Rooftop Asian restaurants in London are in the middle of a building boom: this year has already seen Shanghai Me and Gordon Ramsay’s Lucky Cat take to the skies, with twinkling nighttime views that look more like Tokyo or Taipei than the UK capital. Now comes Cé La Vi, the Singapore export famed for crowning Marina Bay Sands and stealing scenes in Crazy Rich Asians.
Wallpaper* dines at Cé La Vi, London
The mood: The sky’s the limit
Paddington Basin might not be built on quite the same scale as Marina Bay, but the setting is still striking. Cé La Vi occupies the top two floors of 1 Paddington Square, the Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s giant glass cube that towers over the station. Daytime business lunches in the 17th-floor restaurant and terrace segue into after-work cocktails, then, as the lights dim, sultry suppers; keep the evening going with DJs and late-night cocktails in the lounge bar one floor up.
‘We aimed to craft a multi-layered design that is both sophisticated and distinctive,’ says Fady Chams, the managing director of Prospect Design International, which was tasked with reproducing the brand’s Singaporean DNA in a London context. ‘The panoramic skyline views, especially at night, inspired reflective ceiling treatments. These amplify the vibrancy of the city lights and merge them with bespoke lighting features.’
Catch your reflection in mirror cladding, bathed in lighting made by PHOS.
But texture is as important as illumination at Cé La Vi. There is Rubelli leather, Pierre Frey textiles and wallpaper from Arte and Élitis. ‘Warm tonalities were layered to create a sense of authenticity and understated luxury,’ Chams says. ‘The result ensures continuity with the brand’s global properties while offering a fresh London expression.’
The food: daytime dim sum, evening sharing plates
Singapore is one of the world’s melting pots of global cuisine, and the menu takes a pick-and-mix approach to the greatest hits of east Asian cooking. Dim sum is on offer at lunchtime, or graze your way through the line-up of brightly flavoured sharing plates: some shrimp tempura with mango mayo here, some yellowtail carpaccio there, then wagyu rib-eye and white asparagus to share, with perhaps a sushi platter on the side.
To drink, there are Asian-inflected spins on classic cocktails mixed together in the dining room’s central bar, while sommelier Savvas Symeonis is a dab hand at pairing wine and saké to the food of executive chef Monchai Ling.
Cé La Vi is located at 17 & 18, 1 Paddington Square Floors, London W2 1DL, UK.
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