In 2006, researchers demonstrated categorically that how something tastes is not determined by our taste buds alone. An experiment by researchers at the University of Wisconsin found there was a direct link between taste and expectation.
Test subjects soon learned to associate positive with sweet and negative with bitter. But then the scientists started messing with them, delivering sweet drinks marked with a minuses and bitter ones marked with pluses. Overwhelmingly, subjects recorded confused responses mistaking flavours for one another because their expectation had failed to line up with their sensory experience.
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It was with this in mind that The Week approached its review of Restaurant Elis in Bethnal Green, London, the second restaurant from Michelin star-winning Brazilian-born chef Rafael Cagali. The Observer’s Jay Rayner had just visited and delivered a lukewarm verdict (headline: “It was only fine, it wasn’t awful”), which had served to lower our expectations somewhat.
Yet in spite of – or even perhaps because of this – we found our visit to be overwhelmingly positive. Which makes us wonder quite what was going on here. Had our expectations been lowered only to be unexpectedly exceeded by what we encountered? Or were our taste buds simply in the ascendent on the day, refusing to be influenced by the negatives we had read?
The drinks and menu
Either way, our experience was definitely at odds with our anticipation. And it all began with the restaurant’s signature cocktail, always a good way to get a sense of what the restaurant believes its identity is. In this case the core ingredient itself was a hint of what was to come: cachaça, a form of cane juice spirit produced uniquely in Brazil.
If you have ever visited or lived in Brazil, much of what is on the menu might immediately trigger nostalgia. Many of the dishes are expositions or elaborations of national classics, from the pao de queijo that comes in the bread selection at the top of the menu, to the dulce de leite-filled doughnuts that end it.
The food
This reviewer has never been to Brazil, but the infectious enthusiasm of our patriotic waitress helped get my dining companion and me in the right mood. While we appreciated knowing that some of the dishes reminded our server of her grandmother’s cooking, they also spoke magnificently for themselves.
This was true of the porchetta tonnata we began with – roast pork seasoned with anchovies. And also for the churros pecorino which were deep-fried cheesy perfection. The crudo di Arctic Charr, prettily plated with red citrus, was, by contrast, fresh as you like.
The show-stopper of the small plates part of the meal, however, was definitely the veal battuta. Finely chopped raw beef intermingled with marrow and served stunningly in the bone, to be spooned onto crisp bread.
For our main course the crab with melting cherry tomatoes sat atop jet-black linguine (coloured with ash, apparently) was elegantly resolved. But the dish that took centre stage was the monkfish tail topped with edible flowers perched on a mixture of okra and haricot beans. It looked sublime and it was.
The verdict
Rayner’s main objection appeared to be cost. A guava crème caramel for £9 was too much, he said, which, certainly in the scheme of things this may be true given you can buy something like the same dish in the supermarket for about a pound. Yet this is a criticism that could be levelled at any restaurant, especially in London.
What you pay for when you go out is something slightly ineffable: quality of experience. You pay to have your expectations either met or, with a little luck, exceeded. And that we certainly did at Elis, thanks to the combination of our own taste buds and also – unexpectedly and invertedly – thanks to a fellow reviewer.
Arion McNicoll was a guest of Restaurant Elis. Town Hall Hotel, Patriot Square, London E2 9NF; restaurantelis.co.uk
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