Sticky Mango was built on a very solid culinary foundation.
Quite literally.
It started life on the first floor of the lauded Waterloo restaurant RSJ, where owner Peter Lloyd had worked as head chef, gaining the place two AA Rosettes in the process. He then went on to complete stages with the likes of Pierre Koffmann, Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White, and start his own restaurant concept upstairs from his former haunt.
Soon enough, the owner of RSJ retired, and Sticky Mango took over the entire building. Now, it’s the go-to place for innovative South East Asian food in South London.
The space itself seems both large and intimate at the same time, with two floors of low-lit modern furnishings that never quite pack people too close together. But you’re here for the food, which is a rollercoaster of South East Asian flavours. Spring for the tasting menu, and you’ll get everything from a Thai green mango salad with candied ginger dressing, to fiery black pepper prawns with dehydrated pineapple, to truffle egg fried rice with leeks.
However good these all are, the pièce de résistance is – unsurprisingly – the Sticky Mango itself. It comes at the end with the desserts, and it’ll land on your table looking like a perfectly innocent steamed bun. Then, a drizzle of coconut milk will be poured over it, instantly melting the white ‘dough’ away, to reveal mango sorbet sitting on a bed of black sticky rice. It’s like a magic trick.
And it just so happens to taste delicious, too.
NOTE: Sticky Mango is open daily for lunch and dinner. You can find out more, see the full menus, and make a booking at their website right HERE.
Sticky Mango | 33 Coin Street, SE1 9NR
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