Soho

Shotgun BBQ – Review

December 9, 2016 by Adrian

Shotgun BBQ Soho

26 Kingly Street, Soho, London, W1B 5QD

www.shotgunbbq.com/0203 137 7252I’m a fan of chef Brad McDonald. He hails from Louisiana and combines American Southern authenticity with some serious foodie credentials. With a CV that includes Noma and Per Se, Brad came to London a few years back to rescue The Lockhart, a characterless room in Fitzrovia that he set ablaze with his intense flavours and homestyle textures. Brad has now moved to Soho to Shotgun- a pared down atmospherically distressed joint where you can probably find Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday discussing gambling, shotguns and troublesome women. It has a long sweeping marble topped bar with bar-side dining as well as leather banquettes with wood panelling and with the low lighting it makes a great place for a secret assignation or hiding from the sheriff…Alongside some of The Lockhart’s greatest hits such as freshly baked-to-order Cornbread with Honey Butter and Shrimp and Anson Mills Cheddar Grits, Brad is offering one lucky pre-booked table per evening an authentic Fried Chicken Dinner with “all the fixins, served family-style” at a very reasonable £20 per head. The chicken boasts a buttermilk brine, and comes either ‘Original Lock’ or ‘Nashville Hot’ for those who like to pack some heat. The good news is that I’ve been invited to review this finger lickin combo.So what did we get in this Southern selection? Pimento cheese and crackers were spiky.Devilled eggs were soft, spicy and piquant. Cornish Crab Dirty Rice is a traditional Cajun rice dish made dirty (in a good way) from small chunks of chicken liver, garlic, Andouille sausage and brown crab. It had a deep, rich smoky flavour.The famous Cornbread came sizzling from the kitchen pass in a cast-iron skillet, topped with bubbling honey butter. This salt sweet polenta based combo is one of the best dishes in London. Mac and cheese was Monterey Jack heaven, lashings of cheese with a hint of chilli.The signature Fried Chicken was tender and succulent coming in a deliciously light batter.Shrimp’n grits had a sublime depth of cheesy flavour with the smoked bacon, button mushrooms and heritage grains from South Carolina’s Anson Mills giving texture. Delicious! The perfect winter’s dish I could eat this every day.Sides of coleslaw and creamed corn Despite being full we finished with Banana Pudding. It was an über-creamy banana, honeycomb, chocolate crunchy kind of thing.The picture tells the story!With other dishes including Shotgun’s American BBQ staples such as slow-smoked Carolina Pulled Pork, Iberico Baby Back Ribs and USDA Beef Brisket you won’t be short of choice at Shotgun. I don’t think there’s a better deal in London at the moment than the Shotgun chicken dinner and the restaurant is a fab addition to the Soho dining scene.

Pink Chihuahua

July 6, 2016 by Adrian

Pink Chihuahua Soho

25 – 27 Brewer Street, London W1F 0RR

020 7734 7711/http://elcamion.co.uk/cocktail-bar/

Open Mon-Sat – 6pm-3am

A great barman should be a scientist, artist, chef, manager, entertainer, whirling Dervish, social worker and best friend all blended into a singular personality whose facets are only fully realised in the most bespoke of drinking establishments. The late Dick Bradsell, the ‘Godfather’ of the contemporary London bar scene, was such a barman. You might not have heard of him but you have almost certainly drunk one of his cocktails. The Bramble, the Espresso Martini and The Treacle are all his creations. One of Dick’s final gigs was at Soho Mexican Cantina El Camion and its underground bar, the Mexican-themed agave bar the Pink Chihuahua.

In a post-Dick world the El Camion team have rather cleverly poached one of Tony Conigliaro’s top lieutenants to create the bar’s new drinks menu. Tony has been called (by me) ‘The Dark Prince of London Mixology’ and is probably the most creative voice in the contemporary drinks scene. The new Pink Chihuahua drinks list is called ‘Fun With Dick and Jane’, and is a lubricious take on the children’s books. It features a ‘collection of luscious libations …a mixture of brand new creations, twisted favourites, and adored classics.’ Dick B’s creations are listed in the …’Fun With Dick’ section and includes the eponymous Pink Chihuahua cocktail.

A chapter elegantly titled ‘Wanky Bartender Drinks’, features the Tequila Solero, a tropical mixture of Olmeca Altos Blanco, Passion fruit, Vanilla, Lime juice, Milk and Cream). A classics list includes the Tequila PX Manhattan made with Olmeca Altos Reposado stirred with Pedro Ximenez Sherry and bitters, and the strong and smoky Mezcal Sazerac.

The bar itself is a dimly-lit psychedelic cantina with an appropriate soundtrack playing at inappropriate levels-the sort of place you might stumble into if Tarantino’s ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ was an immersive VR experience and where a zombie apocalypse might be a common occurence.

The drinks are expertly blended by posh-boy-dropout types servicing the needs of the most devout drinkers with a missionary zeal. The Pink Chihuahua (£9) is a blend of tequila, lime juice, orgeat, pomegranate juice and egg white beaten to deliver a fluffy top. It’s an elegantly sexy little number with a hint of sourness that is perfectly balanced by the almond sweetness of the orgeat. The Hemingway Daiquiri (£10) is rum based with lime and grapefruit juices counterpointed by a maraschino liqueur to deliver a dry and complex flavour. Most outstanding was the Mezcal Sazerac (£11)- a medicinal blend of Alipus San Baltazar Mezcal, Absinthe, and Peychaud Bitters that takes you on a trip to the dark side from which you may not return.

The Pink Chihuahua is now my go-to place for late night fun, cutting some shapes (there’s a DJ) and serious drinking. To ensure entry it’s probably best to blag a membership and just remember that ‘Tequila is to wake the living-Mezcal is to wake the dead.’

Kêu – Review

August 19, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Kêu Soho

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9 Poland Street, W1F 8PY

020 7439 8188/http://vietnamesekitchen.co.uk/keu-deli

The Vietnamese Kitchen group is growing apace with a couple of Cay Tre restaurants in Hoxton and Soho, Viet Grill in Shoreditch and now two Kêu Saigon street-food restaurants; the original in Old Street and the new opening in Soho’s Poland St which I have been invited to review.

The interior has an informal cafe-style feel but as well as sit-down there are take-away and catering options. I’m excited to be here to try the Banh Mi, a crusty filled baguette that epitomises the French/Asian crossover that is one of the elements of Vietnam’s food culture.

We choose the Banh Mi Chay (£7.50)-the Sally Clarke-baked baguette has a crisp crust and a soft yielding interior stuffed with delicious smokey (grilled) aubergine, mushrooms, a spicy mayo and scallion oil. The flavours shone through whilst the textural contrast was very satisfying.

The Goi Cuon (£5) Summer Roll had the fragrant crunch of green papaya and lettuce softened by the sweet prawns all in a rice wrap with a moreish peanut hoisin sauce on the side.

I washed the starters down with a gentle Avocado Shake (£4.50), an unexpected and delicious blend of fresh avocado with condensed milk.

Fiona’s cocktail was really well-blended and not too sweet.

Com Ca Kho (£9.50) was a rice dish of mackerel, slow-braised in a caramelised fish sauce. The flavouring had a rich umami taste that complemented the mackerel perfectly.

Fiona chose the Cà Ri Gà (£8.50)- a free range corn-fed chicken pho in yellow curry broth with lemongrass, carrots and potatoes. This was a less interesting choice but still tasty.

For dessert I chose the Chè Ba Màu (£4.50)-a classic southeast Asian dish featuring a bean trio of green mung beans, white black-eyed peas, red azuki beans bathed in coconut milk and filled with crushed ice. I love the textures and tastes of beans and coconut milk always works for me.

For a swift Banh Mi lunch or a more substantial dinner with friends or work colleagues in an informal atmosphere, Kêu is a lovely and reasonably-priced option. If you’re not familiar with fragrant tastes and crunchy textures of Vietnamese cuisine it will make a great introduction.

Rex & Mariano – Review

March 21, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Rex & Mariano Soho

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2 St Anne’s Court, London W1F 0AZ

020 7437 0566/rexandmariano.com/

If I was taking you on a rock’n roll history tour of London then St Anne’s Court would be a prime destination. It’s not as obvious as the Wardour St sites of the long gone Whisky-a-Gogo or Marquee clubs, but in its own way it’s just as important. This was the home of Trident Studios where some of the most seminal albums of the ’70s were made. Elton John, Queen and David Bowie were all regulars in this alley linking between Wardour and Dean Streets. I only recorded at Trident once but spent many long Soho days ensconced in post-production studios and now it is a hub for the TV, film used by Soho locals and workers.

Rex & Mariano has opened in a largish site that previously hosted the execrable Vodka Revolution. It’s a fish and seafood restaurant decked out in white tile and steel serving carpaccio, tartare, ceviche and small plates. It is backed by the smart Russian team behind Burger & Lobster, Goodman and Beast-the eponymous Rex and Mariano are posh Chelsea fishmonger Rex Goldsmith and Mariano who supplies Sicilian seafood to the restaurant.

With iPad ordering delivering a 5% service charge and the involvement of suppliers early reviews picked up on the keen pricing, but it has crept up since the opening. But hey, that’s capitalism and I’m not going to argue with the owners about it…

The menu is a list of seafood greatest hits. Rock Oysters (£1.75) come with lemon, tabasco and a raspberry vinaigrette and are briny and fresh.

Tuna tartare ( £8) is a plate of raw, meaty tuna chunks blended with avocado, chilli and chive all held together by a subtle dash of sesame oil. It’s a great dish that has a subtle power.

Ceviche is so ubiquitous these days but R&M’s Sea bass ceviche (£7.50) stands up with the best I’ve had. Pimped up with coriander, yuzu, red onion and tiger’s milk it’s delicious.

Clams ( £7) are simply cooked with white wine, parsley and chilli-they are juicy and full of taste. Sicilian Red Prawns (£10) are served either raw or fried with olive oil and lemon. I have them cooked and suck them dry. This is proper down and dirty seafood cooking.

Courgettes ( £5 ) come as deep-fried pleasure sticks. The accompanying alioli is too underpowered for me but maybe suitable for a Soho business lunch.

I really like the food at Rex & Mariano. If you are in Soho and are in need of a quick, reasonably priced seafood fix it’s a great option.

Old Tom & English – Review

January 29, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Old Tom & English Soho

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187b Wardour Street, W1F 8ZB

02072877347/www.oldtomandenglish.com/

Old Tom and English was a place I was ready to dislike. Selling itself as a restaurant and bar with ‘vintage cocktails and carefully curated wines’ it felt too pretentious even for me which takes some doing.

You’ll find the joint lurking at the northern end of Wardour St with only a brass doorplate to help you. Bucking the trend OT&E has a reservations-only policy; you are met by a couple of black-clad staff who check your booking status and usher you downstairs into designer Lee Broom’s extraordinary 60s style interior. It was at this point that I fell in love with the place. I became a Mad Man from Uncle, cool, suave and sexy, and parked my misgivings by the door.

Catherine and I sat on a comfy sofa, and were entertained by watching our rather baroque Italian waiter sashay across the room.

I ordered a Smoked Old Fashioned (£9.90) made from aged Woodford Bourbon and Apple wood smoke which theatrically wafted out of the cocktail shaker when opened. It was delicious.

We snacked on salty popcorn cockles (£5) before embarking upon a number of ‘British’ tasting plates. Deep-fried artichoke hearts (£4) were a generous portion but the batter was claggy Better the Jewish Roman version than this. Braised Gem Lettuce (£5) with anchovy and garlic was too salty for my taste. (Yes I know it had anchovies in it which I like but it was too much…)

Battered Sea Bass (£9) was again over-battered overwhelming the flavour of the fish.

However pan-fried scallops (£8) were a much stronger proposition, full of flavour and perfectly cooked.

And crispy pig cheek (£7) was another success.

Desserts were excellent. A flourless salted chocolate cake (£7) was dense and rich with an appropriately salty bite, and banana bread with whisky cream (£7) was rich and boozy.

Although the food offer wasn’t consistent, the vibe at OT&E was relaxed and stylish. I will be going back to try some of the other dishes, the great drinks and to enjoy the space.

Berwick Street – Soho’s High Street

September 25, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Berwick Street – Soho’s High Street

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I have been coming to Soho since I was a small child at the start of the 1960s. My cosmopolitan Jewish grandfather was a fiddle player with a taste for the finer things in life and Soho was always our destination for poultry, veg, wine, patisserie, coffee and any foods from the Mediterranean. Even as a child I could sense that Soho had a sense of otherness. It was foreign, louche and disreputable and somehow it felt like home…

Berwick Street was laid out around the turn of the 18th century and named after James FitzJames, the first Duke of Berwick, the bastard son of James II and Arabella Churchill. A couple of buildings remain from that period; The Green Man pub has been serving drinks since 1738 and antique lighting emporium W Sitch & Co, the oldest shop in Soho, dates from the 1870s.

Contemporary Berwick Street is a mix of quirky independent traders ranging from vinyl shops to traditional London pubs, bespoke tailoring, colourful textile shops, vintage clothing, restaurants, coffee shops and fashion boutiques. What is exciting about it is that there are no chains which gives it a very different feel from the average British High St.

Berwick Street Market pulses with energy with traders selling cheeses, cakes, street food, artisan bread, fresh flowers and seasonal fruit and veg to the locals, chefs and to the many visitors coming to Soho for a foodie experience. The weekday street food market features well-known stalls such as Pizza Pilgrims, Freebird Burritos and Banh Mi.

We are starting our Berwick St day out with lunch at the Salt Yard Group’s wonderful new restaurant Ember Yard. It specialises in grilling and I have covered it in a separate review.

From Ember Yard we visited some of the shops that characterise both the past and future of Berwick St. Berwick Street has long been associated with fashion and textiles. We popped in to Misan Fabrics at number 32, one of their three shops on Berwick Street, who supply luxury textiles to local tailors, fashion students, the film and music industry and the theatrical costume makers of the West End. They were showcasing some fantastic tweed and woollen fabrics and I was tempted to get a couple of suits run up locally. Other fabric stores on the street include Biddle Sawyer Silks, Cloth House, The Silk Society and Borovick Fabrics.

Universal Works at 40 Berwick St are a menswear operation originating, as Paul Smith did, from Nottingham. This is their flagship store and it’s a great mix of classic and contemporary styles at affordable prices. Other clothing outlets include Reignwear vintage, tailor Chris Kerr, Bang Clothing Exchange and destination sneaker store Foot Patrol. Menswear designer Oliver Spencer, British clothing brand Percival, Swedish denim brand Nudie Jeans and Underground Shoes, which stocks limited edition product and special collaborations, all add to the fashion mix.

From Punk Rock days, Berwick Street has been known as ‘The Golden Mile of Vinyl’ with central London’s largest concentration of independent record shops; Reckless Records, Sister Ray and The Music and Video Exchange as well as Sounds of the Universe around the corner on Broadwick Street and Black Market Soho on D’Arblay Street.

Independent cycle shop and cafe Soho Bikes at number 26 stocks state of the art bikes as well as offering a full service facility and having an excellent little cafe serving great coffee and pastries.

Gosh Comics at number 1 stocks vintage and contemporary comics, graphic novels and children’s books. It’s a mecca for children of all ages and well worth a visit.

Our final stop is hardcore juice bar The Juice Well at 4 Peter St. As well as smoothies, juices, milks and tonics they offer multi-day juice cleansing regimes. We sampled a couple of their juices which are bursting with flavour and intensity-a perfect detox after our Ember Yard lunch.

Berwick Street and its environs are playing a full part in the restaurant renaissance of Soho. As well as Ember Yard, there is chef Florence Knight’s Polpetto (see our review). Part of Russell Norman’s Polpo group it serves brilliant cichetti, small plates of classic Venetian dishes, and features an aperitivo bar and an open kitchen. Alan Yau’s Chinese pub concept, Duck & Rice, will be joining the mix and open later this year also alongside his high end dim sum restaurant Yauatcha. The diverse food and drink offering on Berwick Street also includes tea specialist Yumchaa, a handful of quality coffee shops including Foxcroft & Ginger and Flat White, and on neighbouring Brewer Street café-meets-gallery Apostrophe, and Damson & Co (see our review) who have invented the concept of a British Deli Bar. Around the corner in D’Arblay St. is bijou French bistro Blanchette (see our review) and Soho’s own little corner of Seville Copita (see our review).

Berwick St combines a strong sense of identity with a diversity of experience. It’s really worth spending a day investigating its shops and restaurants to get a sense of Soho’s past, present and future.

Ember Yard – Review

September 22, 2014 by Adrian 2 Comments

Ember Yard Soho

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60 Berwick Street, London W1F 8SU

020 7439 8057/http://emberyard.co.uk

As part of a day out in Soho’s Berwick St Fiona from London Unattached and I were invited to have lunch at the Salt Yard Group’s new restaurant Ember Yard.

Their restaurants (Salt Yard, Dehesa and Opera Tavern) are all tapas based as is Ember Yard but as its name implies the new joint specialises in grilling, using a charcoal grill burning plum and sweet chestnut and a high temperature Josper grill.

Interiors are comfortable casual in brown wood and leather and as we perused the menu we sank a cocktail each from their unexpectedly intriguing looking drinks list.

Fiona had a Geppetto’s Tonica (Gin, Homemade Tonic Water and Grapefruit bitters-£10) which disappeared without a trace.

My Smoked Sazerac (Smoked sherry brandy, Peychaud bitters and anise perfume-£10) was a gentle take on the New Orleans classic with the sherry brandy infusing the drink with a delicious smokey aroma. Perfect for lunch…

But it was the food that we had come for. There are a lot of excellent tapas restaurants in London now-would Ember Yard deliver?

Grilled Flatbread with Honey, Thyme and Smoked Butter (£3.50) was chewy, smokey, with a hint of sweetness and a great char.

Padrón Peppers (£4.50) arrived with blistered skin and were hot, salty and full of flavour.

Grilled New Season Sardines with Summer Herb Emulsion and Crispy Sea Purslane (£6.50)-this was a great dish; the sardines’ skin was blackened to a crisp acting as a bitter counterpoint to the firm sweetness of the fish. Ember Yard majors in pairing proteins with emulsions and the slick of herby mayo gave a vegetal edge to the dish.

Oak Smoked Basque Beef Burger with Tetilla and Chorizo Ketchup (£6.50) had a deep smokey flavour and was described by Fiona as “very, very good!”

Piquillo and Smoked Ricotta Arancini with Fennel Aioli (£6) were dry and really crisp on the outside with an aniseed kick from the fennel aioli-really moreish.

Buttermilk Fried Squid with Capers, Lemon, Sage and Squid Ink Alioli (£6.50) showed that the chef on the deep-fat fryer wasn’t a one trick pony. The squid ink alioli added an umami note the proceedings.

Hot Smoked Butternut Squash with Goats’ Curd and Grape Jam (£6.50)-the squash was grilled to within an inch of its life bringing out its inherent sweetness, and combined with the sourness of the curd and grape jam made for a squishy mouthful

of taste pleasure!

Burrata with Chargrilled Aubergine, Focaccia, Chilli and Oregano (£8)-I’m a big fan of burrata and freshness is key. This one was fine without being great but nicely paired with the herb and chilli pesto, aubergine and focaccia giving a blend of tastes and textures.

Chocolate and Turrón Cake with Cherries and Rosemary Cream (£6.50)-Fiona regretted getting the kitchen to hold the cherries as they would have added sweetness and moisture to the dish.

Chargrilled Italian Peach with Amaretti, Mascarpone, Honey and Thyme (£6) was a welcome return to the grilling station. The peach was dripping with sweetness and had a terrific depth of flavour. This was a delicious and sensual dish.

You can drop into Ember Yard just for some cheese or charcuterie or for something more substantial. I had read some excellent reviews but somehow wasn’t expecting this level of quality. Go and enjoy.

Thanks to Fiona for the loan of some of her photos as my battery had run out!

Gent’s Tea at Sanctum Hotel

September 7, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Gent’s Tea at Sanctum Hotel Soho

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20 Warwick Street, W1B 5NFinfo@sanctumsoho.com/0207-292-6100

Sanctum is situated in the heart of Soho between Regent Street and Carnaby Street. It is a boutique hotel served up with rock’n roll style and they have come up with the great idea of an afternoon Gent’s Tea. After a stressful morning in court, the Hedonist felt like nothing more than kicking back and relaxing so being given the chance to review their tea time offer felt like a remarkably apposite opportunity. In the interests of gender balance I should point out that they also do a High Tea for High Heels but since I had left my stilettos at home so that was a non-starter.

There was a pretty standard selection of teas on the menu but spelling Twinings as Twinnings and then serving Fiona something that patently wasn’t the Lapsang Souchong that she had ordered didn’t inspire a huge deal of confidence. However the Peppermint tea arrived as ordered presaging the arrival of the first plate of savouries.

Poached oyster with Bloody Mary relish was hot and spicy, mini smoked salmon, caviar and watercress bagel was suitably chewy and came with good quality salmon, seared steak with peppers and mushrooms on toasted sourdough was more of a rare beef and mustard sandwich than what was advertised but still good. The vegetarian option was a finely minced egg and chive sandwich that had a rather non-butch delicacy to it.

The mini mains selection included a lamb and potato hotpot, burger with mustard seed relish, a rabbit, pancetta and leek pasty and a roast beef and horseradish stuffed Yorkshire pudding. These were all successful scaleddowns of their larger iterations as were the veggie options: a deliciously fresh pea and bean risotto, the pub staple deep-fried mozzarella, Asian tempura prawn and mango and rather predictably rubbery Halloumi skewers.

Dessert of twice-baked chocolate fudge cake with Jack Daniels ice-cream was too dry for me but Fiona really enjoyed it.

I ended up in the rock’n roll rooftop bar enjoying a smooth ‘tankard’ of single barrel Jack Daniels (£12 supplement) on the rocks having forgone the cigar option whilst Fiona opted for the sweeter honey bourbon liqueur. With a hot tub and rooftop views of Soho it gives plenty of opportunity for partying.

At £50 the Gent’s Tea at Sanctum isn’t a budget option but for the old rocker in your life it could be the perfect choice.

The Palomar – Review

July 20, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

The Palomar Soho

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34 Rupert Street, W1D 6DN

(0)207 439 8777/reservations@thepalomar.co.uk

Soho’s latest hot opening is The Palomar, sister restaurant to Jerusalem’s Machneyuda. We have all had some exposure to the hybrid cuisine of this most fractious of cities courtesy of Yotam Ottolenghi, his business partner Sami Tamimi and their restaurants, TV shows, journalism and books. On the back of their welcome interventions into British food culture pomegranate seeds have become so ubiquitous at trendy middle-class dinner parties that their descent into the pantheon of culinary oblivion sitting proudly next to the kiwi fruit is all but guaranteed. However Palomar promised a less mediated experience coming direct from the heart of Jerusalem’s food market. Palomar’s London connection comes through creative director Layo who was behind Bloomsbury’s underground dance club The End and DJ/cocktail bar AKA.

The hip place to eat is up at the 16 seat zinc Kitchen Bar where you can perch like greedy birds watching the chefs do their preparation. However her ladyship and I are in the more sedate back room which is lined with navy banquettes and dark oak panelled walls. It gets busy with serious looking young chaps trying to impress their clients by being gastronomically on-trend.

The menu is divided into Nishnushim (nibbles), plates from the Raw Bar and hot food from the Josper grill, stove and plancha.

We settle on some spiced olives (£3) and a couple of glasses of crisp and lively Vauban Freres Brut Special Cuvée fizz (£8.50) whilst we work out our ordering options. As a greedy person I enjoy the small plates approach as it offers a wider range of taste and texture options and combinations but it does make the process more complicated. Also if a restaurant is serving olives they need to provide cocktail sticks…just saying.

Polpo à la Papi (£8.50) was first out of the blocks. Tender grilled octopus came in a salad of Mulukhiyah leaves, chickpea, spinach, yogurt with a touch of chilli. It was fresh tasting and succulent with the textures of octopus and chickpea creating a textural dialectic resolved only in the mouth. By now we were laying waste to a bottle of Roaring Meg Sauvignon Blanc, Mt Difficulty, No. ’13, New Zealand (£29.50) which was full of the flavours of grapefruit and tropical fruits.

Fattoush salad (£8) arrived as a comp. from the kitchen. It is the classic Levantine salad of tomato, cucumber, za’atar, the sour note of sumac, pita croutons and homemade labneh (strained yoghurt).

After the sour crunch of the Fattoush, the Spring salad (£7) with fresh fennel, asparagus, kohlrabi, sunflower and poppy seeds, and a feta vinaigrette was crisp and cooling.

Polenta Jerusalem style (£9) came with asparagus, mushroom ragout, parmesan & truffle oil. It was rich, unctuous and totally delicious. One of my dishes of the year so far.

Mussels Hamusta (£12) was served Kurdish style with fennel, courgettes, swiss chard, arak & lemon butter. This was not the most kosher of dishes and you should know that this is not a kosher restaurant. Although the mussels were plump and juicy, the flavours were underpowered. Mussels are pretty robust and after the polenta dish this was too lightweight with the anis notes of the Arak not coming through.

Sea bass fillet (£15) was Grilled in the Josper with braised cauliflower, cardamom crispy potatoes & citrus vinaigrette. I’m not sure that the Josper is ideal for sea bass as the flesh tends to get overcooked in relation to the skin. I prefer it pan fried.

A rich silky Chocolate Cremeux (£6.5) turned up with a puffed rice crunch (posh Coco Pops), a pomegranate coulis, cocoa tuile and almond streusel (crumble).

If we didn’t have Ottolenghi’s joints and wonderful restaurants such as Moro and Granary Store in London inhabiting the same flavour worlds then I would be more excited about The Palomar. As it is the place makes a welcome addition to the Soho scene without setting the world on fire. Go for the polenta dish.

Chotto Matte – Review

June 13, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Chotto Matte Soho

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11 – 13 Frith St, W1D 4RB
020 7042 7171/www.chotto–matte.com/

Situated on a Soho corner in Frith St and overlooking top tapas joint Barrafina is Chotto Matte. The building used to be one of the Giraffe chain and before that it was an undistinguished Italian restaurant that had no place in Soho’s food renaissance.

The restaurant’s proposition is to bring a slice of urban Tokyo to London. The food is Nikkei cuisine, the Peruvian-Japanese fusion we have become familiar with from Nobu, set in a frame of dark wood, steel and manga art, and driven by a pumping soundtrack. The restaurant is full of groups of young women and couples all dressed to impress and excited to be in Soho on a big night out. I feel like their dad but know that I was their age I would want to be there too.

We ordered a couple of cocktails many of which combined Pisco with sake for that Peruvian-Japanese fusion taste.The Cuatro Uvas (£9) was a blend of Pisco, sake, the Elderflower based spirit St Germain, lime, red grapes and celery bitters. It slid down rather too easily and was a perfect summer’s drink.

The Chotto Bellini (£10) was a sparky citrus infused take on the Italian classic mixing up peach, yuzu sake and lime, Prosecco and grapefruit zest.

Sweet and crunchy Cassava chips and sweet potato chips (£3.25) came with yellow tomato salsa and guacamole;

and moreish Padron peppers (£4.50) were as good as the ones at Barrafina and helped soak up the alcohol.

We soon moved on to The Cloudy One! Nigori Sake (£20-180ml)

is unfiltered leaving the sake ‘cloudy’ and giving it a creamy texture and taste. It was perfect with our next courses.

Nikkei sashimi (£9.95)-Yellowtail, cherry tomatoes, jalapeño, coriander, yuzu soy. The soy/citrus dressing of the yuzu soy, the coriander and the hot peppers bring out the Nikkei character of this fragrant and spicy take on the Japanese classic.

Scallop tiradito (£7.95) Scallop sashimi, coriander, jalapeno, black salt, lemon, lime juice. A tiradito is similar to a ceviche but the cut of the fish is different and there are no onions. The finely sliced scallop zinged with the additional citrus, chilli, and coriander flavours in this beautifully presented dish.

Bacalao negro aji miso (£22) Black cod, yellow chilli miso was beautifully cooked with the flesh luminescent and flaking perfectly. The miso added spice and brought out the sweetness of the fish.

Tentaculos de Pulpo (£9.95) Octopus, yuzu, purple potato. Octopus is notoriously hard to cook without the flesh becoming tough however this was tender and tasty and the purple mash was a great accompaniment.

Cameron Tigre Nipon (£9.95) was a straightforward tiger prawn teriyaki with big juicy prawns and a sweet teriyaki sauce.

Ensalada Peruana (£3.25) was a refreshing mix of quinoa, spring onion and pomegranate seeds. It was perfect with the fish dishes.

Pisco Baba (£6.50) was a bit of a disappointment-the sponge needed more alcohol…

Fiona got through her Petit Fours (£7.50) before I could try one but I guess they were good! With dessert we drank some wonderful Daishichi Ume Plum Sake (£15 125 ml) made from luscious Nankou Plums delicately steeped in top quality, undiluted Kimoto Junmai Sake.

It feels completely appropriate to be able to eat Nikkei cuisine in the heart of Soho and the kitchen at Chotto Matte is delivering great food at prices that aren’t unreasonable for the quality. With it’s buzzy ground floor bar and pumping music upstairs it’s not the best place for a quiet night but I’m going to be recommending it to my (grown-up) kids.

Disclosure: The Hedonist was a guest of Chotto Matte