April’s new restaurant forecast is for a shower of London’s most saturated food trends. The month ahead heralds a new Greek restaurant, new wine bars and a new French bistro (in fact a French bistro and wine bar under the same roof). All that and two splashy openings from a pair of luxury overseas operators. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!
It does, however, feel a little churlish to complain about a certain sameyness of new restaurants when there are such bluechip names behind them — ditto the imminent launches from some of the capital’s better-quality chains, with April welcoming a South Ken outpost for Lina Stores, Yard Sale Pizza in Tufnell Park and El Pastor in Battersea Power Station. Step away from that chocolate egg and tuck in.
ABC Kitchens
Alsace-born, Manhattan-based superstar chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten made his name in London in the late Nineties with fusion pioneer Vong at the Berkeley hotel; now he’s back next door at owner Maybourne’s new Knightsbridge property, The Emory. The high concept here is to unite JGV’s trio of NYC ABC restaurants (ABC Kitchen, ABCV and ABC Cocina) under one roof, which might not mean much to any but the most jet-setty of Londoners but translates as a menu mixing farm-to-table, plant-based and Latin-inspired dishes. Signatures include crab toast with green chilli, crispy fish tacos with aioli and cabbage-apple slaw, and beef tenderloin with chimichurri and lime. The swish interiors take in an amber-glass wine cave, Hyde Park views and Damien Hirst artworks; if you have to ask the price, then rather like the all-suite hotel in which ABC sits, you probably can’t afford it.
Opens: April 4
The Emory, Old Barrack Yard, SW1X 7NP, the-emory.co.uk
Mimosa
Can this glamorous Parisian import be the place that finally gives the Langham hotel a restaurant to rival its world-beating bar, Artesian? The raised wood-panelled dining room, overlooking Nash’s All Souls Church and the BBC, should be one of the most alluring in the capital, so hopes are high that Moma Group injects some je ne sais quoi to Oxford Circus. Moma are the grandest of fromages on the French dining scene and its founder Benjamin Patou a sort of Parisian equivalent of Richard Caring, with an address book of celebrity contacts ensuring restaurants such as Mimosa and Café Laperouse (recently arrived at the OWO) are never out of the pages of Paris Match. Mimosa’s culinary theme is the sun-kissed Côte d’Azur — salad Niçoise, grilled langoustines, five varieties of oeufs mimosa (devilled eggs, en anglais) — with a vast 100-seat terrace, formerly the al fresco space belonging to the Wigmore pub during the pandemic, expected to go viral come the summer.
Opens: April 4
The Langham, 1C Portland Place, W1B 1JA, langhamhotels.com
Carmel Fitzrovia
A West End outpost for Josh Katz’s Queen’s Park Middle Eastern, named after the famous food market in Tel Aviv, though the small plates and sharing dishes will take inspiration from across the eastern Mediterranean. The signature flatbread from Queen’s Park will also be doing a star turn here, topped with lamb prosciutto with anchovy or cod’s roe with bottarga; elsewhere there’ll be monkfish crudo with sheep’s yoghurt and tomatoes, whole sea bream with chilli-infused Calabrian honey, low-intervention wines and sage and rose Negronis. Not in the mood to share? Tuck into a bowl of pappardelle with mussels, squid and hake. All the cooking comes from an open kitchen; with an interior or dark timber and blackened steel, any errant smoke should be easily concealed.
Opens: April 8
7-8 Market Place, W1W 8AG, carmelrestaurant.co.uk
Oma
London’s love affair with Greek food (Kima, Vori and, er, Bacchanalia) shows no signs of waning. Here in Borough Market, Oma’s owner David Carter — of Smokestak and Manteca fame — has taken inspiration from Greece’s 6,000 islands. The seafood-focused menu makes full use of the wood-fired grill, with breads baked in house to mop up the cooking fats dripping from the likes of slow-grilled red mullet with red miso butter. And as no Greek restaurant would be complete without lamb, there are belly skewers with date molasses and shoulder with a green herb sauce. The 400-bin wine list proves there’s more to Hellenic grapes than assyrtiko; investigate it in depth in Agora, the ground-floor bar and no-bookings counter.
Opens: April 16
2-4 Bedale Street, SE1 9AL, oma.london
Bangers
A first bricks-and-mortar site for sarnie sensation Bangers, sending out the trademark smashed sausage sandwiches, supplied by Lidgate butchers (Nigella’s favourite), and washed down with barista-made coffee, in collaboration with Allpress roastery. The signature breakfast sarnie involves free-range pork sausage, fried Clarence Court egg, a melted slice of Red Leicester and a choice of homemade sauce (fresh ketchup, housemade brown sauce). Other fillings sandwiched in freshly baked brioche or toasted English muffin include maple bacon and plant-based sausage, with sides of hash browns, baked beans and scrambled egg. The most bangin’ thing of all? Three hundred free breakfast sandwiches on the opening weekend.
Opens: April 19
5 Leonard Circus, EC2A 4DQ, bangerslondon.co.uk
July
Summer arrives early with the launch of July, an Alsatian-themed restaurant and wine bar from Franco-German couple Solynka Dumas and Julian Oschman. Morning coffees and pastries give way to lunchtime sandwiches and soups — roast beef with horseradish crème fraiche; nettle and spinach soup with smoked bacon — ahead of an evening menu of seasonal small plates: white asparagus with hollandaise, lemon sole with clams and leeks. Hate Monday hangovers? Come for Saturday lunch instead, when there’s a feasting special of whole roast chicken with homemade mayonnaise, washed down with low-intervention wines from small European producers.
Opens: April 25
10 Charlotte Street, W1T 2LT, july.london
Cloth
A new — surprise surprise — wine bar and restaurant, run by a pair of wine-importer friends, plus a chef with a CV taking in some of the capital’s more modish dining rooms (Brawn and Salon, inter alia). This place, at least, is distinguished by being located on Cloth Fair, one of the prettiest streets of ye olde London and a survivor of the Great Fire, in a double-fronted building beneath the former lodgings of John Betjeman, who would have felt right at home in the interior of low ceilings and wood panelling. The arch anti-modernist might not have been so comfortable with the on-trend cooking: squid with black olive, preserved lemon and lardo, or hogget with grilled cos lettuce, smoked tongue and anchovy. A two-course set lunch for £25, however, should be to any poet’s taste (and bank balance).
Opens: April 29
44 Cloth Fair, EC1A 7JQ, clothrestaurants.com
Also opening
Yasmin
A rooftop restaurant and bar with a wrap-around terrace in Soho, offering cocktails and Istanbul-inspired sharing plates along the lines of sumac-cured salmon and sesame-smoked duck.
Opens: April 9
1 Warwick Street, W1B 5LR, yasminsoho.com
Los Mochis London City
A Liverpool Street outpost of Notting Hill’s Mexican/Japanese mashup (USP: “Tokyo meets Tulum”) bringing a sushi bar, robata grill and fine and rare Tequilas and mezcals to the ninth-floor rooftop of Broadgate Circle, plus a 3am licence.
Opens: April 11
100 Liverpool Street, 9th Floor, EC2M 2AT, losmochis.co.uk
Bam Karaoke Box
Proof that French bistro is the restaurant trend that refuels the parts other cuisines cannot reach comes with this Victoria karaoke joint, where the mood music to all the warbling is provided by devilled eggs and steak tartare.
Opens: April 19
74 Victoria Street, SW1E 6SQ, uk.bam-karaokebox.com
Caldesi in Belsize
The first London launch in 20 years from Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi, serving Italian comfort food along the lines of their Marylebone and Bray restaurants: rustic pasta, posh pizza and a veal chop Milanese.
Opens: Late April
29 Belsize Lane, NW3 5AS, caldesi.com
