Romy Gill takes over The Pem in St James, which is shifting to regional Indian cooking

7/9/26 - updated with the opening date

Just over a year ago, Sally Abé left The Pem, the restaurant she launched at The Conrad St James, four years before (she's since opened the very successful Teal). While her OG restaurant had been running well since then, it's been without a named chef at the helm, and that's now changing. 

Taking over is Romy Gill, a chef who has actually cooked there before, once teaming up with Sally Abé as part of their "The Pem Presents" series. In recent years, she's been best known for her bestselling cookbooks, and this will be her first permanent restaurant kitchen in six years (since Romy's Kitchen in Thornbury). She was also awarded an MBE in the Queen's 90th birthday honours for services to the hospitality industry.

With Romy taking over, there's also going to be a big change to the menu at The Pem. Until now, the restaurant had been about British cooking, but when Romy Gill at The Pem launches, the menu will shift to regional Indian cooking. Dishes planned for the menu include hand-dived scallops with raw mango and sweet date-tamarind, ghee-roasted quail and slow-braised lamb with Kashmiri morel mushrooms. As for dessert, there will be ajwain churros with warm chocolate. There's also a feast menu that brings together the hits, including one of her signature dishes, butter chicken. 

There's a new drinks list too, also featuring Indian ingredients, like the Old Fashioned with Amrut Indian single malt whisky and cardamom bitters.

Of the restaurant, the chef says, "I want The Pem to feel lively and full of energy. The kind of restaurant where people stay longer than they planned, order another dish because the table next to them had it, and leave already thinking about when they're coming back. That's how I love to eat, and that's what I want to create here."

It sounds like this could become a proper destination restaurant for the area.