The Refinery SE1

Instantly popular, a very large warehouse-style bar/restaurant, in a newly-created pedestrian street, behind Tate Modern; our early days visit suggested that its popularity has nothing to do with its cuisine.

One of the – generally nice – surprises in the dull life of the restaurant reviewer is stumbling across a whole new street of dining possibilities. Usually, of course, this joy is quickly offset by the grim recognition that the landlords have gone for the safety-first attractions of chain operators, who are perceived as a good ‘covenant’.

And so it is at this shiny new street in the fast-emerging area behind Tate Modern. Many of the names are known and usual, but at least one – “The Refinery” – we hadn’t seen before. As the place was so busy, we though it really might be offering something new, different and better than the norm.

Big mistake, on the food front at least. It seems that – even in 21st-century London – there’s a big market for bar/restaurants where the food is entirely incidental. The menu is a long mishmash, and our lunch for one – deep-fried squid, chicken ’n’ mash, panna cotta – was consistent in its dreary unmemorability.

It’s certainly an airy and buzzing place, though, quite nicely got up, and the staff try hard. Perhaps these charms really are enough to make this – as we subsequently read on the website – “a whole new concept that’s about to take London by storm”.

It turns out, needless to say, that The Refinery isn’t really an independent at all, but the first operation form an outfit called Drake & Morgan, who aim to open 10 sites by the end of 2010.

They may be set for commercial success, but the early signs are that culinary success will elude them.