A packed dining room on a wet Tuesday evening at DakaDaka
So what do we need to know about DakaDaka?
There's been a fair bit of buzz building about this new Georgian restaurant and natural wine bar in Mayfair. And when you look at the people involved, that's perhaps not all that surprising.
Let's start with the two founders, Giorgi Mindiashvili and Mitz Vora. The pair first collaborated in launching the Hoxton group of hotels, while Mitz is also the man behind The Palomar. Their Head Chef Adrian Hernandez Farina is ex-Canal, Chiltern Firehouse and Humo (to name a few), while Wine Director Honey Spencer has worked everywhere from Sager + Wilde and Evelyn's Table to her own Hackney restaurant Sune.
And we're not done yet. The cocktails come courtesy of Jack Porter, who was last in charge of The Gothic Bar in St Pancras. It's quite the array of talent to be involved in just one restaurant.
Where is it?
You'll find it on Heddon Street next door to Fonda. This is the spot that used to work as an incubator of new restaurants, so it's where the likes of Fallow and Manteca started out. Now it's the permanent home of DakaDaka. It's about halfway between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus tube stations. There's a large terrace outside, which was absolutely full of smokers, as if we'd taken a trip back to the eighties.
Just inside the door, there's a separate bar with around four or five stools. There's also (unused at the time we were there) a whole other floor downstairs with its own bar and separate sound system for more of a late-night bar.
Just inside the door, you'll find this bar tucked away.
The lower ground-floor bar
So when you say Georgian, what kind of food are we talking about?
It's a fairly extensive menu covering everything from khinkali (Georgian soup dumplings) to khachapuri (stuffed flatbreads) with larger cuts of fish and meat up on the blackboard. Then there are dishes that are are more familiar when they turn up, like chkmeruli, which is garlic roast chicken, or the shampuri (skewers). Most are cooked over the live fire you can see taking pride of place in the open kitchen. The restaurant also turns out to be pretty good for vegetarians, with veg dish options in pretty much all of the menu sections.
Here's just some of what we had to give you a better idea.
Soko (£6.50) - a pile of crispy oyster mushrooms served with a very moreish tarragon aioli
Kababi (£16) this gets you two lamb skewers, nicely kissed by the grill and served with roscoff onions and a spicy satsebeli sauce.
Scottish girolles kinkali (£14) - the famous Georgian food dumplings look like heartier versions of the ones you might be more used to in places like Dumplings Legend or Din Tai Fung. And, as with those, there is a specific way of eating these, which we're glad we googled before we came. Pick the dumplings up by the 'stalk' and then take a small bite out of the base to suck the soup out first. Eat the rest of the dumpling, leaving the stalk. The ones at DakaDaka were very tasty with a thicker, slightly silkier texture to xiao long bao.
Shkemeruli (£22) - a quarter roast chicken in a milk and confit garlic sauce with chives.
Anything else?
Yes, we weren't all that enamoured with the Ogleshield cheese flatbreads. Our tip: stick to the lavash, which is much more useful for mopping up all the good sauces.
Room for dessert?
Things are pretty simple by the time it gets to dessert, with just two options. There's a honey millefeuille with whipped sour cream and dulce de leche as well as this...
Red wine ice cream (£12), which isn't as mad as it sounds and, best of all, is served with ponchiki which turn out to be little cinnamon-dusted doughnuts.
As this is also a wine bar, presumably the list is decent?
There are several factors that make the list here worthy of your attention. One is the fact that Honey is behind it. Two is the fact that Georgia is the oldest winemaking country on earth and they do particularly interesting natural wines. Three, the staff are really into the drinks list here and are more than happy to not only talk you through it, but give you plenty of wines to taste before you make your choice.
If you're after a house wine, there are several of DakaDaka's own bottles made in partnership with the Pirveli Winery in Georgia's Kakheti region. Those start at about £9 a glass; we tried the white, amber and red options and all were good, with the amber maybe the best. At the end of our dinner, we also decided to try a few of their chachas (Georgian grape brandy) by the glass. Note that if you order the same, you might well find the staff popping up to down a shot with you. It's a thing.
Overall thoughts:
We arrived at DakaDaka expecting to find it relatively quiet, given the hideousness of the weather on a Tuesday night. But we were surprised to find it absolutely heaving. And while that definitely enhanced the atmosphere, we have to note that the poor old kitchen couldn't quite cope with the influx. Service was friendly and efficient, but the front-of-house staff couldn't do much about the gaps between dishes coming out. That said, we're sure they'll work out the kinks.
As for the food and drink, we love being introduced to a new cuisine, and DakaDaka did the Georgian food scene proud. Go, make sure you order the dumplings and give the Georgian wine list a good going over.
More about DakaDaka
Where is it? 10 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BX
Find out more: Follow them on Instagram @dakadaka.london.
Hot Dinners dined as guests of DakaDaka. Prices correct at time of publication.
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