The top line: The first restaurant from Artem Login’s recently created MAD Restaurants group. On Soho’s Wardour Street, the 150-cover MOI is a large multi-faceted Japanese-inspired restaurant with a basement sushi kitchen and a listening bar (the latter isn’t quite open yet). The kitchen is overseen by the group’s overall executive chef Andy Cook and MOI head chef Nick Tannett, who was most recently at Battersea Japanese restaurant Evernight. Next month, Login will open a second restaurant on the other side of Soho in Kingly Court that will be headed by former Gazelle chef Rob Roy Cameron.
On the menu: The food offering is fairly tight for such a large venue. Menu sections include snacks, raw, binchotan (essentially skewers), oak (larger dishes cooked over wood); and birch (dishes cooked in a wood-burning oven). Smaller plates include silken tofu, toasted buckwheat and Ebisu soy; tempura lobster with curry and Flourish Farm leaves; and skewers of beef tongue, shishito pepper and marigold miso. Lager plates include Tamworth pork chop with fermented pepper, peach and Karashi mustard. Login says MOI’s focus on top quality UK produce, largely non-Japanese team and respectful yet non-traditional approach sets it apart from most other Japanese restaurants in the capital. The wine list has a natural slant - which is also unusual for a London Japanese restaurant - and offers several wines and sakes via tap.
The vibe: MOI has a modern look with subtle references to its culinary theme. Design details include a wall of records, DJ decks, bespoke speakers, reclaimed natural materials, a very open kitchen and a curved staircase that gives Mayfair’s Hide a run for its money.
And another thing: There are rumours swirling that Login has already lined up a third site in W1.
84 Wardour Street, London W1F 0TQ