• Home
  • Cocktails
  • Culture
    • Dance
    • Opera
    • Theatre
    • Outdoor
    • London Life
      • Foodie London
      • Visiting London – Five Must Do Sights
      • Visiting London – London Travel Tips
    • Balcony Gardening
  • Featured
    • Books
    • Home Delivery
    • Recipe Kits
    • Giveaways
  • Recipes
    • Meat
    • Soups
    • Lunch
    • Starters
    • Mains
    • Sides
    • Desserts
    • Cakes and Sweets
    • 5:2 Diet Recipes
    • Fish and Shellfish
    • Meat
    • Poultry
    • Vegetarian
  • Restaurants
    • Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia
    • Bermondsey, Borough and London Bridge
    • Chelsea
    • Camden
    • City of London
    • Clerkenwell
    • Covent Garden
    • Docklands
    • East London
    • Kings Cross
    • Knightsbridge
    • Kings Cross
    • Kensington
    • Marylebone
    • Mayfair
    • Oxford Circus
    • Oxford Circus
    • Paddington
    • St James
    • Soho
    • South Bank
    • South London
    • The Strand and Embankment
    • North London
    • Victoria and Pimlico
    • West London
    • Out of London
    • Miscellaneous
  • Travel UK
  • Travel Europe
    • Belgium
    • Croatia
    • Czech Republic
    • First Visit
      • Bulgaria
      • Netherlands
      • Poland
      • Romania
      • Slovenia
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Italy
      • Sicily
    • Ireland
    • Portugal
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Travel Other
    • Caribbean Travel
      • Antigua
      • Barbados
      • Grenada
      • St Lucia
    • Ecuador
    • Egypt
    • India
    • Qatar
    • Mexico
    • Oman
    • Rodrigues and Mauritius
    • Sri Lanka
    • USA

London Unattached - Luxury Mid-Life London Lifestyle

Luxury London Lifestyle for mid-life Metropolitans - food, travel, restaurant reviews - London Unattached

You are here: Home / Restaurant / Coya Mayfair Review

Coya Mayfair Review

February 1, 2013 by Fiona Maclean 4 Comments

Tweet
Pin
Share
Flip
Share

Last Updated on December 12, 2016 by Fiona Maclean

A little bit of Peru in London – Coya Mayfair:

South American food has been a fashionable favourite in London recently.  And Coya, opened last November in Mayfair, capitalises on the trend with poise and elegance.  As you walk through the heavy front door on Piccadilly, you are greeted by a spectacular chandelier lighting your way down the stairs to the bar and restaurant, a fitting precedent to what should be a fabulous experience.  The theatre of dining, Peruvian style.

coya entrance - london piccadilly

There are several distinct areas, so that the large space doesn’t feel cavernous and the vivid colours of the upholstery contrasts with dark wood and terracotta tiled floors to create an almost intimate atmosphere. Peruvian inspired but refined and polished with Arjun Waney flair.

coya - bar London Mayfair

Of course the first drink you should order is a Pisco Sour, a cocktail created in the 1920s which uses a mixture of Peruvian Pisco (a grape based distilled alcohol), egg white, bitters, sugar syrup and lime to create a frothy drink with a real kick.  We started with classic Pisco sours, intending to drink wine with the meal, but in the end we were tempted back to try flavoured Pisco sours.

Pisco sour coya - bar London piccadilly

Guided through the menu, we were encouraged to order a selection of one each of the small dishes.

coya ceviche London Mayfair

We shared a  ‘Lubina Clasico’ Ceviche– Sea Bass, red onions, sweet potato and white corn.  Elegantly presented this was a delicate take on Ceviche but with a real kick in the tiger’s milk dressing!

coya tiraditos London Mayfair

Tiraditos are similar to ceviche – a dish originating from Peru’s Japanese immigrant population, again based on citrus marinated raw fish, but generally with no onion and perhaps with more chili. Our Conchas de Abanico was a mix of scallops, carrots, ginger, coriander and cress .  Pretty as a picture, served on a stunning shell type plate, it tasted every bit as good as it looks.

coya london - calamares

Calmares Fritos con Ocopa was a dish of baby squid served with a green sauce made from ‘Peruvian marigold’ (also called Huacatay) to create a fresh lemony minty dipping sauce.  Executive chef Sanay Dwivedi told us later that the Peruvian Marigold was grown especially for him to order.

The one dish I had hesitated over, Forest mushrooms with aji mirasol and parsley, turned out to be fantastically deep and rich.  Sometimes sharing dishes are hard to share!

My dining companion, the pescatorian Hedonist, wanted to try a Josper dish for his main course and chose the Tiger prawns, with chilli salsa.  A small taste for me, the fish was perfectly cooked and tender.

king prawns - coya piccadilly

My Sirloin with chimichurri and tamarind salsa was a classic dish, immaculate and delicious.  I know in my heart I should really order something other than steak, but when there’s a Josper, the result is usually amazing.

To accompany our main dishes we picked a dish of Peruvian asparagus and patatas bravas a la peruana.

coya piccadilly patatas bravas

After a short break, we found ourselves drawn to the  dessert menu.  It really was something of an indulgence but one that I don’t regret. My fortunato fondant with roasted white chocolate ice cream was a fine example of what I shouldn’t have been eating.  Decadent fondant filling pouring from the light textured chocolate sponge – it was washed down with a wonderful sweet red wine which matched the chocolate perfectly, Maury Mas Mudigliza Roussilon, 2009.  Very delicious and the best chocolate pairing I’ve had to date.

dessert wine - coya mayfair

coya dessert chocolate

My companion’s lucuma bavarois with passion fruit sorbet must have been considerably healthier.  Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit that looks a little bit like an orange fleshed avocado and is used in a dried form as a natural sugar substitute. Here though it was whipped up into a light mousse and the little I tasted was delicious.

coya London dessert

A short tour of the three kitchen areas and private dining room confirmed that this is a serious investment in the London restaurant scene.  The gleaming Josper was the latest model, with a separate indirect heat top oven used for smoking vegetables at Coya.  And there was an open Asado as well.  The private dining room just made me smile with its Latin American decor and stylish table.

Coya mayfair London kitchen

We dined as guests of the restaurant during a quiet lunch time service.  And, everything was faultless, except perhaps the stylish but dis-functional teapot which seemed to want to pour more of my companion’s mint tea onto the table than into the cup.  We were told the place is considerably more lively in the evenings and I can imagine it’s somewhere you might visit to enjoy a cocktail or two and end up staying to eat.  Whether the service and food is as spotless during a busy period is impossible to say from this review, but our own experience of Coya Mayfair was excellent.

Coya
118 Piccadilly,
Mayfair,
London W1J 8NW

 

Filed Under: Restaurant Tagged With: ceviche, Mayfair, mayfair restaurant, peru, peruvian

About Fiona Maclean

London based freelance writer and marketing consultant. I edit London-Unattached.com and write for a number of other publications. With a music degree and a background in marketing across many sectors, my passions include all types of music, food, restaurants, wine and travel

Comments

  1. stevie says

    February 3, 2013 at 12:41 am

    heavenly !!!

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      February 4, 2013 at 2:08 pm

      and, you can almost pretend it’s healthy!

      Reply
  2. Caroline Taylor says

    February 1, 2013 at 1:07 pm

    Sounds like a great place Fiona. I’m always looking for somewhere new and interesting to go in London, I will have to check with you next time I’m up there!

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      February 1, 2013 at 1:56 pm

      they have a rather interesting set menu with matched teas at the moment. I’ll go back and add a bit more to the review;)

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Follow Us

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

About London-Unattached

  • About Fiona Maclean
    • Writing for Other Publications
  • Enquiries/PR
  • Links to Other Sites
  • London Unattached Contributors
  • London Unattached Privacy Policy
  • Media Pack
  • Newsletter
  • Travel Bloggers Influencer Network

Recently Published

  • Banquist sprinkles Michelin stardust on your cooking
  • Sherlock Holmes: An Online Adventure – Review
  • Get in a stew with British shellfish
Looking for more recipes? Check out my new site, The Frugal Flexitarian, for easy, cost effective recipes to enjoy at home.
Find My 5:2 Diet Recipes quickly and easily

London Unattached Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter here. We promise not to spam - and you can unsubscribe at any time

Search London Unattached


Find Us

blogl
VuelioTop10Badge2020

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in