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The new-look main restaurant at Sola
What do we need to know about Sola?
Run by the highly ambitious Chef Patron Victor Garvey, with Andy Parker as head chef, this Soho restaurant sets out its stall as creative Californian cooking. In the four years it's been open it won a Michelin star (it's one of only two restaurants in Soho to have one), three AA rosettes, and currently sits at No 40 in the National Restaurant Awards list of the best restaurants in the UK.
And it's had a makeover?
Expanding to a whole new lower-ground floor, it has had one hell of a glow-up, closing for months to allow it to create a second kitchen and add a beautiful-looking new bar down there too. The new kitchen means they can now make their own bread on-site, and even the chocolates that come at the end of the meal.
The bar downstairs, complete with whiskey and bourbon collection.
The new floor isn't the only thing that's changed. Upstairs the restaurant's design is completely different. The kitchen up there is now tucked away out of sight and there's now a beautiful blush banquette seating curving around the room along with stunning earthen walls and bespoke joinery everywhere. It's all looking very much like Sola is gunning for a second Michelin star.
What's the set lunch deal?
Honestly, this has to be one of the best set lunches we've had in a good long while. £59 gets you three courses (with two choices in each) along with a huge amount of snacks/canapes to start and mignardises to finish.
Here's what we had on a recent visit:
We began our lunch downstairs in the gorgeous new wood-panelled bar. This is where a series of dazzlingly intricate snacks were served to us.
Looks like a devilled egg but it's actually smoked sturgeon mousse with sauce gribiche, smoked vinegar gel and espelette pepper topped with toasted pumpkin seeds.
Left to right: Lox (vodka cured wild salmon, fresh wasabi, red onion escabeche, crispy sweet potato and dill) along with sardine (a croustade made from pressed baby sardines that are then crisped up and filled with fresh Cornish sardine tartare, roasted almond bavarois, flamed and smoked sardine fillet, grape jelly and tosazu.
A trio of snacks. 1 - Pork and apple sauce: French suckling pig braised then roasted and glazed with sasparilla along with pickled Pink Lady apple, wasabi, jasmine foam, and nasturtium and topped with a tempura oyster. 2 - Surf & turf: tartare of smoked eel, foie gras, aubergine cooked in elderflower miso with yuzu and anise hyssop. 3 - Chicken & waffles: chicken liver parfait fortified with Jack Daniels, sherry vinegar and maple syrup gastrique, roast chicken skin and waffle tuile.
Now you move on to the three-course set lunch proper, with a choice between two dishes per course.
For the first course, we chose a SOLA classic that's been revised and enhanced over the years, their flambéed langoustines. If you love a bit of tableside theatre, this is what you need to order at this point.
The langoustines are first flambeed with Hibiki 12-year-old whiskey. Then you add them to the main dish, containing a tortellini of duck liver and wild mushrooms with a ginger oden dashi, cavolo nero, daikon, and slow-poached onsen quail egg. It's very good.
The alternative course was Sashimi of Kindai bluefin tuna (the world’s first sustainably raised bluefin tuna) with tosazu, avocado sorbet, burnt baby leeks, and pickled veg.
Next up, we opted for Pigeonneau Royal in two servings:
First the pigeon breast is marinated for 24 hours and then hung for 24 hours before being roasted on the crown and served with Kalamata olive praliné and a demi glacé of whole grain mustard. Alongside that, you're served a dish featuring the pigeon leg which is slow confit for 24 hours stuffed with Lap Cheong Sausage with a salade gourmande and an emulsion of palm sugar, makrut lime and rice wine.
For the second course the alternate choice was roasted dayboat scallop with warm carpaccio of carabinero prawn, nashi pear, and roasted head bisque spiked with pear cider.
Next up, is an optional course that you'd have to pay a supplement for. The cheese plate comes in at five cheeses for £25 or seven cheeses for £35 and roams both the New and Old Worlds with a mixture of award-winning cheeses from America, Britain and across Europe.
We always love a bit of trolley action. If you're here for a long lunch then you ought to go all out and opt for the cheese course too.
Room for dessert?
The main dessert is a choice between a fruity number and one taking inspiration from 'smores. Here's what both of those look like.
Apple with calvados, sumac, and bay leaf en millefeuille with green apple sorbet
Candied Yam - bavarois of yam with maple syrup, chocolate sablé, and burnt nutmeg marshmallow. Finished with bourbon caramel
At this point you're invited to head back down to the bar below for coffee and mignardises, the latter of which is included in the set lunch price.
Left to right: Yuzu and chestnut tonka with a garnish of marron glacé; Blackcurrant pate de fruit with sumac sugar and Tonka & Cointreau canelé.
But if you think it's all over, there's one more thing to take home with you...
At this point you get a gift of chocolates to take home that have been tempered on site. These are homages to popular chocolate bars so there's one for a Charleston Chew, Mounds, Reese's and Twix.
What's on offer drinks-wise?
For this kind of lunch you might fancy pushing the boat out. We started down in the bar with cocktails from a short, but very enticing list.
Left to right - Hemingway Sunrise (£19) and Sesame Pina Colada (£17)
There are two wine-pairing options for the set lunch. A standard one at £45 and a premium one at £130. Given Sola's amazing American wine list we'd strongly suggest going for one of these if your budget allows.
Overall thoughts:
There are some restaurant redesigns where you'd be forgiven for barely noticing what had changed. That is not the case here with Sola. The new floor below has added a whole new element to a meal here (which we're sure Michelin will take note of). For £59 this has got to be one of London's great set lunch deals - an absolute steal for food of this quality and creativity.
More about Sola
Where is it? 64 Dean St, London W1D 4QQ
How much? The set lunch menu is £59 and is available Wednesday to Saturday.
How to book: Book online
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @solasoho.
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