INSIDERS Restaurant
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.
CADET
Cadet on Newington Green has been set up by an all-star team; Francis Roberts and Tom Beattie of wine importers Beattie & Roberts, and charcutier George Jephson. Plus heading up the kitchen is chef Jamie Smart who’s previously worked at the likes of Lyles, St John and Brawn. Having worked at several of London’s best wine bars between them, Tom and Francis started their own importing business a couple of years ago, and the wine list at Cadet is made up entirely of their own selection – no bad thing at all when they are one of the most respected specialist importers in London today. You can also buy the wines to take home too. On the food front, there’s a combination of George’s incredible charcuterie and Jamie’s seasonal small plates, like a stew of borlotti beans enriched with lamb fat and garlic; fresh tomato, sliced white peach and fennel pollen; mussels with cucumber and dulse; and oysters with gooseberries.
CAIA
Open fire cooking has come to Notting Hill as Caia (appropriately named after the Roman goddess of fire) has just opened on Golborne Road. Founded by locals Rishabh Vir and Tim Lang (who are also part of the team behind Fiend in Portobello) the neighbourhood spot is serving up seasonal dishes – think tomatoes & melon with Berskwell cheese, monkfish & sweetcorn and chocolate eclair with cherries & tonka bean chantilly – using locally sourced ingredients cooked on the open grill. Talking of the grill, there are seats directly overlooking it where you can watch the chefs at work, with two-tops the other side of the wall, a floor-to-ceiling wine display in the rear room, and more intimate tables downstairs. There’s also a pretty impressive sound system and vinyl selection downstairs, so you can be sure of a decent soundtrack to your dinner.
ROJI
Husband-and-wife chef team Tamas Naszai and Tomoko Hasegawa, who’ve worked at Tokimeite and Sake No Hana between them, have opened ten-seat Japanese restaurant Roji in partnership with the group behind Chisou and Sushi Atelier. Roji, which can translate to ‘journey’, ‘path’ or ‘hidden alley’, is tucked away on South Molton Street in Mayfair and serves up a seasonal menu of sushi, pickled and preserved dishes, and charcoal-grilled dishes, with a focus on British produce like Cornish seafood and veggies from Nama Yasai farm in East Sussex. The pair are also showcasing crockery made by small family producers in both the UK and Japan.
THE TAMIL PRINCE
On the quiet backstreets of Barnsbury, The Tamil Prince has taken over a nice whitewashed corner pub building that was previously called the Cuckoo. As you can tell from the name change this is no simple change of management – the pub has been taken over and reinvented by an ex-Roti King duo, chef Prince Durairaj and Glen Leeson. So now we have a mash up of a classic London pub but with food inspired by Prince’s childhood home of Tamil Nadu in southern India, with the likes of okra fries, pulled beef uttapam with coconut chilli chutney, huge grilled prawns and channa bhatura with chickpea curry. With some top south Indian dishes served in a relaxed pub environment and good beers and cocktails too, The Tamil Prince is a royally good addition to the neighbourhood.
LISBOETA
Nuno Mendes is back in London and he’s brought a bit of Lisbon with him for his new restaurant Lisboeta in Fitzrovia. Taking over three floors of a townhouse on Charlotte Street, the restaurant is a love letter to Nuno’s home city and gives Londoners the chance to eat, drink and live life like a Lisboeta. The ground floor features a long bar made from repurposed tram wood and limestone from Lisbon, and is a place where you can dip into petiscos (aka little plates) and a glass of Portuguese wine. Upstairs in the main dining room, lunch and dinner is served ‘tasca’ style, with a menu including Goan spiced pork pies, Carabineiro prawns with garlic & piri-piri, chourico & beef tartare, slow-cooked lamb shoulder in a red wine stew, and egg yolk & pork fat custard with port wine caramel.