A Hot Dinners exclusive
Every once in a while a London restaurant manages to open totally under our radar but the minute we become aware of it, we want to let you know about it too. That's 100% the case with Evernight, an extremely interesting new Japanese restaurant in the Embassy Gardens development in Nine Elms that's starting to get noticed, with a lot of low-level buzz right now.
The restaurant is the passion project of Lynus Lim, a Singaporean chef who trained up under Tom Anglesea at the late, lamented Laughing Heart. Joining Lim as the restaurant's current head chef is Chase Lovecky, who's ex-Clove Club and Two Lights.
Evernight is, as Lim explained to Hot Dinners, "my vision of an Izakaya which is slightly progressive in the drinks and food offerings whilst utilising ingredients and produce locally (mostly), from the British Isles."
That means you'll find dishes like monkfish liver from the Cornish fishery Kernowsashimi in Helston, cured with barley and saikyo miso on buttered toast and finished with wasabi and chervil. Or maybe tempura courgette flowers stuffed with Shira-ae, a tofu dressing with Hijiki, carrots and beans, in nanbanzuke sauce.
"I always enjoyed the play between traditional/regional and also progressive techniques," says Lim, "this allows guests to not go too far away from what they recognise or know but just a slight push in a different direction."
One dish he's particularly proud of is the chawanmushi served with smoked eel, grilled corn and pickled shimeji. "The dish is undeniably a chawanmushi that one would be familiar with, but with a protein that is not commonly paired with it. As the eel is slightly stronger in flavour, it calls for a different ratio of egg - dashi/stock than one would generically use."
It's not just the food that hits differently, this London izakaya's wine list is also breaking new ground. "I do not think there is another Japanese restaurant in London that serves as much low intervention wine as we do," says Linus. "Frankly speaking, it is probably easier to sell drinks that most would be familiar with but for us, the vision as a whole package is most important." Evernight also serves up a particularly wide selection of nigori (cloudy) sake and shochu.
The final part of the puzzle is the look of the place - it's pretty stunning and is the work of Italian architect Ettore Tricarico. "I think he came up with a design that is so beautiful I couldn't ask for more," says Lim.
We can see this restaurant becoming London's next big thing - so better get down there while you can still grab a table.
More about Evernight
Where is it? 3 Ravine Way, London SW11 7BH
When? Open now.
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @evernight_ldn
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