Tue
20-Sep-2005

archipelago

After working on the MPH corporate accountability conference during the day, I had a couple of drinks with Al in the Museum Tavern on Great Russell Street, before meeting up with Matt for my birthday meal out.

He took me to a restaurant we'd been meaning to try for some time - the weird and rather enchanting Archipelago on Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia. This is an expensive, but amazing place to visit. The decor is quite unique. There's a pile of pebbles underfoot as you enter, which throws you off guard, and then you find yourself in a dark, exotic room cluttered with random ethnic, plastic, ancient, modern things, from Buddhas to bead voodoo dolls, to bird cages and African masks. It's probably what you'd get if the Pitt Rivers Museum became a restaurant - a culinary curiosity cabinet, or perhaps a gastronomic wunderkammern.

The menu is a scroll tucked into a little treasure chest on the table, and is filled with dishes as bizarre and interesting as the decor. I had the 'Jamaican mountain chicken', which was in fact battered frog's legs cooked in a Thai style with cashew nuts and callaloo (spinach-like leaf) and lavender rice. Matt had wildebeest (gnu) with lobster tail. For pudding we shunned the chocolate coated scorpion, and Matt had 'African sunset' - granadilla bavarois topped with 24 crt real gold and champagne glaze! - and I had honey ice cream with an amazing white chocolate lattice and a honey-soaked bee on it. I couldn't quite bring myself to eat the bee, alas, but the ice cream and white chocolate almost made me weep with pleasure.

The lady who served us was very helpful, answering all our menu questions and generally being non-invasive but also on hand when we needed her. It was fantastic, as it should be at the high prices it commands. Well worth a visit.