After a few visits to vegan fine dining establishment Gauthier Soho, we were excited to try the (slightly) more affordable Studio Gauthier on our recent trip to London. Alongside their regular menu, they also currently have set menus from specific countries/cuisines available for two weeks at a time. We were there for their Italian menu, which consisted of five courses and a canapé.

The canapé was a small slice of deep fried courgette with cashew cream and mint crumble. It was flavoursome, light, and refreshing, and felt perfect for Spring.

Next came the wild garlic focaccia, which was our highlight of the evening. You always know you’re going to get some good bread from Gauthier! It was a really crispy, herby bread, oily and delicious. It was served with a fava bean purée (a bit like hummus) and wild garlic pesto and pickled red onions. The pesto was so flavoursome, I loved it. The onions were a perfect touch. We would have happily taken another round of this course – plus a tray of focaccia for the road.

Then we had a stuffed artichoke. The artichoke was deep fried for a nice crispy texture. It was stuffed with parsley and capers – the capers in particular provided great flavour. It came with a white bean purée and tomato purée. The tomato one was especially good, quite rich and tasty.

The tortellini came next. It was really thin pasta filled with chervil, lovage, and almond ricotta and served with peas and micro herbs. At the table, the server added a broth made of kombu, mushroom, lemongrass, and Kaffir lime. The broth had an incredibly deep savoury flavour, I could have drunk it up!

The main course was gnocchi. It was a semolina gnocchi, which just kind of dissolved on the plate, it was so soft (the server asked for feedback on the dish and when we mentioned this he said it was intentional, so maybe it’s just our personal preferences for firmer gnocchi). It came with a wild garlic sauce, which was really vivid and enticing and packed a great flavour. There was also aparagus, confit lemon rind, hazelnuts, rocket, and some kind of cheese. There was a bit too much rocket for my personal taste, but otherwise there was a nicely balanced flavour. I certainly found the flavours superior to the texture of this dish.

The dessert was a crostata. The shortcrust pastry case was just right, and the strawberry and blueberry filling was delicious. It was served with vanilla ice cream (the menu says lemon sorbet, but I could have sworn it was vanilla ice cream!), custard, and fruit purée. The rich, creamy custard beautifully complemented the fruity pie. It looked like a huge portion, but it was well judged.

It was not a rushed affair – we were there for over 2 hours for the whole meal. It was pretty quiet on a Tuesday evening, but I’d recommend booking anyway. It was £65 per person for the set menu. For us, it was worth the money for some creative and well-executed dishes. It was notably not on the same (extremely high) level as Gauthier Soho itself, and I’d prefer to splurge there again next time, but it’s still a fun visit and I’d certainly be tempted in for the right cuisine (we just missed out on Taiwan, more’s the pity).