They don’t make diamonds as big as rocks, and sometimes less is more. Mayfair’s renowned Novikov restaurant has encapsulated these adages in their seasonal Chinese New Year dim sum menu, where each mouthful sized portion is a taste of heaven.
Novikov is a stone’s throw from The Ritz and its twin Asian and Italian restaurants draw a sophisticated, glamorous crowd. The vast displays of pink-purple orchids in the lobby are set against a largely dark interior, increasing the dramatic effect.
The Asian restaurant has an open kitchen, and before it an impressive display of fresh fish and seafood. It’s as fresh as you can imagine: one of the lobsters on ice made a bid for freedom whilst we were watching, and had to be put back in his place. There’s the slight feeling of a Vietnamese night market about it, albeit without the noise and crowds.
Novikov is celebrating Chinese New Year throughout February, and the dim sum menu is available on weekdays between 1530 and 1730.
We began our meal with glass tea pots filled with flowering teas; mine had the most gentle fragrance of lilies and jasmine. This refreshed the palate and gave me time to properly consider the drinks menu. The bartender has created three special cocktails for the month. Fresh pomegranate juice in my French Forest gave it a rich and auspicious red colour and a sweetness which perfectly offset the Grey Goose vodka, Chambord, and Prosecco.
The premise of dim sum is that the food is served in bite sized portions. It is the culinary equivalent of a shot, as there’s an intensity of well balanced flavours in your mouth, but the tastes don’t linger on the tongue. You might have three or four pieces of the same thing, or mix and match whatever takes your fancy. In the interests of research (and because I’m incredibly curious), I asked the waiter to allow me to taste a piece of everything. It turns out it’s not an unusual request, and I highly recommend you do the same.
The first dim sum to arrive was a fried fungai spring roll, the shape and size of a cigar. I broke through the hot pastry with a crunch to taste it as it was, then dipped it in the spicy kimchi sauce alongside to compare.
Next up was a selection of five steamed parcels, each one a miniature artwork. The spicy prawn moneybag did indeed look like a tiny drawstring purse, and the black cod was a morsel I won’t forget in a hurry. Three delicately flavoured steamed buns followed, plus a quartet of prawn and foie gras rolls topped with shavings of truffle. Each one was so exquisitely made I hardly wanted to destroy it by eating it, but I’m awfully glad that I did.
When I’ve previously eaten dim sum it’s been an entirely savoury meal, but Novikov’s pastry chef is not to be outdone by his colleagues. The piece de resistance was a green tea brûlée, the caramelised top of which glimmered like seaweed. Fresh red berries and a fruit sorbet completed the dessert, rounding off an unforgettable meal.
The Dim Sum menu is available throughout February. Find out more and book a table at Novikov.
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Sophie Ibbotson is an entrepreneur, writer, and lover of wild places. She’s the author of five Bradt Guides, including the first guidebook to South Sudan, and provides tourism development consultancy through her company, Maximum Exposure.
