Feast on some fabulous fungi-themed dishes at restaurants around Covent Garden's Opera Quarter this spring in celebration of our exhibition Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi
Looking at art can be hungry work. Thankfully, a range of restaurants and bars around Somerset House have been working their magic in response to our Mushrooms exhibition. Follow our Mushrooms Restaurant Trail after paying a visit to the exhibition for a fungi-fuelled culinary journey around the world through a myriad of mushroom-inspired meals.
Head out of Somerset House across the Aldwych for your first stop, where mischievous wine parlour Grays & Feather are offering up a shiitake mushroom, soya glaze and smoked tofu canapé to whet your appetites. A couple of doors down at Champagne + Fromage, dive into an oozing baked camembert with black truffle and port, before heading around the corner for a bite sized portion of mushroom arancini perfection at Angela Hartnett's seasonal Italian restaurant Café Murano.
"We wait in anticipation to see what nature brings us – from the beginning of the Spring Morels followed by the late summer/autumn Porcini and into the prized winter truffle ... mushrooms are the prize of any forager and you never quite know what you're going to get which creates inspiration in the kitchens"
Fungi have always been in safe hands with the Italians and pasta lovers will be glad to discover an indulgent dish of indulgent truffle and pecorino ravioli from award-winning San Carlo Group's all-day Venetian dining spot Cicchetti. Forage further and you'll find more truffles at Double Shot Coffee who are serving up their forest mushrooms and truffle on toast. Made with porcini mushrooms and truffles from Bulgaria and cheddar cheese on a fluffy toasted brioche, this one really is the perfect brunch dish.
Continuing the theme, classic French eatery Boulevard Brasserie are serving up their version of mushrooms on toast in the form of a delectable wild mushroom tartine, whilst neighbouring bistro Café Rouge are doing a special wild mushroom risotto with oyster, shiitake and chestnut mushrooms, watercress and baby spinach.
Fancy a street food fix? Look no further than Korean street food masters On The Bab’s fluffy mushroom bao buns filled with crispy, fried mushroom fritters. For more East Asian mushroom magic, tuck into Eat Tokyo’s Mushroom Itame (stir-fried enoki-Shimeji with oyster mushrooms) or hunker down with a warming mushroom wakame soup, a mushroom and Japanese seaweed soup with egg, onion and white sesame seeds.
Newly opened Portuguese restaurant Volta do Mar on Tavistock Street are serving an inventive vegan wild mushroom and cauliflower xacuti. Their twist on the traditional Goan curry comprises Hen of the Woods and King Oyster mushrooms as well as a healthy dose of coconut, both in milk form and grated. Around the corner, smokehouse specialists Bodeans bring the style and soul of Kansas City barbecue to London with their vegan pulled BBQ mushroom sandwich, packed with delicious umami flavour.
"Fresh or dried, with so much diversity, you never get bored cooking or eating mushrooms!"
To satisfy a sweet tooth, head to Sugar Sin for your final stop, where you'll find an array of mushroom shaped sweets in a range of flavours, including caramel, liquorice and coconut, the perfect way to round off your fungi-filled day.
Take the Mushroom Restaurant Trail for yourself with our downloadable Google Map, featuring all the restaurants and descriptions of their signature mushroom dishes.
Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi is open until 26 April 2020, part of the Charles Russell Speechlys Terrace Rooms Series.
