Paradise

In June 2024 Paradise made a bold shift from a la carte to tasting menu, allowing founder Dom Fernando to further flex his culinary muscles. That might not go down well with some, but a tasting menu feels like a much better fit for Paradise’s more adventurous style of Sri Lankan cooking, which is a little more gastronomic than the likes of Hoppers and Kolamba.

A refurb has softened a few edges, but Paradise still sports that signature tropical brutalist aesthetic. Again, it may divide opinion - it’s achingly cool, but perhaps a little cold and spartan for some. The space has been opened up, with booths becoming tables and the old counter becoming an island in the centre of the room, where guests can sit right in the heart of the action.

The big change is the food and it kicks off auspiciously with a pair of absolutely outstanding snacks - two of the best single bites we’ve eaten in 2024, we’d wager. The first is a crisp papadum cylinder of roughly chopped fillet steak, dabbed with tomato and garlic emulsion. It has texture, flavour, a tiny hit of smoke from charcoal oil. If there was an option to buy ten more, we would have emptied our wallets. Likewise for the world’s smallest cheese toastie, made with Corra Linn cheese, green chilli custard, kithul palm syrup and chutney.

There’s more super cooking to come too. Beautifully cooked pollock comes in a little bath of langoustine and coconut broth. The waft of lamb and black garlic curry hits us long before it arrives at the table, and it’s everything we hoped for - rich, fatty and spicy. Accompanying condiments add different dimensions to each bite, and the roti is outstanding. Our only question would be one of menu balance - three of five savoury courses are snacks, and before you know it you’re onto dessert. At £59 Paradise is still brilliant value for the quality of the cooking, but if you come hungry you may still find yourself leaving with a bit of space in your stomach. A couple of supplemental courses (or just an extra savoury course) could be an easy fix (let us eat more crispy snacks please).

Regardless, there’s no questioning the quality of the cooking. Fernando wants Paradise to push the boundaries of Sri Lankan food. Mission complete, we think.

Paradise Soho is a modern Sri Lankan restaurant in Soho run by restaurateur Dom Fernando. In 2024 this Rupert Street favourite shook things up with a new six-course set menu format alongside glamorously-renovated interiors from Dan Preston - the designer behind Brat and Kiln.

The interiors are elegant and warm with glowing candlelight and greenery dotted among warm wood-toned furniture. The focal point stone counter bar has been converted into a long social table area with striking and stylish pendant lights. The crockery is simple and earthy, showcasing the brilliance of the food.

The dishes on Paradise's six-course set dinner menu (billed as a "two hour culinary experience that takes guests through an ingredient focused journey") take their inspiration from the eclectic mix of influences present in Sri Lankan cuisine and use a mix of British and Sri-Lankan sustainable ingredients prepared with modern flair. This leads to innovative and exciting dishes like a Rassam broth with lacto fermented strawberries and wild garlic oil, a lamb saddle, and black garlic curry with nettle and coconut as well as a Kiri Hodi with Cornish pollock, langoustine, and mustard. There's also a dedicated alternative 'Veg + Plant' tasting menu, which boasts dishes such as seaweed and burnt onion wattalappam pudding with palm heart, jambola, sea buckthorn, and kalu-sago.

The meal finishes off with white chocolate and mango mini magnum with caramel as well as a ghee and cinnamon leaf breudeur with a cashew nut praline and Ceylon tea and cream. The wines are a carefully curated list of sustainable and organic bottles by the former sommelier of Pidgin Hannah Kowalski. This is accompanied by a range of specialty cocktails that merge modern and traditional techniques with flavours ubiquitous to the Paradise menu to create drinks like their mango negroni and rambutan daiquiri.