Scully: intrepid eating in St James’s

Sometimes it pays not to look at the menu of a restaurant you’re thinking of going to. I was nearly discouraged from visiting Scully by the vast list of unfamiliar dishes and ingredients. Did I really want to eat puffed beef tendons or Welsh mutton with black barley and bisbas? I wasn’t sure I did.

The location too isn’t one of my favourites. St James’s Market is a bleak corporate restaurant development, a curiously deserted space to have within metres of the heaving crowds and lurid tat of Leicester Square though I guess one should be grateful for that. And it is at least an conveniently central place to meet a friend from practically any part of London rather than having to schlep over to Hackney for once.

As it was a mere 5 minutes from a nearby wine tasting and open (hooray!) on a Monday lunchtime it seemed perverse not to give it a try, particularly given the chef Ramael Scully’s pedigree. (Born in Malaysia and brought up in Sydney he has a fascinating multi-cultural background and used to be head chef at Ottolenghi’s Nopi.)

The Hackneyscenti among you will relieved to know there are pickles - a lot of them - including a highly instagrammable display as you walk through the front door. They turn up too in the slightly scary first dish we order of vegetable acha (an African grain, doncha know) which is maybe a bit hard core for anyone other than pickle aficionados.

But then things start to hot up. The arepa, eggplant sambal and bergamot labneh might sound weird but is actually quite wonderful. A light puffy warm maize bread (from Columbia and Venezuela I discover from Wikipedia) dusted with grated lime and served with a blissfully sweet, spicy heap of aubergine and dreamy, creamy labneh. The bread was too good to share - we had to have two.

I’d hesitated about ordering the early season tomato and coconut salad with green strawberries - it seemed too early for both at the unseasonably cold end of March - but it was as bright and fresh as it was beautiful. A salad of Italian spring greens red miso and sunflower seeds dusted with gherkin powder (yes, really) was probably slightly better suited to being served as a side - it was quite a lot of greens to chomp through on their own but it was our choice to go veggie, wanting to eat relatively lightly at lunch. And forbidden (black) rice with vegetable XO was deep and delicious, the sort of comforting dish you want to be able to make yourself on a wet Tuesday night.

Desserts, I feel, need a bit of finessing. They really are quite austere and I say this as someone who doesn’t have a particularly sweet tooth. The coconut and parsnip sorbet was 'nice' - maybe that's damning it with faint praise - parsnip works surprisingly well in desserts but the matcha ice cream with malt cookie and miso while striking to look at was really quite unappetisingly grainy.

Other reasons to go - there’s an interesting wine list with a good selection by the glass. We drank a refreshingly light white Hungarian field blend (a wine made from different varieties of grapes which are grown and vinified together) from a producer called Tizenhat - and shared a glass of Beaujolais and a really lovely German Lemberger (red) from Weingut Roterfaden. As off-piste as the ingredients, I admit, but spot on with the food.

I would recommend sitting the bar to get a birds eye view of the kitchen although we were told it’s going to be used as a chefs’ table which is a bit of a pain. Sometimes you just want to go and eat without having to wade through/think about/pay for multiple courses. Maybe it will be available for walk-ins like us at lunchtime.

All this must sound a bit equivocal I realise. Yet Scully is serving genuinely innovative food of the kind - pickles aside - that isn’t being done anywhere else in London that I’m aware of. If some dishes were challenging the best were sublime and for small plates, the portions were unusually generous.

In a nutshell I’d say it’s not the sort of place to take your conservative Daily Mail-reading mother-in-law whereas it’s perfect for fellow foodies, adventurous veggies and regular visitors to London who want to try somewhere new. As for me I've got to get back for that arepa.

Scully is at 4 St. James's Market, London, SW1Y 4AH. Tel: (0)20 3911 6840

We paid about £35 each including 2 glasses of wine. They treated us to a couple of other glasses, a salad and a dessert. Didn’t ask them to. Didn’t explain who we were. Just a gesture during the opening period I suspect. Expect to pay about £40-50 + wine if you have main courses.

Why Sabor is one of the hottest tickets in town

“Eagerly awaited” is a well worn cliché but but aptly describes the opening of Nieves Barragan Mohacho and Jose Etura’s Sabor. Originally scheduled to launch last autumn it took a further 6 months to finally open its doors a year after they left their previous jobs.

Why the interest? Well. Barragan Mohacho was the much feted chef at Fino and then the Barrafina group of restaurants where Etura was general manager. The fact that the two get equal billing at Sabor, which is backed by the all-powerful Sethi family who also own Bubbledogs, Gymkhana and Lyles underlines their conviction that hospitality is as important as food when it comes to the long term success of a restaurant. (They’re right, of course)

They’ve got the location spot on too. It’s a prime site in a tiny alleyway off Regent Street called Heddon Street but once through the door you immediately feel you’re in Spain.

At the heart of the restaurant is the kitchen, surrounded by a long circular bar - on the other side a more modest bar which functions as a holding area but which has good food on offer too. DO NOT ON ANY ACCOUNT MISS the camarones (shrimp fritos and fried egg - a ridiculously good Spanish take on egg and chips.)

Barragan Mohacho, a small neat figure works swiftly and skilfully the other side of the counter putting the final touches to plates and occasionally venturing out to warmly greet a friend or previous regular.

It’s tough to decide what to order. I go for the queso fresco (fresh cheese) and black truffle brioche which has already become a bit of an icon dish despite the fact that no-one can make it look any good on instagram. It comes out showered with a cascade of grated truffles which seems absurdly lavish for £9.50. Frit Marinar is not, as I expect, a Spanish-style fritto misto but a hearty dish of seared cuttlefish with peppers, aubergines and other Mediterranean vegetables which would make a meal in itself.

On a second visit (fairly rapidly after the first) we demolish lardo, anchovies and picos (not quite as good as the anchovies at nearby Rambla to be honest but it’s the only fault I can find with the place), skate tempura - again an exemplary example of the frier’s art and the very last portion of the empanada de pulpo - a sensationally good octopus pie. Oh, and the croquetas, the acid test of a tapas bar, are just perfect. Light and airy on the inside with a perfect crisp shell. The prawn seems to be a permanent fixture with a regularly changing variation, piquillo peppers on the day we were there.

On neither occasion did I get round to the desserts though there’s high praise for the crema catalana and bomba de tres chocolates

The lightning speed of service means you’re better to order 2-3 dishes at a time or you’ll be in and out in 45 minutes flat - when you’d happily spend the whole afternoon or evening there which is not, of course, what they want. Anyway it makes it the perfect place for a pre- or post-theatre dinner - if you can get in. Expect queues as they take no reservations

The wine list which is naturally all Spanish is relatively short but thoughtfully chosen though it’s actually quite tempting to have a beer. They have Estrella’s 1906 Reserva Especial which is basically a posh lager though it comes in rather stylish Sabor-branded beer glasses. Obviously I’m not the only one to fancy that.

If you want to go with a party you’d be better off to book at the Asador upstairs although even this is relatively casual with big shared tables. I haven’t made it there yet but early reports are all positive. It has a wood fired oven and specialises in suckling pig and octopus so it’s maybe not the ideal place to go if you’re a veggie. But then where in Spain is?

In truth Sabor is the perfect place to eat on your own because it’s all about the bar and the theatre in the kitchen behind it. You should, in theory, be able to get away with a bill of under £40 if you don’t go mad but given you’ll probably feel bound to order what’s on your neighbour’s plate don’t count on that. (That fate befell me on my first visit with the chargrilled baby potatoes and sobrasada, a dish you should definitely order if you’re a fellow potato addict)

There are many good Spanish restaurants in London these days but none that feels quite so authentically Spanish. Weather excepted, of course ....

Sabor is at 35-37 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BR. Closed Sunday evenings after 6pm and all day Monday.

The return of Henry Harris at The Coach

I sometimes wonder if we value novelty too much. As an avid restaurant-goer the temptation is always to head for the the latest opening - but keeping pace with what’s new inevitably means you don’t spend as much time as you’d like in the places you actually enjoy.

So I was pretty happy this week to discover that the newly opened The Coach in Clerkenwell with Henry Harris at the helm is nothing but a reincarnation of the much-loved (by me at any rate) Racine. It’s a bit like going to a concert of someone you swooned over as a teenager where they sing all your favourite hits.

Who’s Henry Harris you might ask? Well he’s a bit of a chef’s chef. Having cooked with the legendary Simon Hopkinson at Hilaire and Bibendum he made his name at Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor then opened his own restaurant Racine, also in Knightsbridge, which he ran for 12 years until he closed it in 2015. He loves offal, loves French food, loves in fact all those things that are resolutely unfashionable. There’s no flirting with dairy-free and vegan on an HH menu.

So I ordered what I probably ordered last time I went to his restaurant: Bayonne ham with a sharp mustardy celeriac remoulade followed by an exemplary steak tartare and chips (I’m hard pushed to think who does a better one. Hand chopped obviously. Not over-seasoned. Not too ‘wet’ and definitely no mayo)

One of my companions went for calves brains with black butter which was a little full-on even for me although they were perfectly cooked (I did have a taste) and lamb chops with a merguez and cabbage faggot which was a truly inspired creation.

The other had a smoked trout and rocket salad which was possibly, being vaguely healthy, a little dull and rabbit with bacon in mustard sauce which was emphatically not. (You can find the recipe, should you feel moved to make it, on the Great British Chefs website)

We ordered rhubarb meringue because I was rather taken by the idea of the accompanying negroni syrup but it wasn’t quite as boozy as billed. We should probably, as I suspect Henry would have done, gone for the cheese (Harbourne Blue and a Swiss cheese called Challerhocker) to finish off the excellent bottle of 2014 Qupé Syrah we were drinking, a reliable choice from a thoroughly workmanlike, unflashy and reasonably priced (for London) wine list. The Bruno Sorg Pinot Blanc is a good pick if you want a glass of white.

This is a restaurant that does what it says on the tin. It’s a pub serving unusually good pub grub (the sausage rolls which are on the bar menu but which we had to try after seeing one wafting past are also top notch).

I suggest you go over the next couple of weeks if you can while you’re likely to find Harris in the kitchen until he moves on to his next project (he’s masterminding a number of restaurant makeovers in his new role as chef/director of Harcourt Inns). Although he won’t be permanently at the Coach he will be there from time to time. They may not do brains when he’s not.

The Coach is at 26-28 Ray Street, London EC1R 3DJ. Starters £6.50-£9.50. Mains £14-19. Harris is also behind the menu at Three Cranes on Garlick Hill in the City which specialises in grills and steaks.

Two London restaurants you’re going to love

It’s rare to find a restaurant that excites almost universal approval but then, like buses, two come along at once. Just before Christmas everyone was raving about the new outpost of Margot Henderson’s Rochelle Canteen at the ICA. This month there’s a general love-in for Parsons in Covent Garden

What do these have in common? They’re central which certainly helps - it’s nice not to have to trek over to Hackney for once, both have a good atmosphere and friendly service but above all they serve the kind of food we all - well, maybe I’m speaking for myself - want to eat.

Parsons

First of all, Parsons, which is freshest in my mind as I ate there this week. It’s been opened by the team behind 10 cases bistrot a vin opposite (also congenial) and occupies a small white tiled room that looks as if it could have been a fishmonger in a former life. In fact, I’m told, it was once a restaurant called Diana’s Diner) The slight downside to the size is that the tables are decidedly cramped which adds extra impetus to pacing yourself and ordering two dishes at a time..

The menu is based on fish - some of which are changing daily specials though I’m thankful that the potted shrimp croquettes (is this the best incarnation yet of croquetas?) and sea trout tartare with Bloody Mary jelly (equally clever) are both on the regular menu as is the lobster mash though that had proved so popular the night we were there that it had sold out.

Other highlights were the impressively tender octopus with pork fat potatoes (basically roasties. What’s not to like?) and some fat juicy grilled prawns off the specials board. The fish pie was sound if not stellar - maybe we were just feeling miffed about the mash.

The only dish that didn’t quite work, as Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard points out, was the crab pissaladière but I liked the idea so much I felt I had to give it a go. I agree it's not quite right. The base, while authentic, is a bit heavy, it's not crabby or oniony enough and there are some weird very un-Parsons like blobs of what tasted a bit like tarragon mayo all over it. Have a second portion of the croquettes instead.

As you’d expect from its parentage the wine list is impressive, particularly for such a small place though we in fact drank quite modestly (a carafe of Xarel-lo - the grape that’s used to make Cava). And then had to have two more glasses. We should have ordered a bottle.

As is the way with small plates you can run up quite a bill (in our case £108.56 for two) but you don’t have to eat as much as we did - though I warn you you probably will.

Rochelle Canteen at the ICA

At Rochelle Canteen’s it’s the pies that have attracted the attention - the rabbit and bacon pie in particular .Why is it so good? The nostalgia of the concept, the smoky flavour of the bacon which tastes as if it’s been hacked from a flitch that’s been hanging in an outhouse for weeks, the crisp, crunchy texture of the suet crust pastry and just the right proportion of filling to lid. It’s a madly generous portion for one

Margot Henderson cooks the sort of big-flavoured food I yearn for (her Turkish coffee cake from her wonderful cookery book You’re all Invited is one of my dessert staples).

We also tucked into a perfect plate of fresh radishes with smoked cods roe, fluffy salted hake croquettes with a punchy saffron mayonnaise, a simply marvellous Jerusalem artichoke, salsify and watercress salad (the perfect winter salad) and braised fennel sausages and polenta. No surprise then that we didn’t have room for a pud though we were sorely tempted by both the quince, meringue and cream and the pear and almond tart.

The white-painted room verges on the austere - very reminiscent of St John (same design team I wonder?). A lovely light for instagramming I confess I immediately thought (shame on me) followed swiftly by how perfectly it fits into the ICA.

The wine list oddly isn’t anything to write home about - or wasn’t when I went in November. Quite short, not much choice by the glass, just the house wine. They could expand that a bit given a lot of people will be lunching there midweek and might not want to sink a whole bottle. On the other hand you might. Go anyway …

I ate at Rochelle Canteen as a guest of the restaurant but guessing food would be about £30-35 a head if you weren't too greedy