Ikoyi London

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