New opening

• The Counter comes to Soho, looking to The Aegean for its influences

  

  24/5/24 - updated with the opening date

  Are we in the midst of a new trend? With Oma just opened in Borough Market, another Turkish/Greek restaurant is incoming. After opening The Counter in Notting Hill in a relatively low-key manner in 2022, Turkish

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• Endo Kazutoshi opens Kioku by Endo restaurant and bar at The OWO

  

  24/4/24 - updated with opening details

  The (nearly) last piece of the puzzle that is The OWO is coming into place. The prime spot in the refurbished Old War Office, the rooftop, is being taken up by top chef Endo Kazutoshi, who will be opening Kioku by Endo there. 

  Kioku, is the Japanese word for memory. The restaurant, Endo says, "will combine

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• A big Albert's Schloss beer hall is coming to The Trocadero

  

  It's big in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham and now Albert's Schloss is coming to London. 

  Somewhat understatedly billed as a "bier + pleasure palace", it's taking over what used to be the Rainforest Cafe on Shaftesbury Avenue, more recently home to Jungle Cave. It's a location that's not been home to the most illustrious of London's food scene to date, but maybe that's about

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• The old House of Fraser building on Oxford Street is getting a rooftop restaurant with panoramic views

  

  Have you been wondering what the plans are for the old art deco House of Fraser building on Oxford Street? Well, it's getting more than £130m thrown at it in a massive refurb that's planned to bring with it new shops, a gym and even an indoor swimming pool. The building is being renamed The Elephant, but you can guarantee we'll all be calling it the old House of Fraser

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• Darling's Eatery and Studio serves up fresh pasta on Hackney's Fish Island

  

  Looks like Hackney Wick's Fish Island is doing pretty well for itself at the moment with restaurants. We've already reported on the upcoming Inis opening there and Test Driven new pizzeria

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• Mildreds plant-based restaurant comes to Victoria

  

  They've been opening successful vegan restaurants across London and now Mildreds have their sights set on Victoria for their sixth opening.

  The plant-based restaurant is taking over what was once a Le Pain Quotidien, just around the corner from Victoria station. And because it's also close to two big London theatres, they'll be putting on special pre-theatre menus here

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• The Med-inspired Circe's Rooftop Bar takes over from Bar Elba in Waterloo

   

  Earlier this year, Waterloo rooftop venue Bar Elba closed, but that's not the end for one of the few rooftop spaces in this area. It's being reborn as Circe's.

  Taking over the rooftop of Mercury House, it comes from bar veteran Tobias Jackson. He's worked on bars like The Escapologist and Blame Gloria as part of Adventure Bar Group. As with Bar Elba,

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• Ex-D&D CEO Des Gunewardena is launching Engel and Jang at The Royal Exchange

  

  15/4/24 - updated with full details

  He stepped away from D&D in 2022 (he was one of the Ds) and now Des Gunewardena has announced his first solo venture - which is a pretty big one. 

  He's launching not one, but two new "concepts" at the Royal Exchange, called Engel and Jang. They will take over the North South and East mezzanines above the

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• Warehaus is the new drinking den from a Bar with Shapes for a Name

  

  A Bar with Shapes for a Name (🔶🟥🔵) has earned a reputation for being one of the best bars in London, which occasionally makes it a little tough to grab a table/stool inside. But if you've been meaning to try their cocktails, that's about to get a lot easier as they're getting ready to open their second bar, Warehaus. 

  This one's much closer to Dalston and is taking over the

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• Café Britaly sees former Bocca di Lupo duo teaming up for a Britalian restaurant in Peckham

  

  Updated 11/4/23 with the opening date

  Italian food purists keep scrolling, because what we're about to write may trigger you. A new cafe is opening in Peckham that will be embracing the "authentically Britalian" trend.

  Café Britaly is the first project between chef Alex Purdie and Richard Crampton-Platt. Alex arrives here having most recently been senior chef at Bouchon Racine and, before that, Bocca

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• Temper Burger sees the steak & BBQ restaurant pivot to smash burgers

  

  Their most recent opening was in Paddington and although Temper are staying in the west for their next, it's going to be quite a different beast. They're taking the lead from their cheeseburger taco and pivoting into actual burgers to open Temper Burger. 

  The new restaurant will be mainly about double-patty smash burgers with options including:

  • Temper
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• Kirk Haworth's Plates is opening in Shoreditch

  

  If you're ever wondering what the sign of a hot restaurant is going to be in advance then look no further than the upcoming return of chef Kirk Haworth's Plates restaurant. The Great British Menu 2024 winner announced last night that bookings had opened for Plates' new venue in Shoreditch and the deluge of bookings promptly crashed the website. More than 70k people were trying to get hold of a table with

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• Inis will serve up British and Irish food on Hackney Wick's Fish Island

  

  There's been some debate recently on what makes a neighbourhood restaurant. However, we figure that if you've spent the past decade living somewhere, that's surely got to count for something. And locals Lynsey Coughlan and Lindsay Lewis have lived in Hackney for ten years before deciding to open their first restaurant.

  Inis, which will be part of Fish Island's The Trampery campus, is going to serve up a mix of British

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• SanHao sees Yiqi founders opening a noodle and soup restaurant in Chinatown

  

  Three restaurants in three years - restaurateurs Kevin Cheong and Keng Yew Leong have been busy building their Chinatown empire. In 2022 they opened The Eight - a Hong Kong-style cafe. At the beginning of this year, ...

• Michel Roux is back in London with Chez Roux at The Langham

  

  The closure of Michel Roux's Le Gavroche earlier this year was something of a shock for fans of the restaurant. That had followed the closure of the chef's Roux at the Landau (at the Langham), which has since been taken over by ...