Latest London restaurant openings: April

Bull in a China Shop

Rotisserie restaurant Bull in a China Shop in Shoreditch hopes to educate east Londoners about Japanese whisky via a bar serving drams of Karuizawa, Akashi and Ichiro with hand-carved ice from counter-top blocks. Signature dish, the charcoal chicken burger, is sure to be divisive. Featuring chicken thighs marinated in lime, ginger, soy and sesame and coated in Panko flakes, it comes in a black brioche bun made from dough laced with bamboo charcoal. Also on offer will be whisky-glazed chicken, boa buns, Nikka whisky pulled pork and superfood salads for the virtuous.

Duck & Rice

With keen foodies having waited with bated breath for what seems like an eternity, Alan Yau has finally opened his “Chinese gastro pub” on the former site of The Endurance pub on Berwick Street in the heart of Soho. On the ground floor of Duck & Rice is a pub serving deep-fried bar snacks, from baby squid to Szechaun chicken.

In the restaurant upstairs you can expect dim sum in various guises; crabmeat foo young; double cooked pork belly, baby leek, ginger and spring onion; Jasmine tea-smoked pork ribs and five spice fried chicken. Yau is the man behind Wagamama, Busaba Eathai, Yauatcha and Hakkasan, so he knows his onions in terms of running successful restaurants. We expect big things.

Berber & Q

Berber & Q is chef Josh Katz’s cleverly titled new North African-themed grill restaurant housed under the railway arches in East London’s Haggerston. Taking inspiration from a plethora of cities, including Marrakesh, Istanbul, Tel Aviv and New York, the Ottolenghi alumnus will serve dishes like lamb mechoui, quail with rose and plum yoghurt, and beef kefta with walnut and apricot from a smoker and charcoal grill. Wines hail from small producers and include drops from Morocco and Turkey, while cocktails have a Middle Eastern twist.

Le Pressoir d’Argent

Okay, so it’s not in London, but it’s linked to one of the world’s greatest wines regions, so we had to keep you in the loop. Gordon Ramsay aims to teach the Bordelais a thing or two about cooking when he takes over the running of the Grand Hotel de Bordeaux & Spa’s Michelin-starred Le Pressoir d’Argent in the city’s historic Golden Triangle.

Dishes will be seasonal in character and a light will be shone on local wines from the region. “To open a restaurant in the wine capital of France with its world-class vineyards and glorious regional produce is extremely exciting,” Ramsay said. “Gordon’s arrival in Bordeaux is the cause of much excitement here,” the Grand’s owner Michel Ohayon added.

 Café Murano

It’s no longer enough to have a flagship restaurant anymore – to have truly made it you need a causal sister site, and Covent Garden seems the place to do it. The Ivy is enjoying success with its more casual Market Grill on Henrietta Street and Marcus Wareing has gotten in on the act with Tredwell’s on St Martin’s Lane.

Also in on the trend is Angela Hartnett, who has just opened a second Café Murano on Tavistock Street to dovetail with the original in St James’. The restaurant takes a simple, seasonal approach to northern Italian cooking, focusing on the coastal regions, while the all-Italian wine list shines a light on independent producers.

Jar Kitchen

Another Covent Garden newcomer is Jar Kitchen on Drury Lane, run by Lucy Brown and Jenny Quintero. Focusing on British seasonal dishes sourced from local suppliers, the 45-cover “farm to fork” restaurant has an open kitchen and a casual feel, boasting a wall of jars from which it takes its name.

The menu is confidently brief and focuses on freshness via Ottolenghi-inspired salads prettified with pomegranate seeds, fresh mint and toasted almonds for wallet-friendly prices. Also in the line-up are on-trend ceviches, ox cheek croquettes, roast pork belly with hazelnut crumble and scallops with pancetta and smoked garlic.

Craft London

New to Greenwich is Craft London, headed up by young gun chef Stevie Parle. Boasting chic Tom Dixon interiors including mauve bar stools and turquoise seating, much of the food prep is done on site, including smoking fish, curing meat and fermenting veg, hell they even keep bees.

Dishes on the modern British menu include langoustine and lardo; sirloin with marrowbone bread sauce and lovage liquor; and clay baked duck, honey, broad bean and barley “miso”. Wines meanwhile are chosen by Ruth Spivey of Wine Car Boot fame and will focus on small producers, including Wiston from the South Downes. In keeping with Craft’s local ethos, cocktails are made with small batch spirits using British fruit liqueurs.

Smokehouse Chiswick

Self-confessed “egg pervert” Neil Rankin has added to his mini restaurant empire, which includes the Smokehouse in Islington and Bad Egg in Moorgate, with the opening of a sister Smokehouse in leafy Chiswick. Taking over the former Hole in the Wall pub on Sutton Lane, the restaurant boasts its own smoker, a meat ageing room, an outdoor grill and whisky bar. On the menu are the likes of Korean pulled pork, shortrib Bourguignon, smoked lamb shoulder, potted smoked duck leg and smoked mussels and bacon chowder, all of which bear the char of English oak.

Maze Grill

Gordon Ramsay makes our list for a second time with the opening of Maze Grill on the same spot in Fulham where he shot to fame in the late ‘90s after winning two Michelin stars at fine dining restaurant Aubergine on Park Walk. With interiors inspired by the grill rooms of Manhattan, the 60-cover restaurant serves rare breed steaks, fish and poultry from the Josper grill alongside an array of sushi and sashimi from a dedicated raw bar.

Ramsay allegedly splashed out £1.2 million to buy back the site and is keen to display the original Aubergine reservations book in a glass case, which he famously stole from Marco Pierre White when he left the restaurant in 1998 to set up Royal Hospital Road.