Clare Smyth just opened her much-anticipated solo restaurant Core by Clare Smyth in Notting Hill this week, which got us thinking about what else is in our restaurant launch calendar. Here’s 10 up-and-comers we’re excited to welcome to London’s dining scene this year…
Opening: mid-August 2017
Meat and fish are grilled in a special coal oven at this new restaurant occupying the beautifully restored former Grade II listed ticket office at Peckham Rye station. From the entrepreneurs behind the Old Spike Roastery, Camberwell’s Spike + Earl, Peckham restaurant Aside and coffee-based charity Change Please. Head chef Sam Bryant has worked in the kitchens of Smokehouse, Princess of Shoreditch and Norfolk’s Dabbling Duck.
Opening: August 2017
When Zoë and Layo Paskin (the siblings behind The Palomar and The Barbary) announce a new venture it’s best to pay attention. The pair are opening a tiny English coffee house in Seven Dials; just 10 covers, the place will serve breakfast, lunch and tea every day, with takeaway options. With so few seats we foresee queues – but like The Barbary and The Palomar, Jacob & The Angel may well be worth the wait.
Opening: 1 September 2017
MasterChef finalist and Bright Young Thing Adam Handling is set to roll out his Frog brand after just six months in E1; the new restaurant will be in Covent Garden and is sure to open in summer 2017. It will open all day from breakfast and will have an (almost mandatory these days) open-plan kitchen, large private dining room and a speakeasy-style basement bar with its own entrance.
Opening: 15 September 2017
Martha Oritz, of Mexico City’s Dulce Patria, has confirmed she will open her first London venture alongside Theo Randall as The Intercontinental Park Lane’s second restaurant. The new dining room, designed by David Collins Studio, will serve the chef’s take on Mexican cuisine. Reservation lines are now open ahead of Ella Canta’s launch next month.
Opening: September 2017
Nieves Barragán Mohacho and José Etura, who met working at Barrafina, have finally announced the name of their new venture: Sabor, unsurprisingly a Spanish restaurant, with additional bar and asador (wood-fired oven), will open in Heddon Street this autumn. The ground-floor will feature a fresh seafood counter and an open kitchen producing regional dishes from across Spain, while the upstairs restaurant will focus on the cuisine of Galicia and Castile.
Opening: September 2017
Ryan Chetiyawardana (AKA Mr Lyan) is opening his first restaurant, in the former Shoreditch home of White Lyan, along with chef Doug McMaster of Brighton zero-waste restaurant Silo. The pair recently launched a cocktail bar at Silo together.
Opening: September 2017
Luca Longobardi and Chris Denney, co-founders of Notting-Hill’s 108 Garage, launch a second venture on the former site of Victorian boozer West Thirty Six (RIP). The sprawling building covers three storeys with a Japanese robata grill on the ground floor, and a private BBQ area in the lower ground garden. The first floor Raw Bar serves Nikkei (a fusion of Peruvian and Japanese cuisines) while the second floor houses a private member’s champagne bar.
Opening: Autumn 2017
The Sethi siblings’ (Gymkhana, Trishna) Sri Lankan street food shack, which stormed into Soho with the “incredible” and “punchy flavours” in 2015, adds a sister restaurant in Marylebone. Good news for fans who don’t want to wait outside the no bookings Soho original, the press release says there will be a reservation line for the new site!
‘Smoking Goat 2.0’ will open in Shoreditch in mid-October. The PR info (well, a lengthy Insta-post) says that, while the new place will be bigger, the menu will focus on serving just a couple of signature Thai dishes each day, to maintain quality and value. Their Soho site (pictured) opened to wide-spread adulation from press and punters alike back in 2015.
Opening: TBC 2017
Details are a bit thin on the ground regarding this pop-up-turning-permanent but we are assured that it will open at some point in 2017. After a successful residency at Marylebone’s Carousel, the trio behind Gezellig will bring their unique offering of ‘creative comfort food’ to their first standalone venture – watch this space for more details.
We wanted to include Shibui in this round-up but the opening has been pushed to early-2018. Keep an eye out for this Japanese-influenced restaurant offering refined barbecue dishes with inventive flavour pairings, from former head chef of Hackney’s “cramped-but-magical” Pidgin, Elizabeth Haigh.
