The top line: Located on Notting Hill’s well-heeled Westbourne Grove, MATER1A takes its name from ‘raw material’ and is a 16-cover restaurant that puts top-quality ingredients to the forefront. Chef-patron Victor Garvey, who also runs Michelin-starred SOLA in Soho, is supported by a crack team - in the kitchen is Tokyo-born head chef Kaming Pang, a former sous chef at SOLA who has also worked at the Michelin starred Le Vieille Tour in Brittany, while out front is restaurant manager Ruben Santos, whose previous roles have included at two Michelin starred Alex Dilling at Cafe Royale, and head sommelier Christian Vega, formerly at the one Michelin starred Rotisserie du Chambertin in Burgundy.
The food: The menu at MATER1A is described as a journey through Garvey’s culinary life so far and come in the form of two tasting menus of 11 or 21 courses. Dishes are influenced by the chef’s formative two years spent working in Japan as well as his experience cooking in restaurants in the US and Europe. A menu might include Froya langoustine; and Shizuoka Crown melon; a Japanese soufflė omelette served with black truffle; and smoked Cornish sardine with Shine Muscat grape and Marcona almond. Those familiar with Garvey’s cooking can expect precise, elegant cooking and sometimes playful preparation and the use of peerless ingredients. On the wine side, Vega has put together a list of more than 150 bottles.
The vibe: On arrival, guests are guided through a passage which spotlights hero ingredients of the menu and are invited to look, touch, and smell them. The main dining room itself is small and intimate, with hand carved contemporary wooden panelling throughout, curved wooden tub chairs, circular marble top tables where oversized rattan lights provide a central spotlight for each section. A DJ spot to the rear of the restaurant plays an eclectic soundtrack that taps into the mood of the room, dropping anything from west coast hip hop to rock another. Accessed via a separate entrance is Kamakura, a bar run by a husband-and-wife team Sakiko and Tuya, which is the sibling to Garvey’s favourite sushi bar, Jugemu in Soho. Billed as one of London’s smallest izakayas, it serves sushi alongside a strong whisky and sake list, with bottles that can be bought and saved for subsequent visits.
And another thing: MATER1A was originally expected to be called Materia Prima (there are still references to the name on the website) and was going to open on Great Portland Street, but Notting Hill feels a more suitable place for Garvey’s vision.
115 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, London, W2 4UP / www.mater1a.uk/