A 100-year-old landmark Birmingham hotel abandoned for the past decade will reopen tomorrow as a Nigerian restaurant called Empress. The former Dogpool Hotel in Stirchley has been revived by husband-and-wife team Olusegun Akande and Oyetola Isla, who aim to showcase the richness of their national cuisine. Olusegun says: “We saw potential in this historic site […]
Congolese chef Joyce Kudia opens her first permanent site this week at Boxhall City food hall near Liverpool Street station, having made her name as a contestant on Channel Four’s ‘Five Star Kitchen: Britain’s Next Great Chef’. Joyce, who has worked as a private chef, was also the first resident chef at Boxhall City’s rotating […]
An ambitious new West African restaurant has opened with little fanfare in Baker Street. Shakara, close to Marylebone’s Chiltern Firehouse, offers cooking inspired by Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia accompanied by live music. Chef Ayo Adeyemi has helped curate the opening menu following a two-year stint at highly rated restaurant Akoko, while former MasterChef: The […]
The brother-and-sister duo behind north London Nigerian tapas spot Chuku’s have revealed ambitious plans to spin the concept out on a national scale with half a million pounds in funding. Emeka (left in picture) and Ifeyinwa Frederick launched Chuku’s – billed as ‘London’s first Nigerian tapas restaurant’ – in Seven Sisters in 2020, after several years experimenting […]
Jazz saxophonist and entrepreneur YolanDa Brown is to open her restaurant and music venue Soul Mama in Stratford this September. Originally slated for Islington, Soul Mama is set in the Gantry hotel, opposite Westfield, and will offer a menu inspired by Caribbean, African and South American cooking. The project is funded by a Kickstarter campaign […]
A new West African restaurant is to open next month in a railway arch next to Borough Market. Akara is Aji Akokomi’s more casual follow-up to his acclaimed Fitzrovia flagship, Akoko. The new venue is named after the crispy West African fritters made from black-eyed beans which will be served as starters, stuffed with prawns […]
Musician YolanDa Brown has broken global fundraising records on Kickstarter to launch a new restaurant and music venue in Islington. Soul Mama is set to open this autumn with a menu inspired by recipes handed down through generations of mothers across the Caribbean, Africa and South America. Launched in partnership with her manager Adetokunbo ‘T’ […]
Tatale, the restaurant showcasing African cuisine at the new Africa Centre in Southwark, is to close next Sunday, 18 June, after just a year in operation. Ghanaian-British chef Akwasi Brenya-Mensa said at the time of Tatale’s launch last year that he “hoped to change people’s perception of African cooking”, and his cooking gained plaudits from […]
Senegalese London restaurant Little Baobab is hosting a launch party tonight to mark its permanent new perch at Peckham Levels. Founder Khadim Mane, aka Khadim Mbamba, has run the business on a more informal basis for the past eight years, offering catering services alongside pop-ups and residencies around north and east London. Originally from Dakar, […]
London’s growing ranks of upscale African restaurants will be swelled this month with the launch of Isibani, under Nigerian-born chef Victor Okunowo (pictured), at the very plushest of addresses on Knightsbridge Green. Meaning “bring the light” in Zulu, Isibani’s founders describe it as “a love letter to West African cuisine” and a celebration of their […]
