QUINTESSENTIALLY | Insider | Food & Drink

Though very much a foodie city, Indian cuisine remains somewhat overlooked in Hong Kong – but not anymore. Ista, which comes from the Sanskrit word meaning rest or comfort, is a subtle, discrete and warm restaurant located at the top of Lan Kwai Fong which is redefining the traditional Indian dining experience in the city.

Warm, inviting and decorated with toasty browns and rich creams, latticed black dividers and a sinuous metallic copper bar, Ista is a grown-up Bollywood starlet. Shaking off preconceptions of what an Indian restaurant should be, Ista eschews the ubiquitous Indian artworks, furniture and traditional music for contemporary tunes and sparkling wine glasses, custom-designed leather chairs and a (currently) very secret roof terrace.

The food too is refreshingly offered in the form of Indian tapas – small portions, beautifully presented – and the haute-cuisine-meets-street-food concept works well. Dahi poori, a traditional Indian snack food, is given a makeover and arrives as a delightful miniature crispy puff filled with homemade sweet/sour tamarind sauce and yoghurt and topped with crispy sev.

A light and zingy chickpea salad dressed with lemon juice was a refreshing accompaniment to chamman seekh kebab, minced cottage cheese mixed with bell peppers. Packing quite a punch was the mint chutney, pickle and tangy mango and tamarind chutneys – a world away from the sickly sweet processed stuff served in lesser restaurants. In fact, Ista is conspicuously health conscious. No slicks of greasy red oil here – everything is light and fresh, allowing the flavours to manifest themselves where they might normally be suffocated.

Tandoor specialties include galafi seekh kebab and salmon tikka. The lack of traditional “sizzling” platters further distances the restaurant from a traditional Indian joint – you won’t leave with the lingering smell of everyone else’s dinner.
Featuring some unusual items, including Wagyu beef, the menu draws inspirations from some of India’s most popular regional favourites. You’ll find seekh kebabs alongside a mild and creamy madras chicken curry, though the show stealer was the keema. A rich, minced lamb curry, it’s the perfect comfort food dish in winter and was devoured with a good slice of naan.

The floor-to-ceiling window that covers one of the walls floods the room with light during the day making Ista ideal for business lunches. But in the evening, the lights go down, and the room feels much more intimate.

Though not yet open, the terrace on the third floor is quite the hidden gem. With bright orange pillows, big, fat crystal ashtrays and canopied seating areas, it’s going to be a gorgeous city oasis to relax after work with a glass of wine and a delectable selection of Indian tapas.

Ista, 2/F Onfem Tower, 29 Wyndham Street, Hong Kong – +852 2530 5353

When the man behind the success of Whisky Mist, Mahiki and the Punchbowl decides to open a nightclub, you’d be a fool not to take notice. PUBLIC is the brainchild of Guy Pelly and the club proves to be every bit as flamboyant as its owner.

Boasting fancy dress, a photo booth and funfair merry-go-round horses, PUBLIC definitely provides more than your average Chelsea club. Upon my arrival I got stuck into the action, the result being a less than flattering collection of photos of me and my friends sporting beards and Santa hats. As the night rolled on, my outfit choices got more and more bizarre and by the end there were more than a few revellers wearing head to toe fancy dress.

Set back from the street on Lots Road in an old antiques warehouse, PUBLIC brings an East London edge to the heart of Chelsea. Exposed brick walls and a stunning copper bar make it stand out from its rivals and attract a more varied clientele than the usual Sloane rangers. It also has a large smoking area, allowing social smokers to gather in the relative privacy of a courtyard, instead of on the street.

Pelly’s greatest triumph is to create a VIP section that doesn’t separate the privileged few from the party. I managed to blag my way past the bouncers as a ‘member of the press’ and found myself so comfortable that I resisted the lure of the dance floor for an unprecedented amount of time – at least five minutes. The VIP section is nicknamed ‘the sweetshop’ and is designed as thus, with tins of boiled sweets adorning the walls. Purposefully raised above the dance floor, the sweet shop provides a place where you can both see and be seen.  Table service added to my sense of smugness and I left feeling refreshed and happy, with a great collection of photos to remind me of the night.

PUBLIC is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10pm to 3am.

533 Kings Road, London SW10 www.public.uk.com

Clerkenwell has an eclectic and acclaimed selection of restaurants and bars, but what it lacked was a combination of steakhouse, seafood and cocktail bar. Now, the new Jonathan Downey venue Redhook, opening on the site of the unsuccessful brasserie St Germain has combined all three, to highly enjoyable effect. Whether you want to come in here for one of the impressive range of cocktails or a more substantial meal, you know that you’re going to be treated to an impressive selection of great cooking and superb, genuinely friendly service.

Things kick off with an array of champagne cocktails, of which the finely honed bellini and the ever-enjoyable Black Velvet are two of the highlights. It’s a pleasure to be able to have these with the reasonably priced range of oysters, which come either as natural with shallot vinegar or grilled with Parmesan – the latter is a suitably decadent treat.

This then leads into an impressive selection of seafood served in numerous different ways. If you like your scallops roasted you can have them with pork belly, or if you prefer them seared they come triumphantly festooned with chorizo and red pepper. If you’re more into king prawns, then they can be warm grilled, tea-smoked (intriguing) or flame-grilled with chilli. If lobster is what floats your diving boat, then have it steamed, broiled or as a thermidor, in a variety of different sizes. For the indecisive, this could be a nightmare; for the rest of us, it’s a relief.

If anything, the comparatively restrained choice of steaks is almost a relief as it doesn’t force you to go through such a tortuous decision. Rib-eye is the traditionalist’s choice, a NY striploin an option for the connoisseur, and a 500g T-bone or a rib of beef for 2 to share will ensure that every carnivore red in tooth and claw is sated. Desserts are appropriately gooey – a knickerbocker glory with chocolate brownie pieces is one of the best I’ve ever had. The copious wine list offers a decent selection by the wine and carafe, and the more than helpful staff are happy to give friendly advice on what the right match for your meal is.

Redhook isn’t trying to offer a haute cuisine experience, but a fun, unpretentious place to come with your friends, on a relaxed date or just a chance to have some delicious food in pleasant surroundings. To this end, it’s a great success.

89 Turnmill Street, London EC1. www.redhooklondon.co.uk

What exactly is ‘a wine school’? It all sounds faintly off-putting, combining visions of the classroom and teaching with something altogether more Bacchanalian. Yet the truth is that people today want to know more about wine, both in general and particular varieties, and there can be few more congenial opportunities to do so than to attend one of the Hotel Du Vin group’s famous ‘Ecole du Vin’ residential stays, which offers a brief but immersive insight into a variety of wines.

I recently braved some of the worst snow and ice that Britain’s seen in decades to head down to the splendid environs of the Hotel du Vin in Poole to take part in a weekend specialising in Austrian wines, run by Master of Wine Lance Foyster and the Hotel du Vin group’s director of wine, Ronan Sayburn. Austrian wine has had something of a bad press of late after 1985’s glycol scandal, which saw much of the country’s wine contaminated with a toxic substance to make the taste sweeter, but has risen in esteem to be regarded as some of Europe’s finest.

As a comparative novice to the many complexities of Austrian grapes and cuisine, an opening dinner on the first night proved a valuable learning curve. Fine, rich white Gruner Veltliners (perhaps the country’s most famous wine) and full-flavoured red Pinot Noirs were a more than fitting accompaniment to a bespoke menu of Austrian cuisine, including the unexpected but welcome appearance of a Werner schnitzel.

The following morning saw Lance and Ronan lead a tutored tasting of a dozen different wines, including everything from crisp, dry Rieslings to surprisingly full-flavoured dessert wines, offering expert commentary on each and every one, as well as a number of surprisingly piquant facts about Austrian wine, such as some of the most popular wines being very young – no older than 2 or 3 years. A much-needed afternoon rest was followed by another lavish dinner, where such unusual dishes as trout and perch were matched with what seemed like half the country’s export.

Whether you’re an enthusiastic amateur or a oenophile looking to develop more specialist knowledge about a niche area of wine, the group’s Ecole du Vin initiative has something to offer everyone. Forthcoming events in 2011 include a Rhone Valley Wine School in Harrogate in March and a New World event in Edinburgh in April. Based on previous experience, both promise to be fairly unmissable.

Further details can be found at www.hotelduvin.com

The late, unlamented Cactus Blue stood on the Fulham Road as a testament to rugby shirt-wearing, blaring Hooray Henrys and Henriettas, knocking back mediocre cocktails and chewy overcooked burgers with moneyed aplomb. If it was an unimpressive institution, it nevertheless occupied a prime piece of Kensington real estate, and the opportunity for a proper, grown-up restaurant to open here was a tempting one.

Now, in the shape of the prosaically but accurately named Eighty-Six, such a restaurant exists. The first thing that grabs you when you walk in is the impressive room, designed by LSM (who were also responsible for Galvin La Chapelle’s mix of classicism and modernity). In its mixture of baroque and faintly rococo decor, classically English cuisine and temptingly decadent downstairs cocktail bar, it’s clearly designed to be a destination spot for the well-heeled gourmands of the area, but the quality of the setting and surroundings are sufficiently upmarket and alluring to attract punters from considerably further than SW postcodes.

The food is overseen by Mark Broadbent, ex-head chef of Bluebird, and it’s a refreshing mixture of English traditionalism with continental class. Starters range from Irish smoked eel with Cheltenham (!) beetroot jelly, or the slightly more exotic burrata di puglia mozzarella cheese with vine tomatoes and crostini. Main courses are designed to satisfy carnivores; Tournedos Rossini combines rib eye steak and foie gras to artery-hardening but enormously satisfying effect, and black faced lamb hot pot, helpfully with postcode provided as proof of provenance, strikes a fine and effective balance between haute cuisine and the pleasingly traditional. Puddings are of the old school (treacle tart, chocolate mousse etc) but none the worse for that.

A well-chosen wine list features everything from a more than drinkable 2010 South African Chenin Blanc as the house selection to some more serious options, such as a range of 1986 vintages that include Chateau Palmer and Chateau Mouton Rotschild, which are sensibly priced for those with deep pockets and a keen appreciation of fine wine. A pre or post-dinner cocktail is a splendid idea as well, with a particularly vibrant ‘winter warmer’ proving ample relief on a cold November night.

It’s early days of course, but all the odds point to Eighty-Six remaining a grand success. Let’s hope that the Cactus Blue clientele don’t attempt to return, as they, alone, are likely to be disappointed. The rest of us have plenty to celebrate.

86 Fulham Road, SW3. www.86restaurant.co.uk

Steak, steak, glorious steak. There can be few pleasures in life more satisfying than devouring a well cooked and beautifully presented beast, one nobly sacrificed for the greater good of carnivores’ delight. There have been quite a few steakhouses opened in London over the past few years, as restaurateurs finally realise that New York-style establishments have some purchase over here, but Hawksmoor in Commercial Street became near-legendary for three things very quickly, namely its fine meat, triple-cooked chips and cocktail list.

Now, much to the delight of bloggers, punters and critics alike, the team have opened a second branch in Covent Garden, on a far larger scale. I must confess to wondering whether it would lose something in translation to the West End, but a recent visit proved a highly impressive experience from beginning to end. Located in the former Watney Combe brewery, it features a speakeasy-styled bar in its basement that is more than comparable with Hix, offering a challengingly eclectic selection of cocktails that include such delights as a near-lethal cider brandy julep and an altogether more approachable Hawksmoor fizz, which acts as a perfect aperitif for the evening’s main event.

The first thing to say about the room here, which is going to be much-heralded over the next year, is that it’s serious. The guests here are serious (apart from the out of place group of jokers on a nearby table), the décor is serious, the staff are serious, and, above all, the steaks are very, very serious. Chalk boards show which vast sharing cuts of steak are currently available – a kilo of Porterhouse or Chateaubriand float your boat? – or alternatively go for one of the ‘normal’ options which include familiar, but brilliantly cooked, standbys of fillet, ribeye and on-the-bone sirloin. The latter weighs in at a significant 600g, making it a manly option.

The glamorous blonde companion had the fillet with a half of lobster, along with triple-cooked chips in beef dripping and beautifully silky, rich béarnaise. Against all odds, she maintained her charming composure in the face of such apparent excess, and even managed a half-dozen oysters to start, followed by a wonderfully decadent chocolate dessert. Your correspondent found himself all but defeated, but rallied for a delightful blackcurrant sorbet that served as a fine palate cleanser. A well-chosen bottle of fine Bordeaux helped it all down easily.

Hawksmoor will be an enormous success, there’s no doubt about that. It’s got the right kind of feel for Covent Garden, offering visitors a real alternative to the glut of chain restaurants festooning the streets like so much stale confetti, and everything about it is of a high standard. Just don’t go in feeling anything other than ravenous.

11 Langley St, London WC2 www.thehawksmoor.co.uk

If London’s outstanding restaurants have one deficiency, it’s that the quality of seafood that you get in many of the top places in town isn’t as stunning as it could be. Not that such delights as black cod at Nobu or lobster ravioli at Gordon Ramsay aren’t legendary, but there’s a slight sense when you go to many of the capital’s venues that you’d be better off with the more traditional pleasures of beast and field, rather than the more complex joys of the river and sea. Compared to, say, Paris or Venice, this can be a mildly frustrating experience.

It’s therefore a particular pleasure when visiting Knightsbridge’s One-O-One restaurant to realise that the quite outstanding quality of both the food and its presentation means that a really special fish-oriented restaurant can thrive here. A vast amount of the credit for this has to go to the innovative chef Pascal Proyart, who has been behind the stove for the past decade. Originally hailing from Brittany, Pascal’s particular skill is to avoid modishness and pointless ephemera in favour of high-class ingredients, beautifully cooked, and served in an accessible yet exciting style.

On a recent visit, my ever-glamorous blonde companion and I started with a beautifully considered dish of oysters, served conventionally with shallot vinegar, more daringly with yuzu sorbet and vodka and most compellingly as soya-injected baked tempura. The flavour was astonishingly fresh and vivid, without any of the slightly salty fishiness that oysters can sometimes suffer from. This almost ridiculously high standard was maintained beautifully throughout the meal. A starter proper of organic salmon confit with fried quail egg and pork belly saw a delightful mix of contrasts between the flavours, and a main course of slow cooked Arctic cod with chorizo risotto managed the difficult task of making the ingredients interesting and exciting. Desserts are more traditional, but the chocolate brownies with coffee and salt caramel ice cream are easy to recommend.

As you’d expect in a place of this quality, the wine list is extensive and French-oriented, and the extremely helpful sommelier is all too happy to guide you to a glass of something that will compliment your meal beautifully; a rather lovely white Burgundy proved the ideal accompaniment to both my cod and my guest’s sea bass. Those in the know have been patronising this excellent establishment since its foundation, but now the recent flurry of interest arising from Harden’s guide naming it the best fish restaurant in the UK might mean that all curious gourmands would be advised to pay it a visit sooner rather than later.

101 Knightsbridge, London SW1. www.oneoonerestaurant.co.uk

‘Yet another Italian restaurant? In Mayfair?’ I hear you sigh. To be honest, I was thinking pretty much the same myself before I headed to Henry Togna’s new restaurant. London seems to be full of Italian eateries of virtually every stamp, from the humble neighbourhood trattoria to the full-on Michelin starred experience. And Mayfair, an area synonymous with luxurious dining, seemed to be replete with more than enough establishments for all high-end tastes and pockets.

I always like being proved wrong, as long as it can be done stylishly. And there are few more stylish places in town that can confound your expectations with quite the panache that Tempo delights in doing. The first impressions are of slickness mixed with old-school charm and courtesy. These are both epitomised by the appearance of your host Mr Togna, who radiates charisma and yet is prepared to comment wryly on being described as a ‘St James grandee’, giving little doubt that his ambitions here are rather more down-to-earth.

The food here, combining traditional Italian cooking with modern flourishes is quite stunning. I always enjoyed Yoshi Yamada’s food at his previous establishment, St Alban, but here he has raised his game in a more sympathetic and welcoming environment. Cicchetti of Calabrian pork sausage and seared octopus act as tantalising amuse bouches that perfectly compliment a Bellini before the serious dining begins. Wild rabbit tortelli and fresh Cornish crab taglioni show how good silkily fresh pasta can taste, and perfect scallop and beef dishes demonstrate how to take the highest quality of ingredients and cook them simply and well and make them delicious as a result. Desserts of blackberry and ricotta semi-freddo and pannacotta with poached fig are well worth leaving space for.

The wine list offers a decent selection by the glass as well as a good selection that encompasses French and New World vintages, in addition to the Italian variety that are de rigueur in a place of this class. Over the course of a lunch that ended up being longer than I had originally planned, my glamorous companion and I found ourselves being inveigled into having perhaps one more glass than we would otherwise have taken, but this hospitality and warmth is at one with the quality of Tempo. Make plans to visit soon, and you won’t be at all disappointed.

54 Curzon St, London W1. www.tempomayfair.co.uk

The name ‘Tiny Robot’ might summon up images of sci-fi B movies, with its sibling ‘Giant Robot’ in Clerkenwell offering more thoughts of mad scientists and out-of-control technology. The only thing that you’re likely to find out of control in this new Westbourne Grove outpost of Jonathan Downey’s bar and restaurant empire (also encompassing the Match Bars and Redhook) is the truly enormous Baked Alaska dessert, a triumph of ice cream, pannetone and meringue that will defeat all but the heartiest appetites.

The concept behind the ‘Robot’ restaurants is a simple but effective one, borrowing both Italian and American influences and offering all-day dining, so whether you want a full-on weekend brunch (from 9 to 5), a more traditional dinner or just a light snack to accompany one of the mighty range of sensational cocktails, you’re sure to be in luck. Dinner offers numerous hearty main course options, including steaks and the ever-popular ‘giant burger’, aptly named, but it’s fun to start off with the extensive selection of small plates, picking and choosing from the so-called ‘sliders’, which are delicious mini hot dogs with meatballs, or taster plates of meat and cheese.

It’s more than likely that you’re going to want to try one of the substantial range of cocktails on offer, which were attracting the well-heeled locals on our visit in abundance (booking in the evenings is pretty obligatory). These range from Match Bar favourites such as the Match Spring Punch and the Nicola Six (perhaps the only cocktail you’ll ever drink named after a Martin Amis character) to the entirely surprising but rather lovely ‘Frank Ford’, an unlikely but successful mixture of coffee liqueur and grappa.

Given the enthusiastic response that this excellent modern-day take on the traditional diner has so far elicited, it seems that the talented Mr Downey has yet another substantial success on his hands. We’ll see you there for a Martini and Eggs Benedict.

78 Westbourne Grove, London W2. www.tnyrbt.com

Picture the scene. I’m stood in the entrance hall of one of Scotland’s foremost country houses on a bracing October night. My dress for the evening is Edwardian attire, complete with monocle and cravat. In front of me is a bath full of a mysterious-looking substance, and pieces of cucumber. There are two taps marked ‘g’ and ‘t’. Perusal of these taps indicates that the ‘g’ tap will pour Hendrick’s gin, and that the ‘t’ tap will dispense a goodly measure of tonic, resulting in a delectable gin and tonic. The cucumber in the bath therefore comes as an essential addition.

All the time, a jovial fellow in side-whiskers and evening gown – ‘Sir Hendricks’, if you please – addresses the assembled guests in cheery tones as to the healing properties of the drink. Nobody’s disagreeing with him. The evening will go on to incorporate games of billiards, displays of cannon fire and some splendidly offbeat food, as well as cameo appearances by aged retainers, Boer veterans and Sir Hendricks’ fiery Spanish wife. Suffice it to say that Tuesdays will never quite be the same again.

Welcome to the delightfully eccentric world of Hendrick’s gin. As anyone who likes a gin and tonic knows, it’s established itself at the peak of the international market in a comparatively small time, not only for its closely guarded secret recipe (that differs from conventional London dry gins due to its addition of rose petal and cucumber extracts), but also because of what it calls its rather unusual ethos. This ranges from ‘the company car’ – a cucumber-green 60s roadster, complete with well-stocked bar in the boot – to the travelling carriage that will trade punters a finely crafted g and t in exchange for a story or addition to the range of curious artefacts that the company boasts.

What’s so compelling about Hendrick’s is the unique way in which it’s manufactured. It’s distilled in a tiny village in Scotland called Girvan, about an hour and a half from Glasgow, using a marriage of spirits from two different kinds of ‘still’, resulting in a delightfully fresh and floral taste, combining botanicals including coriander, lemon peel, Orris root and elderflower, amongst many others. To maintain the quality of the product, the master distiller Lesley Gracie crafts batches of a mere 450 litres at a time, resulting in a comparatively small annual production of 250,000 cases, which are shipped worldwide.

During the couple of days that I spent in Scotland observing the Hendrick’s way of life, numerous things became clear. Firstly, just about everyone who works with the gin is quite mad, in the nicest possible way. There were times when I felt like Alice at the Mad Hatter’s tea party – quite literally during a visit to one of the country’s finest golf hotels, Tunberry, for a much-needed afternoon tea. And secondly, if you get the chance to visit the distillery and learn from the ever-knowledgeable staff, including the ineffably charming Xavier Padovani, take it with both hands. You’ll be in for a wonderfully unexpected experience.

For more information, visit www.hendricksgin.com.