The biggest restaurant opening news this October is the restaurant that’s not opening. Brad Carter, who won a Michelin star at Carters of Moseley in Birmingham, was due to make his London debut at Undercroft in the crypt of St George’s Church in Mayfair; two weeks ago, the chef announced that he was no longer involved in the project.
Still, the capital’s chef followers have no shortage of fresh meat to feast on this month, with new ventures from big names including Jason Atherton, Chris Denney, Prince Durairaj and Santiago Lastra.
And if you’re not in the mood for a full meal, the Jackson Boxer-curated bar snacks at Below Stone Nest in Soho sound like they’re going to be top notch, as too the wood-fired pizzas at Ben Tish’s Blood Orange bar in the basement of Belgravia’s The Orange. Cheers!
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Not a homage to Henry, Jane and Peter, this Mayfair newcomer is instead inspired by the fondas of Mexico, the inexpensive and unpretentious places to eat found throughout Mexico City. That is pretty much the opposite of what Santiago Lastra offers at his 50 Best Restaurants-rated Kol in Marylebone, so it will be interesting to see whether he is the rare Michelin-starred chef who can successfully turn his hand to casual dining. Signature dishes are set to include confit whole scallops on a gooseberry, sesame and burnt jalapeño salsa: not, perhaps, what one might find on a CDMX street corner, but very much at home in Mayfair. As at the interior-design dream of Kol, the look of Fonda will be as important as what’s on the plate, with vibrant splashes of primary colours and a clay comal, or tortilla griddle, as a focal point.
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Might The Devonshire soon have a rival for London’s best new pub? This promising-sounding addition to the Notting Hill end of Kensington Church Street ticks every box for the smart Londoner. Owner Jamie Allsopp is from a long line of Burton-on-Trent brewers — his ancestor Samuel pioneered IPA — and his ambition here is to revive the cask ales his forebears served at their Blue Stoops pub in the Staffordshire town famous as the home of British beer. Other excellent heritage drinks will include Blandy’s Madeira served by the glass, though the food menu overseen by Caravel founder Lorcan Spiteri is just as much of an attraction. Expect duck liver brûlée and chicken, leek and trompette pie washed down with Allsopp’s Pale Ale, IPA and Best Bitter on draught.
Motcombs St John’s Wood
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Belgravia’s Motcombs was last fashionable when Peter York penned The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook in 1982. Forty-two years after the restaurant’s launch, could Motcombs become an equally essential hangout for the 21st century with the opening of a St John’s Wood sibling? Certainly the Motcombs formula has timeless appeal: British comfort food served from breakfast to supper in art-strewn interiors illuminated by theatrical chandeliers. New York pizzas will be a thing here, too, as well as cocktails in the bar. Otherwise expect the likes of eggs Benedict, Dover sole and shepherd’s pie overseen by head chef of Motcombs Belgravia Veronica Pestana, who has worked at the original for over 10 years.
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Anyone missing Jason Atherton’s creative modern British cooking at Pollen Street Social should hotfoot it to Chelsea, where a location among the grocers and fishmongers of Pavilion Road suggests that the chef has lost none of his passion for top-notch native ingredients: Cornish fish, Scottish shellfish, carefully sourced meats and as-local-as-possible fruit and veg. On the plate that might mean a British ibérico pork chop with chutney, cooked by executive chef Jake Oswin, who has made the short journey from Dinner by Heston Blumenthal on Knightsbridge. The other big signing is bar manager Jerson Alexander, ex of The Dorchester, who is shaking up some impressive-sounding cocktails.
Jean Cazals
Chris Denney made his name with 108 Garage and Fiend in Notting Hill; now the chef is staying within the Royal Borough for his next equally distinctive project, a candlelit restaurant in Chelsea. Small plates of assertively flavoured, umami-heavy food are Denney’s stock-in-trade, though he’s going less big on the protein at Fantômas, with the veg dishes sounding just as compelling as the meat-and-fish offerings. Things kick off with farinata, the chickpea pancakes of Liguria, here made in a special oven and topped with lamb heart ragù or garlic, parsley and wild oregano; elsewhere on the menu, mix-and-match between the likes of pilchards with gochujang and tomato, veal sweetbreads with bulgogi and green onion, or salt-baked celeriac with Marmite hollandaise.
Opens: Week of October 21
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Following the huge success of the Tamil Prince and Crown in Islington, chef Prince Durairaj is taking his Tamil Nadu cooking south to Clapham, evolving a venture that started in a Hackney food hall into a fully fledged restaurant.
London’s third Lima is pitching up in the boutique Sun Street Hotel between Shoreditch and the City, bringing its zingy Peruvian cooking to east London.
Anyone worried that AI is about to take their job should spare a thought for hospitality workers: Yari Club claims to be first robotic machine-operated yakitori restaurant in the UK.
A third restaurant from the couple behind Delamina and Delamina East, this Covent Garden sibling in a Grade II-listed townhouse will deal in the same fragrant Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, with an emphasis on grilling and roasting.
Best known for grab-and-go Chinese roast meat counters in the City, this west London outpost of Three Uncles will be closer to the eat-in ethos of the Brixton Village original, albeit on a much larger scale: 50 seats and a longer menu.