New London restaurant openings: November

German Gymnasium

Rather than a place where men named Hans and Klaus gather in spandex for their spinning class, the German Gymnasium is in fact a new restaurant concept from D&D London housed in a former Grade II listed gym in King’s Cross. Interiors tip their hat to the grand cafés and brasseries of Central Europe with nods to the buildings athletic past like fencing masks and climbing hooks playfully weaved throughout. The grand café serves Mittel-European brasserie classics like wiener schnitzel and bratwurst, with a light shone on wines from Germany, Austria and Hungary, while the bar serve “vapour cocktail clouds” from carafes.

Coin Laundry

Coin Laundry in Exmouth Market, from the owners of kooky cocktail bar Ask for Janice, gives 1970s favourite, the chicken Kiev will be given the gourmet treatment via “hand foraged” wild garlic and a “secret” bread-crumb blend. A Kiev Counter counts down the number of birds left in the kitchen, while snacks include homemade crisps served with parcels of seasoning.

Cocktails are distinctly retro in character, with after dinner drinks like the Snowball, made with Advocaat and lemonade, and the Grasshopper (a blend of Crème de Menthe and Crème de Cacao) given a contemporary twist, while sparkling cocktails are made with a soda stream.

The Ninth

Celebrity chef Jun Tanaka has opened his first long awaited restaurant on Charlotte Street named The Ninth in honour of the fact that it’s the ninth site on his CV. Best known for his Pearl in Holborn, at his debut venture Tanaka will serve French-Mediterranean cusine designed for sharing, with a focus on on pickling, brining and curing, dishes include razor clam ceviche; pickled mussels with smoked paprika; cured veal tongue; salted beef cheeks with oxtail consommé; lamb en croute with truffles and whole sea bream with anchovy dressing. A downstairs bar will serve cocktails, craft beers and wines by the glass and carafe.

House of Crab

With lobstermamia having subsided slightly, there is room for a new crustacean phenomenon in the capital. Enter the crab, or, more specifically, the House of Crab in Mayfair. Run by Dominic Jacobs of the nearby Running Horse pub, which he co-owns with James Chase, the pop-up will celebrate all things crabby, via crab rolls washed down with killer cocktails.

Keen to champion homegrown critters, fresh crabs from Devon-based Favis Lt are delivered daily to the restaurant and are served either hot and buttered or cold with house mayonnaise in brioche buns baked in house. The El Jimaclaw roll is rammed with white and brown crab meat, chilli, avocado, salsa and sour cream, while he Crabfather boasts burrata cream, crispy parma ham and confit tomatoes. Crab mac ’n’ cheese and thermidor crab cakes also make welcome appearances on the menu.

Oklava

One of London’s most talented young female chefs, Turkish-Cypriot Selin Kaizim, has opened her first solo venture in Shoreditch. Oklava specialises in modern Turkish cuisine from pomegranate seed-flecked salads to homemade breads and chargrilled meats.

With stints at The Providores in Marylebone and Kopapa in Covent Garden, where she was head chef, for her debut venture Kaizim will serve the likes of braised octopus with ricotta, pickled caper shoots, honey and thyme; and charcoal grilled kofte wrapped in lamb caul fat with lemon and salad. Her Cypriot influence comes in via spices, dried fruits, nuts and citrus.

Big Easy Canary Wharf

With the King’s Road original and Covent Garden (big) little sister both going great guns, it was high time for the City suits to be treated to a slice of Big Easy action, which they can now scuttle to from their offices as a new site opens this month in Canary Wharf.

The cavernous, 400-seater site will play host to live music every night and begin with American breakfasts at 7am. In keeping with its American theme, dinner dishes include the likes of Southern fried chicken, shrimp po boys, lobster rolls, pulled pork sandwiches and slow cooked brisket. The new site also boasts a rum bar with over 100 different expression and rum on tap from the barrel.

Pizza Pilgrims Exmouth Market

Having set up its first permanent site in Soho three years ago, the Pizza Pilgrims have expanded into Exmouth Market with a sister site. Brothers Thom and James Elliot will stick to their winning formula of serving up authentic Neapolitan pizzas from the classic Margherita and Marinara to the Carbonara and spicy Nduja.

Workers can also get their pizza fix in liquid form at lunch when key pizza ingredients are blitzed into soups and served with olive-flecked pizza dough rolls. The 40-seater space is decked out with retro arcade machines and old film posters and will run pizza box decorating competitions with the best designers bagging a free pizza.

Pho & Bun

With Londoners obsessed with Vietnamese food and bonkers for bao buns, it seems the two have united in what looks to be a happy marriage at Pho & Bun in Shaftesbury Avenue. Created by Viet Eat’s founder Andy Le, the new spot will focus on Vietnamese beef broth pho and 28 day dry aged beef patties served in steamed milk buns with smoky mayo in a beautiful bao/burger hybrid that looks set to fly out of the kitchen. Also on the menu are summer rolls with tiger prawns, Vietnamese beef carpaccio and creme caramel with Vietnamese iced coffee.

Tokimeitē

Multi Michelin-starred chef Yoshihiro Murata returns to the capital this month with the opening of a new Japanese restaurant in Mayfair named after the feeling of having butterflies in your tummy. Having perhaps set the bar too high with the high-end Chrysan in the City, which closed after six months, Murata is back for another bite of the apple with Tokimeitē.

The modern Japanese menu features Josper-grilled Wagyu in a creamy truffle sauce; Wagyu tartare with a wasabi and yuzu sauce; and chargrilled soy marinated rump steak. Sushi and sashimi are also generously represented on the menu. Set over three floors, the restaurant’s interiors celebrate elements from Japanese seasons, shrines and temples, with saké, shochu and Japanese whisky all making cameos on the drinks list.

The House of Ho

Bobby Chin’s temple to Vietnamese cuisine The House of Ho in Soho has upped sticks and moved to Fitzrovia, which will open on 1 December under the guidance of chef director Ian Pengelley. Set in a sprawling four-storey townhouse, the restaurant offers a contemporary take on Vietnamese cuisine though its interiors nod to its colonial past.

Inspired by his travels around the country, among the dishes on Pengelley’s menu are Pho Bo – a hot and cold pho soup with waygu short rib and Asian herbs; minced pork grilled on lemongrass skewers with a caramel sauce; lemongrass free range chicken with chicken scratchings; and fresh giant prawns with Vietnamese greens and rice noodles. A lounge bar meanwhile, will serve Asian-inspired cocktails.

The Ivy Kensington Brasserie

Keen to stay relevant, The Ivy owner Richard Caring has set about opening a series of casual sister sites in some of the capital’s chicest postcodes for ladies who lunch, including the Ivy Market Grill in Covent Garden and the Ivy Café in Marylebone. The latest addition to the family is The Ivy Kensington Brasserie on High Street Kensington, which is due to open next month.

The modern British menu will take in breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, brunch, light snacks and dinner, with signature dishes including avocado and spinach Benedict; buttermilk pancakes with smoked streaky bacon maple syrup; grilled whole lobster with parsley, garlic butter and thick cut chips; and brioche crumbed chicken Milanese with fried hen’s egg and black truffle.