unearthing London’s best autumn-truffle dishes

This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to London

Have you heard the one about the autumn truffles? They were rich and decadent . . . and hideously expensive.  

All of the above is true when it comes to these ugly underground fungi. A combination of scarcity and seasonality — truffles need chalky or lime-rich soils and can only grow on the roots of certain trees — makes them one of the most costly ingredients on the planet. They are harvested around the world for much of the year, but October to December is the prime harvesting season for Europe. Autumn is the time not only for white truffles — most of these come from Piedmont in Italy — but also Périgord and Burgundy. (There are also, of course, summer truffles, which are lighter in flavour.)

Rare they may be, but you can find truffles of varying quality everywhere from Sichuan to southern England. Chet Sharma, chef-patron of BiBi, compares them to grapes grown for wine. “You can grow Pinot Noir in pretty much any climate in the world and you’re going to get very different results everywhere,” he says. 

Nowadays, everyone wants a slice of the truffle pie. Call it culinary ingenuity, call it a marketing gig — come autumn, London’s restaurants are overflowing with them, making the most of their umami, earthy flavour. Takes range from galouti kebabs at Indian restaurant Benares to cheese toasties and Parmesan custard at 45 Jermyn St. “When you walk into the restaurant you’re hit with the most amazing aroma,” says executive chef Sam White, who sources his from Wiltshire Truffles and grates them tableside.

Some chefs love truffles so much they create entire menus with them, as is the case at upscale restaurants such as Belvedere, Coq d’Argent and The Twenty Two. These can come with a hefty price tag: £120 for six-courses at Coq d’Argent; £31 for a bowl of pappardelle at The Twenty Two. But a little can also go a long way — a light grating of fresh truffles on to a cheddar-topped crumpet (£18), à la Claridge’s, or a slice or two on a runny egg. As a general rule, truffles will pair well with other fungi; ditto salty meat and cheese. I’ll always remember when my father brought home a truffle and grated it over three bowls of fresh tagliatelle. It just needed butter and a twist of pepper. 

But the restaurants featured here prove that there’s a world beyond pasta and risotto. All will be on the menu until at least the end of November, at which point many will be switched out for winter truffles. But that’s another story entirely.  

Perilla (Newington Green)

1-3 Green Lanes, london N16 9BS

Perilla has all of the perks of a neighbourhood restaurant — lovely staff, high-quality ingredients, a cosy dining room — except that it’s popular with not just the residents of Newington Green but the whole of London. I walk past it on my commute most weeknights: there’s never an empty seat.

The restaurant has earned its stripes since opening in 2016: every dish on its sharing-style menu — from the beurre blanc-braised vegetables to the moules marinière-soaked bread — is an elevated, comforting classic. For chef-patron Ben Marks, truffle should only be used “where it adds real value”. “We don’t just shave them over the top of anything,” he says. “They have to be at the centre of a plate.”

This season, Marks has created a truffle dish in the form of a Parmesan shortcrust pastry tart with cauliflower mushrooms and a savoury custard, the latter made by cooking down mushrooms with garlic, cream and seaweed stock. Périgord truffles are grated in subtly at the end. Their scent acts as an aromatic binding agent that ties all of the ingredients together. “It’s all about the aroma,” says Marks.

BiBi (Mayfair)

42 North Audley Street, London W1K 6ZP

Below the dining space at BiBi, an Indian-inspired restaurant in Mayfair, is a cellar in which chef-patron Chet Sharma keeps 90 or so spices. Some of his dishes feature up to 60 in one go.

A curse of this inventiveness, in my opinion, is that often Sharma’s more luxurious ingredients — Wagyu, scallops and truffle — play second fiddle to the intensity of his flavour-packed sauces. But that’s a good problem to have. BiBi’s lunch menu kicks off with a sweetcorn and truffle kurkure, which Sharma describes as India’s version of spicy corn snacks. “Imagine everything you think of with Nik Naks — that tomatoey stickiness — and add things like green mango powder, a little bit of chilli, roast cumin,” he says.

Also on Sharma’s set menu is a buffalo-milk paneer with truffle — “because cheese and truffle are best friends” — or, for meat eaters, British Wagyu beef in an achari (pickle) marinade with smoked turnip and a scattering of fresh truffle. This is where Sharma’s creativeness really shines. It might look like a fancy garnish, but the truffle is crucial to balancing the brightness of the pickle and the fattiness of the beef. It was possibly the best thing I’ve eaten all year.

Sale e Pepe (Knightsbridge)

9-15 Pavilion Road, London SW1X 0HD

You might remember Sale e Pepe as a 1990s Knightsbridge hangout for the likes of Mariah Carey and Noel Gallagher. The restaurant was bought by the Thesleff Group in 2022 and given a swish renovation: marble bars, bronze mirrors and dark parquet floors. The group is best known for Mexican-Japanese restaurant Los Mochis; Sale e Pepe’s soul, however, is still pure Italian.  

Each autumn, Sale e Pepe serves a menu dedicated to white truffles from Alba. For some, the flavour of truffles can be overpowering; the restaurant does well to balance them with more neutral Italian flavours. This year’s menu includes the obligatory risotto and tagliatelle, but also scallops, carpaccio and porcini mushroom soup. It’s all very delicious and extravagant. In Knightsbridge, who would expect anything less?

The star of the menu is a slab of grilled rib-eye, which comes dripping in herb butter and topped with fresh truffle. (In fact, all of Sale e Pepe’s dishes can be served like this in truffle season: be careful, it’ll cost you £17 for a gramme.) Thesleff’s favourite dish — and mine too — is a truffle honey panna cotta, which is both sweet and earthy, offset with some fudgy honeycombs. No extra truffle needed. 

Kinkally (Fitzrovia)

43 Charlotte Street, London W1T 1RS

“When I smelt [truffle] for the first time, it was love at first sight,” says Diana Milicki, who co-founded Kinkally in Fitzrovia with a mission to shed light on Georgian cuisine. Key words on the menu include kuchmachi (offal stew), tkemali (plum sauce) and satsebeli, a rich tomato paste that head chef David Chelidze slathers on baked aubergines with a dollop of vanilla matsoni (yoghurt). 

For Milicki, a truffle’s job is to “elevate” a dish. “It helps create an additional layer of complexity and flavour,” she says. A natural starting point was the Georgian megruli khachapuri, a classic flatbread stuffed and topped with molten cheese. Fresh truffle is added to both of these layers, giving the dish an indulgent pizza-like quality. Milicki advises pairing it with a glass of Nikoloz Antadze Rkatsiteli Manavi, an orange wine from Kinkally’s revolving Georgian selection. 

Truffle, which Milicki sources from around Europe depending on what’s in season, is also added to a take on beef tartare with Parmesan cream and kindzmari, a coriander and vinegar sauce The latter’s acidity is a perfect companion for the truffle. All in all, Kinkally is an advocate not just for truffles, but for Georgia itself. Milicki’s favourite moment since opening last December was serving a couple who had never had Georgian food before. They booked their next holiday before the end of their meal. 

Med Salleh Viet (Earl’s Court)

32-36 Hogarth Rd, London SW5 0PU

A tip when visiting Med Salleh Viet’s Earl’s Court location: come with a crowd. You’ll want to experience as much of the menu as possible. The restaurant is housed in the basement of one of the area’s gigantic townhouses, making a refreshing change of pace from your typical Kensington locale. 

Still, co-founder of Med Pang, who owns two other Asian restaurants with business partner Koi Lee, isn’t above a bit of west London razzmatazz. For its autumn menu, the restaurant is serving a truffle Wagyu pho, which arrives in a pretty enamel bowl, its 18-hour soup poured from a teapot at the table. The dish uses Périgord truffle, a “nod to Vietnam’s colonial history with France”, says Pang. “My aim is to elevate this beloved Vietnamese classic by blending its traditional flavours with exquisite, high-end ingredients.” The noodles are silky, the beef is tender — and the truffle makes the soup almost creamy. 

Pang’s pho is big enough to feed at least one hungry person, but it would be silly to leave without sampling the restaurant’s signature prawn summer rolls (some of the best I’ve had in London). A glass of iced asam boi (preserved plum) is also a must. Med Salleh Viet follows a Malaysian restaurant, Med Salleh Kopitiam, in Bayswater and a first Vietnamese restaurant in Westbourne Grove. All are on my list to revisit — in truffle season and beyond. 

Decimo (King’s Cross)

10th Floor, 10 Argyle Street, London WC1H 8EG

Set on the 10th floor of The Standard, a trendy high-rise hotel in the centre of King’s Cross, Decimo is an equally snazzy restaurant with prices to match. Peter Sanchez-Iglesias has headed the kitchen since the restaurant opened in 2019, serving Spanish-Mexican cuisine — tostadas, tacos and tortillas — alongside an extensive list of first-rate mezcal.

For Sanchez-Iglesias, “truffles are quite mainstream nowadays. People just use the chemical oils.” His solution is to only use truffles sourced — like many chefs before him — from Wiltshire Truffles and to use them as he would in any other environment. “We’re not afraid to use ingredients that are not traditionally Mexican or Spanish,” he adds. 

Decimo’s classic tortilla was a natural choice: the oozing Spanish omelette is crying out for a truffle. Equally delicious are the nachos, which provide much-needed acidity in the form of a tomatillo salsa. The favourite, however, is Sanchez-Iglesias’ truffle beetroot tostada. “Beetroot being quite earthy, if you pair it with truffles, the aromatics of both work really well together,” says Sanchez-Iglesias, who makes his tostadas from tortilla flatbreads that have failed to “puff up”. In truth, the tostada, which has a vegan aioli and a truffle-infused beetroot jam, is perfectly delicious without the fresh truffle shavings. But as Sanchez-Iglesias says: “Treat yourself — that’s what Decimo is about.”

Which London restaurant in your opinion does the most delicious autumn-truffle dishes? Tell us in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter

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