Mr. Foodie

Kopapa Kopapa Kopapa…

I’ve always been a fan of Peter Gordon wince seeing him on TV… I’ve never eaten at any of his restaurants though have intended to but never got around to it.. I didn’t even know Kopapa was one of his (and I try in vain to loosely call myself a ‘food blogger’). When it opened there was the usual mad rush of bloggers so I thought I would wait…

Mrs. Foodie and I finally went a couple of weeks back… Kopapa has a range of fusion tapas dishes, a few mains, some fantastic cocktails and nice wine.

We started off with the obligatory pimentos padron.

Kopapa - Pimentos Padron

These were nice, hot and salty and it was a fairly generous portion.

We then had the cassava chips.

Kopapa - Cassava Chips

For those of you who do not know, cassava is a root vegetable eaten a lot around africa and the pacific rim. You can find it a lot in the cancerous plague of Indian pubs in the north west london where often its served fried in a chilli sauce or with pepper. More often than not at these places it turns out too dry, too oily or too heavy… except at a couple of places. However Kopapa’s version was refreshingly different… it was crunchy, fluffy, soft and served with guacamole, sour cream and a sweet chilli sauce. Loved it!!

We then had the sichimi crusted tofu.

Kopapa - Sichimi Crusted Tofu

This was ok, not my favourite but ok.

With a craving for chicken livers, I then had the garlic sauteed chicken livers on bruschetta.

Kopapa - Chicken Liver Bruschetta

This was fantastic. Soft tender creamy chicken livers in a sweet red onion glaze, with some grapes. Just lovely! Highly recommended.

We were still hungry so thought we would order a dish that sparked curiousity. The tempura’d inari pockets stuffed with daal and topped with a papaya salad.

Kopapa - Tempura Inari Pockets Stuffed with Daal

If ever you needed a great dish to finish off your meal this would be it. Packed full of flavours and textures that worked so well together that the plate went back without a speck left on it.

Some people don’t like the place. We did. It may be down to what you order I guess… some dishes didn’t appeal to us so we didn’t order them

There is also enough veggie choice if you are that way inclined!

Now on to why I really like this restaurant… its not the tasty food, its not that for once fusion dishes are actually prepared correctly and work… its something simpler.. its because they serve my all time favourite fruit… Tamarillo.. in the form of tamarillo and kiwi smoothie or a tamarillo sorbetini mocktail (tamarillo and vanilla).

Kopapa - Tamarillo Sorbetini

The sorbetini is what we had at our meal.. it was just divine.. which really is an understatement… all I could think about for the rest of the week was that.. so the following saturday I went back for the smoothie!

I also had the yuzu wasabi martini which was too too good.

Kopapa - Yuzu Wasabi Martini

One thing I did find funny… which perhaps is a politcally incorrect tipsy observation is the number of ‘fusion couples’ that were fusing at this fusion restaurant… I’m odd.. I notice things like that!

Kopapa is open all day, serving brunch in the morning to early afternoon and then their usual menu thereafter. We spent about £50 including drinks.

Anyway… go visit Kopapa.. its yummy

Kopapa is located near Seven Dials, Covent Garden at 32 Monmouth St London.

Oh you can book online via their website… its very easy! www.kopapa.co.uk.

Tel: (020) 7240 6076