Handmade Gyoza in Mayfair
There is a decal across the window that reads #gyozadreams, which is a bold thing to paint on your own glass. A restaurant that names its dumplings before you have tasted them has nowhere to hide, and that is rather the point. Eight years of national reviews suggest the confidence was earned.
Steamed First, Fried Second, Flipped to Serve
Every gyoza starts flat side down in a hot pan, then gets bathed almost to hip height in water or stock. The liquid boils away, steaming the dumplings through; when the pan runs dry, the undersides begin to fry.
As they fry, the starch left behind by the steaming sets into a single thin, crisp, almost transparent pancake across the whole base of the pan. Each serving is flipped onto the plate so that golden layer arrives draped over the crescents, on top, where you can see it.
The Financial Times described the result as looking like a browned gossamer doily; The London Economic devoted a full paragraph to the technique and called the dumplings remarkably well made. When two national reviewers independently explain your cooking method to their readers, it is usually because they have not seen it done elsewhere.
The Five Ways
The vegan door into the whole experience, and nobody's consolation prize.
The filling cooks through inside the wrapper, arriving sweet, hot and slightly steamed-plump.
The pairing that reads like a dare and eats like it was always obvious.
The luxe end of the range, minced with a nip of pepper through it.
For the undecided: one prawn, one chicken, one wagyu and two vegetable under a truffle paste, the whole range on one plate.
All meat in the gyoza is sourced halal, including the wagyu. Five pieces to a plate, served with a soy dipping sauce, priced on the food menu.
Folded Daily, Downstairs
The gyoza are folded by hand every day in the small kitchen below the dining room, under the chefs who lead it, Marek Malinowski and Artur Mendak.
The people doing the folding are on the story page.
Marked by Hard Markers
“Classy gyoza, carefully made”
“Remarkably well made”
“A browned gossamer doily”
The Financial Times went further than either of the others; that review lives with the rest of the coverage on the press page.
Dreams Are Better in Person
Reading about a crisp pancake base is a poor substitute for cracking one.