Nopi, London W.1.

The name Ottolenghi is fast becoming a buzzword in London food circles.  Yotam Ottolenghi came to London from Tel Aviv in 1998, where he had been a journalist,  and started training as a pastry chef in the Rowley Leigh group of restaurants in Kensington.  But his real love was vegetables and a few years later, with two partners, he started to open his delicatessens, some of which have one or two tables, but were mostly take-aways, and the word soon got around.  He now has five establishments, with the main restaurant in Islington, Nopi, a joint venture, which opened last year in the West End, and three delicatessens in Notting hill, Kensington and Belgravia.

Nopi is just behind Regent Street and perfectly located,  if somewhat expensive,  for a shopping lunch. They also do a 3 course fixed price pre-theatre menu at £25.50 which looked like a good deal.  The highlights for me were of course the vegetable salads such as  roasted aubergines with broad beans;  mixed beans, peas, shitake mushrooms and shallots with a miso dressing; crushed beetroot with labneh and za’atar. One of the main concepts of the restaurant is to share dishes, and there are generously portioned starter plates of dishes such as spiced buttermilk cod, scallops with Bramley apples, pork floss and chilli jam,  or twiced cooked chicken.  Prices vary between £16 and £26.  We also had a main dish of venison with blackberries and peanut crumble, but decided afterwards that we would have done better to stick to the salads and shared dishes, and enjoy even more great tastes. The desserts were disappointing and seemed bland after all the spices and unusual combination of tastes from the previous dishes.

The downstairs dining room offers communal tables placed in front of the glass-fronted kitchen, so you can watch all the action.

On my next trip I am  going to try one of the take-away delicatessens -most of the dishes from the restaurants are available and apparently its a lot cheaper doing it that way!