【Cheese and Biscuits】Toba, St James

It’s a strange part of town, is St James. Essentially a lesser-known southern extension of Mayfair, it’s barely a half mile square and yet contains quite a high density of fancy hotels (Duke’s, the Stafford, the Ritz), private members’ clubs and the odd royal palace. Whereas some aspects of Mayfair come across as brash or showy (it is home to Sexy Fish, after all), St James is old money – genteel, refined, that little bit more exclusive.

We started with “Indonesian” prawn crackers – though apart from their relative small size and slightly increased density from your local Chinese version, they were very familiar territory. However they were great dipped in the trio of house sambal – shrimp, Balinese style and torch ginger, the latter I’m told being a very rare sight on these shores.

Another trio next, this time three flavours of deep-fried fritters. These kind of things can, in lesser kitchens, often suffer from being greasy or hard work – just think how many terrible cheap fish cakes you’ve suffered from a mediocre Thai restaurant. These were utterly perfect – greaseless and moreish, with a nice hot chilli oil dip to compliment the fried food. The corn in particular was a highlight, with a lovely soft, bubbly texture.

If you think you like the sound of “Deep fried chicken wings tossed with salted egg yolk, chilli and curry leaves”, well then join the club – and if anything the reality was even better than the promise on paper. Great big healthy, meaty wings were soaked in a buttery, creamy coating that despite containing all the advertised bits and pieces, somehow was still so much greater than the sum of its parts.