CUB Hoxton
155 Hoxton Street, London N1 6PJ
+44(0) 203 6933 202/cub@mrlyan.com
Sometimes something new happens. A paradigm shift occurs that changes the way we do things or see the world…
I’ve been a fan of Ryan Chetiyawardana for some time. Going under the moniker of Mr Lyan He is the prizewinning mixologist and entrepreneurial spirit behind zeitgeisty joints such as White Lyan, Dandelyan and Super Lyan. He’s even managed to create cocktails to match successfully with Indian food at several of Vivek Singh’s restaurants (see my review here). Ryan has joined forces with an A-Team of corporate, creative and scientific collaborators including Doug McMaster of ‘pioneering zero waste’ restaurant Silo in Brighton, Krug Champagne, Belvedere and LVMH and Dr Arielle Johnson (food scientist at Restaurant Noma, now at MIT, Boston). Together they have created Cub which rather ingenuously claims to follow ‘a simple premise of bringing people together through great food and drink’. Your local Harvester could claim to do that. This is a much more sophisticated proposition and has the feel of a research project as much as a restaurant.
Cub is on Hoxton Street in East London in the space that housed White Lyan bar. Unlike Hoxton Square which has become a hideous hipster Disneyland, the street has retained some edge and authenticity. I arrive with her Ladyship. She’s an ubercool grande dame in her nineties who has seen and done it all and the trendy young crowd look horrified as we totter in. It’s as if your dad and grandma had turned up ready to rave at your teenage party . However the staff were happy to accommodate us when we politely refused the offered table, being moved into a mustard yellow booth shared with three restaurant industry types. The space is cramped somehow shoehorning 35 covers into a space the size of an average chippie. Food and drinks are prepared together behind the bar. Our waiter convinces us to go for the set menu which includes four courses and four drinks. He’s absolutely right as there is a tiny a la carte menu and with the keen pricing of the set menu it makes little sense to do anything else.
First out was a pretty coupe of Krug champagne with a ‘water jelly’, actually agar flavoured with olive oil and mandarin, and ‘spiked’ herbs. The mandarin flavour emphasised the citrus notes of the Krug and it made for an enervating opener.
A salty chilled yellow tomato was given extra sweetness by slivers of muscat grapes and scented with a grape and lemon verbena dressing with a splash of Douglas fir pine oil for added Nordic appeal. This was really a delicious textural dialogue with layers of fresh flavours blended together – my only criticism is that it is maybe more of a summer dish. Our matching drink of chervil tops, Belvedere vodka and cider vermouth was a light, clean cider with a hint of the vegetal.
Bones Dulse was an intense and beautifully flavoured chicken stock with flakes of everyone’s favourite red algae adding a robust saltiness.
Stoneground sourdough bread from the E5 bakery was tangy with a fantastically crisp and rich crust – served with a creamy whipped butter made in-house. An unexpected glass of Halia saison style peach Pale ale from the Goose Island Beer Company had a similar yeasty sourness though not the expected lusciousness of the Georgia peach flavour.
Rare tea, tea stems and compressed plum created a light, fragrant tea with a wicked sliver of plum soaked in absinthe and apricot and apple brandy bringing back the decadence. A lovely smokey peated barley ice cream (made with the grain from Scotch production) was served with apple skin and fig leaf oil. We finished with a sensuous blend of Square mile coffee, Cognac and Peach mixed with distillates of Szechuan pepper, Menthol and Capsicum.
