New opening

The people behind Forzawin, Arch McLeish and Bash Redford, have a new restaurant on the way - a noodle bar called Bosslady. They've joined up with Henry Chung - who has spent the last six months in Taipo in preparation for their speciality - beef brisket noodles.

It's all inspired by a Taipo restaurant. It's been there for 30 years and apparently "embodies a humble yet unscrupulous approach to

While it's fair to say that we're pretty pumped up about the upcoming new opening by Lockhart's Brad McDonald, Shotgun, the downstairs bar at the original restaurant in Marylebone being created by Matt Whiley (Peg + Patriot) also sounds the business.

Showdown takes Brad's approach to the food at The Lockhart, giving American classics a similar

The latest burger bar to come to town is heading into the warren of Barbican as Bonfire opens there next week. So if you're heading to a concert and have a burger craving, it could be worth checking out on the second floor of the Barbican Centre.

It'll mainly specialise in burgers which include the Bonfire (6oz burger, lettuce, red onion, tomato & mayo - £7.45), The Kenyon (6oz

Coming to Dalston is a new restaurant billed as a casual dining Jamaican restaurant which is aiming for "traditional Jamaican cooking presented with a contemporary twist."

Their focus will be on "real jerk". These dishes will be marinated for 24 hours in a secret blend of herbs and spices, then smoked using pimento and sweet wood and finally cooked over coals in traditional jerk drums. 

But there's more, including lobster Jamaican

Updated 24/7 with soft launch details.

We're seeing an interesting trend in smokehouse-based restaurants of late - that's seen various cuisines crossed with traditional smokehouse fare. The most recent and obvious example has been the middle eastern smokehouse of Berber & Q and now there's Rök, which comes with a Nordic twist.

Rök, which literally means "smoke" in Swedish, will be brining, pickling and smoking various

Popular Spanish restaurant chain Ibérica is opening its sixth restaurant (and fourth permanent London restaurant) this summer. They're opening on the ground floor of the Zig Zag Building which is one element of the huge redevelopment of Victoria (the other big foodie destination is Nova).

It's a large space with room for almost 150 diners on two floors as well as a huge terrace. There'll also be two private dining rooms.

Expect the usual

Updated 21/5/19 - DF/Mexico is now known as DF Tacos

A year after opening at the Truman Brewery, Wahaca's Thomasina Myers has another of its ofshoots, DF Tacos, on the way. DF was their version of a modern Mexican diner (which we visited for a Test Drive) offering something of a cross between American and

They're best known in London for the huge subterranean Covent Garden restaurant which has been there for (blimey) over 20 years. But now, nineteen years since their last London opening in Holborn, Belgo are about to open a restaurant right in the heart of Soho on Old Compton Street (where Amalfi used to be).

If you've been to any of their other restaurants (and if you've lived in London

22/7 - Updated with more menu details

There's something of an exchange going on between London and New York at the minute. We've passed over Jason Atherton and Burger & Lobster to them for two new openings. And in return they've sent us Hotel Chantelle.

Named after a World War II safe house and inspired by the design of the rooftop dining space it occupies in

Carnaby's going through a bit of a revamp at the moment - which means new restaurants are on the way. We've already heard about Dishoom and Shotgun - and now they're being joined by Dirty Bones. 

Dirty Bones has been

It seems that all department stores have definitely caught the restaurant bug, with Debenhams the latest to reveal an overhaul. They've brought in Eddie Lim of the Mango Tree (and more recently Harrods' Chai Wu) to develop their new restaurant Chi Kitchen.

It'll open on Oxford Street for starters, and the plans are for it to appear in every Debenhams after that. It's Pan Asian - planning to pull together Thai, Chinese, Malaysian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean

Marylebone continues to be a bit of a growth area for interesting new restaurants. And the latest we've heard about is Molé, a "boutique Mexican restaurant and taco bar" coming to Picton Place, right beside Selfridges. Run by the team behind nearby Cocochan the 50-seater restaurant is going to serve up modern Mexican/South American cooking (and cocktails).

80% of Molé’s menu will be gluten-free, including their tacos which they'll be making themselves from Masa

Popping into town to catch a preview of Ant Man this weekend (topline - it's brilliant and you must all go and see it) we were frankly taken aback by the unalloyed gorgeousness of the new Picturehouse Central. Esssentially it's as if a lovely art house cinema, serving up excellent coffee and Crosstown Doughnuts had transformed a West End multiplex overnight.

Not only are all the screens and seating new - there are seven of them - but there are all manner

Battersea Rise looks to be a good place for wine lovers with the opening of Humble Grape's wine bar. The wine importer - which specialises in seeking out handcrafted wines from small, relatively undiscovered vineyards around the world - crowdfunded £500k to open this, their first bar.

Upstairs customers can buy wines to take home while downstairs they can drink them by the glass or bottle at the bar for a fraction of the standard on-trade markup. Wines

The trend for single ingredient-led restaurants continues with the news that one devoted to the chip is heading our way. Come Fry with Me is going to be touring festivals and markets over the summer before opening up a permanent place in Covent Garden. In keeping with its name it'll have a 1960s air travel themed decor and fries arriving on a ‘fry carousel’ conveyor belt. 

“Crisps come in different shapes, sizes and a crazy number of flavours too," explains