Ikoyi London

Another stellar meal @ikoyi_london back in June, where @jeremychanikoyi is killing it as always. I never tire of this restaurant.
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Michelin Guide - ⭐️
OAD - 69
W50B - 87
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Posting about this meal brought back so much memories. It was quite an adventure for me to get there, and back to Paris the next day on the 7am train for another lunch at Arpege (to eat double the desserts I missed in the lunch the same day as Ikoyi due to time rush to train to London 🙈) .
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But it was worth the hassle. The meal was sensational. Full of originality, full of bold flavors, layers of umami, contrast of textures. It was beyond my expectation. I could finally try the whole tasting menu at @ikoyi_london, not as a collaboration or pop up. Even compare to my first visit during which we did a la carte, Ikoyi and Jeremy’s cooking has changed so much. It is more liberal, not fixated on just Western African flavors. It embraced a mix of techniques and concepts from different culinary cultures, blended together intelligently to make a kind of cuisine unique to Ikoyi.
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The direction is more clear, identity more visible. It is broader yet more focused. More creative yet more controlled. Right now the most original kind of cooking by young chefs is probably here. I admire him even more.
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After all these years of travelling I sometimes still do silly things. I listened to my heart, and I had no regrets. Probably regret it more if I did not come.
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Thank you so much for my 3 most wonderful friends to do crazy things with me. You guys are the best.
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A night I will never forget ❤️💕 #littlemeg_best2019
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Thank you Michelle you made this happen ❣️
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#london #littlemeg_london #littlemeg_ikoyi #ikoyi #ikoyilondon #food #foodstagram #foodies #foodpics #lefooding @lefooding #instafood #instagramers #yummy #amazing #gourmet #iphonesia #photooftheday #bestoftheday #igdaily #gastroart #gastronogram @theartofplating @gastroart @gastronogram #love #originality #identity #cultures Less

So after you got all these beautiful boxes of ingredients (or got yours from supermarkets), what do you do with them? Obviously you cook.
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For home cooking, @ikoyi_london chef @jeremychanikoyi is posting recipes similar to what @taksekin is doing. Ingredients and instructions all written in a way that is meant to be followed without too much difficulty even during lockdown and help others to cook real food.
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Well, he had me at chicken rice 🐔🍚 🔥❤️💓😍 #covid19 #fightcovid19 #littlemeg_fightcovid19 #recipes #homecooking #littlemeg_london #littlemeg_ikoyi #food #foodpics #lifesaver #sunshine #jeremychan #london #chicken #rice #porkchops #pork #pasta Less

I am around two months in arrears in terms of posting meals, but I had a lunch yesterday in ‘that’ London that has prompted me to forget about posting my meals at Mugaritz or El Celar de Can Rocca or indeed the insanely good 3am kebab from ‘Big John’s’ in Aylesbury that I woke up next to this morning.
I’ve been to Ikoyi a few times now and it was a restaurant that it seemed (from my point of view) that there was a certain buzz about. I mean, show me another West African restaurant with a Michelin star in London....or the UK for that matter. Or Europe? If you can, I’ll go there.
Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale cornered the market for soon to be Michelin star West African food in the centre of London. All well and good. The foodies and press were all over it for a time. And rightly so. They may well still be, but I haven’t heard a peep.
I decided to go for lunch yesterday very last minute. I was in bed in Aylesbury at 10am just flicking through the Internet as you do. I’d posted the day before about a very mediocre £55 steak I’d had at ⭐️⭐️The Hand & Flowers the previous day and someone suggested that I come and try the beef at Ikoyi.
This is what prompted me to jump out of bed, shower off the kebab remnants and hop on the train into town and have one of the tastiest lunches I’ve had in quite a while.
It really is a rare skill to be able to produce a tasting menu where 90% of the dishes are spot on delicious. The type of plates that you wolf down and can’t get enough of. This is speaking from someone who, for better or worse, actively travels the world in search of good food. So I’ve had a lot of lunches🤷🏼‍♂️
This was a great lunch.
It seems that Jeremy Chan and the team are really buzzing now. I see him travelling and doing collaborations, and this seems to have had a very positive impact on the menu at Ikoyi.
I urge those that haven’t been to go, but most of all I urge those that went a couple of years ago to go back. It’s much more confident now. I know some found it maybe mediocre before, but the menu I had yesterday was exceptional. (And no I wasn’t comped to write this) Less

Wild rice & Fonio
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Another visit to the fantastic ⭐️Ikoyi in London to try their new(ish) tasting menu format. Needless to say that it was of course fantastic with the usual vibrant flavours and interesting use of ingredients. .
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Michelin Guide - ⭐️ OAD list - 117 (2019)
W50Best- .
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#achefabroad #itravelforfood #foodie #foodies #foodporn #foodpic #foodpics #finedining #michelindining #eats #instafoodie #michelinstar #oad #worlds50bestrestaurants #worlds50best #eater #iphonexsmax #michelinguide #foodlepro #influencer #influencers #culinaryworld #ikoyi #plantain #scotchbonnet #ikoyilondon #eaterlondon #eaterlondon #londonfoodies #londoneats #westafricanfood Less

Ikoyi opened in mid-2017 and gained a Michelin star in the 2019 Michelin guide. The cuisine uses African ingredients and puts a modern twist on them with British produce through its ‘blind’ menus (no menus provided, just the option of how many courses and allergens /intolerances checked). My lunch here was a set 3-course menu of savouries for £35 with an additional dessert course offered at the end for £8.50, meaning £43.50 for four courses; therefore a set lunch with dessert and coffee plus service charge will cost in the region of £53. This is quite expensive bearing in mind I thought the portion sizes were small and I left hungry, however, the skill and handling of spices I thought was very good here. A cosy restaurant in St James’s market and well worth a drop in.

The meal started with smoked plantain with raspberry powder and scotch bonnet (chilli peppers). This packed a fair punch but the cooked down bananas of the plantain and other parts worked nicely together. Next up was malted barley bread with mushroom stuffing, turnip tops pumpkin seeds and egusi sauce (made from egusi seeds). This was another lovely collection of flavours and a pleasant change from the norm.

The meal started with smoked plantain with raspberry powder and scotch bonnet (chilli peppers). This packed a fair punch but the cooked down bananas of the plantain and other parts worked nicely together. Next up was malted barley bread with mushroom stuffing, turnip tops pumpkin seeds and egusi sauce (made from egusi seeds). This was another lovely collection of flavours and a pleasant change from the norm.

Lamb saddle came with hibiscus, miso coffee and fried shiso. The lamb was tender and with reasonably good flavour and again, the combination of fermented parts and shiso had no real negatives. A side of the signature smoked ‘jollof’ rice with a crab custard. There are a huge number of spices that go into this (along with the other dishes) but the overarching flavour of the jollof rice is of spiced tomato and garlic. This rice was actually very good on its own as a dish and another well-done dish. Roasted walnut ice cream with coffee oil with white chocolate with crumbs was a pleasant way to finish off the meal.

Jeremy Chan, who has worked formerly at Noma is the mastermind behind this unique and innovative restaurant, in league with his African business partner. The result is definitely a pleasing one here and there is much effort that has gone in to design of each dish. This was good on the eye and the flavours were all hitting the right valves, but the main negative here is that I left still hungry. This is the cardinal sin of some restaurants, especially expensive ones which I would class this as. It’s also the main reason that prevents people wanting to take the plunge into fine dining in my opinion. That said, I would happily come back here; I think the thing to do is put a long session in the books, save up a bit more and accept more money is needed to be thrown at it.

https://major-foodie.com/ikoyi-st-jamess/
https://instagram.com/richardbagnold Less