challenge is in the detail. The new modern restauranteur has cast aside the old handbook replacing it with a joyful glee and an almost brutal simplicity. Gone are the words and dishes of the past masters. Standing on the shoulders of others the menu paradigm has changed and been viewed though different eyes to become refreshed and anew.

Case in point. We order, the weekend style BBQ sounding dish of chicken skewers, it arrives in all its unencumbered glory. Nothing weekend or BBQ about these skewers. Slow cooked at low temperature then grilled to give a charred smokiness, they were (cringe word) moist, tender and delicate with, actual chicken flavour. Im guessing that the bird wasn't a ready roaster from Tesco's. Ditto the trout belly with fennel and honey, fatty, unctuous and sweet.

Next to arrive are the mains. John Dory with samphire, and an impressive Smoked eel with radish and onion. The fish was good, with the textural, salty and green samphire providing a good foil to the sweet delicate yet firm John Dory. The eel was (cringe phrase) the dish of the day. Smokey taste laden eel with crunchy peppery radish and a delicate moorish onion purée combined with that Riesling, well, it wasn't quite heaven. But not far off it.

Dessert of Blackcurrants and Blackcurrant Leaf Ice Cream rounded off the lunch with a double espresso.

Thoughts; Well I was initially under whelmed by Lyle’s through the sheer weight of expectation that surrounded dining here. And even though I had gone out of my way not to read a single review I was still entering the experience with prejudices and expectations formed . “I'm going to Lyle's for lunch” I'd casually remark, only to be told that it was the best, hippest most fantastic restaurant in London. “ Did you know that Lyle's is [insert famous name] favourite restaurant” they'd embellish. It was as if eating there was akin to reaching Buddha hood in a single meal. Some even attributed the smile on the Mona Lisa to lunch at Lyle's. The place to eat, to be seen, to be. All this expectation is an incredibly difficult bar for a restaurant to jump over. Unrealistic expectations can sound a death knell.

But as I reflected on the meal I cast all this aside. Lyle's is a great restaurant, it has a vision. It's food is accessible and not artsy just for the sake of it. It's honest, moorish, brutal, simple and charming. Its the kind of place that you could eat at every day, and perhaps should.

Well conceived, well cooked and well executed and not a coxcomb of Serrano solar to be had.