Restaurant Radar: November 2017
The Good Egg
London brunch favourite The Good Egg is bringing its Jewish deli and Israeli-inspired dishes to Soho’s Kingly Court after raising £500,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. Chef owners Joel Braham, Alex Coppard and Oded Mizrachi opened the original Stoke Newington restaurant in 2015, and are launching a stand-alone bar and bakery at the new 90-cover site. The trio have taken over one half of Alan Yau’s former Cha Cha Moon site in Soho, which was split in two earlier this year. Chef Stevie Parle has taken the other unit for his pasta restaurant Pastaio.
Unit G9, Kingly Court, Carnaby St, Carnaby, W1B 5PW
The Butcher’s Tap
Chef Tom Kerridge is teaming up with brewer and pub operator Greene King to open a pub and butchery in Marlow. The Butcher’s tap will trade as a butcher’s and bar by day before switching to a simple and (unsupsrisingly) meat-led offering by evening. The menu is described as a celebration of meat with ‘plenty of British favourites such as braised faggots and hot-pots, homemade pies, scotch eggs and sausage rolls’. It will be Kerridge's third opening in Marlow, joining his newly Michelin-starred The Coach and two-star The Hand and Flowers pubs.
Find The Butcher's Tap on Twitter @MarlowButchers
Fiume
Francesco Mazzei is to open his third restaurant with D&D London, at Battersea Power Station. Fiume, named after the Italian word for river, will serve dishes paying homage to Mezzogiorno – the southern ‘boot’ of Italy – when it launches at the £9bn riverside project. The restaurant will offer lunch and dinner with dishes including handmade burrata tortellini with hazelnuts and sage; while Mazzei is also bringing his signature zucchini fritti and tiramisu south of the river. Hungover Battersea residents can also enjoy the chef’s Italian take on weekend brunch, with eggs purgatorio (in a fiery tomato sauce).
Unit 24, Circus West, Battersea Power Station, London SW11 8EZ
http://www.fiume-restaurant.co.uk/
Hovarda
The team behind Marylebone’s Yosma are opening this Aegean-inspired restaurant in London’s Chinatown. Hovarda will focus on Greek and Turkish raw seafood and grilled dishes with a menu overseen by Hus Vedat, former executive chef at Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa. The restaurant will offer a daily-changing menu depending on the catch of the day on the UK coast. There will also be a 74-cover bar serving spirits and classic cocktails. Hovarda is part of the Good Food Society restaurant group, which also runs Yosma and Ristorante Frescobaldi in London’s Mayfair.
36-40 Rupert St, London, W1D 6DR
Yen
The noodle specialist has won plaudits since opening in Paris’ fashionable Germain de Pres district in 2000, and now it’s crossing the channel for its first London site. The fine dining restaurant, which is recommended in the French Michelin Guide, has chosen to make its debut at the luxury 190 Strand residential development. Yen will serve hand-made soba noodles prepared fresh before each service, alongside sushi, tempura and other traditional Japanese dishes. The London site will feature an open kitchen and sushi counter where diners can watch the chefs in action, as well as a cocktail bar with outside seating.
190 Strand, 5 Arundel Street, London, WC2R 1NB
https://yen-london.co.uk/about
Indian Accent
One of the world’s most vaunted Indian restaurant is scheduled to launch in Mayfair this month, although overrunning building works could well see it open its doors in December. Helmed by chef Manish Mehrotra, Indian Accent currently has restaurants in New Delhi and New York. The original restaurant in India is one of the highest rated places to eat in the subcontinent. It is currently the only Indian restaurant in India to feature on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list (number 78 on the 51-100 list) and has been named the best restaurant in India by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants for three years running. On the former site of Chor Bizzare, Indian Accent London will serve an 11-course tasting menu alongside a la carte. Mehrotra’s dishes include chicken kofta with Punjabi kadhi and onion pakora; crab claws with butter, pepper, garlic and cauliflower; and goat brains with Khasta roti.
16 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4HW
Bombay Bustle
The restaurant formerly known as Dabbawala (the name was already taken by a venue in Nottingham) opens later this month just off Regent Street on Maddox Street. In the site that was once home to Claude Bosi’s Hibiscusm, Bombay Bustle is inspired by dabbawalas, who used Mumbai’s railway to deliver home cooked meals across the city in tiffin boxes. The restaurant is operated by the same people behind Jamavar, which won a Michelin star last month. Executive chef Rohit Ghai has penned a menu that includes Kolhapuri spiced spit roasted chicken; Seabass and scallop tawa pulao; Kerala style ishtew with idiyappam; and a sweet double ka meetha with tutti fruity masala milk and almonds. The restaurant will also offer tiered tiffin dabbas at lunchtimes.
29 Maddox Street, London W1S 2PA
Sophie's Soho
Sophie’s will once again become a two-site steakhouse group with the opening of a restaurant - its biggest to date - in Soho at the end of the month. The New York inspired steakhouse brand, which launched on Chelsea’s Fulham Road in 2002, will open a large, multi-faceted restaurant on Great Windmill Street in the former Moulin Cinema, famous for the screening of racy 70’s movies and Carry On films. The new site will incorporate a 125-cover all-day dining restaurant, bar and 25-cover terrace as well as a 120-cover high-end steakhouse, while next door will be a six-seat kiosk with an in-built wood-fired smoker that will serve dishes to take out. The main restaurant will also feature an in-house butchers. The opening follows the closure of Sophie’s in Covent Garden, which shut it doors in June this year after nearly nine years’ trading.
42-44 Great Windmill Street, London W1D 7NF
Londrino
Portuguese chef Leandro Carreira, formerly of Viajante and Lyles, will launch his first solo restaurant near London Bridge later this month. In Snowfields Yard, Londrino, will be a collaboration between Carreira and hotel and restaurant operator, Loh Peng, owner of the Unlisted Collection. Born and raised in Leiria in Portugal, Carreira first started working in restaurants in Lisbon before travelling around Europe and the Middle East. He landed a job at Mugaritz in northern Spain — currently rated the ninth best restaurant in world by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants — where he worked for three years before coming to London and cooking alongside fellow Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes at Viajante. He has since also worked with James Lowe at Lyles and with Junya Yamasaki at Koya. His new restaurant will serve food influenced by the flavours of Portugal with an emphasis on seafood.
36 Snowsfields, London, SE1 3SU
Duddell’s
Hong Kong’s JIA Group’s London iteration of Duddell’s opens later this month in St Thomas Church, London Bridge. Founded by restaurateur Yenn Wong, the original Hong Kong restaurant has two Michelin stars and serves dim sum alongside modern Cantonese dishes. The kitchen at the UK site will be headed up by Daren Liew, who previously held the role of executive sous chef at the Hakkasan Group. The menu will feature Liew’s reinterpretations of classic Cantonese dishes, such as ying yang prawn with citrus dressing; smoked Black Angus ribs with red wine soy and baby peach; and chargrilled black cod with truffle, Chinese-aged vinegar, lily bulb and Nameko mushroom. Alongside Liew’s dishes, there will also be signature dishes from the group’s Hong Kong restaurant, such as Guandong crispy salted chicken; 12 hour XO beef shin with sea vegetables; and barbecued Iberico pork with honey glazed soy bean.
St Thomas Street, London SE1 9RY
