Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
WHEN the Metro group signed British chef Neil Witney to help curate the menu for their brand new pan-Asian restaurant CHOW, in Puerto Banus, they were aiming high.
He had become something of a sushi master when he built up a cottage industry around the Home Counties of the UK, delivering fresh, home-made delicacies door to door.
Called Little Fish, it had launched in the COVID pandemic out of necessity, when his wife Justine had started to send out his lovely sushi creations on Instagram.
Using only the best fish they could find (the same suppliers coincidentally of famous restaurants including Nobu and El Celler de can Roca, in Catalunya) demand hit the roof.
By 2023 they had nearly a dozen vans and over 20 distribution points serving their delightful creations.
A Michelin-trained chef, with tentacles in Saudi Arabia, New York and Dubai, as coincidences would have it, he cooked for me a few times in West London, at the seminal E&O restaurant, a vanguard modern Asian joint that was THE buzzing place in the 1990s.
Meaning ‘Eastern & Oriental’, it led the fashion for pan-Asian food, epitomised by the likes of Nahm and Hakkasan, where Spain’s top chef Dabiz Munoz, of Diverxo, trained in London.
“It’s the place that made me the chef I am today,” he told me the day after he won his third Michelin star a decade ago in Madrid.
But back to CHOW and things then bode well and there is nothing about this new place that doesn’t scream ‘luxury’.
For starters the location couldn’t be better: frontline Banus looking at the mega-yachts that line up under the imposing circular control tower.
Look left and you can drool over the latest range of menswear shoes from the Dior boutique, while on the paseo in front, the best place to people-watch in southern Spain, a cavalcade of the beautiful, bizarre and brazen.
Inside it’s shiny and seductive, with mottled mirror ceilings and interesting light box pillars!
And, almost as soon as you sit down, a big pile of crispy prawn crackers with sweet and sour sauce comes sliding in. Yum.
The menu is billed as a ‘vibrant mosaic’ of Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese food and includes ‘robata-grilled’ meats to ‘punchy street-style’ dishes.
A ‘small plates’ section has a great mix of Asian specialties, like dumplings, Vietnamese shrimp spring rolls and a ‘San Choi Bow’, which is chicken in lettuce cups with lime.
One of my favourites, prawn toast has lobster added in, making it one hell of a luxury starter, with its orange ponzu and coming out as a ball, raising eyeballs around the table.
Of course we go for a family size mixed sushi platter which is a beauty to behold – pure joy, in fact, for my daughter, who has become smitten with Asian food since falling in love with crispy duck pancakes while studying in Manchester.
The slices of tuna and salmon are the best you’ll eat in Spain and the butterfish worked even better than the spicy tuna California roll, which was heaven.
The pork ribs, which are slow cooked for two hours, were absolutely amazing – so tender, they literally dropped off the bone as you picked them up.
As dusk moves into night there is a distinct change in atmosphere and the music becomes more upbeat, perfectly heralding the spicy Chicken karaage, with kimchi honey butter – basically sweet, breaded chicken ribs – but far from the norm.
And for vegetarians, in fact anyone with good taste, you must try the corn spring rolls – with shiitake mushrooms and spinach. This is a signature dish for Neil and possibly my favourite of the night.
Truth be told, the best came last: The lamb ‘bosan’ is the leg cooked very slowly, some four to six hours – and it’s amazing how the waiter prepares it and how easily it drops off the bone.
“This is possibly the most amazing leg of lamb you’ll find in Spain,” explains executive chef for the group, Stan Rozbitsyy (whose surname would do very well in the UK).
Rozbitsyy, who is from Ukraine, but grew up in Lisbon, has been working closely alongside Neil to perfect the dishes on a day to day basis, given the star chef is often away attending other business.
Stan is the sort of chef I love, the type who has four to five hours sleep a night, is up at the markets at 6am and usually heads to bed well past midnight.
Then again, he has nearly 20 restaurants along the coast to look after as the Metro group continues to expand. Other restaurants in the stable include Max Beach, Mao, Nomad, Bono Beach and the exciting, recently-reopened Koi.
“I live and breathe restaurants and food, it’s my passion and I have to try all the new dishes and need to see what’s going out from all of them,” continues Stan. “I even insist the chefs send me photos of various plates each night.”
On this showing he can sleep that bit easier this summer.
For bookings and info visit www.chowpuertobanus.es or call 952 334 854
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