The brand’s latest launch sees owners Denis Gobjila and Victor Rosca build on their success in Stratford as they deliver Peruvian-Japanese fusion dishes
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Already it’s hard to remember a time when East Village in Stratford wasn’t a thriving community.
What was once the athlete’s village for the 2012 Olympic Games has become both an attractive place to live and a sustainable home for hospitality businesses.
That the likes of Darkhorse, Signorelli and La Gelatiera have all been trading for more than a decade, is no small achievement in a turbulent sector.
Having truly come alive over the last year, there’s a sense something similar is happening to the food and drink scene at the eastern end of Canary Wharf’s Wood Wharf.
Ong Lai Kopitaim, Mama Li, Cafe Seek and Signorelli have all proved popular since launching, while Osteria Al Molo and Lockdown are finding their feet.
Beam, a rapid re-brand of Nora London from the same owners, is also attracting all-day diners, having moved towards more brunch-friendly fare.
Walk through on a sunny weekend and you’ll find al fresco tables packed with Wharfers enjoying food and drinks from across the world as awareness rises.
With more rental properties on the estate due to come on stream through Vertus, it feels like an auspicious place to expand to.
That’s very much the hope of Denis Gobjila and Victor Rosca, co-owners of Bamboo Mat, who are aiming for a September opening next door to Beam.
growing in east London
Born in a small unit in Leyton in 2022, their first Bamboo Mat achieved runaway success following a glowing review from Grace Dent in The Guardian.
This allowed them to quickly open a bigger site in Stratford, which has been their focus ever since and continues to grow steadily despite pressures in the industry.
Now it’s time to branch out and their plans are for a venue unlike anything else on the estate.
“What we are building will be one of the nicest restaurants in Canary Wharf,” said Denis.
“It will be a journey. Customers are not going to come just for the food, but will be excited by what they’re seeing, hearing and feeling.
“Gynda Gourmet Hospitality Management group has overseen the design based on the combination of two cultures – Japanese and Peruvian, which is at the root of the Nikkei cuisine we serve.
“We’ll be recreating the beautiful Rainbow Mountain – the restaurant will have the feel of a house in the Peruvian highlands.
“Everything is hand-made, with wood as the key material.
“We’re having chairs carved especially for us – there’s an artist working on them for us non-stop.”
a focus on detail and balance
It’s not just the furniture.
Bamboo Mat takes great pride in presentation, with all the ceramics used in the restaurant hand-thrown in Denis’ native Moldova to create backdrops to the restaurant’s dishes.
Overall, the approach is similar to the style of food that will be on offer – an exacting approach to high quality ingredients that fuses into a result that’s more than the sum of its parts.
Nikkei cuisine is all about the delicacy of Japanese preparation married with the fiery vibrancy and crunch of Peruvian cooking.
For Denis and Victor, that looks like an 82-cover restaurant that features a raw bar and cocktail bar on its ground floor and a robata grill, hot kitchen and sushi operation upstairs.
When it opens it will be the only establishment serving dishes of this kind on the estate.
“Canary Wharf will have a menu that is a 90% match to our Stratford restaurant, but there will be some differences,” said Denis.
“We’ll have the charcoal grill, which is a nice update and we’ll have ceviche and our signature salads downstairs so people can enjoy them with a glass of Champagne.
“Bamboo Mat is really a sharing concept so people can try as many flavours as possible – there will be our take on sushi, teriyaki and tiradito.”
combining the flavours
Victor added: “The bar will serve wine, all kinds of spirits and, of course, Peruvian cocktails and other drinks that match with our food.
“We like our dishes to always be balanced when it comes to texture and taste. My favourite on the menu is the Chicken Anticucho, which is flavoured with coriander and mashed potato.
“There are 25 ingredients on the plate including produce from Peru and the Amazon.
“Using those in balance is what we’re always trying to do as chefs and it’s one of the most difficult parts of the job – we know we did it right when we see empty plates.
“If we can keep doing that, I’m confident we’ll do well in Canary Wharf.”
Bamboo Mat itself is, perhaps, a venture that could only have emerged in London.
A pair of European chefs cut their teeth in the capital at the likes of Sushisamba, Inamo, Lucky Cat and Roka before meeting at trailblazing Nikkei restaurant Chotto Matte.
They team up in east London to cook food inspired by a South American reinvention of Japanese cuisine and go on to successfully grow and expand. It’s a fusion of multiple, potent ingredients.
targeting the top
“We started out by wanting to make something we are proud of – to create and deliver good food and, if you do that in the right way, then money follows,” said Denis.
“Hospitality is a big challenge for everyone and the bills are massive, so we have to be careful, but alongside the stress comes happiness.
“We want to become the best restaurant in Canary Wharf, to make everyone happy after a day in the office and we’ll do that by offering really good quality at the right price.
“One of the trends we’ve noticed is that people like to dine out at restaurants in the neighbourhoods where they live so they don’t have to travel after dining.
“If you create a nice atmosphere, then that will attract customers.
“Everything at Bamboo Mat is going to be open, so guests will see how we cook and create what we’re serving.”
key details: Bamboo Mat
Bamboo Mat is set to open at North Lane between Union Square and Harbord Square in Wood Wharf in September.
Find out more about the new restaurant here
Read more: Find out more about Common Threads, coming to Cody Dock in September
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