Top 10 restaurant trends

London’s restaurant scene is notoriously mercurial with new trends constantly emerging for food and drink. db’s Lucy Shaw reveals ten of the current hottest ones.

It’s hard to keep up with the pace of change in London’s Darwinian restaurant scene where competition is rife and only the smartest sites survive. Last year, Londoners went wild for Peruvian food in all its colourful guises and clucking mad for chicken, with edgy fried chicken joints popping up in the capital faster than Miley Cyrus can take her clothes off.

On the drinks front, mixologists hit the history books seeking inspiration for twists on classic cocktails, many of which were made using vintage spirits, while Cava hit the headlines through a slew of new bars shining a light on the much-maligned Spanish sparkler.

So what does this year hold for London’s restless restaurant scene? An interesting shift taking place in the capital is a return to fine dining. Sick of pop-ups and burger bars, consumers are now craving attentive customer service and a sense of occasion. But while many will seek solace in silver service, the casual dining model will continue to thrive with a distinctly American accent this year through new openings like Jackson & Rye in Soho and Steam & Rye in the City.

Also trending in 2014 are savoury cocktails, from Ryan Chetiyawardana’s Bone Dry Martini at White Lyan in Hoxton to the Salt Beef Sazerac at new opening Peg + Patriot at the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green, which serves as a playful hat tip to London’s current love affair with all things American.

Scroll through to see the trends currently sweeping the capital’s restaurant scene…

10. Back to basics

Cocktails have gone back to basics this year, with contemporary twists on the classics continuing to thrive and molecular mixology spurned in favour of simple creations that shine a light on the quality of the base spirit. In line with the trend, elaborate garnishes are out and understated presentation in quality glassware is in.

The number of ingredients used in cocktails is being reined in at many of the capital’s forward thinking bars, like the recently opened Satan’s Whiskers in Bethnal Green, which serves adroitly executed, fuss free classic cocktails at £8 or less.

This stripped back approach is also in play at Ryan Chetiyawardana’s new baby, White Lyan in Hoxton, which brazenly shuns the use of ice, citrus and perishables and champions pre-bottled cocktails like the Bees Wax Old Fashioned and the Moby Dick Sazerac. “We’re not trying to be different just for the sake of it, or saying this is the best way to do things, we’re just keen to start a stimulating conversation around serves and the fact that there is more than one approach to mixology,” says Chetiyawardana.

9. Pork

While last year we went barmy for beef and chicken, the meat on everyone’s lips in 2014 is pork. In keeping with the Americana trend, pulled pork continues to headline on menus, with pioneering Pitt Cue Co in Covent Garden inspiring a legion of restaurants that specialise in smoking, such as the newly opened Ember Yard (the latest venture in Simon Mullins’ Salt Yard group) in Soho, where you’ll find hot smoked old spot pork belly with Basque cider glaze on the menu.

At Russell Norman’s new theatreland gastropub, The Ape & Bird, pig’s trotter Scotch eggs are already proving a hit, while taking the piggy trend to another level is the recently opened Blackfoot in Exmouth Market, where slow-roasted pork belly with Szechuan pepper and black treacle; pulled pork tacos; and Vietnamese pot belly salad all feature.

Owners Tom Ward and Allegra McEvedy decided to embark on the venture due to a joint “emotional attachment” to all things porky. The pair have cannily plucked head chef James Knight from Copita to steer their piggy ship, where the squealers come by way of a friendly farm in Suffolk.

8. Hipster wine bars

Wine is having a moment with London’s hipsters, spurred on by the opening of Sager + Wilde in Hackney late last year, a no reservations bar that started life as a pop-up run by husband and wife duo, Charlotte and Michael Sager-Wilde.

Achingly hip in an unpretentious way, with open brickwork walls, 1920s station lights and a cast iron bar, S+W serves everything from big gun producers like California’s Ridge to hard to source bottles from boutique estates for a set £20 mark-up.

Also making waves are The Remedy in Fitzrovia, which focuses on European wines served alongside charcuterie and cheese platters to a blues heavy soundtrack, and Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels in Covent Garden from the team behind the Experimental Cocktail Club. Passionate about championing unsung rising stars, CVS is constantly on the lookout for new producers to flag up on its list, which changes on a weekly basis depending on what’s selling.

Doing her bit to help bring wine to a younger audience is former fashion model Ruth Spivey, who runs a pop-up wine bar, Street Vin, at peripatetic food market Street Feast in Hackney on Friday and Saturday nights, serving little known drops from the back of a van.

7. Brasserie boom

If 2012 was the year of the steakhouse in London, 2013 will be remembered as the year of the brasserie. The seasoned French chef Eric Chavot scooped a Michelin star mere months after the opening of his eponymous Brasserie Chavot in Mayfair. Meanwhile, Bethnal Green-born father of five Keith McNally upped sticks from New York and opened the hotly anticipated London outpost of his hugely successful celebrity haunt Balthazar in Covent Garden.

Late last year, the ever-buzzing Bermondsey Street welcomed the arrival of adorable, stamp-sized bistro Casse Croûte, run by Hervé Durochat, a partner in José Pizarro’s two restaurants on the same street. With the recent opening of French bistro Blanchette in Soho, run by brothers Maxime, Yannis and Malik, where diners can order duck rillettes, pig’s ears and whole roast chickens from stools at the bar to the sounds of a hip house soundtrack, and all-day brasserie One Kensington from the team behind Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Tamarind opening in SW7 last month, London’s brasserie boom is showing no sign of slowing.

6. Savoury cocktails

The trend for savoury cocktails has gained serious momentum in the capital this year, pioneered by the London Cocktail Club through its Bacon and Egg Martini, and Tony Conigliaro at The Grain Store via creations like the Pumpkin Bellini and Green Tomato Margarita. London’s most gung-ho shakers have been busy experimenting with the likes of mustard and horseradish vodka.

Maverick mixologist Matt Whiley, aka The Talented Mr Fox, will be going large on savoury cocktails at his new opening, Peg + Patriot at The Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green, where signature sips include the Salt Beef Sazerac and the Marmite Martini; while at the Artesian bar at The Langham hotel, head bartender Alex Kratena ages one of his Bourbonbased cocktails, Unfinished Business, in a goat skin leather wine pouch for at least a month before serving it with a chorizo slice and a caper berry.

In keeping with the growing trend for vegetable-based cocktails, The Botanist in Sloane Square has launched a range of five-a-day cocktails, including the Green Twist, made with juiced spinach, Kamm & Sons and celery; and the Beetroot Mary a twist on the Bloody Mary using beetroot in place of tomato juice. There are even rumours of pizza cocktails coming to the capital by way of New York. You’ve been warned.

5. Eastern promise

Following on from last year’s obsession with Korean food, Vietnamese cuisine has been thrust into the spotlight this year via Bobby Chinn’s House of Ho, which opened in Soho in January.

Drawing on 18 years of cooking experience in Hanoi and Saigon, Chinn, who was born in New Zealand to a Chinese father and Egyptian mother, brings a contemporary approach to Vietnamese dishes via the likes of apple-smoked pork belly with braised cabbage; lemongrass monkfish; and shredded confit duck and banana blossom salad.

Whitechapel newcomer Misschu meanwhile, specialises in rice paper rolls filled with tiger prawns and green mango; and pho, a traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup. Also taking off in London this year is Japanese-Peruvian fusion, known as Nikkei cuisine, championed at places like Chotto Matte in Soho, where black cod and maki rolls share a menu with sea bass ceviche and scallop tiradito.

A buzz is steadily building around Hakkasan founder Alan Yau’s next venture, Duck & Rice, which bills itself as a “Chinese gastropub”, while there are high hopes that the ramen burger, invented at a New York food festival last summer by Keizo Shimamoto, will make it across the pond this year.

4. The rise of the restaurant bar

No longer either non-existent or simply an afterthought, the restaurant bar has risen to prominence this year. Championed by the bitters focused Campari, Aperol and Negroni bars at Russell Norman’s three Polpo sites, London’s best restaurant bars have become destinations in their own right.

An early pioneer of the trend was Jason Atherton, who trialled the concept at his Michelin-starred flagship, Pollen Street Social, then rolled it out to sister sites Social Eating House in Soho, which boasts a speakeasy-style bar, The Blind Pig, on the first floor, and the hugely popular and regularly star-studded Berners Tavern at the London Edition hotel, where quirky cocktails like the Dill or No Dill and the Cereal Killer are given top billing.

As the calibre of cocktails improves at restaurant bars, increasing efforts are being made to integrate them throughout a meal, rather than being served solely as bookends.

3. Fine dining

After years of pop-ups and casual dining outlets, a shift has taken place in the capital, which has seen a return to fine dining as Londoners crave attentive customer service and a sense of occasion. As we emerge from the grips of the recession, mindsets have changed and customers now want to feel looked after when eating out rather than snarled at by surly staff covered in tattoos.

Though rather than stuffy service and starched table cloths, a new breed of fine dining establishment has emerged that prides itself on offering, as Marcus Wareing puts it, “a dinner party atmosphere”. Wareing is so keen to adapt to the changing times that he’s ordered a £1.4m makeover of his “dated” two Michelin-starred Knightsbridge restaurant.

Waiting staff are taking more of an American approach to service this year, with warmth and friendliness triumphing over formality. Critically, fine dining is being injected with a much needed dose of fun.

At Swiss chef Michael Riemenschneider’s new London opening, Canvas, diners are invited to create their own tasting menus from a selection of seasonally focused small plates, while the latest in the Gordon Ramsay stable, London House in Battersea, displays its sense of humour through its light-hearted cocktails, as witnessed in the rum based Into the Dark, served with a pocket square spritzed with Penhaligon’s perfume.

2. Craft beer

Having already exploded in the US, the UK has heartily embraced craft beer this year. With a slew of new craft brewers shaking things up in the capital, pioneering Meantime has been joined by the likes of the Camden Town Brewery, which produces 30,000 pints a week, Crate in Hackney Wick, The Kernel in Bermondsey and Redemption Brewing Company in Tottenham.

Often boasting eye-catching packaging, these lovingly crafted brews are bringing beer to a new audience and broadening its appeal. Spearheaded by the Craft Beer Company and the Draft House, London restaurants and bars are also doing their bit to flag up homegrown hops.

Last month, Scottish craft brewer BrewDog teamed up with London burger chain Honest Burgers to create the “BrewBurger” – a 150g aged beef burger infused with enough craft beer that it requires ID to order. To pair with it, BrewDog created Bourbon Baby, a barrelaged baby scotch ale whose notes of spice and brown sugar are designed to bring out the sweetness in the burger.

1. Americana

The capital has gone bonkers for American restaurants. Late last year saw newcomers Soho Diner in Old Compton Street, Jackson & Rye on Wardour Street and Steam & Rye in the City fly the American flag, serving everything from
blueberry pancakes, buttermilk fried chicken and creamed grits to hard shakes, along with standout Bourbon and rye offerings used in classic cocktails like the Old Fashioned, the Manhattan and the Sazerac.

The trend has continued this year via Strip Bar & Steak in Clerkenwell, which serves USDA Prime New York strip steak cut to order, and Big Easy in Covent Garden, whose bar shines a light on Tequila and mezcal.

Proving Americans can do fine dining too, the recently relaunched upmarket Avenue in St James’s serves the likes of clam chowder in sour dough with crumbled bay crackers, lobster macaroni & cheese, and sweet potato mash, while London’s hottest new opening, the aptly named Chiltern Firehouse at hip hotelier André Balazs’ Marylebone hotel of the same name headed up by Nuno Mendes of Viajante fame, is already gaining a reputation for its crab meat sliders, slow cooked short rib, maple-Bourbon sweet potatoes and lemon meringue pie.