DakaDaka, a rowdy paean to Georgian delicacies, has arrived on Heddon Street within the West End of London. Heddon Street has at all times been synonymous with rowdiness, no matter the truth that the mature, semi-elegant likes of Sabor, Piccolino and Heddon Street Kitchen are fairly the other. But anybody who ever discovered themselves staggering out of Strawberry Moons within the Nineteen Nineties having misplaced a shoe and with a love chunk or from the basement membership at Momo will know that this little nook tucked away behind Regent Street is the place a good time is supposed available.
And now there’s DakaDaka, which actually doesn’t market itself as a nightclub, as a result of, properly, nearly nowhere does any extra. What DakaDaka does do, although, is play Georgian dance music very loudly and with limitless enthusiasm proper by your badrijani (grilled aubergines), imeruli (cheese-filled flatbread) and kababi (lamb skewers). Helpfully, the brick partitions have been painted pitch-black to provide these darkish, candle-lit, metal-clad premises a actual sense that you just’ve someway stumbled into a 2am lock-in on a back avenue in Tbilisi, full with pottery, folklore and blackboards on the partitions, although this place additionally occurs to serve grape salads and nakhvatsa (corn crisps). Some potential prospects will little question learn that and assume: “Yippee! I love a restaurant where talking to my friends is no longer part of the arduous invisible labour of leaving the house.” Well, these individuals will adore DakaDaka, and will take up one of many tables within the coronary heart of the melee. Otherwise, there’s additionally a sit-up counter behind which the open kitchen is in full swing, and the place you possibly can sit shoulder to shoulder with a whole stranger. If you do, nonetheless, please gown in detachable layers, as a result of you may be immediately subsequent to the open hearth used for “live fire cooking”, that hospitality phrase du jour that has triggered me a lot merriment in recent times as a result of it proves that for those who put sufficient male cooks in a single room for lengthy sufficient, they’ll actually imagine they invented hearth.
DakaDaka as a idea is pinned collectively by its flooring workers, who’re exceptional. God velocity, you twinkly-humoured, matriarchal, no-nonsense ladies who conduct affairs with wild aplomb, explaining the lobio (kidney bean hummus) and khinkali (dumplings) in proud element, whereas on the identical time extolling the virtues of Georgian pure wine, 100 of which they provide right here by the glass – the 2021 Kakheti is a feisty little quantity, whereas the nation’s spin on the vesper martini would insulate you throughout a winter swim within the Black Sea.
The cooking, nonetheless, a minimum of on the Saturday night time we visited, had its highs and lows. The hassle with many open kitchens is that the chaos is absolutely seen to everybody, and this explicit one was in full closing-song-at-Live-Aid mode, with about 87 individuals on stage, none of whom knew the phrases and with a lot of them simply swaying and randomly jabbing the air. A plate of flat, very salty corn and millet crisps got here with some nice, punchy, walnut- and coriander-heavy dips. Small, plump grilled aubergines laced with walnut and pomegranate have been gentle, candy and genuinely beautiful, however the Ogleshield-stuffed cheese flatbread tasted virtually an identical to a stuffed-crust Domino’s pizza. Lamb kababi skewers have been forgettable and a little overdone, whereas that grape salad – beneficiant although it might have been with the grapes and leaves – didn’t actually win me over to the thought of a lengthy vacation within the Caucasus.
We ordered a complete sea bream to be cooked through that dwell hearth, which turned out to be an unlimited mistake. The first warning signal was that it took so very, very lengthy to reach, throughout which period there was a curious interval when a nice many cooks peered into the dwell hearth, poked the fish and shrugged their shoulders. Eventually, a plate of mush with one eye and floppy pores and skin hooked up was positioned earlier than me. I’m nonetheless puzzled how this occurred – one chef good friend recommended later that the fish may need been frostbitten in storage, which is why it had turned to gloop.
After we begged for the invoice, our beautiful server satisfied us to attempt the red-wine ice-cream, made with saperavi grapes and served with tiny, quite robust little ponchiki (doughnuts). “It’s very vinegary and salty, and I can’t really taste the wine,” I mentioned very tactfully. “Yes, we finish it with balsamic and salt,” I used to be informed. “Of course,” I mentioned, nodding sagely.
DakaDaka is unforgettable: if you’re Georgian, homesick, love loud music and wish someplace to let your hair down over dumplings, you’ll adore it; me, although, I’m on the fence.
DakaDaka 10 Heddon Street, London W1, 020-4630 6435. Open Tues-Sat, lunch noon-2.30pm, dinner 5.30-10pm (10.30pm Fri & Sat). From about £75 a head à la carte, plus drinks & service
