Top 10 London restaurant openings in 2015

Having recently brought you our top 10 London restaurants of 2014, we’re keen to keep you in the loop about new openings in the capital this year.

With London now boasting one of the most dynamic dining scenes in the world, the pace of change in the capital this year will be fast. Both Jason Atherton and Alan Yau are due to have milestone years in London, opening two restaurants apiece this year, including a Chinese gastropub and a site modelled on a Japanese izakaya – a casual after work drinking den where dishes are served to accompany the drinks on offer.

Gordon Ramsay is also set for a big year, as he opens a restaurant at the same address in Fulham where he made his name and scooped two Michelin stars. Also featuring in our line-up of restaurants to watch is a French bistro named after a Belle Epoque brothel in Paris, a smokehouse in leafy Chiswick and a street food venture run by a generously inked, mohawk-sporting Spanish culinary wizard. London has never tasted so good.

10: Portland 

Having carved a niche for small plates made with British seasonal ingredients and interesting wines by the glass at The Quality Chop House in Farringdon, Will Lander has just opened a second restaurant, Portland, on Great Portland Street. Built from scratch on the site of a long-forgotten clothes showroom, the 45-cover restaurant specialises in quality produce cooked simply with imagination and care.

On the menu are treats like duck prosciutto, pig’s heat croquettes and kimchi mayo, smoked ox tongue sandwiches, lamb tartare and anchovy mayo, and house-smoked rainbow trout. Being the son of Jancis Robinson MW, the wines are of a suitably high calibre. The ever evolving list is separated into three categories: “textbook”, “leftfield” and “special”, with wines starting at just £4 a glass and £21 a bottle.

All of the wines on the “special” list are available by the glass via Coravin. Among the top names are Viña Tondonia Blanco 1999 from López de Heredia, Domaine P Javillier Meursault Les Clousots 2010 and Bien Nacido Ojai Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012.

113 Great Portland Street, London W1W 6QQ 

9: Duck & Rice

Photo credit: Code London

2015 looks set to be a mammoth year for Hakkasan and Yauatcha founder Alan Yau. Late last year he opened Babaji Pide on Shaftesbury Avenue, which specialises in Turkish pizza (pide) and Turkish coffee. Inspired in part by his Turkish wife, the project also shines a light on Turkish wines.

Due to open at the end of January is his “Chinese gastropub” Duck & Rice on Berwick Street in Soho on the site of The Endurance pub. Set across two floors, little is known of what will be on offer at D&R, though there are whisperings of Asian street food and Chinese cocktails.

 90 Berwick Street, London W1F 0QB

8: Chiswick Smokehouse 

Self-confessed “egg pervert” Neil Rankin looks set to have a busy 2015. Having recently opened Bad Egg in Moorgate, which put the humble egg on a pedestal via dishes like North African baked eggs, Malaysian egg sambal with galangal, shrimp and chilli, and a reinterpretation of the full English breakfast, his next venture is the Chiswick Smokehouse – a west London sister site to the Islington original.

Taking over the former Hole in the Wall pub on Sutton Lane, the restaurant, due to open next month, will boast its own smoker, a meat ageing room, an outdoor grill and a whisky bar. Smoked with English oak, expect the likes of Korean pulled pork, shortrib Bourguignon, smoked lamb shoulder, potted smoked duck leg and smoked mussels and bacon chowder to feature on the menu.

12 Sutton Lane North, London W4 4LD

7: Bao

With Londoners having enthusiastically embraced dim sum, 2015 looks set to be the year that the capital goes bonkers for bao – pillow steamed buns filled with an array of tempting treats like slow-braised pork in soy sauce with pickle, coriander and peanut shavings.

Flying the flag for the moreish buns will be Bao on Lexington Street in Soho, which is being backed by Karam Sethi, owner of newly Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Gymkhana, Trishna and Lyle’s.

Starting life at a stand in Netil Market in Hackney, Bao is the brainchild of Taiwanese chefs Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung and Wai Ting Chung. The buns will be priced at £3, with other Taiwanese dishes ranging from £3-8.

Lexington Street, London W1F 9AS

6: Le Chabanais

This March, self-taught Basque chef Inaki Aizpitarte from Le Chateaubriand in Paris will open a London outpost in Mayfair. With the Paris original described as the definitive “neo bistro” and currently sitting at number 27 in the World’s Best Restaurant list, we expect big things from the 90-seater Le Chabanais, which may choose to follow Le Chateaubriand’s model of taking bookings between 7:30-8:30 and allowing walking-ins from 9:30pm.

Keen to champion British produce, Aizpitarte’s menu is set to change every day based on available local ingredients. The restaurant is named after one of the best known and most luxurious brothels in Paris that operated near the Louvre at 12 rue Chabanais between 1878 and 1946, which counted painter Toulouse-Lautrec, writer Guy de Maupassant, and actors Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart among its patrons.

 8 Mount Street London W1K 3NF

5: Sosharu 

Poised to take New York with the opening of his debut venture in the US on 1 May, Social on Madison, Worksop born wonder chef Jason Atherton is opening a Japanese restaurant in London this July. Billed as “a social dining experience serving teppanyaki, robayataki and sashimi,” Sosharu will take over the Turnmill Building in Farringdon.

Modelled on a Japanese izakaya – a casual after work drinking den where dishes are served to accompany the drinks, the 80-seater restaurant, headed up by Atherton protégé Alex Carciun, will serve dishes inspired by Japanese cuisine made with British ingredients.

At traditional izakayas, customers sit on tatami mats and eat sharing dishes from low tables, though Atherton is keeping quiet as to whether Sosharu will adopt this dining format.

Turnmill Building, 63 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5NP

4: Gordon Ramsay at Park Walk 

Having opened the Union Street Café and Heddon Street Kitchen last year, Gordon Ramsay is going back to his roots this year as news emerges that he’s splashed out £1.2 million for the original Aubergine on Park Walk just off Fulham Road. Bought by Ramsay in 1993, it was here that the fiery, foul-mouthed chef made a name for himself, winning two Michelin stars for the site in 1997.

Ramsay is keeping mum about his plans for the restaurant, but there are whispers that it will take a similar approach to his Mayfair sharing plates restaurant Maze. There is also talk of a focus on steak and a sushi bar. Having failed to wow diners with his latest launch, Ramsay will be keen to hit the headlines for all the right reasons at 11 Park Walk when the 60-seater restaurant opens in August.

The Aubergine name won’t be kept on, nor will the site’s fine dining model. Ramsay is allegedly set to display the original Aubergine reservations book, which he famously stole from Marco Pierre White when he left the restaurant in 1998 to set up Royal Hospital Road, in a glass case.

11 Park Walk, London SW10 0AJ

3: Park Chinois 

Competing with Jason Atherton for the prize for highest number of new restaurant openings in a year, in addition to his new Turkish restaurant Babaji Pide and Chinese gastropub Duck & Rice, this March, Alan Yau will also be turning American diner Automat on Dover Street into Park Chinois.

With Yau’s backers having reportedly paid £9 million for the 9,000 sq ft Mayfair site, little is known of the new project but word on the street is that it takes inspiration from 1940s Shanghai. Featuring live music and dancing, Park Chinois will serve an eclectic mix of Chinese dishes.

33 Dover Street, London W1S 4NF

2: Street XO

Three Michelin-starred, mohawked Spanish culinary maverick, Davíd Muñoz, is to open his first restaurant outside Madrid in London this June. Muñoz, who was awarded his third star at his DiverXO flagship in 2013, will be bringing his StreetXO brand to Old Burlington Street in Mayfair.

Inspired by the street food Muñoz encounters on travels around his homeland, South East Asia and London, the focal point of the restaurant will be a central open kitchen where chefs can interact directly with diners.

Muñoz’ menu will change regularly and will feature just 14 dishes, while a trolley will do the rounds each night serving one-off creations. The restaurant will also boast a large bar shaking up envelope-pushing cocktails.

15 Old Burlington Street, London W1S 2JR

1: Social Wine 

Social Wine will take a similar approach to Esquina in Singapore

In addition to Japanese izakaya restaurant Sosharu, the ever restless Jason Atherton will also be opening a wine focused restaurant in London this year in the form of Social Wine and Tapas. Due to open in Marylebone in early April, Atherton’s seventh London venue will shine a light on wine.

Diners will be given the option of buying wine at a shop attached to the restaurant and drinking it on site for a reasonable corkage fee. The casual dining restaurant with bar seating, modelled on Atherton’s Singapore restaurant Esquina, will specialise in the sharing plates for which Atherton has become known for since he founded Maze with Gordon Ramsay in 2005.

39 James Street, London W1U 1EB