On my recent four day (and first time) tour of London, Novikov was recommended by Zomato and locals alike. We got a reservation for 1:30 pm, which was seemingly difficult so I was surprised to find a more-than-half empty restaurant when we arrived.
We were seated in the Asian Room, as we had asked. Their Asian Room has a quiet romantic ambience, so it would make for a great date night. Our server was super polite and friendly and even brought us complementary juice shots. So refreshing!
We started off with spicy edamame (can’t recall the exact name from their menu), but it had the perfect amount of salt and spice. We then ordered the lunch dim sum special with the prawn money bags, kimchi wagyu dumplings and the chicken bun. The prawn money bags were to die for! I can’t get over how delicious they were and the ease with which they melted in my mouth. The wagyu beef dumplings and chicken buns were great too. We ordered two maki rolls: scallops and jalapeńo, and the California roll. Although they tasted great, I expected more for the price paid. The scallops and jalapeño roll was a tad too plain in appearance and taste, so it wasn’t great value for money in my opinion. From the woks, we got the black pepper wagyu (medium-well), which was kind of a disappointment. It was way too chewy for my liking and I wasn’t a fan of the sauce either.
One of the most talked about restaurants in town, Novikov falls slightly on the pricier side, and although their dumplings were the highlight of our meal, the mains did not quite live up to the hype. Kudos for service and ambience. I’d like to check out their Dubai branch.
50A Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8HA
FilmyFarah 