Restaurant Radar: August 2017

Core​

Clare Smyth’s long-awaited solo project opens its doors early this month. Just down the road from The Ledbury in Notting Hill, Core will have 54 covers in the main dining room as well as a 3.2 metre table positioned directly in front of the kitchen with space for up to 10 diners. Core’s food will be based on a main tasting menu with 10 to 12 “constantly evolving” dishes, according to Smyth, with diners having the option to order the menu in full or choose a three or five course meal. Smyth says she is working closely with British farmers, fishermen and artisan producers to source her ingredients.

92 Kensington Park Road, London​

www.corebyclaresmyth.com​​

Ugly Dumplings​

Ugly Dumplings has traded at a number of street food spots across London including Spitalfields Market and Startisans in Covent Garden and is poised to go permanent with a site in Soho. Located within the former Little Pitt site on just off Carnaby Street, the diminutive restaurant will combine traditional Asian recipes with western ingredients. The menu will include the likes of satay chicken dumplings with mixed spices, curry powder and coconut milk; and spinach and tofu dumplings with shiitake mushrooms and carrots.

1 Newburgh Street, London​

www.theuglydumplings.co.uk​​

P.F Chang’s​

Asian casual dining chain P.F Chang’s will open its first UK restaurant in early August. The US-owned chain has opened over 280 sites in the US and worldwide since it launched in 1993. The upcoming Covent Garden restaurant won’t be a facsimile of those in the States. Billed as new ‘Asian Table’ concept the restaurant will be headed by ex-Nobu chef Deepak Kotian. Dishes created for the UK market include fish and lotus chips (crispy black cod tossed with spring onion, ginger and black bean with a side of lotus crisps); and soy-glazed steak with garlic and spring onions.

10 Great Newport Street, London​

www.pfchangs.co.uk​​

Wellbourne​

The migration of talent to Bristol continues, chefs Michael Kennedy and Ross Gibbens and front of house man Martin Irwin are to launch a relaxed but ambitious restaurant in a former curry house in the upmarket suburb of Clifton. The trio all worked at Ollie Dabbous’s eponymous restaurant in Fitzrovia, which closed earlier this summer. Located between Cote and The Ivy Clifton Brasserie, the 36-cover restaurant will serve a daytime menu of open sandwiches and bar snacks in the day and an a la carte menu in the evening that includes the likes of Red Russian tomato, fresh almond, and wild horseradish as well as turbot with Berkswell crust, coco de Paimpol and girolles.

25 The Mall, Clifton, Bristol​

www.wellbourne.restaurant​​

Hudson’s by Craig Atchinson​

Chef Craig Atchinson is to relaunch his three-AA-rosette Hudson’s restaurant at the five-star Grand York Hotel this month. The chef says he is aiming to win a Michelin star for the fine dining restaurant, which has reduced its covers from 60 to 28 and will now only open for dinner with two tasting menus of modern British food. Hudson’s will be led by Atchinson and senior sous chef Craig Rogan, son of L’Enclume restaurateur Simon Rogan.

https://www.thegrandyork.co.uk/restaurant-and-bar/hudsons​​

Grand Hotel, North Yorkshire, YO1 6GD​

Coal Rooms​

The team behind Peckham’s Old Spike Roastery cafe are launching a new restaurant in a former Grade II listed train ticket office at Peckham Rye station. Coal Rooms will transform the 1930’s site in to a 24-cover cafe by day and a 30-cover restaurant and bar by night. Chef Sam Bryant, previously of Noble Inns’ Smokehouse in Islington and Princess of Shoreditch, will head up the kitchen with a menu making use of a variety of meats and unusual cuts butchered on-site. Dishes will range from a coffee-cured bacon sandwich for breakfast; flatbread topped with pig’s cheek, xo sauce and crackling for lunch; and small plates such as smoked eel and pig’s head sausage with gooseberry sauce; and roasted bone marrow curry for dinner.

11a Station Way, SE15 4RX​

https://www.coalroomspeckham.com/​​

Petit Bistro​

The duo behind Soho stalwart Randall & Aubin are opening their next project in the upcoming MGallery by Sofitel hotel in London’s Leicester Square. Petit Bistro is the brainchild of Ed Baines and Jamie Poulton, who will be cooking at the restaurant themselves. While full menu details are yet to be announced the restaurant promises to offer cocktails and French-inspired cuisine made with local produce. Petit Bistro will be an informal affair, opening for lunch and dinner on the ground floor of the hotel, with alfresco dining in the summer months. Don’t expect this to be a cookie-cutter hotel restaurant set for a roll-out, we hear it’s initially part of a one-off partnership between the team and Victory House, the building housing the hotel.

14 Leicester Place WC2H 7BZ​

https://restaurants.accorhotels.com/gb/restaurant-9207_R002-petit-bistro-london.shtml​​

Leon​

Healthy fast food chain Leon is heading roadside with the launch of its first motorway service station sites this month. The group has signed a deal with Roadchef, one of the largest motorway service operators in the UK, to bring its Hot Boxes and salads to two sites at Norton Canes on the M6 toll and Stensham South on the M5 in early August. The partnership will create nearly 60 jobs, with more restaurants set to open over the next five years.

http://leonrestaurants.co.uk/​​