Galvin La Chapelle

       Galvin La Chapelle of 35 Spital Square, E1 is a restaurant where I had lunch on Tuesday 22nd October 2013. The restaurant's building is the only remaining part of the original structure of Bishopsgate school for girls. The school has now relocated which is lucky for current diners as, in my experience, groups of teenage girls do not make for a good lunch experience. 

       I feel I should point out that I do not know this because of extensive research I undertook but because I apologised like a catholic to the waiter for my desperate need to instagram every course as it arrived. In response to this he quickly assured me that this was not a problem and arrived at the table a few minutes later with printed information about the building combined with a hope that this would help with my efforts in a certain competition...

Here is the inside of the building:

As you can see, the parts of the building which are listed are beautiful and the pride shown by everyone in them is certainly justified.

I feel I should mention the food. The thing is, it is all on the instagram account: teamwork2013 and it was all very good. for a fixed price menu of £24 I was a very happy customer.

However whether it was just my sinners soul, or the time of day, or having walked through the financial district to get there (more of a comment of my location than theirs) something felt strange. I have eaten in many wonderful places and many more less wonderful places but this was the first place that I felt slightly out of place. This has lead me to wondering if atmosphere can really be determined by the business. The staff were lovely, the building lovely, the food lovely, the aperitifs lovely and yet I didn't feel lovely. The question is, was that me or them - can it ever be that simple?