Chishuru

Adejoké (Joké) Bakare studied biology in Nigeria but also ran a fish and chip shop. After moving to London, she started a supper club, out of which grew the restaurant Chishuru. This relocated in September 2023 to Fitzrovia after originally opening in Brixton in 2020. Chishuru was awarded a Michelin star in the 2024 guide. The dining area is split over two levels and can seat 65 guests in total. At lunch, there is a set menu for £40 available only, which expands in the evening to a longer menu at £75 per person.

The all-French (and heavily low intervention) wine list had 47 labels and ranged in price from £35 to £183, with a median price of £70 and an average markup to retail price of 2.4 times, which is very generous by the current standards of central London. Sample references were Château St Cyrgues Costières de Nîmes 2022 at £39 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £13, Clos Messemé Saumur Puy Notre Dame 2020 at £60 compared to its retail price of £31, and Domaine Douhairet-Porcheret Monthélie Miss Armande 2021 at £83 for a wine that will set you back £32 in the high street. For those with the means there was Les Dolomies Croix Sarrant 2022 at £96.5 compared to its retail price of £22, and Marthe Henry Pommard 2020 at £183 for a wine whose current market value is £99. I recommend the Sylvain Pataille Aligote Clos du Roy 2019, which was excellent with our meal (it was on the list at £110 for a wine that costs £65 in a shop, but is quite hard to find).

Sinasir was a kind of rice cake, where the rice is fermented in the kitchen, topped with a mushroom puree, walnuts, black garlic paste, diced portobello mushrooms, pink pickled onions and grains of paradise (a spice in the ginger family). This had a pleasing mix of textures but was a little bland, which was curious given the liberal use of spice in other dishes that we tried (13/20).

Ekoki was a steamed corn cake with coconut cream, dates and tamarind paste with candied chilli. This had a quite lively kick of chilli, which was a good plan since even with the tamarind there is only so much flavour that can be extracted from corn – you really need other flavours to enliven it, as they did here (14/20). A dish called “asun” of goat belly used a former dairy goat butchered in the kitchen (supplied by a Welsh farmer called Tom Jones), which was glazed with a stock reduction and served with a pepper relish. This was again spicy and the goat meat had plenty of flavour (14/20). 

My favourite dish was charcoal-grilled guinea fowl breast with caramelised onion and lemon sauce and a yaji (a spice rub made with peanuts, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger, salt and onion) sauce. The guinea fowl was carefully cooked and had plenty of flavour, and was nicely enlivened by the spice mix (15/20). 

Fonio grain (a cultivated grass) ice cream with custard of carob, peanut and a covering coconut crisp was harmless enough, though I didn’t think it was as interesting s the savoury courses (13/20). Similarly, adessert of chocolate torte with uda seed spice, clementine, burnt butter ice cream and oat crumb was pleasant enough if a bit too dense in texture, and probably won't be making the pastry section at Pic too nervous (13/20). Coffee was just basic Nespresso capsules; seemingly there is little demand for anything more ambitious on the coffee front.

Service was led by the capable Matt Paice, who in the past ran the excellent Killer Tomato (RIP). Matt also designed the wine list. The bill came to £145 per person with plenty of wine to drink, though if you shared a modest bottle between two then a typical bill at lunch might be more like £80 all in, or £120 per person in the evening. Chishuru offers lively and interesting dishes that reflect the broad culinary influences that London is so fortunate to have. I very much enjoyed the experience.