Dabbous - already one of the hottest restaurant openings of 2012

I have to say my heart sinks these days when I read about a new restaurant with small plates and Nordic influences but the feedback about Dabbous was so glowing (5 stars in Time Out and from the notoriously hard to please Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard) it was clearly Not To Be Missed.

It’s a mixed blessing to go somewhere with high expectations but for once the hype is justified. The food is clever, delicious, the cocktails equally imaginative, the room New-York-industrial-chic cool and the service charmingly unsnotty (the main difference from the otherwise apt comparison Maschler has made with new-style Parisien restaurants such as Le Regalade and Le Chateaubriand)

Ollie Dabbous (pronounced dabu) has an impeccable pedigree, mind you. He started his career working for Raymond Blanc for 4 years at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons and was most recently head chef at the Michelin-starred Texture. Along the way he’s worked at Hibiscus and Mugaritz and put in stints at The Fat Duck, Pierre Gagnaire, L’Astrance and Noma.

It’s one of those places where everything sounds so tempting it’s hard to choose what to eat so we kicked off with the much admired salad of fennel, lemon balm and pickled rose petals to see if it went with their signature Dillusion cocktail of gin, cucumber, elderflower and dill (it did) and a sensational beef tartar with cigar oil, whiskey and rye. Not obviously boozy but an intense explosion of meaty, smokey flavours.

The next two dishes came in odd juxtaposition, confit salmon, a dish I normally wouldn’t order but which was cooked to perfection and a sublime, umami-rich dish of buttery mash with ‘roasting juices’ and truffles (below, right) that would have made a pretty good meal on its own. Odd, maybe to have it at this early stage in the meal - it would have made a better side to a main.

The only dish I was than less grabbed by was barbecued Iberico pork with acorn praline which was a bit dense and chewy and tasted like a deconstructed satay. I suspect Dabbous is a better fish and vegetable cook judging by a sublimely sweet, delicate dish of roast king crab, with buttermilk and hispi cabbage.

Desserts were admittedly a little eccentric. Cucumber and borage flower in a chilled lemon verbena infusion (lovely as a palate cleanser but it wouldn’t satisfy hard core pudding lovers) and an intensely chocolatey .... I don’t know what ... rubble? .... ‘clay’ apparently ... with a basil squiggle that probably would. We were too full, I’m sure, to fully appreciate it. The cheese plate about which I’ve written on my cheese blog was perfection though

Portions were more generous than I expected but I’d still be inclined to order four dishes. The set lunch is amazingly well priced at 21 for 3 courses, or 24 or 4 - IF - and it’s a big if - you can get in. It’s already a ridiculously hot ticket.

The wine list is extensive but could be a little more adventurous given the statement about organic and natural wines. And in view of the light, airy style of the food it would be good to see some more aromatic whites. But these are early days. You can order matching wines by the glass or half glass from 35 per person.

All in all, though, an outstanding opening at a period when terrific restaurants seem to be popping up all over London. Book before the rest of the reviews come out.

Dabbous is at 39 Whitfield Street, parallel to Tottenham Court Road, more or less opposite Heal’s.

I ate at Dabbous as a guest of the restaurant.

Jeremy Lee at Quo Vadis, Soho

If you want to understand what British cooking is about - not the magpie character of of modern British but the genteel English country house tradition - head for Soho where Jeremy Lee has taken up residence behind the stoves at Quo Vadis.

This is fantastically good news for those of us who previously had to schlep down to the Blueprint Café at the Design Museum at Tower Bridge to enjoy his cooking. I had one of the best meals of my life there when I was ‘researching’ a feature on what to drink for the millenium when he cooked against the backdrop of some of the finest wines on the planet. His simple, beautifully judged food couldn’t have been better suited to them. Lee, I’m sure, would be more than happy to be referred to as a cook rather than a chef.

So what did we eat? A lot, I’m afraid to say. Pieces of lightly cooked salsify wrapped in filo, baked and dusted in parmesan which surely rivals Rowley Leigh’s parmesan custard as one of the sexiest small dishes in London. (Order two rounds.) A ridiculously good warm eel and horseradish sandwich. A light fluffy bloater paté which turned up unannounced borne by Lee himself who knows my host and me well. You’ll need to take account of this in the review though we did pay for the rest of our meal.

And a riot of a beetroot and egg salad with three different colours of beets and a wild scattering of herbs which I wish I’d ordered instead of a rather austere pork terrine which, despite its faultless spicing and well-judged dab of mustard, was possibly the least interesting dish of the evening. And that was just the starters.

Hare pie was a triumph and at £14 significantly cheaper than the pie I whinged about a while ago at St John’s. In fact Lee’s Quo Vadis is rather like a flirtatious more feminine St John’s. Less challenging, more playful and certainly less expensive.

The pie also gave rise to the best match of the evening - a glass of peppery St Joseph which held its own without adding to the richness. The wine list is very decent overall with some well priced options by the glass and bottle.

I was so absorbed I didn’t even bother with my companion's skate with black butter and capers. It was fresh. It was fine.

Puddings (not desserts, note) were a slight disappointment by comparison but we were probably too full to appreciate them anyway. A slightly heavy lemon posset with rhubarb - a nice combination of flavours, not the best posset I’ve ever tasted and a not quite almondy enough almond cake with a not quite orangey enough St Clements curd and Jersey cream. Maybe the pastry chef comes from the previous regime.

Service could also do with sharpening and speeding up. The unexpected success of Lee's arrival has meant a rather langorous emergence of dishes from the kitchen. But these are early days. This is already one of the most charming places to eat in Soho. And that’s saying something.

Quo Vadis is at 26-27 Dean Street, London W1D 3LL. Tel: 0207 437 9585. Although it's a members' club the restaurant is open to the public with a pre- and post-theatre supper for £17.50 for two courses and £20 for three.

Roganic - silly name, stunning food

To tell the truth I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of Roganic. I’m not mad about molecular gastronomy or multi-course tasting menus these days and it sounded as if owner Simon Rogan and his chef Ben Spalding were ardent exponents of both. It had polarised critics and bloggers who loved it or were irritated by it in equal measure. Certainly the name is a bit naff.

It’s been set up as a long term pop-up (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) by Rogan whose main base L’Enclume in Cartmel has long had a reputation as one of the most experimental restaurants in the country. The main room, is small, modestly furnished, wood panelled in a sober slate grey - more modern bistro than fine dining. Well that was a relief for a start.

Rogan also seems to have left his foams and drizzles behind him in Cumbria - or maybe he’s moved on there too. The food is fashionably Noma-esque in its reliance on foraged ingredients but drawing heavily on the tastes and traditions of the English countryside.

There were, alas, 10 courses* but once the meal kicked off they were so many intriguing combinations of tastes and textures, so many ludic touches (including a gin and tonic sorbet served on a flattened Gordon’s bottle - right) it was impossible to get bored.

And my goodness some of them were good - even familiar combinations like goats curd and beetroot where the latter was reduced to a supersoft velvety pure (above) just firm enough to hold the shape of the flower-shape it had (presumably) been extruded into.

Rogan is particularly good at working in the bitter tastes that many chefs steer clear of - present in many of the wild plants he uses, his use of pickled vegetables but also in more challenging dishes such as scarlet ball turnip, smoked yolk, sea vegetables and wild mustard (a good deal nicer than it sounds). That made the German riesling we ordered to drink through the meal - a 2009 Donnhoff Riesling Kabinett from the Nahe which I'm pleased to see you can buy in Majestic - an inspired choice.

There’s also a probably unhealthy amount of salt in the menu, particularly in the heritage potatoes in onion ashes, lovage and wood sorrel (potato heaven) and a umami-rich dish of monkfish with ‘chicken salt’ and mussels (right) but hey, who cares about blood pressure when food tastes that stunning?

Invariably with that degree of experimentation not everything is going to be to your taste but there was only one dish I didn’t like - a cube of warm spiced bread with buckthorn curd and smoked clotted cream which tasted weirdly like bacon - too savoury and too rich after nine courses. It would have been better to finish on the preceding dessert: a stunningly pretty, aromatic dish of sweet ciceley with strawberry, buttermilk and verbena (below) that evoked fresher sunnier days than the muggy grey weather that passes for our English summer.

Two other great courses: a mound of delicate flaky crab and mallow cream with squid and cucumber that somehow managed to incorporate a delightful crunch and a plate of full-flavoured Cumbrian hogget (one year old lamb) with artichokes, sweetbreads and fat hen, a rather more customer-friendly description than the chenopodium which was originally on the menu. Signs that Rogan is adjusting quickly to the more critical diners he has to deal with in London.

Service is also apparently more relaxed since my colleague Matthew Fort commented on its formality though I could still do without the reverential announcement of ingredients as each dish is presented - impossible to follow, leaving you with a vague sense of guilt that you’re not paying sufficient attention to what you’re eating.

But I liked it. A lot. The second great meal in a week (the other being at The Ledbury) and further proof, if proof were needed, that London is a hot gastronomic destination.

Roganic is at 19 Blandford Street, London W1U 3DH. Tel: 020 7486 0380

I ate at Roganic as a guest of the restaurant. If you don’t fancy the 10 course menu at £80 - as you may well not at lunchtime - there’s a six course menu for £55 and a simpler 3 course one for £29. With bigger portions I’m assured.

Nopi: a model modern winelist

How often do you go to restaurants and groan at the length of the winelist? Or end up simply skimming the recommended ‘sommelier’s choice’ or wines by the glass? Well, the wine list at Yotam Ottolenghi's new restaurant Nopi is a model of what the time-poor, harassed diner wants - simple and intriguing sections, each of which tells a story.

It was put together by wine consultant Gal Zohar who used to be the sommelier at L’Anima - hence the large proportion of Italian wines on the list. He’s also been seduced - as sommeliers increasingly are these days - by natural wines although they’re not flagged up as such.

The wines come largely in groups of three or four. Whites, for example, include The Outsiders (“off the beaten track wines from unusual places packed with intriguing and unusual flavours”), Tour de France (self explanatory but some off-beat choices) and Mountain Wine ("high altitude and marginal growing conditions produce crisp, clean and unapologetically fresh wines").

Reds include Lesser Known Varietals, Gamay for All ("much more than the old Beaujolais Nouveau, Gamay produces stunning wines") and Volcanic Wine ("extra fertile, enigmatically powerful volcanic soils have a way with wine. They’re like a multi-vitamin creating wines packed with minerality and fresh acidity.") It made you want to try them all.

Zohar has deliberately gone for clean, mineral wines that are modest in alcohol to go with Ottolenghi’s food which is light, mainly fish and vegetable-based and designed to be shared. I tried five wines of which the only one I thought was slightly out of place was a fine Barbaresco 2005 from the Produttori dei Barbaresco though all credit to Zohar for putting it on by the glass.

A light, lush 2009 Versus Riesling from Stajerska in Slovenia was lovely with a plate of burrata, blood orange and coriander seeds while the earthy Etna Bianco ‘Biancodicaselle’ matched better with a plate of grilled hake kebabs with lemon pickle and yoghurt. The best match though was a light fragrant Austrian blend of Pinot Noir and Zweigelt, Wien 2 from R & A Pfaffl which was just knockout with some spicy beef brisket croquettes and Asian Slaw. Oh, and I forgot the 2004 Vin Santo del Chianti Rufina from Fattoria di Basciano which sommelier Honami Matsumoto brought with the cardamom rice pudding with rose syrup and pistachio. The wine tasted like having a compote of dried apricots with the dish. An inspired pairing.

The only downside to this adventurous way of eating and drinking (and obviously not a downside for the restaurant) is that it would be easy to run up a hefty bill if you got over-enthusiastic. (A tip - I think you probably only need two plates per person instead of the recommended three so go with a friend/friends so you can taste as much as possible) But it’s unusual to find somewhere offering such original and delicious food and wine right in the heart of London (just off Picadilly Circus). If you're already an Ottolenghi fan you'll love it. If you don't know his food add it to your list.

Nopi is at 21-22 Warwick Street, London W1B 5NE. Tel: 020 7494 9584. Email: contact@nopi-restaurant.com

I ate at Nopi as a guest of the restaurant