By When you eat at The Palomar, you don't just taste the food, you experience the whole kitchen.
To sit at one of the stools, snug against the stainless steel bar is to have your senses toyed with: by the scent of charred octopus or fresh sliced pomegranate; by the precise jostle of the copper pots and pans; by the head chef, spinning another plate of magic under your gaping mouth and quite possibly giving you a high five.
It is everything the world of fine dining is not supposed to be: colourful, chaotic, a happy collaboration between the master at the stove and you, the dumbfounded diner sat a mere metre away.
The deliberately small Middle-Eastern restaurant opened to unanimous acclaim in 2014, and has been full ever since. Even five years later, it remains one of the most difficult restaurants in the capital to book a table, and each day a queue of optimistic souls line up at 5pm in the hope of securing a walk in. Some of them even get lucky.
Inspired by the bustle and boisterousness of the famous market restaurant Machneyuda in Jerusalem, The Palomar is the creation of brother and sister duo Layo and Zoë Paskin. Together, they didn't just bring a brilliant new approach to cooking to London but a new way of experiencing dining full stop.
We can think of no better place to launch our new video series exploring the dishes that changed London - in this case, 'Octohummus', a dish that sums up The Palomar's unpretentious but beguiling spirit.
Watch the video to learn how this simple modern classic is made, and the story behind the launch of one the finest restaurants to open in Britain for the past decade.
