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We started with a drink at Purl, one of the forerunners in the trend for speakeasy style cocktail bars in London. The atmosphere was great, and I enjoyed the two-seater swing chair that we had instead of a table, but the drinks, whilst imaginative in style, weren't nearly as well balanced as some that I've enjoyed elsewhere. The honey smoke in my Mr Hyde's Fixer Upper (their signature drink) was a delicious and interesting touch, but the Zapaca rum that formed the base was somewhat overpowered, and would be better replaced with something darker, with more molasses.
But on to the meal... Dinings is a Japanese tapas restaurant. Yeah, it sounded a bit odd to me too, but I love Japanese food, and I love trying unusual combinations, so it seemed well worth a try. It was.
Many different dishes, and a greatly contrasting range of flavours and textures. The tar-tar chips are a fun little amuse bouche - that was my first time trying wagyu beef, and oh my word the intensity of the meaty oomph was something else. The seabass carpaccio was explosively good - crunch of salsa against melt-in-the-mouth fish against chewiness of the shaved truffle, sharp sharp tang of ponzu against rich umamish earthiness (truffle again) in the dressing. This was one of those dishes that made me almost whimper with pleasure. Wagyu beef char-sui buns, which unlike most char-sui buns actually had the right ratio of meat to bun, and the latter was far more flavoursome and interestingly textured than the cotton wool you usually encounter. There's this wonderful moment biting into it when the juices from the meat begin to escape onto your tongue; a glorious teaser for the pleasure to follow. There was more, and all of it delicious, but those were the real highlights.
The service was friendly and knowledgeable, but there were a couple of times when we were left waiting for one thing or another for a bit longer than would be ideal (though this was acknowledged and apologised for, so I suspect they were just slightly understaffed).
It wasn't cheap, coming in at a shade under £150/head, and unlike a lot of the meals I write about, a much greater proportion of that was on the food than on the drinks.
But on to the meal... Dinings is a Japanese tapas restaurant. Yeah, it sounded a bit odd to me too, but I love Japanese food, and I love trying unusual combinations, so it seemed well worth a try. It was.
Many different dishes, and a greatly contrasting range of flavours and textures. The tar-tar chips are a fun little amuse bouche - that was my first time trying wagyu beef, and oh my word the intensity of the meaty oomph was something else. The seabass carpaccio was explosively good - crunch of salsa against melt-in-the-mouth fish against chewiness of the shaved truffle, sharp sharp tang of ponzu against rich umamish earthiness (truffle again) in the dressing. This was one of those dishes that made me almost whimper with pleasure. Wagyu beef char-sui buns, which unlike most char-sui buns actually had the right ratio of meat to bun, and the latter was far more flavoursome and interestingly textured than the cotton wool you usually encounter. There's this wonderful moment biting into it when the juices from the meat begin to escape onto your tongue; a glorious teaser for the pleasure to follow. There was more, and all of it delicious, but those were the real highlights.
The service was friendly and knowledgeable, but there were a couple of times when we were left waiting for one thing or another for a bit longer than would be ideal (though this was acknowledged and apologised for, so I suspect they were just slightly understaffed).
It wasn't cheap, coming in at a shade under £150/head, and unlike a lot of the meals I write about, a much greater proportion of that was on the food than on the drinks.
