Dual personality
The menu at Aquasia, a new 70-seat restaurant within the Conrad International hotel in Chelsea Harbour, may have obvious Mediterranean and Asian influences, but executive chef Ray Neve is quick to point out he keeps the two styles quite apart. "It's part Mediterranean and part Asian, but we keep them separate," he explains. "It is not fusion cuisine."
The menu is a plethora of flavours drawn from the experiences of Neve, Roger Serjent and Katrina Neill, members of the 28-strong brigade, who between them have a CV spanning the globe. "It's very different from the perception of hotel dining, and very modern," says Neve, whose own career includes a three-year stint with Pierre Troisgrois at his Michelin-starred restaurant at Hotel Negresco in Nice, a spell in Kuala Lumpur at the Bankers' Club and eight years with Anton Mosimann.
The main menu is upgraded monthly to make the most of seasonal produce. Current offerings among the nine starters include red mullet fillet rolled around semi-dried tomatoes then lightly steamed and served on a fennel, olive, tomato and herb salad dressed with vinaigrette (£9.75), and a flaked snapper salad with shaved coconut, Thai herbs and fried shallots (£6.50). The snapper is poached in coconut milk, palm sugar, ginger and Thai fish sauce, mixed with lime leaf, chilli, shallots, coriander and mint and served on a banana leaf, topped with fried shallots.
The outright favourite, though, is Peking-style duck, roasted with spices, served with pan-fried scallops, sitting on a spicy Szechuan cucumber pickle, and garnished with pink ginger, coriander and hoi sin sauce (£9.50). Diners average 50-60 at lunch and 60-70 at diner, with as many as 80 on a Saturday evening.
North African influences surface in a crispy-skin sea bass fillet served on a bed of sliced carrots, which have been sautéd with honey, sultanas and almonds, with a chermoula sauce made from olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, coriander, cumin, paprika and chilli (£16.50). Fish and shellfish feature prominently in the nine-strong selection, with four dishes being fish-based.
Trout is wrapped in prosciutto and smoked over jasmine tea and rice, chargrilled pink, topped with salmon roe and fish crackling, served on bok choi, somen noodles, garlic confit, cucumber and fennel slithers (£12.50).
Lobster is given the Asian treatment and poached in coconut milk with lime leaf, ginger, chilli, palm sugar and pandan, then served with a rocket and watercress salad (£24). "The pandan has a slight sweetness, which is balanced by the lime leaf," explains Neve.
Desserts are the creation of Australian pastry chef Neill, whose Japanese fruit sushi with coconut sorbetine (£6) and chocolate indulgence - consisting of a chocolate cake with Baileys and chocolate ice-cream, macadamia nut biscuit with white chocolate mousse, milk chocolate bavarois, white chocolate ganache, raspberry coulis and caramel sauce (£7.50) - are the favourites among the seven choices.
Average spend is about £35 excluding wine, although a separate weekly changing table d'hôte menu provides two courses for £17 and three for £21.
Aquasia restaurant and bar, Conrad International London, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 0XG. Tel: 020 7300 8443
