Another year, another set of new predictions
This time from our Co-Founder Jules who’s identified five trends she thinks will shape the London food and beverage scene this year, from boujee AF dinners to less lunches and EVEN more small plates.
Small(er) Plates
Whilst the number of small plates restaurants has surely reached saturation – driven initially by ‘sharing’ concepts and more recently by a desire to influence customer’s price perception – I’ve seen more tiny £3/4 items on menus recently. AGORA, OMA, Tollington’s, Smoking Goat, I’m looking at you…
As well as perceived value, I think we’ll see more restaurants offering smaller plates of food thanks to the explosion of weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegolvy and the countless other options. We’ve already seen Wolfgang Puck, the chef with the best teeth in the biz, start offering smaller portions at his restaurant Spago in Beverly Hills. To ensure people keep eating out I think this is something business will need to adopt in most of the big cities globally.
No Rules
The last couple of years – post-Covid, the cost-of-living crisis and the general feeling of uncertainty driven by wars, politics and climate events – have driven consumers to look for familiar foods. People have gone for cuisines they recognise that don’t require an ‘education’ or placing a bet on; perhaps they have visited a restaurant previously so know they can trust it and maybe they even feel nostalgic towards the food.
This need for reassurance and comfort has driven an explosion of French and Italian restaurants, but 2025 will be the year that ‘no rules’ cooking comes back into play in London. A trip to LA last year showed just how tasty random fusion, no rules menus could be (Italian-Indian is the one, looking at you Pijja Palace), and I think this will filter to London as people now look for exciting new flavour combos and become more open to experimenting again.
New Sool Term
The Korean wave is still enveloping the globe, whether that’s K-pop, TV shows and films or food and drink. Whilst Korean fried chicken has been around a while now, we’ve seen an explosion of Korean restaurants across America and a handful opening in London last year (I’m not sure anyone could escape the hype for Miga!). This year I’m hoping that also means we’ll see more Korean spirits aka ‘sool’ on the menu, even outside of Korean spots, like Soju or my favourite Makgeolli, a fermented Korean rice “wine” that tastes like Yakult and is made solely from rice, a Korean starter called Nuruk and water. I got really into this on a visit to Seoul a few years back, where the younger generation are reinventing some of the older more trad brands, kind of like the natural wine scene in Europe right now.
Outside Korea, there’s Hana Makgeolli in NYC and I recently visited Emilie who runs Yunguna brewery in Copenhagen (her bottles are also available on mail order too). Sadly, due to its live fermented state and the fact it isn’t pasteurised, you can’t get any decent ones right now in London – though Korean tapas bar Ogam in Islington brews his own and you can drink it fresh from the tank.
Luxe It Up
Casual mid-range restaurants and hipster natural wine bars with stripped back interiors have become the norm in London; however I am predicting 2025 will be the year that interiors and service-ware get more luxe. Think silver and gold platters, designer uniforms, layered branding, the presentation of dishes and ingredients (though let’s face it, right now if you don’t have caviar on your menu are you even a restaurant?) and of course ‘white tablecloths’, which was a cost effective way for places to elevate their dining rooms in 2024. As part of that ‘luxification’ of restaurants we’ll see a return to old school hospitality that makes the diner feel special, like it’s an occasion. People might be eating out less but when they do, they want to feel like it’s worth it.
The Big Squeeze
As hospitality companies fight to make a profit, I think we’ll see more places squeezing opening hours – closing for lunches or quiet dinner periods and concentrating covers into peak periods. I think we’ll see shorter menus, which enables places to keep labour costs down and more set menu formats so that restaurants can ensure a decent spend per head. It’s something I’ve noticed across the USA on various visits this year too, in big cities like NYC and smaller ones like Charleston, as well as Oslo where a huge number of restaurants only offer set menus – even the more casual ones. Better that than going all guns blazing on social media demanding customers buy wine with their lunch…
Stay in the loop…
Sign up to our drops & get us in your inbox.
We’ll be in your inbox every Wednesday at 11:30am.
Put the kettle on!
