At this intimate Mayfair eatery, wood has a terroir and flames are a central ingredient.
There is something elemental—and faintly, exquisitely medieval—about the culinary proposition at IGNI: no electricity, no gas. Just timber, flame and the meticulously sourced ingredients placed between them, their transformation governed as much by the character of the wood being burned as by the hand of the chef.
Yet there’s no rustic gimmickry underway here: the chefs, here at a restaurant tucked into a narrow Mayfair townhouse just south of Oxford Street, is not a restaurant about, are passionate about the notion that where and how timber grew has huge bearing on the flavour flames from it will impart to ingredients that have been as meticulously curated as the fuel.
“There’s been a revival of wood-fired cooking across the world in recent years,” says Executive Chef Theo Clench, of a culinary philosophy which he inherited from the restaurant’s previous iteration (it was opened under the name of Humo, in January 2023 by the Creative Restaurant Group—the company also behind Endo at the Rotunda, Sumi, Niju and Kioku by Endo).
“Here, I wanted to create something that isn’t like anywhere else. The six-course tasting menu at IGNI is centred around fire and we use it as a tool to enhance the ingredients, not to dominate. Each course reflects our appreciation of produce, fine dining and our mastery of cooking with fire, creating a natural progression of flavour and texture. I have a passion for seafood, which began from a young age growing up by the sea. At IGNI we work with producers across the British Isles to source seafood from around the coast and our menu champions this.”
Indeed, Clench has developed Humo’s fascination with wood as a culinary tool, to suit his own culinary smarts, which were honed at stints in the kitchens of Cycene and Akoko. The result is IGNI’s extraordinary six- and nine-course tasting menus (there’s also a seasonal three-course lunch option).
Turbot with brioche and charred lettuce, along with cuttlefish that’s been exposed to intense heat before being complemented by buckwheat, celtuce, smoked eel and tozasu vinegar, are among the standout dishes. The course that best encapsulates the imaginative culinary wizardry taking place here, though, is a three-part bluefin tuna dish: a deep-red akami tartlet lifted with a smoky lapsang ponzu jelly, a preparation of the bloodline, and a rich section of chutoro (medium-fat belly)—not so much a dish as a carefully calibrated progression through the different personalities of a single fish, from lean and mineral to intensely rich and unctuous.
Another major highlight is IGNI’s fermented potato bun, which takes the form of a Chinese-style bao, accompanied by what resembles a small black pudding. Tap its shell of blackened leek ash, to reveal the delectable, vadouvan-infused butter contained within. It is an arresting little piece of theatre, and the savoury sweetness of the leek sings in sweet harmony with the aromatic richness of the vadouvan-tinged butter.
IGNI is as serious about presentation as it is about taste—oysters are served on a small rockery, that aforementioned bluefin tuna trio on a platter bedded with pink shingle—with the visual language as elemental as the cooking concept.
The same precision extends to the drinks. Head Sommelier Alessio Ragusini’s wine and sake pairings don’t merely complement the food—they amplify each other’s flavour nuances—whilst the cocktails (mixed with no little flair behind a bar at one end of the elongated dining space) follow the same principle as the food: seemingly unlikely combinations (the Martini comes with soy-based caviar; the Old Fashioned incorporates smoked sesame) that simply work. Beautifully. The effect is less about novelty than balance, with familiar drinks subtly nudged into unfamiliar territory.
It’s a dining experience, in the truest sense of that phrase. Sit at the counter, and you’ve effectively clinched a ringside seat at a deft piece of culinary theatre: fish being worked over flame, hot plates emerging from their brick surrounds and whole ducks receiving bursts of blue fire from staff who are happy to elaborate on their craft. The chef’s table, meanwhile, reached via a spiral staircase, offers a more private version of the experience for larger groups.
For all the talk of smoke, wood and fire, what lingers after dinner is not the theatricality of the cooking but its control. IGNI takes an elemental technique and subjects it to the exacting standards of modern fine dining, finding nuance in a medium that can so easily overwhelm. The flames may be ancient; the results are decidedly contemporary. And therein lies IGNI’s real achievement: it makes fire feel less like a cooking method than a language—one that Clench and his team are impressively fluent in.
12 St. George Street, Mayfair, London W1S 2FB/ +44 (0)20 3327 3690)/ignilondon.com
