In the culinary desert that is Paddington Basin, Ayllu offers a rare bright spot. Even if not quite yet the finished product, the venue is on the right track. The premise of ‘affordable fine dining’ – the restaurant’s self-defined pitch – is a laudable one. Go, if not for the food and service, then certainly for the atmosphere.
Ayllu is a curious beast, located within another restaurant, fusing a range of cuisines and attempting to offer a (perceived) high-end experience at an affordable price. Begin with arrival. Guests must enter through the blokeish Smith’s Bar and Grill. It is brightly lit and boasts one of the least enthusiastic front- of-house teams your reviewer has witnessed in a while. No one offered to take our coats as we were led downstairs with barely a smile past the bathrooms and into Ayllu. We were plonked on the table closest to the entrance and were only moved with bad grace and after some insistence to a better location.
Once installed, we had the chance to appreciate better the vibe. Ayllu projects intimacy with its warm green walls, compact dining space and bar/ sushi station on display at one end. Almost every table was occupied on the recent midweek night when we visited – creating quite a pleasant buzz – and so clearly Ayllu must be doing something right. It was a pity, however, that the venue seemed ill-prepared to deal with this number of people. Two servers and one more senior staff member appeared rushed and distracted. Service, when it arrived, was professional enough, but nobody appeared passionate about the Ayllu project. There was almost zero attempt to recommend dishes or to up-sell.
Ayllu does offer three tasting menus. However, all members of the table are required to choose the same one. This is evidently problematic if one of your party is vegetarian and the other wishes to rove more widely. We were hence forced to choose off the main card. Diners must navigate across appetisers, tacos, bao buns, ceviche and tiradito (marinaded raw fish) as well as sushi, sashimi and nigiri before progressing onto mains – a veritable journey around the globe. Although pictures are provided in the menu of all dishes, it is hard to know how large each may be. Further, while a trio of tacos at sub-£10 constitutes a true bargain, some mains might cost as much as £70. It’s very easy to end up over-ordering – perhaps the implicit intention of venues such as this – and although we modestly shared five small dishes, two mains and a salad between us (plus a pudding), we were still left feeling somewhat hungry.
To Ayllu’s credit, the dishes it did serve up amply punched above their weight, at least given their individual price points. It was hard to fault the freshness of the fish (apparently all sourced daily from Billingsgate), especially my yellowtail tiradito. The venue is also not afraid to be liberal with their spicing of dishes – both avocado tacos and a grilled tuna main. This was fine for both this reviewer and his comrade, although less experienced palates may be in for a slight shock. Presentation across all our dishes was lovely and most were well-executed. The matcha-infused Basque cheesecake with which we finished was one of the highlights. We did not sample any of the available cocktails but chose of a pleasant bottle of Loire white wine off an intelligently compiled list, admittedly with few bargains.
Although there is no formal definition for ‘fine dining,’ its tenets generally comprise not just high-quality food, but also meticulous service and an elegant atmosphere. Ayllu scores mostly on the first but needs clear improvement on the second. The atmosphere is about as good as it gets in the area.