The best new restaurants: London, August 2022
From a taste of France in Brixton, to California by way of Canary Wharf, August’s new restaurants offer tantalising escapes
Bottle & Rye, Brixton
Behold: the latest place to tuck into the culinary wonders of chef Robin Gill (Sorella, Darby’s, Bermondsey Larder and more). Together with his wife Sarah, Gill has opened a petite bistro (just 28 covers!), Bottle & Rye, in Brixton. Here, the chef pens edible love letters to France through a menu featuring classics like croque madames, Ogleshield gougères and Vichyssoise oyster tartare. As the name suggests, wine is a key part of the offering too, with bottles spanning the big-gun regions as well as smaller gems. With restaurants to run across London and beyond, Gill has put head chef Ben Hughes-Gage, formerly of Lino, in charge of running the kitchen.
Read more ...Mriya, Chelsea
Here’s an offering deserving of a full dining room every night: Ukrainian chef, presenter and ambassador of the nation’s cuisine Yurii Kovryzhenko – who has previously hosted charity dinners with Jason Atherton, Jamie Oliver and Tom Seller in aid of the war – is opening his own restaurant in Chelsea, with a commitment to employing Ukrainian refugees who have fled the war. The small, 37-cover restaurant is fittingly called Mriya, meaning dream, and will celebrate classic Ukrainian specialties including borsch (beetroot soup), chicken Kyiv, courgette pancakes and smoked trout. Expect plenty of pickled delicacies too, with Kovryzhenko dedicating a room on site to fermenting vegetables the traditional way. As for drinks, it’s all about vodka-based martinis – and there’s even a food-pairing option if you want to sample the lot.
Read more ...Viet Populaire, Soho
If you fell in love with Luke Farrell’s authentic bánh mì (Vietnamese baguettes) at his Rupert Street pop-up last year, we’ve some good news: Farrell has partnered up with JKS restaurants to bring his Viet Populaire concept to Arcade Food Hall. It’s apparently running for only a limited time though, so hop to it if you want to get your hands on the likes of his breakfast Bánh Mì (a soft but crusty-topped baguette filled with a fried egg, pâté, pickles and herbs), or the classic: roast pork with cheese, pâté, pickles and herbs. Wash it down with a Vietnamese phin coffee (filter coffee roasted with butter and vanilla, and dripped over condensed milk) and mentally swap views of Tottenham Court Road for the hustle and bustle of a Hanoi café.
Read more ...Taca Tacos, Deptford
Stretching back to a late July opening here, but Taca Tacos is worthy of some coverage, especially when word on the foodie grapevine is that owner Addyman Thorne makes some of the best soft corn tacos in London. Bringing back the intricate compilations and delicate flavours of those he found in California and across Mexico, Thorne originally trialled his concept as a pop-up, Tacoshack, in Deptford back in 2019. Now, he’s opened his first bricks-and-mortar restaurant in the area’s gastronomic epicentre, Deptford Market Yard. We hear the six-hour-braised beer birria taco is a must for meat eaters, while veggies can’t go wrong with a pulled 'shroom 'quesataco'.
Read more ...Sessions, Islington
If you’ve frequented Brighton seafront in the last couple of years, you may have called in at a grand-looking building on the promenade, Shelter Hall, for a bite to eat. Now, the company behind the street-food hub is bringing its business model to London, launching a second, smaller site in Islington. Here, there’s room for just four traders to run their pop-up kitchens, and these vendors may may change over time, but visit soon and you’ll find the latest iteration of London favourite Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen; Big Has, a Mediterranean-inspired pop-up from YouTube cooking sensation Hasan Semay; a second branch of Shelter Hall's Korean offering Tiger and Rabbit; and a new outpost of Tufnell Park café Norman’s, where no-frills British favourites (think chip butties and bacon baps) are the order of the day.
Read more ...Feels Like June, Canary Wharf
Bringing California’s easy breezy dining culture to Canary Wharf is Feels Like June, an all-day restaurant plying London’s finance crowd with morning coffees (muddled with house-made nut milks), breakfast treats (ranging from healthy bowls to breakfast burritos), takeaway salads (ideal for those who can’t leave their desk for long), and all-American classics (double smash burgers, anyone?). Those who pop in for after-work drinks or want to make a night of it can look forward to Californian wines and cocktails on tap, including a seasonal rhubarb cosmopolitan.
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