There’s a definite back-to-school feel in London dining this September if the bumper crop of neatly turned-out restaurant launches is anything to go by. In addition to the 10 places we’ve highlighted below, some of the capital’s best-known dining rooms are having a new-school-year makeover: Le Comptoir Robuchon in Mayfair is relaunching as L’Atelier Robuchon (a big deal in noughties Covent Garden), Angela Hartnett’s Murano is celebrating its 15th anniversary by re-opening with a total refurb, while the Floral Street Lima is rebranding as Lima Cantina, offering a more casual spin on Peruvian cuisine. That’s on top of a Notting Hill outpost of Chelsea Green’s ingredients-led Wild Tavern, and a new Soho site for blingy Mayfair pizza slinger Bocconcino.
Prefer drinking to eating? London is having a bit of a wine-bar moment. Look out in September for Ken’s, a Clerkenwell sibling to Dan’s in Dalston, Peckham’s Forza Wine arriving at the National Theatre, Finch alighting in Brixton and Little Cellars, a Camberwell outpost of Peckham Cellars.
Old school or new school? Either way, September promises to be a uniformly exciting start to autumn eating and drinking.
Geode
Billed as ‘a theatrical dining concept’ though sounding more like a nightclub, this Mediterranean-cum-Asian restaurant comes courtesy of a pair of former Novikov managers, Salvatore Broccu and Marios Louvaris, and is opening in the next best thing to Mayfair: Knightsbridge (supercar-parking opportunities possibly being easier on Beauchamp Place than Berkeley Square). Foodwise, Geode does not sound a million miles away from the Italo-Japanese of Novikov: robata grills and pizza ovens, beef tartare and sushi and sashimi, while DJs will hit the decks after dinner. A geode, as any holistic healer will know, is a rock cavity lined with crystals, a positive energy one may wish to channel after taking up residence in the ground-floor cocktail bar until closing time at half one in the morning.
Opens: September 14
14-15 Beauchamp Place, SW3 1NQ, geode.london
Lavo
This American import within the new BoTree hotel comes courtesy of the Tao Group, a name that might not ring any bells until one knows it is responsible for Hakkasan and Yauatcha. In Los Angeles (Beverly Hills, to be exact) Tao has Lavo, which has welcomed the likes of Kim and Khloé Kardashian and Kendall Jenner through its doors and there’s likely to be fun had at this London outpost guessing who the British equivalent might be (Amanda Holden and family?). Elegant modern Italian is what’s on the menu — Dover sole with lemon and capers, say — plus pasta, wood-fired pizza and the inevitable clickbait dish for Insta, here a 500g wagyu meatball topped with marinara sauce and whipped ricotta cheese. The atmosphere will be as important as the cooking: Tao founders Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss began their careers throwing parties together as teenagers and, in addition to a two-floor restaurant, Lavo will include a bar.
Opens: September 15
The BoTree, 30 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2DR, taogroup.com
Chishuru
A new, central (Fitzrovia) location for Adejoké Bakare’s Brixton Village restaurant and Borough Market pop-up. The chef’s cooking is inspired by the dishes she ate as a child growing up in Nigeria, but given a contemporary London spin: sinasir rice cake with white and brown crab meat and squash puree; cod fillet with mbongo tchobi (spiced black sauce) and wilted greens; moringa soup with black sesame caramel and baobab meringue. Front-of-house will be overseen by Bakare’s business partner and friend, Matt Paice, with a wine list sourced entirely from independent French producers, while cocktails such as the house-pickled okra martini will feature West African herbs and spices. Interiors, meanwhile, will reference Africa in soft furnishings sourced from British-Nigerian designer Eva Sonaike, a light feature from South African designer Mash.T and tabletops and stonework custom-made in north Africa.
Opens: 18 September
3 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 8AX, chishuru.com
Bébé Bob
Everybody’s favourite purveyor of Champagne at the press of a button, Bob Bob Ricard, is celebrating its 15th anniversary by opening this more casual rotisserie chicken specialist over the road from the Soho original, on the corner of Golden Square. The chooks will come from the Vendée and Landes on the west coast of France, carved whole at the table and served up with chicken jus; there’s more tableside theatre in the form of blinis cooked to order to accompany a trio of caviar (Bob Bob’s caviar is pictured). Elsewhere on the menu are Severn & Wye smoked salmon and egg mayonnaise with anchovy to start, and chocolate fondant and Paris-Brest for pud. There will, alas, be no press for Champagne buttons here, but a large selection of wines by the glass from the Coravin should be reason enough to celebrate, as too art deco-esque interiors fanning out from a golden granite-topped bar.
Opens: September 28
37 Golden Square, W1F 9LB, bebebob.com
The Watermans Arms
A new gastropub on a scenic stretch of Barnes riverside, though you’ll need to be in the first-floor dining room to appreciate the view over the traffic to the trees on the riverbank opposite (or, even better, sitting on the 14-seat balcony). Owner Joe Grossmann (pictured) is a Barnes local and the founder of Patty&Bun while chef Sam Andrews used to head up the kitchens of The Camberwell Arms and Ducksoup and has brought his team with him here. The à la carte menu is served upstairs and down — whole market fish cooked over coals; chops and steaks butchered in-house — or there’s a marginally lighter bar menu of lamb rib with yoghurt and honey, or rouille and mussels on sourdough toast. To drink, there are beers on draught, classic cocktails and Franco-Italian wines.
Opens: September 28
375 Lonsdale Road, SW13 9PY, watermansarms.co.uk
Also opening:
Hiden
A proper sit-down restaurant in Stroud Green from Coal Drops Yard takeaway Hiden, serving up the same three Japanese curries — beef, chicken and red lentil — with additions of eggs, kimchi and salad.
Opens: September 5
53 Stroud Green Road, N4 3EF, hidencurry.com
It’s Bagels
Bagels get the gourmet NYC treatment at this Primrose Hill site from New York photographer and fashion-set favourite Dan Martensen. Eat in or take away.
Opens: September 11
65 Regent’s Park Road, NW1 8XD, itsbagels.com
Canton Blue
The first of the new Peninsula hotel’s restaurants to open — Claude Bosi’s Brooklands is due in October — Canton Blue serves classic Cantonese cooking: whole roasted Peking duck, say, or steamed sea bass fillet.
Opens: September 12
The Peninsula London, 1 Grosvenor Pl, London SW1X 7HJ, peninsula.com
Eve
A restaurant, bar and café opening on the border of Earl’s Court and Kensington, serving Mediterranean-style veg, grilled meats and seafood with a strong emphasis on housemade bread and dips. Dog-friendly, too.
Opens: September 13
202-220 Cromwell Road, SW5 0SW, evekensington.com
Honey & Co Daily
A daytime-focused café from husband and wife Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer, with an emphasis on baked goods (sandwiches, lachma, cakes and breads) to eat in or out, and Friday and Saturday night supper clubs.
Opens: September 15
19-21 Store Street, WC1E 7DB, honeyandco.co.uk
