Book Two Months Out or Take the Short Lunch
West African fine dining, starred by Michelin since 2024, on Berners Street — a two-month booking window, a strict allergen list, and one of the most confident tasting menus in London right now.
The moi moi arrives golden, set, faintly steaming — a black-eyed pea pudding that reads simple on the page and lands as one of the best opening bites of any tasting menu in central London this year. From there the kitchen builds outward through Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, and every course knows what the last one was doing.
Akoko opened on Berners Street in 2020 under founder Aji Akokomi, who set the restaurant around three pillars: fire, umami, spice. Mutaro Baldé has run the kitchen as executive chef since November 2024, arriving from Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée and Kitchen Table, and also oversees Akara. The Michelin star has held for 2024, 2025 and 2026. This is not a scene restaurant coasting on novelty. It is a serious kitchen doing something almost no one else in London is doing at this level.
West African cooking at a serious pitch, with a soft pairing that quietly makes the case louder than the wine list does.
Editorial Deep
Not every course lands with the same force. A mid-menu dish or two settles into pleasant rather than memorable, and the pacing of spice — which is the whole architecture — can flatten briefly around the halfway mark before the kitchen resets. It is the honest gap between a very good tasting menu and a great one, and it is worth naming before the praise.
Berners Street is a quiet stretch of Fitzrovia that gives nothing away from the pavement. The frontage at number 21 is discreet enough that first-timers walk past it, and the door does the work of separating the street from the room behind it.
This booking model rewards the diner who plans two months out and travels in a party of two to six. It excludes the walk-in, the last-minute business dinner, the group of eight trying to celebrate something on short notice, and — most sharply — anyone with an allergy to tomatoes, alliums, ginger, coconut milk, bell peppers, shiitake, soy or chilies. That list is not a suggestion. The kitchen will not work around it, and it is disclosed at the point of booking rather than negotiated at the table.
The moi moi alone is worth what a starter costs at a mid-tier Fitzrovia restaurant, and it opens the meal — which sets the terms for the rest of it. What the money buys here is a cuisine at the level of execution Michelin has starred since 2024, and one that essentially no other restaurant in London is offering at this level, and that is not a premium the market has priced in yet. The bill lands close to Kol and well below Ikoyi's full tasting, and against either comparison the value case makes itself.
The first meal ordered the full tasting with the wine pairing. The second one drops the wine, takes the soft pairing instead, and — if the calendar allows a Wednesday or Thursday lunch — swaps in the short menu at £65, arriving by 1:30pm to catch the full run. That is the version of Akoko that makes the most sense as a habit rather than an occasion: a two-hour lunch, the soft pairing at £30, the moi moi still doing its work, the bill under half of the dinner all-in.
What to eat
Don't miss.
Moi moi; roasted pineapple sorbet with mango and malt tuile; the soft pairing over the wine
“Spice pacing carries the whole tasting menu, and the soft pairing reads it better than the wine list does.”
Book the short lunch on a Wednesday or Thursday if the two-month dinner window is a problem; against Kol and Ikoyi's full tasting, the value here reads clean. The mid-menu paces more gently than the top and tail, which more than carry it.
The Verdict
