MA/NA
Thesleff Group will open MA/NA, its vibey yet high-end Japanese restaurant within the space that was formerly Turkish restaurant Rüya, on 6 May. The 156-cover restaurant and bar will offer contemporary Japanese dishes made with luxury ingredients and is being pitched at a higher level than its stablemates Los Mochis and Sale e Pepe.
30 Upper Grosvenor St, London W1K 7PH/ https://manarestaurants.com/
Trèsind Mayfair
Trèsind Mayfair opens this month on Mayfair’s Hanover Street and is from the team behind Dubai’s Trèsind Studio, the world’s first and only three-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant. The London outpost will showcase some of the brand’s signature dishes, including the chaat trolley and the khichdi of India, a refined take on the popular rice and lentil dish that features ingredient from each of India’s major states, alongside new items created specifically for the UK that celebrate British produce while remaining true to Trèsind’s progressive Indian style.
13-14 Hanover Street, London W1S 1YH / tresind.co.uk/
Oudh 1722
Aktar Islam’s much-anticipated debut London restaurant has come to Borough in London to further ignite the capital’s burgeoning high-end Indian restaurant scene (see above). Set across three floors of a listed Victorian building with space for 80 covers across the main dining room, the restaurant explores Awadhi cuisine in depth, a style which Islam says is seldom given dedicated focus in the UK, with a wide reaching menu that takes in street food style snacks, kebabs, slow-cooked ‘dum’ dishes and curries designed for sharing.
66 Union Street, London SE1 1TD / www.oudh1722.com
Kawan by Uncle Roger
Malaysian-born comedian and online personality Uncle Roger’s London debut is scheduled for a ‘mid to late May’ opening having been hit with a few delays in the run up to its launch. Kawan by Uncle Roger is a collaboration between Uncle Roger – the comic creation of Nigel Ng – and restaurateur Keng Yew, co-founder of Chinatown restaurants YiQi, SanHao, Dozo and The Eight. The kitchen will be led by Malaysian chef Daren Liew, whose CV includes Nanyang Blossom, SanHao, Duddell’s and Hakkasan. The menu draws broadly on Asian flavours and techniques, interpreted through a modern British lens with fried rice the backbone of the offer.
12 Macclesfield Street, London W1D 5BP / www.kawanlondon.co.uk/
MAAI
Nikita Pathakji will make her permanent restaurant debut having acquired the former Brook site on Clapham’s Abbeville Road. MAAI by Nikita is a family-run project involving her mother and sister, centred on modern British dining with global influences. The menu will feature some of her signature, competition-winning dishes, including her octopus ‘takoyaki’ doughnut, as well as dishes such as chaat tartlet; milk bread with lime pickle butter; cured sea bream with calamansi ponzu and green apple; and asparagus gomae with scorched mackerel, soy egg, pea and wasabi. Pathakji won MasterChef: The Professionals in 2022 and earlier this year was crowned Champion of Champions on Great British Menu, becoming the first chef to win both titles.
33-35 Abbeville Road, London SW4 9JW / restaurantmaai.com/
130 Primrose
MasterChef: The Professionals judge Monica Galetti is returning to the stoves as executive chef at social enterprise restaurant 130 Primrose. The Regent’s Park Road site, previously operated as Home Kitchen Diner, will have 50 covers in a relaxed, brasserie-style setting and has a mission to recruit, train and employ people with experience of homelessness.
130 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 / 130primrose.org/
The Town House
Matthew Price, former head chef of Michelin-starred Sorrel, and his wife Jennifer open their restaurant with rooms in the West Sussex town of Arundel this May. The Town House will be their first solo venture and will offer a seven-course tasting menu celebrating everything foraged, farmed and fished.
65 High Street, Arundel BN18 9AJ / www.townhousearundel.com/
YOPO Zaytoun
London hotel The Mandrake will reveal its new signature restaurant YOPO as YOPO Zaytoun. The relaunch marks ‘a new chapter for the hotel’s culinary offering’ with a menu that is set to include harissa-glazed ribeye; yellowtail, preserved lemon, green chilli and olive oil; Mandrake shakshuka; native oysters and citrus gremolata followed by desserts such as pistachio mille-feuille and olive oil ice cream.
The Great Decoy
The Great Decoy will be Chickpea Group’s 10th pub-with rooms and will be located in the newly renovated The George & Dragon in the Hampshire village of Hurstbourne Tarrant. Operating as a classic English pub, the space will seat around 90 covers inside with a further 60 seats in the rear courtyard with a menu that focuses on hearty pub grub.
The Square, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Andover SP11 0AA / www.thegreatdecoy.co.uk/
La Maritxu
London-based Basque cheesecake specialist La Maritxu’s fourth location will open within King’s Cross’ Coal Drops Yard later this month. Expect La Maritxu’s classic Basque-style cheesecake, with its signature burnt caramelised top, alongside a rotating selection of limited-edition flavours. Cheesecakes will also be available by the slice and in four sizes, including mini, medium, 8-inch, and 10-inch whole cakes.
Unit 16, Bagley Walk Arches Coal Drops Yard, London N1C 4DH www.lamaritxucheesecake.co.uk/
Lennox Glasgow
Fresh from its Manchester debut, Nico Simeone is taking his Lennox restaurant concept to his hometown of Glasgow this month. Inspired in part by the New York City scene, Lennox has a stripped back and minimal aesthetic with a decor comprising steel and concrete and low lighting and dry-age fridges for both meat and fish on view. The restaurant will take a fire-led cooking approach with food cooked on a built-in Japanese barbecue in the open kitchen.
358 Byres Road, Glasgow G12 8AW / lennoxrestaurant.co.uk/
Arcade Covent Garden
Taking on the former TGI Fridays on Covent Garden’s Bedford Street, the third London Arcade food hall will have room for 385 covers across a single floor and is described as ‘the most ambitious expression of the Arcade model to date’. The space will be home to several brands that already have a presence at Arcade, including burger concept Manna; South American chicken and steak grill concept Solis; East Coast pizza concept Gracey’s; Northern Indian concept Hero; and Luke Farrell’s Southern Thai concept Plaza Khao Gaeng as well as Zylia, a Greek-Cypriot restaurant from former Kiln head chef and Singburi co-owner Nick Molyviatis and Barry Karacostas that will have its own dedicated street entrance.
6 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9HZ / www.arcade-london.com/our-locations/covent-garden
Rossella
Luca Meola is opening his neighbourhood Italian restaurant Rossella in Muswell Hill this May. Rossella will include a full restaurant, alongside a dedicated bar and deli offer for an all-day destination, centred on a expansive à la carte menu with a strong emphasis on generous main courses. Signature pasta dishes will include tagliatelle ragù di agnello - a slow-braised lamb ragù - and spaghetti allo scoglio - seafood in a Napoli sauce. These will sit alongside seasonal mains such as veal milanese, bistecca tagliata - sliced steak served with rocket and parmesan - and salmone alla puttanesca.
107 Muswell Hill Rd, Muswell Hill, London N10 3HS / rossella.co.uk/
Avi
Billed as a bold new concept that blends influences from America and France, Avi is the new project from the team behind the Prince Arthur pub in Belgravia. The 45-cover bistro, located within the nearby The Lowndes London hotel, will offer ‘a refined take on nostalgic, crowd-pleasing dishes’ with head chef Joshua Conte creating a menu designed for sharing that is divided into small plates, flatbreads and burgers, homemade pasta, fish, grill and sides.
21 Lowndes Street, London SW1X 9ES / avilondon.co.uk/
Vesper
London’s Exmouth Market will be home to Jackson Boxer’s latest London project, which promises ‘grown up pleasure and childlike joy’. Called Vesper, after the Roman word for ‘Venus’ as the evening star, the restaurant will be housed in a 70-cover corner site at the west end of Exmouth Market. Dishes will include oyster with green apple and chartreuse; croquette ‘Arnold Bennett’ with tarragon mayonnaise, raw beef and smoked pepper tostada; red mullet with smoked cream and golden tomato; sole fritters with pickled radish and curry sauce; and Dorset clams with black beans and white pepper.
8-10 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QA
Soul Mama
YolanDa Brown and Adetokunbo Oyelola are moving their African, Caribbean and South American live music and dining concept to Islington’s Angel Central development. The menu will feature dishes similar to those served at the original restaurant in The Gantry London hotel, including Caribbean curries, one-pot dishes with rice and peas, and sharing plates such as soul arepas and the jerk wings pit.
Angel Central, 21 Parkfield St, London N1 0PS / www.soulmama.co.uk/
All Roads
London’s Caribbean food scene is to get another fillip this month when cult supper club All Roads open its first bricks and mortar restaurant in Brixton. Founded by chefs and partners Malika Green and Paschelle Brown, the 35-cover restaurant will serve a menu designed for sharing and is influenced by the founders’ Caribbean heritage alongside British, European and Southern American flavours. Dishes will include butterbean whip with soy pecans and cassava chips; and torched mackerel on toast with tomato jam; as well as small plates such as fried wings in sweet black tea marinade; and clams in soy and tomato sauce with parmesan.
44 Atlantic Road, London SW9 8JN
Isca
Chef Jack Hazell is taking on the former Jeremy’s site in West Sussex’s Borde Hill gardens for his ‘root-to-tip and nose-to-tail’ restaurant. Named after a rare magnolia tree in the garden, Isca will draw on Borde Hill’s biodynamic garden for both inspiration and ingredients, with dishes shaped by produce grown and harvested across the estate as well as further afield, incuding cured Chalk Stream trout, labneh and walled garden flowers; wild sea bass with crab bisque, Sichuan and padrón pepper; and baked cheesecake with pickled magnolia and rhubarb.
Borde Hill,Borde Hill Lane Haywards Heath, RH16 1XP/ bordehill.co.uk/visit-us/restaurant-isca/
Nammos
Four years after it was first mooted, Mykonos-founded restaurant group Nammos will finally open a London restaurant this month. Launching in Mayfair, the venue will span two floors - with its first floor dedicated to private dining and events – serving a menu of Mediterranean cuisine with Japanese influences. There will be a focus on high-quality fish and shellfish with the restaurant to feature a raw bar and wood-fired Josper grill.
15 Berkeley Steet, London W1J 8DY / www.nammos.com/london
The Jack O’Newbury
Chef Dom Chapman and restaurateur Nigel Sutcliffe’s new restaurant and pub with rooms coms to the Berkshire village of Binfield this month. The Jack O’Newbury - or, more informally, The Jack - follows a two-year ‘considered’ restoration of a former village inn of the same name. In its new guise, the project will operate as a rural destination, featuring an 80-cover dining room and terrace, 11 individually designed bedrooms, and a dedicated kitchen garden set within two acres of private grounds.
Terrace Road, Binfield, Bracknell RG42 5HZ
Lady of the Grapes
Borough is the second London location of Lady of the Grapes, a wine bar and restaurant focusing on organic and natural wines while championing female producers. Set to open within the Menier Chocolate Factory, the two-storey, Grade II-listed Victorian building will house a 60-seat ground-floor restaurant with a 20-seat terrace and a 45-cover basement wine bar named Forbidden Fruit. Accompanying its modern French bistro-style cooking led by head chef Matyáš Plzák will be a wine list of more than 400 bottles.
Menier Chocolate Factory, 4 O’Meara St, London SE1 1TE / www.ladyofthegrapes.com/