OSIA

[Andy Lynes]

Maureen Mills at Network London has sent me a press release about Osia restaurant 11 Haymarket, London. Apparently it "brings a new sense of Australian flavours to the UK" and is owned by Aussie chef Scott Webster (anyone know anything about this chap?) in partnership with Raymond de Fazio who owns the Cafe Med group.

Design "features a mix of olive green leather banquettes and oatmeal linen covered chaors, teak tables, limestone-coloured concrete bar with bronze mirror backdrop" amongst other things.

The menu is notable for its inclusion of "food cocktails" such as chilled beetroot and caraway or chilled mango, honey and banana. I'm guessing these may be smoothies by another name, although I am slightly confused by the blue swimmer crab cocktail with cucmber and flying fish roe, I don't think you'd want to whiz up that lot in a blender.

Other than that, the food all sounds a bit Sugar Club, with totally baffling items such as akudjura cheese crisps, dorrigo herbed spring lamb with kumara mash and pork with orange quandong glaze (that's a joke. Surely?) popping up all over the shop. Desserts include a roast granny smith apple tart, eucalyptus rosemary butter, honey ginger ice cream.

Starters range from £5 - £12 (for skewered prawns) mains £15 - £22 (which gets you veal with tuna) and all desserts are £7.00.

Telephone number for the restaurant is 0207 976 1919

[Bapi]

"akudjura cheese crisps, dorrigo herbed spring lamb with kumara mash and pork with orange quandong glaze (that's a joke. Surely?) "

Eeeek, that sounds Spectacularly horrible

[Andy Lynes]

Thats not all one dish I should point out. The menu includes more mainstream stuff like "beef fillet, braised oxtail, celeriac puree and cabbage" but it's all quite wacky.

[Simon Majumdar]

Ho hum

Another F**king aussie chef who has done a year's backpacking around Vietnam and come back with a whole load of ingredients and no bloody idea how to use them

S

[Gareth]

I reject the backpacking theory. My hypothesis is that all antipodean restaurants have either Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear as a menu consultant.

Pan-charred Snark in a quandong glaze.

Jugged Jaberwock with Slithy Toves

Jullienne of Jumblies

To be eat with a vorpal knife and a runcible spoon, of course...

[Scott]

Ho hum

Another F**king aussie chef who has done a year's backpacking around Vietnam and come back with a whole load of ingredients and no bloody idea how to use them

S

Simon,

bit carried away here, hmmm...?

Shane Osborn & David Thompson spring to mind.

[Simon Majumdar]

There is a big difference between the DT "immersion in the culture and study of the history of the cuisine" approach which provided an decent if not decent value meal at Nahm and Peter Gordon's " hey they have a special on lemon grass down at Borough market" approach

S

Edited April 17, 2003 by Simon Majumdar (log)

[Andy Lynes]

I think thats a tad unfair Simon. Although I haven't eaten Gordon's food, I have cooked some of it from his book and found it to be well constructed and very edible indeed, although hI must admit to having to omit some of the more outre ingredients.

[Adam Balic]

Christ you lot can be parochial sometimes . "Akudjura", "Dorrigo [pepper]" and "Quandong" are all native Australian fruit and in the case of Dorrigo a spice. As such they are not part of any ethnic cuisine, so rather difficult to mis-interperate a cultures cuisine that doesn't actually exist. No back-packing.

"Akudjura" is the fruit from a member of the nightshade family, think of it as tomato type flavour.

"Dorrigo [pepper]" is a spice with a peppery/cut wood flavour.

"Quandong" is blue native fruit, often refered to as a "native plum", although it isn't related to the Prunus genus.

There is a big difference between "being critical of a restuarant that you have actually been to and actually have some knowledge on what ingredients/techniques they are using" and "Gosh, aren't they funny Johnny-foreigner works they are using".

All this dis-missing of un-tasted food on the grounds that it is obviously inferior because it is 'odd', smacks of Plotnickism.

[Simon Majumdar]

, although I must admit to having to omit some of the more outre ingredients.

QED

I am just in a bad mood and, in absentia Balic, I have to find some other antipodean ( Gordon is a kiwi isn't he?) to pick on

Hey, and I guess you can never have too many chilli crab cakes can you? ( do we have a vomit emoticon?)

S

Edited April 17, 2003 by Simon Majumdar (log)

[Adam Balic]

See above. World cup, Ashes.

[magnolia]

I have to agree with Balic here. I think what you are all reacting to is the natural unease caused by the unfamiliar..viz. the wording on the press release, whose writer decided on a strategy - misjudged in my opinion - of 'let's impress them with the what they don't know'. Rather than listing these 'new' terms, she could have simply said 'exciting Australian/Pac Rim/Asian ingredients that haven't been used in the UK before' or something like that, and leave it at that. Putting something like quandong on a press release provokes ridicule, and on a menu, causes intimidation.

That aside, I'd be more alarmed if the PR described the decor before the food (though perhaps Andy's described things out of order?).

Likewise...is a food cocktail by any other name not something you would find on the menus at....none other than The Fat Duck, Hiramatsu, Mju, Arpege, Astrance...just to name a small handful.

What, after all, is a vodka and lemon grass liquid nitrogen-flash frozen 'meringue' than a food cocktail? or a shot glass filled with quail aspic with pea puree? or the ubiquitous martini/shot glass filled with chilled puréed veg of one kind or another, with real or aubergine roe? Chilled beetroot cocktail, you surely realise...is just a fancy shmancy name for BORSCHT. My bubbeh would die laughing.

I'd be curious to try this place, the prices seem right, and everyone raves about the food in Australia...

Edited April 17, 2003 by magnolia (log)

[Andy Lynes]

The press release came with the full menu, so I've picked out the odd sounding stuff. The design comes after the food on the release.

Here's a short review on Square Meal

[rjs1]

And a stinker from Fay Maschler in the Evening Standard yesterday. You've got to wonder about a restaurant that (she says) can't get French fries (sorry, Freedom fries) right.

[magnolia]

Went to Osia last night, and I really liked it. I would definitely go back - there were several things I would still like to try. In fact the food is not as odd as the descriptions would make out, and I think the unfamiliar terms are just one of the ways in which the place does itself no favours: there are several items that may distract from both the cooking and wine list which are both quite accomplished.

First impressions: I can't recall which restaurant occupied this space before, but I think it has been a cafe and a three-floor quick-to-fail trendy bar. The venue's original entrance, located catty-corner to an alleyway, has been sealed off, and the main entrance is now down the side. But as there is no indication of where the new entrance is, every first-time diner tries the original door, and finding it locked, is confused until they figure out where to go. This is a tricky one to fix: It was wise to seal off the original front door, as Haymarket is noisy and crowded in the summer, and in the winter, this kind of door would let a lot of cold air into the dining area. But they can't really cover it up altogether, because that would cut down on the restaurant's main natural light source. However they have to do *something* as it makes everyone feel silly.

Main dining room was comfortable, tables are well-spaced. I can't tell if it will be noisy or not whenit's full because it was pretty empty last night. We therefore only had to share the staff with a couple of other tables. The servers are, as has been mentioned before, knowledgable, helpful and eager to please.

Next up: the menu. The appetizers (starters) are divided into two sections - 'cocktails' (not to be confused with the alcoholic kind, of which Osia has many - and they are good) - and 'starters'.

The 'cocktails' range from around £7 to £10, and consist of some ceviches and some liquidy things. The starters may begin and end a bit higher but not by much, and consist of some cooked and uncooked items as well. Two of us ordered 'cocktails' - I had a langoustine & buckwheat (a la soba) noodle cocktail, and my friend K. had a ceviche. E. had a 'starter' of prawns wrapped in pastry (it's as something a lot more complicated than what it is). All three were fabulous. The cocktails are basically smallish starters that would, under other restaurant circumstances, be called amuse-gueules and be free of charge. You are, of course, encouraged to order both a 'cocktail' and starters, which is fine if you don't plan to have a main but if you do, they add up to the cost of a main and are not as filling. If I were king, I'd just combine the two and call them all starters, and dispense with the gimmickry.

The mains we chose were wonderful. I had perfectly cooked - i.e. juicy, not dry - quandong-glazed pork. My quandong was actually dark orange rather than blue, and tasted like a kumquat, and no, I had no clue what it was before - or after - reading Adam's explanation. But it sounded good so I took a punt This is true of some of many of the ingredients, which turn out to be perfectly acceptable/recognizable once you know what they are. Dorrigo=pepper. Etc. Again, a tricky one because if they 'translated' each ingredient, the menu would be a lot wordier and wouldn't allow a certain species of smug world-traveller the satisfaction of saying, loudly, 'I had the best kumara in Cairns' or whatever. On the other hand, I think the menu gives the impression that the food is going to be a lot weirder than it actually is, and that's what some people will remember. K. had halibut with some kind of sides, which disappeared before I had a chance to taste it - and E. had veal fillet in walnut cream with asparagus which tasted suspiciously like vitello tonato, I'm not kidding - the walnut cream tasted like tuna. Go figure. Anyway it was very good and I had to fight for my taste. And there were a lot of other things I would like to have tried. I think there was only one main that was £20, all the rest were in the range of £17 or so. I think they've been especially careful about not exceeding £20, as the sides (some of which may come with your main anyway) are £3. I'd say the sides are the best value, you get a lot for your £3.

We were pretty full but opted for a roasted granny smith with eucalyptus rosemary butter. I was dying for someone to share the Callebaut chocolate soup with vanilla pepper ice cream but had no takers. Next time. The roasted granny smith turned out to be a pastry-less tart, and was really nice - I was afraid the eucalyptus butter would taste like Vick's Vapo-rub or Bengay, but it was much more subtle.

The nicest surprise was the bar, which I only found when looking for the loos. It's at the back, and is warm and friendly, with lots of floor space and some tables. They also display all the wines there, and I'm a huge sucker for that. I think you should be able to see the wine before you choose.

I have to go now so I will describe the wine list another time but it is really well done, with some good selections by the glass and lots of interesting new world options at decent (for restaurant) prices, though there are some weird pricing anomalies like the Chateau d'Yquem which at £225 is a better value than Inniskillin Gold at £95....

[Lord Michael Lewis]

I suppose the choice of Maureen Mills to handle Osia's PR, must be related to her success with the Fat Duck. The menu sounds not dissimilarly unappetizing.

[circeplum]

i liked it too. any 'weirdness' was just down to my lack of knowledge of native aussie foodstuffs. the food was good. and i agree: great bar.

m

[StephenT]

The menu sounds not dissimilarly unappetizing.

Oooh a triple negative that makes sense on the first reading... well done

[Scott]

Given how good the food has been recently at MJU and East@West, was wondering if anyone had experience with Osia?

would appreciate any feedback people have.

Answers on the back of a postcard

[circeplum]

i really liked it - thought the food both imaginative and assured, full of unfamiliar ingredients like lemon myrtle and quandong. really great 'secret' bar, too.

x

[Andy Lynes]

I have today recieved a statement regarding the closure of Osia. It came in the post on unheaded paper, but my assumption is that it has been issued by the PR company. It reads:

"Osia Restaurant & Bar, in Haymarket, London, closed on 26 February 2005. While the restaurant recieved phenomenal critical praise, it was, according to co-founder de Fazio, a case of right product, wrong site", and executive chef/co-founder Scott Webster has returned to his native Australia.

De Fazio will retain the site and reopen it on Monday, 14 march 2005 as Broadway Bar and Grill. This will be part of his new USA Colection of restaurants, which is a mid-market formula offering all-day dining incorporating classic American dishes in a casual, stylish atmosphere. A second site, Hudson Grill, will open on Thursday, 17 March in Kensngton Park Road, Notting Hill."

[Suzi Edwards]

So that's nought for two for Australian chefs in London. Firt East@West, now Osia.

Dear Lord, please tell me that the Walkabout is next to go.

[circeplum]

actually, that is sad. webster is bloody good.

[Adam Balic]

So that's nought for two for Australian chefs in London. Firt East@West, now Osia.

Dear Lord, please tell me that the Walkabout is next to go.

←

Walk about is a British thing isn't it? Like Rolf Harris*, there is an Australian element, but it is a British phenomena.

*You keep him, we don't want him back.

[Spam]

I suppose the choice of Maureen Mills to handle Osia's  PR, must be related to her success with the Fat Duck. The menu sounds not dissimilarly unappetizing.

←

Tha Fat Duck, and god knows how many other top restaurants. She stands out from the field so far as restaurant prs are concerned.

Isn't the success of the Fat Duck more to do with Heston Blumenthal anyway?