Long-heralded Sri Lankan restaurant Rambutan opens today (17 March) on the edge of London’s Borough Market, from chef and food-writer Cynthia Shanmugalingam (above). Rambutan was first announced last summer, when Cynthia introduced the concept with a soft-serve ice cream pop-up featuring such flavours as mango; jaggery; watermelon and hibiscus; and buffalo curd. Her first book, […]
A new Danish steakhouse called KöD – meat in Danish – has opened in the City of London, serving beef from Britain, Uruguay and the US along with Japanese wagyu – all with a signature swoosh of “velvet carrot purée”. Founded in Ã…rhus in 2014, KöD now has branches in Copenhagen as well as Oslo and Stavanger […]
A 16-seat restaurant serving a ten-course meal at a single evening sitting will open this autumn in Shoreditch’s Blue Mountain School. Chef Theo Clench (right in photo), formerly of Akoko and Portland, will head the kitchen at Cycene, cooking a seasonal menu influenced by Australasia with an emphasis on seafood. Among the signature dishes he […]
This summer is a season of mixed emotions for the natural wine lovers of east London, as bar/restaurant Cadet opens on Newington Green just as Peg on Morning Lane in Hackney closes. Cadet is a combined project from natural wine importers Francis Roberts and Tom Beattie (far left and far right in photo), paté-maker extraordinaire […]
Star Portuguese chef Henrique Sá Pessoa, who trained in London almost 30 years ago, makes his return to the capital later this year with the opening of a new high-rise restaurant in the Battersea Power Station development. JOIA, 15th-floor Iberian restaurant with its own bar on the floor below as well as a rooftop bar […]
Korean streetfood specialist Bunsik opens its second London site tomorrow (26 March), with a menu headed by “corn dogs” – sausage and/or cheese on a skewer wrapped in batter and breadcrumbs then deep-fried. The new branch opens on Villiers Street, Embankment, at midday, with freebies to reward the first 50 customers. Corn dogs were apparently invented […]
Famously itchy-footed experimental chef Nuno Mendes returns to his Portuguese roots with his new restaurant in the Fitzrovia foodie enclave of Charlotte Street, which opens on Monday. He says Lisboeta will be “a love letter to Lisbon”, his home city. One of the most eagerly anticipated – not to say hyped – openings in London this year, […]

A Japanese restaurant that follows a 500-year-old culinary tradition opens in London’s Marylebone next week, complete with a bespoke interior shipped over from Kyoto where it was hand-made by craftsman in century-old hinoki wood. Roketsu, in New Quebec Street, lunches on Tuesday 7 December, and will serve only a ten-course kaiseki menu which changes with […]
Former Ottolenghi head chef Esra Muslu opens her first London restaurant next week, based on Istanbulite home cooking including recipes and traditional methods handed down by her mother. Zahter, named after a wild herb in the thyme family that grows in southern Turkey, is conceived as Esra’s “love letter” to her native country. It occupies […]
Mowgli, the Indian street food chain that has found extraordinary success since its launch in Liverpool seven years ago, opens its first branch in London next week, in Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia. Dubbed “Liverpool’s answer to Dishoom”, Mowgli was founded by former barrister Nisha Katona to showcase the sort of food that Indian people eat at […]