Restaurant radar: October 2023

Paper Moon

Milanese restaurant Paper Moon is to establish its first London outpost at The OWO in London's Whitehall this month. Set within one of the grand heritage spaces of The OWO, overlooking Horse Guards Avenue, Paper Moon will serve an all-day menu of classic Italian dishes alongside a drinks menu featuring contemporary takes on traditional Italian cocktails and a selection of more than 100 wines from regions across Europe. The space has been designed around the warmth of an Italian house – with olive trees and greenery set within the restaurant, warm terracotta colours, and bespoke materials including Travertine marble, brass and mesh throughout the bar, restaurant and private dining space. The OWO is the first Raffles Hotel to open on UK shores and officially opened last month with Mirazur chef Mauro Colagreco leading the F&B line up with three dining venues within the space. Alongside Paper Moon, other restaurants set to launch within The OWO building this month will be 80-cover Parisian concept Café Lapérouse; and Milanese restaurant Langosteria. A rooftop restaurant and a ground floor sake bar by Creative Restaurant Group, led by chef-patron Endo Kazutoshi, is also expected to open later in the year.
57 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2BX​
www.raffles.com/london​​

Brooklands

Luxury hotels are like busses in London at the moment. You wait ages and then two come along at once. Across town from The OWO is The Peninsula London, which has just opened on Hyde Park Corner. The hotel is opening gradually, with it’s full F&B offering officially launching early this month. Leading the line up is Brooklands, a contemporary British restaurant developed by Bibendum chef patron Claude Bosi. Named after the motor racing circuit and aerodrome in Weybridge in Surrey, Brooklands has been designed by architect Archer Humphryes and takes its cues from the classic eras of British aviation and motorsport. They include an overhead scale model of the iconic Concorde in the main dining room that’s designed to give 'diners the sense of being airborne'. The menu majors in modern British cuisine with Bosi offering a range of tasting set menu choices to diners that aim to ‘balance modernity and classic fine dining’. Brooklands is one of several restaurant spaces launching within The Peninsula London. Others include The Lobby restaurant, which will offer the signature Peninsula Afternoon Tea and all-day dining, soundtracked to live music daily; and Canton Blue, which celebrates the ‘spice-trade union of Asian and British cultures’ with menus created by chef Dicky To.
1 Grosvenor Pl, London SW1X 7HJ​
www.peninsula.com/en/london/5-star-luxury-hotel-belgravia​​

Permit Room

Dishoom will lay down permanent roots in Brighton this month with the launch of new bar concept the Permit Room in The Lanes. Marking the Indian restaurant group’s first regional opening in the south of the country, the Permit Room will take its influence from the ‘permit rooms, beer bars and drinking holes’ of 1960s and 1970s Bombay. The drinks offering will take its cues from the flavours and ingredients of Bombay across each of the menu’s categories: Highballs, On the Rocks, Twisted Classics, Short & Boozy, Frozen Lipsters, Morning Glories, and the non-alcoholic Teetotal. Highlights will include Aunty’s Anjeer Manhattan; the Feni Martini; mango lassi punch; and the chai caffè Martini. Brighton collaborations will also be integral to the drinks offering, with an exclusive Permit Room Sour beer offered in partnership with local brewery, UnBarred Brewery. The food menu at Permit Room is designed to complement the drinks selection, with a range of dishes suitable for any time of day and drinking occasion including; Bar Snacks, Chaats, Patties & Salads, Ruby Murray (curries), and Permit Specials, as well as Sweet Things. Menu highlights, all of which are new dishes, include chakli and peanut masala; aunty’s makli fry, magic masala whitebait and aunty’s anda (egg) curry; jackfruit berry pulao; and jelly and ice cream with orange blossom jelly. The bar café’s relaxed, retro interiors will be complemented by artwork by 'Bombayites, Brightonians and young Indian artists', and play an eclectic playlist of funk, hip-hop, New York punk, disco and soul.
32 East St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1NF​

Harrods Dining Hall 

Harrods Dining Hall will reopen to the public on 7 October following a major shake up. The overarching concept and look of the area will be similar – a decidedly high-end food hall with six options – but the world-famous department store is doubling down by throwing four high-profile international chefs into the mix, of which the headline act is master sushi chef Masayoshi ‘Masa’ Takayama. Taking pride of place in the middle of the space, Sushi by Masa will be the first restaurant outside the US for the chef, whose Masa restaurant in New York holds three Michelin stars. Sushi by Masa will trade alongside Neha Mishra’s Kinoya Ramen Bar, Athanasios Kargatzidis’ Greek concept Assembly Mezze & Skewers, and Pasta Evangelists. The latter was part of the first tranche of operators at the Dining Hall but will reopen under the direction of Italian chef Giancarlo Perbellini, whose Casa Perbellini restaurant in Verona holds two Michelin stars. Kerridge’s Fish & Chips and The Grill will remain but are undergoing some tweaks.
Ground floor, Harrods, 87–135 Brompton Road, London SW1X 7XL​
www.harrods.com/en-gb/restaurants/dining-hall​​

Bambi

James Dye (the co-owner of Franks in Peckham and The Camberwell Arms) and chef Henry Freestone, who previously won a Bib Gourmand at Peckham Cellars, will launch Bambi, a music-led wine bar and restaurant, on the former Bright site in London Fields this month. Bambi will operate as a wine bar and restaurant in the early evening, whilst after dinner resident DJs will take over, playing tunes from the custom-built wall of records over a high-spec vintage sound system (by Friendly Pressure) until 1am on weekends. The record collection and resident selectors will be curated by London legend and Run Dem Crew founder Charlie Dark MBE. On the menu there'll be casual snacks and main dishes like cauliflower cheese arancini; chicken parm ciabatta, vodka marinara, pickles and aioli; and Dedham vale rump, lemon, confit garlic.
Netil House, 1 Westgate St, London E8 3RL​
www.bambi-bar.com​​

Akara

Aji Akokomi is to launch a second West African venture following the success of his highly rated London restaurant Akoko. Set to launch near Borough Market this month, the 40-cover Akara takes its name from a black-eye bean-based fritter that has its roots in West Africa. The a la carte menu will offer a range of akaras with fillings including Carabinero prawns and vatapa (a sauce made with bread, shrimp and coconut milk); hand-dived Scallops; ox cheek; and chanterelle mushroom patê. Other small dishes will include sinasir (rice pancake) with bone marrow and yaji; and tatale (plantain pancake), served with Senegalese hot sauce. The main dishes offer a selection of barbecued meat, fish and vegetable plates such as labu-aged beef; dibi lamb; and aubergine dressed with chilli oil. Desserts will include tamarind date cake; and bofrot (a Ghanaian doughnut). The eclectic cocktail menu will feature Akoko favourites like the Cacao and Dates Negroni as well as new creations like Smoked Plantain Caipirinha. On Stoney Street within the recently-launched Borough Yards development, the site is being designed by London-based studio A-nrd. Design details will include exposed brick walls, carved wood façades, upholstered grey leather banquette seating, bespoke oak chairs, white limestone tables and an open seating with counter seating.
Stoney Street, London, SE1 9AD​

Bébé Bob

Leonid Shutov will launch a more informal spinoff to his glamorous British French restaurant Bob Bob Ricard later this month on the former Folie site in London’s Soho. Located opposite the original Bob Bob Ricard on Golden Square, Bébé Bob will major in rotisserie chicken, fine wines and Champagne. Two varieties of chicken from different regions in France, Vendee and Landes, chosen by group chef director Ben Hobson, will lie at the heart of the menu. Both birds will be cooked rotisserie-style, served whole at the table with a chicken jus and carved in view of guests to feed two. Like its older siblings in Soho and The City, Bébé Bob will offer various types of caviar including Baerii, Oscietra and Shrenkii served with large blinis made fresh tableside. The wine list is billed as short and dynamic, with group head sommelier Giacomo Recchia honouring classic white and red Burgundy, as well as a variety of rosé wines, the majority of which will be available to order by the glass using a Coravin system.
37 Golden Square, Soho, London, W1F 9LB​
Bebebob.com​​

Four

The former head chef of London’s Smoking Goat will launch a tasting menu only restaurant within his own home later this month. Aaron Dalton – whose top-flight cooking CV also includes Simon Rogan’s Fera, Chez Bruce and Dabbous –is already well-known in Sussex having run a series of successful pop-ups in Brighton and Hove under the Four name since 2016. Also called Four, the 20-cover restaurant will initially only be open sporadically at Dalton’s Worthing home, but the chef hopes to extend its opening times as the project beds in. The cooking will be ambitious with the chef set to maintain ‘as higher standard’ as he can with the ticketed menu expected to have a comparable number of courses and price tag to top restaurants in nearby Brighton and Hove.

Nest

The team behind Hackney restaurant Nest have relocated to a ‘bigger, bolder space’ in Shoreditch that’s set to open later this month. Taking over a double-fronted Victorian building by Shoreditch Town Hall, the new Nest – dubbed Nest 2.0 – will feature a dedicated bar area next to the dining room called Nest Cellar. The bar will be open to diners of the restaurant as well as other walk-in guests and feature a drinks list that includes low intervention wines and seasonal cocktails alongside a small plate menu featuring house bread with home churned butters; game bird terrine; and British cheese and oatcakes. Nest 2.0's main restaurant space will hold 24 covers and, as before, serve regularly-changing tasting menus with the chefs focusing on one hero ingredient in the kitchen at a time. For the October launch, the emphasis will be on game meats, with the menu including fried partridge with XO sauce, dusted in chilli powder; and seaweed and kale-baked ‘Rockefeller’ oysters. As in Hackney, the restaurant will only serve a tasting menu in the evening, but Shoreditch will also open for lunch and offer a selection of dishes available à la carte.
374-378 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT​
www.nestfood.co.uk​​

Kolae

Som saa founders Mark Dobbie and Andy Oliver will open their long-awaited second restaurant in London’s Borough Market later this month. Housed in old London coach house, Kolae will be split over three floors, hold 80 covers and include a small alfresco courtyard dining area as well as a private dining room at the top of the building. The name refers to a style of cooking found in Thailand’s southern provinces where ingredients - most commonly chicken - are coated in a currylike coconut marinade before being grilled over open flames. Signature dishes will include the half kolae chicken, marinated in a sauce fragrant of lemongrass, fresh turmeric, black pepper; as well as seasonal fish; seafood; and vegetarian specials, all cooked using a similar technique. Also available will be salads pounded to order in a pestle and mortar; and fiery nam phrik relishes accompanying larger dishes. There will also be a succinct drinks menu that will feature a handful of cocktails made using fresh Thai ingredients, as well as a list of 15-20 wines - mostly available by the glass - and a small selection of beers and ciders.
6 Park Street, London SE1 9AB​

The Cocochine

Former National Chef of the Year winner Larry Jayasekara will launch his first solo restaurant this month on Bruton Place in London's Mayfair. Called The Cocochine, the restaurant, first announced in February last year, is a partnership between the Sri Lanka-born Jayasekara and art dealer Tim Jefferies, who runs Hamiltons Gallery in Mayfair, and named after an affectionate term for Jefferies’s young daughter. Set over four floors, The Cocochine will feature a basement wine cellar; a 28-cover dining room on the ground level complete with seven-seat chef’s counter; and a two-storey private dining space able to hold up to 14 guests. Billing itself as prioritising ‘personal connection and old-school hospitality’, the restaurant will not offer online bookings with guests needing to reserve a table over the phone. Additionally, the restaurant will offer ‘exclusive table use’ (no turning of tables) at both lunch and dinner. Jayasekara’s menu will be fully à la carte and is described as ‘a celebration of the joy of eating’, with the restaurant sourcing nearly all of its produce from regenerative mixed farmland in Northamptonshire. Fruit, vegetables, seasonal flowers and livestock, including game as well as native and rare-breed pigs, will come direct from the farm, which also boasts a natural spring supplying the restaurant with still and sparkling water.
27 Bruton Pl, London W1J 6NQ​

Fowl

The founders of St James’s restaurant Fallow - Will Murray, Jack Croft and James Robson – will open a pop-up chicken shop round the corner from their London restaurant early this month. Fowl promises to be ‘a chicken shop like no other’ and will serve a ‘beak-to-feet’ menu of food alongside a concise list of cocktails, wine and beer. Dishes to feature on the launch menu will include cornbread with chicken and herb butter; chicken liver parfait with black cherries and sourdough soldiers; triple crisp hot wings with sriracha mayo; and a chicken Caesar salad with pickled lemon and anchovy. As well as the restaurant menu, FOWL will be collaborating with a series of ‘celebrated food icons’ to create one-off dishes available for a limited time. This will kick off with Pierre Koffmann who, alongside Murray and Croft, has created a chicken leg corn dog with Aleppo pepper; and a ‘La Grande Coque Pie’ for two featuring confit chicken hearts, livers and cockscombs.
Norris St, St. James's Market, SW1Y 4RJ​

INÉ

The team behind Mayfair omakase sushi restaurant Taku will launch a much larger restaurant in Hampstead later this month. On the former site of Chinese restaurant Goldfish, INÉ will offer a la carte sushi and contemporary Japanese dishes alongside an eight-seater counter that will serve a 15-course omakase menu. The project follows the success of chef Takuya Watanabe’s 16-cover Taku on Albemarle Street, which launched at the end of last year and already holds a Michelin star. The kitchen at INÉ will be headed by head chef Law Kwok Meng, who has trained in the Taku kitchen under Watanabe and brings with him 23 years of experience as a ‘master sushi chef’. INÉ will offer a contemporary Japanese menu with French influences (Watanabe spent much of his career in France and continues to hold and interest in Jin Paris). The eight-seater omakase counter will see Meng prepare 15-courses ‘echoing’ that of Watanabe. At £100 per head, it will be considerably less expensive than his mentor’s signature omakase experience which is priced at £300.
16 Hampstead High Street, London NW3 1PX​

Mambow Clapton

Chef Abby Lee will relocate her modern Malaysian restaurant concept Mambow from Peckham's Market Stalls to a permanent site in Lower Clapton, east London, this month. Mambow Clapton will open in late October on the site previously occupied by Le Merlin Crêperie on Lower Clapton Road and will have 40 covers in total, with 20 seats inside and another 20 outside in a semi-covered, plant-filled garden terrace. The restaurant will feature an open kitchen, allowing Lee the freedom to serve a wider menu of contemporary dishes inspired by the chef's own family recipes. There will also be a standing bar area where a small, rotating selection of house cocktails will feature alongside an extended wine list.
78 Lower Clapton Road, Lower Clapton, London E5 0RN​
www.mambow.co.uk​​

Saltine

Mat Appleton and Jess Blackstone, the founders of north London-based café group Fink’s, are to open a new standalone restaurant, Saltine, in Highbury this month. Building on the success and strong local following of Fink’s, Appleton and Blackstone have teamed up with chef Phil Wood for the opening, who joins them from St John Marylebone. Dishes set for the opening menu include the likes of fried stracciatella and anchovy sandwiches; cured bream with fennel seed saltine; pigeon, corn, miso butter and hazelnuts; and raspberry ripple ice cream with blackberry and verbena jelly. Located in the heart of Highbury, Saltine has been designed by the owners to be a contemporary, bright, calm space that ‘celebrates simplicity’. Blackstone’s art background has informed the use of some unusual materials such as the tile adhesive and resin-cast wood wool, which are contrasted with more classic touches such as stained Douglas Fir booth seating and 1970s Lübke German dining chairs.
11 Highbury Park, London N5 1QJ​
www.saltine.co.uk​​

OshPaz

Uzbek concept OshPaz has chosen London’s Regent Street for its debut brick-and-mortar location following success in the food hall and pop-up space. Close to Piccadilly Circus, the 20-cover site will offer grab-and-go at breakfast and lunch before switching to a full-service restaurant model in the evening. Inspired by flavours and spices from the Silk Road, OshPaz’s menu will feature the brand’s plov rice bowls, slow cooked and served with lamb or chicken, alongside lagman hand-pulled noodles served pan fried or in an aromatic broth, with a choice of chicken, lamb, or vegetables. Steamed dumplings will also feature on the menu, handmade to Sadykov’s mother’s recipe, made from a fine dough and filled with meat or vegetables and served with a seasoned carrot salad, sour cream dip and chilli oil. Additionally, OshPaz’s Shaslik kebabs will make an appearance, with a choice of grilled meats, served with homemade pitta bread, fresh salad and a homemade chilli sauce.
7 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4LR​
oshpaz.co.uk​​

Sticks’n’Sushi Kingston-upon-Thames

Sticks’n’Sushi will open its biggest restaurant yet early this month. In Kingston-upon-Thames, the 220-cover restaurant is set over two floors and also features a large external terrace. The menu at Sticks’n’Sushi Kingston-upon-Thames will serve guest favourites such as hotate ceviche – scallops with miso, chilli, coriander, red onion, celery and tiger’s milk, the popular ebi bites (the most popular dish on the menu across the UK) as well as their set menus including Perfect Day and As Good As it Gets, offering the brand’s distinctive combination of sushi, salads and grilled yakitori sticks. The site has been designed in collaboration with Sticks’n’Sushi’s longstanding partners Diener & Diener, which has worked with the group for the past 30 years. Sticks’n’Sushi says each of its restaurants is ‘carefully and uniquely designed’ taking inspiration from the surrounding neighbourhood and its heritage, whilst being unmistakably a Sticks’n’Sushi. 

The Bentall Centre, Kingston-upon-Thames, London KT1 1TP​
www.sticksnsushi.com​​