Hot off the grill - Ikoyi in Mayfair

Manx Ribs

If you go for one blow-out meal this year, go to Ikoyi, and go soon. It is only a matter of time before Grace Dent or Jay Rayner give it a glowing review by which point the waiting list will quadruple leaving only a small smattering of Monday dinner slots, if you are lucky. 


This was without a doubt the best meal I have had in London all year – no faint praise considering the amount that I eat out. It easily tops the Ninth, Luca and Xu which were all similarly priced and good.

Nigerian Prawn

The menu is just the thing to excite our jaded London taste-buds and packs quite the punch with its smoky, indigenous Nigerian peppercorns, fermented scotch bonnet chillies and gigantic lobster-like prawns. Every dish sings with well-balanced spicing and deep smokiness.

Beef

Spice-fiends will rejoice in the Cassava dish and grilled Beef Blade. For those with a more sensitive palate, the Octopus Pepper Soup is sublime – a beautifully tender tentacle with a potent, meaty master-stock that is so good and so complex you’ll wish you had a pint of it just to work out the different notes. The papaya buttermilk dessert is inspired.

Papaya

The restaurant itself is small, intimate and designed with taste and intelligence. The specially commissioned crockery add to the sense that you are eating works of art without anything being overly fussy or superfluous. The unusual lights that hang from the ceiling cleverly spotlight the food in the middle of the table, a kind nod to those who feel the need to Instagram whatever we eat (guilty!). The service was relaxed whilst retaining a sense of calm efficiency. As a consultant I am always looking for what could be better but this restaurant genuinely left me speechless. 

Expect to Spend: £100-150 for two including a bottle of wine
Cuisine: West African-Inspired, Michelin* style
Good For: Couples and small groups


Ikoyi opened in St James Market on the 11th July. For more details see here. 

Supperclub: The Water House Project in Bethnal Green

Gabriel Waterhouse, Chef (left) & Brother (right)

This season is all about supper clubbing and chef's tables... Why go to a regular restaurant when you can try something unique, bring your own wine and meet interesting people?

If you aren't yet sold on the idea, the Water House Project's menu, skill and general deliciousness should sway you...
Here goes:

Watercress velouté with a hens egg and asparagus (this was fresh and summery with a beautiful rich, orange egg yolk in the middle)

Flamed mackerel with rhubarb and beetroot (subtle, charcoal-y fish with earthy beetroot and tart rhubarb was a match made in heaven)

Cumbrian Herdwick lamb with pea, mint and goats curd (by god this lamb was good, and it shone through as the main element in this traditional combination)

Brillat-savarin and white chocolate ganache, strawberry and basil soup, strawberry sorbet (a lovely, light end to the meal)

Or so I thought... we topped it off with Androuet cheeses with sourdough bread (fantastic selection, so good I couldn't resist and left feeling uncomfortably full!)

All this with wonderful company, what more could you wish for? 

We also booked as a relatively large group (six of the fourteen) so it was almost like having you own private dinner party.

Gabriel Waterhouse is a truly talented chef who I am sure will go onto great things... watch this space but in the mean time, treat yourself! 

You can book into the next one here...

New Opening: Kisetsu

Cute panda spoons!

Last week marked the launch of Kisetsu, the chef's table at Sosharu. The offer is simple, book for a ten-course omakase ('I'm in your hands' in Japanese) and hope for the best.

Omakase basically means the chef cooks whatever he feels like each day, it means throwing caution, dietary preferences and quite a bit of money to the wind... but, when the man on the other side of the table is Alex Cracuin, you feel very reassured. 

After a year sous-chefing at Pollen Street Social, he spent a year training in Japan before the opening of Sosharu. His skill and passion for Japanese simplicity and precision came through beautifully in everything we ate.

The first dish was a rich mushroom broth, topped with a silky tofu cream, this was followed by a delicately seasoned tuna tartare topped with top quality Russian Beluga, encased in a wafer flower.

Next was a somewhat strange but authentically Japanese savoury set custard favoured with fresh crab meat and exquisitely packed shiso flowers from a remote Japanese village. This was garnished with proper Japanese wasabi, ground to a paste on a shark-skin board.

Then came a chicken broth like no other, potent but pure, flavoured with chicken necks which, apparently, hold the most flavour. This came with a chicken liver and frois gras parfait piped between attractive beetroot discs. Perfection!

Next came the assorted sushi starting with a hand-dived scallop shot, and followed by lightly blow-torched salmon. Then there was the battle of the tuna, with a lightly rice-smoked sweet soy dressed akami (lean tuna) followed by the deliciously fatty otoro (belly) cut. 

On a similar theme, we next ate temaki consisting of mayonnaise-dressed cobia tartare wrapped in paper thin sheets of cucumber. A refreshing mouthful somewhat reminiscent of a really great kebab.

Then, perhaps the highlight, the Kobe beef course. Thin slices of heaven topped nigiri made from aubergine, rice and then pickled cabbage, to be dipped in a pedigree breed of chicken's deep orange egg yolks. 

If that wasn't enough luxury for one evening, our next course was, of course, lobster, with an incredibly potent, bisque-y rice. Delicious.

Then onto pudding, the intriguingly named, water mochi, which turned out to be a beautiful jelly bubble flavoured with aromatic distilled water, cherries and a peanut crumb. This was served with a Japanese street snack in the shape of a fish that tastes a bit like freshly made waffles. And finally (as if any meal is complete without at least two puddings) a medley of foraged berries and blue-berry sorbet.

Now it wouldn't be fair to end this review without paying homage to the comedy double act of the chef and sommelier, Suzuki, who generously plied us with carefully matched Sake all night. This included an unusually wine-like sake called red turtle and a vintage Fuji Shuzou that tasted of toasted barley.

The meal was one of the best I've had in London and a very memorable experience. As chef's tables go, it's pretty amazing value to be one of eight sat around the chef as he explains and prepares each dish in front of you. I wouldn't hesitate to go back and am already looking for the next special occasion to justify it. 

Bookings are by email only: reservations@kisetsulondon.com 

Get it while it's hot! Locadeli

Michelin starred Italian restaurant Locanda Locateli is undergoing refurbishment this month. In the meantime, rather than twiddle his thumbs, Georgio has set up a pizza and pasta pop-up - Locadeli - around the corner in Marylebone. 

The menu is simple and super cheap for Locatelli quality. You can choose from a handful of starters, around ten pizza dishes and three pasta dishes (around £12 each). Everything we tried was delicious and quite a bit more interesting that your average Margherita.

Georgio's favourite - the Calabrese - was described by one of my dinner guests as 'a life changing experience'. It was damn good; spicy spreadable sausage 'nduja' and that heavenly cousin of mozzarella 'burrata' strewn over a thin, tomatoey pizza base... I just can't get enough. Other highlights have to be the chestnut tagliatelle with wild mushrooms and a devilishly boozy rum baba. Needless to say I will be back in there soon to get another fix.

My accessory twins!

Unlike so many London 'pop-ups' this venture is popping back down again on the 4th October so you had better get in soon if you want a slice of the pizza action.

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This Fire Is Out of Control

The Chiltern Firehouse is pretty much dinner and drinks combined with entertainment in the form of celebrity safari - watching the rich and famous dodging the paps outside. Saying that, the food is actually quite good and the drinks are too. I popped down on a quiet Sunday evening and had a lovely time but I wouldn't wait out the 6 month waiting list for it now if given the chance. 

You pass through a murder (collective noun?) of papparazzi to get through the gates and into the garden lounge which is lovely on a sunny day. The cocktail bar is small and overlooks the restaurant which could also be described as understated. The way the tables are laid out makes for both a little privacy but also great people watching as you sit in a sort of semi circle shaped booth around your table which faces outwards. Set up for celebrity safari then... 

I started with 'A Happy Marriage' - a lovely violet, bergamot and lemon gin-based aperitif which was as pretty as it was delicious. The bar snacks are a must have - the infamous deep fried chicken and crab doughnuts are incredible and despite tasting as naughty as they sound, they are light and fluffy enough to not spoil your appetite.

For a main course, we shared the red prawns in coconut milk with chilli and grapes and the pork ibirico. The maple sweet potato side is pureed nectar and a great combination with the chilli coconut milk. I've said it before on this blog that the sign of a restaurant that trusts in its own quality is to have some affordable wines and Chiltern did not disappoint for that. The Portugese red that we chose to accompany our feast was ideal and (to give you a bench mark - the cheapest thing on the table at a reasonable £6 per glass). 

I've had better food but this was all very delicious and the serving staff were lovely. Go if you want to get dressed up nice and pretty and point out other people's collagen implants. 

Oh and don't tell everyone but I've heard that the mirror in the ladies toilet is actually more than it seems - give it a little push and see where you end up or indeed who you end up bumping into... 

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Seafood in the city: Bonnie Gull

It has been a while since I blogged about a new opening but our big move required celebrating. The new Bonnie Gull Seafood Cafe opened just under a month ago in Exmouth Market. I used to work near the first one that opened in Fitzrovia so I knew we would be in for a treat.

A combination of bright Breton stripes, gingham table cloths and simple wooden serving solutions makes you feel as though you're by the sea as soon as you sit down. We had gorgeous weather and a table outside in the sun. 

This was the first London evening that properly felt like summer had arrived - we drank a delicious bottle of cremant as the sun set and stayed chatting and eating for maybe 3 hours before leisurely heading home. 

 Of course the Oysters were a must. The maître d help us chose the exact right ones for us - not too big, not too small and deliciously creamy. 

Exmouth market is great for people watching because of all the great restaurants around that spill into the street on hot summer nights. There's also such an eclectic mix of people there, from neighbouring market stall sellers to city lawyers and my advertising and branding homies too.

I ordered the 'Smash your own crab' and totally smashed it. So much so that at one point, I shot a leg into my dining partner's face. He had the fish and chips which is a mammoth sea beast in crispy golden batter. Both came with excellent sauces - my marie rose was to die for and his tartare had little pieces of hard boiled egg in it - it's all about the detail.

 

 Told you I smashed it.

 Inside, the decor continues to delight with a gorgeously well stocked bar on a white and blue background, shellfish on a bed of ice and a chalk board that they illustrate every day with the catch of the day to show you where their fish is caught too. It's so much nicer to eat fish in the city knowing where it came from and when it was caught!

We finished up with a billionaire shortbread and ice cream with caremelised nuts. The desert selection allows you to either go for a full on pud like we did or opt for a smaller, more novelty option like Brighton rock or fudge - a nice touch on the menu.

You can book online or on the phone. Check out their website here.

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