Veteran celeb chef Aldo Zilli makes his return to the London restaurant scene next week with the launch on Tuesday (10 December) of Undercroft in Mayfair, a dramatic new dining venue set in the crypt of historic St George’s church off Hanover Square. The venue was heavily trailed earlier this year as the site where […]
Babbo, the former Mayfair Italian restaurant with footballing connections, completes its transfer to St John’s Wood next week, while its fellow glossy Italian Bocconcino opens a seafood spinoff in the Strand called Osteria del Mare (pictured). Launching on Monday, Osteria del Mare takes inspiration from the Tuscan coastal resort of Forte dei Marmi, with ex-Barrafina […]
Provençal bistro Socca in Mayfair has closed down suddenly, in what is an unusual backward step for its co-founders Samyukta Nair and Claude Bosi – separately, two of London’s most prolific restaurateurs in recent years. The pair announced the move without any notice on Saturday (30 November), saying “It is with a very heavy heart that […]
Sardinian chef Achille Pinna is to open a new self-named restaurant by the entrance to Shepherd Market in Mayfair next week. Pinna is backed by prolific restaurateurs George Bukhov-Weinstein and Ilya Demichev, the duo behind Burger & Lobster and Goodman, who earlier this month launched Fantomas in Chelsea. Achille is a former executive chef at […]
Silva, a new ‘day-to-night’ restaurant, opened yesterday in a Mayfair mews from first-time restaurateur Daria Grebenyuk. She recruited experienced hands led by head chef Slawomir Sawicki (ex-of Eric Chavot, Galvin at La Chapelle, Arts Club) and former Sir Terence Conran partner Peter Prescott to bring the project to fruition. Silva – from the Latin word for […]
Prolific Mayfair-based restaurateur Samyukta Nair is to open her first Italian restaurant next week – Nipotina, an all-day family-oriented neighbourhood venue in South Audley Street. Turin-born chef Somaia Hammad (right in photograph) will lead the kitchen, while Luca Dusi (left), of Passione Vino in Shoreditch, has assembled a wine list featuring small and artisanal producers from […]
Former Galvin at Windows head chef Joo Won is to open his first restaurant, Cálong, in Stoke Newington, combining classical French techniques, seasonal British produce and his Korean culinary heritage. Cálong is taking over the premises in Church Street occupied for nine years by Rubedo, a European bistro and natural wine bar that signs off […]
Mexican chef Santiago Lastra launches his follow-up to smash-hit Kol next week. Fonda will open on Thursday (3 October) in Mayfair’s Heddon Street, opposite heavyweights Sabor and Ambassadors Clubhouse. Named after a Mexican style of family-run local restaurants, Fonda will be more accessibly priced than ‘fine-dining’ Kol, with meals structured around the ‘coma’, a traditional […]
One of London’s most heavily trailed openings of the year has been postponed indefinitely with the news this week that Brad Carter is no longer involved with the Undercroft project in Mayfair. Brad closed his hit Birmingham restaurant Carter’s of Mosley last year, and in April announced that he would open Undercroft in the crypt […]
A new Brazilian restaurant has opened next door to the Brazilian consulate in Vere Street, just off Oxford Street. Maroto has picked up the baton from Bossa, a highly touted outfit which closed down on the site after barely six months at the beginning of the year. Maroto was the name of the bar that opened […]