According to Covent Garden’s website, the 96-cover restaurant will launch on 29 August, and will “bring modern Chinese cuisine and supercharged dim-sum” to the area.
Last August, the restaurant acquired a three-storey Covent Garden site next to Balthazar - another New York import - on Russell Street, but ‘coming soon’ hoardings have covered the windows since demolition of the interior was completed.
When it launches, the restaurant will feature similar design to its New York counterparts, including exposed brick walls, and light wooden floors and furnishings. Long, communal tables will allow for tables of up to 26 guests, with the option of booth or bar seating as well.
An Instagram post by Zeren Wilson shows the inside of the newly-refurbished restaurant, which does indeed look to have been modelled on the interior of the group’s Hudson Street site in New York.
The restaurant will serve the same style of contemporary Chinese small plates as at its New York sites, created by dim sum chef Joe Ng. Signature dishes such as the Instagram-friendly PacMan shrimp dumplings will be on the menu, alongside the likes of yuzu wasabi shrimp; spicy crispy beef; mushroom and vegetable spring rolls; barbecue pork lettuce wraps; and beef dumplings with chanterelle mushrooms.
Rumours of RedFarm’s opening have been in circulation since 2016, when Marina O’Loughlin tweeted that she had heard “on trustable authority” that the famed Chinese restaurant was set to launch on these shores.
RedFarm currently operates two restaurants in New York, on the Upper West Side and the West Village.