What: Located on the site that was formerly D&D’s Cantina del Ponte site overlooking London’s Tower Bridge, Sticky Mango focuses on the cuisines of Southeast Asia’s regions - in particular Vietnam and Indonesia. The-100 cover restaurant has space for a further 50 guests on an alfresco terrace and also features a dedicated sushi bar with space for 10 covers.
Who: Chef and restaurateur Peter Lloyd launched Sticky Mango having been inspired by his extensive travels throughout Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Lloyd trained at The House of Commons and The Dorchester hotel before getting his first head chef position at RSJ Restaurant in Waterloo aged just 23. He later worked at venues including BANK restaurant, City Inn Hotels and as a private chef to Lord and Lady Bamford before becoming executive chef at the five-star Sanderson Hotel and Suka Restaurant. In 2011, he became executive chef at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market at The W Hotel before opening Sticky Mango in Waterloo in 2016.
The food: The menu at Tower Bridge stays true to that at the Waterloo original, showcasing Lloyd’s modern interpretations of food inspired his travels across Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on the cuisines of Vietnam and Indonesia. Sticky Mango favourites including Singapore chilli lobster; Malaysian curry puffs; tuna tartare spring rolls; and the eponymous Sticky Mango dessert feature but this time round there is an emphasis on dishes prepared tableside. These include Thai green papaya salad som tam; and Vietnamese cha ca la vong – a fish dish found in Hanoi; and wagyu and short rib Vietnamese pho. A Vietnamese coffee chocolate infused with Vietnamese rum – served as a sampan boat, the traditional trade ship of Malaysia - is a new dessert for Tower Bridge. Dishes served at the sushi bar, meanwhile, include crispy shredded crab roll and a selection of nigiri aburi and omakase platters.
To drink: Cocktail and mocktails and a key part of the drink offer, with options such as a ginger Amaretto sour; Tokyo Negroni made with Roku Japanese gin and plum sake; and a rose and hibiscus pisco sour, as well as Japanese, Indian and Thai beers. The wine offer leans towards small, sustainable producers with wines put into the categories ‘salty and refreshing’, ‘aromatic and spicy’, ‘elegant and mineral’, ‘rich and opulent’, ‘juicy’, ‘chilled', and ‘complex and full bodied’. The majority of wines are European although a few from Chile, Australia, New Zealand and California do make an appearance.
The vibe: The design echoes that of the original Sticky Mango restaurant with a turquoise, lilac, pink and gold colour palette as well as whitewashed walls and a bespoke epoxy resin floor patterned with Southeast Asian pastels. Black oak tables and chairs are combined with a long banquette that seats up to 38 people with the back wall of the room lined with trailing orchids and hummingbirds. As well as the sushi bar the dining room is home to a central Blossom Island, an 18-cover area sited between blossom trees where guests can dine under glass raindrop chandeliers.
And another thing: New restaurants are like buses for Lloyd - you wait six years for restaurant number two and then a third comes along close behind. Sticky Mango Islington will open this autumn in Islington Square in the third week of September.
36c Shad Thames, London, SE1 2YE