The rooftop restaurant is on the seventh floor of The Hoxton Shoreditch
What's there to know about Llama Inn?
This is the new London outpost of the popular NYC restaurant known for its Brooklyn twist on Peruvian cuisine. Chef Erik Ramirez's food won the New York restaurant a Michelin Bib Gourmand and he was a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef this year.
Where is it?
You'll find it up on the top floor of The Hoxton Shoreditch where it's the hotel's new rooftop restaurant. Finding it isn't all that easy. For starters, don't go through the hotel as the signage is totally confusing - instead head to Willow Street where there's a specific entrance and special lift taking you up to the seventh floor. The nearest tube is Old Street.
Where's a good place to meet for drinks?
If the weather's good then the easy answer is to simply head up here, where there's a large outside terrace with great views over the City and Shoreditch. The cocktail list here is particularly good, having been drawn up by Llama’s Bar Director and award-winning mixologist Natasha Bermudez.
If you need a covered alternative you go past Swift on your way here from the tube which is always a good shout.
The terrace on a sunny day is a lovely place to start your meal here.
Left to right - the Carinito (£14 - with Mezcal, Manzanilla, aji amarillo, corn and aji panca and the Supertini (£15) with Japanese gin, dry vermouth, umami bomb and a blue cheese stuffed olive. This also comes in a chupetini size for £7.
Where should we sit?
Obviously, the best spot is going to be along the window as the views are pretty good from up here. Ideally, you'll come here with a gang as that gets you a table with a lazy susan. We do love us a lazy susan.
A table with a view over Shoreditch
So what's on the menu?
The menu here is a relatively straightforward arrangement of snacks, ceviches and then a choice of smaller (un poco de todo) and larger (the show must go on) dishes. The snacks really are what they say they are, so they're not really shareable - order one per person if you really fancy them.
There's also a very handy glossary on the back of the menu so every time you come up against an ingredient you've never heard of before (this might be a lot) you can check to see what you're actually ordering.
Here's what we had to give you an idea.
Oysters with tomato, Worcestershire sauce and olive oil (£5 or £6 depending on whether you opt for Maldon or Jersey oysters. They also had a special on the night we visited so that might be worth checking out too.
Cabbage anticucho (£6 each) - these Peruvian snacks are a mainstay of the NYC menu, changing regularly depending on what's in season. Here they come drizzled with chancaca, saikyo miso and topped off with quinoa furikake.
You might be tempted to swerve the next dish if you think it sounds way too healthy. That would be a mistake as the Quinoa salad has been on the menu at the New York Llama Inn since day one and, in their words, it "will probably never leave the menu".
Quinoa with bacon, avocado, banana and cashew (£13) a cloud of quinoa studded with treats.
Scallop ceviche with yuzu koshu, pitaya and nori (£20) is another signature dish of the restaurant this may have been one of the best ceviches we've ever had. The spoon's there for a reason, you're going to want ALL of this.
When you hit up the large mains section of the menu you can expect these dishes to feed two to three easily.
Lomo saltado (£56) - a very Llama Inn take on a Peruvian classic. This usually sees the beef dish cooked with tomatoes and soy and served with rice. In New York, the dish only comes with scallion pancakes for you to load up like a taco. Here in London they've hedged their bets and serve it with both rice and the pancakes. Add in the fries on top and this is a triple-carb dish that meat-eaters would be mad not to order.
And this is what you're supposed to do with all that - wrap it up in a scallion pancake 'taco' with pickled chillies.
What's on the menu for vegetarians?
Each section on the menu, with the exception of the largest dishes, has one vegetarian option on offer - the tomatoes and stone fruits ceviche with yuzu ponzu leche de tigre looks particularly unmissable.
Room for dessert?
At this point we certainly needed to regroup slightly so we opted for one dessert to share. We didn't have room for the pavlova and the picarones (squash doughnuts) were off that night so this is what we ordered:
Lucuma tart with miso manjar blanco and matcha (£9). The dessert menu didn't feature a glossary so a quick google revealed that lucuma was a creamy citrus fruit from Peru that turned this tart into something very special indeed.
Overall thoughts:
We were blown away by Llama Inn. If when you go out to eat you want to try food you not only wouldn't make at home, but wouldn't even know how to, this is 100% going to be your kind of place. Every dish we tried introduced us to new flavours and crazy textural collaborations - we'll just have to go back and work our way through the rest of it.
More about Llama Inn
Where is it? 1 Willow St, London EC2A 4BH
Find out more: Follow them on Instagram @llamainnldn.
Hot Dinners dined as guests of Llama Inn. Prices correct at time of publication.
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