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Please note, Foley’s now serves an exclusively Asian-inspired menu. Time Out Food editors, January 2018.
We all know the feeling: you’re being led to your seat by the waiter, only to glide by that dream table. I gazed across the room longingly at the buzzy spot at a counter that overlooked a cute tiled bar and backed onto a lively Soho street. Luckily, the food at Foley’s was interesting enough to distract me from such injustice.
Billed as ‘Modern World’ food, it’s more like contemporary Asian fusion with a few twists and turns. Puffed lotus seeds – Bombay mix-esque and as moreish as a bag of nuts – arrived as sustenance while we perused the concise small-plates menu. Not a bit like Colonel Sanders’ recipe, the popcorn chicken was a breaded escalope roulade scattered with teeny mushrooms, chorizo and corn; somehow comforting and original at the same time. Trend boxes were ticked with the Middle Eastern-spiced chunk of cauliflower, given a satisfying lift by the cool labneh and a copious scattering of smoked peanuts. Tuna and octopus ceviche, possibly the best-balanced plate of the lot, came nestled in an endive ‘taco’ – a genius use for the otherwise baffling bitter leaf. Black sesame mayo, wiped round a plate of grilled octopus and minced pork, was intense with addictive umami, but this regrettably obliterated any other flavour.
Coco Chanel said that before leaving the house you should look in the mirror and take one item off. Foley’s might want to do the same with their ingredients. Less might just be more. That’s not to deny the culinary balls needed to create such dishes; flavours ping off the palate. But if you’re not careful, you’ll spend the best part of dinner trying to pinpoint what’s going on in there. Take my advice – don’t bother. Just buckle up and enjoy the ride. And nab those counter seats, of course.