What: A casual but fairly upmarket small plates restaurant in Fitzrovia that takes its cues from the modern wine-focused restaurants of Athens (it takes its name from the Greek word for vineyard). Located on perennial restaurant hotspot Charlotte Street, Ampéli serves food inspired by Greece and its ‘neighbouring cultures’.
Who: First time restaurateur and photographer Jenny Pagoni. The head chef is Oren Goldfeld, whose CV includes Yotam Ottolenghi’s London restaurant Nopi and well-regarded Tel Aviv restaurant Toto. Greek Master of Wine Yiannis Karakasis is overseeing the wine list. Front of house is led by Lorraine Abrahams, who most recently held a management role at Corbin & King.
The vibe: Set across three floors, Ampéli has pale green walls that act as a ‘canvas’ for artworks from a rotating line-up of artists. The first exhibition is from watercolourist, Leonie de Lange, and Greek sculptor Vasiliki Maliopoulou, who crafts her works from fossils and reclaimed materials found along the Greek coastline.
The food: Penned by Goldfeld in close collaboration with Pagoni, the menu looks as far afield from Greece as Tunisia and Israel. Dishes include barrel-aged feta saganaki with cherry tomato jam; spiced potato brik with runny egg yolk, brown shrimp and harissa mayo; pan-fried Welsh lamb sweet-breads with Jerusalem mixed spice served with almond sauce and pickles; short rib stew with quince and date molasses; and poppy seed loukoumades, doughnuts with Greek mountain tea syrup.
And another thing: As might be expected given the involvement of a Greek MW, Ampéli has one of the most extensive Greek wine lists in the country. Better known Greek grape varieties including Assyrtiko, Agiorgitiko and Xinomavro are well represented alongside the increasingly fashionable retsina, but the lists offers a good range of far-lesser known wines with a ‘Discoveries’ section comprised of rare native Greek varieties that are produced in very small quantities.
