Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal
Claiming two Michelin stars straight from the off, Alex Dilling’s new restaurant is a masterclass in refined French cooking where technique and flavour is everything and dishes taste as good as they look - and they look sublime. In super high-end restaurant terms, Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal is without doubt one of the most impressive openings of the year, if not the last couple.
Beckford Canteen
Former Kitty Fisher’s and Cora Pearl chef George Barson returned to the southwest last year to launch Beckford Canteen, a bright and breezy all-day dining room in Bath. Barson has kept things simple - with the occasional well executed culinary flourish - with a concise menu of crowd-pleasing dishes that combine to create the perfect local restaurant.
Bouchon Racine
London has been worse off from a culinary perspective ever since Henry Harris closed his Knightsbridge restaurant Racine back in 2015. In the intervening years Harris has gone on to do numerous projects, including at a number of pubs, and his most recent project finds him - and business partner Dave Strauss - at a pub yet again, this time cooking above the Three Compasses in Farringdon. What is different this time round, however, is that he has revived Racine and its classic French cooking for which it was known and loved. Menus at Bouchon Racine are chalked up every day, but stalwarts such as the steak tartare; escargots; and creme caramel with armagnac prune are seldom unavailable.
Casa
Occupying the site that was once Casamia, Casa sees Peter Sanchez-Iglesias return to his roots cooking refined Italian food in a more relaxed environment. His latest restaurant draws on dishes served at both his Michelin-starred Paco Tapas and his London restaurant Decimo, serving some of the most refined and creative Italian food in the UK right now.
Climat
This wine-led rooftop restaurant in Manchester is the second project from the team behind Covino, which opened in Chester in 2016. This time round executive chef Luke Richardson serves a menu of ‘Parisian expat food’ – a nod towards the time he spent in the kitchens of the French capital - that is complement by a wine list of more than 400 different bins.
Crocadon
It’s been a long time coming, but Roux Scholar Dan Cox finally opened the doors to his farm-based restaurant Crocadon at the start of the year. The restaurant serves a regularly changing tasting menu of six or 10 courses based largely on what has been harvested on the organic and regenerative farm of the same name that week. The 25-cover dining room's former barn location adds to the bucolic charm of Cox’s project, that promises ‘pared-back yet technically-complex cooking'.
Furna
Chef Dave Mothersill’s debut restaurant is one of the most ambitious new launches in Brighton & Hove for some time. The 37-cover restaurant is a statement of intent, serving a £90 tasting menu and complete with a bounteous cheese trolley that more than holds its own with the likes of Chez Bruce et al.
Gwen
Former Ynyshir head chef Corrin Harrison runs the kitchen at this bijou wine bar and restaurant located in Machynlleth. To the front is a dark-themed modern wine bar serving a tight bar snack menu andfto the rear is an intimate eight-seat restaurant where Harrison cooks an inventive 10-course tasting menu from a tiny kitchen. Gwen uses some of the same ingredients as the nearby two-star Ynyshir restaurant so diners can expect something special.
Higher Ground
This Manchester restaurant is run by Joseph Otway, Richard Cossins and Daniel Craig Martin, the trio having met at Dan Barber’s renowned New York restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Their creative and sometimes experimental approach shares much of the same ethos as Barber’s restaurant with a focus on regenerative farming and local produce, of which around 90% is sourced from Cinderwood, their farm in nearby Nantwich. The restaurant's clever interior, with the open kitchen central island also operating as a counter for both eating and drinking at adding to its cool charm.
Ikoyi
Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale made the bold decision of moving their two Michelin-starred Ikoyi from St James’ to within the 180 The Strand building, which has seen them create an entirely new restaurant with new dishes as a result. Despite the upheaval, the restaurant impressively retained its two-star rating, testament to the pair’s ambition and attention to detail.
Mriya
When Ukrainian chef Yurii Kovryzhenko and his partner Olga Tsybytovska found they were unable to return home due to Russia’s invasion of their homeland they decided to bring a slice of Ukraine to London with the opening of a neo bistro. Blurring the lines between casual and high-end, their new restaurant is not just a place for excellent Ukrainian food but is a show of defiance, with the restaurant’s entire team made up of Ukrainian refugees, nearly all of whom came to London to seek shelter after the Russia invasion.
Taku
Taku is one of a number of omakase restaurants that have opened in the capital this year but has made the most impact, winning a Michelin star just months after its launch. Led by chef Takuya Watanabe - founder and chef-patron of Jin Paris, the first sushi omakase in Paris to get a Michelin star - the 16-cover restaurant serves a menu that changes daily based on what ingredients are seasonal and available on the day.
The Opening of the Year will be announced at the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards, being held at The Hurlingham Club on 12 June.