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1 A Valentine’s celebration Turkish style at Rüya Mayfair
An exciting night ahead and our first Valentine’s night out in a long while. Like many people, COVID got us out of the habit of going out on Valentine’s night. Tonight, we are going to Rüya Mayfair, an ideal venue for a celebration. I visited Rüya last year and was keen to return and enjoy their Valentine’s Day celebrations.
Ruya is located on the corner of Upper Grosvenor Street, and from the outside, it is an impressive facade that seems to stretch forever.
Once inside, you are in reception (if you visit, check out the picture of the Whirling Dervish), then move onto the stunning bar area, then onto the main body of the restaurant, past the massive bread oven, to our table.
It is great to see a busy restaurant, and delighted to report that Rüya is full tonight.
2 Valentines Meal
We decided to go with the special Valentine’s menu. However, the A La carte menu was also available.
Before we proceed to the meal, I should mention that Valentine’s set meal included a complimentary cocktail, which was appropriately called a Red Velvet romance. The alcohol content was Gin and Grand Marnier topped with Cranberry juice and Raspberry puree. It’s the perfect way to start the night.
For the starters, we chose the scallop dish and Tantuni, which traditionally is a Turkish street food wrap of beef or lamb. Our version was a bowl of diced beef with paprika served with pitta bread.
The scallops were served on a bed of Artichoke Purèe, with Monk beard and hazelnuts; the first thing to say is that scallops are my wife’s favourite starter, so we were off to a perfect start. The Scallops served in their shell were cooked with great respect to this lovely Mollusk, seared on top and soft and still slightly translucent in the middle, or thats what I’m told.
The Tantuni, which was new to me, was packed with flavour and, I suspect, was cooked with more herbs and spices than paprika; it was served with pitta bread. Rüya bakes all their bread from the massive bread oven, which is a feature in the restaurant.
Onto the mains, and this time, we reversed fish and meat roles. Leigh went for the dry-aged rib-eye steak and for me, it was tiger prawns on an orzo pasta and shellfish bisque.
The prawn dish looked stunning and ate as well as it looked; the Tiger Prawns were huge and filled the plate; once peeled, they delivered in taste, sweet and succulent. The orzo pasta was a great idea, especially coated with the deep shellfish bisque.
We were both excited about the dry-aged rib eye steak, which arrived on a wooden board and was served with Zatar sauce. We ordered a side salad to go with the steak.
The rib eye steak was cooked perfectly; in my humble opinion, a rib eye needs to cook to cook to medium to melt the fat content. Dry ageing steak brings out the flavour of the beef.
Yes, before you ask, unlike the scallops, I did get a chance to enjoy the steak, and I’m so glad I did.
The steak was served with a Za’atar Sauce; the sauce was new to us and gave an Eastern Mediterranean twist to the dish we both enjoyed.
After a break, it was dessert time. The special menu had two puds on the menu, and we went for both to share.
The blood orange revani dessert was bursting with blood orange flavour and served with ice cream and fresh orange slices. It was so refreshing.
Readers of my foodie reviews may realise by now that I come down on the savoury side of the coin; however, the raspberry chocolate pudding was nothing short of sensational. Sometimes, chocolate puddings can be too sweet or too chocolaty; at this point, I can hear you screaming there is no such thing as too much chocolate. For me, the Raspberry added a freshness and took this pud to another level.
If you are like me and once I’ve read a review, I check out the full menu on the restaurant website, I’m guessing this will no longer be available on the website I’ve posted below because I’m kind like that😀.
Valentines Special Menu
Cocktail
Red Velvet Romance, Whitley Neil gin, Cranberry juice, Chambord, Grand Marnier, Raspberry purée
Starters
Seared Scallops
Jerusalem Artichoke Purèe, Monk’s Beard and Roasted Hazelnut
Fırın Pancar
Roasted Beetroot Salad, Goat Cheese and Corn Bread
Tantuni
Diced Beef, Smoked Paprika, Cherry Tomatoes, Pitta Bread
Mains
Tiger Prawns
Orzo Pasta and Shellfish Bisque
Roasted Pumpkin
Spiced Rice, Pumpkin Purèe and Pomegranate
36 Days Dry-Aged Rib-Eye Steak
Za’atar Sauce
Desserts
Blood Orange Revani
Blood Orange Caramel Compote and Orange Marmalade Ice Cream
Raspberry Hot Chocolate Pudding
Jivara and Mint Cremeaux and Vanilla Ice Cream
£95.00 per person
I’m sure that special events are a worst nightmare, notably Valentine’s, with hoards of people arriving at the same time, and the service did wobble slightly. I should point out that I did visit Rüya last year, and the service was excellent.
Our experience at our first Valentine’s night out for a few years was excellent. As you can probably tell from my description of the food above, it isn’t easy to pick a star dish, but big news, I will present the gold medal to the Raspberry Chocolate pudding, the best dessert I have had in a long time.
Oh, I just remembered we were presented with a Valentine’s gift box containing Turkish delight and two Negroni cocktails on leaving the restaurant: such a lovely thought and a nice momento to remember our visit to Rüya on Valentine’s night.
Rüya Mayfair
30 Upper Grosvenor St, London W1K 7PH
For Menus & bookings, click here
Tel 020 3848 6710
Private Dining Available
3 About Rüya
Established in 2018, Rüya London is one of Mayfair’s most popular dining and drinking destinations, offering an exquisite Anatolian menu inspired by second-generation restaurateur Umut Özkanca’s Istanbul heritage. Boasting Michelin-grade venues in Cannes, Dubai, Bahrain and Doha, Rüya London is owned by the esteemed Dogus Restaurant and Management Group which includes celebrated restaurants Coya and Saltbae within its portfolio.
To find out more about Rüya Restaurants, visit: www.Rüyarestaurants.com
