12 London restaurant openings to watch in 2020

Oklava Bakery + Wine

Selin Kiazim and Laura Christie are turning their Turkish Cypriot restaurant Kyseri in Fitzrovia into a bakery by day and wine bar by night, which is set to open in January.

Located on Grafton Way in Fitzrovia, Oklava Bakery + Wine will feature the kitchen and bakery at the front of the venue, alongside a shop and takeaway kiosk. Open from breakfast until dinner, the site will serve quality coffee and a plethora of pastries with a Turkish-Cypriot twist.

Among the yeasty treats on offer will be simit – a bagel topped with sesame seeds; börek pastries with a variety of fillings; the focaccia-like hellimli; and pilavuna – a pastry with cheese, mint and sultanas. Small plates will include the likes of whipped feta on toast; scrambled eggs with peppers, tomatoes, chilli and potatoes; and broken eggs with house-cured pastirma.

Christie is in charge of the wines, which will shine a light on lesser-known drops from Turkey, Armenia, Lebanon, Georgia and Greece. The pair have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a larger oven for the site and a cool room for overnight dough proving.

Little Kudu

South African-inspired small plates restaurant Kudu in Peckham is to open two new sites close to the original south London venue this month – a tapas bar and a cocktail bar. Owners Amy Corbin and Patrick Williams are expanding their Kudu brand with “chic” cocktail bar Smokey Kudu under the arches by Queen’s Road station, and tapas restaurant Little Kudu next to the original site on Queen’s Road.

The action at Smokey Kudu will revolve around a central horseshoe-shaped bar set against a large antique mirror. The 37-seater drinking den will feature green velvet booths and marble-topped tables. Opening on 15 January, the cocktails are inspired by Williams’ South African roots, and will be served alongside South African snacks like biltong.

The 32-cover Little Kudu will serve modern European tapas with South African influences. With an open kitchen and high marble-topped tables, the venue will offer a rotating menu of a dozen tapas dishes, including potato flatbreads with smoked mackerel mousse; whole braaifish with homemade roti and market greens; lamb belly with panko crumbs and glazed onions; and braaibroodjies (cheese toasties).

Williams will oversee all three venues as executive chef, with fellow South African, Mike Shier, taking on the head chef role at Kudu, and Eloise Dawes set to head up the kitchen at Little Kudu.

Padella Shoreditch

London Bridge pasta palace Padella is opening a second site on Phipp Street in Shoreditch in early 2020, following on from the roaring success its original site, which opened in Borough Market in 2016.

Meaning pan in Italian, Padella is a sister restaurant to Trullo in Islington, which was launched in 2010 by restaurateurs Tim Siadatan and Jordan Frieda. Rain or shine hordes of hungry tourists queue eagerly outside the tiny Borough Market venue, keen to get their chops around a steaming plate of pici cacio e pepe.

The sister site in Shoreditch will serve similarly simple and affordable pasta dishes and will boast an on-site bakery.  The restaurant is proposing opening hours of 8am to 11pm Monday to Sunday, and will sell alcohol between the hours of 11am and 11pm.

Padella in Borough Market now operates with WalkIn, an app that allows users to wait for a table remotely. Its pasta dishes range from £4 for gnocchi and nutmeg to £11 for tagliarini with Exmouthmussels, chilli, garlic, parsley and lemon.

Noble Rot Soho

Wine trade favourite Noble Rot is to open a second venue in the capital this year, having taken over the site of Soho institution Gay Hussar after the restaurant closed in 2018. Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew MW, the co-founders of Noble Rot magazine and its eponymous restaurant, announced the news of the takeover last November.

Noble Rot’s second outpost, Noble Rot Soho, will open this spring. According to Andrew and Keeling, the menu, which will be overseen by The Sportsman’s Stephen Harris, will include subtle references to the Gay Hussar’s glory days. “We’ll be creating a buzzing and atmospheric new restaurant that’s at the forefront of London’s culinary scene without losing sight of its rackety and sometimes scandalous past. And the wine list will be the stuff of dreams,” the pair said.

A Greek Street landmark for over 60 years, the Gay Hussar, a former Hungarian restaurant, was opened in 1953 by the half-Swiss, half-Welsh Victor Sassie. Favoured by politicians and publishers, it is rumoured that there were once hidden cameras beaming footage directly to Downing Street, while other reports state that the venue was where Tony Blair was first persuaded to run as an MP in 1982, auspiciously seated at table 10. Regulars included the likes of T.S Elliot, Michael Foot and Gordon Brown.

Muse

Celebrity chef Tom Aikens is to open a 25-cover restaurant called Muse in a renovated muse house in London’s affluent Belgravia district this month.Given its tiny size, Muse will focus around the chef’s table concept, where Aikens will be present cooking dishes inspired by childhood memories and influenced by flavours and techniques he’s picked up during his travels as a chef.

His seasonal, stripped-back tasting menu will spotlight one key ingredient or element per dish, with each dish based around a story or memory.The dining space will be split over two floors of the mews house, each boasting an open plan kitchen. The wood and marble-filled interiors, designed by Rebecca Korner, will feature an eclectic mix of furniture and lighting.

“Throughout my life, I have been inspired and influenced by many different people, places, and travels. From my mother, Tania, who opened my eyes to the infinite pleasures that food can bring – like the very first time I tasted a juicy strawberry or a sweet pea-pod plucked from the ground – to all of those who have guided me throughout my journey, from my initial steps into a kitchen to where I am today,” Aikens said.

Bar Douro City

Popular Portuguese restaurant Bar Douro in London Bridge is to open its long-awaited sister site in the City of London this month. The expansion will take advantage of the 1 Finsbury Avenue development at Broadgate, joining retail and restaurant partners, and an Everyman Cinema.

The venue is to be housed in a Grade II-listed building, and will seat a maximum of 44 covers.Aficionados of the original site, which opened in Flat Iron Square in 2016, will be pleased to see the return of Bar Douro’s signature hand-painted Portuguese ‘azulejos‘ tiles, and the mosaic floor made from hand-cut ‘Calçada Portuguesa’ stone.

The Broadgatevenue marks the second collaboration between restaurateur Max Graham and Bar Douro head chef Sean Marsh, who will serve a menu of petiscos (snacks), pratinhos (small plates) and pratos (large plates), mirroring the culinary offering at the London Bridge original.

Oenophiles will be treated to a diverse selection of Portuguese wines. Graham intends to curate a list of Portuguese drops that currently lack representation in the UK, which will be reflected in a bespoke house selection, and a ‘cellar list’ of fine wines. Bar Douro City will also host regular wine dinners with an array of acclaimed winemakers, following the success of previous sell-out wine dinners in Flat Iron Square.

The Connaught Grill

The Connaught Grill inside luxury Mayfair hotel The Connaught is to reopen early this year after a 20-year hiatus under the direction of Jean-Georges Vongerichten.The restaurant, which closed in the year 2000 after 45 years in business, is being revived by Alsace-born, New York-based chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who will oversee the site in addition to his eponymous restaurant within the hotel.

The 46-cover Grill will be located in the ground floor spaces previously used as the Carlos and Regency private event rooms and will feature an open kitchen with a wood-burning grill and rotisserie. Focusing on British produce, the restaurant will serve the likes of langoustines, Dover sole, game and seasonal vegetable dishes alongside wines from the hotel’s well-stocked cellar.

Among the signature dishes will be a classic from the Grill’s glory days – ‘Oeuf en surprise au Connaught’, which Vongerichten was served on his first visit to the restaurant. The interiors will be overseen by architect John Heah, and will include bespoke panels, tables and chairs by Pennsylvania-based George Nakashima Woodworkers.

In its heyday, the restaurant was among the most renowned in London. In a 1972 New York Times review, critic Raymond A. Sokolov said the venue served “the finest meal in the British Isles.” In addition to The Grill and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, The Connaught is home to the two Michelin-starred Hélène Darroze at The Connaught.

H.O.M.E.

A long time in the pipeline, indefatigable British chef Jason Atherton is to open a 16-seater restaurant next door to his Michelin-starred flagship, Pollen Street Social in Mayfair, this year. The new site is operating under the working title ‘H.O.M.E.’

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

It also sounds similar to James Knappet’s two star Kitchen Table behind Bubbledogs, 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 London restaurant and 16th worldwide. In addition to Pollen Street Social, Atherton has a star at City Social.

Hoppers King’s Cross

Sri Lankan pancake specialist Hoppers, run by Bao and Gymkhana founders Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi, is to open a third site in King’s Cross this February.Inspired by the home cooking and roadside stalls of Sri Lanka and southern India, the third incarnation of Hoppers will reside in Pancras Square in King’s Cross.

Its terracotta-toned interiors will take cues from the much-travelled coastal journey from Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, to the Dutch town of Galle, and will weave in iconic landmarks along the route.

Batik-patterned designs will adorn the ceiling and hand-loom fabric panels the walls, while cast iron framed glass lanterns will illuminate the main dining room. The menu will feature bar bites, seafood grills and beachside snacks, including black pepper curry leaf prawn skewers; quail kari; and sprat and brinjal pahe.

The iron-clad concrete bar will serve a range of beers on tap, including two of the restaurant’s own beers – Hoppers SPL (Sri Lankan Pale Ale) made with green mango, and Toddy Ale, a coconut IPA inspired by a toddy.

The cocktail list will feature sharing punches, swizzles and coolers inspired by 1960s tiki drinks blended with tropical flavours from the sub-continent. The first Hoppers site opened in Soho in 2015, followed by a sister site in St Christopher’s Place off Oxford Street in 2017.

Kol

Mexican chef Santiago Lastra will open his first London restaurant this May on Seymour Street in Marylebone. The two-storey space will be called Kol, and will champion Mexican-inspire dishes made with seasonal British ingredients.

Lastra shot to fame after spearheading René Redzepi’s Noma Mexico pop-up and has already cut his teeth in London with a residency at Carousel in Marylebone. At Kol Lastra is keen to work with ingredients foraged from the woodlands in Kent, Scottish shellfish and herbs from Herefordshire.

Among the dishes on his debut menu will be langoustine tacos with sea buckthorn; kolrabi ceviche; lamb leg tostada cured in gooseberries; and corn husk ice cream. Wines meanwhile, will largely be minimum intervention organic and biodynamic drops from Central and Eastern Europe, including a house wine made by Slovakian estate Slobodne. The basement of the venue will be home to a mezcal bar serving artisan agave-based spirits, and a 20-seater chef’s table.

One of the focal points in the restaurant will be a tortilla station featuring a comal grill. Lastra has cooked in 27 countries over the last four years, earning him the nickname, ‘the Nomadic chef’. A number of ingredients, including chocolate, spices and corn, will be sourced from Mexico.

Manzi’s

Unstoppable duo Chris Corbin and Jeremy King are to continue their refinement of London restaurants with the opening of a chic seafood site called Manzi’s in Soho this year. Named in honour of the much-loved Leicester Square fish restaurant, the cavernous 241-cover Manzi’s within Bateman’s Buildings will celebrate fruits de mer in all its guises and will have a nautical design theme.

“In the same spirit of Brasserie Zédel, we want it to be fun and affordable. What is extraordinary about this site it is that it set over two floors in the heart of Soho, and yet has windows on both sides of the dining rooms,” the pair said in a statement.

In addition to the main dining room, the space will feature a ground floor bar and dining room, an outdoor terrace and private dining room, and is set to employ 155 full and part-time staff. The interiors will be looked after by designer Brady William, who recently put his hand to Bob Bob Cité’s lavish look, and will feature booths down one side and counter dining down the other.

NoMad London

And finally… we’re very excited about the opening of a London outpost of New York’s wildly popular and uber chic NoMad hotel in Covent Garden. The hotel will be taking over the Bow Street Magistrates Court, a 19^thcentury listed building, and rumour has it that the original courtroom will be used for private-hire events.

Having just opened Davies and Brook inside Claridge’s, which is already getting rave reviews, Daniel Humm of the three Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park, will be looking after the food, taking his London restaurant tally up to two. Humm already oversees the food offering at the New York NoMad. The London outpost will include destination bar called the NoMad Lounge.

Led by the Sydell Group, the building will be transformed into a 91 room hotel with many of the original features woven into design. A collaboration with New York-based design firm Roman & Williams, the interiors will explore he relationship between the New York and London art scenes.