Flat Three's *Exquisite* Japanese, Korean & British Inspired 5-Course Menu

 Name: Flat Three

Address: 120-122, Holland Park Ave, Notting Hill, London, W11 4UA, https://flatthree.london/

Cost: 5-course tasting menu (with 2 additional appetiser courses) at £59pp with an optional sake and wine pairing for £49pp. There is a lunch menu priced at £33pp on Fridays and Saturdays (when you are welcome to bring your dog(s) with you).

About: Opened in 2015 by Juliana Moustakas, a Korean-American and former London City banker, Flat Three is a restaurant that is tricky to label – think top notch British produce with touches of Japan, Korea and Scandinavia and you are in the right direction, but Flat Three is much more than just a label.

Flat Three refers to Juliana’s home in Holland Park where she used to host her supper club. It was here that Juliana developed her ideas and recipes and hatched her plan to open Flat Three a year after leaving investment banking. Today, Head Chef Joseph Timarchi, a Peruvian who grew up in the USA, leads the kitchen while Juliana oversees the front of house and the wine and sake offerings. More on the exceptional wine and sake pairing in the What We Drank section below.

Timarchi is an avid forager and is the man responsible for much of the fermentation taking place at Flat Three – they make their own miso, natto, garum (fish sauce) and vinegars and countless number of pickles. In fact, Kathrin, the restaurant manager, tells me that there was little if any wastage of ingredients as lockdown was announced – mushrooms were dehydrated, vegetables were fermented into pickles, vinegars were created and aged. Incredible.

The food at Flat Three is innovative and thought-provoking – I love Timarchi’s lightness of touch, and how he incorporates Japanese and Korean ingredients into his non-Asian cooking where nothing seems forced or out of place. Though the ingredients are the real star here - they take pride in sourcing some of the best produce available in the UK, and rightly so, as the quality really shines through.

If you are one of those culinary purists who think everything should taste like your granny’s cooking, perhaps Flat Three is not for you. But if you have an interest in knowing about your shoyu from your Italian garum or your Korean kimchi from your Japanese dashi in dishes that combine them in perfect harmony, you will be in for a treat at Flat Three.

What We Ate: We opted for the 5-course tasting menu with the wine and sake pairing. Menus change seasonally and most of the below dishes plus many others are also available a la carte.

We started with a delightful tartlet made of Japanese kombu and buckwheat flour topped with a brunoise of raw yuzu-marinated courgette, marigold dressing and Shungiku leaves (edible chrysanthemum). The pastry was crisp, toasty and delicate, the yuzu marinating subtle.

Next up was the bread course in the form of grilled ‘mochi’ flat bread with house-cured salmon and wild garlic capers foraged by the chef (during lockdown). A kind of Japanese blini or crumpet, it was made from glutinous rice flour, wheat flour and yeast. It had a lovely toasty, caramelized outer layer and a creamy, chewy interior. This was a great dish.

Heritage tomato and gooseberries came dressed in homemade Tosazu (a Japanese dressing of fermented rice vinegar, bonito flakes and kombu, here enriched with roasted tomato skins) topped with wafer thin toasted rice crackers and Shungiku petals (edible chrysanthemum). A flavour and texture explosion, this was my favourite dish until I tried the octopus below.

Timarchi’s charred octopus and courgettes glazed with smoked pork fat in a kimchi dashi, with fennel flowers and wild garlic was one of the most exquisite dishes I have eaten for quite a while – the dashi and the plump, soft octopus pieces were bursting with intense umami flavours, the sourness and refreshing acidity of the kimchi offsetting the richness of the lardo so exquisitely. Perfection on a plate.

Wild seabass cured for 2 days in salt, was firm and well textured, served with Kabu (Japanese radish leaf) and Shiso (one of the most popular of Japanese herbs, similar to a cross between basil and mint), in a rich creamy dashi flavoured with chilli and garlic.

Equally good was the Sussex chicken, cooked sous vide, served with charred Kabu (Japanese radish leaves), brown butter and chicken fat. The chicken was plump and succulent, the jus rich and full of savoury flavour, I could not help using my spoon to lap up every last drop of this heavenly sauce. An excellently judged dish.

Dessert was milk ice cream made with pokeweed custard (a native American plant from which the berries are used for their red colour and flavour), with whey caramel and a tahini-like sunflower seed sauce. With flavours of Ovaltine, and a light, refreshing texture, this was an original dessert to end a well-accomplished dinner.

What We Drank: A wine connoisseur, Juliana put together a wine and sake pairing for us that was exceptional on many levels – classic French wines, alongside American and other New World bottles all interspaced by some excellent Japanese Junmai sakes. Juliana knows many of the wine producers personally and had always some interesting anecdote to tell about each of their wines. It was evident that much thought that had gone into those pairings. The wine pairing is priced at £49pp.

There is a wide range of wines and sakes available by the glass and bottle, apart from the wine and sake flight. On Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, it is BYOB with £15 corkage per bottle, maximum 2 bottles per table.

With our tartlet amuse bouche with started with a sake aperitif - a floral Junmai from Miyazaki prefecture, this was aromatic and with a rich, creamy finish.

This was followed by Chanin, a Chardonnay from Santa Maria vineyard, Rita Hills in California, made by Gavin Chanin, who paints his own labels. Oaked, rich and aromatic with citrus and stone fruit flavours, it had a very long finish.

Next up was a biodynamic orange wine - Gut Oggau Timotheus Weiss 2015 from Austria, a blend of Grüner Veltliner and Weissbergunder. A cloudy, unfiltered orange wine, this had a savoury quality.

Our 2nd sake of the evening was Akitabare Daiginjo, “Moonstone” – a rich and aromatic yet pure and light sake.

With our chicken main, we had a Southern Burgundy Ruilly 1er Cru from Jean-Baptiste Ponceau. Rich, complex with well integrated oak, flint, and cedar, this was a fine example of a top white Burgundy.

Dessert was served with a 3rd and final sake - a Koshi no Kanbai, Sai “Blue River” from Niigata. Enjoyed as a Spring drink to celebrate plum blossom season in Japan, this sake had notes of caramel and a rich, savoury finish though refreshing and clean on the palate. This was a great pairing to the lightness and not overly sweet dessert by Timarchi.

Likes: wonderful, thought-provoking food, dog-friendly restaurant (on Fridays and Saturdays at lunchtime only), BYO on Tue, Wed and Thu (max 2 bottles at £15 corkage/bottle), fantastic wine pairing, super friendly and knowledgeable service, loved how the 5-course menu turned out to be a 7-course menu and at £59 for that quality of cooking and ingredients, it is a real steal!

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: Exquisite Japanese, Korean and British inspired dishes that are packed with umami flavour and gorgeously presented. I truly cannot fault a single one, Flat Three’s tasting menu just got better and better after each course. Probably one of my favourite London restaurants right now, I cannot wait to return and try the other dishes on their menu. Very highly recommended.

Galvin at Windows - A Korean Tasting Menu by Head-Chef Joo Won

Name: Galvin at Windows

Where: 28th Floor, London Hilton on Park Lane, 22 Park Lane, London, W1K 1BE, http://www.galvinatwindows.com/

Cost: The 6-course Korean tasting menu costs £115 (or with wine pairings at £169, or including wine pairings and a welcome cocktail at £189)

About: Entry to Galvin at Windows could hardly be more dramatic. Situated on the 28th floor of the famous Hilton Hotel on swanky Park Lane, the lift whisked us from the hotel's lobby in a matter of seconds, to be greeted by a spectacular view over Hyde Park to Knightsbridge, Kensington and Bayswater.

Opened in 2006, Galvin at Windows, at the top of Park Lane's Hilton Hotel, was awarded a Michelin star in 2010. Korean Head Chef Joo Won has been at the restaurant since the start, and has made his way through the ranks from Commis to Head Chef, which he achieved in 2013.

Now for the month of October 2016, Chef Joo Won is presenting a special Korean menu featuring some classic dishes from his home country. We were there to try his Korean inspired 6-course tasting menu.

What We Ate and Drank: We opted for the Menu Degustation Deluxe, which included a Korean Soju Sour cocktail. With apple juice, cucumber, a drop of bitters and egg white, this was strong and refreshing, with crisp acidity from the green apple.
  

With the cocktail we enjoyed a couple of amuse bouche – they were chilli spiced chicken and some light and delicately flavoured kimchi arancini. To follow we also had a clear, flavoursome fish soup with clam, tofu, spring onion, chilli and radish.

The first starter was raw Orkney scallops served with soy bean puree, confit ginger, crushed peanuts, chilli and nori powder. Cleverly conceived, this had great texture and heat from the crunchy peanut and chillies against the delicate raw scallop.

It was served with a glass of Bekseju, Kooksoondan, Korea. This blend of aged rice wine, ginseng and herbs was aromatic, with a herbaceous and vegetal nose, with oxidised overtones which reminded me of a Sercial dry madeira. I thoroughly enjoyed it by itself, but its flavour profile was transformed by the pairing with the scallop, taking on rich and complex caramel-like notes.

The salad of raw crispy vegetable was next - we loved the the combination of raw and tempura vegetables with sweet, chilli and herbaceous sauces (chilli dressing, sweet soy and seaweed emulsion) and with an excellent balance of texture and flavour. The salad had a mix of different ingredients including baby carrot, onion, cucumber, radish, Padron pepper, mushroom, tempura-style spring onion and glazed fig.

With it, we were served a glass of Vouvray, Domain Champalou, Loire Valley, France 2015. Made from the Chenin Blanc grape, this was a well-made, off dry wine, with quince and pear on the palate.

The seared foie gras, served on toasted brioche, with mushroom fricassee, red wine jus, elderberries and blackberries had kimchi as the Korean touch. Delicious as it was, I did not feel the creamy foie gras was a great match to the spicy kimchi.

To partner the foie gras, the menu matched a glass of Soju- Hwayo 25% and home-fermented plum juice. This had quite an alcoholic burn, but was rich and semi-sweet. I enjoyed it as drink, but with the foie gras, the combination was noticeably greater than the sum of the parts.

The main course was marinated Iberico pork bulgogi, with barbecued chilli squid and cucumber salad, served with flaxseed rice, soy and spring onion. The pork (pluma cut) was soft and rich with great marbling (though a tad overcooked, the best way of eating Iberico pluma is medium rare in my opinion), the squid was however tender and spicy.

The pork was paired with a deliciously silky glass of Pinot Noir Jubilee, from Hugel, Alsace, France 2009.

Pre-dessert was a Greek yoghurt sorbet with pine nut, blackberry and shiso granita. The sorbet was refreshingly light, and the shizo granita delicate and herbaceous.

We finished with a magnificent Korean dessert of white chocolate and deonjang cremeaux (made from soy), with Castella sponge (ultra-light Portuguese sponge cake, much loved in Asia), caramelised red bean, pomegranate and pumpkin ice cream. I am not a dessert person but for me this was the highlight of our meal – light, creamy, and not overly sweet, it had a great combination of unexpected flavours and wonderful textures.

To accompany it we had a glass of Korean Myungjak Bokbunja, Kooksoondang. Made from fermented raspberry and wild strawberry, this was 13 per cent alcohol. To my palate, it was a naive drink - fresh and very fruity, but devoid of acidity, complexity or interest. 

Likes: Our favourite dishes were the crispy vegetable salad, the Orkney scallop and the magnificent Korean dessert. Service was excellent.

Dislikes: None. 

Verdict: We thoroughly enjoyed chef Joo Won’s cooking and his refined Korean-French tasting menu, dishes were well conceived and faultlessly executed. If you would like to try his Korean tasting menu at Galvin at Windows, you will need to hurry, as it is only available during October 2016. Recommended.

Little Venice Gangnam Style at Gogi Korean Bar & Grill

Name: Gogi Korean Bar & Grill       

Where: 451 Edgware Road, Little Venice, London, W2 1TH, 

http://www.gogi-restaurant.com

Cost: Starters range from £4.90 to £15.50, main courses from £8.90 to £28.50, desserts are £6.90.

About: Opened in 2013, Gogi (Korean for 'meat') is on the busy Edgware Road, next to the Regent's Canal, and more or less opposite London's only Burmese restaurant Mandalay (reviewed here).

It is open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner, and it aims to serve authentic Korean meats and seafood, barbecued at your table, as well as a range of Korean staple dishes. It has a modern setting of bare brick walls, decorated in part by antique wood panels, as well as stainless steel extractor hoods over each table in an authentic Korean style I recognised from dining in Seoul.

Lighting is low, soothing, and much of it comes from cleverly concealed red strip lights. Large glass windows help to soak up the atmosphere from leafy Little Venice, making it also a great place for people watching.

What We Ate: As regular readers of this site will know, I am always on the lookout for good steak tartare, so I could not resist the Yuk Hwe (Korean steak tartare, £12.00). Gogi's version combined thinly shredded raw beef seasoned with sesame oil, served with julienned pear and an egg yolk.  This was a great start to our meal – it was fresh, well seasoned and with a refreshing crunch from the pear.

We had side dishes of Modum Kimchi (assorted cabbage, radish and cucumber kimchi, £5.90) and Modum Namul (spinach, radish, courgette and mushroom seasoned with garlic and sesame oil, £5.90), both of which were refreshing and palate cleansing.

To follow, we had Yang Yeum Chicken (£8.50); this was battered and deep fried, and served with a sweet chilli sauce.  This was disappointing - the sauce was gloopy and sweet and not spicy enough for my taste, while the batter was excessively thick, making up about 50% of each bite, and not very crispy. This is one of my favourite Korean dishes, and one I always order.

Next we had a Korean grilled barbeque, choosing the 'L.A. Galbi' (£9.90). This consisted of two slivers of beef ribs on the bone, which was barbecued on the grill set into our table.

In my opinion the quantity of beef was meagre given the price tag and considering that more than half of it was bone. We ate the ribs with a dipping sauce, wrapped up in fresh lettuce leaves with carrots and cucumber for an extra £3.50.

More successful was the Chicken Dolsot Bibimbap (£12.50). This Korean classic, served in an eartheware pot, comes with rice, sautéed seasoned vegetables, raw egg yolk and red chilli paste, the whole lot being mixed together at the table. It is one of my favourite Korean dishes, and Gogi's was excellent.

To finish our meal, we shared a portion of Tteok and Soojeaonggwa. This is a Korean rice cake, with a chilled cinnamon drink (£6.90). The rice cake was very much like a Japanese mochi, and had a delicious, intensely chocolate-flavoured mousse inside. I loved it. Even better was the Soojeaonggwa. This is a traditional Korean fruit punch, made from dried persimmons, cinnamon and ginger, garnished with pine nuts. It was my first time tasting this drink, but I'm a sucker for anything with cinnamon, and I savoured every drop.

What We Drank: We shared a bottle of Chianti Riserva 2009, Teuzzo, from Cecchi (£25.50). This was eminently quaffable and fruit-driven, without showing much complexity. The restaurant also serves a full range of cocktails, many given a Korean twist.

Likes: The setting is atmospheric, and the staff friendly and helpful with advice on ordering, grilling and even eating some of the more complex dishes. Some of the dishes were excellent, including the Korean steak tartare, the Bibimbap and the Korean rice cake (Tteok). 

Dislikes: While we loved the dessert, cinnamon drink and bibimbap, we felt that the Koren BBQ offered was a tad disappointing as was the not so crispy Yang Yeum chicken.

Verdict: A good local Korean restaurant for Little Venice and Maida Vale with some excellent dishes and great service. Recommended.

London Life October 2013: Food & Drink by Luiz Hara

Find out more about this year's London Restaurant Festival, try one of the fantastic Korean restaurants in Little Seoul or if French cuisine and wines are more like your thing, why not head to Terroirs or one of its sister restaurants in London. These are some of my foodie recommendations for Heathrow Express readers this month, to read more visit their website here.

Bibimbap at Hurwundeki

London Restaurant Reviews - Bibigo

Name: Bibigo

Where: 58-59 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7JY, info@bibigouk.com, tel: 020 7042 5225, http://bibigouk.com/

Cost: £25-£30 per person on average for a 3-course meal excluding drinks (starters priced from £4 to £8, main courses from £7 to £20, and desserts all priced at £5). There are 2-course lunch and dinner sets available at £9 and £12 respectively. Korea's national dish, Bibimbap served on a hot stone plate is priced at £9.

About: Led by head chef, Kim Yong Hwan (previously at Roka and Zuma), Bibigo in Soho is the European flagship restaurant for CJ, Korea's biggest food company. As well as being a 66 cover restaurant and cocktail bar, it also stocks a range of Bibigo Korean food products. Bibigo has several sister restaurants in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, China, Vietnam and Los Angeles, which focus on serving Bibimbap and other national dishes of Korea, at affordable prices.

The London branch is a modern, stylish restaurant on Great Marlborough Street, a stone's throw from Carnaby Street.  The busy open-plan kitchen is a spectacle for those who like watching the chefs in action. On the midweek evening we were there, it was packed with a mix of Korean and western clientele.

Spotlessly clean, open-plan kitchen at Bibigo

What We Ate: The new menu at Bibigo is well designed, every dish is beautifully photographed making it easier for those not too familiar with the cuisine to order their food. Most importantly, it is surprisingly affordable.

We started with a Bibigo Salad (£8), a lovely mix of fig, persimmon, baby spinach, fried lotus roots, cos lettuce and crispy rice crackers (nurungji), seasoned with a dressing made from bokbunja berry. This signature salad had a good combination of fruit and salad flavours, along with an interesting texture from the crunchy lotus roots and nurungji.
  

The Red Chicken (£6) was one of my favourite dishes of the meal - deep-fried chicken pieces seasoned with a red, kohot sauce were crunchy, sweet and spicy and totally moreish. They were served with deep fried tempura(ed) okra.  I am ordering two portions of this in my next visit!

Japchae (£6), one of Korea's most popular dishes, could not be missed. The delicious stir-fried glass noodles had a lovely sesame-charred flavour from the hot wok it was fried in, it was served with spinach, onion, pepper and thin slices of beef.
  

The Grilled Scallop with Truffle Yuja Dressing (£9) was another favourite. Fetchingly presented, this combined nicely seared scallops seasoned with a dressing made from the Korean citrus fruit - yuja (or yuzu in Japanese) and spiced, smoked pollock roe which had a similar taste to Japanese mentaiko, an ingredient I cannot have enough of.

The Beef steak Hache (£14) was a generous portion of char-grilled hand chopped short rib beef served with grilled rice cakes glazed with ginger and soy sauce . This was very good - the beef having the spicy- smoky, barbecued flavour I remember from similar dishes I tried in my latest visit to Seoul, and again it was well presented.

We had the beef with a Ssam Basket (£2), wrapped up in lettuce leaves and seasoned with kimchi, pickled cucumbers and soy bean dip.

For pudding Dr G and I shared a couple of their sweet offerings - we started with the Bibigo Goldfish (£5) - Goldfish shaped Korean waffle filled with red bean cream, very similar in presentation and flavour to the Japanese Taiyaki, served with almond crumble and vanilla ice cream.

We also had Hoddeok (£5) - a traditional sweet Korean pancake with vanilla ice cream which was equally nice.

What We Drank: We were pleasantly surprised by the wine choices and reasonable mark-ups on Bibigo's wine list, devised by the resident French sommelier Raphael Thierry. The restaurant also offers an interesting range of soju cocktails.

For this meal, we shared a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet Domain de Lauriers 2011 (£22).  We felt that the crisp, fresh acidity and minerality of the Picpoul were a good partner for the Korean dishes we had. At £22 this is well priced considering it retails online for about £8-9.

Likes: A stylish location for well-presented, reasonably priced authentic Korean food. Commendably, Bibigo has its own resident French sommelier, Raphael Thierry, the man behind the excellent range of wines of all prices available on the menu. The deep-fried red chicken and seared scallops with yuja and Korean mentaiko dishes are a must.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: Fresh, delicious and affordable Korean food in a stylish, modern restaurant in Central London. Great wine list. I cannot wait to return. Highly recommended.