Jikoni, Marylebone: A spice sensation

Visit for the warm hospitality and the cooking
Star dish: Prawn toast scotch egg
Matt Writtle
Ben Norum10 December 2017

Jikoni might just be the most perfectly relevant restaurant in London right now.

This is partly because the food it serves is clever, different and delicious, but also because everything that it represents is so desperately needed at the moment.

Chef-proprietor Ravinder Bhogal is a cultural melting pot: she is of Indian descent, was born in Nairobi and raised in the UK. She’s also a through-and-through Londoner.

Her food is even more multicultural than she is, but describing it as fusion would feel entirely wrong. That’s because despite being dynamic and inventive it is honest and homely: it isn’t cooking that borrows from other cultures, it is very much the food of her own culture. It just so happens that this culture crosses continents.

Chef: Ravinder Bhogal in the welcoming dining area at Jikoni
Matt Writtle

Start your journey through the menu with pasty-like Pondicherry Prawn Puffs made from buttery flaky pastry, and at least one of the selection of scotch quail eggs. The prawn toast version is a textural delight of crunchy coating, soft filling and runny yolk, served with slices of pickled cucumber.

A take on a Sloppy Joe is also a must. Mildly spiced, soothing mutton keema is (barely) encased in a toasted brioche bun. In a playful nod to the best of British foods, it comes with a chutney featuring mint, mango and pickled onions. A saffron-infused fish pie boasts a cushion-like topping of buttery mash, grilled to the kind of crispy perfection a confident cook can pull-off at home but a restaurant would rarely try to.

In the sweet category a meringue roulade with figs, lavender, goat’s curd and sesame snap makes an elegant end note, while banana cake with miso butterscotch, Ovaltine kulfi and peanut brittle is a sticky, umami-led powerhouse of a pudding. It would go cold long before you could work out the myriad different influences that go into it, and really it doesn’t matter.

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Long before getting around to opening this first restaurant, Bhogal made a name for herself through residencies and supper clubs. You could still think of Jikoni as the latter.

On entering we were welcomed as dinner guests not customers, and it would be hard not to feel utterly at home surrounded by mismatched, brightly patterned tablecloths and cushions, mix-and-match crockery and souvenir-style knick knacks.

Visit for the warm hospitality and the cooking, washed down by a short selection of interesting cocktails and wines, and enjoy a kind of clever comfort food quite unlike anything else you’ll find in London. What’s most comforting of all, though, is that this culinary cultural medley feels right at home in London. Long may it stay that way.

Jikoni: The Lowdown

Final flavour: A cultural medley of clever comfort food.

At what cost? Snacks from £3.50, small plates from £6.50 and big plates (mains) from £12.

Visit if you like: Gymkhana, Queenswood, Kricket.

isit standard.co.uk/restaurants for the latest news and reviews from London’s food scene.

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