Sollip
Bermondsey, London
Sollip (Korean for pine needle) is the creation of husband-and-wife team Woongchul Park and Bomee Ki who met studying at Le Cordon Bleu, although those expecting traditional Korean or traditional French cuisine will find neither here. The restaurant is entirely Park and Ki’s own, a peaceful, poetic exploration of their journey in an unobtrusive space – anonymous on the outside, simple, serene, slightly spartan perhaps on the inside. Park (The Ledbury, Koffmann’s) is head chef, Ki (The Arts Club) pastry chef. Together, they produce a nine-dish tasting menu that changes seasonally but for a few fixtures such as daikon tarte tatin (with roasted potato and burnt hay emulsion), and a gamtae sandwich (a diminutive Duckett’s Caerphilly brioche toastie in a diaphanous seaweed net) – both excellent. The menu opens with the commanding flavours of a fiery beef tartare tartlet and a gougère of doenjang (fermented soya bean paste) as snacks, moving on to more subtle, layered dishes that demand the diner’s full attention. First, a study in carrots (juice, purée, grilled) with beurre blanc, then pearlescent poached cod with dried pollock broth and a miniature three-day fermented potato flatbread with tarama. Every element of the final savoury course vies for attention: Padrón pepper purée, a wagyu meatball, Orkney scallop and a side of exceptional black rice. The tea service is stunning, with six different infusions (persimmon, mugwort, buckwheat etc), all beautifully served; the accompanying madeleine and coffee/sesame cookies are also first-rate. The wine list, supplied by Keeling Andrew & Co (of Noble Rot) opens at £35 for a Quinta do Ermizio, 'Chin Chin' Vinho Verde before hopping all too quickly past £50 and up into three figures. The young, casual clientele with big-ticket bottles at their tables seem unfazed.
Dining Information:
No background music, Wheelchair access, Credit card required
Unit 1, 8 Melior Street, Bermondsey SE1 3QP
020 7378 1742
