RESTAURANT - Cocoon in London

I was treated to at the modern Asian restaurant Cocoon off Regent Street earlier in the week and I have to say the food is delicious.

We started off in the bar with a couple of cocktails - don't expect to get one for much under £10 though. My first one was a Millers Bouquet: Millers gin shaken with fresh lime, rose and acacia honey then garnished with rose petals. It was absolutely delicious, fresh and not too sweet. Then I had a Miyabi Cocoon: Swedish pear cognac liqueur Xante & Santa Teresa Gran Reserve mixed with organic apple juice, pear puree and vanilla syrup, then garnished with fresh pears and cinnamon - again I enjoyed every sip.

The décor is really nice, a little dark which makes it perfect for intimate occasions like dates or anniversary dinners. The chairs take a little getting used to as they are quite laid back and it's quite difficult to get really close to the table.     

The music throughout dinner was simple background music, but come 11pm this turned into the likes of Whitney Houston's 'I wanna dance with somebody' and Cameo's 'Word up'. Definitely gets more like a bar as the night goes on.

 

For food, our party all chose the set menu which is priced at £50. For me that's a special occasion price, but as I wasn't paying it didn't seem so bad. I chose the tiger prawn sesame toasts (which are actually little balls) to start, followed by lemon sole and caviar inside-out rolls which were nice enough. The highlight of the meal though was the fillet of beef with portabello mushrooms which was cooked to perfection and perfectly seasoned. I just wish there had been more of the gorgeous peppercorn raita on the side. It all went in the first couple of mouthfuls.

The only reason I couldn't give this restaurant 5 stars is because the quality of the service tailed off towards the end of the meal. We waited more than 25 minutes for our dessert of chocolate fondant and ice cream and with the time already 11.45 we were starting to get worried about catching our last tube home.

Tip: Try and get seated in front of the sushi chefs. These pros, with a lifetime of experience, are fascinating to watch.