London boutique hotel The Mandrake has re-opened the doors to its reimagined restaurant Yopo, which has been given a design and menu makeover.
The multi-sensory space has been transformed to reflect and complement the dishes, resulting in a sensual bohemian look with an eclectic mix of comfortable furniture and exotic art. Highlights include Showgirl, a grandiose ostrich by Enrique Gomez de Molina, that takes centre stage, while the restaurant’s entrance lobby features an artwork called Mycelium by Marco Tullio Siviglia, that transforms the space into a cave-like gate through a branching network encrusted with black sands, obsidian and stones. A roof installation by artist Peter-John de Villiers represents mystical beings, repetitive patterns and jungle fauna.
Yopo’s Executive Chef George Scott-Toft is behind the new seasonal menu, which is inspired by European-influenced South American cuisine and his travels through Argentina, Chile and Peru, as well as the intriguing cultural and creative design elements and artwork throughout the restaurant. Indigenous, seasonal and Amazonian ingredients feature throughout, as do low-intervention Argentinian wines and traditional dishes. Plates include creative snacks such as crab, fennel and caviar brioche or sweet potato, salsa macha and goat’s cheese tostada, or interpretations of classic Spanish tapas such as grilled octopus with potato and hot smoked paprika pot, through to yellow tail and aji tiradito crudo – a re-imagined classic Nikkei dish from Peru.
Main dishes feature Iberico pork pressa with romesco and onions, and a new show-stopping plate of wild seabass and citrus. A pineapple tepache and mezcal granita is a firm favourite, evolving as a sustainable zero waste dessert, that Scott-Toft creates using the pineapple skins.
