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London’s hottest restaurant openings: May 2023

03 May 2023 By Louis Thomas

From a manor house in Mayfair to an Alice in Wonderland-inspired spot in Waterloo, this May brings a multitude of new restaurant openings in London.

20 Berkeley – 17 May

This “British produce-led” manor house in the heart of Mayfair is the brainchild of executive chef Ben Orpwood, formerly of Maison Estelle and Gordon Ramsay Group. The restaurant, supported by Creative Restaurant Group (Humo, Endo at The Rotunda, SUMI), has been designed by interior architects Pirajean Lees, and can boast of an orangery, drawing room and pantry displaying the aforementioned British produce. Creative Restaurant Group managing director Alex D’Aguiar said of the restaurant: “The space has the feeling of walking into a manor house and it felt fitting that, given this restaurant will be a celebration of British produce that the atmosphere would capture the feeling of being in a home, and that the British Isles would serve as our back garden.”

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Carlotta – 12 May

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Hot on the heels of Jacuzzi in South Kensington, this is Big Mamma Group’s fifth London restaurant, and promises to combine its signature exuberance with a more intimate dining experience at its new Marylebone venture. A pastiche of the cooking of Southern Italian immigrants to the US, expect riffs on New York-style Sicilian, Calabrese and Campanian cooking. Think of it as a level up from Frankie & Benny’s.

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Midland Grand Dining Room – 2 May

This 19th century gothic-inspired eatery near St. Pancras Station is the new project from hotelier Harry Handelsman and chef Patrick Powell, who have previously collaborated on Allegra in Stratford (Powell will continue his work with Allegra). Fittingly, given the restaurant’s proximity to the Eurostar, the predominantly old world wine list will be matched with French-inflected dishes using British ingredients, such as crab & elderflower pain perdu, Welsh lamb with Pommes Anna, ratatouille & whipped aubergine, and Grand Marnier soufflé. For the Gothic Bar, bar manager Jack Porter has concocted a series of cocktails to complement the menu, including one inspired by Powell’s mother’s soda bread, combining soda bread mix, Jameson, Guinness liquor, black walnut bitter and sweet vermouth.

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The Rosarium

From the minds behind Labyrinth (the restaurant, not the film) comes The Rosarium in Waterloo, a new culinary experience that draws inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The menu, from executive chef Harvey Ayliffe, has been designed to take diners through the proverbial rabbit hole. Woodland mushroom soup with truffled straws, cod in a chip (a fitting inversion of a British classic), and the Mad Hatter’s strawberry sundae for two will whisk you away to Wonderland – there are also cocktails, but no mention of shrinking potions.

To find out more, click here.

Harvest – 4 May

Coming to Kensal Rise, Jesse Dunford Wood is turning his duo of restaurants, Parlour and Six Portland Road, into a trio with the opening of Harvest, on Chamberlayne Road. The menu covers breakfast, lunch and supper, opening with dishes such as kitchari & kedgeree, a nod to the sites former use as a curry house, and Parlour’s smoked salmon with cream cheese & bagels. Dishes later in the day include duck liver profiteroles, Tamworth pork schnitzel and whole sea bass. The inside can seat 35, while the “secret garden” seats a further 35 and offers a tranquil oasis for, in the words of the press release announcing the restaurant’s opening, “languorous, convivial dinners with friends and family”. As for family, Dunford Wood’s father, Hugh, designed the wrought iron art that adorns the restaurant’s walls.

To find out more, click here.

To read about some of last month’s openings, click here.

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