Review at a glance: ★★★★☆
The word is that Sri Lanka is the new Bali, or at least the Bali that was, before the influencers colonised it. The attractions are obvious: palm trees by the bushel; endless lengths of sand; the chance to lean, studiously carefree, from a moving train. Stumbling off the Northern Line at Colindale just isn’t quite the same.
And then there is the food, famous for its commitment to cinnamon and coconut and curry leaves. London may be light on the palms, but we don’t do badly for Sri Lankan cooking. Hoppers; Rambutan; Kolamba; at least a third of Tooting. And here, Paradise. It opened six years ago and swiftly became the subject of heart-eyed rhapsodies for its mutton rolls and fish curries. It was the hot table of the moment, but the trouble with moments is that they pass.
Owner Dom Fernando has an ear for these things. And so last year he retuned his restaurant, scrapping the à la carte offering in favour of a six-course tasting menu at £65. The place has apparently been tarted up, too, though this is entirely the wrong phrase for somewhere in which the aesthetics most heavily owe a debt to a multi-storey car park: behind a soot-black frontage, polished concrete dominates. Paradise? You wouldn’t want sea or sky this colour. But what is austere is also attractive; it has the sense of a room in which to discuss architecture and Nietzsche and whether patterned clothes should be outlawed. Khruangbin is on the stereo. Candles fuzzy in the light soften things, suggesting a home. It is a dining room filled mostly with young, cool sorts, who live by the Overground on the grounds of the Tube being too mainstream.
Fernando’s six-course menu comes in three shades: one dedicated to meat, another fished from the sea and the third farmed for vegetarians. In this way, most diners can be satisfied. On the face of it, six courses for £65 seems uncommonly good value, but it is not an excess of food, instead being three courses divvied up differently. As such it is sleight-of-hand of a kind: starters at £20, mains at £30 and pudding for £15 would not seem such a bargain. But food of such formidable quality is hard to come by at this price.
Much of it is so furiously spiced that it could cure colds. A bowl of stripper-pink rasam proffered burning heat and provided a statement of intent: the usual base of tomato was foregone in favour of lacto-fermented raspberries, a technique more usually associated with René Redzepi’s Copenhagen three-star Noma. The kitchen is telling diners who might recognise these things that it is serious, heavyweight. And for more normal sorts, who couldn’t give two hoots about some po-faced Danish gaff, it is nothing more than a gorgeous kick-off. Soon came kimbula banis, a kind of laminated croissant crossed with a thousand-layer potato, the sort that’s kept The Quality Chop House famous. The sweetness of date and lime chutney indulgently oozing out countered the heat, a moment of cool among the scorched plates.
Much of it is so furiously spiced that it could cure colds
Do vegetarians know what they’re missing out on? A king oyster is many things, but it cannot step in for a seared scallop. I looked forlornly at mine, sitting in a Riesling-spiked gravy of squash and wild garlic. Good, until I tasted the scallop bathed in a lobster broth, at which point the mushroom became a source of some resentment. But both made the table with a sweet, creamy kiribath — a soothing, coconut-infused milky rice — which we interrupted our conversation for. To scoop up the last of it was a miniature hopper (alleluia! They intimidate at full size). Coconut oozed through a prawn-topped roti, too, the prawn glazed in ginger, garlic and chilli. Fennel, pickled in jasmine, offered a balancing sourness. Later, steak came in the traditional sunflower seed curry, with a stout glaze; not Guinness, but Lion, Lanka’s favourite brewery. I thought of beaches and tuk-tuk journeys and not wanting to go home.
Did flavours crop up over and again? True, a sense of repetition began to dawn as we neared the end. Still, I didn’t eat this well in Sri Lanka itself when I visited a fortnight ago. I’ll head back there at some point, for the trees and the sand and the sea, for the train snap. For the people. But should a craving come for the food, Soho satiates.
Meal for two with wine, about £200. 61 Rupert Street, W1D 7PW, paradisesoho.com
