It’s looking like another bumper year for London restaurants
There are so many new restaurant openings in London that it can be a hard task keeping track of what’s opening where and when. That’s why we keep a handy list of the best new restaurants regularly updated for you. If you like to plan ahead and secure those reservations early, we’ve also rounded up the best new openings planned for 2025 so you can start working on your restaurant hit-list. With this exciting line-up, plus a new unnamed Italian spot from the Pachamama Group planned for Marylebone, we predict your lists are going to be rather long…
Kêu London Bridge
The Vietnamese Group, which also operates Cay Tre and Viet Grill in Shoreditch, already has three Kêu locations in town, in the City, Shoredtich and Soho, and now it’s going south of the river and opening a fourth in London Bridge. Taking over the old Patty & Bun site, this two-floor Kêu will have a bigger menu and longer opening hours than the other sites, taking inspo from Vietnam’s late-night noodle bars and the street food of Saigon. You’ll be able to watch noodles being hand-pulled and tuck into a range of bowls, like Hủ Tiếu Nam Vang (rice noodles with pork and prawn) and Mỳ Vằn Thắn Thơm (pork wonton noodle soup).
Opens January 2025
19 Borough High Street, London SE1 9SE
banhmikeu.co.uk
Bar Valette
He’s already got a stellar restaurant in the two Michelin-starred The Clove Club but in January Isaac McHale will be adding another Shoreditch spot to his name with Bar Valette. Taking inspo from Southern French and Spanish cookery, Bar Valette will be more casual but with a crack team of The Clove Club alums, including Head Chef Erin Jackson Yates and Restaurant Manager and Sommelier Wilem Powell, involved in the opening, it’s going to be all about quality too. The menu will be designed for sharing, featuring dishes like devilled crab tartlets; grouse sausage rolls with greengage ketchup; buttermilk fried chicken in pine; raw shaved ceps salad; rabbit leg stuffed with rabbit farce and mushrooms; and smoked grilled Wiltshire trout with cherry stone vinaigrette.
Opens January 2024
28 – 30 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AA
barvalette.com
Leigh’s
Like a lot of London neighbourhoods, De Beauvoir is no stranger to a nice cafe, but it’s always good to see a new addition. And it sounds like N1 locals are about to get a new go-to as Leigh’s – which is being billed as a seasonal cafe – will be launching on Ardleigh Road in the new year. The concept is a first for co-founders Melanie and McKenzie, who met in restaurant marketing but both trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London and Paris, who are excited about returning to a back-of-house role. Leigh’s will be open from 7am with a breakfast menu of porridge and topped toast, then there’ll be toasties, cakes and bakes available throughout the day. We won’t know specifics until closer to the opening as the team will rotate the menu based on what’s in season. As well as food, there’ll be drinks including hot chocolate and speciality brews from Formative Coffee.
Opens Tues 14th January 2025
One and a half, Ardleigh Road, London N1 4HS
@leighslondon
The Prince Arthur, Belgravia
Belgravia is getting a swanky new pub in the shape of The Prince Arthur. The ground floor gastropub will be a place to come for a Hawkstone, a Guinness (with the same system they use in Ireland apparently) or one of the Spanish beers behind the bar. If you’re a wine lover, you can choose from one of best stocked wine collections in the city too, and there’s a fishmonger’s counter laden with everything from sea urchin to tuna to their own in-house caviar. At the Restaurant Above, Basque chef Adam Iglesias (ex-Brat, Barrafina and Sessions Arts Club) will be cooking up everything from Iberico and Galician beef to carabineros and whole turbot with pil pil sauce over the open fire grill.
Opens Weds 15th January 2025
11 Pimlico Rd, London SW1W 8NA
princearthurbelgravia.co.uk
Noodle & Beer Chinatown
Like at the original Spitalfields site, the Wardour Street Noodle & Beer will be serving up a variety of Sichuan – so yes that means well-seasoned and spicy – dishes, like Xian Jian Niu Rou Main, with stir-fried beef and three types of fresh chilli; Chongqing Xiao Mian, with wheat noodles, cabbage and greens; and Tian-shui Mian, thick udon noodles in a sweet and spicy sauce. On the beer side, the selection, featuring Asian beers as well as local independent brews, will be rotating monthly. The 950 sq ft restaurant will have modern bistro vibes on the ground floor and a moodier, more intimate dining space on the lower ground floor, both with their own bar spaces.
Opens January 2025
27 Wardour Street, London W1D 6PR
noodleandbeer.com
La Môme
Restaurateurs Ugo and Antoine Lecorché are bringing the French Riviera to London with La Môme, opening at The Berkeley in January. Like its sister restaurant in Cannes, La Môme London will be serving a Mediterranean menu, with plenty of tableside preparations. As well as room for 170 inside and 30 more on the terrace, there’ll also be a ten-seater bar serving cocktails and snacks.
Opens January 2025
Wilton Place, London SW1X 7RL
the-berkeley.co.uk
Sandwich Sandwich
After winning the hearts of sarnie-loving Bristolians – and the Uber Eats Restaurant of the Year award in 2023 – family-run sandwich joint Sandwich Sandwich made its first move into London in the summer of 2024 with a site on Gresham Street. The opening was met with A LOT of fanfare (think 1000-person-long queues on its first day) and the sarnie spot has now been officially dubbed ‘TikTok viral’. The team is now onto its second site, also in the City, that they’re claiming will be the biggest sandwich shop in the UK.
Opens January 2024
70 Mark Lane, London EC3R 7NQ
@sandwichsandwichuk
KURO Bagels
The team behind KURO Coffee and KURO Bakery is turning its third Notting Hill spot KURO Eatery into KURO Bagels this January. The menu will feature both made-to-order and ready-filled plain, everything and cinnamon-raison bagels with a range of cream cheeses, including chive, wasabi, roasted garlic, cinnamon and brown sugar. There’ll also be bagel combos like the Peanut Butter + Jelly, the Smoked Salmon (with cream cheese, red onion, capers and dill), the Italian (with mortadella, salami, provolone and vinaigrette), and the KURO Special (with wasabi cream cheese, ikura, red onion and dill).
Opens late January 2025
5 Hillgate Street, London W8 7SP
kuro-london.com
Shakara
After leading Akoko in Fitzrovia to a Michelin star, chef Ayo Adeyemi is now helping launch another new modern West African restaurant, this time in Marylebone. He’s Consultant Executive Chef at Shakara, where he’s developing the opening menu and where Victor Okunowo (ex-Talking Drum and MasterChef: The Professionals semi-finalist) is heading up the kitchen. Taking inspo from the ingredients of Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia and using them to create “authentic African dishes through a modern lens”, the Shakara menu will include dishes like: grilled prawns with Ogbono relish and grilled lime; native blue lobster with peppersoup bisque and tagliatelle; dry-aged Hereford beef with yaji, piperade and peppercorn uda jus; salt-baked suya celeriac with BBQ cabbage, Roscoff foam and tomato chutney; and plantain bread with vanilla ice cream and corn custard.
Opens Fri 31st January 2025
66 Baker Street, London, W1D 7DJ
shakaraldn.com
Himi
In just two years, Roji has won countless other plaudits from critics and punters alike, and become one of the most revered Japanese restaurants in town. Now that husband-and-wife Tamas Naszai and Tomoko Hasegawa have nailed omakase dining, they’re bringing us their version of an izakaya with Himi, opening in Carnaby this winter. Meaning ‘taste of Japan’, Himi will be the pair’s take on the neo-izakayas of Tokyo, establishments that reimagine and refine the food found in Japanese taverns without sacrificing the casual and convivial atmosphere. Himi will feature both counter and table seating, with an outside terrace for al fresco dining in the summer. Though it’ll have a more relaxed vibe than Roji, you can expect the same level of quality (Tamas and Tomoko will be closing Roji temporarily to give the new site their full attention) just with a more playful slant. We don’t know any exact menu details yet but there’ll be dishes cooked over charcoal as well as sushi and sashimi, with a few of Roji’s signature dishes also making the move over.
Opens Fri 31st January 2025
4 Newburgh Street, W1F 7RF
@himi_ldn
Cálong
After roaming around town as a pop-up, Cálong will be going perm in N16, taking over the old Rubedo site. Led by chef Joo Won, who had spent years as Head Chef at the Michelin-starred Galvin at Windows, Cálong is a more relaxed concept that’s a blend of his Korean heritage, European and French cooking techniques, seasonal British ingredients and natural wines. We don’t know what’ll be on the restaurant menu just yet but he’s served the likes of kimchi risotto with egg and cheddar; soy preserved artichokes with melon and ricotta; vegetable & tofu mandu in mushroom broth; stir fried spicy pork belly with squid and perilla; JFC, Joo’s fried chicken thigh with sweet chilli sauce; and chocolate cremeux with hoji tea & toasted grain cream at some of his previous pop-ups.
Opens late January / early February
35 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 0NX
@calonglondon
22 Bishopsgate
22 Bishopsgate in the City will soon boast London’s highest restaurant as Gordon Ramsay is setting up shop inside the skyscraper. And that title isn’t enough for him as he’s actually opening five different culinary experiences inside the building. The headline act is an outpost of his Asian-inspired concept Lucky Cat, which currently has sites in Mayfair, Manchester and Miami, opening on Level 60, making it the highest restaurant in the capital. There’ll also be a Lucky Cat Roof Terrace, with a 3am late licence, doing cocktails and entertainment. And if you want something even more special, this level will also be home to 14-seater chef’s table High, from the three-star Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. Bread Street Kitchen & Bar will be taking up residence one floor down on Level 59, adding a new afternoon tea experience to its offerings, and The Gordon Ramsay Academy, where you can learn how to make everything from pasta to beef wellingtons, will also have a spot inside 22 Bishopsgate.
Opens Tues 4th February 2025
22 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4BQ
gordonramsayrestaurants.com
Officina 00 Covent Garden
Founded by Elia Sebregondi and Enzo Mirto, who grew up in Naples together, Officina 00 has built a reputation for serving excellent fresh pasta at its Old Street and Fitzrovia restaurants. For their third site, opening in Covent Garden in February, the pair are taking on that other Neapolitan classic – pizza – for the very first time. As reported by Restaurant, Officina 00’s pizzas will pay homage to the homestyle pizzas that Napoli’s nonnas would make; will be made with flour milled in partnership with Wildfarmed and have seasonally changing toppings; and will be light, fluffy and served in rutiello pans at the table. The pasta will be present and correct too, so you’ll be able to tuck into the likes of pappardelle with beef short rib ragu, meatballs and ricotta; occhi with lamb genovese, sour parsley pesto and aged provolone; fried cacio e pepe raviolo; and panko lasagna.
Opens February 2025
8-10 Dryden St, London WC2E 9NA
officina00.co.uk
The Knave of Clubs
James Dye, co-owner The Camberwell Arms, Frank’s, and Bambi, is staying east for his next venture, teaming up with Benjy Leibowitz, (formerly of JKS, inHouse and The NoMad in NYC) to revive Shoreditch pub The Knave of Clubs. Patrick Powell (ex-Allegra, Midland Grand Dining Room and Chiltern Firehouse) will be overseeing the food at The Knave of Clubs, with Attila Gellen heading up the kitchen. Chermoula-marinated rotisserie chicken, cooked on the custom rotisserie grill and served with chicken fat potatoes will be the signature dish, with the menu also including venison sausage rolls with spiced ketchup, prawn scotch eggs with chilli jam, fish cakes with old bay seasoning and lemon aioli, grilled cheese & pastrami sandwich with sauerkraut and Russian dressing, and roasts on Sundays. The bar will be well stocked too, with Allsopp’s relaunched Double Diamond available on tap.
Opens Thurs 27th February 2025
25 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6JX
theknaveofclubs.co.uk
Duck and Rice Battersea Power Station
Following the original restaurant in Soho, Duck and Rice, which blends a British pub and a Cantonese kitchen, is heading south to open a second location at Battersea Power Station. The 185-cover restaurant will include an open kitchen and raised bar area, and will take design cues from the cha chaan tengs and tea houses of south China. We don’t have a menu yet but we’d expect it to be similar to what’s on offer in Soho, where you can get the likes of dim sum, roast duck, crab & tofu claypot, sweet & sour pork and Singapore noodles.
Opens early 2025
Circus Rd W, Nine Elms, London SW11 8DD
theduckandrice.com
MR PORTER
No relation to the menswear site, MR PORTER is a steakhouse form the Entourage Group (who also have sites in Ibiza, Amsterdam and Barcelona) and it’s coming to London this year. Opening inside the Park Lane Hilton Hotel, the restaurant will feature a wine library, a lounge bar, a chef’s table and an open kitchen where you’ll be able to see steaks cooked over fire.
Opens early 2025
22 Park Lane, London W1K 1BE
mrportersteakhouse.com
Market Halls Paddington
Market Halls already boasts locations in Victoria, Canary Wharf and Oxford Street, and at the beginning of the year, Paddington will be joining that list. The food hall group will be opening in an 11,000 sq ft space in the new Paddington Square development with eight kitchens, two bars, a terrace and seating for 500 people. We don’t have any confirmed traders yet but the likes of Krapow, Gopal’s Corner, Apoy, Black Bear Burger, Butchies and Whipped can be found across the other Market Hall venues.
Opens early 2025
Paddington Square, London, W2
markethalls.co.uk
Din Tai Fung Canary Wharf
Din Tai Fung is opening its first east London site (its fourth in the capital) in Canary Wharf in 2025. As well as traditional Chinese motifs, terracotta tiles and stone lions decking out the 112-cover restaurant, there’ll also be a show kitchen at its heart, where you can see the signature xiao long bao being made and folded. They’ll be joined on the menu by other familiar Din Tai Fung dishes like pork chop and egg fried rice, house-made noodles, and salted egg yolk custard lava buns.
Opens early 2025
Crossrail Pl, London E14 5AB
dintaifung-uk.com
Kricket Shoreditch
After bringing a branch of Kricket to Canary Wharf, Rik Campbell and Will Bowlby are staying east for site number five and opening in Shoreditch, on the site where Apothecary East used to be. As well as operating as an 80-cover Kricket restaurant, the site will also be home to the brand’s first all-day cafeì and bar concept, serving breakfast dishes like jaggery-glazed bacon chop with Andhra spiced hash brown & tamarind brown sauce, eggs kejriwal, and Bombay toasties, with street food-inspired dishes on the all-day menu. The main restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner all week long, with the Murgh Musallam menu centred around tandoori chicken, running on Sundays.
Opens March 2025
36 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3PG
kricket.co.uk
Osteria Angelina
After finding success with their Japanese-Italian fusion at Angelina in Dalston, founders Joshua Owens-Baigler, Amar Takhar and Laura Horta are opening a second, bigger site inside a converted warehouse space in the City. Taking inspo from the osterias of northern Italy, the 75-cover Osteria Angelina will be more relaxed than the original and will focus on fresh pastas with a Japanese twist. You’ll be able to see the pastaio at work in a glass-walled section of the dining room and the main kitchen will be open too so you can see the chefs in action. The eight pasta options, which’ll change regularly, will be joined by a selection of antipasti, crudi and fritti plates; big cuts, like whole fish and ribeye steaks, from the binchotan grills; and a Gran Bollito Misto (a traditional Italian mixed meat stew), served tableside from a traditional trolley.
Opens March 2025
1 Nicholl’s Clarke Yard, London, E1 6SH
angelina.london
Tatar Bunar
Tatar Bunar is the debut London venture from Ukrainian restaurateurs Alex Cooper and Anna Andriienko. Inspired by Alex’s hometown of Tatarbunary in southern Ukraine, it’ll be a showcase for traditional family recipes and produce from the Bessarabia region, with head chef Kate Tkachuk cooking dishes like borscht and chicken Kyiv. Anna will be running the restaurant in London while Alex remains in Ukraine, where he has been supporting the community during the conflict by providing meals for soldiers and turning his restaurants into food distribution points for those in need. Taking over the old Brindisa site on Curtain Road, Tatar Bunar will also champion Ukrainian craftsmen and makers; the interiors will feature reclaimed wood from the Carpathian region and there’ll be handmade ceramics created by Svetlana Sholomitska during the blackouts in Kyiv.
Opens March 2025
152 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3AT
@tatarbunar.london
Brasserie Constance
Big changes are ahead for Fulham FC in 2025 as the club’s Craven Cottage stadium is getting a significant upgrade. The Riverside stand is going to be home to Fulham Pier, a new waterfront development featuring Brasserie Constance, which’ll be helmed by Trinity’s Adam Byatt. The brasserie is named after Constance Spry, a local cookery writer (she invented coronation chicken), florist and ceramicist who worked with Fulham Pottery. There’ll be handmade ceramics throughout the space in homage, with the kitchen serving seasonal and approachable dishes alongside a set menu. There’ll be a sister bar called Flo (named after Spry’s friend and assistant Florence Standfast), which’ll be serving cocktails, a 200-bin wine list curated by the Trinity sommeliers (which’ll also be available in the restaurant), and its own small plates menu.
Opens spring 2025
Fulham Pier, Stevenage Road, Fulham, London SW6 6HH
brasserieconstance.com
Noisy Oyster
Madina Kazhimova and Anna Dolgushina, the co-founders of Firebird in Soho are opening seafood bistro Noisy Oyster in Shoreditch in the spring. Expect lots of local oysters, crudo dishes and whole fish on the menu alongside a bar offering that heroes the martini, including a range of signature mini martinis. The 50-cover space is going to look the part too with a monochromatic design featuring lots of wood, concrete and stainless steel.
Opens spring 2025
Shoreditch, London
noisyoysterlondon.co.uk
Luna
Jay Patel, founder of Legare on Shad Thames (part of his NinthCollective group of restaurants), has announced that he’ll be launching a new concept just across the street: Luna. Though new, it sounds like the restaurant and wine bar will feel like a classic, and it’ll be a joint effort with Jay’s current business partner Matt Beardmore (head chef and co-founder of Legare) who’ll be taking care of the food. We’re still quite far from the opening date, so we won’t have full details on the menu until later on, but we’ve been told to expect the likes of oysters shucked over ice, crudos and carpaccios sliced to order and straight-from-the-fryer French fries. Luna takes its name from the moon’s role in biodynamic winemaking and will have a suitably biodynamic wine list – though they’re aiming to move away from the “natty” wine bar label.
Opens spring 2025
Unit 6, 36 Shad Thames, Butlers Wharf Building, London SE1 2YE
@luna_winebar
Simpson’s in the Strand
Not content with opening The Park and reviving Le Caprice, Jeremy King is also bringing back Simpson’s in the Strand. The restaurant has had a tough time since it closed during the pandemic – it never found a way to open during the ever-changing lockdown restrictions and in the summer of 2023 it auctioned off a load of its assets, including light fixtures, crockery and its famous silver carving trolley. Thankfully that didn’t spell the end of the restaurant for good, merely a wiping of the slate, with King and The Savoy breathing new life into the old dog.
Opens May 2025
100 Strand, London WC2R 0EZ
Berenjak Mayfair
The JKS-backed Iranian restaurant group Berenjak, led by Kian Samyani and which already has sites in Soho and Borough, is opening location number three in Mayfair, taking over a spot on the corner of Duke Street and Brown Hart Gardens. That’s all we know so far – the latest posts on the restaurant’s Instagram account show that the site has been completely gutted ahead of a refurbishment – but we’re expecting plenty of charcoal-grilled kababs and signature mazeh small plates.
Opens spring/summer 2025
Brown Hart Gardens, London, W1
berenjaklondon.com
Le Caprice
The Chancery Rosewood is opening on the former American Embassy site in Grosvenor Square, promising a number of bedrooms and suites, a ballroom, five shops, a wellness facility and a variety of restaurants. One of those restaurants is going to be a revival of Richard Caring’s Le Caprice (which will no doubt draw comparisons to Jeremy King’s reincarnation of the same restaurant, albeit with a different name). Caring’s two-floor space will hold 120 covers in the main dining space and an additional 88 on the year-round terrace, and the menu will feature some Le Caprice faves like salmon fishcakes, bang bang chicken and steak tartare. But it won’t all be retro, as Caring told The Standard, “Im sure a lot of people will want to see Le Caprice as it was, but I believe it should be moved into the 2020s. I want it to be chic, comfortable and classic. I think it’s fabulous to mix the old and the new both in style, customers and in food.”
Opens June 2025
1 Grosvenor Square, London W1K 4BN
rosewoodhotels.com
Carbone
As well as housing Richard Caring’s Le Caprice, the Chancery Rosewood is also going to have a London outpost of iconic NYC hotspot Carbone. First opened in Greenwich Village in 2013, Carbone, an upscale take on classic red-sauce Italian-American restaurants, was popular from almost the instant it opened and has become one of the city’s biggest celeb magnets, drawing in everyone who’s anyone for baked clams, spicy rigatoni vodka and veal parm. Major Food Group, which operates the restaurant, has opened sister sites in Las Vegas, Miami, Dallas and Hong Kong, and now it’s London’s turn.
Opens 2025
1 Grosvenor Square, London W1K 4BN
carbonenewyork.com
Velvet Taco
Velvet Taco, which started in Dallas, Texas in 2011 and now boasts almost 50 locations Stateside, is on the expansion train and London is its first stop. The Piccadilly Circus opening, slated for 2025, will be followed up with more UK sites in the coming years. Over in the US, Velvet Taco is known for incorporating global flavours across its 20-taco-strong menu, like the Spicy Tikka Chicken taco made with crispy tenders, house-made spicy tikka sauce, buttered cilantro basmati rice, raita crema and Thai basil; and the Fish ‘n Chips taco with beer-battered cod, curry aioli, french fries, malt vinegar and napa slaw. It also does a WTF (Weekly Taco Feature) where a new special hits the menu each week, and sides like red curry coconut queso dip and elote guac.
Opens 2025
Piccadilly Circus, London
velvettaco.com
Varrons
Jack Williams, who’s led some of the best kitchens in north London, including Westerns Laundry; bartender William Thompson, who opened Jolene and was most recently GM at Cadet; and wine expert Ben Clyde, former manager of Primeur, boast some mega CVs and now they’re pooling all their knowledge and experience together to open Varrons. The restaurant is named after a piece of land in the Jura region of eastern France, which sits between Alsace, Burgundy and the Swiss border. Varrons will be a celebration of French country-style dishes from the area, made using the finest seasonal produce, Jura wines, and quality service.
Opens 2025
Location tbc
@varronsrestaurant
DUÉ
With a stint as Executive Chef of Pujol, one of the best restaurants in Mexico City and currently number 13 on the World’s 50 Best list, under his belt, plus time spent in French restaurant Les Moustaches (also in CDMX) and the three Michelin-starred El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, it’s safe to say Jesús Durón knows his way around a kitchen. And now he’s bringing one of his own to London with DUÉ, which he’s opening in partnership with Lindsay Jang, founder of Hong Kong establishments Yardbird and RONIN. DUÉ will take inspo from global flavours with roots in both French and Mexican cuisines, and while we don’t have a menu yet (or a location either), dishes at pop-ups around the world have included chicken chicharron with pico de gallo and maylor shrimp; scallop tsukune with corn dashi and egg yolk; cuttlefish with green mole and crache leaves; and roast pigeon with spring onion and cacao.
Opens 2025
Location tbc
duerestaurant.co
Effie
£1 billion is being spent on the redevelopment of the old Whiteleys shopping centre, transforming it into transformed into luxury development The Whiteley. One of the new restaurants at the site is going to be Effie, a new concept from the Pachamama Group (who also have Pachamama in Marylebone and Pachamama East in Shoreditch, Bottarga in Chelsea and Zephyr in Notting Hill). Like Zephyr, the two-floor, 5000 sq ft Effie will have a Mediterranean rather than Peruvian slant, serving a menu of mezze and chargrilled meat and fish dishes inspired by the Aegean coast.
Opens 2025
149 Queensway, London W2 4YN
thewhiteleylondon.com
Nela
Nela, the Amsterdam-based live-fire restaurant from chefs Hari Shetty and Ori Geller and entrepreneur Gilad Hayeem, will be taking up residence at The Whiteley this year. The London outpost of Nela will feature an open kitchen, so you can see that fire in all its glory, as well as a 360-degree centrepiece bar. We don’t have any details on the menu yet but we’d expect it to be similar to the Amsterdam one, which includes a large vegetable section plus meat and fish dishes, a raw section and wood-fired pizzas.
Opens 2025
149 Queensway, London W2 4YN
thewhiteleylondon.com