Branching out: founder Marc
(Picture: Press handout)The site that once held longstanding and much-loved Soho Italian Vasco & Piero is set to remain a restaurant, as it plays home to the second Bubala.
The original Bubala, which opened in 2019 in Spitalfields, swiftly earned itself a slew of critical acclaim for its vegetarian, Middle Eastern cooking — including from this paper’s Jimi Famurewa. Now a follow up will open on Poland Street this April.
Overseen by founder Marc Summers and executive chef Helen Graham, the new restaurant will have room for 50, including eight at a counter bar.
Graham will offer a similar menu to that which has found success in E1, with her signature confit potato latkes and halloumi with black seed honey both making the move to the centre of town. The chef is also promising new dishes, set to be cooked on the restaurant’s yakitori grill. These will including hispi cabbage with a ponzu sauce made of mandarin and ras el hanout spices, alongside Yemeni malawach — fried, flakey flatbread — covered with stracciatella, kalamata olives and smoked aubergine honey.
Drinks will include UK-made beers and choice of natural wine, as well as wine on tap.
Summers said of the launch: “The past two years have been unimaginably hard for our entire industry, so I feel incredibly lucky to have one site, let alone to be opening a second.
“It’s always been a long-term goal for Bubala to grow, but it’s a step that I wanted to take carefully and one that I didn’t want to rush. I feel like we’ve got the best possible team now and the site feels perfect. I just can’t wait to open and bring a bit of Bubala to central London.”
Bubala isn’t the only restaurant to announce a journey from east to central this year; on February 21, popular Myanmar-inspired Shoreditch spot Lahpet is to open its first outpost in St Martin’s Courtyard in the West End, just off Seven Dials, with more information here.
