Jenny Conlon enjoys a taste of Japan and Peru during an exotic dining experience at MOMMI on Clapham High Street
From the moment I walked into MOMMI I was highly impressed. The interior is uber-cool with a street art funky vibe and Japanese lanterns throughout. The exterior is black and understated so you could walk past it on Clapham High Street without even knowing it’s there. We visited on a Friday evening and sat in an extremely comfortable booth overlooking the restaurant and the bustling open hot kitchen at the centre of the action. The restaurant has a great atmosphere with chefs whipping up exceptional Japanese-Peruvian dishes in front of the diners.
Our enthusiastic waiter, Alberto, shared his expert advice and suggested a Pisco Sour cocktail to start which we matched with a Mommi Fizz. The standard of cocktail presented was five-star. The mixologist Andrew popped over to say “Hi” and helped us pick a suitable white wine for our food, which was Torrontes, Mendoza from Argentina.
The entire menu is 100 per cent gluten free and the concept is small plates so we chose three of each. They have three sections to the menu, the raw bar, the robata grill and the hot kitchen. All the plates presented were works of art on colourful handmade pottery. Our favourites were the miso and Aji Panca marinated flat iron steak, with Andean herb
chimichurri, cassava fries with sea salt, which was cooked beautifully and to our exact specification.
The flame-seared courgette and mushroom, with red corn causa, burnt yazu butter with chives and crushed cancha was so tasty and delicious, I could have had an extra portion. Another favourite dish was the salmon and tuna chirashi sushi, with house tartare sauce, marinated ikura, and served with seasoned sushi rice and purple
shisho, which was perfect for sharing. For pudding, we were indulgent. It was Friday, after all, so we ordered one each. The portions were generous, one would have been sufficient to share. We had the cinnamon and ginger roasted plum and pear ‘crumble’ hazelnuts with puffed quinoa salted caramel ice cream and the Peruvian chocolate mousse with toffee popcorn and crispy quinoa. Each of the desserts was a work of art and if we had eaten nothing else but the
dessert, I would have given them ten out of ten.
On Friday nights MOMMI offers live music and there was a fantasticacoustic singer. This created the coolest ambience, particularly if you want a little boogie, and it certainly set us on the right road into
the weekend.
Exceptional food and drinks, incredible service and appropriately priced
