THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Bali Sugar

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Bali Sugar Restaurant Review:

The original Sugar Club is firmly established in Soho, while its successor here, Bali Sugar, continues to feed the boho trendies of Notting Hill Gate in a sparse setting, with stripped floorboards and plain yellow walls. The honours come from Claudio Aprile who succeeded Peter Gordon. Other restaurants in London offer ’fusion’ cooking with greater or lesser success; here you get the real thing. A starter of pan-fried quail with crispy noodles and green mango salad that sounds uncomplicated works as well at producing an outstanding combination of flavours as the warm mushroom nori roll with jicama salad and yuzu. Don’t be afraid to ask the laid-back and friendly staff what the ingredients are (jicama is a tuber known as yam bean from southeast Asia and makes a particularly good salad with its crisp, starchy flesh; yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit). For mains a seared sea bass came with smoked trout mash, baked lemon dressing and a hot pepper tapenade; duck breast marinated in soy and ginger was perfectly matched with Chinese broccoli and a rich star anise-plum sauce. For desserts, try fruit poached in ginger. Flavours and combinations work powerfully together and many other chefs could learn some good lessons here in what is possible. The wine list is similarly wide ranging.