The Cocochine

I have written previously about The Cocochine and the background of its executive chef, Larry Jayasekara. One of the unusual features of this restaurant is that one of its investors owns a large thousand acre farm (Rowler Estate in Northumberland) and also Tanera island off the west coast of Scotland in the inner Hebrides, which has a fishing port. The restaurant gets first pick of all the produce from the farm and the island. The tasting menu was £189, with a three-course menu (plus canapés) at £140. You could have a wine pairing at £171 or a prestige wine pairing at £361, but we opted to choose from the list. We drank a bottle of Thomas Morey Chassagne Montrachet Les Baudines 2023 and the superb Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial, which was quite a treat, and priced at about twice its retail cost. 

The meal began with a selection of canapés. An upmarket cheese and onion cracker was topped with golden oscietra caviar. Mashed potatoes are spread very thinly in trays and dehydrated. Strips of these are cut and deep fried. Cream cheese is seasoned with home-made onion powder (onion from Rowler farm) and then the crisp is topped with golden oscietra caviar, from a private supplier in Paris). This is an excellent dish, the salinity of the caviar a good combination with the richness of the cream cheese, while the thin fried potatoes added a pleasing texture contrast.

Coronation wild tiger prawns crisp was the next canape, served with kafir lime. A coronation-style mix is made using diced Rowler farm apples, curry leaves, home-made curry mayonnaise, Earl Grey tea-soaked raisins, toasted nibbed almonds and coriander. This is all mixed with wild tiger prawns and served on a thin crisp, dusted with toasted curry powder and pink shiso leaves from the farm. Coronation chicken is a well proven crowd pleaser, and this version with tiger prawns works equally well (canapes 17/20). There were also a couple of snacks. One was a bowl of nuts that had been mixed with curry leaves and chilli flakes, which was very tasty. A new snack was crudite of radishes with a yogurt dip with quince puree, chives and tarragon oil. There was also a welcome drink of fresh apple juice from the Rowler farm with lemon verbena oil.

Two breads were offered: onion brioche and sourdough. The home-made brioche uses flour from Rowler farm, the bread laminated four times then layered with caramelised onions and thyme julienne of curry leaves and a touch of roasted cardamom powder. This is baked and at each service the bread is lightly steamed, to produce a very soft warm bread. Once this emerges from the steam it is glazed with brown butter and sea salt. The sourdough is made by starting with a porridge from oats and barley then added to the mother dough. The 95% hydration gives an airy texture yet with a thin crust. Once the bread is baked it is glazed with kithul (sap made from a palm tree flower in Sri Lanka) and sea salt. This is served with Normandy butter. These are both high class breads. 

Ceylon crab curry salad was the first formal course of the meal. A mix of Dorset crab and king crab are diced with natural yogurt, curry leaves, lime zest, and diced apple that is grown on Rowler farm. This is topped with apple jelly, naran (a small lime that is from the same family as kalamansi), coriander and flowers from the farm. This is finished with Ceylon crab consommé that is chilled. A Ceylon crab curry is made using blue crab from Sri Lanka (sourced from the Sri Lankan market in Wembley) then clarified to be a consommé. This dish has delicate texture, the acidity of the apple balancing the natural sweetness of the crab, while the crab consommé gives depth to the dish (17/20).

The next course was a huge XXL hand-dived scallop with pickled cloudberries, and pandan and coconut sauce. The scallop, caught off Tanera Island, is roasted on one side only then baked in the oven to medium rare. This is topped with chives, lemon zest and grated scallop roe, garnished with kelp and fresh black truffle. A sauce is made based on a Sri Lanka sauce called “Kiri Hodi”. This comprises onions, tomatoes, curry leaves, pandan leaves garlic, turmeric, curry powder, coconut milk and lemon juice. The kitchen follows the follow same process with the addition of white wine, the sauce being blended with dry scallop skirts to achieve more flavour. As a new element, on the side is the roe of the scallop brined for ten minutes with salt and then poached in pandan sauce seasoned with dry kombu, onions, chives, lemon zest, and citrus gel. This new element worked really well, the citrus balancing the roe. The main scallop itself had lovely natural sweetness, and was a joy to eat. I have never seen larger scallops than the ones served here. Of course, it helps if you have your own Scottish island and get first pick of all the shellfish (17/20). 

A new dish was beef tartare. This used 40 day dry-aged beef, egg yolk, biquinho chilli from Brazil, golden oscietra caviar and nasturtium leaves. Hand cut dry aged sirloin of beef was sourced from Rowler farm, seasoned with classic dressing, pickled biquinho puree, confit egg yolks, golden oscietra caviar and finished with nasturtium leaves and baby potato crisps. This was a really superb beef tartare, the balance of seasoning very pleasing, the flavour of the beef excellent, the caviar adding salinity and the carefully controlled warmth of the chillies lifting the flavour of the dish. This dish reminded me of a sophisticated beef tartare that I ate many years ago at Celler de Can Roca (18/20).

Next was roasted wild turbot with spiced coconut and wild tiger prawn sauce. With turbot, the bigger the fish the better the flavour as a rule: little 2kg turbots that often turn up on London plates have very little flavour. In this case the fillet came from a whopping 12.6kg wild turbot caught near Tanera Island. This was aged for about four days then seasoned with home-made curry powder, spices and seaweed powder. This was garnished with Sri Lankan coconut sambal, lime juice, thin potato crisps, garden herbs and a pool of wild tiger prawn sauce with lemon verbena oil. On the side was a kind of turbot and beef bolognaise using the turbot trimmings and beef trimmings with tomato, onion, celery, carrots, chilli and fish stock, all blended and used to flavour a seaweed brioche  

A tried and tested dish here a Sri Lankan take on kedgeree, this version using banana leaf barbecued native lobster, with tomato and tamarind rice pot and soft poached quail egg. The native lobsters are caught around Tanera Island, typically weighting around 400-500g. These are blanched in seaweed for a minute or two and plunged into ice water. The shells are removed and the lobster meat is wrapped in a Sri Lankan banana leaf. This is barbecued over Japanese binchotan charcoal and glazed with ginger and lobster sauce. To finish there is micro planed fresh lime zest and citrus gel. Finally, there is a rice pot with tomato, lobster, fresh tamarind sauce. The rice used is called Samba rice from Sri Lanka that is partly boiled and cooked in spiced lobster stock. To this is added butter, lobster claw meat, soft poached quail egg, micro coriander and a lobster and citrus emulsion. This is a lovely dish, the lobster being very tender and the ginger and lobster sauce flavouring the rice (17/20). 

The final savoury course was 16-20 day dry aged loin of lamb (again sourced from Rowler farm), parsley puree, confit Datterini tomatoes (a sweet variety of plum tomato) and black pepper relish, roasted lamb and tomato jus. The lamb is dry-aged on the bone and marinated with butter milk, toasted coriander and rosemary for two days to further tenderise the meat. The meat is roasted and glazed with fresh tamarind, then topped with black pepper chutney. This is served with confit Datterini tomatoes, parsley and onion purée. The dish is finished with roast lamb and tomato jus. This jus is based on a  

veal stock with roasted veal knuckles, onions, carrots, celery, garlic and thyme that is covered in white chicken stock and cooked for 24 hours. The veal stock is added to the roasted lamb bones and cooked for a further 8 hours, and reduce consistency. This forms the base for the sauce. Next, the kitchen roasts the lamb trimmings, carrots, banana shallots, garlic, leeks, celery, covers with veal and lamb stock and cooks this for three hours. To this is added fresh tomatoes, thyme, rosemary and reduced white wine, cooked for a further half an hour and and pass through a sieve. The flavour is adjusted with lemon juice, salt, and roasted lamb fat. As can be seen, there is a great deal of effort that goes into the sauce, and this really showed up in the flavour, which was deep and went really well with the meat, which had very good flavour and was lightly cooked to a pink colour. This was a seasonal and very enjoyable celebration of spring lamb (17/20).

Pre dessert was Sri Lankan pineapple, lime and lemongrass sorbet, coriander oil, sea salt, finger lime, and Sri Lankan long red chilli flakes. At the base of the cup in which it was served were fresh diced pineapple and lime segments. This dish is a nod to vendors in Asia, who sell mangoes or pineapple with salt and chilli to travellers. This dish works very well as a pre-dessert, as it is very refreshing, which is surely the whole point of a pre dessert. The balance of salt and chilli along with the acidity of the fruit is carefully balanced (16/20). 

The main dessert was wattalapam, a Sri Lankan crème caramel. This version is steamed, with jaggery, eggs, and coconut cream infused with nutmeg, vanilla and wild cardamom. This is topped with jaggery caramel, crème fresh ice cream and finished with some golden oscietra caviar. The latter is a touch that you won’t find in Sri Lanka, but adding caviar to dessert is all the rage at the moment. Whether you like it or not, this can be blamed on Bruno Verjus. This was a nicely made dessert that I think would work equally well without the caviar (16/20).

Service was charming. The bill came to exactly £1,000 a head but that was mostly the lovely wine. If you had the cheaper menu and ordered modestly from the wine list then a typical cost per person might be around £215 with mineral water, coffee and service. This was another really fine meal here, with a level of quality of produce that is virtually unknown in London, even at multi starred restaurants.

Further reviews: 10th Mar 2026 | 22nd Jan 2026 | 11th Dec 2025 | 18th Nov 2025 | 09th Sep 2025 | 15th May 2025 | 22nd Mar 2025 | 05th Apr 2024