Zoilo

Z.O.I.L.O

Argentine cuisine is a fascinating mix of cultures, the result of a vibrant heritage and immigrant history.

Chef Patron Diego Jacquet creates a monthly changing menu true to his Argentine roots, using the best British seasonal ingredients together with our well renowned Argentine beef.

http://www.zoilo.co.uk

Zoilo restaurant review 2013 April London | South American Cuisine ...

Zoilo is an Argentinian restaurant run by Diego Jacquet and Alberto Abbate, who already have another London restaurant called Casa Malevo.

Zoilo, which is just south of Manchester Square, opened in late 2012 and offers subtler fare than the steaks that many people associate with Argentinian food.

The fairly short wine list was almost entirely Argentinian, ranging in price from £19.85 to £86.95.

The chicken is cooked sous-vide for 25 minutes, prepared with leeks, peas and the egg and rolled out, garnished with some finely diced red pepper as well as the salad.

This was an enjoyable dish, the dressing nicely balanced, the peas having quite good flavour and the chicken accurately cooked (14/20).

Zoilo | Marylebone | Restaurant Reviews | Hot Dinners

Grace and flavour: Zoilo | London Evening Standard

I scoffed kadaifi-wrapped hen’s eggs and Turkish Delight semifreddo at Ravinder Bhogal’s pop-up at South Place Hotel (very delicious), then soothed a delicate head the next day with the winning Dean Street Townhouse fish pie.

Happily, there were no children in new Argentinian restaurant Zoilo, tucked up at the top of Duke Street, a stone’s throw from Selfridges.

Highly convenient were one, say, to abandon one’s entire family just as they made meaningful plans to visit MM’s World, only to dash to lunch with showbiz writer Dean Piper shouting, ‘Must rush, work to do!’

Don’t be bashful and under-order in an attempt to appear sylph-like and saintly — you will find yourself an hour later back on Oxford Street tempted by a Pret A Manger Love Bar.

Zoilo, 9 Duke Street, W1U 3EG (020 7486 9699) zoilo.co.uk.

Zoilo - review | London Evening Standard

The menu, which over a dinner for two followed by lunch for two the next day my companions and I were able to mine almost in its entirety, revealed thoughtful, playful, deft and daring preparation and glimpses into gastronomic pastures new — new to me anyway — implied by the adjective Argentinian.

At the first meal thinking “Okay, anything but the obvious steak”, we loved the cubes of moody pork head cheese (queso de chancho) deep-fried in crumbs and served with a quince sauce of oriental clarity; empanadas filled with juicy chicken and grilled peppers flavoured with cumin in pastry so layered you could riffle through it; sweetcorn and crab soup of sweet innocence married to intensity; perfectly grilled sweetbreads piqued with lemon and onion and banana split ice cream to accompany that crème brûlée.

Eating on the ground floor the next day at one of the small tables opposite the bar we went for steak — 300g of rib eye with chimichurri — but started with wafer-thin beetroot slices with goat’s curd and garrapinada, which translate as caramelised nuts but resembled tiny croquetas with a béchamel soft centre (nicer) and sliced baby artichokes with pickled girolles, crisp chipa and Parmesan; two very elegant salads.

Chef Ernesto Paiva delivered some misses as well as hits, the latter being quinoa salad with pumpkin, mushrooms and aji crust; spicy tripe and ox cheek empanada and fillet steak with bone marrow.

Sullen crab claws with “Shack” cocktail sauce, then pearly turbot for dinner with neighbours Edward and Stephen at our new local, Bonnie Gull in Foley Street.

Restaurant: Zoilo, London W1 | Life and style | The Guardian

'Think Argentinian and you immediately think "steak".

Zoilo is specifically Argentinian (chef Diego Jacquet hails from Buenos Aires) and, despite a culinary history that takes in influences from Italy and Spain to Meso-Indian, think Argentinian and you immediately think "steak".

Empanadas stuffed with smoky grilled peppers, chicken and cumin are fine little things: crumbly pastry caving into a savoury, spiced squidge.

Argentinian ojo de bife with chimmichurry (sic) is rib-eye of such majesty – savoury depths contained in meat of carbon-to-rosy tenderness, but with enough bite to remind you what your incisors are for – that you completely understand the national obsession.

And the food is still excellent, especially a crab and humita (corn cake) soup that thrills me to the marrow with its massive punch of crustacean flavour, and some pillowy gnocchi – yes, they're Argentinian, aka ñoquis – slick and nutty with sage butter and grilled pumpkin.

Zoilo | Restaurants in Marylebone, London

If the idea of deconstructed, small-plates Argentinian cooking seems a contradiction in terms, grab a counter seat and prepare to be amazed: extraordinary food.

There were no tables when we called to book.

‘But we’re a very counter-focused restaurant,’ they told us.

This is deconstructed, small-plates Argentinian cooking, and it works – with flavours as good as these, you want as many different mouthfuls as you can get.

A miniature steak (softened up with the sous vide treatment then blasted on the grill) was flawless, the flavour like undiluted beef cordial.