Mr Ji has gone through various incarnations – from inspired pop-up to Taiwanese take-out – and most recently has been wowing Old Compton Street’s destination diners with innovative East-meets-West small plates. Most exciting of all is the decision to move the whole operation back to where it all began, in the middle of Camden Town’s increasingly strong dining strip, Parkway.
This history means that despite it only fully opening today, the menu, concept and service is already delightfully polished. We dropped in for a preview last week and were suitably impressed, especially to see such a hot catch from Soho landing right on our proverbial doorsteps.
Each dish is a proper little culinary adventure; the kind of multi-sensory creative delight more often the preserve of London’s challengingly priced grand dining rooms. The golden rectangle of fried brioche with oozing bechamel prawn centre and parmesan heaped on top sets the fusion tone perfectly.
Crisp fried chicken hearts in taco-like lettuce leaf boats with a sweet curry sauce continue to lock us into something resembling a flow state, complimented most amiably with a glass of Aphros Loureiro vinho verde. Cocktails are also a big deal here, including a tasty salted plum negroni.
The larger plates are equally fun, signature dish The O’Ji has made the journey from Soho, a whole fried chicken breast coated in spicy crumb comes with scissors to cut it into strips, perfect for dipping in the piccalilli mayo. Among the new dishes for Camden, a king prawn-heavy fried rice arrives too (pictured), and is summarily drowned in a hot sour soup with a flourish by our friendly, stylishly boiler-suited server.
It’s all rather good, pretty much guaranteeing the new stripped-back dining room (formerly fish restaurant Hook) is going to be bonkers busy from the word go, both with locals and inbound devotees of the cooking of chef couple Zijun Meng and Ana Gonçalves, who originally made their name at TA TA Eatery and its Iberian katsu sandwich spinoff TOU.
It’s an exciting new addition to the neighbourhood, delivering some West End fusion plate panache at accessible neighbourhood prices, too.
Mr Ji, 63-65 Parkway, NW1 7PP
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