Humo
Mayfair, London
In the opulent nook formed by the angle of Hanover Square and Regent Street, Humo is a high-end concept restaurant with enough glamour to make waves in an arc from Japan to the Americas. The place is sultrily lit like a nightclub, the staff very forthcoming with chat and explanation, and the presiding genius is Miller Prada – a Colombian chef with a keen interest in the gastronomic chemistry of fire (the name is the Spanish word for 'smoke'). To wit, there is a long, deep, wooden counter for ringside views of the three-foot flames and the griddle wheel. There's also a strong emphasis on seafood, with preparations that emphasise marinading and seasoning in the Japanese manner. Sea bream is cured in kombu for days, seasoned with umami-booming cedarwood soy and 25-year-old balsamic, and dressed with fermented datterini tomatoes, while cubes of fluorescently orange trout arranged in single file are aromatised with wild kelp and dotted with three month-aged caviar. Elsewhere, a scallop slivered into lateral wafers and interleaved with nectarine comes in a foaming sabayon full of the scent of Speyside whisky barrels. It sometimes happens that one element in a marinade or dressing dominates, as is the case with the coffee-scented yellowtail, made with Castillo beans from the chef's family farm back home, where the coffee note outshouts the lime with which it is also sauced. There is Kagoshima black sirloin at a mesmerising £60, but the Cornish lamb doesn't land well, being over-trimmed, underseasoned and barely served by its dribbles of thin beetroot sauce. The signature dessert is 'La Nube', a magical mingle of beechwood-roasted banana, grand cru chocolate, Alphonso mango and sea buckthorn. The wine list feels weighted towards the money-no-object constituency, the glass selections (from £11) having the aura of a first draft rather than a settled selection. House Champagne is the currently rather patchy Billecart-Salmon.
Dining Information:
Private dining room, Counter seating, Credit card required
12 St George's Street, Mayfair W1S 2FB
020 3327 3690
