Restaurant radar: April 2018

Chokhi Dhani, Battersea​

Chokhi Dhani is the latest Indian hospitality group to launch a restaurant in London. The company, which has operated hotels, restaurants and resorts in India since 1990, is bringing its ‘fine food and vibrant atmosphere’ to the UK. Chokhi Dhani London will launch on Riverside Walk in Battersea, early this month, just along the Thames from the Battersea Power Station development.
2 Riverlight Quay, Nine Elms Lane, London, SW11 8AW​
chokhidhani.co.uk/​

The Fishmarket, Edinburgh​

High profile Scottish seafood chef Roy Brett is teaming up with the owner of Welch Fishmongers to open a new seafood restaurant in Edinburgh. The Fishmarket is expected to open in Leith’s Newhaven Harbour this month. Details are scarce, but the restaurant will sport a Champagne and oyster bar and offer a range of sustainable fish dishes.
The Fishmarket, 24-25 Pier Place, Newhaven, Edinburgh EH6 4LP​ 
www.thefishmarketnewhaven.co.uk/​

Inko Nito, Soho​

Restaurant group Zuma is launching a Japanese robata concept in London’s Soho this April. The group, which operates a number of hugely successful restaurants around the world, including Zuma in Knightsbridge, has secured a site at 55 Broadwick Street for the new concept, called Inko Nito. In keeping with the Zuma approach, the restaurant will be a casual robata restaurant, with an open kitchen where diners will see food people prepared over charcoal.
55 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 9QS​ 
inkonitorestaurant.com/london-soho/​

Tortilleria El Pastor, Bermondsey​

Sam and James Hart and Crispin Somerville are to open a smaller version of their Borough-market restaurant El Pastor that will offer tacos to eat in and takeaway. Opening on 13 April, Tortilleria El Pastor will be located under railway arches at 106 Druid Street close to weekend hotspot Maltby Street Market. Like El Pastor, the tortilleria, or tortilla factory, will make fresh tortillas from scratch every day, using Mexican heirloom corn (maize).

Tortilleria El Pastor, 106 Druid Street, SE1 2HH​

Cornerstone, Hackney Wick​

Tom Brown, the former head chef of Outlaw’s at The Capital opens his first solo restaurant in Hackney Wick on 24 April. Although Brown is reluctant to call it a ‘fish restaurant’, the menu is expected to have a strong seafood slant, and will consist of small sharing dishes presented as “an unstructured tasting menu that you share”.

Cornerstone, 3 Prince Edward Road, London E9 5LX​
cornerstonehackney.com​​

Stem, Mayfair​

Mark Jarvis, chef-patron at award winning London restaurants Anglo in Farringdon and Neo Bistro, near Oxford Street, will open Stem this month. Set over two floors, the restaurant will be located on Princes Street in Mayfair, just off Regent Street. It will be similar in style to Anglo, Jarvis’ debut restaurant, and will be “informal but precise in terms of its modern British food,” he says.

5 Princes Street, London W1B 2LF​ 
www.stem-byneo.co.uk​

Mare Street Kitchen, Hackney​

Gizzi Erskine is opening her first bricks and mortar restaurant in her Mare Street Market development in east London. It will feature room for 70 diners and focus on cooking over a wood fire. Featuring rotisserie and woodfired ovens, inspiration for the menus is taken from the Californian farm to plate movement. The restaurant will champion local produce, and will champion vegetables.

115 Mare St, London E8 4RT​
marestreetmarket.com ​

Chokhi Dhani, Battersea​

Chokhi Dhani is the latest Indian hospitality group to launch a restaurant in London. The company, which has operated hotels, restaurants and resorts in India since 1990, is bringing its ‘fine food and vibrant atmosphere’ to the UK. Chokhi Dhani London will launch on Riverside Walk in Battersea, early this month, just along the Thames from the Battersea Power Station development.
2 Riverlight Quay, Nine Elms Lane, London, SW11 8AW​
chokhidhani.co.uk/​

Maos, Shoreditch​

Nuno Mendes is opening a kitchen, table and wine room in Shoreditch this spring. Located at on Chance Street, the restaurant, Maos, will form part of a new ‘Blue Mountain School’ project launching on 3 April.  The project, which the chef and restaurateur has been planning for two years, is in collaboration with his friend James Brown.
3 Chance Street, London E2 7JB​ 
maos.dinesuperb.com​

Hide, Mayfair​

Ollie Dabbous will open his huge new London restaurant, Hide, this April. The chef has teamed up with Hedonism Wines to open the three storey site at 85 Piccadilly, overlooking Green Park. Hide will be split in to three areas and open seven days a week, from 7.30am to 1am. “Ground” will offer an a la carte lunch and dinner menu, as well as afternoon tea and breakfast, with a bakery serving freshly baked breads and cakes. Diners can enjoy a tasting menu and set lunch at “Above”, while the bar “Below” will serve a selection of Hedonism Wines' spirits and a cocktail menu created by Dabbous’ business partner Oskar Kinberg.

85 Piccadilly, London W1J 7NB​
http://hide.co.uk/​

Neptune, Bloomsbury​

Australian chef Brett Redman is launching his new restaurant at the upcoming Principal London this month. Part of The Principal hotel, the 120-cover venue will be seafood centric and offer contemporary twists on classic dishes. An a la carte menu will include a number of wood red dishes alongside raw dishes including hardshell clams with dill granita and buttermilk; seafood platters; and scallop carpaccio. The menu will include Redman’s British take on caviar service, swapping blinis for fresh waffles and crème fraiche for house-cultured Jersey cream.

8 Russell Square, London WC1B 5BE​ 
www.phcompany.com/principal/london-hotel/dining/neptune/​

Wellbourne, White City​

Two alumni of London’s Michelin-starred Dabbous are set to open their first restaurant in the capital this month. Wellbourne is the brainchild of chefs Ross Gibbens and Michael Kennedy, who worked at Dabbous before it closed in 2017. The team will open in White City Place, a former BBC-owned building in West London which is being transformed in to restaurant, retail and office space. The new Wellbourne will offer a morning brunch and all-day brasserie-style menu, with the team's signature 1970’s-inspired vol-au-vents available in the restaurant and bar from 12.
Unit 2 Westworks Building, 195 Wood Lane, London W12 7FQ​
wellbourne.restaurant/​

Heinz Beck at Browns, central London​

Chef Heinz Beck is returning to London this month to launch a restaurant at Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair. Beck, who has run three-Michelin-starred La Pergola in Rome since 1994, will open Beck at Brown’s on the former site of Hix Mayfair on 16 April. The menu will showcase dishes from across Italy, beginning with small plates such as roasted veal sweetbreads with fava beans, peas and artichokes; house-made pasta dishes including spaghetti cacao e pepe with lime-marinated langoustine; and meat and fish plates such as red mullet ‘sandwich’ with black olive and tarragon.

Brown’s Hotel, Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BP​
https://www.roccofortehotels.com/hotels-and-resorts/browns-hotel/​