The limitations with ingredients mean the menu will change daily. Especially early on. “We’re just learning what [produce] is good here and adjusting our menus.” What’s important, he tells me, is making sure they serve their guests the best ingredients available. “We’re not tied to our menus, but we are to our goals and to our clients. We’ll print our menu every day accordingly.”
[Missing Credit]
When I was invited to dinner in mid-October, we kicked off with fried Brussels sprouts simply served with caper aioli. Where else do you see this underdog of the Brassica world on restaurant menus — other than at Christmas? And then only ever a side — never with its own star billing. Served with a mound of caper aioli it’s simple and to the point.
After this uncomplicated start, the cooking complexity increased. Moroccan Frena bread — a more wholemeal-ly but olive oil rich pita arrived with spicy matbucha (tomato and pepper dip); labneh with a lovely lactic tang, huge olives a chilli-packed and a mound of harissa. All punchy flavours.
A chilli tasting plate was a gauntlet to competitive eaters. How far could we last the plate’s journey from a mild (and immensely) more-ish chilli butter through whole roasted chillis to the hottest notes of a verdant chilli puree? My pathetic dab of the latter was hot enough to send me straight back to the cooling labneh.
We work our way through the menu’s sections. After consulting Google, we pick slow-cooked salsify, partly out of curiosity. I’ve never seen, let alone tasted this UK-grown root vegetable. Shmueli had told me that the salsify is subbing for Jerusalem artichokes because the knobbly artichokes haven’t yet yet reached their best this season.
Salsify was a long, purplish root, roasted to caramelised sweetness accessorised with ruby-tinged radicchio leaves and dollops of feta. Crisp strands of deep-fried onion add crunch.
Shmueli, his London head chef Shadi Issawy — who has worked with him at Claro Tel Aviv — and their team were creating flavours and textures that turned the local veg into memorable moments.
Hispi cabbage bore no relation to the sulphurous smelling soggy leaves of school days. A chunky slice is butter-roasted with za’atar, sage and date honey, its leafy layers filled with nutty bulghur wheat and the top showered with parmesan.
Perfect pumpkin Photo: VP[Missing Credit]
I could have eaten just that, but my attentions were grabbed by a sunny-coloured slab of roasted winter pumpkin. The ‘steak’ — cooked to caramelised sweet softness was idling on gloriously orange hued pumpkin and citrus puree with crunchy pumpkin seeds. Simple and stunning.
Tuna tartare was fresh and zingy, matched by a pool of smooth yellow gazpacho and wedges of fresh green (end of season) zebra tomatoes. A festival of colour and flavour.
Shmueli had shared his ethos is to keep things simple and moderate — a balance of vegetables, fish and meat. A mindset inspired by his Austrian grandmother. “She would wake up in the morning and put together her mise en place. When my grandfather came home during the day would make everything on the spot. She cooked simple Austrian food, but it was amazing. Her schnitzels were divine.”
Main event: salmon trout shone Photo: VP[Missing Credit]
Simple or not, every dish managed film star looks. Smoked pink trout was Insta-ready with its perfect crisp, seared skin and juicy flesh. The horseradish cream and potato salad were equally attractive and super comforting. A crisp lettuce salad had a retro feel — its different coloured leaves coated in a slick of mustard oregano vinaigrette and crunchy roasted walnuts. A French classic that will never grow tired.
There are also veggie and meat-filled pastas on the menu other fish dishes and seafood but by now we’d moved on to the sweet stuff.
A healthy portion of apple challah bread and butter pudding topped with clotted cream ice cream in a straight-from-the-oven-hot, mini cooking pot was pure comfort. Milk chocolate and barley ice cream, topped with bread anglaise, Claro waffle (a sexy grown-up Kit Kat) and a touch of olive oil added unfussy sophistication. The simply named Parsnip — carrot cake topped with crisp cooked parsnip shavings and spiced caramel sauce with cheesecake ice cream was my least favourite finish, but in fairness, had strong competition. It scored well in eco terms for great use of seasonal veg.
Challabration: challah bread and butter puddding was hot stuff[Missing Credit]
Our enthusiastic and hugely likeable sommelier told us they’d been building their wine cellar for 14 months from all over the world. After a quick quiz on what flavours and style of wine we wanted, his choices of a minerally, Germany Chardonnay and then a French Syrah/Grenache blend from Chateau Gallety were both perfect.
The restaurant is housed in a former bank. Huge windows and high ceilings give a look glam enough for a special occasion but with a funky, relaxed vibe. Shmueli says he’d been looking for a site for months but “fell in love with this location and with the building.”
It’s not cheap — but where is in SW1? Especially in a room — a former bank — that’s so Saturday night special.
Definitely one to pick for celebrations and with two private rooms, a great party venue.
Claro London
