New opening

As another year begins, here's our guide to the very best new restaurants that will be opening in London throughout 2024.

If the current dire weather has you dreaming about summer sunshine on the Med then the arrival next month of Bellazul in Marylebone might be the cure to your winter blues. Taking over the old Il Baretto site on Blandford Street this sees head chef Simone Serafini running the show having previously been Head Chef of Cecconi's Mayfair and 5 Hertford Street.

Simone's inspirational trawl around the

When Hackney restaurant Nest announced its move from Hackney to Shoreditch, their old space on Morning Lane suddenly became available and a new restaurant duo have taken it over. Jack O'Connor and Joshua Ralphs both met while working at Larry's in Peckham where Jack was head chef. Their combined CV is a tour of London's hippest restaurants like Flor, Lasdun and Jolene, so news that they're opening their own

Opening very under the radar between Christmas and New Year in Chelsea is Tabisca, an Italian restaurant which started in Lecce. The original restaurant over there describes its offering as "dishes with particular attention to the flavours of Salento and Puglia". 

The restaurant has an enormous menu featuring everything from crostini to meat and cheese platters. But the main focus is meat with

It's been eighteen months since chef and restaurateur Stevie Parle was forced to close his fabulous pop-up Joy at Portobello Dock. Problems with the lease and landlord, followed by protracted efforts to regain that lease eventually ended in failure, leaving Parle's many fans with only the chef's

A new  Vietnamese restaurant has just appeared on Islington's Upper Street and it looks like it could be worth checking out. Dzo! Viet Kitchen has taken over the space that used to be the sports bar Valderrama's and has given it quite the makeover.  

As for the menu, there are summer and spring rolls (pork and prawn, seafood and taro and mung beans) and banh mi which include

14/12/23 - Updated with the opening date

Can London have too many omakase restaurants? It appears not, as the people behind Taku in Mayfair are getting ready to open a restaurant with its own omakase counter in Hampstead (taking over what used to be Goldfish).

Iné will have an eight-seater omakase counter alongside booth seating if you want to pop in for

12/12/23 - updated with the opening date

Over the past three years, MUST Wine have been growing their wine bar empire, having opened first in St Albans in 2019, followed by Hampstead and Wanstead in quick succession. They're big on wine tastings and serve up over 70 wines by the glass in their bars; you can also ask for their Little Red Book which features what they call the "really, really special wines". Now

They became hugely popular during their stint at Netil Market. Now plant-based filled-pitta merchants Pockets are about to go permanent, opening a new shop just down the road. 

On Mentmore Terrace, the new place brings together their bakery and kitchen so those pittas are going to be even fresher than ever before. If you haven't yet made the pilgrimage, they're known for their falafel pittas, mixing up that falafel with cabbage slaw,

Should we read something into the fact that Covent Garden visitors' tastes are leaning away from smashed avos and more towards Champagne? That's one conclusion to be drawn from the closure of Avobar which has been replaced by Bar du Champagne from the same owner (although Avobar is apparently moving to a central London location next year). 

This new bistro and bar is taking up two floors of the

Is a massive kebab house the one thing that Oxford Street really needed? Kebhouze seems to think so. 

They're a big kebab chain restaurant mainly with outposts in Italy, including Rome and Milan, but also in Ibiza. Here in London, they're taking a big corner side on Oxford Street, just a few doors down from Marks and Spencer, taking over what used to be a souvenir and vape shop

If, like us, you live around Islington and have been wondering what's taking over the big site that used to be Rudy's Vegan Diner then wonder no more. Getting ready to open there is Philippe Conticini. 

If that name sounds familiar, it's because you might have come across his work at the café in South Kensington or Camden's Buck Street Market. Or perhaps it's because

Updated 5/12/23 with opening date

Having had huge success with the opening of The Audley and Mount St. Restaurant, the team behind Artfarm are gearing up to open Farm Shop further along the same street in Mayfair. Described as a farm shop, butcher and wine cellar, the London shop will be a follow-up to their existing store at their farm in Bruton in Somerset.

The shop in Mayfair will run

A new restaurant has quietly opened in Mayfair, sneaking in before the end of the year. The Dover has taken over the space that was Moncks of Mayfair, which itself closed at the onset of the pandemic back in 2020 (after less than a year in business). 

As for this

Updated 4/12/23 with opening date

Whyte Rushen, once chef at top places like Brat, Scully and Kerridge's, has been running sell-out pop-ups up all over town, teaming up with places as varied as Quo Vadis and Jollibee but now he's settling down in Hackney.  

It's early days on what to expect from the place and his cooking so far has been extremely varied. A taste of what's been at