Ten top new restaurants to visit after lockdown
Ten new restaurants to get excited about
Opening a new restaurant during one of the toughest periods the hospitality industry has ever known might feel akin to parking an ice cream van in the seventh circle of hell but, as a raft of new openings are proving, it takes more than a global trauma to keep a good chef down. Exciting new ventures are popping up all over the country, from buzzy city joints to cute countryside restaurants-with-rooms, from which we’ve selected 10 we can’t wait to visit. If there’s one thing these chefs can count on right now, it’s customers who’ve never been more grateful for a table.
1. Imad’s Syrian Kitchen
Imad Alarnab ran a restaurant group in Damascus in the 2000s, until the civil war in Syria meant he had to abandon it and flee to Europe. Along the way he cooked for refugees in Calais, and raised £200k to help keep Aleppo’s children’s hospital running, so if anyone deserves some karmic payback — in the form of a permanent restaurant in London — it’s him. Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, serving dishes including crispy baby aubergine stuffed with lamb and Alarnab’s “famous” falafel, has finally opened in Soho. Good news all round.
Kingly Court off Carnaby Street, London W1; imadssyriankitchen.co.uk
2. Humble Chicken
You might not expect to see chicken knees on a menu (you might not have known chickens had knees), but do not be surprised to find them on a skewer at the new yakitori restaurant from Tokyo-born Angelo Sato, former head chef at Restaurant Story. Humble Chicken, which has just opened on the site of the original Barrafina, embraces a “comb-to-tail” ethos that celebrates the whole of the bird — and a saké cocktail or two — in intimate Soho surroundings.
54 Frith Street, London W1; humblechickenuk.com
3. The Loch and The Tyne
Chef Adam Handling was forced to close four of his sites last year, but he’s coming back with a vengeance this spring; or, more specifically, a pub. The Loch and The Tyne, which is in neither the northeast nor the Highlands but in Windsor, is not just any old boozer: there’s also a restaurant serving dishes such as Balmoral chicken (a chook stuffed with haggis, to the proles) with wild garlic and black truffles, and even two bedrooms for anyone who can’t quite make it home. 10 Crimp Hill, Old Windsor SL4; lochandtyne.com
4. House of Jöro
Chef Luke French has already made a name for himself in Sheffield, where he runs the acclaimed Japanese and Scandinavian inspired restaurantin-an-ex-shipping-container Jöro, at which dishes might include tartare of Scottish wagyu with pommes frites, or brown butter waffle, brown butter ice cream and Sheffield honey. Right now, he’s opening three new ventures including two food-hall sites in Liverpool, but it’s the new fourroom hotel, House of Jöro, that also has a 10-seat chef’s table, that really floats our boat.
1–3 Malinda Street, Sheffield S3; jororestaurant.co.uk
5. Meadowsweet
Chef Greg Anderson and his general manager wife Rebecca, who previously worked together at the Michelin-starred Morston Hall in Norfolk, have just opened a small but perfectly formed restaurant of six or seven tables (and three bedrooms) in a Grade II-listed building in Holt. Scotland-born Anderson tells Esquire that the food will be influenced by his fine-dining background and focus on sustainable British produce, but most importantly it will be “stuff I like to eat”. Sounds good to us.
37 Norwich Road, Holt NR25; meadowsweetholt.com
6. Bao Noodle Shop
Shing Tat Chung, Erchen Chang and Wai Ting Chung have done wonders for the fluffy Taiwanese bun at the five London branches of Bao, making them both hip and hot (by which we mean trendy; they’ve always been warm). From late June, they’ll be doing it for beef noodle soup in their newest venture in East London, which will feature a menu of only two main dishes: a Tainan-style broth with white soy and poached rib-eye, and a Taipei-style broth with braised beef cheek, spiced beef butter and greens. Still, it feels like an impossible choice.
1 Redchurch Street, London E2; baolondon.com
7. Unalome by Graeme Cheevers
Amazingly, Glasgow hasn’t been home to a Michelin-starred restaurant since 2004, though chef Graeme Cheevers might well be on the cusp of changing all that as he opens his own restaurant in his home city. Cheevers, who has worked at Martin Wishart in Loch Lomond and the Isle of Eriska Hotel, both of which boast a Michelin star, will serve a changing menu of locally sourced dishes to 60-plus covers. Unalome is the Buddhist symbol representing the path of life and spiritual transcendence, so it’s fair to say he’s aiming high. 36 Kelvingrove Street, Glasgow G3; unalomebygc.com
8. Rita’s
Bodega Rita’s in King’s Cross earned itself cult status for its elevated take on the sandwich — did you try the King Banh Mi? If not, boy, you haven’t lived! — and though it closed last year it is happily being reincarnated in EC1 soon. Even more exciting is the imminent “modern American” restaurant, Rita’s; co-owners Missy Flynn and Gabriel Pryce’s menu will include dishes such as grilled sugar-pit pork neck with sautéed greens and clams with creamed celery and fried Idaho scones (nope, not a clue!), so expect their non-sandwich offerings to be just as original — and delicious. 49 Lexington Street, London W1F; ritasdining.com
9. Emily Scott Food
The pop-up in Newquay’s Watergate Bay last summer run by chef Emily Scott, who also heads up the kitchen at St Tudy Inn, was such a hit that she’s now taking over the site permanently. Come for the food — Scott focuses on carefully selected local ingredients and preparation, creating elegant, simple dishes that are big on flavour and light on fuss — and stay for the beautiful bay views; the restaurant is perched right above the beach.
Watergate Bay, Newquay TR8; emilyscottfood.com
10. El Pastor Soho
No one was sadder than us about the shuttering of Hix in Soho in 2019 (except, possibly, Mark Hix), but the fact that the site has become a new branch of El Pastor, the beloved taqueria chain run by the Harts Group (Barrafina, Quo Vadis), does something to lessen the sting. The groundfloor restaurant will focus on seafood tostadas and introduce a crispy duck taco plate, and the legendary downstairs bar — which, let’s face it, is the bit we’re most excited/terrified about — will become Mezcaleria El Colmillo, which translates as “The Fang”.
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66–70 Brewer Street, London W1; tacoselpastor.co.uk