The St George Street restaurant will retain its focus on cooking over an open fire but will otherwise be an all-new concept.
Humo closed quietly late last month and is set to officially reopen as IGNI on 22 April.
“Everything will be touched by fire, but in a more refined way and served in a more elegant setting,” Clench told Restaurant. “A lot of open-fire cooking is big, smoky, bold hunks of meat. I’m going the other way. IGNI will be delicate.”
The name IGNI is derived from the Latin ignis, meaning fire, nodding both to the restaurant’s culinary theme and a new start for the restaurant, which lost its Michelin star earlier this year.
Having previously offered both a tasting menu and à la carte, the St George Street restaurant will move to a set menu-only format.
Open six days a week for lunch and dinner, IGNI will offer a £49 three-course lunch option, alongside a £135 five-course tasting menu and a £165 seven- or eight-course tasting menu, with “a few other little bits on top”.
The cooking will be comparable to what Clench was doing at Shoreditch’s Cycene - his latest restaurant project - but “even more elevated”.
Same but different
Humo was launched by Colombian-born chef Miller Prada in 2023 and won a Michelin star in 2024. Prada left the restaurant last year and was replaced by Robbie Jameson, who was part of the original launch team.
The two-storey space will remain largely the same, as will the open kitchen, which features a high-spec, elaborate open-fire cooking setup.
“It’s a beautiful space that has had a lot of money put into it. It doesn’t make sense to rip it all up and start again,” Clench says.
The tableware is being updated, with wooden pieces made by a Sussex-based craftsman, Ben Goldsmith, and handmade plates sourced from Japan and Spain.
The style of service will also become significantly more refined and interactive, creating a more immersive experience.
Humo’s downstairs 10-cover chef’s table will initially be used as restaurant overflow and as a private dining room.
Later this year, Clench is expected to relaunch the space with a separate, more premium offering, which will see two chefs cook a menu focused on ingredients with very short seasons.
The 15-strong team is largely new, although some of Humo’s existing staff have remained. The core team is mostly made up of chefs who have previously worked with Clench, alongside a group of “hungry chefs fresh out of college”, according to Clench.
Clench left Cycene in 2024, having won a Michelin star. He has won or retained stars at his last four major restaurant postings: Bonhams, Portland, Akoko and Cycene. He has spent the past few years working as a consultant, most recently with Creative Restaurant Group - which is behind a number of other high-end London restaurants including Endo at the Rotunda and SUMI - which led to the IGNI project.
“The plan is to win a star,” he adds. “I’m not going to beat around the bush on that. But more importantly, we want a busy restaurant. After that, one star and then two stars.”
Example dishes include a signature turbot dish – a different take on en croûte, cooked over fire – glazed in Hato miso butter, with fins brined in sake and barbecued, served alongside charred lettuce gel, sake lettuce bavarois, razor clams and a smoked fish bone sauce. A smoked tofu dessert features single-origin chocolate from Papua New Guinea.