A trio of starters at Rovi

A NEW head chef has taken charge at Rovi – and the results are spectacular.

This restaurant in Fitzrovia was created by Yotam Ottolenghi, one of Britain’s leading tastemakers. He’s sold millions of cookbooks and has fired up the nation’s tastebuds – driving our appetite for once-exotic ingredients such as pomegranate and tahini.

Ottolenghi opened Rovi a few years before Covid but was forced to close the restaurant during the lockdowns. It re-opened in June 2021.

There are many wonderful aspects to Rovi – from its chic design to the live fire, low-waste and root-to-tip ethos in the kitchen. But the main draw is simply the sensational creativity of the food. A meal at Rovi is a rollercoaster of flavours, full of fun surprises and clever twists.

At the heart of the dining experience is a genius-level understanding of spicing, pickles and fermentation.

Take their starter of a whole burrata cheese. In most hands, this would be creamy and oozy but essentially just one note.

At Rovi, the glistening burrata is draped with thin strands of confit lemon and nestles on cubes of neon pink forced rhubarb baked with honey and sumac – a firework display of sweet and sour flavours.

Our plate of pickles was the best I have eaten. There are four on the plate, each distinct in flavour and texture.

Florets of cauliflower are stained a vivid purple; slices of crisp cucumber have soaked up a mysterious earthy spice; kohl rabi is fiery from some sort of chilli miso.

There were no duff dishes in our meal, which began with croquettes filled with a parsnip purée and topped with a dab of black garlic aioli and a blizzard of grated pecorino cheese.

A pumpkin dip was a revelation: the squash cooked slowly over embers then whipped until silky smooth and enlivened with a kick of pomegranate molasses and chilli, plus a scattering of walnuts to add crunch.

We shared a mushroom mixed grill – their meatless take on a kebab-shop feast. (They do serve meat here, but vegetables take centre stage).

Even our dessert had us dissecting the dish to reveal its components: a scoop of ice cream infused with clementine leaf and lubricated with olive oil and limoncello with a final garnish of sea salt.

The new head chef is called Andy Frantzeskos, and we watched his team at work in the open kitchen with a fire pit operated with cranks and pulleys.

In the dining room itself, the shelves are lined with Kilner jars stuffed with anything from pickled kumquats to cheong, a fermented fruit syrup from Korea.

The room is a beautiful piece of interior design, with a central island bar, curved bright red sofas and tables hewn from thick slabs of oak.

With its hardcore attitude to provenance, food waste and root-to-tip cooking, Rovi could feel rather worthy and humourless.

But the reality is quite the opposite. The place was buzzing when we popped in – a triumph of both style and substance.

Rovi
59 Wells Street, W1A
contact@rovirestaurant.com
020 3963 8270
www.ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/locations/rovi