DSTRKT, 9 Rupert Street, London W1D 6DG

Finding myself in London most weekends, I have signed up to emails from Bookatable.com. The gist is this: they send you daily offers from restaurants of all kinds and you book through their platform. One assumes they get a commission for this, but whether they do or not some of the deals are very good.

One that particularly caught my eye, was for the brand new uber cool DSTRKT in Piccadilly. I knew it was uber cool as: 1) They had drafted in a chef from Beverley Hills called George Yaneff who is an inter continental fusion chef that favours the molecular gastronomy approach. 2) The place cost a cool £25 million to put together 3) Jay Rayner hated it (though I do like his reviews).

The menu was intriguing, and at £40 for 5 courses and matching wines, was a steal. I will admit that portions were of the minuscule variety, some could even be considered canapes, but there were two parts to each course and the cooking was to an extremely high standard.

To make things easy, to follow is the menu we tucked into, word for word:
Maldon Rock Oysters with Lemon Air Yellow fin tuna cubes, soy air and avocado mousse 2010 Espirit de Serame
Seared Scottish Scallops with English pea puree, olive oil powder and preserved lemon Saudi Prawns with charred scallions oil
2010 Summerhouse Savignon Blanc
Grilled flat bread salad with Macadamia nut pest, baby rocket, fresh goats cheese, olives, sweet peppers and tomatoes
2011 La Bastide AOC
Scottish Rib Eye Steak with Talisker sauce Wild mushrooms with Egg 63 degrees, fresh herbs and Macadamia nuts
2009 Clos de los Siete
Chocolate S'Mores, cider sabayon, chocolate custard, gram cracker crumble Selection of sorbet and ice creams
2006 Chateau Ricard

Now, for me to review that little lot I would be here all day. What I can say is that every dish was excellent. Executed to perfection, with superb presentation and enough to keep even the most discerning palate interested. Apart from the flat bread salad which was unremarkable and almost felt out of place. Service was also top notch, in fact, apart from the waiting staff explaining each course we hardly noticed they were there and certainly had no need to call on them. In terms of ambience, this may be why it will not appeal to everyone. It is dark, very dark and also minimalist. In fact, you wouldn't know it was there unless directed. There is also an extremely smart club as part of the complex and as it got later, the music was cranked right up. We liked this, though my instant thoughts on this were that it would certainly not be somewhere I would bring clients or my father for that matter. As we left there was what appeared to be a girl band, complete with entourage in the foyer and we read the next day that Lewis Hamilton had also visited that evening. So if celeb (god, I hate that word) hangouts aren't your thing, then probably best to steer clear. That said, there is a lot on offer here and I think I will return. A quick heads up for you too, is that tbey currently have a 12 course taster menu for £49 on the website mentioned above......food for thought, even if there isn't that much of it!
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TheLa