SoLa, London
Summary at very beginning, this was a restaurant I liked, compared to many starred restaurants I disliked in London. This is a restaurant on Dean Street Soho. Many restaurants in this area are medium price range, yet a such high-end restaurant is unusual. Their website says “SOLA celebrates the modern cuisine of America’s Pacific West Coast, bringing a taste of California to Soho, via LA”; I was a bit surprised by the choice of theme. However, it turned out to be a good combination of European and Japanese in my opinion.
It was a relatively long menu, split into 4 Acts. I guessed they mean canapés, warm starter, main and then dessert.
Menu
All the canapés were very enjoyable. The chef introduced a lot of fruits, fresh herbs and even flowers in this Act, for example, the “Crab” and “Onion ring”. I could see the influence of Japanese, such as Tosazu in the “Crab”. The pea shoot on top of the “crab” was a very nice touch, neutralising the oceanic salty flavour with a slightly bitter and fresh taste. To the right, although the “onion ring” was a bit difficult to consume in one bite, the look was very appealing. The fresh pilsner and oxalis made the deep-fried food more fun and balanced.
Crab - pea, tosazu, jalapeno; Onion Ring - pilsner, anchovy, oxalis
The last small bite was called “baby back rib”, basically pork, also, the first warm food. This dish followed a similar idea by pairing the greasy pork with fruit and herb, apple and jasmine respectively. In fact, the base leaf was also edible; we were recommended to wrap everything together. Regarding presentation, it was a lovely bright yellow and green, contrasting the meat colour. The only flaw was the pork was slightly too salty for me.
Baby Back Rib - suckling pig, apple, jasmine
The Act 2 started with “O-toro”, a type of tuna. This was certainly a Japanese style dish, strong umami flavour, mixing with a bit of salty and sweet seasoning. The tuna was soaked in the soup, though uncooked. The topping vegetables were, as probably the main style of the chef, fresh and lightly bitter.
O-Toro - buckwheat ponzu, myoga, sansho
Then let’s jump to Act 3, where the three main dishes came, namely Turbot, Guineafowl and Duck. They were all exceptionally good, from less fat fish to rich duck. However, the duck was not as rich as one may expect from the last main. It was just a simple presentation, but it works. Reading the menu, the sauce is made from pear and kalamata (olive, I assume); frankly, I could not taste much the details, but the sauce certainly balanced out the rich duck flavour. Also, the black garlic paste brought an interesting strong kick.
Mieral duck - ercolini pear, kalamata, rainbow chard
In terms of the last Act 4, I was amazed by the chocolate. I usually, if one read many of my previous posts, hated desserts because many of them are too sweet to me, but this dessert was 70% dark chocolate with caviar and caramel. There was very light sugar taste from caramel, but it mostly emphasised the dark chocolate flavour. Surprisingly, the chocolate was not too heavy, thanks to the low temperature and the salty caviar.
Tuna yellow 70% chocolate - kumquat, caviar, salted caramel
This was a very surprising restaurant given I did not have many good experiences with high-end restaurants in London. The entire set focused on balance fresh and herb flavours with those so-called high-end ingredients, and I think it worked very well. No dish was too heavy for me, which was a big plus, because, I think, the chef was influenced by Japanese light seasoning style. Given my Asian background, I really liked this set.
🐼 Score: 4/5
