Making waves: new pop-up restaurant Pacific to serve contemporary Japanese with an Australian twist from 13th November
Making waves: new pop-up restaurant Pacific to serve contemporary Japanese with an Australian twist from 13th November
Pacific, the new solo venture from award-winning Australian chef Shaun Presland, will bring a new and distinctly Aussie take on contemporary Japanese cuisine to Mayfair’s esteemed restaurant scene. The four-month long residency at 10 Heddon Street will welcome guests into its relaxed azure interior from Wednesday 13th November to the end of February, with ambitions to become the go-to place to enjoy expertly prepared Japanese food served with a playful Aussie attitude.
Offering both a chilled out daytime space and a livelier evening venue, Pacific’s décor (designed by Vamp Concepts) is both innovative and oceanic. Stripped wooden tables are set amongst deep turquoise walls adorned with silver hangings designed to look like ripples on water, and the lighting is designed to mimic sunrise and sunset and is accented by hanging strings of geometric lamps.
The front of house team will be led by Corbin & King’s Abhi Sharma, while masterminding the kitchen and hoping to make waves in London’s restaurant scene is Executive Chef Shaun Presland – whose combination of laidback Australian charisma and 25 years of critically acclaimed experience in Japanese cooking puts him in great stead to give contemporary Japanese cuisine a thoroughly fresh and modern makeover. At the heart of his innovative menu is market-fresh fish and seafood, sourced from both native UK waters and the South East Pacific that inspired the restaurant’s name. Pacific will also be serving an accompanying selection of meat dishes and delectable vegetables.
The a la carte menu features a sashimi-dedicated section that takes traditional Japanese cuisine and gives it a new lease of thoroughly Aussie life. Dishes include a Bondi roll, a riceless sashimi roll wrapped in Tokyo turnip Tokyo served with avocado, chives and house soy, and a Kingfish Jalapeno Yuzu pepper. These will sit alongside smaller plates such as a potato & mushroom croquette with shiitake mushroom, creamy potato, panko crumb & miso truffle mayonnaise, and Kakiage Tempura – a pull-apart vegetable tempura salad of carrot, onion, squash and beans, topped with citrus and flavoured salts.
The mains also encapsulate the Australian-influenced Japanese offerings, ranging from crispy skin Hiramasa Kingfish from South Australia’s Spencer Gulf served with sweet ponzu buckwheat salsa, to sustainably caught miso tooth-fish served with an old-school saikyo miso marinade. Leading the meaty offerings is a Pacific take on an Aussie classic: Wagyu steak grilled on a robata served with wasabi chimichurri dipping sauce.
To complement the Japanese dishes, the wine list will be an Australian led fusion of the classic and the curious: a true showcase of what is making the Australian wine scene buzz right now. The range of 15 whites and 15 red features exciting and progressive suppliers including organic wine pioneers Caves de Pyrene, natural wine aficionados Indigo Wines and the venerable Liberty Wines, along with producers such as Patrick Sullivan, Ochota Barrels and Grosset.
The bar will serve a Japanese-influenced cocktail list as well as creating their own barley tea – all crafted with modern simplicity in mind. Pacific will also work with boutique sake distillery Kozaemon from Gifu in central Japan, who have been making their sake for over three centuries and have had a close relationship with Shaun over the past 11 years.
Executive Chef Shaun Presland comments, “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to come back to the UK after having spent much of my childhood just outside of London. It is incredibly exciting to open Pacific in a city that has evolved to become one of the best in the world for food. The produce available here is world class and utterly delicious. We’re really looking forward to sharing our vision as a pop-up at 10 Heddon Street in Mayfair for the next few months as we solidify our plans to develop the business from there.”
Pacific will open to the public on Wednesday 13th November.
Bookings email: info@pacificlondon.co.uk
Website: www.pacificlondon.co.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
Pacific
10 Heddon Street
Mayfair
London
W1B 4BX
About Shaun Presland
Shaun Presland is an award-winning chef from Sydney and a highly distinguished master of Japanese cuisine. Beginning his career 25 years ago in the mountains of Yamagatta, Central Japan, Shaun spent 5 years learning the craft of the traditional Kaiseki cuisine and a further 7 years dedicated solely to sushi. He has worked for Sydney’s Merivale Group, opening several restaurants for them including Sushi-E, and was appointed Executive Sous-Chef at Nobu, The Bahamas. He comes to London following a Group Executive Chef role at Rockpool Dining Group’s popular Japanese restaurant collection, Saké, which he helped create over 10 years ago.
To find out more about Pacific visit www.pacificlondon.co.uk and follow @pacificlondon on Instagram.
For further press information, please contact pacific@saucecommunications.com