A Taste of COMO

Last Updated on April 21, 2024

Pop up menus at COMO Metropolitan London

Situated on Old Park Lane, Mayfair, the COMO Metropolitan London has a new culinary concept, a series of three pop-up restaurants each of which offers an exciting menu. While this is a great idea for regular guests who can look forward to new menus when they return to stay at the hotel, visitors to the restaurant can also enjoy new dishes every few months. Invited to try the pop-up menus that will be available over the rest of 2022, I was transported to the Mediterranean and beyond through a moveable feast.

As the invited guests were to taste all three of the menus, each of which has four courses, a twelve-course tasting menu awaited us at the COMO Metropolitan along with a fabulous wine pairing. The menus have been carefully designed by Executive Chef, Ruben Briones who has been inspired by his background in Andalucia and his travels. His work has taken him to Paris, where he trained with Alain Senderens and then on to London where he worked at Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social before he joined COMO Hotels.

The first menu, which is available until 6 August, is A Taste of the Mediterranean. This large region spans the Middle East and Turkey with all the Mediterranean countries in between so I was intrigued to discover what dishes we would find on the menu. We began with an amuse-bouche of fougasse served with three dips – romesco, tapenade and spicy tomato. Anyone who has travelled in France will recognise the leaf-shaped fougasse, here pillowy and redolent with rosemary. The dips took us from Spain (romesco) to France (tapenade) and all three were lovely. The spicy tomato sauce was like the best spicy, homemade ketchup you could wish to find, a bottle of it would be very welcome. This opening course was paired with the fabulous Rapura Springs Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2021 which had a pronounced floral note which was perfect for summer dining.

The starter course presented Ras el Hanout roasted aubergine, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese which was a top-drawer presentation of a popular vegetarian meal. Here, the ras el hanout spicing lifted the flavour profile of the aubergine, marinated for a day before perfectly grilled over coals so that it attained that lovely smokiness and silky flesh. It was well accompanied by the sweetness of the tomatoes and tang of feta. The wine pairing was a Bodegas Tierra Rioja Blanco 2018, fermented in the barrel for four months, giving it an oaky and nutty flavour.

The main course was presented in small tagines which set the scene for a trip to Morocco. The lids lifted to reveal a lamb shank and prune tagine served with bulgur tabbouleh. Chef Briones had added his own personal spin on this popular dish by swapping out the preserved lemon for Chinese oranges. This not only added colour but also imparted a lovely citrus note. The meat was very tender and aromatic. It was tempting to eat the whole helping – which was generous – but I resisted, knowing that many more courses were to come. The tagine was paired with a Tobia Selection Rioja Crianza 2008 which had 18 months on the oak and had spicy notes of black pepper.

Dessert was yet another creative dish, labneh cheesecake with amarena cherry ice cream. This was paired with Viña Axarquia Maestro, a gorgeous Moscatel from Bodegas A. Muñoz Cabrera, Malaga where mountain clay and minerals impart a saltiness to enhance the sweet fruity notes. The cheesecake was quite a surprise in having a cardamom flavouring in the base, and a soft, creamy filling. It was served with cherries three ways – ice cream, fresh cherries and a compote. This was a colourful and rich dish with which to conclude the Mediterranean menu.

Next, we made our way through A Taste of the Ocean which will be available from 18 August to 19 November. The amuse bouche was a most unusual dish. Carabinero carpaccio, potato salad. This delicate dish had a base of creamy potatoes with a slight spiciness coming through, it had black garlic and green olives mixed in, and was topped with thin slices of carabinero prawns. These red prawns are considered to be the crème de la crème of prawns, known as carabinero in Spain and Portugal. They are fished in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Chef Briones had an additional surprise in having crisped the tiny prawn legs which topped the dish, adding the visual appeal of colour and height to the dish.

The starter dish was cured trout, horseradish and smoked butter which was served with crisp seaweed bread. This is one of those wonderful culinary combinations, the trout was beautifully cured and the horseradish a perfect accompaniment. Having recently been on a cookery course where I learned to cure salmon and make flavoured butter and seaweed bread, I fully appreciated the simple beauty of this dish.

The main course was one of my favourites – grilled octopus, cassava, chorizo and tomato vinaigrette. Once again, Chef Briones brought a lovely textural interest to the dish by contrasting the succulent and tender octopus with crispy shavings of a tentacle. It took me straight back to my travels in Spain where grilled octopus is often served. I found this dish slightly over-salted but that is a quibble over a tasty and visually appealing dish which was so good that I ate my entire portion, throwing caution to the wind regarding how much food was yet to come.

By now I was expecting creativity in every course and the dessert fulfilled my expectations. Strawberry and rose ice lolly, white chocolate, yoghurt sauce – looked as pretty as summer could on a plate. Resting on a bed of crunchy rose crumble was what appeared to be a white chocolate magnum but opened to reveal itself to be a strawberry and rose ice lolly.

The third menu, A Taste of Le Bistro, will transport diners to France just in time for the winter (24 November to 31 December), when hearty, classic bistro dishes are just what is required to ward off the icy weather. The amuse bouche was foie gras poele, brioche, caramelised onion, pouses d’epinard, Perigord jus. This translates as pan-fried foie gras served on brioche and accompanied by caramelised onion, baby spinach leaves and a sauce made from Madeira and truffle oil. Wow, what a fabulous mouthful. Imagine the sweet brioche that contains luxuriantly rich foie gras, sweet onions and shaving of truffle along with a gorgeous jus. The spinach leaf added a touch of greenery and a nod to health. This was a real treat of a dish.

The starter course was another scorcher. Steak tartar on the bone, beef jus, beef scratching. This dish announced itself before it appeared, with the aroma of grilled rosemary and sage on which the food was served in an attractive Staub dish. A large, grilled marrow bone contained not only the warm marrow – food of the gods if ever there was any – but was topped with steak tartar and beef scratchings which were formed to look like prawn crackers. This was a multi-layered dish both visually and taste-wise and was quite fabulous.

The main course was equally meaty – Bourguignon de joue de boeuf, truffle pomme puree, sautéed vegetables. The flavoursome meat, topped with pancetta, was tender enough to eat with a spoon and the sauce had nuggets of chestnuts which added a lovely sweetness to the sauce, served with a potato puree which was as smooth as it was luxurious with its shavings of truffle. The crisply sautéed carrot, baby courgettes and mangetouts added colour and welcome freshness.

Dessert was a real classic of the French canon – Poire Belle Helene, a pear poached in white wine and vanilla, topped with chocolate sauce which was artfully added tableside. Alongside were wafers, as delicate as gossamer, which enclosed the cream. As if this bounty of food was not sufficient, chocolate fondue was placed on the table along with cubes of marshmallow, a pastry puff and fresh mango.

Any of these menus would be a joy to dine on. I tried to decide which one I would pick if I was called upon to rank them. Would the Mediterranean outdo the Ocean or would Le Bistro take the gold medal? The menus have all been well-curated for the season in which they will be served – summer, autumn and winter. This makes my choice an easy one. Rather than trying – and failing – to choose between them, I can only advise that readers choose all three.

A Taste of COMO is available at COMO Metropolitan London

19 Old Park Lane W1K 1LB

Looking for something different in the area?  We can heartily recommend Nobu Mayfair – check our review of their set lunch menu