New opening

February sees the Borough Market scene get better than ever, the return of a Singapore restaurant and a classic British restaurant relocates to St James. 

Just before Christmas, Neighbourhood restaurant Calici closed its doors in Belsize village, but it'll be back soon under a new name. It turns out, as first reported by the Ham and High, that celeb chef  Giancarlo Caldesi will be taking on the space, making it the second Caldesi restaurant in London (there's another in Bray as well as a

RAI, from the same people behind Islington's Hot Stone, originally launched in Fitzrovia before closing last year. But now the restaurant is back again in a different location, just up the road in Bloomsbury. 

The food is once again led by Executive Chef Padam Raj Rai (previously at Nobu, Sake no Hana and Tsukiji) and it'll be an omakase-only restaurant, with dishes in the

It isn't often that a restaurant manages to open in the middle of Soho in a fashion that's so completely under the radar we have to wait for a reader to let us know about it. But that's the case with Grasso which threw open its doors on Dean Street just before Christmas. Even rarer, this is a restaurant that's entirely independent and family-owned.

The family in question are the McCaffreys. Seanie runs the restaurant,

The latest restaurant to hit Chinatown is Yiqi, billed as a Pan-Asian restaurant with dishes from all over West and Southeast Asia. In charge of the kitchen is Chef Lum Wah Cheok who comes via Hakkasan and Yauatcha making this a potentially very interesting opening. 

The menu looks intriguing too. A taste of it includes fried cordyceps flower salad,

Updated 23/1/24 with a new opening date

It's been quite the year for chef and restaurateur Claude Bosi. He began with the opening of his bistro Socca in Mayfair with Samyukta Nair and then followed that up with the unveiling of his glamorous rooftop restaurant ...

Just when you thought the city couldn't possibly fit any more upmarket hotels, another new opening is on the horizon. This time it's the turn of boutique hotel brand Hyde, themselves part of Ennismore, the people behind the Hoxton hotels. They're opening Hyde London City on Old Bailey.

It's not the first time that this particular building has been a hotel.

We've known for a while that  Larry Jayasekara is opening The Cocochine with gallery owner Tim Jefferies in Mayfair. That restaurant should see the light of day this spring, but it's not the only project they've been working on. On the

23/1/23 - updated with the opening date and website details

They've had lots of success with Perilla on Newington Green and now the same team are opening Morchella on Exmouth Market (taking over from Firebrand Pizza). 

This time the restaurant will be all about Mediterranean cuisine, with a focus on sharing dishes like octopus luciana, salt-baked

Updated 25/1/24 with the opening date

Several years back, Singaporean restaurateur Ellen Chew trialled a new concept in Soho. The pop-up was a cafe by day (Arôme) and restaurant by night (Singapulah). We all know how well Arôme did - it currently has two

17/1/24 - updated with opening details.

Just a few short months after they closed their store in Bevis Marks, to the despair of City workers, sandwich folk Dom's Subs are storming back, opening up not one but two sandwich shops in the Square Mile again. Back in October, they opened at Ludgate Circus in an incredibly small space described by them as a "little teeny tiny sandwich

Bad Manners (formerly Quarter Kitchen) have been a big deal in Hackney since launch, with their take on Mexican food forging quite the fan base. And now they've just launched a spin-off in Islington (as first spotted by London on the

Hot Dinners exclusive

Quite a few London high-end shops have gone down the in-store drinking or dining route. There's the very popular Café Leon Dore, Dunhill has its bar and courtyard cafe at Bourdon House, and

10/1/24 - updated with the opening date

In a strong case of "you really should have renamed this before opening in the UK", Clap is coming to Knightsbridge. 

Clap, a restaurant that's inevitably only going to be referred to with a definite article attached, has opened in Dubai, Riyadh and Beirut before landing in London. Referred to as "sensory Japanese dining" (which we're not sure makes it any

After half an hour chatting to wine bar owner and importer Michael Sager we're already feeling extremely jealous of anyone living in Victoria Park. In addition to the food and drink delights already there, they're about to get what sounds like the perfect neighbourhood wine bar.

Of course, Sager has a lot of experience in the game - his first place, Sager + Wilde pretty much reinvented the London wine bar