London Gets Another Helping of Tātā Eatery’s Playful Cooking as Mr Ji Opens in Camden

Mr Ji, the collaboration between two of the city’s most exciting chefs and a restaurateur with evident talent ID, is opening a second restaurant in Camden, according to Hot Dinners.

Ana Gonçalves and Zijun Meng’s menu of playful Taiwanese riffs started life — enforcedly so because of COVID-19 — as an outdoor patio on Old Compton Street. The prawn “in” toast, a riff on coffin bread moreso than prawn on toast; soy poached chicken; and crisp, outsize fried chicken that harkened back to Mr Ji’s first life as a Taiwanese takeaway kiosk pulled through what was missing: the stripped back room, loud music, and drinking food vibes that the chefs and restaurateur Samuel Haim had planned for.

Through 2022 it’s been able to become the restaurant it wanted to be, and that’s prompted expansion: to Camden, taking over Hook (also founded by Haim; a useful flip.) The hits are all coming over, along with the Taiwanese-inflected Sunday roast that found its feet in the last few months, and Cyan Wong’s outstanding cocktail menu. Also coming over is prawn fried rice, welcome news for fans of Tātā’s stunning repertoire of seafood dishes using the grain, as seen at residencies across the city.