Dave Carter, a big friendly giant of a man with a completely impenetrable Barbadian accent, began his London restaurant journey at Smokestak, the hugely influential East London BBQ joint. Smokestak, together with a tiny handful of other brave pioneers around the same time (Lockhart, Shotgun, Pitt Cue, etc.), introduced the British public to the idea that BBQ didn't have to involve soggy overcooked ribs soaked in commodity sauce, or feeble bone-splintered chicken wings, or leathery bland mystery-meat "brisket", but in fact with a bit of care in sourcing and intelligence in applying smoking and live fire, could show itself to be a noble and mature cooking tradition.
Carter, I'm sure, could have made a very nice living for himself opening up a string of Smokestaks across the capital and beyond but it was somewhat of a surprise to see his name next attached to Manteca, one of my best meals of 2022 and, with its authentic, modern Italian aesthetic about as different from Smokestak - but just as brilliant - as you could possibly imagine.
So it really shouldn't be any surprise that OMA, his latest passion project, attempting to do for modern Greek food what Smokestak did for BBQ and Manteca did for Italian, is anything less than extraordinary, but it's fair to say that Greek cuisine is one of the most regularly abused and under-appreciated in the capital, and for anywhere calling itself Greek and being anything better than OK has the potential to be a complete game-changer. And let me tell you, OMA is a complete game-changer.
We started with two types of bread, both baked in-house, a wildfarmed laffa (flatbread), light and warm and with just enough of a char from the grill, and açma verde, a bagel-shaped soft bread that has wild garlic butter folded into its fluffy insides. Both were brilliant, the laffa in particular so good that as soon as we'd taken one bite we ordered another.
And bread is a critical component of the OMA experience because there are so many lovely thing to dip it into, such as this bright-white, silky-smooth tarama studded with pickled cucumber and crunchy little nuggets of 'carob rusk' which added a - for want of a better word - soily (in a good way) counterpoint to the fish. There are plenty of thrusting modern restaurants that can knock up a decent tarama these days - this was up with the best of them.
Babaghanoush, smoky and rich, came under a layer of zingy tahini spread and topped with greaseless, brittle Jerusalem artichoke crisps and was another riot of flavour and texture. Again, you will have had babaghanoush before, you will have had tahini before, you possibly would have even tried jerusalem artichoke crisps before, but rarely have they all worked together as well as this.
Oyster, a Carlingford Lough variety, came dressed in a chilli and tomato sauce that worked like a kind of posh Tabasco, highlighting the oyster without masking the flavour. I could have eaten a lot of these but in the interests of trying as much of the menu as possible I just had one. So I'll just have to go back and have some more in the future.
In a similar vein, the tomato and citrus dressing on the chalkstream trout crudo was intelligently balanced to make the most of the main ingredient, although I should warn that those slices of raw jalapeño aren't messing about - unless you want them as a pleasant background note in the dressing I recommend you don't mindlessly decide to chomp down on one whole unless you want to spend the next ten minutes gasping for water. I'll know better next time.
Hand-dived scallop with chilli oil butter was a giant, plump thing with - glory of glories - its roe attached, so you really did get quite a lot of seafood for your £11. Beautifully cooked to a dark crust and topped with a beguiling dried chilli dressing it was, again, about the nicest thing you can imagine happening to a scallop.
Even ostensibly throwaway sides such as this fennel salad had plenty to recommend it, containing a wide variety of lovely summery things like oranges and grapefruit, shot through with fresh mint. All the dishes at OMA are poised, posed and pretty, full of life and colour.
We only tried one of the 'skewer' category but it was an absolute belter - neat little pieces of squid, beautifully charred from the grill and coated with za'atar herb oil, a clear indication that the other skewers - including asparagus, lamb, octopus and an eye-catching ex-dairy txuleton, would have been equally worth an order. So yes, I suppose I'll just have to go back and make sure.
My favourite of the desserts was a superb olive oil ice cream, with a heady grassy flavour and so smooth and light it was like eating cold whipped cream. But a chocolate cremoso was also very good indeed, topped with salted caramelised nuts.
Service had that irresistible energy and sparkle of a brand new operation that knows it's onto a good thing, and despite being a full house (this is something they - and you - will have to get used to - it's already one of the hottest tickets in town, booked up for weeks) never left us wanting for anything. And it's a very attractive place to enjoy it all in too, with decently-spaced tables and a terrace overlooking the market below. If it sounds like they're doing everything right, well, I suspect they pretty much are.
The bill came to just under £50 a head - incredible value although I suspect we could have easily polished off at least one more skewer, or even the wild prawns cooked in seafood butter which I am still kicking myself we didn't order, so I think a more realistic spend is around £70-£80. Still good for London, and still nigh-on amazing for the quality of food on offer.
Just as we were wrapping up our evening at OMA, chatting idly about Google reviews and the happy challenges of being a restaurant in heavy demand, our very pleasant South African server asked us a favour. It seems in recent days the restaurant's entry on Google had been landed with a number of negative reviews seemingly from angry Greeks (although really, who knows) accusing the place of betraying Greek food and not being "authentic". Apparently they had the same at Manteca from angry "Italians" too.
So we were politely asked, if we had a moment, if we could readdress the balance by posting about our evening on Google. Well, I don't do Google reviews - life's too short - but I can hopefully do them one better on this blog, by reporting honestly and truthfully that whatever you call the food at OMA - although I don't see what's wrong with Modern Greek - that there is hardly any better way to spend money on dinner in the capital. And I hope they're happy with that.
10/10
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