Sollip

It’s all about the food at Sollip – a ‘serious and grown-up dining experience’ imagined by the husband-and-wife team of Woongchul Park and Bomee Ki. The restaurant itself is sightly spartan and emphatically serene with lots of authentic detailing (Korean ceramics, woodwork, exquisite floral arrangements) – the perfect backdrop to the owners’ creative vision, which fuses Korean techniques and ingredients (including the rare edible marine algae known as gamtae) with ideas from contemporary British and European cuisine.  

First-timers should get their initiation from the four-course lunch menu, which includes standout offerings such as unbelievably moreish so-tap (a cast-iron pot of rice topped with Jerusalem artichoke jangajji) quickly followed by thin slices of BBQ wagyu beef and a side order of slow-cooked meat, plus perfect accompaniments including baechu (napa cabbage) purée and beautifully seasoned spinach.

Trade-up to the full eight-dish dinner menu and you can expect a plethora of complex and commanding flavours ranging from the signature daikon tarte tatin embellished with kimchi, toasted barley, roasted potato and burnt hay to nurungji (Korean scorched rice) with celeriac and mung bean jelly. Other ideas such as monkfish with red cabbage, onion and passion fruit belie their European lineage, likewise a sweet course of black pain perdu with ice cream, burnt vanilla and pecan. Service is thoughtful and attentive throughout.

The wine list, supplied by Keeling Andrew & Co (of Noble Rot), is stuffed with dream bottles at big-ticket prices, with precious little below £100. However, it's also worth indulging in the delights of the exceptional tea service, with its choice of heady infusions involving the likes of buckwheat, plum blossom, lotus leaf and cacao husk. Alternatively, try the chestnut and honey latte, coffee kombucha or a shot of pine liqueur (Sollip is Korean for pine needle).