Da Terra
Bethnal Green, London
Brazilian chef Rafael Cagali took over the dining room in Bethnal Green’s Town Hall Hotel (Lee Westcott’s Typing Room and before that Nuno Mendes’ Viajante), in January 2019. In three years, give or take a few lockdowns, Cagali has transformed Da Terra from a very good fine-dining restaurant into an exceptional one. It feels like he’s giving us more of himself. We see his personality in the bold abstract art on the walls, the kitsch Ninja Turtle figures at the pass, and the painted wood sculptures on the mantelpiece. And, of course, we see it in his cuisine. Cagali, born in São Paulo to a part-Italian family, has said he doesn’t want Da Terra to be categorised as Brazilian. However, it’s the Brazilian-influenced dishes that really set it apart. Moqueca, a traditional fish stew – around course seven of the £185 tasting menu – is first presented to the guest as a large copper pot filled with okra, whole langoustines, coriander and limes. When it’s returned for us to eat, it has morphed into an elegant restaurant dish of aged turbot (cooked fashionably lightly, dare we say too lightly?) with palm hearts and farofa (toasted cassava) in a frothy coconut sauce, stained yellow with dendê palm oil. Whole biquinho teardrop chillies, fiery and fruity, come on the side. Other Brazilian touches include a palate-awakening baby caipirinha in a hollowed-out lime; slices of raw Arctic char acidulated with tucupi, a fermented manioc root juice, widely used in the Amazon; and a take on the traditional 'Romeu e Julieta', a sweet-savoury love match of fresh cheese and guava (course ten). Cagali’s Italian heritage comes to the fore in a debonair duck raviolo (course eight) with whey sauce, duck skin crumb, and slivers of duck ‘ham’, grand on its own gold-rimmed Wedgwood plate. A signature entitled 'the humble chicken', is barely recognisable from its 2019 iteration, but for the impeccably, rosy-pink liver parfait. The 2022 version has a yakitori skewer of thigh and heart, a boned-out puffed-up fried chicken’s foot and a confit egg yolk. To nitpick, the heart had lost most of its heat by the time we got to it. The individual dishes served over three hours were near faultless; taken collectively, however, they defeated us. Fish roe four times – Cagali likes his caviar – is nothing less than Lucullan. A shorter menu is available at lunch. The wine list impresses with its well-judged choice of low-intervention heroes including Friuli’s Dario Princic, Vega Sicilia from Ribera del Duero, and Fanny Sabre in Burgundy. Service is absolutely first-rate.
Dining Information:
Accommodation, Separate bar, Wheelchair access, Credit card required
Town Hall Hotel, 8 Patriot Square, Bethnal Green E2 9NF
020 7062 2052
