Jazz saxophonist and entrepreneur YolanDa Brown is to open her restaurant and music venue Soul Mama in Stratford this September. Originally slated for Islington, Soul Mama is set in the Gantry hotel, opposite Westfield, and will offer a menu inspired by Caribbean, African and South American cooking. The project is funded by a Kickstarter campaign […]
A new West African restaurant is to open next month in a railway arch next to Borough Market. Akara is Aji Akokomi’s more casual follow-up to his acclaimed Fitzrovia flagship, Akoko. The new venue is named after the crispy West African fritters made from black-eyed beans which will be served as starters, stuffed with prawns […]
Musician YolanDa Brown has broken global fundraising records on Kickstarter to launch a new restaurant and music venue in Islington. Soul Mama is set to open this autumn with a menu inspired by recipes handed down through generations of mothers across the Caribbean, Africa and South America. Launched in partnership with her manager Adetokunbo ‘T’ […]
Tatale, the restaurant showcasing African cuisine at the new Africa Centre in Southwark, is to close next Sunday, 18 June, after just a year in operation. Ghanaian-British chef Akwasi Brenya-Mensa said at the time of Tatale’s launch last year that he “hoped to change people’s perception of African cooking”, and his cooking gained plaudits from […]
Senegalese London restaurant Little Baobab is hosting a launch party tonight to mark its permanent new perch at Peckham Levels. Founder Khadim Mane, aka Khadim Mbamba, has run the business on a more informal basis for the past eight years, offering catering services alongside pop-ups and residencies around north and east London. Originally from Dakar, […]
London’s growing ranks of upscale African restaurants will be swelled this month with the launch of Isibani, under Nigerian-born chef Victor Okunowo (pictured), at the very plushest of addresses on Knightsbridge Green. Meaning “bring the light” in Zulu, Isibani’s founders describe it as “a love letter to West African cuisine” and a celebration of their […]
A pop-up African supper club in Edinburgh has found a permanent home in the city’s New Town, as the continent’s cuisine makes increasing progress across the UK. Farin Road, from chef Tunde Abifarin, is taking a residency at the cafe Tani Modi on Hanover Street, operating initially on Friday and Saturday evenings from next month. […]
Sketch in Mayfair has stripped out the pink decor and David Shrigley artworks from its Gallery brasserie – one of the most distinctive restaurant interiors in the country – and replaced it with African-themed designs featuring artwork by Yinka Shonibare, to be unveiled next Thursday (March 3). The British-Nigerian artist has created 15 pieces for the […]
Ikoyi, an upmarket new restaurant showcasing the cuisine of West Africa, is to open in July in the new St James’s Market just south of Piccadilly Circus. It is a joint venture from school friends Iré Hassan-Odukale (pictured left), who was born in Ikoye, a cosmopolitan area of Lagos in Nigeria, and chef Jeremy Chan (right), whose […]
West African cuisine will gets its most prominent central London showcase when Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen opens a six-month residency at the Sun and 13 Cantons in Soho on April 4. Zoe Adjonyoh has been cooking at supperclubs and pop-ups in London and Berlin since 2011, and is well established at Pop Brixton. Her first book, […]
