A faceless new build in the shadow of the Shard might be a strange place to expect innovation, but they do say there’s nothing as exciting as a blank canvas. Painting culinary masterpieces are Woongchul Park and Bomee Ki, a married couple who met when studying at Le Cordon Bleu in London and opened Sollip in August 2020.
The idea is simple; Korean flavours (think ferments and assorted seaweeds) made with British ingredients using French techniques, with a hint of molecular gastronomy, and the execution is deft. Things begin artfully, with an incredibly rich, savoury and moody looking mushroom martini, garnished with a pickled ‘shroom. It is perhaps the most grown-up cocktail within the M25.
Daikon tarte tatin is an ultra earthy, Wicker Man-worthy dish served with burnt hay-infused toasted barley
At eight-ish courses, Sollip’s Michelin-star scoring tasting menu opens with a creamy, tiny truffle tartare, an immaculate rendition of the spicy raw burger we know and love, before a small bowl filled with a delicately cheesy and sharp sheep's milk and green-pea foam. More bowl food follows; a soup-y baby artichoke milk with lobster, skin-stripped tomatoes, and blanched almonds that opens our eyes to a hitherto unseen combo of kings. Turns out that lobster and strawberry make extremely complimentary bedfellows. May they be very happy together. A slice of daikon tarte tatin is ultra earthy, a Wicker Man-worthy dish served with some burnt hay-infused toasted barley and roasted potato cream that tastes like shoving your face in a field just before harvest.
Then, a sliver of crispy-skinned sea bream with lurid green maesaengi seaweed, asparagus, chilli and anchovy; all topped with creamy bubbles of lardo foam. They seem slightly obsessed with foam at Sollip, which makes sense. Light, airy and ethereal is their thing, and they’re good at it.
Scorched rice known as nurungji with a naughty-looking morel on top offers more powerfully umami flavour, before the heartiest dish of the menu; pork two ways with traffic light-coloured smears of gooseberry and apricot relish and a slender, yellow heritage carrot on top.
It’s a credit to Sollip that we only feel contentedly full rather than painfully stuffed at this stage, and after a palate cleanser of spruce tip sorbet (Sollip means ‘pine needle’ in Korean) which is not unlike eating a Diptique candle, we savour their last hurrah; a pretty pink peach pavlova with Aperol sauce, the closest we’ve ever got to actual fairy food. A gothic black sesame madeline marks the end of the almost meditative experience.
Sollip is a graceful, modest place – even though with food like this, it certainly doesn’t have to be. In fact, they could slap 10ft tall graffiti proclaiming their excellence on the walls outside and everything would be all well and good. The fact that they don’t is what makes Sollip all the more appealing.
The vibe Extremely chill, Michelin star-winning action near the Shard.
The food A Korean-inspired, fine-dining tasting menu with lots of foam.
The drink Creative gin-based cocktails. Get anything with a mushroom in it.
Time Out tip There’s a shorter - and cheaper - lunch menu on offer, if you want a more wallet-friendly Sollip experience. Dinner is £135 a head, and lunch £78.