Restaurant Radar: September 2017
Ella Canta
The long-awaited high-end Mexican restaurant from renowned chef Martha Ortiz opens later this month. The menu takes inspiration from her restaurant, Dulce Patria in Mexico City, which is one of the Latin American’s top 50 best restaurants. Starters will include vampire ceviche with mango and sangrita sorbet and crispy pork and amaranth tamal with chiltomate sauce and pickled red onion with main courses including Seafood and lobster pozole with cacahuazintle corn.
One Hamilton Place, Park Lane, W1J 7QY
Waka
Waka claims to be the first to offer Japanese-Peruvian dishes in a grab-and-go format. It is the brainchild of siblings Irakli and Nino Sopromadze and will focus on Nikkei cuisine. Dishes will include sea bass ceviche with leche de tigre (a citrus based marinade) and hot teriyaki rice bowls with Peruvian purple potato. The prices will range from £4 to £7 and be prepared fresh every day. There will also be a 60-cover basement dining area.
39a Eastcheap, London EC3M 1DE
Mam
The team behind Salvation in Noodles will open 40-cover restaurant Mam, inspired by the barbecue street food stalls found in Vietnam. The menu will focus on skewered meat cooked on a robata grill and served with fermented dipping sauce. The skewers will predominantly feature cuts of chicken, but will also showcase weekly specials such as rare-breed beef and seafood, accompanied by rice noodle parcels, chopped veg, colourful pickles, fresh Vietnamese herbs, lettuce leaves and rice paper wrappers.
16 All Saints Rd, London, W11 1HH
Flavour Bastard
On the former Arbutus site in London’s Soho, this unusually named restaurant is from restaurateur Vic Singh and executive chef Pratap Chahal and focuses on mixing vibrant ingredients from around the world. The menu is split into tiny and small plates designed to be shared or doubled-up as large plates for big appetites. Dishes include white lentil, chorizo and pecorino doughnut; steamed rice cake with house kimchi, sesame and ssam; steak tartare with tamarind, chilli and garlic; and tandoori fried chicken.
63-64 Frith St, Soho, London W1D 3JW
Breddos Taqueria
The second restaurant for duo Nud Dudhia and Chris Whitney. The 84-cover venue, is more than double the size of their original Clerkenwell site, with a basement Mezcal and Margarita bar. It will also house a specially designed pizza oven that will be used to make Breddos’ interpretations of Mexican pizzas. The menu will see a mix of old favourites as well as new dishes. A Mescal and Margarita bar will serve margaritas and stock over 30 different Mescals alongside a selection of cocktails. Breddos will also be brewing their own beer using Mexican yeast, in collaboration with Magic Rock.
26 Kingly Street, Carnaby, London
breddostacos.com/
Taka
Restaurateur Andrey Datsenko and his sister Anastasia will open a Japanese restaurant and cocktail bar in the heart of Shepherd Market in Mayfair taking inspiration from their debut restaurant in Tokyo of the same name. The restaurant will serve an extensive selection of Japanese signature dishes from tataki, tempura and salads to sashimi platters, inside out rolls and yaktori. A ground bar with capacity for 16 people standing will offer a collection of sake, Japanese liquor and whiskey cocktails.
Taka, 18 Shepherd Market, London Mayfair W1J 7QH
Takalondon.com
Gul and Sepoy
The latest venture from the husband and wife team behind Gunpowder and Madam D will open in Spitalfields this autumn. The menu will be divided into two sections, with the ‘Gul’ section echoing the age-old banquets of the Raj palaces in North-Western India with lavish flavours and ‘Sepoy’ reflecting executive chef Nirmal Save’s modern interpretation of the provincial style-food associated with the soldiers of the Indian army.
65 Commercial Street, London, E1 6BD
Yamabahce
Alan Yau is back in the restaurant game after a very brief sabbatical with the opening of Yamabahce in Marylebone later this month. The restaurant will focus also solely on Turkish pizza pide and is due to open in the second week of September.
26 James St, Marylebone, London W1U 1EN
M Bar and Grill Twickenham
Opening at Brewery Wharf, opposite Twickenham Station, the smaller sibling to M Restaurants’ two London venues opens on 11 September. The restaurant will have a strong rugby focus and will run match day packages (from £295) as part of its offer.
Brewery Lane Brewery Wharf, Twickenham, TW1 1AA
http://mrestaurants.co.uk/twickenham/
La Fromagerie
Opening on 11 September, this will be the third cheese shop and cafe in the group. Located on a corner site on Lambs Conduit Street the ground floor will feature a shop selling seasonal fruit and vegetables, breads and cakes along with a 26-cover bar and café with al fresco pavement dining while the downstairs Tasting Room will be available for private hire and tutored tasting events.
52 Lambs Conduit Street, Bloomsbury
