New opening

This is from Bea Vo (who originally set up Bea's of Bloomsbury) and it's the second Butterscotch in London after the successful opening at White City. Expect all kinds of afternoon tea, a porridge bar and more sweet treats. 

If you want the best egg pasta in Italy, so they say, you have to go to the Emilia Romagna region where it was created. But if you can’t *quite* justify getting on a plane yet then Hoxton Square’s new Italian Via Emilia looks like the next best thing, and in traditional Italian style, they’re keeping it ultra simple with eight pastas, one pudding and a wine list that’s short but sweet.

Farmers' market stalwart Popina are moving into bricks and mortar with their first cafe and deli just south of Oxford Street

With more than 240 restaurants in 13 countries around the world, including Japan, slick ramen chain Ippudo is no stranger to new openings. Now they're opening the doors on their third London branch in Charing Cross, where they'll also be providing takeaway until the evening.

Santa Maria Pizza have earned them plenty of accolades and awards since opening in Ealing in 2010, and later in Chelsea. Now they’re finally making the move to Central London, and boy are we ever excited…

The duo behind Randy’s Wing Bar love chicken wings, so much so they even once drove across the US in the hunt for the best sauce. Now they’re branching out from their original Hackney Wick base to bring all that saucey, chickeny goodness to hungry folk in the City.

Another smart-yet-relaxed cafe from London’s famously exclusive upmarket The Ivy. Expect a lavish menu of classic British food, a gorgeous interior and covetable terrace seating overlooking Greenwich Park.

From the people behind another Taiwanese Tooting success, Mr Bao, comes the next restaurant Daddy Bao - with bao buns aplenty. 

This new independent all day restaurant and bar hopes to bring a little of the buzz of Tel Aviv style cafes to this part of Hampstead

A new all-day destination is coming to Stockwell with the impressive pedigree of the people behind Waterloo's Anchor and Hope in charge. 

The folk behind Farringdon's Pianoworks have just opened a new live music venue with duelling pianos, cocktails and Asian-inspired food served in bamboo cones

Ex Outlaw's chef Tom Brown is going it alone in Hackney with his new restaurant Cornerstone. Expect a seasonal menu, plenty of seafood and counter dining too. 

Joining the flurry of openings in the N16 comes Bergen House, with a menu laden with choices, from grazing plates to sharers for two, Sunday roasts, specials, affordable wines and a classic English pudding selection.

As another year begins, it's time to look forward to some of the most promising new restaurants due to open in 2018 (that we know of). And it's already looking like an interesting year, with the likes of Nieves Barragan and Tomos Parry opening their own places and the return of Simon Rogan, amongst others.

There's been a lot of doom and gloom talk in some quarters about the London restaurant scene at the moment but we don't think there's need for despair just quite yet. While there have been closures (just like every year we've been running the site) it's been a real bumper year for new openings.

We've gone back to have a look at the last few years of our long-running