Oxeye

Taking a seat in the bar at Oxeye has an air of pre-theatre anticipation. A feeling heightened by the dramatic summoning, table by table, of guests. Turns out you’re being ushered into a black curtained space to view a still-life style arrangement of the ingredients that are due to appear on your plates later on.

Once everyone has paid due respect to the caviar the show can begin. Multiple mini snacks come first. These aren't billed on the menu and form what feels like an endless stream of surprises. A canape of translucent enoki mushrooms wrapped in lardo is fantastic in its simplicity. The mushrooms become meatier in the process, and the fat adds a textural foil.

In fact, simplicity is a theme throughout, with chef Sven-Hanson Britt cleverly intensifying flavours to give every course a strong identity – he squeezes each drop of goodness from his carefully chosen produce. There’s a gorgeous braised brill lifted with lobster oil and a cube of brioche topped with a confit egg yolk and caviar, but oddly the standout dish is a bowl of rice and swede. It reads like something your mum would force feed you with promises of curly hair, but here it’s not your typical bowl of carbs. Served tableside, it’s buttery golden Charleston rice with a chargrilled swede consume and it is very, very good. There would be few people who could make something this spectacular at home from such humble ingredients, and isn’t that the point of eating out? To see food under a new lens.

At over £200 for the combined tasting menu and drinks pairing, the industrial-style room feels a bit rough round the edges, but a symphony of flawless British wines, sparkling ciders and rich, chocolatey stouts help to soften the blow. Plus, everything is beautifully explained throughout by the sweet – extremely proficient – team who manage to give everyone the VIP treatment.

This is food that wouldn’t feel out of place in some of the world’s best kitchens. Exciting, innovative, nuanced, and sensitive - there’s a lot here worthy of applause.

You might recognise chef owner Sven-Hanson Britt from his time on the 2014 series of Masterchef: The Professionals when he narrowly missed out on the winner’s title. Not one to accept defeat, Britt came back fighting in Masterchef: The Professionals Rematch in 2019 where he first showcased his Oxeye concept, a style that gained him the coveted crown of the competition.

Three years and a crowdfunding campaign later and Britt was ready to open the London outpost of his Oxeye brand (which had originally called South Derbyshire home). Found at Embassy Gardens in Vauxhall, the restaurant joins the rank of other top-rated eateries like Robin Gill’s Darby’s next door. Bringing together food, drink and art, the space combines a fine-dining restaurant, shop, bar, private dining room and gallery space.

With a CV that boasts time at The Ritz, Britt is passionate about British fine-dining and making the most of local produce. His tasting menus have been created in collaboration with his partner Kae Shibata, who he met while working at The Ritz. Although menus will change with the seasons, the pair’s vision includes snacks like a stroopwafel with Oxeye XO and Montgomery cheddar. While starters might include dishes such as brown hen crab with green yuzu or preserved tomato ginger stem oil and Mora farm honeycomb tomatoes.

Hoping that their cooking will give people a new perspective on British cookery, the pair have created mains that champion high-quality produce. Think Hen’s egg yolk confit in beurre noisette with madeira, autumn truffle and potato, or Derbyshire lamb in dried magnolia leaf with barley and meadow herbs

With a passion for art – hence the gallery upstairs – the interiors have been lovingly designed to incorporate pieces collected by the couple over the years, including Japanese ceramics made by Shibata's uncle and skins from their own animals.