Most of us welcome comfort wherever it is found, and seek it in familiar places. Last year was a cluster of troubled months, so perhaps the success of restaurants trading on warmth and conventionality came as no surprise. This year is likely to offer at least some of the same; many openings are second comings, while others are driven by names already known. Money is the thing: there is too little of it about. It is not conducive to motion, movement, change. But among the grey of the familiar, there are sparks of innovation — proof that Londoners still chase and cherish the new. We have other things to look forward to: more unusual fish is beginning to swim onto the menus — trout over salmon is already a thing, and Jack Stein points out the abundance of crayfish in UK waters — while the ocean also provides for wine lists, as bottles aged on the seabed are hauled to the surface (Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London at The OWO has four). Otherwise, expect fermented everything, regenerative farming championed, veganism to continue waning. Oh, and a new pub — someone is bound to want a little of what the Devonshire is pulling in (the Albert’s Schloss “bier palace”, opening nearby in the spring, may prove a rival). Here’s where we’ll be eating in 2024.
Going global
Singaporean restaurateur Ellen Chew returns with a new incarnation of Singapulah in February (53 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D, @singapulah_restaurant). Chew knows what she’s doing — her other hits include Arôme and Rasa Sayang — and this opening is ambitious. Done in partnership with the Singapore government, the four-storey site will act as a cultural ambassador of sorts, selling the Singaporean ingredients it trumpets on the menu. Also over from Singapore is Australian chef Dave Pynt, who promises a version of his Michelin hit Burnt Ends (87-135 Brompton Road, SW1X, @harrods). While billed as a modern Aussie barbecue restaurant, Pynt’s chief influence is Etxebarri, in Spain.
More Asian influence is on the cards at AngloThai, though details remain vague. John and Desiree Chantarasak have long been running pop-ups using British ingredients in Thai recipes. Last year’s brief run at 180 The Strand was popular, but a permanent opening is said to be on the cards. We will see.
Meanwhile, there’s African, Caribbean and South American flavours promised at Soul Mama (Islington Square, N1, soulmama.co.uk). British saxophonist YolanDa Brown and entrepreneur Adetokunbo Oyelola are behind this one, as is everyone who contributed to the kickstarter for the project (£248,000 raised). Beside food, the venue will host plenty of live music. Autumn is the ETA.
Elsewhere, in Brixton, the fourth Alhaji Suya (Kiosk 9, Station Road, SW9, alhajisuya.com) will open in the spring. It’s West African, serving Hausa cuisine, which mostly originates from Nigeria and its surrounding countries. Go for suya (obviously), jollof, and kilishi (a kind of beef jerky, heavily spiced).
Star power
Perhaps an indicator that risks are for the most part being swerved, it seems largely only established acts are being backed. On January 12, Tom Sellers opens the latest incarnation of Restaurant Story (199 Tooley Street, SE1, restaurantstory.co.uk). The place has been refitted and overhauled, everything super-luxed. You sense a third Michelin star is the aim. Nine courses of nuanced British cooking will come in at £250-a-head, with service overseen by Darren McHugh.
Otherwise, it’s the year of Jeremy King, who is making his grand return with not one, but three projects. With the long-awaited reopening of Simpson’s In The Strand (100 Strand, WC2R, simpsonsinthestrand.co.uk), King intends to haul the old place into the 21st century — even the carving trolleys have been auctioned off. The opening date is to be confirmed. Come spring, though, and the restaurateur settles into a fairly huge site opposite Kensington Palace Gardens called the Park (123 Bayswater Road, W2, @jeremyrbking). A grand café is promised, while his recent jaunts to New York mean an American influence is expected. But perhaps the truest return to form will be seen in the next couple of months at Arlington (20 Arlington Street, SW1A). King was at the site before, when it was Le Caprice, and he’s expected to summon much of the glamour and some of the menu from its Eighties heyday. Master maître d’ Jesus Adorno is back in the fold.
In February, sushi maestro Endo Kazutoshi is the big name at Raffles in the OWO (57 Whitehall, SW1, theowo.london). Details are elusive but the place is likely to be throwing the kitchen sink at it, given the lukewarm response to the OWO’s other restaurants (operated separately to Raffles). They will also want to gloss over a recent scandal, where two of the OWO’s outlets were rated just one-out-of-five for food hygiene by the Food Standards Agency.
Another high-end hotel with a big name is opening at some point in the year as the Maybourne Group open the Emory (Old Barrack Yard, SW1X, the-emory.co.uk). Jean-Georges Vongerichten will be looking after its ABC Kitchen, an import from New York. Five-star hotels shipping in trusted names seems to be the thing this year (like most years). The new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair (22 Hanover Square, W1S, mandarinoriental.com), opening soon, provides the stage for Akira Back’s UK debut. Back may be unknown here but internationally he’s a very big deal indeed. Expect a mix of Korean and Japanese food across his two spots in the hotel (one, Dosa, seats just 14 and should be seriously high end). There’s also a rooftop “experience” promised, which sounds only vaguely threatening. Otherwise, look for Jason Atherton, who is expected to open a new flagship, Row on 5 (5 Savile Row, W1S, @_jasonatherton) in spring. It’s Atherton’s first London venture since 2019, so a statement of intent is expected (with lots and lots of courses, and probably vertiginous bills).
Claude Bosi, meanwhile, has Lyonnaise bistro Josephine (315 Fulham Road, SW10, @josephinebouchon) in the works. Bosi calls the place an ode to his grandmother and joyfully will do what’s called “metre wine” — meaning guests pay only for what they drink. Elsewhere, look out for Ashley Palmer-Watts (the chef behind the Devonshire), who will launch his own restaurant just on the border of the M25. The Garden (Downside Road, KT11, @the_garden_cobham), set in a rural farmstead, will comprise an informal restaurant, café, bakery and kitchen garden. Still, if Michelin-starred cooks aren’t a big enough draw, go for Hollywood star wattage instead, as actor Danny Trejo brings his LA hit chain Trejo’s Tacos to Notting Hill (299-301 Portobello Road, W10 5TD, @trejostacosuk) this month. You can guess what it serves.
Keep it swish
Diners’ appetites for white linen and crustaceans remain robust and pervasive. See the Old War Office, where Langosteria (Whitehall, SW1A 2EU, langosteria.com), an import from Milan that specialises in seafood, will diligently enter the fray. Across town at The Langham, Mimosa (W1A, mimosa-rueroyale.com) is lined up to launch. A concept born in Paris and serving “Riviera cuisine”, it replaces Michel Roux’s restaurant in the same space. More credibility might be found at The Cocochine (27 Bruton Place, W1J, thecocochine.com). It promises to rewrite the typical Mayfair menu: on the stoves will be Larry Jayasekara, once head chef at the likes of The Waterside Inn and Le Manoir. Elsewhere, Wildflowers (91 Tachbrook Street, SW1V, @wildflowers.restaurant) is a project from former Elystan Street chef Aaron Potter, with a menu of Cadiz-style shrimp fritters, moules farci, and sugar pit pork. The Pachamama Group has Effie (149 Queensway, W2, thewhiteleylondon.com) lined up, inspired by the Aegean coast, while coming to Knightsbridge this month is the questionably-named Clap (12-14 Basil Street, SW3, claprestaurant.com), specialising in sushi and small plates in a refurbished Tube station opposite Harrods.
More of the same
The cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, so it is understandable the likes of Emilia’s Crafted Pasta (215 Baker Street, NW1, emiliaspasta.com), with its simple, comforting bowls of pasta, and Kricket (West India Quay, E14, kricket.co.uk), the playful and affordable contemporary Indian-inspired restaurants, are to grow, adding sites in Baker Street and Canary Wharf respectively. Another bastion of the new London middle market, El Pastor (Electric Boulevard, SW11, tacoselpastor.co.uk), will arrive at Battersea Power Station (very much a hotbed of affordable dining), while Los Mochis (Broadgate Circle, ECM2, losmochis.co.uk), a west London staple that joyfully marries familiar and popular facets of Japanese and Mexican cooking, is heading east with a new 14,000 square foot restaurant in the City.
It isn’t all groups: Julie’s (135 Portland Road, W11, juliesrestaurant.com), once a famed celebrity hangout, is to return under new ownership (again; it has closed more than once), while Miznon restaurateur Eyal Shani brings his Seven North concept — modern, casual Mediterranean food — to Liverpool Street (Devonshire Square, EC2M, sevennorthrestaurant.com). Elasticated waistbands at the ready, then.
