Unforgiving June has never been much for restaurant openings; the promise of a city empty owing to holidays, or one stifled by heat, means few are willing to gamble on a big opening.
This year is no different, but there are still a handful of places coming, including a world-conquering chef coming to the latest big-name hotel to open for the apparently endless rich. Jackson Boxer, meanwhile, continues his run of new projects, as does Jeremy King, while the Four Legs boys have turned an old chippie up in Finsbury Park into the sort of place you might stumble across on the Spanish coast. Now there’s an idea — opening a holiday spot at home. July might yet see a few last-minute ideas appear yet.
Restaurant Akira Back
London’s second Mandarin Oriental, in Mayfair, is following the pattern set by the Knightsbridge original: open a flashy kitchen, and fill it with a big-name chef. Whereas back in 2019 the SW1 opening went for Heston Blumenthal, the new Hanover Square offering has bought in Akira Back. Though perhaps not yet widely known in the UK, Korean-born but Colarado-raised Back operates 28 sites internationally — in Las Vegas, Dubai, Paris and hometown Seoul, among other places — and has more cities on his hit list (Rome and Florence among them). A busy man; for now, though, his full attention is on London, where his eponymous, 148-cover restaurant has opened offering fine-dining modern Japanese. Those who know Back from abroad will recongise his signature AB Tuna Pizza on the menu and his Perfect Storm sushi rolls, but we get our own dishes too, with the likes of Dynamite Lobster, where pickled shimeji and micro coriander are added, and “Highland Wagyu” striploin steak (we call it sirloin) with yuzu kosho jus both exclusive to London. ABar Lounge — fond of his initials, this man — and a small Korean chef’s table, Dosa, will follow later in the year, the former with DJs playing on the weekends, and the second rather calmer.
Open now, 22 Hanover Square, W1S 1JP, mandarinoriental.com
Studio Five
A reopening, but one with what appears to be fair amount of work in it. Studio Five sits within the enormous, 1,200-seater Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, and is in part inspired by the site’s history: Fox Films, ITV, Limehouse Studios were all once here, with The Beatles performing here in 1964, and Freddie Mercury recording the These Are the Days of Our Lives videos just six months before he died. As such, dishes — which might include crispy fried whole aubergine with coconut raita, or a riff on fish and chips with minted pea puree and chilli ketchup — will be accompanied by a roster of live performances. Lively, in fact, is the word. Opening date, June 8, coincides with when Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express opens in the theatre; expect the place to be packed, pre- and post-theatre.
June 8, 128 Wembley Park Drive, HA9 0EW, studiofive.restaurant
Henri
The Henrietta hotel has had a middling time of it with food. It recruited Ollie Dabbous for the menu in 2017, and though it was difficult to gauge exactly how involved or not Dabbous was, the project was met with acclaim — if not exactly a roaring trade. The Italian Supper Club took the reigns in 2020. Here’s hoping Jackson Boxer (Orasay, Brunswick House, recent Selfridge’s success) can make the most of this prime Covent Garden site with Henri, a new Parisian-inspired bistro. Other details remain scant, but drinks will come from the Experimental Group, who own the place. Boxer is a talent, bistros are in, and expectations are high.
June 10, 14-15 Henrietta Street, WC2E 8QH, henriettahotel.com
The Park
Having found huge success by reviving Le Caprice as Arlington, Jeremy King continues his 2024 comeback tour with new material. This time it’s the Park, on the corner of Bayswater and Queensway, which he told the Standard was “a leap into the unknown”. Details remain firmly under wraps, but King has characterised the opening as “a contemporary grand cafe”, but done as a smart American restaurateur — think Danny Meyer — might. Food will be simple, much of it grilled, and sourcing will be key. It’ll be big, at 190 covers, and has been carefully designed so every table, most of them booths, feels like the best in the house. “There’s this smidgen of diner mentality about the place,” adds King — though jukeboxes and filter coffee feel unlikely.
Late June, TBC, 123 Bayswater Road, W2 3JH
Tollington’s
Four Legs Ed McIlroy and Jamie Allan, the chef duo behind the wildly popular Plimsoll pub, have taken over Finsbury Park’s Tollington’s, once a small, bare-bones chippie (albeit it one with rather a good-looking frontage). McIlroy and Allan told the Standard they’d be “paying homage to the original neighbourhood fish and chip restaurant” but giving it a “European twist”. Expect something you’d find on the Spanish coast, just as the pair have recently done while on a trip — the sort of thing to nip into for a couple of drinks, a couple of snacks. The front will be for walk-ins happy to stand, the back with be more of a restaurant. Still, old regulars shouldn’t be too put out: much of the original, down the fryers, remains.
