Expanding empire: Samyukta Nair of Jamavar, Bombay Bustle and MiMi is opening her new site, Koyn
(Picture: Steven Joyce )An unusually bumper summer of high-profile openings — from revelatory south Asian cooking at The Tamil Prince and game-changing Mexican at Cavita to new sites for old favourites Barrafina, Le Bab, Lina Stores and Honey & Co — means that the back-to-school rush of September restaurant launches is more of a trickle this year.
That and the fact that, like the rest of us, chefs and restaurateurs face ever-rising bills and uncertainty about what the months ahead hold for the economy. The restaurants below, at least, all prove there are still reasons to be cheerful — and all of them deserve supporting.
Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal
Tables are already like gold dust at the most serious foodie proposition to open in London this autumn. Dilling was the executive chef of two-Michelin-starred The Greenhouse in Mayfair, a high-profile casualty of the pandemic. At his first self-titled restaurant, the chef proposes two tasting menus — one merely luxurious (£155), the other off-the-scale indulgent (£195) — touting the likes of kaluga caviar with a fine de claire oyster or a golden egg injected with vacherin cheese, served to 34 diners cocooned in sybaritic comfort overlooking Regent Street.
Opens: September 1
Hotel Café Royal, 68 Regent Street, W1B 4DY, alexdilling.com
M Canary Wharf
M Restaurants, the sophisticated City-boy steakhouse, should be a tailor-made fit for those who work in Canary Wharf. The two-floor site at the base of the skyscraping Newfoundland tower features watery views through its floor-to-ceiling windows, an interior inspired by vintage yachts and a Provençal-themed menu offering seabass with garlic, herbs and lemon, though premium beef remains the star attraction, from A5 Kobe steak to wagyu sandwiches on the lemon tree and lavender-lined terrace. There’s a weekly “Saint-Tropez Beach Brunch” and Sunday film screenings, too.
Opens: September 5
Bank Street, E14 4BJ, mrestaurants.co.uk
Forza Win
Peckham’s Forza Win closed during the first lockdown due to difficulties with the landlord but has found a new home in Camberwell in the building vacated by the Church Street Hotel. Meals follow the traditional four-course Italian format: brown crab gnocchetti and braised borlotti beans to nibble on as antipasti, a pasta course of pistachio pesto casarecce or roasted tomato and parmesan spaghetti, then aubergine parmigiana or chicken supreme, and a salted caramel chocolate pot to finish.
Opens: On soft launch with 50 per cent off until September 6
31 Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8TR, forzawin.com
Milk Beach Soho
A legend in its own brunchtime, Queen’s Park favourite Milk Beach promises to bring a little slice of Sydney to Soho. The Aussie-inspired restaurant is opening in a light-filled site gathered around a heated courtyard for year-round alfresco. Breakfast and brunch won’t be served until later in the autumn; in the meantime, the dinner-only kitchen will be sending out Aussie-cum-Asian dishes such as char siu with rosti, spring onions and fried egg. A dedicated Head of Coffee indicates how seriously roasting is taken here and there are low-intervention wines, too.
Opens: September 12
Ilona Rose House, Manette Street, W1D 4AL, milkbeach.com
Speedboat Bar
Luke Farrell’s fiery cooking at the Arcade Food Hall’s Plaza Khao Gaeng has been one of the food highlights of the year but the windowless neon-lit room has rather less meal appeal. That shouldn’t be an issue at the chef’s second London Thai. The Soho newcomer is billed as a homage to both Bangkok’s Thai-Chinese restaurants and the speedboat racing along the city’s canals, a mash-up which will result in full-throttle roast-meat wok dishes and chilli-spiked seafood salads, washed down with whisky sodas and frozen slushies, plus the promise of towers of Singha beer to share in an upstairs bar.
Opens: September 24
30 Rupert Street, W1D 6DL, @speedboatbar
Also opening:
Bantof
Chef Asimakis Chaniotis of Michelin-starred Pied à Terre is consulting on this new restaurant and bar-cum-art gallery, with small plates designed to match both the cocktails and the art.
Opens: September 7
31 Great Windmill Street, W1D 7LP, bantof.com
Koyn
Restaurateur Samyukta Nair (of Jamavar, Bombay Bustle and MiMi fame) is expanding her Mayfair portfolio with a modern Japanese offering lobster sushi and wagyu ishiyaki. Kerching!
Opens: September 21
38 Grosvenor Street, W1K 4AQ, koynrestaurants.com
Mayha
Another high-end Japanese, this one imported to chi-chi Chiltern Street from Beirut, specialising in multi-course omakase menus with chef interaction at the counter encouraged.
Opens: Week of September 26
43 Chiltern Street, W1U 6LS, mayhalondon.com
Scott’s Richmond
Richard Caring’s glamorous seafood specialist heads upstream to smart suburbia. Hotshot chef Tom Fraser oversees the kitchen, two floors of dining rooms overlook the river.
Opens: end of September
4 Whittaker Avenue, Richmond, TW9 1EH, scotts-richmond.com
