The Best Tasting Menus To Try In London
Coal Rooms, Peckham
Within the former Peckham Rye train station ticket office, this much-hyped restaurant is perfect for a reunion dinner. A refined yet relaxed bar, restaurant and café, Coal Rooms offers a gutsy menu of meat and fish cooked over a charcoal grill and oven. Rather than ease slowly back into reopening their restaurant, Coal Rooms has decided to do it in style. The restaurant is now open Thursday to Saturday evenings with a special five-course tasting menu, created by head chef Adrian Hernandez Farina (most recently at Temper and Breddos Tacos) and Liam Walker (formerly at The Ritz). Expect to sample dishes such as fig leaf with sea bass tartare, fig oil, pickled shallots and jalapeno granita; ember-roasted beetroot with ajo blanco foam, hazelnut oil, black garlic and nasturtium; and langoustine lollipop with lobster mayo.
11a Station Way, Peckham, SE15 4RX
Visit CoalRoomsPeckham.com
Ormer, Mayfair
Having secured himself a place in this year’s Great British Menu final, Ormer head chef Kerth Gumbs has launched an exclusive tasting menu which features all the dishes he’s cooked on the hit cooking show. His six-course menu, inspired by children’s literature, features dishes such as the ‘Three Little Pigs’, featuring honey glazed pork loin and cheeks, with bacon, celeriac lasagne, artichokes and truffle; ‘Commotion in the Ocean’, lobster with coconut, cauliflower and cockles; and ‘The Folk of the Faraway Tree’ – textures of blackberry, chocolate, sea buckthorn and buckwheat.
7-12 Half Moon Street, Mayfair, W1J 7BH; from 17th September, Thursdays to Saturdays
Visit Flemings-Mayfair.com
Hot Stone, Islington
Japanese steak and sushi bar Hot Stone is offering guests on an authentic Japanese feast with its new omakase menu. Served exclusively on Monday evenings, the menu will change every week and is made up of 14 courses, each pairing the freshest seafood, fish and Japanese wagyu beef with seasonal ingredients. With just three sittings each evening, and with only four seats available, guests will enjoy 90 minutes of kobachi small plates, sushi, sashimi and desserts. Thanks to the bijou restaurant space, every seat is at the chef’s table with a bird’s eye view of the theatre behind the pass and specialist sushi skills on show. Expect to sample hand-dived scallops with truffle ponzu sauce; seared butterfish sashimi in green jalapeno sauce; and quail’s egg with salmon ikura and wasabi, freshly grated for diners at the counter.
9 Chapel Market, Angel, N1 9EZ
Visit HotStoneLondon.com
Ikoyi, St James’s
Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale brought their highly acclaimed restaurant Ikoyi back to life in July. Showcasing west African flavours, the new menu includes fresh dishes that sit alongside established restaurant favourites. Expect to sample the likes of fried half-chicken with hot sauce and nasu eggplant; and Cornish crab and daikon salad with malted barley brioche and crab butter. As well as the a la carte, for £80, guests can opt for the eight-course blind tasting menu, based around British micro-seasonality. As well as following all guidelines on social distancing and handwashing, Ikoyi is providing guests with a mask, which they will be asked to wear when moving around the restaurant. Ikoyi’s initial opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 5:30pm.
1 St James’s Market, St James’s, SW1Y 4AH
Visit IkoyiLondon.com
Salon, Brixton
Salon started life as a pop-up above a cheese shop. Today, clever and creative cooking abounds at Nicholas Balfe’s shabby-chic eatery. In the evenings, the kitchen serves an ever-evolving set menu of four or seven courses – like a tasting menu, but without the fuss and pomp. Expect seasonal, predominantly plant-based dishes arranged in offbeat ways, with contrasting flavours and textures at the heart of every plate: think Veal agnolotti with roast chicken and peas followed by Brixham cod with, courgette and basil. In 2017 the team opened the Wine Store next door, selling 130 lines of low-intervention, organic and biodynamic wine from across the world.
Market Row, Brixton, SW9 8LD
Visit SalonBrixton.co.uk
Lyle’s, Shoreditch
James Lowe and John Ogier – who’ve recently opened Borough Market wine bar and bakery Flor, and launched New York-style pizzeria ASAP Pizza during lockdown – have announced the reopening plans for their restaurants. This includes Michelin-starred Lyle’s, the modern British restaurant based in Shoreditch. Diners will be welcomed back to the restaurant, which was voted 33rd in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019, for their signature daily changing tasting menus on Wednesday-Saturday evenings. The menu always includes vegetarian, vegan and pescatarian options made using the very best summer produce – expect to sample the likes of mussel and berkswell flatbread, followed by Dexter rib, beans and anchovies; and summer pudding and St Jude ice-cream.
Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, Shoreditch, E1 6JJ
Visit LylesLondon.com
Ba at Mei Mei, Borough Market
New concept Bā at Mei Mei recently opened for a twice-weekly evening dining experience. The 16-seat dinner is a hybrid of supper club and chef's table experience for guests who purchase tickets in advance. Bā is Chinese for the lucky number eight, which explains the eight-piece set tasting menu that taps into the style of cooking that won chef-owner Elizabeth Haigh a Michelin star while she was head chef at Pidgin. Now, beneath a heated awning around Mei Mei’s Borough Market stall, she’ll be at the helm as guests explore her repertoire of Singaporean influences and passion for wood-fire cooking. Dishes include heritage tomatoes with Hainanese chicken broth vinaigrette, spring onion oil, raw onion and herbs; and aged Dexter beef rib with toasted rice, roasted pepper and jus served with nasi kerabu blue rice.
Southwark Street, Borough Market, SE1 1TL
Visit MeiMei.UK
Gymkhana, Mayfair
Gymkhana – the Mayfair restaurant inspired by the elite clubs of India where members of high society socialise, eat, drink, and play sport – has reopened to the public for the second time this year, following a major refurb at the start of 2020. Guests can expect tasting menus filled with many of the restaurant’s much-missed signature dishes, including kid goat methi keema; gol guppas; guinea fowl pepper fry; gilafi quail seekh kebab; and wild muntjac biryani with pomegranate and mint raita. Guests will also be able to enjoy Gymkhana’s club cocktails, reminiscent of those served in the old clubs of India in the 1930s, with key Indian ingredients at their base. The restaurant’s popular gin & tonic list will also be available.
42 Albemarle Street, Mayfair, W1S 4JH
Visit GymkhanaLondon.com
Angelina, Dalston
Dalston spot Angelina offers diners an exploration of Japanese and Italian cuisines, cultures and influences via a multicultural mash-up of ingredients and techniques. During lockdown, the restaurant gave the Hackney community over 30,000 free meals, designed a sell-out seven-course takeaway menu and created a retail offering that provided hard-to-come-by ingredients to customers. Now, the restaurant has reopened, serving a more extensive menu to fewer guests. A refreshed ten-course menu will include some of Angelina’s most popular dishes, like chicken karaage and unagi risotto alongside new food inspirations like tomato, seaweed and anchovy; and lardo with moromi (sake) and turbot. To complement dinner, wine pairings will be available to order.
56 Dalston Lane, Dalston, E8 3AH
Visit Angelina.London
Le Gavroche, Mayfair
Michel Roux Jr has reopened Le Gavroche in Mayfair. One for special occasions, the two-Michelin-starred restaurant has two tasting menus on offer, including an eight-course menu available for lunch or dinner (with or without matched wines) and a four-course tasting menu in the evenings. Of the ‘menu exceptionelle’, guests can expect to try stonebass ceviche with passionfruit, lime and coconut dressing; fregola with crispy chicken neck and skin, broad beans and truffle; and strawberry and white chocolate éclair with vanilla and lime sorbet. Le Gavroche also continues to offer its well-loved set price lunch menu during the week.
43 Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, W1K 7QR
Visit Le-Gavroche.com
Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, Mayfair
Distinguished French chef Hélène Darroze reopened her pretty-in-pink two-Michelin-starred restaurant at The Connaught just in time to celebrate Bastille Day in July. With the introduction of a new ‘Taste of Summer’ menu, Hélène is focusing on celebrating the provenance of British ingredients where possible, and the importance of sourcing and supporting local suppliers. Dishes include hand-dived XXL scallop from Davy Price in Scotland, roasted with tandoori spices; ajo blanco velouté of fresh almonds and garlic, served with Cornish mackerel; and Highland wagyu beef barbequed and served with a jus infused with salted anchovies from Cantabria. There will also be a summer sommelier list with specially chosen wines. As well as ensuring the restaurant opens under strict safely guidelines, the restaurant also offers three private dining spaces for more intimate celebrations; from the chef’s table in the kitchen to the exclusive table for two in the Armagnac Room.
Carlos Place, Mayfair, W1K 2AL
Visit The-Connaught.co.uk
Perilla, Newington Green
Perilla in Newington Green is a beautiful yet relaxed restaurant serving a modern European menu using humble ingredients of the highest quality. The team’s evening menu changes daily and with the seasons, but both the a la carte and tasting menu is offered with alternative vegetarian and pescatarian choices. Expect to sample the likes of seaweed doughnut; leek and potato rarebit; and homemade sourdough served with smoked langoustine taramasalata and burnt onion hummus.
1-3 Green Lanes, Newington Green, N16 9BS
Visit PerillaDining.co.uk
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