Test Driving Fan, a brilliant Notting Hill restaurant showcasing Neo-Nikkei with a London twist

The sushi counter at Fan

Tell us about Fan...

Back in June we were the first to bring you the news of a new restaurant opening in Notting Hill from a very interesting trio of restaurateurs from Lima in Peru. Fan is their first UK venture, having already caused quite a stir back in South America for their restaurant of the same name, which serves up a Neo-Nikkei cuisine. The folk behind it are Coco, Romina and Santiago, who are childhood friends. Right now, Romina is back in Lima running their restaurant there, while chef Coco and front-of-house Santiago are in London.

What exactly is Neo-Nikkei?

They describe it as an evolution of Nikkei, which is a fusion of Japanese and Peruvian influences. The nature of London's melting pot population means they're able to come up with more diverse dishes here than they might have been able to serve up to a Peruvian audience. So a menu might start with ceviche, roll through nigiri and end with something chocolate-based.

Where is it?

You'll find it on Chepstow Road, a little further down the street from the new branch of The Barbary. To get there, it's sort of in the middle of Royal Oak, Notting Hill and Bayswater tube stations.

The bright corner site that is Fan on Chepstow Road.

Where's a good place to meet for a drink first?

It's just around the corner from The Princess Royal, which is where we would have gone if it wasn't closed for a private event. There's also The Prince Bonaparte, a few minutes walk away.

Is this an omakase kind of place?

It can be, but it doesn't have to be. There's a full a la carte menu that includes larger sharing dishes and a selection of nigiri and maki. But if you have the funds (and the time), we'd urge you to consider the tasting menu, which for 12 courses at £100 represents genuinely good value for cooking of this kind in London.

We opted to go the tasting menu route, some of which changes depending on the catch of the day. Here are just some of the many, many highlights.

Tiradito Shiro - Hamachi served with a scallop emulsion, pickled lime chilli and a Peruvian chalequita salsa

Ceviche lima-Bangkok - As the name suggests, this drew influences from both Peru and Thailand, with its coconut tiger milk brother, tobiko and tapioca cracker.

Nigiri smoked shiromi - the smoked Peruvian yellow chilli that this first hamachi nigiri came with was genuinely fabulous.

Nigiri pachikay - drawing more of a Chinese influence, this hamachi nigiri was drizzled with pachikay sauce and topped with crispy fish skin and shiso leaves.

Nigiri hotate fungi foie - the one piece of sushi that we can't stop thinking about. This scallop nigiri was topped with a buttery piece of foie and Maldon salt. Unbelievably good.

Nigiri hotate fan - another amazing scallop nigiri, this time topped with Chinese spicy crab.

Hotate Manchego crispy rice - a very different kind of crispy rice to what you might have been used to at somewhere like Nobu (fun fact, chef Coco's uncle was Toshiro Konishi, a hugely respected Peruvian chef who opened Lima's first Japanese restaurant with Nobu Matsuhisa in the Seventies). This features Manchego, tare and butter-griddled squash.

Room for dessert?

The tasting menu features just one sweet course, which was the following...

Choco-lucuma - a chocolate and lacuma mousse topped with matcha quinoa

What about the drinks list?

For the first month or so of opening, Fan didn't have an alcohol licence, so they got pretty creative with their non-alcoholic offerings. We opted for both a boozy and booze-free creation. There's also a short, punchily-priced wine list.

Left to right: Kiuri-Yuzu - a really good alcohol-free spritz of cucumber, and yuzu citric (£9) and an Umeshu Sour (£14) - their take on a Pisco Sour.

Overall thoughts:

Hopefully, the photographs on this Test Drive will have gone some way towards persuading you that there's something incredible happening in this corner of Notting Hill. To that, let us add that our lunch at Fan was, by some margin, one of the best meals we'd had out in London this year. Creative, different, unbelievably delicious - and the folks behind it are genuinely lovely people. If that doesn't encourage you to make a booking right now, we don't know what will.