Ikoyi, St James ★★★★★

West African-inspired food with British produce cooked by Jeremy Chan, a Chinese-Canadian chef who has cooked at Noma, Hibiscus and Heston Blumenthal’s dinner exemplifies just how cosmopolitan London’s food scene is now. This is brilliant, thoughtful cooking and unlike anything tried before.

A snack of buttermilk-soaked fried plantain looked dramatic scattered with vivid scarlet smoked Scotch Bonnet pepper and the combination of spicy heat and sticky sweetness is quite addiction. Octopus is served as an aromatic spiced broth scattered wth salty sea herbs and served with smoky char-grilled tentacle. Best of all is an exceptional pancake called sinasir made with cooked and uncooked rice, sorghum wheat, yoghurt and a little sugar, long fermented, coated in katsuobushi and fried. It has an intense umami flavour rather akin to a toasted cheese sandwich yet the texture of a crumpet and is served with a rich cuttlefish and calf’s tongue ragu. Chicken jollof rice made with chicken and cuttlefish stock, barbecued onions served with smoked bone marrow has a mesmerizing intensity too.

Aside from the brilliant food presenting Nigerian food in a totally new light and aimable service led by Ire Hassan-Odukale, every dish is presented on striking ceramic plates by Jess Joslin and Owen Wall with striking black cutlery. The interior is very cool too with alabaster, plywood and striking mural. .Even cocktails have a West Indian slant: plantain Old Fashioned and cassava sours. Enjoy the thrill of something truly different!

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£100+ dinner for two with wine