Mayfair

Street XO Sherry and food pairing menu

May 22, 2018 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Street XO Mayfair

15 Old Burlington Street,  Mayfair ,  W1S 2JR

streetxo.com

3 Michelin Star Chef Dabiz Muñoz is working with Tio Pepe to create a special 3-course menu that will run from 3^rd-17^th May to celebrate Spain’s world-famous Feria de Jerez (sherry festival) and I have been asked to review. I’m really excited about this as I’m a huge sherry fan and have wanted to eat Muñoz’s food for a long time.Munoz is Chef Patron of StreetXO London, StreetXO Madrid and DiverXO, Madrid’s only three Michelin-starred restaurant. Moving from Madrid to London in 2002 he learnt the fundamentals of Asian cuisine working at Hakkasan, Nahm and Nobu, returning to Madrid to open his first restaurant, DiverXO. StreetXO London has been open for a year and a half has a playful sexy rock’n roll vibe and is a great place to hang for a drink, snacks or an exciting dive into cutting edge gastronomy.Munoz and his team have created a special Cocktails de Feria de Jerez menu with sherry based cocktails and a “Liquid cuisine signature flight with Gonzalez Byass” which is “a selection of creative dishes beautifully combining Spanish and Asian flavours, each paired with a sherry from the Gonzalez Byass range.”Excited by this prospect we opened proceedings with a couple of cocktails. The Tokyo – Jerez (£14) with Palo Cortado was infused with a shiso Lapsang Souchong soda which gave it a real smokiness. It came with a caramelised shrimp. My instructions were to ‘suck the shrimp head’ (something I normally do for that über shrimpy hit) and then to ‘stir the cocktail with the caramelised shrimp body’! I love this integration of food and drink and it created an amazing sherry/Asian fusion. Our other cocktail was A Scottish Man in Jerez (£15) – blend of Scotch, orgeat and lime with an amontillado float and hazelnut oil – it was gentle and nutty.And then we were on to the Liquid Cuisine sherry flight from the Food & Gonzalez Byass sherry pairing menu (£28).A glass of last year’s Tio Pepe Fino En Rama (En Rama is raw, unfixed and unfiltered sherry straight from the barrel) had a lovely texture. It was matched with a dish named Irish Oyster on Holiday to Acapulco! I loved the saline creaminess of the oyster which was cooked on the robata grill and served with surprisingly mild jalapeño gazpacho.

The next pairing was Viña AB Amontillado with Hamachi Usuzukuri. The nutty Amontillado was a great match for the Hamachi carpaccio, served with a purple potato tempura and a slick of miso shot through with citric yuzu.

The final element of the trio was a delicious PX based Gonzalez Byas Solera 1847 Cream served with two creamy Kimchi croquettas “La Pedroche”. The first was topped with salmon sashimi, trout eggs and Lapsang Souchong, and the second with an oyster mushroom and tomato relish. At £28 for three very sophisticated bites matched with some great sherries this was pretty good value.At that point in the evening Head chef Lorenzo came and introduced himself suggesting that we should move into the main restaurant and try some dishes. It would have been churlish to refuse…Sherry is the gift that keeps on giving in my opinion and it was great fun to explore the flavour relationships between the dishes and these wonderfully varied wines. The new release Tio Pepe en Rama was much drier and saltier than the previous year’s iteration with a terrific minerality. We matched it with a sublime dish of hot smoked hand-dived Scottish Scallops (£16) with a creamy citrus ponzu coconut-kaffir lime reduction. Vine root had been used to fire up the robata grill giving the scallops an intense smokiness which was a real feature of the flavour profile of Muñoz’s cooking.A 12 year old elegant GB Leonor Palo Cortado came with the most amazing dish of the evening; called Octopus a la Gallega who spoke Mayan – tender tentacles of octopus were served with an emulsion of tamarilli, papas arrugadas, a yuzu aioli and mole creating a wonderful patchwork of flavour.I also loved the fillet of lemon sole in a Thai meunière sauce, flavoured with pink pepper and accompanied by charcoal grilled baby corn. The smooth, caramel notes of our Apostoles 30 year old Palo Cortado (a fino aged like an oloroso) was a luxurious match for the fish.Our final savoury dish continued the travel theme being entitled ‘A Scottish Cow visits Bankok’. Bringing together baked avocado with slow-cooked beef cheek, peas popping with freshness, broccoli, lemongrass and Kaffir lime in a green curry, it was a luscious Asian treat – and the complex flavours of Gonzalez Byass Alfonso Oloroso stood up to the spice perfectly.After this feast it was necessary to have some dessert. I wasn’t keen but Fiona insisted…Cheesecake with vanilla foam was a masterpiece of deconstruction.Whilst 7 textures of chocolate was a sultry exercise in texture and mouthfeel.A couple of cocktails finished us and the evening off perfectly. A rather grown-up Quillo The Manhattan was a blend of brandy, oloroso vermouth and orange bitters…my kind of drink…and the Ole Alexander was a sweeter option with brandy cream, orange blossom, PX, Apostles and nutmeg giving it a rich festive air.StreetXO London is well worth the trip to Mayfair. It’s great to have that transgressive Spanish vibe in a London setting and both the food and drink offers are really top notch and like nothing else in town. And if you are not a sherry drinker you really should be. With a diversity of flavours, its flexibility in food matching and for its unmatched quality at an affordable price point, it takes you on a hugely pleasurable journey through the taste palaces of Andalusia.

28°-50° London Wine Workshop and Kitchen – Review

January 9, 2018 by Adrian

28°-50° Mayfair

17-19 Maddox St, W1S 2QH

http://www.2850.co.uk/0207 495 1505

The three modern European 28°-50° restaurants (Maddox Street, Marylebone Lane and Fetter Lane) are part of the same group as Texture, the Michelin starred Mayfair Icelandic restaurant helmed by Agnar Sverrisson . But at 28°-50° the emphasis is on the wine offer with over 30 wines available by the glass, carafe or bottle and also in 75ml measures allowing for wine matching without drinking too much.The Maddox Street Wine Workshop and Kitchen is the latest addition to the group and is ideally located for West End shopping or business lunches. We were eating on the ground floor in the dining room which features vintage style lamps and marble tables, but if you’re looking for something more discreet or just want a drink then the downstairs cocktail bar, complete with an open kitchen, is a great choice. In the summer there is the additional option of dining al fresco on the front outdoor terrace. I haven’t been to any of the 28°-50° group for several years now so I was really pleased to be asked to review and find out what they were up to. We kicked things off with the elegant white fruit notes of Champagne Henriot, Souverain, Brut N.V. and some excellent bread and in the first of several Nordic touches, creamy whipped Skyr butter.Sometimes you just want to kick the boat out and the 28°-50° sharing Seafood Platter at £58.50 gives you that opportunity and how! It’s really a meal in itself for two though we were having it as a starter. With 1/2 a Lobster, 300g mussels, 6 Blackwater wild oysters, 6 prawns, 300g clams, crab salad, lemon and shallot vinegar it was a feast of wonderfully fresh seafood. The oysters were deliciously meaty and the prawns were as tasty as any I’ve had. For the quality of the seafood it has to be one of the best deals in London. Our sommelier rather intelligently suggested matching two wines with the seafood. From the Loire the minerality of a Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, L’Innatendu, Jeremy Huchet and Olivier Hodebert 2016 was a great match for the oysters; and our peachy glasses of a Rias Baixas, Albariño, Lagar de Bouza. 2016 Galicia made the lobster sing.And then onto our main courses. Fiona had a meaty confit duck leg with beautifully spiced red cabbage, cranberries and duck sauce. (£19.50). It was a perfect winter’s dish and enhanced by the blackberry flavours of her glass of Southern Portugal Alentejano, Monte das Promessas. Quinta da Boavista.My dish of fresh cod (£18.50) in a nod to Roman Jewish cooking was unusually flavoured with cinnamon, topped with juicy prawns and sat on a bed of nutty barley and a rich bisque. The toasted brioche and caramel notes of the matched Roussillon Corbières, Ollieux Romanis, Cuvée Classique, Le Hameau des Ollieux, 2016 brought out the restrained richness of the dish which I loved. Side dishes of triple cooked chips (£4.50) were properly crisp on the outside whilst fluffy inside and truffled cauliﬂower cheese (£4.50) was a luscious, crunchy, truffled delight. My dessert of frozen Skyr, the Icelandic yoghurt like cheese, lingonbcrries, mint and granola was startlingly fresh and given an acid sweetness by the lingonberries. A honeyed note came from my glass of Germany Mosel Riesling Spätlese, N9, Markus Molitor 2009. Fiona’s hazelnut parfait with vanilla ice cream and chocolate crumb was a more traditional French dessert with the vanilla notes of her glass of Pacherenc du Vic Bihl, Chateau Aydie, 2014 really coming through. 28°-50°’s relationship with Texture is very apparent in the quality of the food and the Nordic slant of some of the dishes. But along with the wine offer 28°-50° creates one of the most convivial atmospheres for eating and drinking well in London. If like me you haven’t been for a few years it is worth revisiting as they have refined their game considerably.As a special offer for champagne fans London Wine Works 28°-50° is offering Piper-Heidsieck’s Rare 2002, one of the greatest prestige cuvée Champagnes from the best vintage of the last decade, for £15 for a 125ml flute and £89 for a bottle. Available across all three 28-50 sites (Maddox Street, Marylebone Lane and Fetter Lane), the Piper Rare 2002 is one of the last great Champagnes still available from this sought-after vintage.

Tsukiji Sushi – Review

August 27, 2017 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Tsukiji Sushi Mayfair

37 Conduit St, Mayfair, London, W1S 2YF

http://tsukijimayfair.com/

The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo is a high energy and to the outsider a chaotic place, like Billingsgate on steroids. If you’re not careful you will be run down by one of the porters driving a forklift laden with fish at high-speed. You have the feeling that you’re a bit player in a high-speed piscine virtual reality game with the prize being one of the huge tuna being sold off in the early morning auction.

In comparison Tsukiji Sushi restaurant in The elegant Westbury hotel in Mayfair is an oasis of calm and beauty. With only twenty covers and an intimate red wood interior there’s an air of tranquility that insulates you from the high-end blandishments of Bond St. Maybe you shouldn’t buy those ridiculous £500 pair of heels that seemed so attractively cutting-edge in the shop?…

Malaysian head chef Show Choong creates a new menu each season highlighting organic ingredients. Having been invited to review it’s important to follow the primary food blogger’s commandment which reads “Thou shalt not take the piss with the ordering.” However in the interests of full disclosure you need to know about the £395 (for 2 people sharing) Kyodosakusei menu – 7 courses of top-end ingredient deliciousness accompanied by lashings of Dom Perignon 2006. However we were in no way hard done by opting for the Tasting Menu at £65 each and at £95 with matched sake.

Our first course was a plate of Buna Shimeji- grilled beech mushrooms with a subtle woody flavour enlivened by a piquant green sauce. We drank a floral Cherry Bouquet Sake Ginjo from the Dewazakura Brewery with pear, melon and red cherry notes.

Hamachi Usuzukuri – Yuzu Ponzu, was a clean-tasting minimalist plate of thin slices of yellowtail garnished with chilli, radish and spring onion.

We moved on to a mild dry Northern skies sake from the Akita Brewery with ripe peach notes. It was a great match with the rich, fatty tuna belly – Tataki Chu Toro with a Jalapeño salsa. It had a luscious mouth feel and was a real contrast to the previous dish. The next plate, an Octopus Carpaccio – with fennel, radish and a truffle mustard miso dressing – was a wonderful dialogue between the cool crunch of the fennel and radish and the bite of the dressing.

Black Dragon sake Junmai Ginjo- Kokuryu was described by the charming sake sommelier as dry, rich and welcoming which sounds like David Niven on a date. Can a sake be welcoming? I don’t know but it tasted good.

Yellowtail Maki roll with a spicy Jalapeño sauce had an unexpectedly crunchy outer layer of deep-fried rice adding a textural twist.

Moving onto our final sake, Fair Maiden Daiginjo- Hoyo, from Uchigasaki Brewery. With milk chocolate and wild mushroom on the nose and liquorice and star anise on the palate this was a complex sake that sat well with the restrained deliciousness of the Black Cod dish with its sweet Saikyo miso sauce.

Reaching this point in the meal I realised that I was still hungry but then the sushi cavalry arrived…Our final savoury plate contained five kinds of Nigiri Sushi – the Chef’s choice – with a delicately fragrant miso soup. Tuna, butterfish, snow crab, scallop and salmon were all beautifully prepared and really fresh with that simplicity of approach that marks out top-quality sushi.

With a final glass of luscious Plum wine arriving it was time for dessert. Green tea ice-cream came with a chocolate ripple and raspberry compote dominated by the raspberry. It was unexpectedly lovely.

A creamy citrus Yuzu sorbet with white chocolate and miso granola rice paper was the perfect end to the meal. Not too sweet and with a hint of salty-sweet crunch from the granola.

Top quality sushi is a rare treat and it was a pleasure to watch the chef plying his trade. Whether you’re a Mayfair regular or are looking for a special treat Tsukiji Sushi is worth a visit. It’s the opposite to the louder Nikkei-style places with the emphasis being on simplicity and quality. I just need to find someone to treat me to the Kyodosakusei menu now…

Galvin at The Athenaeum – Review

February 17, 2017 by Adrian

Galvin at The Athenaeum Mayfair

116 Piccadilly, Mayfair, W1J 7BJ

0207 499 3464/info@theathenaeum.com

Those Fabulous Galvin Boys, Chris and Jeff Galvin, have taken over the restaurant at The Athanaeum Hotel in swanky Mayfair. It opened in the summer having undergone a stylish 6 month refurb and serves

signature Galvin dishes with a West Country inflected British twist.

The interior is framed in a series of wood tones with parquet flooring and a hint of Art Deco. But on a cold winter’s night Fiona and I had come to eat and drink not to admire the soft furnishings. The charming Maitre D’ William Gambarini suggested matching our wines with the food and it would have been churlish not to agree. The wine list features English wines and stores them on tap in 25 litre tanks for freshness. To celebrate the burgeoning English wine scene we opened proceedings with a glass of Bacchus, made from the eponymous German grape variety, from the Kingscote Vineyard in Essex (£7.50). It was a perfect aperitif with its elderflower notes and a well-balanced acidity.

Wheat bread with Neverend Farm butter (£3.50) was fresh out of the oven and had great texture and flavour.

Galvin cured smoke salmon, blini, sour cream, and caviar (£12.50) had a delicate smokiness and was enlivened by the sweet dill sauce, the salty caviar and the sour cream which was well matched by Fiona’s glass of Galvin Bourgogne Chardonnay Terroir Noble 2014 (£10.25).

My lasagna of Dorset crab with a Nantais butter sauce (£15.50 ) had really silky, eggy (in a good way) pasta and a soothing chive and butter sauce with an undercurrent of lemon. I was drinking a Beaujolais blanc from Maison Coquard, Burgundy (£6.90) that was beautifully balanced with enough acidity to cut through the richness of the food.

Pan-roasted cod, cockle and potato chowder (£23.50) was a beautifully cooked piece of fish with a chowder that was more of a foam than anything too hearty and the delicate red fruit flavours of the

Elegance Rosé, Carteron, Côtes de Provence 2015 (£7.25) brought some welcome Provençal sunshine to the table.

I was really excited by the prospect of my main, a Yellowfin tuna burger with white cabbage slaw and avocado (£21.50) as I’ve never had a tuna burger before. I love to eat my tuna very rare but I think that in the context of a burger I should have ordered it a little more well done to bring some heat to the middle of the bun. As it was it would make a great summer dish. My accompanying glass of Crimson Pinot Noir 2014 Ata Rangi, Martinborough, New Zealand 2014 was full bodied bursting with cherry flavours.

Our sides of sauté spinach was fine but triple cooked house chips had a surprisingly molten centre unlike any chip I had eaten before (they were made with Maris Piper potatoes) and came with a poky spiced mayo (£4 each).

Dessert was another nod to the West Country with a poised take on a caramelised apple tart and a cider brandy ice-cream (£7.50). The caramel notes of the tart were beautifully picked up by my glass of

Domaine des Chénes Rivesaltes Ambré 2006 (£9).

Fiona enjoyed her sticky toffee pudding with Cornish clotted cream (£8) given added rich raisin flavours by a tarry glass of Nectar Pedro Ximinez.

To finish (us) off William suggested a glass of Galvin 10 year old Tawny (£12) with an attractive label design from Chris Galvin’s daughter.

I love the Brasserie Deluxe concept-with the comfort and sophistication of fine dining but without the sky-high prices. The menu at The Athenaeum is eclectic and accessible catering for the business traveller and tourist as much as the local business and residential crowd, but the Galvin’s commitment to quality shines through in every detail so its well worth a visit if you are in the West End.

QP LDN – Review

February 5, 2017 by Adrian

QP LDN Mayfair

34 Dover St, W1S 4NG

020 3096 1444/www.qp-ldn.com/

Quattro Passi is a 2 Michelin star restaurant in the Amalfi village of Nerano where chef Antonio Mellino plies his trade. Quattro Passi translates as four steps and refers to the distance from the restaurant to the sea. God knows I want to go there. Fortunately for us three years ago Antonio opened a London outpost recently relaunched in January as QP LDN alongside a new Dubai output. I’m excited to have been invited to review the new iteration.

The London restaurant is all about regionality – the food is Amalfi-inspired and we perused the menu whilst drinking an elegantly dry Serre Lovre Valdobbiadene Prosecco. The sommelier recommended wine matching which is always an excellent idea in my book.

I like the interior which is a mix of Mayfair bling with Italian Pop Art on the walls. It’s at moments like this that I wish I was tall and rakishly wealthy with a disinterested model hanging off my arm…I would so suit the place.

Some pre-starters arrived: mildly spicy sausage arancini, deliciously light Focaccia pizzete and clouds of Ricotta stuffed pizza bread. They would all make great aperitivi snacks.

We moved onto a glass of a dry Sardinian white, Silenzi Isola dei Nuraghi, a blend of 50% Vermentino and 50% Nuragus (a native Sardinian white grape used to produce dry wines). It was a great match with our starters – a Yellow fin tuna tartare served with avocado salad (£20.50) where the richness of the fish and avocado was cut through by some mild spicing – and the fresh, crisp crunch of smoked and marinated salmon served on an apple, nut and cucumber salad on a yoghurt sauce (£18.50). The fish was great quality and both dishes were beautifully composed.

Linguine Alle Nerano is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes. Gluten free, al dente linguine with fried zucchini came slathered in a salty Parmesan sauce (£19) – it was a great blend of texture and flavour and perfect with the light cherry tannins of a Bonacosta Valpolicella Classico 2015.

Squid tagliatelle with cauliflower (£18.50) was a standout dish. Narrow strips of squid came steamed in a delicious orange and lemon marinade, washed down by a melony Pietrabianca Castel del Monte 2014 Chardonnay with a long lemon finish. I’m coming back for more!

Halibut is one of the meatiest of white fishes and was served with a herb crust of parsley, mint, basil and thyme (there’s a song in there somewhere) with Cavolo Nero and a Jerusalem artichoke cream (£29). This was a robust and rich dish with big flavours that I loved.

A beautifully plated fillet of line caught sea bass with a wonderfully creamy zucchini cream and a Mediterranean sauce (£33.50) was beautifully cooked with the flesh firm and glistening; it would make a great, light summery dish.

Chocolate and caramel mousse with Passion fruit sorbet (£8.50) was rich and unctuous with the classic passion fruit pairing giving a hint of sweetness.

A warm orange tart with chocolate ice-cream (£9) was a great combo bringing together those bitter and sweet flavours that the Italians love so much. Our glass of Leone de Castris, Pierale Moscato dolce was bursting with apricots and a great way to end the meal.

QP LDN is everything you want from a Mayfair restaurant. It’s a sexy and glamorous with food telling a seductive story of the Southern Italian coastline. I hope it does well because it deserves to.

Review-Coya

February 6, 2013 by Adrian 1 Comment

COYA Mayfair

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118 Piccadilly, London W1J 7NW

020 7042 7118/www.coyarestaurant.com/

Coya

When I grow up I think I want to be Arjun Waney. He is the restaurateur behind many of London’s more glamorous joints, creating stylish spaces with food that takes a concept and then runs with it-all perfectly attuned to the wealthier end of the London market. Whether it’s Japanese at Zuma and Roka, Provençal at Le Petit Maison, Italian at Banca and now Peruvian at Coya his locations and menus are grown up and sophisticated without being stuffy in any way.

Coya artwork

After a slightly chaotic start to our lunch with Google Maps sending us to the wrong end of Piccadilly, we descended into the surprisingly large and airy basement that Coya inhabits.

The Ceviche Bar and Open Charcoal Grill are blended in to provide some theatre.

Charcoal Grill

The look is ethnic Peruvian chic contrasting with London’s other Peruvian hangouts-Ceviche’s street cool and Lima’s urban style.

The bar at Coya

To celebrate our arrival we downed a couple of perfectly mixed Pisco Sours. They were so good with their trademark citrus kick that we decided against ordering any wine and stuck with them through most of the meal.

Pisco Sour

Peruvian food brings together influences from the indigenous population as well as from the Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Italian and West African immigrant communities. Coya’s food concept is based around sharing plates with several menus covering different styles and our waiter suggested ordering one from each.

Lubina Clasico

We started from the Ceviche menu with the Lubina Clasico-Sea Bass, red onions, sweet potato, white corn (£8). Ceviche is a Peruvian staple-raw fish marinated for a short amount of time in citrus juice spiced with chilli (aji in Spanish). This was as good to eat as it was to look at-the fish was very fresh and full of flavour and not overwelmed by the chilli in the tiger’s milk dressing.

Conchas de Abanico

Our next dish was Conchas de Abanico (£12) from the Tiraditos menu. Tiradito is a serving of raw fish, similar to a carpaccio or sashimi and served in a hot sauce but with no onions. Our dish contained scallops, carrot, ginger and coriander cress and again had that delicious citrus and chilli combination.

Calamares Fritos con Ocopa

From the Para Picar (small dishes) menu Calamares Fritos con Ocopa (£8.50) (Baby Squid, Peruvian Marigold, Quinoa) were well battered and came with a delicious green sauce made with Peruvian marigold which tastes similar to mint and is known as Huacatai.

Setas

Anticuchos are skewers of meat,fish or vegetable cooked over a charcoal grill. We chose Setas (£4.50)-Forest mushrooms, aji mirasol and parsley which turned out to be a highlight of the meal. They were wonderfully rich and meaty with a slight taste of cumin.

Josper charcoal grill

Moving at this point onto raspberry and mango Pisco sours we moved on to the Josper charcoal grill section of the menu. Originating from Spain, the Josper grill is fast becoming a mainstay of kitchens in many of the restaurants and steakhouses in London. It can reach temperatures of over 300 degrees celsius, gives a good char to the food and because the grill is enclosed, the fish, meat or vegetables being cooked retain their moisture and flavour.

Langostino Tigre

Hopefully you can see from the picture that my Langostino Tigre (£27) -Tiger prawns, chilli salsa-achieved the holy grail of grilling, char and tenderness without drying out.

My dining companion the redoubtable Fiona from London Unattached gets very excited at the prospect of South American steak and so chose the Lomo de Res (£29) -Rib eye, chimichurri, aji rocoto salsa-which also benefitted from the caress of the Josper. South Americans like their steak cooked medium and this was a classic combination with the parsley based chimichurri sauce (a salsa verde with added chilli) and the fierce heat of the rocoto pepper salsa which she pronounced delicious.

Esparragos Peruanos

For our sides we had Esparragos Peruanos (£6) -Peruvian asparagus, panca chilli, garlic-which had been grilled to within an inch of their life but were full of flavour, and Patatas Bravas a la Peruana (£5)-Crisp potatoes, spicy tomatoes, huancaina sauce-.

Patatas Bravas a la Peruana

The Patatas Bravas were given a Peruvian slant with the addition of huancaina sauce-a mix of amarillo chillies, queso fresco (fresh farmers cheese), milk, garlic and saltine crackers that managed to be creamy at the same time as having a spicy edge to its flavour.

Chocolate Fundido

Having eaten a lot by this point it would have been churlish not to have dessert, and with our Pisco sours finished the matched dessert wines seemed like a very attractive prospect. The Chocolate Fundido (£8) -Fortunato Chocolate, almond, white chocolate ice cream-was perfectly complemented by the glass of Maury, Mas Mudigliza, Rousillon, France 2009 (£14). The hot melted (fundido) chocolate oozed in a rather sexy manner out of and all over the chocolate sponge but without overwhelming the wine, made from the grenache grape by the vin doux naturel method of mutage where wine is fortified with unfermented grape juice and grape spirit.

Lucuma Bavarois, Passion Fruit Sorbet

Our second dessert was a Lucuma Bavarois, Passion Fruit Sorbet (£8). This was paired with a Gewurztraminer Vendage Tardive Hugel, Alsace, France 2000 (£12). The Lucuma was described to us as a cross between mango and avocado and is known for its dry flesh, with the texture of a hard-boiled egg yoke. This was an altogether lighter proposition, sweet and refreshing and beautifully set off by the floral notes of the wine.

I’m slowly starting to get a grip on aspects of South American food and drink. There has been such an explosion of restaurant openings and the concomitant interest in Mexican, Argentinian, Brazilian and Peruvian cuisine that it must be on the radar of anyone interested in the contemporary scene. The combination of citrus and chilli with raw seafood, the new varieties of potato and corn, the use of the charcoal grill and the ubiquitous Pisco sour are all starting to enter our food consciousness. In the firmament of this welcome South American culinary invasion Coya stands out as a very classy act. As with all of Arjun Waney’s projects the level of investment is there to be seen; in the location, the size and specification of the kitchens and the standard of finish for the interior. Whilst we were there on a quiet Monday lunch it is easy to imagine the place really buzzing with good looking South Americans and London’s well-heeled enjoying the cultural and culinary adventure that the restaurant offers. Did I have any complaints? Well, my teapot for my mint tea clearly thought it was a watering can, managing to shower the table quite effectively, but apart from that Coya was perfect.

The Hedonist was a guest of Coya.