Every February, the culinary world waits with bated breath as the esteemed Michelin Guide announces which restaurants in the UK and Ireland have earned coveted star status. This year, London has excelled once again, with seven new one-star establishments which run the gamut of fine-dining, from cutting-edge Mexican to exquisitely executed Korean-meets-European fare. There are also a couple of new two-starred winners – the West African-inspired Ikoyi and the ever-innovative The Clove Club. These are the new Michelin-starred restaurants in London to book right now.
New Michelin-Starred London Restaurants
Wild Honey St James
One Michelin Star
The first thing to note about Anthony Demetre’s Wild Honey 2.0 within Sofitel London St James (its story began in Mayfair in 2007) is that you can get a set lunch or pre-theatre supper there for just £35. Should your attention wander to the à la carte – only natural when there’s crispy chicken with hand cut macaroni and truffle to be had – you’ll still find outstanding value there too. Demetre’s a chef’s chef, who’s put in the hard yards in the kitchens of such titans as Pierre Koffmann and the late Gary Rhodes. He cooks real food, rooted to but not wedded to the French repertoire, with all the sticky sauces, punchy salads and flouncy pastries that suggests. Highlights include fallow venison with kumquat marmalade and sauce grand veneur and salsify with Christian Parra black pudding. For dessert, it’s hard to beat the wibbly, nutmeggy custard tart. A smart casual setting suited to both business and pleasure.
Wild Honey St James, 8 Pall Mall, Westminster, London, SW1
wildhoneystjames.co.uk
Trivet
One Michelin Star
Trivet’s co-owners Jonny Lake and Isa Bal met at the Fat Duck where Lake was executive head chef and Bal head sommelier for twelve years. Since opening in 2019, Trivet has become a regular haunt of industry insiders, drawn as much by Lake’s original outlook as by Bal’s encyclopaedic wine list. Indeed, Trivet won not one but two awards this year: a shiny new star and the sommelier’s award for Bal, whose cellar holds bottles from Turkey, Canada, Switzerland, and even London, alongside the big ticket Burgundies and Barolos. Lake’s eclectic menu runs from superior snacks of French fries and onion ketchup and Italian salumi to pici pasta with crab and monk’s beard, drunk lobster noodles, and his famous baked potato mille-feuille with saké gelato.
Trivet, 36 Snowsfields, Southwark, London, SE1
trivetrestaurant.co.uk
Kol
One Michelin Star
Ever since he was handpicked by René Redzepi to lead the $600-a-head Noma Tulum pop-up in 2017, Mexican chef Santiago Lastra’s star has been on the rise. His debut restaurant Kol in Marylebone didn’t have the smoothest start (2020 was no year to launch a restaurant) but the inviting, earth-toned dining room has rapidly established itself as one of those clear-the-diary, book-a-babysitter, foodie destinations we used to board a plane to go to. It’s a hands-on eating experience, the piles of fresh corn tortillas there to be loaded with langoustine tacos and sea buckthorn, seared octopus and bone marrow, or braised short rib with spicy Yucatan xnipec. Choose four or six courses at lunch, six, nine or £145 Chefs’ Table experience at dinner. The margaritas are sensational. N.B. Kol’s newsletter subscribers get priority booking.
Kol, 9 Seymour Street, Marylebone, London, W1
kolrestaurant.com
Evelyn’s Table
One Michelin Star
This miniature boîte, just twelve seats squeezed around a marble counter in the basement of a Soho pub, must be one of the most unique experiences in London, nay, all Europe. It’s helmed by chef James Goodyear, who brings his French training and Scandinavian and Japanese techniques to bear on pristine British ingredients. The menu, now £125, is ever-evolving but could involve sparkling mackerel sashimi with blood orange and olive oil, quail glazed with soy and miso, hand-dived scallops mi-cuit, and a cute pre-dessert of soy milk and brioche bun. Wines to match are chosen by one of the best – sommelier Honey Spencer. This first star is just the beginning. Reservations open on the first of each month. Set a reminder now.
Evelyn’s Table, The Blue Posts, 28 Rupert Street, Soho, London, W1
theblueposts.co.uk/evelyns-table
Sollip
One Michelin Star
A mere one hundred metres or so from the above-mentioned Trivet is Sollip, a serene dining room with a singular South Korean style. Sollip, meaning pine needle, is a co-production from Woongchul Park and Bomee Ki, a husband-and-wife duo whose combined CV includes the Ledbury, Koffmann’s and the Arts Club. Their £97 tasting menu expresses their French training and Korean heritage, beautifully exemplified by Sollip’s signature daikon tarte tatin with toasted barley glaze and dainty brioche ‘sando’ of Duckett’s Caerphilly and seaweed. Ingredients are first-rate, as are the wines from Noble Rot’s Keeling Andrew & Co and teas from Korean tea house Be-Oom in Clerkenwell.
Sollip, 8 Melior Street, Southwark, London, SE1
sollip.co.uk
Frog by Adam Handling
One Michelin Star
Scottish chef Adam Handling, once an apprentice at Gleneagles, later a finalist on MasterChef: The Professionals, has worked long and hard for this validation: a Michelin star his flagship restaurant Frog by Adam Handling. While his forward-thinking empire has put down new roots outside the capital (Ugly Butterfly in Cornwall and the Loch and the Tyne in Windsor opened last year), Frog has pursued its philosophy of sustainable luxury in London. It’s a treat, a £125 a head treat, but for that Handling and team put on a performance (this is Theatreland after all). ‘Ooh’ follows ‘ah’ as the dishes arrive, beginning with ethereal cheese doughnuts and eggs and bacon in a cloud of liquid nitrogen, and hitting the heights of lobster poached in wagyu fat or sweetbread tortellini with Wiltshire truffle. One for a special occasion.
Frog by Adam Handling, 34-35 Southampton Street, Covent Garden, WC2
frogbyadamhandling.com
Jamavar
One Michelin Star
Samyukta Nair’s lavish Mayfair Indian restaurant has won back its Michelin star and rightly so. Not that such things matter much to Jamavar’s loyal regulars from near and far who trust their own judgement when it comes to the spicing of the butter chicken, the rich bone marrow gravy with the kid goat shami kebab and the quality of the lobster with idli and lentil sambhar. The combination of thoughtful, solicitous service and seriously impressive cooking from chef Surender Mohan makes Jamavar that rare thing: a fine-dining restaurant where one could bring one’s grandmother, wow a date, or sign a six-figure deal. It’s worth booking in for the heavenly gold-flecked gulab jamun alone.
Jamavar, 8 Mount Street, Mayfair, London, W1
jamavarrestaurants.com
Ikoyi
Two Michelin Stars
First Ikoyi won the ‘One to Watch’ award in the World’s 50 Best; now it’s won a second Michelin star (the first having come in 2018). What a year for Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale. The awards are well deserved: never before have West African spices and British micro-seasonality come together like this. The spice-dusted plantain and smoked jollof rice with crab, iterations of which have been on the menu since day one, could not exist in any other place or time. Both appear on the £60 lunch (Thursdays and Fridays only) and £180 tasting menu. The latter’s splashy admittedly but entirely reflective of Chan’s rigorous sourcing and ever more complex preparations. New dishes such as Galloway rib suya with lobster and saffron and Nigerian moin moin with clams and custom-aged caviar are cases in point. Bold terrazzo and original ceramics lend the neat space a youthful, progressive air.
Ikoyi, 1 St James’s Market, Westminster, London, SW1
ikoyilondon.com
The Clove Club
Two Michelin Stars
In awarding The Clove Club two stars, the Michelin Guide confirms what many have known for a long time: Scottish chef Isaac McHale is one of the best we have. The historic surrounds of Shoreditch Town Hall are the perfect backdrop to his talents: serious, eccentric, surprising. The £145 tasting menu is an epic eating experience, whose most talked about dishes include the G.O.A.T buttermilk fried chicken with pine salt, the pert little haggis buns, and the sardine sashimi in its shimmering whisky broth. All menus (there’s a £60 lunch and shorter £95 tasting too) are super-seasonal so there’s always something new to discover. Right now, the gorgeous glossy Gâteau St Honoré with first of the season forced rhubarb has our attention. Pairings include wines, non-alcoholic drinks, and a combination of the two.
The Clove Club, Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, Shoreditch, London, EC1
thecloveclub.com
