The Cocochine Restaurant review, Mayfair, London

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The lovely Bruton Place mews, a London gem surreptitiously situated just off Berkeley Square, is flanked by converted stables and townhouses. The Cocochine restaurant sprawls upwards in one of those four-storey townhouses opposite their deli, Rex Deli.

The Sri Lankan-born chef Larry Jayasekara is a delightful bon vivant who is totally passionate about the cuisine he has curated and his role as owner.

Previously at Gordon Ramsey’s Petrus, Manoir au Quat’ Saison, and Marcus Wareing, Larry brings plenty of experience, expertise, and joyous creativity to his fusion of French, British, and subtle Sri Lankan influences on his menu.

The main restaurant is located on the ground floor, featuring demure, almost stately, cushioned seats upholstered in tan leather.  On the top floor is a grand private dining room.

That night, I was dining at the coveted Chef’s Counter on the first floor. There are only eight places available, each with an open view of the kitchen’s theatrics. And if Chef Larry Jayasekara is in the house, you may get to meet him – as I did.

Everyone with a penchant for cooking will rhapsodise about the importance of fresh ingredients, perhaps mentioning a herb garden.

When Larry says it, it is not lip service. The Cocochine has an entire 100-acre farm, Rowler Farm in Northamptonshire, and almost 95 per cent of the ingredients used in both the restaurant and deli are sourced from there. Even the flowers on the tables are grown there.

Their seafood comes from their own Tanera Island in the west of Scotland. Local fishermen source huge scallops, turbot, lobsters, and langoustines, and I was about to enjoy many of their ingredients courtesy of Larry’s 11-course tasting menu. 

I got to watch the chefs place tiny ingredients with precision on bite-sized canapes using long tweezers, with intense focus. The team worked together to create the dishes seamlessly, with just the odd playful squabble. This was sheer voyeurism.

While I was waiting, a flute of Billecart-Salmon Champagne arrived with some nibbles of rosemary flavoured popcorn,  and toasted Sri Lankan cashew nuts slightly doused with chilli flakes, rapeseed oil and curry leaves for a spicy tang. The aroma was gorgeous. 

Then came the bread, a brioche layered with caramelised onion, thyme and curry leaves and glazed in brown butter, and a ball of sourdough made with rosemary and glazed Sri Lankan kithul (a sap made from a palm tree flower in Sri Lanka). On the side was fresh Normandy butter with sea salt and whipped brown butter with crème fraiche and black truffle.

Both were shockingly good, but I had to pace myself for what was to come.

A conveyor of dishes started with a tartlet of wild sea trout roe from Norway, seasoned with soy and lime, served in a crisp pastry base. The colourful eggs were lightly marinated in mirin and yuzu gel, the canapé being finished with mini chive batons. 

A mini doughnut filled with 36-month-aged Comte cheese and black truffle sauce, topped with finely grated 60-month-aged Parmesan from Bologna. The doughnut was made from wheat flour from Rowler Farm, which had been aerated with a syphon to offer lightness along with the cheesy flavour.

Rounding off the canapes was a cheese and onion cracker topped with golden Oscietra caviar from Paris that Larry humourously referred to as a “pringle”. This is a bite-sized cracker made from mashed potato that has been dehydrated and cut into strips, then deep-fried and filled with the softest cream cheese enhanced with onion powder. 

The next few courses were all about seafood fished from the waters around their Tanera Island in Scotland. These dishes were paired with Polvorete, a Spanish Bierzo region produced by Bodegas Emilio Moro using the local Godello grape.

The fattiest belly cut of bluefin tuna that makes the Otoro dish was flavoured with 60-month-aged soy from Ginza in Tokyo, topped with golden Oscietra caviar, a couple of croutons for texture and vinegar gel to cut through the richness of the fatty tuna belly. 

Then came the Ceylon Crab Salad, king crab with curry leaves and yoghurt, some apple jelly and Kalamansi lime from Indonesia, which works really well with the delicate crab. A hardy spicy tang is provided by the curry, which I found a little hot to handle, yet I scoffed it all.

Then a huge scallop from their Scottish island arrived, served with smoked Alsace bacon, kombu seaweed giving it an elevated dimension, and decorated with pickle cloudberries and pickled girolles, then all doused in a delicious coconut milk.

The hefty piece of lobster weighed around 400g, yet it was tender bite glazed with ginger and lobster sauce and served with creme fraîche on the side. This is a wonderful combo.

The double XL langoustine from Tanara Island in west Scotland followed. It was lightly poached in langoustine oil, which they make from the shells. Underneath is Jerusalem artichoke, edamame and seaweed, as well as a touch of caviar. The bisque was made from the shells and lightly spiced. 

The main course was the Rowler Farm Sika Deer, paired with Zweigelt wine, the most widely planted red grape in Austria. Its soft fruit went down well with the deer was aged for 14 days, served with a Sri Lankan-style coconut samba, pickled onion and a little chilli finished with a bitter chocolate jus.

This is a remarkable dish.

Finally, the desserts came. Larry’s Ceylon pineapple sorbet was sensational, sweet, zesty with the cardamom, chilli and sea salt adding notes to the flavour. 

As for Larry’s Ceylon cream caramel, coconut cream set with eggs, jaggery and some vanilla, topped with a creme fraiche and gold leaf and jaggery caramel. I suggest you go and taste this wonderful concoction yourself and come up with your own superlatives.

Verdict: The Cocochine’s signature menu offers 11 courses that feel like a party is evolving on the palate. Nothing is hurried, every dish is explained, and throughout the evening, a cavalcade of creatively fused flavours is delivered as little pieces of artwork. All hail Chef Larry Jayasekara.

 

The Cocochine Restaurant
27 Bruton Place, London, W1J 6NQ,
+44 20 3835 3957,
[email protected]

The Cocochine offer a set three-course lunch menu Tuesday to Saturday at £55 per person