Shackfuyu - Creative Japanese Inspired Cooking in Soho

Name: Shackfuyu

Where: 14a Old Compton Street, London, W1D 4TJ, http://www.bonedaddies.com/shackfuyu/

Cost: The small dishes cost around £4 to £8, the larger options vary from £13.50 to £15, while dessert is priced at £6. The average food cost is around £30 to £35 per person.

About: A temporary restaurant, with a planned life span of twelve months, this latest outpost of Bone Daddies is at the Charing Cross Road end of Old Compton Street opened in February 2015, and due to close in February 2016.

With bare wood floors, walls of distressed brick or lime green, and a soundtrack of American hard rock, the restaurant serves up a range of Japanese cuisine inspired small eats, together with Japanese beers, sakes and a smattering of wines.  The aim is to change the menu every 6 weeks or so. There is a lively basement bar. The restaurant does not take reservations, but on the Saturday night we had dinner, there was fortunately no queue.

What We Ate:  We started with the yellowtail sashimi tostada with avocado shiso (£2.50 each) was made up of a crispy tortilla with crushed avocado and shiso herb (a Japanese herb which tastes like a cross between mint and basil and is also known as perilla), topped with a slice of yellowtail, a dot of Siriracha and a slice of jalapeño chilli. We found this underwhelming – the flavours did not quite come together and we both thought it was a tad expensive for what was being offered.

The other starter was the mackerel nanban-style (£7.80) is a dish I often serve at my Japanese and Nikkei Supper Club and while I enjoyed the tangy flavours of the nanban dressing, I would have liked a bit more chilli heat. And again we felt that at this price level we expected a bit more mackerel.

For main we had the whole sole roasted with shiso chimichurri (£15) which was the special of the night. This was excellent – perfectly cooked in the wood oven (a great inheritance by the former pizza venue Shackfuyu has taken over the premises from), with zingy and refreshing flavours from the shiso chimichurri, it was probably the best dish of the evening.

The other main was also great - USDA beef picanha, with kimchee butter (£14.50). Served with raw pickled onions, the beef was tender, well cooked and served medium rare just as ordered. I love a good Picanha (Brazil’s national cut of beef, synonymous to Churrasco or BBQ in the country where it is served simply encrusted in rock salt and grilled) and Shackfuyu was very well flavoured.

To accompany our main dishes, we shared a Mentaiko mac 'n cheese with bacon and 'cock scratchings' made of crushed deep fried chicken skin (£6.90).  Mentaiko is Japanese Pollack or cod roe, which is marinated in chillies so it becomes spicy and pinkish in colour. It is one of the main ingredients of Kyushu Island in Japan where my family comes from. Mentaiko is one of my favourite Japanese ingredients and I love it simply over white Japanese rice or in Mentaiko Spaghetti, it tastes amazing!

So of course that Shackfuyu’s Mentaiko mac ‘n chesse had to be ordered - but I found it slightly odd – I could hardly taste any Mentaiko in it, and the cock scratchings had such an overpowering flavour I could not taste anything else. This is definitely a combination of flavours that should be revisited by the restaurant.

A much better accompaniment was the beef hot stone rice (£8.30), served Korean bibimbap-style - in a hot stone bowl, with a raw egg yolk on top, and mixed at the table by our waiter. With sweetcorn, shiitake mushrooms, julienne carrots and kizami nori (shredded nori seaweed), this had a good amount of chilli and great flavours.

For dessert, we shared a portion of Kinako French toast with soft matcha ice cream (£6). A thick slice of bread soaked in custard then pan fried, this had a crisp coating of caramelised sugar with a dusting of Kinako (toasted soya bean powder) and a lovely, slightly astringent green tea ice cream.

What We Drank: Shackfuyu offers a range of beers, cocktails and wines. We started with a can of Niigata unfiltered pale ale (£4.80), and a bottle of Asahi Black (£4). After that, we moved on to Asahi beer at £4.80 per pint on draft.

Wines are available by the glass, carafe and bottle, with an exclusively New World choice of just three red and three white wines, starting at £18.50 per bottle for a white South African  Chenin Blanc and a red South African Cab Sauv. 

Likes: the special of the day, roasted whole sole with a shiso dressing was delicious, as was the USDA picanha beef, the bibimbap rice and the Kinako French toast with green tea ice cream. The staff were very friendly and seemed to understand the food and ingredients they were serving.

Dislikes: the tostadas were tiny and overpriced as was the nanban-style mackerel. I really wanted to like the Mentaiko Mac ‘n Cheese but the combination of flavours did not work for me.

Verdict: I enjoyed Shackfuyu’s creative use of Japanese ingredients for some of its dishes. Their food offerings go beyond the ubiquitous Japanese sushi and sashimi to show a number of Japanese ingredients not much known in the UK. Recommended.

The New Tasting Menu at Tamarind of Mayfair

Words and Photography by Matthew Brown and Luiz Hara

Name: Tamarind of Mayfair

Where: 20 Queen Street, London, W1J 5PR, http://www.tamarindrestaurant.com/

Cost: We visited Tamarind of Mayfair to try their new ‘Taste of Tamarind’ menu, available every day until 9:30pm. It’s a six-course set menu, priced at £65 per person, or £115 with a pairing that includes some exceptional wines. 

The restaurant has several other menus. The lunch set-menu is £21.50 for two courses, and £24.50 for three. Sunday Lunch is £32 per person, and a pre- or post- theatre 3-course menu is £35. The à la carte menu is pricier but not excessively so, though there are decadent options, such as a Lobster Masala (£39.50) and Tiger Prawn Kebabs (£34.50) available. 

About: This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Tamarind of Mayfair’s opening on Queen Street. It was the first fine-dining Indian restaurant anywhere in the world to win a Michelin star, and it’s now the flagship for an international group with venues from Kensington to California.

Situated on a quiet Mayfair street, there’s no doubt that this restaurant is still the jewel in the group’s crown. The gold-pillared underground dining room feels as though it’s in a great ocean liner.  It is an elegant restaurant overlooking a busy open plan kitchen offering impeccable service and great food.

What We Ate: Our meal began with a delicious Channa Chaat - spiced potato and chickpeas - served in a patty that had the shape and depth of colour of steak tartare, and just as indulgent. This was delicious - the chickpeas were soft, served with crispy fried gram flour for bite and a thick tamarind and sweetened yoghurt sauce for acidity and freshness. 

To follow we had the grilled scallop served with smoked peppers and spiced tomato chutney, which was not as successful (although any dish following that marvellous Channa Chaat would be at a disadvantage). The scallop flesh was soft, and the chutney well-spiced, but the tomato flavour was overwhelming in our opinion - the dish lacked the complexity and freshness of the Channa Chaat.

Tandoor-grilled baby chicken breast was better, with charcoal-smoked crispy skin and butter-soft flesh, served with fenugreek leaves wrapped in vermicelli and a spiced tomato purêe.

Up to this point the portions had been small, and a rich but tiny tamarind and date sorbet did little to assuage our hunger. The fourth course was however more substantial, and very well made - lamb chops served with spiced spinach, a creamy makhni daal, pulao rice and naan bread. The daal was dark and creamy, the spinach rich but light and the lamb chop was an excellent choice of meat.

For dessert, we had carrot fudge served with white raisins and melon seeds. This was soft and buttery, and served with a rich, nutty pistachio kulfi.

Tamarind clearly pays as much attention to its desserts as it does its savouries, and even the petit fours - salted caramel truffles and mint leaves coated in white chocolate, could have been a dessert in their own right. They were delicious.

What We Drank: With the sublime Channa Chaat was paired with an equally vibrant wine - a Riesling Trimbach 2007, from Cuvée Frederic Emile in Alsace, with apricot flavours and plenty of minerality, this was more than a match for the rich tamarind sauce.

With the scallop came a delicious Chablis Premier Cru Les Lys 2013, with fine citrus fruit and melon notes.

With the tandoori chicken came a chardonnay from Italy, the Cevaro della Sala 2012, with exotic tropical fruit flavours to match the weight of the dish.

To accompany the lamb, we had a glass of Dom Chante Cigale 2011 from Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Another respected vineyard on a flight of strong European wines, this complex wine made of several varietals had soft tannins, berry fruit flavours and great length.

Our dessert wine was an Andrew Quady Orange Blossom Muscat from California – sweet enough not to be overwhelmed by the dessert but with enough acidity to give it some grip. 

Likes: The tasting menu is well balanced and varied in character. The Channa Chaat warrants a visit to Tamarind of Mayfair on its own right. It can be hard to partner Indian food with wine, but Tamarind’s sommelier has chosen some excellent wines that are also a reason to visit in themselves.

Dislikes: The scallop dish was the weakest link in our opinion, and besides I could have done with a little more carb in the first three smaller starters.

Verdict:  With vibrant and well-balanced flavours, Tamarind’s tasting menu is an excellent option for those wanting to experience Michelin-starred Indian cooking in the heart of London's Mayfair. Highly recommended.

A Return Visit to L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Words & Photography by Matthew Brown and Luiz Hara

Name: L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Where: 13-15 West Street, London WC2H 9NE, United Kingdom,
http://www.joelrobuchon.co.uk/

Cost: We sampled dishes from several of the restaurant’s menus. A La Carte starters range from £17 to £49. Main courses are more consistent, and vary from £34-49, while desserts are all £11. The restaurant also offers 5- and 8-course tasting menus, priced at £95 and £129, and each can be extended to include either a “Sommelier’s Choice” or a “French” wine pairing. As well as set lunch and pre-theatre menus (2 courses for £31, 4 for £41) there’s an additional menu of small tasting dishes (from £16-29) that features some of the restaurant’s most innovative items.

The wine list is extensive, and though the top bottles are stratospheric, there is a good choice of bottles under £40. There is an extensive spirits selection, and a strong cocktail list (£11-15) that is also available in the restaurant’s biggest secret, its cosy penthouse bar.

About: L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is the London outpost of a superstar chef with restaurants all over the world, from Bangkok to Bordeaux and Las Vegas to Tokyo. Robuchon was named ‘Chef of the Century’ in 1989 and his ingredient-led cuisine shows great attention to detail. The London restaurant is led by Head Chef Xavier Boyer who has worked with Robuchon for 13 years, and shares his determination to reinvent classic French cooking.

Open plan kitchen by Chef's Table at L'Atelier Joel Robuchon

This restaurant opened in 2006, in a striking black townhouse on Covent Garden’s West Street. Inside, the emphasis is on glamour. The downstairs dining room offers bar seating around a sleek open kitchen.  As if this didn’t provide enough drama, there’s also a vertical garden on the back wall and irresistibly good lighting throughout. The second floor dining room is larger and has a more conventional arrangement of tables, but the drama returns in the third floor bar which features a roof terrace, a modernist fireplace and deep red leather armchairs.

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon is one of my favourite ‘splurge’ restaurants in London, I wrote about it in The London Foodie previously, see earlier review here.

What We Ate: We began with an amuse bouche of foie gras, port wine and parmesan foam that was rich and well-executed and set the tone for the dishes that followed, all of which used indulgent ingredients with impressive finesse.

For our first course, we had a well-presented dish of fresh crabmeat, served in crisp ravioli of pressed turnip with a sweet and sour sauce.

It was followed by poached egg with Comte cheese cream, from the tasting ‘Découverte’ menu. Served on a rich black truffle coulis, the egg was poached to creamy perfection.

Next, we had poached turbot in a Champagne sauce, from the Gout de France menu, served with cockles, clams and shiitake mushrooms and a superb spiced Champagne foam.

For the main course, we had wagyu beef. The quality of the marbled wagyu was excellent - crispy on the outside and rare but firm inside.

We enjoyed it with soy spinach and Robuchon's famously buttery pomme purée (see earlier review here).

Dessert was a cylinder of crystalised sugar that contained layers of milk chocolate mousse, lemon cream and ginger ice cream. The sugar cylinder offered much more than presentation - along with the caramelized hazelnuts it gave a contrasting crunch to the soft layers inside.

What We Drank: Veuve Clicquot is the restaurant’s house champagne, always a good sign, and our meal began with those familiar, fizzy brioche notes.

Our first pairing was a 2013 Godeval Godello Valdeorras from Spain. High in acidity, its crisp lemon notes were a great accompaniment to the crabmeat and pressed radish.

The next glass, like the truffle dish it accompanied, was more powerful. A 2012 Riesling from the famous Schloss Johannisberg,  was light in body but with high enough minerality to stand up to the unctuous truffle.

Our third white was a 2011 Terlan Pinot Bianco ‘Vorberg’. Aged in oak casks, it had a delicious weight of apricot fruit flavours and great length.

The red wine was a 2009 Bodegas Resalte from Ribera del Duero. With  blackberry and spice notes, it was an excellent partner for the wagyu beef. 

With dessert we had a 2011 Luigi Bosca ‘Granos Nobles’ Gewürztraminer, a rich, sweet wine from Argentina, with a plenty of acidity to keep it from being cloying.

We ended the evening with two cocktails in the third floor bar and lounge. The first, a Smoked Brooklyn, a variation on a Manhattan, was a more aromatic version of that classic drink. The second, featuring my favourite Japanese citrus fruit, was the Yuzu Pisco - fresh, pretty and delicious.

Likes: the crabmeat ravioli were excellent but Robuchon's buttery pomme purée is what got me to return!

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon offers a truly unique experience – their Japanese inspired French cooking is light yet elegant and full of flavour. Their wine selection is second to none, and the ambience is glamorous, dark and soothing. Highly recommended.