Review: Aulis, Soho

It’s great when you come away from a meal inspired. In this case I’m both inspired and armed because chef Charlie Tayler has taught me how to make herb flavoured oils! Take equal parts of herb and oil, then whiz them in a blender. Whiz them long enough that the blender heats up, gets really quite warm, because this is what will activate the compounds in the herbs and bleed all the colour and flavour into the oil. Then pass the oil through muslin or a jay cloth; it’ll last for weeks in the fridge. First attempt shall be… kaffir lime leaf oil, I think.

Anyway, this was possible because Aulis is a tiny 8 cover space where the chefs prepare and finish all the dishes right in front of you on the same counter where you eat. So there’s plenty of time to chat. This made for a very lovely experience, aided by some of the best food I’ve eaten this year. Aulis is dubbed an “experimental kitchen” and the menu did keep us super-jaded foodies engaged and excited all the way through.

It’s easy to see how Aulis belongs to the L’Enclume stable: insistence on British ingredients, birch rather than maple syrup, English wasabi, Berkswell instead of Pecorino. Lots of clever use of flavourful foraged herbs. My favourite here was a truly exceptional tarte tatin with a verjus glaze to sharpen it back up and a meadowsweet ice cream. If you don’t know meadowsweet then the flavour profile is… hmm… the best we came up with was “sweetly fragrant buckwheat”!

Two absolute favourite dishes from the main part were the mushroom and the turbot. The mushroom was a maitake, apparently the farmed version of Hen Of The Woods, and it had been slowly roasted with such an earthy miso glaze that the texture was like the best possible ham on the bone while the flavour was simply powerfully good. It sat upon a set truffle custard and was topped with a cep foam, so both of the best elegant fungi perfumes set off the rich mushroom a treat. The turbot was a beautiful slice and perfectly cooked, with the lovely addition of a set sage and fish mousse on top. The vivid blob of pumpkin puree sweetened the dish, but the very best part was the smoky cream sauce made with bones and fish roe that pooled around the turbot and had us all wanting to lick the plate. Which is when they presented us each with a tiny, warm, light English muffin to soak up the sauce. Clever!

So much to love here in all fifteen plates. Tunworth cheese ice cream with truffle honey starts out as a chilled dessert, but as it warms up and pairs with the rest of the glass of red Sardinian wine (they deliberately suggested we save some of our main course wine pairing for this!) the pungent hum of the Tunworth comes forward and brings out the truffle flavour to make a really great savoury. Clever! Sturdy cabbage slow-cooked in smoky beef stock, with a delicate wasabi cream on top. Lovely little bowl of dark brown bisque made only from roast crab shells, lifted brightly with a drop of kaffir lime oil. Skewers of lamb belly topped with unripe elderberries pickled – just like capers but distinctly fruity. Clever!

I was fairly blown away with Aulis, and the wine pairing was very intelligently put together and sensible enough that we were still awake, alive and (reasonably) focused right up to the last little petit four. The menu is £125 without drinks, and for a whole evening’s intimate experience with very friendly hosts I’d say this is brilliant value.