Review on Jikoni
Jikoni, meaning kitchen in Swahili, has been opened by Ravinder Bhogal, an award winning chef and food writer together with restaurateur Ratnesh Bagdai, who has previously worked with Caprice Holdings, and is currently in partnership with celebrated chef Mark Hix.
Set in the building that formerly housed Michelin-starred chef Simon Rogan's Roganic on Blandford Street in fashionable Marylebone, the outside has been updated in a chic palette of cream with pretty pink canopies overhead. Inside the interiors have been created by London Studio and Creative Family to reflect the maternal influences that surrounded Ravinder during her childhood. Welcoming guests into a cosy space with tables covered with colourful tablecloths, and banquette seating displayed with lovely embroidered silk cushions.
The menu at Jikoni pays tribute to Ravinder's mixed heritage and her travels throughout the globe, incorporating culinary influences from Britain, East Africa, India and the Middle East. Make sure you try her signature quail scotch eggs such as date and tamarind chutney and carrot achaar or for fish fans there's chargrilled Concertina squid. Amongst the big plates look for Arabian nights poussin, heritage tomato and lavash salad, sumac or lobster khichdee, moilee broth and coconut chutney. Desserts offer an enticing mix of flavours, witness meringue roulade, figs, lavender, goat's curd and sesame snap or banana cake, miso, butterscotch, Ovaltine kulfi and peanut brittle.
There's a concise wine list to complement the food, with plenty of options by the glass, together with cocktails such as Poleh Poleh, spiced Bourbon, Kenyan black tea and honey.
Cuisine
International / Fusion
Restaurant Opening Times
Breakfast: 11.00am - 3.00pm Sat & 11.00am - 4.00pm Sun Brunch
Lunch: 12.00 - 3.00pm Tue-Fri
Dinner: 5.30 - 10.30pm Tue-Sat
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Master Card, American Express