St James’ restaurant Scully has been around a fair few years now, having opened its doors in 2018. The restaurant, headed up by Ramael Scully, previously Head Chef of Nopi, serves an eclectic array of dishes based on Scully’s heritage – he was born in Malaysia, grew up in Sydney and has a mother of Chinese/Indian descent and an Irish-Balinese father.
To keep things fresh, Scully has just launched a new tasting menu of eight courses including a fully vegan option too – we went for one of each. Each menu kicks off with three snacks and, if you go all in with the wine pairing, a very nice glass of champagne, or for the juice pairing, a jamu, turmeric, pandan leaf and ginger tonic inspired by a traditional Balinese drink.
This was followed by our favourite dish on both versions of the menu, the arepa made with eight-day fermented cornbread and served with eggplant sambal – a signature at Scully. A dry-aged halibut confit in duck fat served with a morel mushroom stuffed with oxtail was another standout as was the cured pork with a fudgy garlic and apple puree.
The menu keeps to the pantry-style kitchen ethos focusing on fermenting, preserving and ageing ingredients, which are displayed around the dining room. Many of these are also used to make syrups and ferments for the juice pairing menu, but if, like us, you prefer a percentage above zero then we’d recommend the wine pairing. All wines were on point, with a good amount of low interventions on offer alongside interesting picks from small scale suppliers; creds to the amazing female sommelier Carolina Seibel.
The tasting menus at Scully St. James are available now for dinner Tuesday-Saturday from 6.30pm. Best hurry to Scully.
4 St. James’s Market, London, SW1Y 4AH
scullyrestaurant.com