How seriously can you take any restaurant that claims to take guests “on a sensory journey along the Amazon river and through Latin America?” You certainly can’t fault Amazonico for its desire to make a splash on the London dining scene. Locating itself close to Sexy Fish and having allegedly spent £10m+ doing up a former banking hall suggests serious intent. A successful Madrid original and an outpost in Dubai must also have given the backers the confidence that Amazonico could succeed in London. My recent visit there was everything I expected: big on bling and pricing at Mayfair levels. However, you get what you pay for and the quality of the cooking surprised positively to the upside.
I must clearly not be the only diner in this camp since above and beyond coming to Amazonico just to be seen, the venue was busy on the recent Thursday when we lunched there. Evenings are apparently fuller, with live music too. The cynic may, of course, rightfully wonder whether any venue’s standard of cooking can be maintained across 200+ covers, but based on our trip, the execution was certainly there.
Amidst the dark lighting, deep green décor, palm frills, fake pineapples and the like, we pored over our menu. This took some time owing to the current fad of offering a little bit of a lot of things – covering your bases – so as to please all possible diners and get them to fork out more than they intended. How, we wondered, might salads, raw and marinated options, sushi, ‘bites’, wok-based dishes and conventional mains be combined? Not to worry, we were assured, just pick and mix. Once we’d struggled through the seeming tyranny of choice, our first dishes arrived, perhaps with a haste that was almost indecent. We had only just got over the wow of being able to find frogs’ legs on a menu in London before they appeared, fried and with a spicy mango sauce. They were damned tasty too. A salad of Brazilian palm hearts, carrot, fennel and cucumber then arrived. It was beautifully presented (presumably with the Insta crowd in mind) and the spicy mango sauce (yes, yet again) certainly lifted the whole dish, but I did feel the chef could perhaps have cut the pieces slightly smaller. Before I could wonder too much whether £13 was exorbitant to pay for a salad, the dish had been whisked away and our mains arrived. Boom! At least here there was no quibbling and our server’s recommendation of the hake was first-class. The decision to pair this with a grilled aubergine sauce was superlative. The octopus (pictured) was more visually impressive, even if it did not quite hit the taste high of the hake.
If puddings or wine take your fancy, then there’s glamour galore too. One cheesecake, liberally decorated with this and that was both a presentation and taste masterpiece. Make Amazonico a place to visit, even if just once. You may not go on a sensory journey, but it will be expensive fun.