A pocket and mouth pleaser

Jamie Oliver was overambitious when he spoke of plans to set up more Fifteens around Britain, as well as those sleepy gastronomical hamlets Sydney and New York. His heart's in the right place, but sadly there's a vast overspend to clear on the London restaurant before the Oliver altruism machine can go nationwide.

Meanwhile, it's still hard for most of us to get a table, and the Fifteen menu ain't cheap. Those wishing to cheer on student chefs might fare better at Zen Satori, the restaurant of the the Asian And Oriental School Of Catering, where they train chefs for the ethnic food industry.

Zen Satori is tucked away in a fashionable east location, on the ground floor of Hackney Community College, in the Chomsky building. The motivation behind the place is admirable. Indian Cyrus Todiwalla of Cafe Spice Namaste, Chinese Holland Kwok of Good Earth, and Thai Atique Choudhury of Yum Yum got the school together with private and public money. The aim is to teach young chefs the authentic basics of Asian cuisine. Often the meals we eat in London's cheap Indian and Chinese restaurants are bastardised versions of those cuisines, served up by secondand third-generation British, who kindly tailor dishes to satisfy the oncetimid palates of British diners. We've come a long way since curry was daunting, and it's time someone set the menu straight.

The short menu has classics of Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian and Indian food, and between the four of us - brother, stepsister, and Dorset Dan - we made a good fist of eating most of it. Dorset Dan comes here often and likes the fact that they don't get busy: 'It's always empty, the food's well tasty. Wicked!' The free prawn crackers were spicy and shrimpy with a toasty colour and flavour, a leap from the snowy polystyrene ones at your local Chinese. Vietnamese rice paper rolls were excellent - salad and herbs wrapped up with some fried sweet potato which gave a sweet and nutty edge to a clean-tasting bite. The papaya salad was way better than a fine one I had eaten at Mandalay two weeks before. Chicken tikka was delicately flavoured, sauce free, and exceptionally moist.

We all took a shine to Japanese sancha tea - green tea and grilled brown rice brewed together to make a thick, strong, toasty flavoured tea which looks like horse pee and tastes delicious. Mains were less consistent.

Mee Goreng, a Malaysian noodle dish, was densely flavoured with a sweet sambal paste, but they skimped on the prawns a bit. It didn't look as grand, but reminded me of a noodle dish cooked at Neil Perry's famous Rockpool restaurant by Sydney Harbour. Dan's lemon chicken tasted like fried chicken in lemon curd to me, but he liked it.

There's an open kitchen opposite the noodle bar with communal benches, a small, overlit bar, and a carpeted 'fine dining' area at the end that looks like a posh refit on a Brick Lane curry house. The combined effect is dreary - an airport-lounge Wagamama. It's not a place for a date, but only the shallow would skip a chance to eat such good food at these prices.

Zen Satori
40 Hoxton Street, N1 6NL