INSIDERS Restaurant

EKSTEDT AT THE YARD

If autumn was a restaurant, it would probably be Ekstedt at the Yards. Michelin-starred Niklas Ekstedt’s first outpost outside of Sweden, inside the five-star Great Scotland Yard Hotel, the restaurant is filled with dark wood, dried flowers, jars of pickles and ferments lining the shelves above the kitchen, and a huge wood oven and open flames in the kitchen keeping the place nice and toasty. Previously tasting menu only, Ekstedt at the Yards has now introduced an a la carte option, though the focus on Scandinavian techniques and open-fire cooking remains. Whichever menu you go for, you’re in for a treat, from the superb sourdough and ‘snacks from the fire’ to birch flamed chanterelles with flambadou lobster and baked alaska with elderflower ice cream and lingonberries. The total mastery of open fire cooking, of infusing smoke into ingredients without destroying them with the flames, combined with Scandinavian flavours, makes a meal at Ekstedt at the Yards a properly memorable experience.

ELIS

Rafael Cagali already runs the two-star Da Terra in the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green (which is one our fave restaurants in town) and he’s just opened a second spot there called Elis. Named as a tribute to his mother, whose first restaurant and jazz bar in São Paulo was named after Brazilian musician Elis Regina, Rafael’s Elis has taken over the spot where the Corner Room used to be. Like Da Terra, Elis is influenced by Rafael’s Brazilian-Italian heritage but it’s more relaxed, so you go a la carte rather than a for blind tasting option. The menu is split into small plates and larger dishes of pasta, fish and meat – we particularly rate the bread basket and its accompaniments, bacalhau fritters, artic char crudo, short rib rigatoni and aubergine parmigiana – and there’s a very well curated drinks list to boot.

BEHIND

Even if you’ve never been to Behind in London Fields before, you may well have heard of it – the restaurant made headlines back in 2020 when it won a Michelin star after being open for just 20 days, and it’s still going strong. The restaurant is set up around sweeping semi-circular bar surrounding an open kitchen, with 18 spots around the counter, each with a front row seat to watch the chefs prepare and serve the dishes. Behind is all about fish and seafood, sustainability sourced from across the UK via suppliers such as Broadway Market’s Fin & Flounder, with dishes including mackerel and kaki sorrel with prawn consomme; Cornish skate wing with onions, olives and sea lettuce; and gilt-head bream with girolles and a vin jaune sauce. We’d really recommend the wine pairing too for a special occasion treat that doesn’t involve journeying into central.

RESTAURANT ST BARTS

Restaurant St Barts is the new restaurant from the team behind Nest in Hackney and Fenn in Fulham. From a slightly ramshackle room on a busy main road in Hackney to St Barts, a beautiful modern dining room in a quiet, pretty square opposite St Bartholomew’s church, this latest venture is a huge jump and a marker of how far they’ve come. The food here is excellent and we’ll be surprised if anything comes along that feels more assured and exciting than this. As with their other restaurants, St Barts follows a set, tasting menu format – although the days of the incredible value £28 menu at Nest are long gone. At St Barts, the 15-course menu is £120 at dinner, and boy is it worth it. When you first arrive you’ll be sat in the cosy bar area at the front of the restaurant and from here you can have a cocktail or glass of fizz while the first round of snacks arrives, including offal kebab, cod fritters, and goats cheese & onion tart, and then it’s onto a proper table in the dining room for the second half of the meal. It’s one of the openings of the year for sure.

"MU"

433-434 Kingsland Road, London, E8 4AU

The team behind Brilliant Corners, Giant Steps, and Idle Moments have continued their tradition of venues named after jazz albums with their latest venue, which is called “Mu”, after Don Cherry’s 1969 album. They’ve done a great job on the interiors, keeping some of the dark moody atmosphere of Rotorino (which was the previous occupant), but thoroughly smartening the place up with a wood-panelled curved ceiling, hanging globe lights, and sleek modern furniture. There’s a large bar and a performance space which is the heart of the room and the headline feature of the “Mu” experience. There’s regular live music every night, with a mixture of resident musicians and guests, with two performances each night. Alongside the music, you’ll definitely want to tuck into the Japanese-inspired food and drink. Go heavy on the snacks like the scallop skewers; beef tartare served with crisp toasted seaweed; fried aubergine and white miso; and fresh sliced yellowtail with yuzu and pomegranate.

MAMBOW

133a Rye Lane, London SE15 4BQ

Down in Peckham you can find some of the best Malaysian food in London. Mambow, which originally started out in Spitalfields, has made the move south recently, taking over a unit on the ground floor of the Market Peckham. The menu is a short, sharp selection of hits created by founder Abby Lee, who grew up in Singapore. It represents the broad landscape of influence and cuisine found in Singapore and Malaysia, blending Chinese with Indo-Malay ingredients, flavours and spices. Don’t miss the fried chicken, black pepper chicken curry, lor bak prawn & pork roll and yellow jackfruit curry.

TEMPER SHOREDITCH

One of the four branches in London, temper Shoreditch has got the usual trimmings you’d expect from the Soho, Covent Garden and City outposts, but with the first and only temper bar. Located over on Great Eastern Street, they’re still cooking up a menu of tacos, rare breed steaks, bottomless brunches and Sunday roasts in the main dining room, but in a separate room, the dedicated bar stays open later on Thursdays-Saturdays with regular live DJ sets. The drinks list is the same for both areas though, with cocktails made using jams, butters and pickles from the kitchen and a vast selection of mezcal and tequila.

ELINE

Eline is a restaurant and wine shop that showcases French techniques, seasonal produce and natural wines, with two former Pophams team members at the helm. The menu changes each month but always keeps a strong French influence. Expect dishes such as venison tartare, celeriac & smoked hazelnuts, whipped chicken liver parfait, pear & grape chutney and basque cheesecake for dessert. Their wines are sourced from small producers across Europe, with bottles also available to buy and take away from the wine shop (manned by the restaurant’s resident dog, Kimchi).

KOYN

She’s already got Chinese restaurant MiMi Mei Fair and Indian spots Jamavar and Bombay Bustle to her name and now Samyukta Nair has taken Japanese food with her latest opening KOYN. Like Nair’s other restaurants, KOYN has a strong concept. – it’s inspired by the duality of Mount Fuji and the balance of modernity with tradition. The two-storey space is divided into two distinct areas; Midori, a green room on the ground floor representing life on the peak with Magma, representing an active volcano, below. It’s all seriously luxe, with dishes like A5 wagyu served on a hot stone, hay-smoke lobster in umami butter, Chilean seabass with shiso salsa verde, and gochujang pork belly on the menu, so be prepared to blow a hole in your wallet.

SPEEDBOAT BAR

30 Rupert St, London W1D 6DL

They turned up the heat (literally) with Plaza Khao Gaeng in Arcade Food Hall and now Luke Farrell and JKS Restaurants have returned for round two with Speedboat Bar. The restaurant takes inspo from Bangkok’s Chinatown and the speedboats that race along the canals of Thailand, so it’s fast, furious and full of energy, including an upstairs clubhouse featuring a bar, pool table and speakers blasting Thai pop and turbo folk. Wok cookery and dishes like drunken noodles and stir fries are at the heart of Speedboat Bar, alongside the likes of tom yam mama soup; ash melon & aubergine curry; poussin with ‘chicken rice, soybean sauce’ & red roast pork; cashew nut, pork crackling & dried fish salad; and pineapple pie with purple taro ice cream. Wash it down with drinks like the Snakesblood Negroni, and the Jelly Bia made with frozen Leo Lager, and you’re guaranteed a good time.

FIREBIRD

Madina Kazhimova and Anna Dolgushina, the St Petersburg-based restaurateurs who run Wong Kar Wine, have opened low-intervention wine bar and open-fire restaurant Firebird in Soho. The menu includes the likes of tuna tartare with ponzu & cured egg yolk; choux bun with chicken liver pâté & hazelnut; halloumi with truffle & apricot; scallops with mash, truffle, peas & parsley oil; chicken breast with bacon jam & king oyster mushrooms; and baked Alaska with earl grey ice cream. The wine list focuses on natural and biodynamic producers from across Europe and the cocktails are well worth a go, with serves like strawberry-infused mezcal negronis and seaside martinis with oyster shell-infused vermouth on offer.

DOLLARS AT RONDO LA CAVE

Until 29th October 2022
199-206 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD

Rondo La Cave, the natty wine bar and incubator space below Rondo in Holborn, has a new resident. Dollars, in collab with Singapore’s Park Bench Deli founder Andrei Soen, is serving up American-style deli sandwiches made using produce from the likes of Swaledale butchers and Miller’s Bakery. The sarnie selection at Dollars includes Beef Bollito with braised beef belly, salsa verde & red chilli sauce in a white bap; Fried Chicken Sandwich with crispy fried thigh, dill pickles & comeback sauce in a potato bun; Pastrami Sandwich, with hot pastrami, Swiss cheese, coleslaw & Russian dressing on caraway bloomer; Burrata Caprese with fresh burrata, tomato, arugula, pesto & balsamic glaze on focaccia; Cubano with sweet ham, roast pork, dijonnaise, Swiss cheese & dill pickles in a sub roll; and Philly Cheesesteak with thinly sliced roast beef rump, sauteed onions, roasted bell peppers & cheese sauce in a Philly baguette. There’s also cheesesteak spring rolls, charred onion pho dip & crisps, and mortadella sliders to snack on with Rondo La Cave’s natural pours, coming by the glass, bottle and magnum.

AMETHYST

The absolute first thing to mention about Amethyst, a new restaurant in Mayfair, is the dining table. Yes we do mean dining table singular, as all the guests are sat around a stunning centrepiece of a zig-zagging slab of quartz and amethyst. Those with a phobia of communal dining need not fear however – the angles and edges of the table ensure that each diner gets their own space free from any interference with your neighbours. The second thing to note is that Amethyst is the new restaurant from Italian chef Carlo Scotto, who earned rave reviews at his previous restaurant Xier, which closed during the pandemic. Carlo can be seen in the (very) open kitchen at the far end of Amethyst’s dining room, plating up dishes on a marble counter that’s a bit like a performance space. There’s a six or twelve course tasting menu on offer, with dishes like liquorice, tarragon & parmesan croquette; burnt hay black cod; and beef with medjool dates & nasturtium, and Carlo is proving there’s plenty of life left in fine dining.

MILK BEACH SOHO

It’s a fave in Queen’s Park and now Aussie restaurant Milk Beach boasts a second site in Soho at the Ilona Rose House building, a bright and airy space complete with an outdoor courtyard. A handful of faves from the original location have made the move over to Soho, including Chinese five-spice BBQ pork rib dumplings with chilli pho ga consommé, and koji marinated chicken ‘schnitty’ with fermented chilli mayonnaise, but there are plenty of newbies on the menu to get stuck into. We’re talking dishes like prawn toast with gochujang sweet & sour sauce; Belted Galloway bone-in-ribeye with tare, oyster & tarragon butter; grilled oyster mushrooms with fermented mushroom glaze & macadamia hummus; and Milk Beach ‘Golden Gaytime’ with toffee & buttermilk parfait, dark chocolate, and malt & honeycomb crumb. Drinks-wise, Milk Beach is maintaining its rep for low-intervention wines, with a selection from importers Modal, Liberty and Alliance, among others.

THE TENT (AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE)

You can probably tell just by the name of this place that it ain’t ya average restaurant. And we wouldn’t have expected anything less from chef John Javier (@sex.pesto) who’s been cooking at hugely hyped pop-ups in London over the past couple of years. The Tent (at the End of the Universe) is his latest project and, having opened earlier in the year for members only in a new spot on Little Portland Street, the restaurant is now open for everyone to go and check out. It’s a very small dark room and the vibe is basically a deluxe dessert Bedouin tent with a star lit ceiling, hanging moon lights and tent-like fabric covering the walls – told you it wasn’t your average spot. There’s just a few tables plus decks where a DJ sits playing tunes each night on a ridiculously good sound system. Photos are forbidden so you can give yourself a night off the ‘gram. It’s all very unusual but we loved it for that. The food fits largely along a Middle Eastern route, but with several twists along the way, like hummus with chilli oil and burnt lime, tzatziki dressed with wakame oil, and Iberico pork schnitzel with a katsuobushi mayo.

THE BARING

The Baring, on a quiet Islington backstreet just off Regent’s Canal, looks understated with dark green paint and dried flowers lifting the otherwise sparingly decorated room, but there’s some serious pedigree making the place run. Adam Symonds and chef Rob Tecwyn met at The Bull and Last in Highgate 10 years ago, and since then Rob has been head chef at the likes of Dabbous and The Henrietta Hotel, with Adam rocking up stints at Orasay and Six Portland Road. The Baring definitely leans more towards the gastro rather than the pub, though there are stools at the bar where you can perch with a pint from some of the UK’s best small breweries or a bottle from the low-intervention wine list. Sustainability, seasonality and provenance are central to the operation here for both the drinks and the food and it’s a superb menu that goes beyond standard gastropub fare by effortlessly incorporating different cultural influences into the dishes.

BUBALA SOHO

We’ve been big fans of Bubala ever since it opened in Spitalfields in 2019 so we were very excited to hear that founder Marc Summers had a second site on the way. Open in Soho on the site where Vasco & Piero used to be, the new 50-cover Bubala has the same vibe interiors-wise, with plaster walls, light wood, natural tones, plants dotted about the place, and counter seating at the (bigger) bar, and it follows the same formula of serving up excellent veggie Middle Eastern food. Executive Chef Helen Graham has kept many of the hit dishes from the Spitalfields restaurant, including the labneh with confit garlic, the honey-drenched halloumi and the confit potato latkes, but added some newbies that make use of the restaurant’s yakitori grill, like Chinese cabbage & preserved lime and oyster mushroom & tamari skewers, and corn ribs with black garlic pipelchuma, and every single dish is a hit.

BOTTLE + RYE

Robin Gill and his wife Sarah have opened a new bistro and wine bar in Brixton called Bottle + Rye and we can confirm it’s an absolute banger. Located on the edge of Brixton Market and Coldharbour Lane, the pair have carved out a little piece of Paris in south London, with a stellar line up of relaxed bistro dishes and superb natural wines. Lewis Wright has curated the wine list with a selection mostly sourced from France and Europe but also including a couple of bottles from Renegade in London, and head chef Ben Hughes-Gage has created a food menu to match – we’re talking dishes like anchovies on honey toast, raw scallop with watermelon & plum, smoked eel brandade with pink fir crisps, and gooseberry & fig leaf choux eclair.

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