Eight is this month’s magic number, and there will be four new openings on May 8. One of them, Julie’s, is one of the most famous restaurants of the 70s, and for anyone whose taste in restaurants is revisionist, then it is just that. It’s also worth knowing that The Dining Room at the Goring Hotel reopened with a stylish new look on 20 May, just like Paradise in Soho, which will be on the tasting menu only from 28 May.
Otherwise, embrace new ideas at one of the following London restaurant openings: all guaranteed to put a spring in your step this May.
Cafe Britain
This deliberately ‘British’ restaurant in Peckham comes courtesy of Richard Crampton-Platt and Alex Purdie, two Brits who met while working at Bocca di Lupo, but their first venture won’t follow the Soho restaurant’s meticulously original approach to regional Italian cuisine. Instead, expect the kind of fare you might encounter at a dream kid’s birthday (or the equivalent hangover lunch): a “full English” breakfast of spaghetti carbonara or fennel sausages stuffed with cream and topped with a fried egg. , fried pizza and Tuscan beans. The linoleum-lined interiors will nod to old Italian cafés, but sourcing as many ingredients as possible from local food shops in Peckham sounds like a very contemporary idea.
Opens: May 8
191 Rye Road, SE15 4TP, cafebritaly.com
Hero
Princess Eugenie and Dua Lipa are among the regulars at The Pelican in Notting Hill, and while the Beckhams enter the back door of The Bull in Charlbury, we can expect to encounter pop royalty and the real thing on one of this third bar’s four floors. from the same team of well-spoken Cotswold gentlemen. The ground-floor bar is the place for cheese toasties and beers, while the first-floor clever grill cooks fish and meat over fire in the open kitchen – lamb chops and quarters of cod, for example – while the Library bar above pours pre-party cocktails for comedy nights, plus there’s a private room upstairs . All in all, pretty much the perfect Maida Vale area for a well-to-do area that’s oddly light on food and drink venues.
Opens: May 8 (pub), May 15 (grill)
55 Shirland Road, W9 2JD, theherow9.com
Landing
Is there a more evocative London restaurant than Fish Island in Hackney Wick? Local couple Lynsey Coughlan and Lindsay Lewis – who will become the 2020s equivalent of Moro’s Sam and Sam Clark – have a bluechip pedigree: Coughlan is the former manager of Gingerbread Butchers and advises Borough Market on animal welfare and provenance; Lewis is a graphic designer whose clients include Daylesford Organic and The Gentlemen Baristas. Expect a beautiful-looking space with good-for-the-planet food and drink, from breakfast, brunch and seasonal British and Irish food to coffee, wine and cocktails.
Opens: May 8
3 Rookwood Road, E3 2XT, inisfishisland.com
Julie’s
Hot on the heels of the Arlington comes a new version of the 20th century classic, and it’s an even older vintage than Le Caprice. Julie’s first opened in 1969 and served as a barometer for the best of each subsequent decade – McCartney and Jagger in the Seventies, Princess Di and Tom Cruise in the Eighties, the Cool Britain-era Gallagher brothers – before falling out of favor as a London favourite. the social axis shifted east and eventually closed in 2022. Now Notting Hill is once again home to London’s hottest tables, is Holland Park surely the new Hoxton? Party like it’s 1969, with seafood towers and chandeliers, martini carts and lobster soufflés: proof that if you hang around long enough, everything will eventually come back into style.
Opens: May 8
35 Portland Road, W11 4LW, juliesrestaurant.com
Kioku
Will Kioku finally become an attractive dining destination at the OWO hotel after the quiet reception is expanded to include restaurants such as Mauro Colagreco and Café Lapérouse? The rooftop location sounds striking, of course – especially the private room surrounded by a turret – but with Endo Kazutoshi behind Niju, Sumi and the Michelin-starred Endo in the Rotunda, the chef has the authority to make sure what’s on the plate shows up. It’s as good as what you see from the window. The big idea was to take on Europe’s largest sake collection, using Mediterranean-influenced Japanese dishes like cuttlefish nori pesto (Kazutoshi’s Nagoya sushi master had sent him to work at the Japanese embassy in Madrid).
Opens: May 15
OWO, 57 Whitehall, SW1A 2BX, kiokubyendo.com
Also opening
All’onda
The name means “in the wave” in Italian and refers to the technique of tossing rice into the pan to create the runny texture of the perfect risotto: This ingredient-focused newcomer’s house specialty also offers three regularly changing main courses.
Opens: May 2
67 Charlotte Street, W1T 4PH, allonda.co.uk
Fellini
Readers with long memories may remember Chelsea’s Paparazzi Café from the ’90s; Now owner Tony Aalam is opening this veg-friendly Italian near Brompton Cross just in time for the Chelsea Flower Show.
Opens: May 6
149 Draycott Avenue, SW3 3AB, thefellini.com
SMSH BN
Don’t mind queuing for Supernova? Try this burger specialist all day long, serving up wagyu and vegan patties as well as egg muffins for brekkie and salted caramel milkshakes.
Opens: 20 May
126 Charing Junction Road, WC2H 0LA, smsh-bn.com
Chez Roux
Michel Roux’s first London launch since the closure of Le Gavroche returns the chef to familiar territory at the Langham. He moved from Roux in Landau to the hotel’s Palm Court to serve retro British fare inspired by his 1960s Kent childhood.
Opens: May 22
Langham, 1C Portland Place, W1B 1JA, langhamhotels.com
Dona
Dalston cocktail bar Doña is opening a restaurant upstairs; serves a Latin American menu of empanadas, cassava fries, and tamales; everything is made from scratch in house and washed down with mezcal margaritas.
Opens: May 24
92 Stoke Newington Street, N16 7NY, bardonalondon.com
@mrbenmccormack