Bibigo Angel will be located on St John Street on the site of the former Naamya Thai restaurant, and serve contemporary Korean food including barbecue items.
The venue’s central feature will be its Korean grill barbecue allowing diners to see head chef Yongjae Cho and his team in action. Yongjae’s launch menu will include: chilli barbecued pork and squid and Kimchi rice with chicken and fried egg.
The 90-cover restaurant will also have a 28-cover lounge bar with a drinks menu featuring cocktails made with soju (a spirit popular in Korea), created by bar manager Raphael Thierry. Bar snacks inspired by Korean street food will also be on offer.
CJ brought in Central Design Studio to create the venue’s Seoul-inspired interiors, which are described as ‘informal, combining contemporary and traditional elements’.
Korean Head Chef Yongjae Cho previously launched CJ’s Bibigo restaurants in the US, China, Singapore and Japan.
Delayed opening
The second UK Bibigo comes over two years after the first one, despite CJ’s announcement in 2012 that other sites would be open by the end of that year.
“We aim to become the best-known and also preferred Korean restaurant brand in the UK within a short amount of time.
“We also want to expand our brand with quick service bibimbap in the near future,” Bibigo brand manager Haejin Choi said at the time.
Bibigo’s portfolio also includes several casual restaurants in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, China, Vietnam and Los Angeles. These fast-casual restaurants focus on Bibimbap – a combination of rice, vegetables and gojuchang (chilli paste), to which restaurants often add beef, raw fish or tofu and an egg on top.