Top 10 new London restaurants to watch in 2019

Daniel Humm at Claridge’s

While still only a rumour, if the whispers turn out to be true, the arrival of a London take on Swiss chef Daniel Humm’s 11 Madison Park at Claridge’s will be the highest profile opening in the capital this year. Simon Rogan’s Fera, which had a Michelin star, closed its doors for good on 31 December, leaving big shoes to fill. Humm, who heads up the three star 11 Madison Park in New York might be just the man for the job.

Nothing has been confirmed but the London foodie rumour mill has been in overdrive ever since, with Humm being tipped as the chef to take over. According to Eater, a restaurant insider revealed that Humm has “recently stayed at the hotel and had meetings with its managers”.

Nathan Outlaw at The Goring

A royal family favourite, The Goring hotel is opening a new restaurant, its first for more than 108 years, with famed Cornish chef Nathan Outlaw at the helm. Promising “the best, freshest seafood in London”, The Goring in Belgravia plans to open the as-yet-unnamed site by the end of April, and will focus on sustainable Cornish seafood.

The new restaurant will offer a more “casual alternative” to its existing Dining Room, which has held a Michelin star since 2016. The Dining Room at The Goring has an impressive wine list, overseen by sommelier Jean-Baptiste Lemoine. Ranked 42nd in London by Wine List Confidential, the restaurant embraces Bordeaux and Burgundy while “hovering a torch over the New World and emerging regions,” our experts said.

Housed in an ornate orangery, Outlaw’s restaurant will overlook the hotel’s garden. The Goring’s bar is also set to be transformed into a bright, lively space serving classic cocktails and British spirits.

“We’re building an eccentric, uplifting space with the help of some very special craftsmen and designers, and the restaurant will be all about simplicity on the plate, freshness, and our usual heartfelt British service,” added CEO Jeremy Goring. Outlaw already holds two Michelin stars at his eponymous restaurant in Port Isaac, and will spend two days a week in his new kitchen.

Bob Bob Cité

Bob Bob Ricard in Soho is to get an edgy little sister, Bob Bob Cité, in the capital’s financial heart. The brainchild of Russian restaurateur Leonid Shutov, BBC will feature live fine wine auctions every half hour.

Housed in the Leadenhall Building, known as the ‘cheese grater’, the 180-cover venue will take over the third floor of the building and will mirror BBR’s booth format. In the “executive class” private dining room, guests have their own bar and private jet-style seating.

Wines that are auctioned off on the trading platform will start at cost price with diners given the chance to compete for them via display screens dotted around the restaurant. The house Champagne will be poured from methuselahs and Bob Bob Ricard’s popular ‘press for Champagne’ button will be present and correct.

But what of the food? Shutov has brought Raymond Blanc protégée Eric Chavot on board as head chef, which we’re very excited about – his steak tartare at the now defunct Brasserie Chavot in Mayfair was among the very best in town.

Initially due to open last January, Bob Bob Cité is one of the most long-awaited restaurants in recent memory. According to Bloomberg Shutov has already received “thousands” of reservation requests for the much-hyped new site.

Flor

In what is set to be a growing trend this year, the owners of Michelin-starred Shoreditch restaurant Lyle’s are to open a bakery that doubles as a wine bar. Lyle’s head chef James Lowe and general manager John Ogier will open Flor on Bedale Street next to Borough Market this spring.

Like Jolene in Newington Green, Flor will serve as both a bakery and wine bar, proving one of the keys to surviving as a restaurateur in our current cutthroat climate is by diversifying your offer and creating venues that cater to around the clock dining.

In this vein, Flor will serve pastries in the morning, sandwiches at lunch and flatbreads at dinner. All of the bread and pastries are made in-house from British wheat milled at Lyle’s and can be bought to take away. All of the produce at Flor, including the wine, will come from “agriculturally responsible locations”, with Lowe using many of the same suppliers as Lyle’s.

“We like to think of Flor as the little sister of Lyle’s inspired by the buvettes of Paris – a place we would want to go after work or on a day off. It will be a small place with a big personality,” Lowe told Eater. “The food will be different from Lyle’s but still coming from the same common-sense philosophy and love of good ingredients.”

Flor will serve lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday, and brunch on Saturday. Like Lyle’s, Flor is backed by Gymkhana owners, JKS Restaurants.

H.O.M.E

Indefatigable British chef Jason Atherton is to open a 16-seater restaurant next door to his flagship, Pollen Street Social, in Mayfair this year.

Called ‘H.O.M.E, the restaurant, which will only serve a set menu, will be a “purely creative outlet” for Atherton, who will craft dishes “inspired by his travels around the world.” Sheffield-born Atherton has described the project as his version of The Araki, the three Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant in Mayfair with just nine seats.

It also sounds similar to James Knappet’s Kitchen Table behind Bubbledogs, which won its second star this year, and Simon Rogan’s eight-seater test kitchen Aulis in Soho. But despite comparing the project to The Araki, Atherton told SquareMeal that he has no Michelin ambitions for the venture, however he did reveal that Pollen Street Social is looking to move up a gear to becoming a two star site.

H.O.M.E. will be Atherton’s eighth restaurant in London and sixteenth worldwide. In addition to Pollen Street Social, Atherton has a Michelin star at City Social. Last year wasn’t easy for Atherton, who saw two of the restaurants in his empire – the Japanese Sosharu in Farringdon and modern British venue Temple and Sons in the City close due to tough trading conditions.

Orasay

Jackson Boxer, who runs Brunswick House in Vauxhall and St Leonards in Shoreditch, is to open a Scottish restaurant in Notting Hill with chef Andrew Clarke this year. Orasay on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill, will be the third collaboration between Boxer and Clarke.

Named after the island of the west coast of Scotland, the 50-cover restaurant, due to open in early 2019, will have a seafood focus, and will make a champion of oysters, langoustines, scallops, razor clams, crabs, and lobster from the Outer Hebrides. Fresh shellfish will be flown in daily.

Boxer spent summers as a child in the Outer Hebridean region and continues to visit as an adult. Working as chef-patron of the site, his dishes will be seasonal in character and simple in approach. Vegetables, honey, and eggs will hail from Boxer’s organic farm in West Sussex.

A short wine list will offer around 60 bins by the bottle, glass, carafe and on tap and will focus on drops from Burgundy and northern Italy. Bottle prices will range from £25 to £125.

Wines from Boxer’s own cellar will form part of a small changing list of rare back vintages, which will be sold with small mark-ups. The interior will feature hand dyed linens, reclaimed antique French oak and lime-washed walls designed to reinforce the site’s focus on simplicity.

Adam Handling at the Belmond Cadogan

Adam Handling is fast becoming the new Jason Atherton in terms of his restlessness and rapid rate of expansion. Having opened a second Frog in Covent Garden, as a more fine dining sister site to his Shoretich original serving spellbinding dishes packed with flavour, the talented Scot will now be heading up the food offering at the uber swish Belmond Cadogan Hotel in Chelsea.

Handling will be responsible for everything from breakfast and afternoon tea to room service, but his attention will be focused on the hotel’s flagship restaurant, due to open in March, where he’ll offer a tasting menu and a pared down à la carte featuring six starters, mains and desserts.

Wine will play a starring role at the restaurant, which will shine a light on Burgundy and Champagne, offering an enviable selection by the glass.

Nusr-Et

Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, better known as seasoning sensation ‘Salt Bae’, is to open a London outpost of his popular Nusr-Et steakhouse chain this year. Gökçe shot to fame two years ago when a video of him flamboyantly seasoning a steak by letting the salt trickle down his forearm onto the meat sent the internet into overdrive.

The video of the as-yet-unknown chef was viewed 10 million times on Instagram and became a much-used meme, making a celebrity of Gökçe, who has been nicknamed ‘Salt Bae’.

“The shape of the meat and the taste of it starting from the top down is a part of me. All of my feelings are coming from inside of the meat down to when I put the salt onto the meat,” Bae told NBC of his eccentric seasoning flourish known as “the move”.

Salt Bae is hoping to capitalise on his fame by opening a London outpost of his Nusr-Et steakhouse chain at The Park Tower in Knightsbridge.

Among his signature dishes on offer in London will be roasted asaado short rib, Nusr-Et meat spaghetti, lokum, and the ‘Nusr-Et special’, whatever that might be… If you’re really lucky you might even get your short rib seasoned by the great man himself.

A trained butcher and chef, Gökçe has built up the Nusr-Et chain and now boasts sites in New York, Dubai, Doha and Miami. He counts actor Leonardo di Caprio among his fans. His first steakhouse opened in Istanbul in 2010.

Arros QD

One of Spain’s most highly decorated and cutting edge chefs, Quique Dacosta, is to open a rice-focused restaurant set over two floors in Oxford Street’s Plaza Building in collaboration with Ibérica founder Marcos Fernandez, to shine a light on one of Spain’s signature dishes – paella.

Details are being kept under wraps, but if Dacosta’s three Michelin-starred eponymous restaurant in Denia is anything to go by, Londoners should be in for a treat. The venue is set to focus on Dacosta’s innovative style of cooking, which makes a hero of premium Spanish ingredients.

The project was initially due to be called InPaella, but has since changed its name to Arros QD – ‘arroz’ means rice in Spanish.

Soutine

London restaurant moguls Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, the duo behind The Wolseley and Brasserie Zédel, are to open their ninth site in the capital in April near Lord’s cricket ground in St John’s Wood inspired by the north London neighbourhood’s artistic and musical heritage.

Named after Russian-French painter Chaim Soutine, the site will take over a former Carluccio’s site on St. John’s Wood High Street, and will be similar in style to Colbert, the French-inspired cafe-brasserie in Sloane Square, and Viennese cafe Fischer’s in Marylebone, but with its own defined identity. The menu will largely be French.