ROVI | Ottolenghi’s Sustainability-Led Restaurant
Like Middle Eastern food?
Then this Israeli good news.
Yotam Ottolenghi has cut the ribbon on ROVI. Found on Fitzrovia’s Wells Street, it departs slightly from YO’s other venues by focussing on fermentation & fire to prepare the Middle Eastern-style goodness that the chef has become so beloved for. (It’s also taking some pretty big steps towards being zero-waste, which we’ll talk about in a moment).
Walking in, you’ll immediately have your eye drawn by the visual centre of gravity: a huge, racetrack-shaped bar in the centre of the space. Off to its side is a deli area dotted with colourful bowls heaped with salads & pastries, and behind it is the bit we’re all excited about:
THE RESTAURANT
With an open kitchen off to the back, and long, bright red sofas wrapping themselves around the tables, there’s a welcome casualness underpinning the more formalised, fine-dining approach they’ve taken to the menu. That menu features charred & fermented goods including confit mussels with hay-smoked potatoes (pictured above); some kohlrabi ‘ravioli’ with peas, broad beans and yuzu kosho; and onglet beef skewers with beef fat mayonnaise and fermented green chillies. Moving on there’s-
THE BAR
Given the space that the cocktail bar takes up, it’s only appropriate that the cocktails themselves take up an equally large space on the menu. They’re seasonally rotating, and you’ll find numbers like their alarmingly healthy sounding Five a Day with rum, spirulina, ginger juice and cucumber.
And if you’re peckish? There’s a bar menu too, dishing out neat little morsels including crumpet prawn toast with a chirpy, pickled limequat dipping sauce, or delicately tempura-ed beetroot shoots, leaves & herbs. But if you’re after something to take away, there’s always-
THE DELI
Here you can score all manner of classic Ottolenghi salads, cakes, pastries, veggies, and more. And as a big part of the venue’s zero waste philosophy, all unsold produce is being reused in other forms. They’re using unsold coffee grounds to cook their hasselback lime beetroots, unused wine goes to make vinegars, and even the air conditioning in the building uses the heat generated by the kitchen to power itself. Because, well, if you can’t stand the heat…
…get it out of the kitchen.
NOTE: ROVI is open now. A portion of the restaurant is set aside for walk-ins, but the rest is bookable, which you can do on their website right HERE.
ROVI | 59 Wells Street, W1A 3AE
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