The Times
Charlotte Ivers braved the “blasted seafront, peeling buildings and binbags” of a “seaside town gone to ruin” to visit a tiny 10-seat basement where chef Jack Lury and his wife, Issy Cianchi, have opened a Sri Lankan/European fusion restaurant that draws on their combined heritage.
Here she found cooking that showed “an extraordinary level of ambition… There’s a delicately poached egg with lime foam and seeni sambol (a Sri Lankan relish of caramelised onion). Golden gnocchi with crispy shallots, red onion puree and sharp bursts of mustard seeds. A fresh, light fillet of John Dory cooked in a banana leaf, with asparagus and a lightly curried sauce.”
If this is not quite yet a five-star restaurant, Charlotte said, “it will be soon.” Such teething problems as there are come from the sheer ambition. “Who creates a ten-course menu for their first permanent restaurant? A madman, that’s who. But one of quite clearly astonishing creativity and talent. I implore you to go.”
Charlotte Ivers - 2025-06-15
