Name: Suka
Address: 50 Berners Street, London, Marylebone, W1T 3NG, UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7300 9500
Rating: 3

It’s never good when your hotly anticipated expectations are let down like the geeky girl at the prom in an American teen movie. I can make a concession to the fact that the night we chose to attend Suka at the Sanderson was only the third day of the year, a date which many restaurants would struggle with after the upheaval of New Year’s. What I cannot forgive however is that a meal as shambolic as this should come at such a hefty price tag.

This was my experience of the Malaysian restaurant located in the plush hotel favoured by celebrities and remodelled by uber designer Philippe Starck. We’d booked a table for dinner and another table for drinks on the terrace - they’d somehow lost our reservation for dinner, and the terrace wasn’t even open due to the cold weather which caused a momentary panic, however a quick glance around revealed it was practically empty and we wouldn’t have a problem being seated.

After perusing our menus at length we began to order, only to be told we’d been given the lunch menus, and not the dinner ones. My bouillabaisse was not available, nor were any of the cocktails we wanted after 7pm. It was 7.10. Does the barman leave along with all his spirits in a backpack? In any case, we began the process of choosing once again.

The dishes at Suka are small and you are encouraged to order various to share. Their size does not mirror the price, however expecting exquisite food we were liberal with our options. Once the waitress materialised again, she had to inform us that three of the dishes we were after were not available. There was also no naan bread.

“I apologise ladies, our kitchen has been very busy”. We again looked around the bare restaurant just in case a sudden thronging mass had entered the building without us realising. Ten minutes after ordering the few things that were available, she started to make her way back to our table. “Oh my God, what is it now!” my friend moaned. Thank goodness this time she had only forgotten what our drinks were, it was still possible to make them.

Once the food we didn’t really want to order in the first place arrived, it was terribly disappointing. The scallops on a skewer marinated in chilli oil had been overcooked and were too chewy – I’ve had better at run-of-the-mill high street restaurants. The roasted halibut with clams, spinach, tofu and chilli quite unbelievably lacked flavour and was similarly overcooked. The butter prawns were just about edible and were served with their heads and tails still on – not an issue usually, but after all our inconveniences so far having to get our fingers messy irritated us further.

The tofu claypot with shimeiji mushrooms, peanuts, chilli and ginger fared much better, as did the vegetable lodeh, a tasty curry of aubergine, onion, potato and okra. The spiced watermelon salad consisted of little more than watermelon slices and chilli in hoisin sauce, a tad less exotic to the tastebuds than it looked on the menu.

The desserts were good, however it’s hard to go wrong with oodles of chocolate fondant and hazelnut mousse. I have however experienced terrible panacotta in the past but this was not the case here, their lemon variation was rich and delicious.

The marble interiors and Starck lighting may be beautiful, but I do hope this restaurant lives up to its price tag the other 364 days of the year. At £170 for tapas-sized portions for three, desserts and cocktails, where our initial reservation was lost, we were given the wrong menus, we had few options to choose from due to the incompetence of the kitchen (no naan bread?!), and without even a whiff of a discount for our troubles, the only thing that would make me return to Suka would be if I was paid. About £170.

Monday	Open 06:30 - Closes 00:00
Tuesday	Open 06:30 - Closes 00:00
Wednesday	Open 06:30 - Closes 00:00
Thursday	Open 06:30 - Closes 00:30
Friday	Open 06:30 - Closes 00:30
Saturday	Open 06:30 - Closes 00:30
Sunday	Open 06:30 - Closes 22:30

Suka

All In London Review

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