Review: Asia de Cuba
Atmosphere is a curious thing. It the glorious sum of a million different little factors – the people, the décor, the lighting, the smells, the squishiness of your chair – and it can either make or break an establishment before the grub has even come into the equation.
That is why when an ambience is indefinable, it’s all the more bamboozling. This is the case at Asia de Cuba, the newish restaurant in sleek St Martin’s Lane Hotel. The furnishings have been painstakingly thought-out: the overhead lighting is so elaborate that a brightly-filamented bulbs hang low over each and every table, there are a dazzling array of real books in the central oversized colonnades, and there is a lot of funky art, hung up in a crowded manner to feign a marvellous lack of consideration (when really we all know their arrangement is meticulous).
Yet there is more than a hint of Ikea about the hard furniture, and the place is so big with a ceiling so high, that it feels like its character is stretched rather thin. The crowd is rather at odds with the backdrop, too. Distinguished, well-fed types sit having intelligent conversation, while Latin American music suited to slightly off-the-hook party blares in the background.
It’s certainly not a glib atmosphere, just a befuddling one. Perhaps it’s intentional, because what with the art and the music and the slightly hard seat, your senses are firing on all cylinders, which does wonderful things to your appetite. And a raging appetite is certainly something you want to bring along to Asia de Cuba.
It is another of these oh-so-fashionable fusion joints, serving up something dishes intended to be shared. We started with the calamari salad which was a thrilling cocktail of crisp squid, soft banana and crunchy cashew nuts, all on a generous bed of salad leaves. Its freshness contrasted perfectly with our other starter, the honey-rum glazed pork belly. Salty, a little bit sweet, and full of flavourful fat, Asian delicacy flirts with Cuban complexity to create the sort of dish that you never want to end.
The pork belly was soft to the point of exquisite disintegration, but the Cuban coffee crusted rib-eye which followed was more on the chewy side. The coffee coating added richness, while the yucca mojo fries provided a satisfying accompaniment of stodge. It’s hearty, filling stuff, pre-sliced to aid sharing (whether you like it or not). If you go, I’d recommend ordering a miso-cured black cod purely for yourself. Flakey, sweet and sticky, it epitomises the sort of indulgence only delivered by healthy fare cooked to perfection.
We were dissuaded from ordering two puddings by Nicholas, our slim waiter, who ensured us that the Mexican doughnuts would be more than enough. He wasn’t wrong. Terribly bad for you but terribly good, the deep fried balls of dough were set off by a dusting of icing sugar and a dipping bowl of butterscotch sauce. Like the rest of the dishes, they’re generous in portion too.
Asia de Cuba sports a wine list as thoughtfully assembled as its art collection, but the cocktails are where it’s at here. You can order huge sharing glasses – the type of thing you’d expect hot young things to be sipping in some trendy club on the King’s Road – and there is something truly great about seeing a middle-aged business man sipping a fruity cocktail through an oversized straw. We shared a Cuban Missile, which was a heady mix of rum, bitters a fruit juices, and dangerously refreshing. A strawberry cheesecake shot finished our meal on a sweet note – I was delighted to discover an actual biscuit base lurking at the bottom of my shot glass.
Full from genuinely delicious food, the atmosphere at Asia de Cuba takes on a different light (and not just because our table’s bulb was flickering). They could hang a zillions other mismatched pictures, and fill the shelves with the most erudite tomes, even amp up Ricky Martin to full volume and people wouldn’t notice – they’re too busy tucking into their food.
I guess the grub reigns supreme after all.
www.stmartinslane.com
That is why when an ambience is indefinable, it’s all the more bamboozling. This is the case at Asia de Cuba, the newish restaurant in sleek St Martin’s Lane Hotel. The furnishings have been painstakingly thought-out: the overhead lighting is so elaborate that a brightly-filamented bulbs hang low over each and every table, there are a dazzling array of real books in the central oversized colonnades, and there is a lot of funky art, hung up in a crowded manner to feign a marvellous lack of consideration (when really we all know their arrangement is meticulous).
Yet there is more than a hint of Ikea about the hard furniture, and the place is so big with a ceiling so high, that it feels like its character is stretched rather thin. The crowd is rather at odds with the backdrop, too. Distinguished, well-fed types sit having intelligent conversation, while Latin American music suited to slightly off-the-hook party blares in the background.
It’s certainly not a glib atmosphere, just a befuddling one. Perhaps it’s intentional, because what with the art and the music and the slightly hard seat, your senses are firing on all cylinders, which does wonderful things to your appetite. And a raging appetite is certainly something you want to bring along to Asia de Cuba.
It is another of these oh-so-fashionable fusion joints, serving up something dishes intended to be shared. We started with the calamari salad which was a thrilling cocktail of crisp squid, soft banana and crunchy cashew nuts, all on a generous bed of salad leaves. Its freshness contrasted perfectly with our other starter, the honey-rum glazed pork belly. Salty, a little bit sweet, and full of flavourful fat, Asian delicacy flirts with Cuban complexity to create the sort of dish that you never want to end.
The pork belly was soft to the point of exquisite disintegration, but the Cuban coffee crusted rib-eye which followed was more on the chewy side. The coffee coating added richness, while the yucca mojo fries provided a satisfying accompaniment of stodge. It’s hearty, filling stuff, pre-sliced to aid sharing (whether you like it or not). If you go, I’d recommend ordering a miso-cured black cod purely for yourself. Flakey, sweet and sticky, it epitomises the sort of indulgence only delivered by healthy fare cooked to perfection.
We were dissuaded from ordering two puddings by Nicholas, our slim waiter, who ensured us that the Mexican doughnuts would be more than enough. He wasn’t wrong. Terribly bad for you but terribly good, the deep fried balls of dough were set off by a dusting of icing sugar and a dipping bowl of butterscotch sauce. Like the rest of the dishes, they’re generous in portion too.
Asia de Cuba sports a wine list as thoughtfully assembled as its art collection, but the cocktails are where it’s at here. You can order huge sharing glasses – the type of thing you’d expect hot young things to be sipping in some trendy club on the King’s Road – and there is something truly great about seeing a middle-aged business man sipping a fruity cocktail through an oversized straw. We shared a Cuban Missile, which was a heady mix of rum, bitters a fruit juices, and dangerously refreshing. A strawberry cheesecake shot finished our meal on a sweet note – I was delighted to discover an actual biscuit base lurking at the bottom of my shot glass.
Full from genuinely delicious food, the atmosphere at Asia de Cuba takes on a different light (and not just because our table’s bulb was flickering). They could hang a zillions other mismatched pictures, and fill the shelves with the most erudite tomes, even amp up Ricky Martin to full volume and people wouldn’t notice – they’re too busy tucking into their food.
I guess the grub reigns supreme after all.
www.stmartinslane.com