Hot new London restaurant openings: July
Rok Smokehouse Islington
Having send Shoreditch into a pickle, Rok Smokehouse has opened a second site in Islington where it will showcase the best of Nordic cuisine.
The 60-cover site is overseen by executive chef Matt Young, who has launched with seasonal summer offerings like duck with lingonberry bacon jam and wood-smoked peach; mackerel with pickled onions and flamed crispbread; guinea fowl with semi-cured pork belly and butter poached wild vegetables; and dark chocolate mousse with espresso sorbet and malted crumb.
Super shaker Matt Whiley is in charge of the cocktails, so expect smoking and brining techniques to feature in the likes of the Seasonal Bones and the Aquavit Sour.
Clipstone
Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau have completed their hat trick of restaurants with the opening of Clipstone in Fitzrovia. The dynamic duo behind The Quality Chop House and Portland have given the 52-cover site pared-down interiors, letting the food speak for itself.
At the helm is head former Portland chef Merlin Labron-Johnson, who has devised a menu of cold cuts, summer plates, larger sharing dishes and sourdough flatbreads. Dishes include lardo with caramelised walnuts; mussels, saké, coriander and olive oil; clam, parsley, crème fraiche and garlic flatbread; and carrot and ricotta ravioli with brown butter and hazelnuts.
Sardine
Southern France is given the limelight at Old Street newcomer Sardine, run by Stevie Parle protégé Alex Jackson in an art gallery annexe next to contemporary space Parasol.
Inspired by the simplicity and seasonality of farmhouse cooking in Provence and the Languedoc, the peach and navy space serves light bites, starters, mains and desserts with sharing encouraged. Sardines come grilled and stuffed, gnocci is served with salami, dandelion and ricotta, or there’s brains, borage, artichoke, sweetbreads and chickpea fries for the adventurous, and whole rabbit for the ravenous. Best of all, after your meal you can feast on the art next door.
Bao Fitzrovia
While db has yet to brave the queues at the popular Soho original, steamed bun specialist Bao has opened a second site in leafy Fitzrovia. Larger than its sibling, Bao 2.0 has a bigger menu and a greater focus on cocktails. Among the sips on pour are the Koxinga made with yuzu, lemon and gin; and Izu Dancer, featuring sake, umeshu, almond milk, rose water and orange peel.
Split in two, the ground floor is all minimalist chic – think white walls and lashings of wood, while things get grittier in the basement via metallic walls and an open kitchen. Bao’s popular steamed buns will be present and correct, including newbie the Gold Coin Chicken, rammed with pork belly, chicken liver paté and chicken skin, but it’s the black cod bao with hot sauce people are going wild for.
New for the second site will be a selection of Xiao Chi – small eats like oysters with green chilli pickle; crispy bird’s feet with hot sauce; beef nuggets and raw langoustines with aged soy sauce. Among the bigger dishes are quail stuffed with pig’s blood; ox heart with Schezuan dressing; sausage with XO; and fried chicken, rice, cured egg and salmon roe.
Blandford Comptoir
Having won a Michelin star at his debut venture Texture in Marylebone with business partner and head chef Agnar Sverrisson, and carved a successful niche with his ‘wine workshop and kitchen’ concept 28°-50° in Mayfair, Marylebone and the City, restless master sommelier Xavier Rousset has struck out with his first solo venture, casual bistro Blandford Comptoir, named after the buzzy Marylebone street it resides on.
Shunning his French origins, Xavier’s menu is more Italian accented via the likes of Sicilian prawns drenched in Amalfi lemon; beef carpcaccio with truffle dressing carpeted in 36-month aged Parmesan; Italian summer truffle risotto; and burrata with heritage tomato and rocket.
Partner Content
The 250-bin list features over 50 Champagnes, a ‘celebrity guest list’ compiled by Gerard Basset OBE and an interesting by the glass and carafe selection featuring the likes of Brokenwood Hunter Valley Semillon and Bassona Dei Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. France and Italy are strongly represented on the list, which is spilt down the middle with white on the left and red on the right in six price brackets from £23-60.
The Barbary
With just 24 seats and no reservations, The Barbary in Neal’s Yard has become this summer’s hot ticket, especially given that it’s the second venture from Layo and Zoe Paskin, the dynamic duo behind Jerusalem small plates specialist The Palomar in Soho. This time the team are focusing on grilling and baking, taking inspiration from cuisines spanning North Africa’s Barbary Coast to Jerusalem taking in Morocco and Spain.
Ostuni
Already being dubbed “The River Café of Queen’s Park”, Ostuni in north London specialises in Puglian cuisine. As a result dishes are deceptively simple but go big on ingredients and flavour. With the majority of ingredients sourced from the heel in Italy’s boot, dishes include the likes of grilled rose veal chop, whole seabream baked in a salt crust, orecchiette (little ear) pasta and lemon sorbet doused in Prosecco.
Strut & Cluck
Taking specialist restaurants into a new stratosphere is Struck & Cluck in Shoreditch where it’s forever Christmas given the restaurant’s focus on and adoration for much maligned poultry, the humble turkey. Free range birds are marinated for a day in a secret herb and spice mixed and are then served in an array of ways, from charcoal grilled and slow roasted to being covered in breadcrumbs and turned into a schnitzel or smothered in harissa, honey and rosemary.
Bar Douro
Max Graham of Churchill’s Port is to open a Bar Douro, a Portuguese restaurant and wine bar in Flat Iron Square near London Bridge this September. Inspired by the ale houses and tapas bars dotted around Lisbon and Porto, the venue will serve small plates based on Portuguese home cooking alongside a selection of Ports and Portuguese wines from the country’s key growing regions.
Among the dishes on offer will be smoked sausage croquettes, suckling pig, octopus with sweet potato and favas, fish stew, pork ribs with ruby Port glaze, and milk fed lamb, with traditional custard tarts available for pud. Its décor will include Portugal’s famous ‘azulejos’ – blue and white ceramic tiles. Graham, whose father founded Churchill’s Port in 1981, tested the water with Churchill’s Port House in 2013, a pop-up wine bar in Soho.
Rum Kitchen
Rum Kitchen has ventured south, opening a third site in Brixton. Alongside the beach shack-inspired menu, new dishes at the Coldharbour Lane joint include a jerk fried chicken burger and grilled red snapper with avocado salsa.
Rum nuts have over 200 expressions and 40 cocktails to work their way through including classics like the Dark & Stormy, Rum Sour, Mai Tai and Zombie, and new creations like the Smoked Daiquiri, which blends Smoked Bacardi Heritage rum, lime, grapefruit and apricot; and the Guayanese Iced Tea featuring El Dorado 5 Year Old, cider, Aperol, lime, bergamot and Earl Grey & peppermint syrup.
El Pastór
Sam and Eddie Hart, the Anglo-Spanish brothers behind Barrafina and Quo Vadis, are to open El Pastór, a taqueria on Stoney Street in London Bridge this November.
Taking pride of place at El Pastór, which means shepherd in Spanish, will be an upright grill that will be used to make meat, fish and vegetarian tacos. In addition, the restaurant will serve seafood tostadas, chicharrón del queso and chargrilled esquites.
Mezcal will be given top billing on the drinks list and will be served neat with a slice of orange to sweeten the blow. Tequila, Mexican beer and Margaritas will form the remainder of the drinks offering.
