Hungry? Have your booking apps at the ready, because between a four Michelin-starred chef’s new take on regional French cooking to the restaurant spotlighting the brilliance of not-so creepy crawlies, this week’s most intriguing new openings certainty offer something for everyone.
Josephine, Fulham
The French restaurants keep on coming and this one by much lauded Brooklands, Bibendum and Socca chef Claude Bosi and his wife, Lucy, will likely be a goodie. A love letter to the cook’s beloved Lyonnaise grandma, head to the cosy, seductively lit bistro for rabbit in mustard sauce, chicken liver terrine with vin jaune and sausages baked in brioche, served with a beaujolais sauce. Whatsmore, the supremely old school bouchon-style ‘metre’ wine offering allows guests to pay for precisely what they drink. C’est bon, no?
Now open. 315 Fulham Rd, SW10 (@josepheinebouchon)
Yum Bug, Finsbury Park
After a sell-out pop-up last year, the edible insect brand now has a permanent home where you’ll find inventive dishes such as burrata served with cricket XO sauce, pulled cricket tacos with mole and rhubarb hot sauce, and a pear, chocolate, Thai tea and cricket crumble. Apprehensive? As its founder, Leo Taylor, says: ‘Eighty per cent of countries eat insects. You’re the weirdo.’
Now open. 110 Fonthill Road, N4 (@_yumbug)
Trejo’s Taco’s, Notting Hill
Buckle up! Hollywood badass Danny Trejo’s LA Mexican restaurant has landed on Portobello Road. Offering tacos, tostadas, quesadillas and chilaquiles as well as a bumper cocktail list, micheladas and a delectable cinnamon rice drink named horchata – it might boast one London’s most diverse Mexican menus. Now, vamos!