Perilla

London

Ben Marks has serious culinary credentials. Despite being just 25, he has already clocked up years at The Square, Claridge’s and Noma, not to mention being named Breakthrough Chef of the Year at the Food and Travel Awards 2017. Perilla, co-founded with charismatic front-of-house man Matt Emmerson, specialises in inventive fine dining in a cool, triangular site in Newington Green, which used to be a jazz club. The menu consists of small plates (some very small) so go for the five-course tasting menu, priced at £38. However, while the dishes will certainly get the Instagram generation snapping, their originality prevents them from veering into gimmicky. Baked-onion soup smoothed with Ibérico ham fat conceals slithers of chestnut; it’s a triumph of well-balanced textures, particularly when served with a hunk of sourdough shot through with seaweed. Pot-roast broccoli embodies Marks’s creative approach perfectly. This basic brassica reaches new heights thanks to the addition of hung yoghurt and caper-sized blobs of puréed broccoli with onion, seaweed and garlic.