Searching for somewhere adventurous and a little different to eat in London is a lot harder than I would have thought considering the thousands of restaurants at my finger-tips. Archipelago, just near Warren Street, is definitely up there for adventure and uniqueness from the ingredients the restaurant serves to the decor that surrounds your eating experience.

My first encounter with the quirkiness of this restaurant was a phone call that I received earlier today confirming my reservation. Yes its not unusual to get a confirmation call but the fact that I was supplied with a passcode for use when I turned up at the restaurant later that night was definitely not something that I’ve come across before. Just in case you’re wondering my pass code was “Bushbaby” and yep they asked for it later that night!

Stepping into the restaurant James and I were simply wowed by the decor – when you first step into the restaurant you find yourself standing on pebbles which you can’t help but look at and then when you lift your head the decor hits you: Crazy bits and pieces of artefacts, statues, buddhas, art, bird and butterfly cages and peacock feathers surrounded us and seemed to take up every bit of available space in the restaurant. You’d think it would be overwhelming but surprisingly it wasn’t – it felt more cosy and welcoming.

As we had a relatively early booking (7pm) we had first choice of where to sit – James eagerly pushed me towards a table which was quite funky and had the distinction of having a most unique chair which looked like a semi-throne and was covered in what seemed like tens of pillows. Check us out here:

The theming of the restaurant goes all the way down to the presentation of their menus and the tables. The wine menu comes in a giant bamboo tube, the cocktail menu in a cool photo frame and the food menu on a treasure map type paper rolled up and tied by a flower and inside a mini-treasure chest. Very cool (though it was a bit difficult to read the food menu which kept rolling up!) Later on our dessert menu (which had also appeared on the first food menu) turned up pasted into two books – real books! And finally our bill came presented between the fingers of a wooden hand.

Having raved about all the above, the real reason for choosing this restaurant was for the food because as much fun as the decor and surrounds were, as anyone who really knows me, to me its about the food experience. The menu offers a wide range of exotic and unusual ingredients. Our focus was on the meats and, as one review I read stated, the ingredients reads like a whose who of your local zoo: Croc, Peacock, Duck, Tilapia, Zebra, Wildebeest (gnu), Kangaroo, Frog, Locust, Bee and Scorpion. Although I had some reluctance about eating such exotic creatures that didn’t stop me in the end taking full advantage of the unique offerings. The only thing we missed out was Love Bug Salad (locusts) though I don’t know why considering all the other things we ate!

The Dish	How it Looked	The Comment
Caymen Islands. Crocodile fillet seared in vine leaves with a plum dipping sauce		This is the restaurant’s signature dish and it was absolutely delish. The croc was delicate, had quite a bit of a kick and combined well with the vine leaves and plum sauce.
Rajasthan Strut. Peacock-on-a-date with a tomato and vanilla confit		I couldn’t really tell there was peacock inside of this offering. It was kind of like a sweeter style chicken nugget. Tasty but if you were served this blind-folded I’m not sure you would realise there was some sort of meat inside the breaded concoction.
Palette Cleanser		After our starters we were offerred something to cleanse are palettes which was actually a sneaky way to bump up the bill as the way they were offered implied they were complimentary. Each of our palette cleansers (we had a choice of four combos for these sorbets including mango and lychee, and pineapple coconut) though well-flavoured were very tiny for £2.50. The pictures don’t really show how tiny they were – about maybe 5 cm in diameter.
Hottentot’s Crossing. Seared zebra with a port, juniper and blackcurrent sauce and kai-lan		I didn’t like the port sauce that came with the zebra as I found it quite tangy but the zebra itself had a very good flavour. I’d liken it most to a fat-free pork. I get the feeling it was a tad over-cooked as it was slightly tough but the flavour was very nice and the searing came across very strongly.
Baby Bee Brulee. Orange blossom honey and stem ginger bruleé with lemon and lime tuille and honeyed bee on white chocolate		The brulee, though pint-sized, was one of the tastiest brulees I’d ever tasted and adding to that the novelty factor of eating a bee made this a superb dessert. I know James really enjoyed it as well and he reckons there was even a second bee hidden at the bottom of the brulee. However, as I write this I think I can feel the bee still buzzing around my throat … 🙂
Chocolate Covered Scorpion with shot of Dessert Wine		Eating a Scorpion has to rate up there as one of the strangest experiences ever. Although covered in a bitter dark chocolate the scorpion itself also gave a very bitter and acrid aftertaste. Thankfully the dish was accompanied with a very nice dessert wine. Having some of the brulee above also hid the aftertaste!

There were a couple of other dishes which we didn’t try as we’d both had variants of the meat before such as the kangaroo and gnu dishes but I’d be keen to come back and try again (on a special occasion though just for price reasons.) Also some of the other desserts, though lacking the unusual ingredients of bee/scorpion, looked quite enticing. And even the “Visit From the Doctor” (which involved a staff member coming out dressed as a doctor with a box of “cures” which was basically a box of unusual alcohol mixes (vodka and chilli, barcadi and caramel, and I even though I heard him say something like there was a tequila and snake combo? etc) from which you get to choose a couple of shots to cure your ails) would be something to try.

The service at the restaurant was impeccable (apart from the constant trying to bump up the bill like offering you canapes, bread and palette cleansers.) The staff were quite knowledgeable and took the time to explain each dish as they were served. Further I was pleased that there was no pressure for James and I to leave our table once we’d finished eating (and considering it was about 9pm and we didn’t leave until 11pm this was pretty good of them.)

Overall I was very impressed with this restaurant – not only was the food good but it was actually a fun experience with the sharing of food and laughing at what you were eating. It should have been gimicky and therefore disappointing but surprisingly the food was of very good quality and it shows that the chefs also take it seriously. There was only one aspect that marred the experience and that was the attempt by staff to bump up the bill by offering items such as canapes, breads and palette cleansers as referred to above without disclosing that this would actually be an additional cost. Price-wise its a very expensive experience (at about £55 each including one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic cocktail) and your portions are not gigantic by any stretch of the imagination (honestly they could have been bigger.) Still you should expect to pay a premium to be able to have this experience. My advice is to save it for a special occasion or to impress/entertain.