Nopi by Yotam Ottolenghi is a tapas style restaurant in Soho that blends Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian cuisine. The restaurant is on two floors – upstairs is very beautiful and perfect for a romantic meal. However, we dined downstairs, which is also beautiful but more relaxed with communal seating and a view into the open kitchen. Watch a video of downstairs below and read on to find out what we had and thought in our Nopi London Review.

The Menu 

We love a restaurant that has a sharing plates concept as it means we can explore more of the menu. The restaurant suggests about 2-3 dishes per person. We wanted to order our usual – a lot of food! – but our waitress was slightly pushy and insisted we didn’t order the 7 dishes we wanted. Instead, we ordered only order 5 dishes. 

The Food

From the vegetables section we had the roasted aubergine and the Valdeon cheesecake.

The roasted aubergine was surprisingly nice as I am not a fan of aubergine, but it seems like my taste buds are expanding. The aubergine tasted amazing with the quail. 

The cheesecake was the worst dish we had. It was very cheesy and no base. I had more of it than Amen did. He absolutely hated it. 

From the meat section we had the Pork Belly and the masterstock quail. The quail was small which is not surprising, but it tasted amazing. The chili sauce it came with gave the quail that extra flavour which made the dish even more delicious. 

When Amen first saw the pork belly he was afraid it would be cooked the way he doesn’t like it (I don’t know what that is 😆 ). But when he ate it he enjoyed it. He said it was not the best he’s had, but still had some flavour. 

For mains we shared the twice cooked half chicken. It tasted delicious. It had a lot of flavour and the chicken was not dry (even the breast). 

Dessert

The “pudding” menu is not much of puddings but more of an ice cream selection. We had the roasted peanut and caramel ice cream with chocolate sauce and banana crumble. The ice cream was really goo. We loved it. Amen definitely enjoyed it more though, as it had two of his favourites – peanut and caramel.

Verdict

Nopi was a pleasant experience. I can’t say the food reminded me of anything middle-eastern, but it was good for flavour. The restaurant is also quite pretty. The clientale was a little stuffy though, which was super annoying especially when you’re seated next to them on a communal dining table. Apart from the pushy recommendation from the waitress, the service was good. We recommend for dates – upstairs for a romantic private date and downstairs for a more causal date. Downstairs would be perfect for groups as well. 

Cuisine: Mediterranean 
Dress Code: Smart casual
Shiima and Amen’s Star Dish: Twice cooked half chicken
Price: £40-£50pp
Rating: 3.8 out of 5

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NOPI
21-22 Warwick Street
London, W1B 5NE
Reserve at OpenTable
or call 020 7494 9584
www.ottolenghi.co.uk/nopi