Snack – butter beans in chilli oil with aioli (complimentary)
Can you believe that I have never been to an Ottolenghi restaurant before?! All those trips to London… Ok, I have been to Ottolenghi in Belgravia where you get takeaway and there is barely any seating. I feel like that doesn’t count.
This trip, we decided to hit up 2 Ottolenghi places to make up for all those years! I was also particularly keen because I have recently gotten into his cookbook ‘SIMPLE’ and been really enjoying it. Has anyone else been cooking from that?
We will be going to NOPI towards the end of our trip, but right at the beginning of our trip we went to Ottolenghi’s newest restaurant, ROVI.
Drinks
I know I don’t talk about drinks much on this blog, but one thing Ottolenghi seems to do well in all of his restaurants is non-alcoholic drinks! So, naturally, I had to get one. I had the Seasonal fruit pressé (£6.5) – pear and lime which was not only tasty, but super fun because I got to mix my own drink! I was served some soda water, then two syrups of pear and lime so I could choose how much of each to put into my drink as the night went on.
DS had an Oak Fashioned – Oak barrel aged Jensen’s gin, Pedro Ximénez, cinnamon, bitters (£12) which he says was totally delicious. A bit of a fun take on an Old Fashioned cocktail, I suppose.
Seasonal fruit pressé (£6.5) – pear and lime 
Oak Fashioned – Oak barrel aged Jensen’s gin, Pedro Ximénez, cinnamon, bitters (£12)
Food
Before we get onto our main meal, we were also served a little snack of Snack – butter beans in chilli oil with aioli. It’s always a nice little touch to receive a complimentary amuse bouche or snack! This was subtle, with the spices blending well with the smooth butter beans.
Parsnip and pecorino croquettes with smoked garlic aioli, pickled walnuts (£7.5) 
Crumpet lobster toast with kumquat and chilli sauce (£8)
The menu is divided by size of the dish. We got two snacks to begin with. I am a huge fan of parsnip, so I made us order the Parsnip and pecorino croquettes with smoked garlic aioli, pickled walnuts (£7.5). In fact, parsnip is on my list of underrated vegetables, in case you’re interested! These were pretty much as described, no surprises. However, I would only recommend you order these if you do, in fact, like parsnip, as the taste is quite strong.
The other snack we had was the Crumpet lobster toast with kumquat and chilli sauce (£8) which was completely different to expected! I was expecting more of a lobster-roll style snack, however it was more like an Asian-style prawn toast! The lobster is minced, I suppose, and put on top of a brioche roll. The sesame seeds added a crunchy texture. This was a tasty snack, but a little difficult to share.
Celeriac Shawarma with bkeila and fermented tomato (£14.5) 
Chalkstream trout with pistachio salsa, kohlrabi, bergamot (£19.5)
It was quite difficult to decide on which big dish to order because they all looked SO good! The friendly staff recommended us to get the celeriac shawarma. Turns out we were going to order that anyway because celeriac is another vegetable on my list of underrated vegetables!
We decided to get the Chalkstream trout with pistachio salsa, kohlrabi, bergamot (£19.5) as well because we hadn’t had fish for a while. You gotta get that balanced diet of vitamins and minerals in whenever you can while travelling! The trout was tasty. It was nice to be able to eat it with the different combinations of condiments too!
The Celeriac Shawarma with bkeila and fermented tomato (£14.5) isn’t quite like anything I’ve had before. I haven’t had much Indian food, to be honest. This is mostly because I don’t deal well with spicy food. Again, it wasn’t easy to share, but we got there – in a messy sort of way! I really did enjoy this and it reminded me of a vegetarian kebab in a comforting sort of way!
As a side, we ordered the Hay smoked pink fir apple potatoes, crème fraiche (£7), which I think sounded a lot fancier than they actually were. I’ve had hay smoked potatoes before, and each time they just taste like normal potatoes…! I would recommend perhaps getting a different side.
The things that stood out to me most about ROVI is the interesting combination of ingredients and the cross-cultural influences. But I must say that having now been to NOPI, ROVI kind of pales compared to that… However, ROVI is at a more manageable price point so if you’re on a tighter budget, head over to ROVI for your Ottolenghi experience!