Orient Express: Eat Canteen

Eat Canteen, 1st floor, Paxtons Head pub, 153 Knightsbridge, London SW1

Eat Canteen, 1st floor, Paxtons Head pub, 153 Knightsbridge, London SW1

Client: Punch

Design: Caulder Moore (interiors and graphics)

Eat Canteen is a Pan-Asian restaurant on the first floor of London pub Paxtons Head. This small, 36-cover space takes the form of one large dining room, with a slate counter for solo diners running along the side of the wok station.

Design group Caulder Moore drew on the simplicity of Zen interiors and used traditional materials such as reclaimed Burma teak floor, farmed teak tables and dark-stained walnut cabinets, but otherwise kept the space ‘fairly stripped back’, says Caulder Moore managing director Terry Moore, adding that the contemporary take on Eastern influences is appropriate for the menu.

Eat Canteen graphics, also by Caulder Moore, continue the green and pewter palette of the interior. ‘We didn’t want to slavishly follow Asian influences. It’s not traditional Oriental food, but it is served in a very contemporary way,’ he adds.

Moore identifies this contemporary take on Oriental themes as the most suitable option (in this case) out of what he considers to be three possible routes for such restaurants, alongside a kitsch interpretation and a hand-crafted, antique approach.

The designers’ next Oriental project is the Ginger restaurant and noodle/ juice bar in Richmond, which promises to have a more overtly Eastern flavour, incorporating Oriental screens and a water feature running the length of the restaurant before plunging down at the front into the basement.

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