Originally intended to be called Bistro Cocotte when it was first reported by Restaurant, the new venue will now be called BISTRO to give it a separate identity from the Cocotte brand and will open on Kingly Street in January.
Rather than recreating Paris in London, BISTRO is described as ‘a French restaurant made for Soho’. It will be led in the kitchen by Venezuela-born head chef Joaquin Aguilar, who was previously head chef at both the Michelin-starred Counter at Sabor and Club Gascon.
Aguilar’s cooking pays homage to classic French dishes with precision, drawing on years of experience across Latin American and European kitchens. BISTRO’s menu will feature small plates such as oysters; sardines; pâté en croûte; and oeuf mayonnaise alongside French classics of onion sou; escargots de Bourgogne; a house foie gras with brioche and quince; scallop crudo with tarragon and mandarin; prawn croquettes; and chicken with chanterelles.
Daily specials will include a whole fish from the market for two, and a few dishes that change with the market and the season. For dessert there will be profiteroles; tarte au citron; and crème brûlée.
“BISTRO is the French cooking we love: the classics, cooked with precision and served with generosity,” says Aguilar.
The wine list, built with Guillaume Sudre of G-Winery, will champion small French growers, with around half of the list being sourced from Burgundy.
The restaurant’s design will take its cue from 1970s Paris neighbourhood cafés rather than the classic bistro of mirrors and zinc, combining textured plaster walls, a bar fronted in chocolate mosaic, chrome chairs, oxblood leather banquettes, globe sconces and plate racks.
Maisons Vivantes recently opened PAM in Farringdon, the debut solo restaurant in partnership with former Kiln head chef Karla Knowles, and is also due to open live-fire Northern Thai restaurant AREE in Notting Hill with the chef next year.
