Since opening his first restaurant in 2002 Yotam Ottelenghi has been the inspiration for many dinner parties across the UK, and has almost single handily introduced us to jazzed up salads, Mediterranean influences and ingredients from far and wide not heard of before by many aspiring cooks following his recipe books at home.
His 5 restaurants and delicatessens are usually heaving with people and the Ottelenghi empire has been a resounding success. As the group expanded we hear from time to time predictable staff fall out, and his protégés and other trained chefs moving on to do their own things- the latest being Scully in St James market a small back street area, that up until a year ago, was a dark desert but now boasts the Michelin starred Aquavit and the very impressive and exotic Ikoyi. So Scully is in good company when you consider its neighbours, but who is and what is Scully ? The Who – Ramael Scully was born in Malaysia, brought up in Sydney with a Mother of Chinese/ Indian descent and an Irish/ Balinese Father. That’s 6 nations potential food influences before you even start considering where Ramael has worked and travelled to. He arrived in the UK in 2004 and worked with Ottelenghi and the team eventually becoming head chef and creator of many of the dishes at NOPI, not to far away in Warwick Street, Soho. Not everyone I know are huge fans of Nopi so when I advised them I was to try the new Ramael Scully solo Restaurant there was not a lot of excitement registered.
Our Reservation was late after attending the play “Frozen” across the road at The Haymarket Theatre ( awful,slow, depressing play) and I needed a drink quickly after that experience.
The first thing that hits you upon entering are the rows and rows of huge jars of colourful – What ? – stacked up on shelves in the lobby area.
Let’s hope there are no human body parts in those jars
Some fruits and vegetables recognisable but others either the wrong colour or simply a mystery. Various products fermenting and pickling but Green peaches ? Egg yolks ?
We were then led past the open kitchen area to a lovely booth like table for four and provided with our menus. First off was some wine. The list was not so large but with some interestingly sounding, but not so familiar bottles. We chose a Bill Downie from Australia, a Biodynamic wine using the Petit Verdot grape , a grape not so popular in Bordeaux anymore due to its late ripening and harvesting. The bottle was £45 and full bodied with a deep red/ inky colour with lots of black fruit flavours, very rounded and a hint of vanilla. Good start – needed some alcohol!
We were provided with a snack to keep us going – some little chickpeas that had been roasted with kefir lime leaves that tasted very aromatic and moorish, especially at 10.15pm as our table of four had not eaten for a very long time !
Turning to the menu- eclectic would be the word to use, or one of them, exciting, mysterious and containing many unknown elements – Very X Files – required further investigation or explanation by Mulder and Scully, or at least the Waitress ! It was split into snacks(4) , starters (6) and mains (6)and of course were meant for sharing. Actually we all agreed it was the sort of menu easier to say what we did not want as we were ordering 9 dishes which was just over half of the entire menu. First up were Puff beef tendons with Kilpatrick and Oyster Mayo (£9). Oysters Kilpatrick are a classic English recipe involving oysters with Worcestershire sauce, cheese and bacon. Here we had gigantic puffs of beef tendons that you could dip into an oyster mayo that sat upon the aforementioned ingredients. Great Type of snack food, would go well with a beer. 
My friends were a little shocked by the enormous puffs that arrived but I had expected something akin to a giant pork scratching and I was not a million miles away from what turned up.
Next up were crispy baby Sicilian artichokes with a black shallot Ailoli (£8.50) Another unusual dish, not exactly very colourful, but, as it said on the tin, very crispy, dry admittedly, but when mixed with the lovely oniony purée and little flecks of burnt shallots around the edges, was another hit.
Arepa, Eggplant Sambal And a Bergamot Labneh followed (£9). This would be the only “bread” we would be entertaining on the table, but you would not mistake it for bread, it’s made from a ground maize dough and here was puffed up into a flying saucer shape ( more X Files references) filled with air, being able to be broken up and dipped into the eggplant,pepper,tomato sambal and creamy labneh to make a satisfying mouthful. 
Then we had something that would be more refreshing unusual and really worked well. An early season Tomato and Coconut Salad , Green Strawberries and Tomato shrub. The list of ingredients felt like they should not be on the same plate.
The strawberries were in fact pickled green strawberries from one of the jars we had seen at the reception area, the coconut shredded, and the bowl also contained Tomato juices, which as my friend Claire exclaimed was “her dream Tomato Juice” . This really was a palet cleanser, as well as being an exotic and unusual salad, and we ended up with four spoons fighting for the remaining Tomato juice in the bottom of the bowl. Lastly from the starters was Char grilled sprouting broccoli , Chiankiang Vinegar and salted egg yolk (£9.50) which our waiter advised was his favourite on the menu.
I have no idea what the Vinegar was but the broccoli was beautifully grilled and to the side was a kind of egg yolk purée smeared across the plate with additions which we were explained to us but my brain cannot recall as by now was in overload. In fact each and every dish appeared to have so many previously unheard of ingredients (which I was not writing down and was drinking lots of red wine) that I will not be able to do the Restaurant justice. Indeed the restaurant was already thinning out as it was relatively late and it appeared the waiters had more time to explain each and every dish and relished the list of ingredients they were imparting to us. With a keen interest in food and method of preparation etc I was very happy with this, albeit I can imagine it would not be everybody’s cup of tea.
Ok, onto the mains. Octopus with Salt baked Avocado and black garlic. 3 issues to be reported connected with this dish. First off – “London transformed me Octopus wise “ . This was a hilarious comment from my friend Alex at the point of ordering the Octopus which had us all in tears. It sounds like one of those amusing comments reported in Time Out in their weekly page dedicated to what strange things are heard in the streets of London. It was directed at the fact that whilst living in France Alex would never order Octopus from a menu but since arriving in London it has become one of his favourites because of the quality and the way it is prepared in London restaurants. Second, at this point the actual Chefs were bringing the food to us and asking us if we want the story behind each dish, which we certainly did. The explanation involved the Octopus being prepared in Sous Vide style for 6 hours at 75 degrees and thereafter flashed under the grill, the Avocados being baked in salt before being opened up and mixed with a little fresh avocado to retain the vibrant colour and then blitzed together with other ingredients and so on. On the side were some lovely little skinned Tomatoes, still whole, and maybe pickled and roasted ? Our chef was clearly pleased with the technical preparation that he was responsible for and his enthusiasm was infectious, and the taste of the dish justified the long preparation. (No photo as it came out blurry !)
We thought the Octopus involved a long prep but the Beef short rib Pastrami, Horseradish and pistachio involved beef in a brined marinade for 7 days and a process too complicated to remember and report but just to know it involved sodium nitrate to keep the beef a pink colour ( or it would turn an unappetising grey). The beef fell apart at the touch of a fork and it reminded you of a posh version of a pastrami sandwich from Brick Lane, which I think that was the objective. This plate of course had the added luxury of a Horseradish purée, pistachios coating the beef, baby carrots and nasturtium leafs to garnish. It was impeccable and would draw me back for a second visit in itself. Lastly was the Pork Belly with an XO sauce and Cime De Rapa. 
The XO is a Chinese sauce which supposedly contains all of the most luxuriant ingredients the Chinese could muster in days gone by. Cime di Rapa are Sicilian turnip tips with a very bitter taste but offset by the sweet XO sauce and blobs of onion purée on the side. The slow roasted pork belly had lots of fat adding to the umami taste in the mouth and if you could manage a bit of pork puff on the same fork you had another texture to enjoy at the same time. Another technically beautifully prepared dish that I would come back for tomorrow.
Notwithstanding the fact we were all somewhat full, the food was so good we wanted to see if the desserts could also deliver. My friend Alex is a sweet fiend so we chose 3 dishes to share and were presented one additional dessert free as the kitchen was closing and they had only one left and we were the last guests in the restaurant. No complaints there !
Desserts all ran to £6.50 to £7 and again were all original. 
A wacky parsnip and coconut sorbet with Pandan and coffee – another combination which seems alien (X files again !) together on a plate but had a curious but not unpleasant taste.
White Choc /Pink Peppercorns etc
Caramelised White Chocolate with grapefruit and Pink peppercorns, this came in the firm of huge shards of white chocolate studded with aromatic pink pepper sitting atop burnt grapefruit. Great taste combination. Then a frozen ( harking back to our show which by then was thankfully a distant memory) Ginger Marshmallow with Rhubarb.
The marshmallow being frozen had the taste and consistency of half marshmallow/ half ice cream (in a very pleasing way) which coupled with the sour rhubarb was very pleasant. Our free dessert was the Matcha Ice Cream, Malt Cookie and Miso, a sort of avant garden Creme Brûlée, The Miso sitting in little blobs atop a malty biscuit encasing the matcha ice cream.
The Miso here though was somewhat overpowering and was the one dessert we were not so keen on.
Midnight came around and we were still in the restaurant whilst the kitchen were cleaning down behind us. 2 of us had to make a dash for last trains, but I did so after congratulating the kitchen crew and shaking the hand of the chef who had been telling us the stories of our dishes. All four of us thought the inventiveness and originality of the food exemplary, and already commented that a return visit must be in order. Scully seems to have taken the heart of Ottelenghi and Nopi and ratched it up by quite a few notches to produce some technically astounding dishes.
The bill came to £320 for 4 including wine which for the level of food, the number of dishes and the location – just off Piccadilly Circus was not unreasonable. Incredibly you now have three restaurants more or less sitting next door to each other in a quiet location steps away from busy Piccadilly Circus which I would be happy to revisit anytime. This is the truth, and it is out there …..
Rating – Food – Blazingly Hot Pan 5/5
Service – Also a 5
Scully, 4 St. James Market, SW1Y 4 AH