All-day restaurant Portland set to launch in the New Year

Co-founded by Will Lander (co-owner of The Quality Chop House) and Daniel Morgenthau (previously of 10 Greek Street), the venue will offer modern British dishes with north European influences.

The menu, created by head chef Merlin Labron-Johnson (previously sous chef at In De Wulf in Belgium), includes starters such as white bean soup with winter truffle or mackerel with turnip and wasabi; and mains like pumpkin gnocchi with chestnuts and brown butter; or spiced barbecued pork belly with grilled red cabbage and mustard seed.

For dessert, diners have a range of options, including lemon meringue tart and rice pudding.

“We’re very excited about [Labron-Johnson] bringing something slightly different to the London dining scene, still with the same emphasis on seasonality and using the best possible British ingredients available, but with some northern European influences. His cooking is slightly lighter than the food at other restaurants, and has more refreshing acidity as opposed to lots of butter and oil,” Morgenthau told BigHospitality.

Design​

Located at 113 Great Portland Street in a former clothes showroom, the venue will have a ‘light and airy’ design in order not to distract from the restaurant’s main focus: food, wine – the list will include 45 seasonally changing wines – and service.

“Our philosophy in terms of food, wine and service carried through the design, so rather than going for a concept-led design, we just wanted to think about all the aspects of restaurants that we enjoyed and bring that into the design. Everything that from our experience at restaurants we thought customers would enjoy – that’s been the driving force throughout,” he added.

One-site restaurant​

The two long-time friends have no plans to roll out the concept.

“It’s very much a one-site restaurant. We’re just trying to build a really strong kitchen and front of house team, and it’s quite unique to the location and space we’ve created. Will and myself want to be there the whole time so it’s not something that we plan to replicate,” Morgenthau concluded.