Kota
Porthleven, Cornwall
On the harbour head in peaceable Porthleven, Kota feels every inch the rustic Cornish bolthole, with its red tiled floor, mutually reflecting mirrors and engaging, friendly staff. What lifts it out of the ordinary are the flavour combinations Jude Kereama brings to all of his dishes. With both Maori and Malaysian-Chinese heritage, he has an ingenious approach to seasoning and spicing, as well as an understanding of textural variation – and the results never seem to fall short. Double-acts are favoured within each dish, especially at main course: a fillet of pollock and a kataifi-wrapped chunk of monkfish are dressed in saffron yuzu mayo with a rich bisque of lime leaf and coconut, while a flat iron steak is teamed with short rib braised in soy and ginger. Before that, the tasting menu (four or six courses) could offer mackerel tartare partnered with white crab in oyster emulsion with a snapped squid-ink cracker, followed by toasted scallops with fried onion in an XO-laced cream sauce, served on the scallop shell. Finish perhaps with a hunk of moist honey and almond cake in lemon thyme syrup with crumbled walnuts and a startlingly intense, savoury sorbet of goat's cheese. Wine pairings favour Kereama's Kiwi birthplace, with Riesling allowed to demonstrate its food-friendly paces, either varietally or blended, acerbically dry or with the citric sweetness of late harvesting.
Dining Information:
Accommodation, Wheelchair access
Harbour Head, Porthleven, Cornwall TR13 9JA
01326 562407
