Instead, this month’s crop of new openings herald a return to cooking from two of London’s best-known chefs, the relocation of a footballer favourite and a US hot chicken import that should serve as an antidote to any bland turkeys. Read on to discover where to get stuffed this December.
Key & Quill
Chef James Cochran is returning to Islington dining after closing 12:51 in September. The Brave — a name likely to resonate with any London restaurant operator, not just one opening three weeks before Christmas — is a ‘bistro pub’ taking over the Engle Field site on Essex Road, though the name is apparently as much a reference to Cochran’s Glaswegian dad (Braveheart, Scotland the Brave) as the chef’s chutzpah. Expect dishes that riff on his Caribbean-Scottish heritage, made with premium British ingredients (Keltic Seafare, Lake District Farmers) and fresh produce from his native Kent: roast spiced Orkney scallop with tikka masala sauce, roe and coconut, say, or coal-roasted Harrietsham leeks with confit onion and truffle hollandaise.
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UK restaurants backed by US celebrities have a patchy track record, so let’s hope Dave’s Hot Chicken turns out to be more Trejo’s Tacos than Wahlburgers. America’s fastest-growing restaurant chain (200 outlets and counting) is backed by Drake, Usher and Samuel L Jackson and most famous for its Carolina Reaper burger, which is apparently so spicy it requires would-be consumers to sign a waiver before trying it. Fortunately we Brits are a less litigious lot but if that sounds too hot to stomach, there are six grades of spice level available across the rest of the menu of Nashville-style chicken. As for Dave: he is Dave Kopushyan, one of a trio of non-celeb childhood friends who began cooking with portable fryers and folding tables in an East Hollywood car park in 2017. Truly, the American dream made flesh.
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Hot on the heels of Motcombs, Mayfair’s Babbo is the next restaurant to leave the central London rat race for the more genteel surrounds of St John’s Wood. In Babbo’s case, that involves the Italian expanding its offering to an all-day affair that takes in breakfasts on a heated, covered terrace as well as Italian-accented cocktails in the bar. It’s not all poached eggs in parmesan sauce and pompello spritzes here, however. Lunch and dinner might involve beef carpaccio or vitello tonnato, although, as at any neighbourhood Italian worth its sea salt, pasta is the big draw, not least a lasagne involving beef slow-cooked for eight hours. The big question, though, is whether the Premier League footballers who packed out Babbo in its Mayfair incarnation will transfer to NW8?
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Bocconcino, the pair of right-side-of-cheesy Italians in Mayfair and Soho, are branching out with this seafood-focussed sibling on the Strand: perfect for a pre-theatre pizza if your idea of toppings runs to truffle oil (there are simpler offerings, too). Still, it would be a shame to ignore the catch of the day displayed on a glistening seafood counter before being whipped off to be cooked in an open kitchen, whether octopus with cavolo nero or red mullet with mussels. If you still haven’t booked your Christmas party, then Osteria del Mare brings new meaning to the idea of a lock-in: the bank conversion has a private dining room for 18 concealed in a former bank vault, complete with the original safety door.
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Aldo Zilli was a very big name in West End restaurants in the 1990s, with a string of Italian eateries to his name, before the celebrity chef began to focus on the first half of that job description. Now he’s back with a restaurant in the crypt of the 18th-century St George’s Church in Mayfair which, until September, was due to be the first London restaurant of Michelin-starred Birmingham chef Brad Carter. Now instead of cutting-edge, award-chasing tasting menus, guests can expect whole lobster tagliolini, monkfish porchetta, slow-cooked beef rib, and veal escalope saltimbocca, served up to a background of curated art displays and live music.
Me to You
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The Tower Bridge Gunpowder is transforming into a bakery by day (8am-12pm) and sibling to owner Harneet Baweja’s Moi et Toi in Notting Hill. Expect brown butter pecan tarts and Monmouth coffee.
Berberè Tottenham Court Road
A central London outpost for the neighbourhood pizzeria which not only has outposts in Kentish Town and Clapham but 23 branches in its native Italy. Authenticity, then, should be guaranteed.
The good-value steak chain is opening bang opposite Victoria station, which means one can now have a £14 featherblade before catching the train home.
A Clapham Junction debut for Dutch smashburger brand Fat Phill’s, with double cheeseburgers, tamale burgers and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches on the menu.
Burgers from the Dom’s Subs teams on the old Lucky Chip site — less smashburger and more In-N-Out-influenced in its California-inspired beef and veggie burgers as well as fries, sodas and beers.