New opening

We'll be honest with you, we hadn't even realised that La Bodega Negra had shut down. But it definitely has because there's a new restaurant just about to take over its cavernous site on Old Compton Street.

Maki & Ramen is a mid-tier restaurant group that was first launched in Scotland by Hong Kong-born chef Teddy Lee, and the name is pretty self-explanatory. Sushi and ramen are at the heart of the menu, and they say they're trying to hit that middle point "between high-end dining and grab-and-go".

It serves up an absolutely massive menu with no fewer than 17 ramen

11/2/26 - updated with the opening date

Canary Wharf's dining out scene, particularly around Wood Wharf, has seen a big improvement over the last few years. And now there's another new opening that looks set to continue that trend. Mama Li is all about Cantonese roast meats and, following their Tower Bridge and London Wall openings, they're coming to Canary Wharf next. 

The main event here will be their Siu Mei roasted meats with four to choose from, crispy pork, BBQ pork, soy chicken and roasted duck (or go for a mix of up to three all together)

Updated 11/2/26 with a much clearer opening date

Restaurateur Jeremy King is getting ready for his biggest opening yet. He's had success with The Park near Hyde Park, and relaunched Le Caprice as Arlington and next he's going to be reopening Simpson's in the Strand. 

As part of that project, he'll be rejuvenating a huge building which has been having a trying time in

A Hot Dinners exclusive

He's the comedian who roasted both Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver for their ramen and egg fried rice dishes, respectively. Now Nigel Ng, who's better known by his comedy alter ego Uncle Roger, is preparing to put his money where his mouth is. This spring, he's opening his first UK restaurant in London.

Kawan by Uncle Roger is going to be a team effort between Nigel, restaurateur Keng Yew (who's behind London openings like YiQi and The Eight) and chef Daren Liew (Duddell's and the Hakkasan Group).

Given that Uncle Roger rose to fame

It still happens occasionally that a brand new restaurant opens up without us having heard so much of a whisper about it beforehand. That's the case with Wild Izakaya, a very interesting-sounding Japanese restaurant from the team behind Goodman, Pinna and Beast.

It's taken over a space in the City of London on Old Jewry Street, right opposite its sibling restaurant Goodman. They say their thing is "bringing Japan to London", and the man in charge of doing precisely that is Executive Chef Satoru Hashimoto, the former Head Chef at Koyn, who previously spent over a decade heading up

9/2/25 - updated with the opening date and more details

After making a big splash in Notting Hill with their first restaurant last year, Holy Carrot already has a second site lined up, this time in Spitalfields. However, this time around they'll be adding some vegetarian dishes, ditching the solely plant-based approach that the Notting Hill restaurant focused on. 

It's run by Irina Linovich and ex-Acme Fire Cult chef Daniel Watkins, and of the original restaurant, we said it was "a plant-based menu that pushes what's possible with vegan food without feeling like boundaries

6/2/25 - updated with more details about the opening, and an opening date

Is it a sign of the times that luxury hotel Four Seasons Hotel London At Tower Bridge has decided to replace its two Michelin-starred restaurant by top chef Anne-Sophie Pic with a steakhouse? Whatever the reasoning behind the decision, Cooper's Cut will be the hotel's newest dining offering, opening this spring.

Four Seasons are billing it as a contemporary steakhouse that they hope will "bring a bold energy to The City's dining scene." To that end they have brought in an Executive Chef with

It certainly feels as though London's bakery scene is in the ascendancy at the moment, and the arrival of Kichiya in London Fields is only going to add to that. Baker Ayako Takei trained in formal French patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu over a decade ago and worked at The Wolseley and Honey & Co, but has also built up a fanbase selling cakes and pastries at street markets and via direct sales.

Now Aya is opening her first cake shop and cafe, in London Fields. Kichiya on Mentmore Terrace will serve up her classic European pastries with an authentic Japanese twist. Think matcha

Following the opening of Nela, which proved to be a big success, the next opening at The Whiteley in Bayswater is incoming. This time it's Whiteley’s Kitchen, Bar & Café (named after the store that was once in this spot), which is opening as part of the Six Senses London hotel. 

It's being billed as a British restaurant that's also "vegetable-forward". So that means that it's not completely vegetarian, but there will be a lot of veggie options on the menu. In

We reported on this one way back in June 2025, but now it's being confirmed, Mazi is coming to Mayfair - although this outpost will be called Maza. 

It's been over a decade since Mazi opened its doors in Notting Hill. The refined Greek food restaurant by Adrien Carre and Christina Mouratoglou has since spawned sibling establishment Suzi Tros, also in Notting Hill, and this central London opening will launch in the old Pizza Express building opposite The Guinea on Bruton Place. The space, you may remember, was briefly taken over by the Guinea during Covid and used as the Guinea

They went properly viral in Soho due to the length of their queues, they then expanded to Spitalfields and now Noodle Inn are getting ready to open their third London noodle bar.

As first revealed by Battersea Beat, the third Noodle Inn is going to be on the top level of Battersea Power Station's Turbine Hall. The station has been slowly growing a pretty impressive restaurant roster over the years, with Dishoom, Arcade, Bao and Roti King having already found a home

In what's very much an on-again/off-again affair, it looks like the much rumoured return of Le Caprice is back on again. The restaurant had long been rumoured to be part of the launch of the new Chancery Rosewood hotel, but just before that opened the deal was thought to have fallen through. The hotel opened, along with Carbone, but the space that was originally supposed to be Le Caprice (the corner pictured above) remained unfilled. 

Now a job listing, first spotted by ...

Now that we've left dreary January behind there are some very interesting new openings to look forward to this month, including the return of chef Dom Taylor, a new wave Mexican, a Brixton import to Mayfair and a new Hoppers with a massively overhauled menu.

Look, we love a gimmick as much as the next person, but even we were slightly taken aback by the upcoming Old Street bar FlipDog. The bar (which happens to be a cocktail bar rather than a hot dog place) is going to be using a Loggerhead method to make some of its drinks. That means they're going to be putting a 1200°C iron poker into the drink "to enhance flavour, texture, and aroma."

It all sounds completely wild, but the owners behind FlipDog do have prior. Co-owner Artem Skapenko co-owns HRAM and Loggerhead Kyiv, described as a hidden gem by the World's 50 Best. That also uses

There may be fewer banks in London these days, but quite a lot of those ex-banks are being converted into impressive-looking restaurants. Recently we've had the opening of Aki London in Marylebone and next up is KINZ, a new Lebanese restaurant that's coming to Notting Hill. 

It's been put together by a trio, brothers Jad and Karim Lahoud and Rasha Khouri Bruzzo. The Lahouds, in particular, have been influenced by their parents, who were both chefs. As Jad says "Growing