The Cocochine

I have written previously about the background to The Cocochine and its head chef Larry Jayasekara. The restaurant is tucked away in Bruton Place, a quiet side street off Berkeley Square.

A trio of canapés began the meal.  A little doughnut was filled with 36-month-aged Comte cheese and black truffle sauce, topped with finely grated 60-month aged Parmesan from Bologna. The doughnut itself was made from wheat flour from the Rowler farm in Northamptonshire, owned by one of Cocochine’s investors. The doughnut is aerated with a syphon to get air into the doughnut and achieve a light effect, rather like a gougere. 

A tiny cheese and onion cracker was given the luxury treatment with caviar. Mashed potatoes are spread very thinly in trays, dehydrated and then cut into strips and deep fried. Cream cheese is seasoned with home-made onion powder (even the onions used are from Rowler farm) topped with golden oscietra caviar. The caviar is sourced from a private supplier in Paris.

The final canape was a tartlet of wild sea trout, which itself was caught from the Tanera Island off the west coast of Scotland, also owned by a Cocochine investor. The trout is seasoned with lime zest and light soy sauce, topped with trout washed in mirin and yuzu gel and chive batons. This illustrated the huge difference between the flavour of sea trout and the dismal river or chalk stream trout that generally is served at restaurants in London (17/20 canapes).

The onion brioche uses flour from the Rowler Farm; the bread is laminated four times. It is then layered with caramelised onions and thyme, julienne of curry leaves and a little roasted cardamom powder. The resulting bread is baked and then at each service it is lightly steamed to finish, resulting in very soft, warm bread. Finally, the roll is glazed with brown butter and sea salt. 

For the sourdough, a porridge is made from oats and barley, then added to the mother dough. The bread has 95% hydration, which gives an airy texture with a thin crust. Once we baked, this was glazed with kithul (a kind of treacle made from the sap of a palm tree flower in Sri Lanka) and sea salt. The bread rolls were served with a choice of two butters. One is a fresh Normandy butter with sea salt, and the second is whipped brown butter flavoured with crème fraiche and black truffle. 

The first formal course of the meal was based on organic eggs from Rowler farm that were scrambled, and offered with a coconut roti flavoured with sriracha. The eggs were the base to show off white truffles from Alba, which had recently come into season. These were grated at the table, having a glorious fragrance. I am a bit of a sucker for white truffles, so although this was a notionally simple dish it was lovely with the truffle fragrance permeating the scrambled egg. White truffles are an expensive luxury but when you get one that is fairly fresh from the ground and still has plenty of its intoxicating aroma, like this one, then it is easy to see why it fetches such a price (16/20).  

A little salad based on products from the Rowler farm had 56 ingredients. Presumably, this is a little tribute to the gargouillou dish at Michel Bras, where the chef worked. The dish had a mix of raw, pickled and cooked ingredients, and had a lovely balance of textures. There was just enough sharpness from the pickles to enliven the vegetables. It is hard to make a salad really interesting, but this one worked really well (17/20). 

This was followed by Ceylon crab curry salad. This is a traditional dish in Sri Lanka, Ceylon being the name for Sri Lanka before 1948. This version uses Dorset crab, king crab diced with natural yoghurt, curry leaves, lime zest, and diced apple topped with apple jelly. There is also naran, a small lime from the same family as kalamansi, with coriander and flowers. The lime, apples, herbs and flowers are all sourced from the same Rowler farm. The dish is then finished with Ceylon crab consommé that is chilled. This is made by using a blue crab from Sri Lanka (which is imported by a supplier in the Wembley Sri Lankan market) to make a broth, which is then clarified into a consommé (17/20).

This was followed by huge XXL langoustines caught around Tanera Island. These are poached in langoustine oil and finished on a Japanese barbecue. The shellfish are garnished with green lentils, seaweeds from Tanera Island and Jerusalem artichoke puree, using artichokes from Rowler farm. The dish is finished with a lightly spiced bisque, herbs and toasted cumin powder.

The langoustines used are unusually large, typically 390-420g in weight when whole. For the spiced bisque, the shells are roasted in a large pot of caramelised carrots, onions, garlic, celery, leeks and tomato. This is cooked and then deglazed with brandy. To this is added ground Sri Lankan wild cardamom, a little home-made curry powder and coconut cream. The roasted shells are added, and the langoustine heads are cooked separately in Riesling that is reduced, then these are added to the sauce. Finally, the sauce is garnished with lime leaves, lemongrass, basil and coriander, infused and then blended and passed through a fine sieve before being seasoned with lemon juice and sea salt. This was a superb dish, the langoustines themselves being exceptional in quality, the flesh sweet and tender, the subtle blend of spices enhancing the gorgeous langoustine (18/20).

Next was an enormous XXL hand-dived scallop caught near Tanera Island, along with bacon, pandan and coconut sauce. The scallop is roasted on one side, then baked in the oven to medium rare, topped with chives, lemon zest and grated scallop roe. This is garnished with kelp, Alsace bacon, pickled mushrooms and cloudberries and topped with curry sabayon. This Sri Lankan sauce, called “Kiri Hodi”, is traditionally made with onions, tomatoes, curry leaves, pandan leaves, garlic, turmeric, curry powder, coconut milk and lemon juice. The version here is elevated through the use of white wine and blended with dry scallop skirts to add deeper flavour. (17/20). 

The seafood courses continued with native lobster barbecued and cooked in a banana leaf with tomato and tamarind. Native lobsters from Tanera Island are used, typically 400-500g in weight. These are blanched in seaweed and iced water. The shells are removed, and the lobster flesh is wrapped in a Sri Lankan banana leaf before being barbecued over Japanese charcoal. This is glazed with ginger and lobster sauce, micro-planed fresh lime zest and citrus gel. It is finished with tomato, lobster and fresh tamarind sauce. On the side is fresh crème fraiche flavoured with herbs from the Rowler farm, in this case basil, lemon balm, lemon verbena, mustard and pea shoots. The lobster was beautifully cooked and was extremely tender, the citrus nicely contrasting with the natural sweetness of the shellfish meat, while the use of the barbecue added the subtlest hint of charcoal (18/20).

The final savoury course was Rowler Farm sika deer that had been dry-aged for 14-16 days. This was glazed with sloe berry puree, topped with black pepper and chilli paste, then garnished with Sri Lankan coconut sambal, beetroot soubise and nasturtium puree. The sauce was a bitter chocolate jus. To make this 100% bitter chocolate jus, veal knuckles are roasted until golden and added to the stock pot. These are combined with caramelised onions, carrots, leeks, celery and garlic, along with white peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme and fresh tomatoes. This is covered with white chicken stock and cooked slowly for 24 hours, then reduced to a thicker consistency. In a separate pot, six bottles of good-quality point noir are reduced to a syrup, and then to this red wine reduction, another 6 bottles are added and further reduced by half. Once the wine reduction is ready, it is added to the veal stock, along with caramelised shallots and roasted aged deer bones. This is cooked, and then beurre noisette is added along with red wine vinegar. The sauce is cooked further, passed through a sieve and seasoned with salt, black pepper. To finish, the 100% bitter chocolate is blended in, adding richness to the sauce. The use of chocolate in a rich sauce is not new in itself, and is partly inspired by Mexican mole sauce. I first encountered it in a French restaurant about thirty years ago. The sika deer had a gorgeous flavour and was flawlessly cooked. The sharpness of the beetroot nicely balanced the richness of the sauce. Again, the subtle use of spices in the coconut sambal enhanced the natural flavour of the venison (18/20).

A pescatarian alternative was Scottish extra-large (8.9kg) wild turbot with coconut sambal and lobster bisque. The wild turbot was caught in the waters near Tanera Island, aged for 3-5 days and then seasoned with curry spice and seaweed powder. This dish was garnished with Sri Lankan coconut sambal, beetroot soubise, nasturtium puree and finished with lobster bisque.  

The pre-dessert was Sri Lankan pineapple with lime and lemongrass sorbet, coriander oil, sea salt, ginger lime, sriracha and Sri Lankan long red chilli flakes. In Sri Lanka vendors sell mangoes or pineapple flavoured with salt and chilli to people on long bus journeys, and this dish is a nod to that history. This was refreshing, the combination of the spice with pineapple working well (16/20). 

For dessert, we had “Wattalapam“ millefeuille with creme fraiche ice cream and jaggery caramel. Wattalapam is a traditional Sri Lankan dessert, a creamy spiced coconut custard made with rice flour, jaggery, eggs, coconut milk, nutmeg, and cardamom. The Cocochine version omits the rice flour, which results in a lighter texture, and adds vanilla. This was unusual and enjoyable, the cardamom enlivening the custard (16/20). Petit fours were a chocolate bonbon with roasted coconut and lime gel, a pillow with smoked Chantilly and Rowler farm plum puree.  

Service was excellent throughout the evening. I was being treated to this meal so did not see a bill, but a typical cost per person here might be around £215 per person. Of course, this would be much cheaper if you took advantage of the three-course lunch at £39. This was a lovely meal. The cooking at The Cocochine has developed greatly since I first ate here. There is much more of the personality of the chef coming through in the cooking, with the Sri Lankan touches reflecting his origins but being used to clever and useful effect. The spices here are carefully controlled and enhance and lift, but never dominate. The unique access to their own farm and island in Scotland means that the produce here is exceptional. The Cocochine has evolved into some of the most interesting and capable cooking in the capital.

Further reviews: 09th Sep 2025 | 15th May 2025 | 22nd Mar 2025 | 05th Apr 2024