An outfit called “Superbrands South Africa” is behind this would-be glamorous newcomer, recently arrived – with little fanfare – in what’s effectively a newly-created space, discreetly located between Savile Row and Regent Street.
Its wicked wheeze is to offer a menu of “Asian tapas”, which you might suppose to mean: “Chinese dim sum, wok and barbeque; Japanese robata grills and sushi”. In Cape Town – according to the parent establishment’s website – that is what it means. You might have thought that such a formula offered quite enough variety for anyone, but the backers seem to have thought it insufficiently distinctive for the crowded London market. So they’ve grafted on some tandoori dishes too. The result is a menu, some 200 dishes strong, which verges on being plain baffling.
You’re probably thinking: don’t be too hard on them – surely it’s just a fun joint, where you can spend an evening happily exploring implausible combinations, have a bit of a giggle, and still emerge having spent £75 or so for two.
If only. If you could sensibly escape at those sorts of prices, everything would be fine. But you could spend £75 a head here without effort. Even if the individual dishes are well-realised (which they are), we personally would much prefer to eat one cuisine at a time, at the Amayas, Zumas or Nobus of the world.
OK, you do get quite sexy, school-of-Hakkasan décor, but we still can’t see the whole package really clicking with the loungey Mayfair market at whom these low-lit three-floor premises are presumably aimed. We’re not saying this is an operation without promise. It does seem, however, that it would benefit greatly from having its ambitions scaled back a notch. And being cheaper too.
