MA/NA
30 Upper Grosvenor St, W1
Dinner for two about £350 (without Kobe beef)
I count seven flaming avocados passing me by as I ease into my vodka martini. No, not especially dry, nor particularly dirty. My only request is an olive. And it’s made with Belvedere, as I am in Mayfair, at Ma/na, a brooding new Japanese-inspired restaurant full of rich mahogany and beautiful people who ski much better than me.
These flaming avocados are a signature dish, so I should probably order one. But the fact of the matter is this: I refuse to eat an avocado that has been set on fire. This isn’t La Mangeoire in Courchevel 1850; I have not arrived by helicopter, but by Lime bike, and London is hot enough already. I’m neither a minor influencer wearing Chanel nor the CEO of a multinational out for dinner with one. But I am here, and I am hungry.
She’s late, so I have hamachi crudo to pass the time. Six slivers of delicate fish arrive on a long plate, each one swimming lightly in ponzu, yuzu kosho (a lively concoction of chilli peppers and yuzu) and olive oil. Curiously, a balsamic reduction is introduced by way of a pea-sized splodge on each piece of fish. Probably unnecessary but hardly upsetting. I’ve long called for the triumphant return of balsamic glaze, a bastion of the early Noughties, a nostalgic hat-tip to Britain’s feted dining renaissance of the past three decades.
Ma/na is a restaurant of multitudes. Here is an abundantly Mayfair locale, where music — maybe two steps away from Italo Disco, perhaps more Provençal club, though Nice, not Cannes — pumps out loudly as people order champagne without wondering about prices. I see a chef I know on a date. There are tables of friends taking a break from Dubai, one or two low-level footballers, and an Indian gentleman who I’m quite sure owns an airline.
And yet, bar a rock shrimp tempura which is sadly soft, the food is much better than cynics like me might expect. This could have something to do with that dining renaissance I mentioned earlier. Food, as a term, a theory and a practice, has improved immeasurably in Britain in recent years.
And though we’re in one per cent-er territory in Grosvenor Street, you can’t take the piss so easily anywhere any more. I mean, look at burrata. Don’t see it around as much these days, do you? Burgers are getting thick again. Sriracha mayo has, for the most part, taken a well-deserved hike.
Tuna is what fuels Mayfair for much of the day
We order crab maki next, and out come six morsels of king crab, roe and creamy avocado. Jiro wouldn’t dream of these but they’re well made. And we suppose we should have tuna. Tuna is what fuels Mayfair for vast proportions of the day, notably when seared lightly to bring colour to the outer edges, leaving the fatty belly soft and wobbly within. A bit like me on holiday.
Then it’s time for Kobe beef, ridiculously. Ma/na is the latest of only about a dozen restaurants in the UK with a licence to serve these mystical Japanese steaks. Our waiter does the traditional spiel: the cows — Japanese Black cattle in this case — are massaged, fed beer, played Bach and tickled into tenderness. It’s everything you’d want a £310 steak to be: faintly enchanting.
Although it wasn’t as entertaining as the truffled rice. “Time for me to be Michael Jackson,” our waiter says, before slipping on a white glove and shaving truffle with reckless abandon. If you eat anything here, ever, eat the rice. It’s full-bodied and rich, packed with butter, garlic, onion, chives and black sesame seeds, the latter toasted for texture. And zenmai, or royal fern, which is a wild vegetable from Japan’s mountainous regions. It’s quite rare and hard to harvest. But well worth the effort, delivering earthiness, astringency, a subtle bitterness.
For all the brashness, all the Mayfair promiscuity, there’s a mad budget for the chef, Leonard Tanyag, who I dare say is having a great deal of fun with sourcing. There’s plenty of tobiko, or flying fish roe, and truffle, but the kitchen probably doesn’t need to sprinkle wasabina leaves, dehydrate miso or use bubu arare (tiny crisp rice crackers) to draw crowds.
And the setting avocados on fire.
Necessary? No. I tend to avoid flame emojis. This place is hot enough without the pyrotechnics. Stick to the rice, baby.
What you say:
Adventures of Bojack: “Japanese food maki miso happy! Ma/Na Mayfair is the world’s first fully gluten-free Japanese restaurant and it is delishoooooos.”
Zainab Faizal: “He just kept going and no one said stop... this truffle-fried rice is just one of many incredible dishes you just have to try at Ma/na.”
Honor Allen: “We tried the tasting menu and every dish was such a treat — highlights included the otoro tartare, wagyu kushiyaki, sashimi kinuta, truffle rice and the hachimitsu truffle dessert.”
