The new restaurant will open in April next year on the ground floor of a former office block at Westferry Circus and will join Tom's Kitchen in Chelsea, which opened as an informal option to Aiken's Michelin-starred Tom Aikens restaurant in 2006 and Tom's Kitchen at Somerset House, opened in conjunction with Compass Group in 2009.
Tom's Kitchen at Canary Wharf will be the first to open since the restaurant group received investment from the Turkish restaurant group London Doors in March 2011 and is the result of a lengthy search for the right site.
Aikens said: “We have been exploring options for a space in East London for some time now and we are thrilled to be moving forward with this exciting third location. We are keen to offer our quality British comfort food, featuring the finest seasonal produce to the thriving Canary Wharf community.”
Growth
The news follows the re-opening of Aikens' Michelin starred Restaurant Tom Aikens in January of this year. The restaurant, which regained its Michelin star this year, had been closed for six months while it was given a new look and Aikens worked on a new simpler focus for the menu as part of a better fit for the new investor.
Following news of London Doors' investment it was made clear that expansion of the Tom's Kitchen was planned. A spokesperson for the restaurant group said it planned to open 12 sites under the Tom's Kitchen name, principally in London, by 2016.