The slew of new London restaurants opening over the coming months makes us more than happy to welcome the new season. There are some seriously exciting launches on the horizon from industry veterans, multi-Michelin-starred magicians and dazzling new talents alike, all of which demonstrate the sheer creativity and confidence of the London restaurant industry. Here’s our edit of the most exciting new restaurant openings in London this autumn.
The new London restaurants to know about this Autumn
Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal
Alex Dilling may not yet be a household name but give it time. The London-born chef is already the talk of gastronomic circles from his time at Hélène Darroze at The Connaught and The Greenhouse, so all eyes are on his eponymous restaurant at Hotel Café Royal on Regent Street. Dilling’s starting offer, priced at a confident £155 for the ‘Signature’ tasting menu and £195 for the ‘Connoisseur’s’ tasting menu, is testament to his ambition. His cuisine is unapologetically luxurious and refined in a manner we haven’t seen in a while. Who could resist pigeon de Bresse with preserved truffle or pâté de campagne with black truffle and boudin noir? N.B There’s also a set lunch at £65.
Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal, 68 Regent Street, Westminster, London, W1B 4DY
alexdilling.com
The Audley
The Audley in Mayfair is the hotly anticipated first London venue from Artfarm, the hospitality company founded by gallerists Iwan and Manuela Wirth of Hauser & Wirth. Set over five floors of a Victorian building, listed inside and out, the venue will comprise a pub (the Audley Public House), a restaurant (Mount St. Restaurant) and four event spaces. In common with Artfarm’s other venues such as The Fife Arms, The Audley will be equal parts art destination and culinary destination. Jamie Shears, ex CUT at 45 Park Lane, cooks. The pub opens in mid-September; the rest follows in October.
The Audley, 41-43 Mount Street, Mayfair, London, W1K 2RX
theaudleypublichouse.com
St. John Marylebone
Now this is exciting: a new St. John is to open on Marylebone Lane in late September, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver’s first new restaurant in seven years. They’re staying tight-lipped about details but all communiqués so far suggest a focus on wine and on an expansive, free-form brand of hospitality that will roll from breakfast to lunch to dinner with many glasses of wine and cups of coffee in between. Expect baked goods such as sourdough loaves and doughnuts from their Bermondsey bakery; and wines will come from their vineyard in the Minervois.
St John Marylebone, 98 Marylebone Lane, Marylebone, London, W1U 2JE
stjohnrestaurant.com
Rambutan
Cynthia Shanmunalingam’s debut restaurant Rambutan opens in Borough Market in October. Shanmunalingam’s a newcomer but not an unknown quantity. Her cookbook Rambutan, packed with recipes such as cashew nut curry and hot butter cuttlefish, has already been rapturously received, and her ice cream collaboration with Soft ‘n’ Swirly was the sensation of the summer. Her 60-cover Stoney Street restaurant continues the story, exploring her Tamil roots and the regional dishes from the north of the island including aged mutton rolls, spicy fish malu buns and red beef and bone marrow curry. Shanmunalingam has commissioned bespoke pieces from Sri Lankan designers to complement the interiors, inspired by late Sri Lankan female architect Minnette de Silva.
Rambutan, 10 Stoney Street, Borough, London, SE1 9AD
@rambutan_ldn
Cycene
At Blue Mountain School in Shoreditch, visionaries James and Christe Brown ask us to reconsider what a retail, gallery or cultural space can be. If Mãos, their former restaurant project the site was progressive, then Cycene (‘kitchen’ in old English) in collaboration with former Akoko chef Theo Clench is set to be even more so. They’ve introduced a ground floor bar, exclusively for diners, doubled the size of the open plan kitchen (where guests can enjoy aperitifs) and redesigned the 16-cover dining room. It should feel like an evening in a very beautiful, civilised private home. Slow-cooked turbot, lettuce sauce, sake and oscietra is one dish of many on the ten-course menu. Opens October.
Cycene, Blue Mountain School, 9 Chance Street, London, E2
bluemountainschool/cycene
Speedboat Bar
Plaza Khao Gaeng, chef Luke Farrell’s southern Thai restaurant at the rebooted Arcade Food Hall, was the hottest of restaurants in the hottest of summers. Now Farrell has another new concept on the way, quite unlike anything London’s seen before. Speedboat Bar, launching on the old XU site on 23 September, takes its name from the speedboats racing on Bangkok’s canals, and its inspiration from the Thai-Chinese food served in Bangkok’s Chinatown. This translates to a unique menu of drunken noodles, braised meats, Thai and Chinese sausages, and stir fries tilted towards Thai palates. Best enjoyed with ice-cold Singha beer or whisky soda.
Speedboat Bar, 30 Rupert Street, Soho, W1D 6DL
@speedboatbar
Koyn
Just one year on from introducing MiMi Mei Fair to Mayfair, Jamavar’s Samyukta Nair has turned her creative eye to Japan for Koyn, a contemporary izakaya launching on 21 September on Grosvenor Street. Nair is working with favoured collaborators Fabled Studio again, fitting the two-in-one space with oyster shell walls, verde cipollino walls and a mirrored skyscape in the ground floor sushi restaurant, and charred timber and terracotta tiles in the subterranean grill. The menu from ex-Nobu chef Rhys Cattermoul leans luxurious: think applewood-smoked A5 wagyu rolls with asparagus and truffle and red mullet tempura with yuzu kushu tosazu and kombu salt.
Koyn, 38 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, London, W1K 4AQ
koynrestaurants.com
Elis
Chef Rafael Cagali is cooking like nobody else on earth at Da Terra, his £195-a-head, two Michelin star restaurant at the Town Hall Hotel. It’s terrific news, then, that this Autumn he’s taking over the Bethnal Green hotel’s second restaurant, previously the Corner Room, now renamed Elis, after famed Brazilian singer Elis Regina. Elis will show the more casual side of Cagali’s Brazilian-Italian cooking, in dishes such as bolinho de bacalhau, monkfish tail with black tucupi glaze, and pork chops with black beans and chimichurri. Wines will be a concise, rotating selection of just a dozen from Noble Rot’s Keeling Andrew & Co.
Elis, Town Hall Hotel, Patriot Square, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9NF
townhallhotel.com
Scott’s Richmond
It takes a bit of getting used to, the idea of there being more than one Scott’s, but picture yourself by the Thames at Richmond, sipping Champagne and slurping oysters, and it all makes perfect sense. Scott’s Richmond arrives this month, bringing all the glitz and glamour of the Mayfair original (est.1968) to leafy Zone 4. It’s set to be spectacular with floor-to-ceiling windows, a spacious terrace, oyster bar, and a live DJ and music every Thursday to Saturday. On the menu: baked spiced crab with garlic and herb toast, shrimp burger with kimchi ketchup and potato crisps, and oysters galore.
Scott’s Richmond, 4 Whittaker Avenue, Richmond, London, TW9 1EH
scotts-richmond.com
Mayha
Japanese omakase restaurant Mayha made its debut in Beirut but is relocating to London and pitching up on Chiltern Street in late September. Mayha Beirut’s chefs Jurek Wasio and Yuichi Nakaya, both ex-Yashin in London, will be behind the curved stone sushi counter, serving a daily-changing ‘omakase’ menu (in other words, diners leave the choice to them). A peek at the Beirut restaurant’s Instagram account reveals dishes such as risotto with uni and oysters, dry-aged otoro with bottarga and pristine sea bass sashimi.
Mayha, 43 Chiltern Street, Marylebone, London, W1U 6LS
mayhalondon.com
Sparrow
“High-energy fine-dining” is on its way to Mayfair, courtesy of US hospitality company Noble 33 (behind Toca Madera and Casa Madera). Sparrow Italia, launching October, builds on the success of the scene-y year-old L.A. original across four floors on Avery Row. Alongside a terrace-dining room and parlour there’s a cigar lounge and bar, the latter likely to buzz with the W1 craft cocktail crowd. ‘Modern coastal Italian’ is the culinary theme, meaning wood-fired pizzas, fresh pasta and plenty of seafood that promise bold flavours and sustainable, organic ingredients.
Sparrow Italia, 1-3 Avery Row, Mayfair, London, W1K 4AJ
sparrowitalia.com
Mriya
Mriya, meaning ‘dream’ in Ukrainian, is the first London restaurant from Ukrainian star chef Yurii Kovryzhenko and his partner Olga Tsybytovska. The 60-cover neo bistro, which just opened in Chelsea, is staffed by refugees forced to leave their country following the Russian invasion. The menu comprises 24 Ukrainian dishes: some traditional – borsch, chicken Kyiv – others contemporary, including pike perch quenelle with crayfish bisque and zucchini pancakes with stracciatella. Dima’s Vodka is behind the bar. All the decor has been sourced from Ukraine, from the one-off vintage pieces of furniture to the modern paintings that adorn the walls.
275 Brompton Road, Chelsea, London, SW5 9JA
@mriya_neo_bistro
