To get onto the top table of London’s fine dining restaurants, you need to have something special about you these days. Fortunately for Aulis, it’s sitting pretty with a stacked hand of trump cards - not just the unquestionable, era-defining genius of Simon Rogan, but also head chef Charlie Tayler, who looks set to be the next exceptional talent to canter out of the Rogan stable.
More than anything else, Aulis is fun. There’s a convivial, jovial air that is driven by Tayler and team, all of whom seem to genuinely love what they do. ‘It beats a basement kitchen with no windows,’ Tayler laughs, and he’s not wrong - Aulis is very aesthetically pleasing. A 2023 refurb added a cosy lounge and completely redesigned the gleaming marble chef’s table, which now arcs around the chefs, like an amphitheatre around the star performers.
First courses are now delivered in the lounge and the start is auspicious. A paper-thin tartlet of gooseberry and raw sea bream is loaded with summer shoots, and hides a waft of coal oil. We devour a truffled bread and butter pudding, sticky with caramelised birch and Corra Linn cheese, at which point we’re led through to the chef’s table, and the real fun begins. What follows is a procession of utterly delicious things, from pearlescent, steamed cod in a pool of buttermilk and wild thyme, to smoked, salt-baked beetroots, nestled under grilled Yarlington cheese and spiked with peppery nasturtium. Tayler’s cooking has balance and restraint, but it still feels exciting and joyful, and Tayler himself clearly enjoys his role as compere and chef.
A half-and-half drinks pairing is equally impressive, matching dishes up with unusual partners like cobnut milk and beer kombucha. Aulis manages to be playful and inventive, but never at the cost of straight-up, fifth gear deliciousness - a rarity that marks it out as something incredibly special. If we’re talking about London’s very best tasting menus, Aulis is one of the first names into the conversation.