WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOU NEED TO EAT IN 2023?

Food & drink editor Joanna Taylor is very excited about nine new openings next year — and thinks you should be, too

1 BOSSA, MARYLEBONE

Brazilian chef Alberto Landgraf already knows London inside out. Why? Because before taking Rio de Janeiro by storm with his two-Michelin-star restaurant, Oteque (rated 47 on the world’s 50 Best Restaurant list), he was sharpening his knives on this city’s soil with the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Tom Aikens.

Now, he is set on transporting the culture of his home country to our capital for us to enjoy from February. ‘But not the tacky idea of Brazil,’ he says. ‘I want to show people the modern Brazil, a hub of design and a really diverse society.’ Named after bossa nova, Brazilian samba music characterised by innovative, unconventional chords, the restaurant’s food will also channel Japanese, French and British influences, says Landgraf. But you can still expect to find delicious, fresh takes on classics such as salt cod fritters and dishes featuring the country’s iconic tucupi sauce and juice, made from manioc root found in the Amazon, all served alongside the best of British and rarely exported Brazilian wines. Yes, please.

2 CHISHURU 2.0, LOCATION TBC

Nigerian-born chef Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare never really planned to run a restaurant, but having cultivated a stellar reputation for her knock-out dinner parties and supper clubs, then winning a competition to secure a temporary pop-up in Brixton Village, she hasn’t looked back. After extending her residency in the market for an additional two years, the Brixton site is now closed and Bakare is making it her mission to open an even bigger, better space. ‘It was only meant to be a pop-up space and it wasn’t working well any more. We want to give people the Chishuru experience but better.’ In the new 50-seater eatery, opening in March, Bakare is looking forward to experimenting with fermentation, being able to rustle up a longer tasting menu, and cook up more things in the grill. ‘We haven’t run out of ideas yet, we’re still exploring the dishes of West Africa,’ she says. Needless to say, we can’t wait to discover them, too.

3 PAPI, LONDON FIELDS

Hackney It concept Hot 4 U is going all grown up. Since arriving during the pandemic, Matthew Scott’s wildly chaotic and wholly delicious residencies at multiple pubs (now at The Haggerston with a concept called Beak) have certainly made their mark on the London food scene, with dishes including beef tartare with Pom-Bears, beak-to-tail chicken sandos and the F*** Boris Ex-Dairy Cheeseburger. Now, since becoming a father, Scott thinks it’s time to settle down with his own 28-seater bricks-and-mortar site in collaboration with Charlie Carr, founder of Wingnut Wines. ‘I’ve been doing Hot 4 U for two and a half years now and created it out of boredom, really. It was a very different time, nurturing something through a summer of love. It was a very exciting, very new concept that involved a lot of learning on the go. Papi will be Hot 4 U grown-up because we’ve