The Cocochine

I have written previously about the background of Cocochine and also its executive chef and part owner, Larry Jayasekra. One thing that sets Cocochine apart is that one of its investors (financier Ian Wace) owns the 1,100-acre Rowler Farm in Northamptonshire, which raises cattle and deer as well as vegetables. The same investor also owns a private island called Tanera off Scotland, whose port is used to fish shellfish and fish, the pick of which is sent to Cocochine.

Today we had the tasting menu, which was priced at £189 per person. A wine pairing was available at £171 and a premium one at £361. If you opted for the tasting menu and standard wine pairing then you would pay £360 plus service. There was also a shorter menu at £150. If you opted for the shorter menu and shared a modest bottle of wine then a typical cost per person might be around £220 all in. There was also a set lunch menu at £45 for three courses, so you could eat for much less by taking advantage of this, which is quite a bargain given that it included dishes such as raviolo of lobster and prawn, a choice of main course of either wild sea trout or beef.

The meal today, which followed the tasting menu, began with a trio of canapes. A posh take on a cheese and onion cracker was topped with golden oscietra caviar. Mashed potato is spread very thinly in trays and dehydrated. Strips of these are cut and deep fried. Cream cheese is seasoned with home-made onion powder (using 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 texture contrast. Coronation wild tiger prawn crisp was the next canape, served with kaffir 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. There was also a take on the classic gougere. Here it is a light syphon-aerated beignet, filled with 36-month-aged Comté and black truffle sauce, then finished with a dusting of finely grated 40-to-72-month-aged Parmesan, all served warm. There was also a garden salad using various elements supplied from Rowler farm, including assorted herbs and seasonal vegetables. There was also a fine venison tartare, the meat from sika deer had been aged fifteen days, nicely seasoned and having a touch of warmth from Tabasco. These are high-class canapes (17/20).

Both of the breads served here are made in the kitchen from scratch. Brioche uses flour from Rowler farm, the bread being laminated four times then layered with caramelised onions and a 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 excellent breads. 

The first formal course was Ceylon crab. 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 a 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).

A huge scallop (caught in the waters off Tanera island) was served with a lightly spiced coconut and pandan leaf sauce. The scallop, caught off Tanera Island, is roasted on one side only and 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. The sauce is based on a Sri Lankan 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 same process with the addition of white wine, the sauce being blended with dried 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 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 (17/20). Next was wild sea bass with spiced sabayon. The fish itself was accurately cooked with a crisp skin and had excellent flavour, and I really liked the quite lively spiced sabayon sauce. Sea bass is quite a robust fish and can easily stand up to a bit of spice (17/20).

This was followed by a take on kedgeree, in this case using native lobster that is barbecued at the counter on a banana leaf before being added to the rice.  The rice element is a tomato and tamarind rice pot and soft poached quail egg. The native lobsters are caught around Tanera Island, typically weighing 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 finely grated fresh lime zest and citrus gel. Finally, there is a rice pot with tomato, lobster, and 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 sika deer (from Rowler farm) with black pepper and a red wine sauce. The sika deer had superb flavour, and the sauce was deep and rich. This was a relatively simple dish, but the quality of the meat was very high and the sauce was superb (18/20).

The pre-dessert was a Sri Lankan pineapple with chilli. This involved 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 street vendors in Asia, who sell mangoes or pineapple with salt and chilli to travellers. This dish works very well 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 crème caramel with caviar, but a Sri Lankan version called wattalapam. 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 trend for caviar for dessert can be blamed on Bruno Verjus. This was a nicely made dessert that I think would work equally well without the caviar (15/20).

Service was excellent throughout. Cocochine continues to deliver some of the most interesting high-end food in London. The restaurant’s unique access to its own large farm and Scottish fishing port means that the ingredients here are top notch: today the huge scallop, wild bass and sika deer were examples of this. This is combined with the unusual blend of classical French cooking with Sri Lankan touches to reflect the background of the chef. This distinctive Sri Lankan thread throughout the dishes does not just set the food here apart: they are incorporated with considerable skill. The classical French training of the chef/owner means that the spices are skilfully used to enhance the lovely product, rather than being a gimmick. The use of spices in French cooking is not unique: Olivier Roellinger used to use spices at his superb three-star Michelin restaurant. Here they form a key part of the journey through the menu, and represent an original way to reflect the chef’s background. It is surreal that Cocochine does not have a Michelin star, since it is outperforming many multi-starred places in the capital.

Further reviews: 29th Jul 2026 | 05th May 2026 | 10th Mar 2026 | 22nd Jan 2026 | 11th Dec 2025 | 18th Nov 2025 | 09th Sep 2025 | 15th May 2025 | 22nd Mar 2025 | 05th Apr 2024