The 36 cover restaurant is inspired by the family home cooking and roadside boutiques of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, with the hopper and dosa at the heart of the menu, and will open on Frith Street, Soho on 28 October.
Interiors
The interiors, designed by Katy Manolescue of Article Design Studio, will feature warm terracotta tiles, a woven rattan ceiling and ochre brick wall finishes. Raksha masks – the vibrant demon faces used widely in Sri Lankan festivals and dances and said to ward off evil – Sri Lankan poster art and Tamil comic imagery will adorn the walls. Cheese plants, pineapple and money plants will breathe an exotic air into the room.
Hoppers
Hoppers’ namesake dish will be made in the traditional way with a batter of ground white rice and coconut milk. Cooked in a special wok-type vessel known as an ‘appachatti,’ the batter forms a bowl shape pancake with a spongey centre and crisp edges. It can be filled with a black pepper podi. (£3 plain, £4 with egg).
Each hopper will be served with choice of meat, seafood or vegetable kari (from £3) and accompanied by three sambols: Pol – made with freshly scraped coconut flesh; Seeni – with a caramelised onion base; Katta – made with red chilli, onion and Maldive fish.
Dosas
Dosas will be made from a rice, urad dal (split black lentils) and fenugreek seed batter and cooked on thick dosa tawas (flat griddles), made specially in India. Each dosa will be served with a choice of meat, seafood or vegetable kari, and with a tomato and coconut chutney, a curry leaf chutney and a fresh coconut chutney. Similar to those on the Sethis’ Michelin starred menu at Gymkhana, the dosas will be conical in shape, but at Hoppers they will be twice the size. They will be available in a choice of plain (£3.75) or podi (£4) which is a powder made from red chilli, urad dal, chana (split baby chickpeas) dal, sesame seeds, asafoetida and curry leaf and sprinkled on the inside of the dosa as it cooks.
Short Eats
Alongside the hoppers and dosas, there will be a selection of ‘Short Eats,’ the Sri Lankan term for snacks, typically eaten with drinks. These will include Pig Shank Roti (£5); Rasa crab omelette (£5); and Cashew and Ash Plantain Fry, curry leaf podi (£3.50). A selection of ‘Rice Roast and Kothu’ dishes will include Buffalo Buriani, bone marrow, duck egg Kari, buffalo yoghurt, brinjal moju (£14); Tamil Spit Chicken, gotu kola sambol, pol roti (£16); and Hoggett Kothu Roti (£6.50).
A short dessert menu will offer Watalapam, a steamed custard made with coconut milk, kithul jaggery and spices (£4.50) and a falooda of Buffalo curd, salted cashew and candied ginger kulfi, rambutan, coconut water and pandan jelly (£4.50).
Cocktails
Cocktails at Hoppers will focus on Genever and Arrack. Sri Lanka is the largest producer of arrack made from fermented coconut sap, and at Hoppers the spirit will form a base for drinks such as the Toddy Tapper – Ceylon arrack, toasted coconut, bittered wine. Genever, the malty, botanical forefather of gin will be used in cocktails such as the Serendib Sweetie- Zuidam Jenever, Cashew Orgeat, cumin bitters; and the Citizen Burgher – Genever, papaya, coconut water, white port. (£8-£9).
Sri Lanka’s favourite beer, Lion Lager, will be served, as well as ‘Hoppers House Halves,’ half bottles of wine produced by Michele Chiarlo in Piedmont. Masala buttermilk, Dilmah Metre Tea, and black pepper cream soda will be made in house.
About JKS Restaurants
The Sethis are behind some of the most exciting restaurants in London today, through their group, JKS Restaurants. Together they co-own and run Michelin-starred Trishna and Gymkhana, with Karam Sethi looking after food and concepts, brother Jyotin as managing director and sommelier sister Sunaina curating the wine lists and looking after operations.Among other accolades, Gymkhana became the first Indian restaurant to win the BMW Square Meal Restaurant of the Year award, was named the ‘UK’s Best Restaurant’ in the National Restaurant Awards 2014 and ‘Best Indian Restaurant’ in 2015. Gymkhana was also awarded the Tatler Restaurant Award 2015 for Best Kitchen.
JKS Restaurants also includes Bubbledogs, Fitzrovia; the Michelin-starred Kitchen Table, Fitzrovia; the Michelin starred Lyle’s, Shoreditch, and Bao, Soho.
Image (top) by Mustashrik
Hoppers, 49 Frith Street, London W1D 4SG
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