Ekstedt at The Yard restaurant review, Nordic, Great Scotland Yard Hotel, London

Ekstedt at The Yard is This is Niklas Ekstedt’s first restaurant outside of Stockholm — This is Niklas Ekstedt’s first restaurant outside of Stockholm

(Image credit: Ekstedt at The Yard)

There’s a power in breaking bread. There’s possibly more power in breaking tunnbröd, doubly so in sight of a kitchen that, on first glance at least, is more blacksmith in Game of Thrones than a restaurant in a very smart hotel in London’s Whitehall.

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The Great Scotland Yard Hotel is an unusual choice for Swedish chef Niklas Ekstedt’s first restaurant outside of Stockholm, but Londoners (and commuters within easy reach of Charing Cross) should be very grateful for the decision. Ekstedt’s love of wood, open fires, smoke and traditional Scandinavian technique has secured him Michelin stars back in Sweden and, while Ekstedt at The Yard sounds like the Victorian Scandi-Noir we never knew we needed, his style of hospitality has translated remarkably well to the art-laden interior of the hotel.

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Dishes are also intriguing. Some ingredients are mysterious – reindeer moss, the aforementioned tunnbröd (a Scandinavian crispbread), while others – scallop, pork, trout, Jerusalem artichokes, etc – are far more familiar. However, many of the twists, nuances and flavours employed – birch-flame, charcoal cream, fermented cep juice, sea herbs – are borderline unimaginable. One lingon negroni and two snacks in, however – if not before – you can relax as Ekstedt clearly knows what he’s doing and has taught his team well.

The treats keep coming. Flambadou oyster with beurre blanc and juniper smoked apple sounds delicious in its own right when like us, perhaps, you assume “flambadou” is the species. Wrong. In fact, it’s a device that allows you to drip hot beef fat onto things. Such as, you know, oysters, where it’s used to gently sear the outside… and if that doesn’t make you whimper a little, I don’t think we can be friends.

We make similar noises over many of the subsequent dishes. Ember-baked leek, smoked blood pudding, reindeer moss. The exceptionally pretty hay smoked custard with trout roe and chives. The crispy, rich pleasures of the doughnut, lovage, smoked egg yolk. Birch-flamed chanterelles, black truffle, caramelised cream with – but of course – the addition of flambadou lobster because, well, see above. Juniper-smoked John Dory, brown butter, roasted hispi cabbage. Slow charcoal-roasted pork neck, fermented gooseberries, trotter sauce.

It’s all both dazzling and a simple celebration of flavours, underscored by remarkably different, subtle smoke. And the cooking itself is just good. Take that last dish, for example. A hint of pink within, lightly caramelised on the outside, with a fleeting flavour of woodsmoke, the fat right on the point of melting, all bathed in the richness of that sauce, and cut through by the delightful acidity and sourness of the gooseberries.

Desserts maintain the standard and, in the case of the wood oven baked Alaska (with elderflower ice cream and lingonberries), bring the theatre of the kitchen right to your dining room with a little flambé action. My cast-iron baked Maida Vale has also seen some considerable heat, and comes as a tray of slightly melted cheese, topped with seeds and berries, and served with fennel knäckebröd, another crispbread variant (and a LOT more fun to say than “tunnbröd”). Like so much of this meal, it’s beautifully simple and ultimately more than the sum of its parts.

For cooking of this quality, I’m also going to say it’s good value at two courses for £68 or three courses for £85, although the snacks and the oysters quickly add to that total. There’s also a nine-course “Journey to Scandinavia” tasting menu for £145 which, for these times, this postcode and this level of cooking, creativity and theatre isn’t bad at all. Memorable, creative and, all in all, a very fine addition to the London dining scene.