Ikoyi

Ikoyi opened in 2017 as one of the first restaurants in London to build a fine dining identity around West African ingredients and flavours rather than borrowing them as a garnish for European technique, and by 2022 it had earned enough recognition, including becoming the first African-influenced restaurant in London to hold a Michelin star, to move into a purpose-built room at 180 Strand, where it now holds two stars.

Chef Jeremy Chan, working with co-founder Iré Hassan-Odukale, builds tasting menus around ingredients like egusi, suya spice and smoked jollof rice, paired with British produce sourced with the same rigour a top European tasting menu would apply to its own supply chains. The signature dishes, smoked jollof rice served with genuine theatre at the table, suya with creamed peas, aged turbot with egusi miso, are distinctive rather than a novelty spin on familiar French or Italian technique, and the flavour combinations rarely feel like they are chasing shock value for its own sake.

The room is calm and contemporary rather than loud about its own ambition, with warm materials, low lighting and views over the Strand that let the food carry the evening rather than competing with an overdesigned space. Service is well briefed on the ingredients and their origins, which matters given how unfamiliar much of the produce will be to many London diners.

Pricing sits at the very top of the London market: the full tasting menu runs to £395 per person, with a shorter version at £180, neither of which includes wine or the separate juice pairing most diners are steered towards. This is a special-occasion restaurant in the most literal sense, not somewhere to drop into on a whim, and the booking window reflects that demand.

The honest caveat: at this price point the format, a long, fixed tasting menu with little room to deviate from the chef’s chosen sequence, will not suit everyone, and diners who prefer choosing individual dishes over a guided multi-course experience may find the structure restrictive whatever the quality of the cooking on the night.