Akokomi and his team — who have evolved the tasting menu from a pair of seven-dish affairs into a range of more varied feasts, topping out with a 10-courser at £95 — seem surer of what they want to achieve, more confident and expressive in their plating and, perhaps, less aware of the looming shadow of Ikoyi (the Michelin-starred, glancingly African restaurant that is this project’s undeniable spiritual antecedent). This pattern begins with the palate-jolting, introductory courses. Smoked fish and tomato tart — a fine-drawn miniature of shattering, beetroot-infused pastry, fermented kombu (the Japanese dried kelp) and an intense sort of oceanic custard — brings an almost hallucinatory rip of musky intensity. Crackle-crusted, mildly ferrous loaves of warm stout bread come with a high-gloss chicken yassa butter (an onion-based Senegalese stew, apparently) packing a shudderingly effective, profoundly savoury twang. And ox cheek bofrot is quite the livener: a dark, putty-like orb of deep-fried dough, dusted with brick-red scotch bonnet powder and generously crammed with spiced shreds of luscious meat.
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