Ottolenghi group to launch Rovi restaurant, cocktail bar and deli

As mooted late last year​, Rovi will open in the 55 Wells Street development. 

The group says that while its Ottolenghi roots will remain apparent, the new restaurant will have a “different feeling and character” to owner Yotam Ottolenghi’s eponymous restaurants.

Comprising a dining room; counter seating; 16-cover cocktail bar; and deli, Rovi will serve lunch and dinner initially before introducing a breakfast offering in July.

Heading up the kitchen will be former Grain Store head chef Neil Campbell and Ottolenghi’s development chef Calvin con Niebel.

Dishes will include the likes of braised smoked carrots with puffed black barley and pickled herbs; kohlrabi ravioli with peas, broad beans and yuzu kosho; hasselback kaffir lime beetroot with lime cream; confit mussel with hay-smoked potatoes and cascabel oil; onglet skewers with beef fat mayonnaise and fermented green chillies.

The cocktail bar will serve cocktails based on seasonal spices alongside a dynamic, low-intervention wine list.

In a bid to minimise wastage in the restaurant, leftover wine will be used to make vinegars and coffee grinds will be used to cook dishes including the hasselback beetroots. 

Scallops will come from the Ethical Shellfish Company, which is a zero-waste, zero-bycatch business, and air conditioning and ventilation systems will recycle the heat generated in the kitchen to warm up the restaurant and the water used onsite.

With interiors by long-time Ottolenghi collaborator and NOPI designer Alex Meitlis, the restaurant will feature a dome shaped dining room fashioned from pale oak wood and stone.