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, we predict your lists are going to be rather long…
Holy Carrot Spitalfields
Originally started as a pop-up, Irina Linovich finally took vegetable-forward, root-to-tip restaurant Holy Carrot permanent in the summer of last year when she teamed up with chef Daniel Watkins (co-founder of Acme Fire Cult) and opened on Portobello Road. Since then, the restaurant has won a legion of fans (and a listing in the Michelin Guide) for its inventive approach to plant-based cooking, sustainable ethos, and cocktails created in collaboration with A Bar With Shapes For A Name. Now it’s heading east, opening in Old Spitalfields Market later this year. The new site will also have that same creative, low-waste ethos but will represent an evolution of the Holy Carrot concept, taking inspiration from its east London surroundings and the history of Spitalfields.
Opens late 2025
Old Spitalfields Market, London, E1 6AA
holycarrot.co.uk
Corenucopia
Before she opens a restaurant inside the new Admiralty Arch Waldorf Astoria hotel next year, Clare Smyth is bringing us another new spot, this time in Chelsea. Opening in December, Corenucopia is being billed as a luxury bistro, so will be more casual than her three-star restaurant Core in Notting Hill. The menu will feature reimagined versions of British classics, like fish & chips – Dover sole fillets with lobster mousse – and toad in the hole, with Cumberland sausage, black pudding, smoked bacon lardons, and charcuterie sauce.
Opens Weds 3rd December 2025
18-22 Holbein Place, London SW1W 8NL
@corenucopiabyclaresmyth
Market Place Leicester Square
Food hall group Market Place is opening a new flagship venue in Leicester Square in December, taking over a five-storey building beside the Odeon. With 16 independent kitchens, including Butchies, Yorkshire Burritos, Duck Shed, and Mister Lasagna and three standalone bars inside, it’s going to be one of the largest food halls in the UK. The venue will also be home to a flagship Bread Ahead bakery, where you’ll be able to get crème brûlée doughnuts, late-night sourdough pizza and seasonal specials. It’ll also boast an events room with a screen for sports and a weekly events programme featuring comedy nights, live music and DJ sets.
Opens Thurs 11th December 2025
20–21 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7JX
marketplacefoodhall.com
Chargal
Serdar Demir, the restaurateur behind The Mantl in Knightsbridge, is taking over the old Jeru site in Mayfair and opening Chargal there this winter. It’s a three-part concept – mezze on the ground floor, dining on the first floor and a lounge for drinking and dancing in the basement. Live fire cookery will be a key part of the food offering, with the menu featuring contemporary versions of Turkish classics, like wagyu iskender and grilled halloumi doughnuts.
Opens Thurs 11th December 2025
11 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DS
@chargalmayfair
Hoax
Husband-and-wife team Simone and Lidia Crepaldi are taking over the old Chick ‘n’ Sours site in Dalston and opening modern Italian spot Hoax in its place. In the main restaurant space, chef Riccardo Lottero wil be cooking up dishes like fried courgette with spicy vegan mayo; roasted tuna with rocket pesto and pine nuts; slow-cooked beef cheek in red wine broth; house cacio e pepe; cocotte di parmigiana; and Hoax tiramisu served tableside. Downstairs there’ll be secret late-night cocktail bar The Devil You Know, where Simone (who’s ex-Callooh Callay) will be curating the drinks – expect serves like a white chocolate & strawberry negroni and a TDYK truffle martini.
Opens Sat 13th December 2025
390 Kingsland Road, London, E8 4AA
hoaxrestaurant.com
San Hao
A second branch of Noodle Inn just opened in the capital but there’s more hot on its heels, with the arrival of San Hao, opening in Chinatown (on the old Wan Chai Corner site) in December. The 120-cover spot, coming from the team behind YiQi, The Eight and Dozo, will specialise in handmade noodles and fried dumplings, reimagining traditional Chinese dishes through the use of local British ingredients, like Berkshire pork, heritage tomatoes and salsify. Chef Daren Liew (ex-Hakkasan, Duddell’s and Nanyang Blossom) is leading the San Hao kitchen, doing dishes like Hakka Berkshire pork noodles, red prawn noodles with heritage tomatoes with dates and chilli oil, spicy sa cha beef brisket noodles, new-age ‘cappuccino’ chicken noodles, hot ‘n’ spicy roasted yellow chilli grouper noodles, and mala beef sheng jian bao.
Opens December 2025
3 Gerrard Street, London W1D 5PD
@sanhao.ldn
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
