London and the UK's only Korean-inspired Michelin starred restaurant

Sollip is the creation of South Korean chef Woongchul Park and his wife who have run the restaurant in Southwark since its opening in 2020. It gained a Michelin star in 2022 and serves a modern, Korean tasting menu, priced at £118 at time of visit. Sollip itself means pine needle in Korean and has nostalgic significance with the chef’s experiences which also include his participation of Masterchef Korea in 2o13 and workings in The Ledbury. This menu showcased good technical skill and a refined style, similar in minimalistic style to that of Ikoyi (whilst being very different cuisines). There is only one menu to choose from, but the hospitality of the chef is second to none.

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The meal began with four snacks Lemon Verbena, coconut fermented nectarine; beef tartare Dacian (oscietra caviar) and Gogu jam which was had good spice; doenjang gougere with fermented soy bean paste chilli & paprika and a gamtae sandwich of classic Korean seeweed. The latter was very delicate, very spongey but also quite bland.

The first course was heritage carrot with barbecued carrot, beurre blanc tomato glaze, pecan nuts and buckwheat in the side and this was a beautiful carrot dish. Next up was a daikon tarte tatin. This included toasted barley, roasted potato, burnt hay, puff pastry and roasted potato cream and was enjoyable as a dish.

Nurungji (crispy fried rice) came with dourdough & dashima (seaweed) butter. This was fine and was followed by Cod: hwangtae broth gat-kimchi (mustard leaf) dulse tapenade, potato leaf and dried pollack and taramasalata, which had good flavour. Samhap was wagyu tteokgalbi, Orkney scallop, shiitake mushroom, Jerusalem artichoke padron pepper purée, sticky rice and brown rice with dashi and mushroom purée – this was absolutely spell binding as a dish and superbly executed.

Pear sorbet & pomegranate with pine formed a good pre-dessert and was followed by the main dessert of fig leaf compote (at bottom) and creme brulee. This was a fig tart made with buckwheat, linden tree honey glaze on top and a fig bon bon held with Madeira which was absolutely superb.

Petit fours included daechu (juju bean) with Madeleine glaze & coffee and sesame cookie as well as coffee sesame cookie which were fine and went well with the wonderful array of tea on show. Test tubes showing the different kinds of tea leaf available were shown to allow diners to smell each to inform their choice which I haven’t seen in a restaurant before and this was a superb touch. The actual choices were: black tea with yuzu, green tea first flush and infusions of mugwort (herb), plum blossom with marzipan and persimmon leaf.

All in all, this was a very skilled menu and it was a delight to speak to the chef about his cooking ethos and journey to the restaurant gaining his star. It is the only Korean Michelin starred restaurant in the UK and enthusiasts of this cuisine are well-advised to try.

Food Grade: 77%