Restaurant radar: March 2018

Arepa & Co​
Venezuelan operator Arepa & Co is opening a second London restaurant on the former site of Robin Gill’s Paradise Garage. The owners have taken on the space in the Paradise Row arches in Bethnal Green. Arepa & Co tries to create a “home away from home” for the Venezuelan community in London. Dishes will include – unsurprisingly- arepas filled with fried chicken; soft shell crab; and aubergine, pineapple and coconut chutney. Larger mains will include fried seafood soup and shredded beef with black beans. It will open at the end of March.

254 Paradise Row, London E2 9LE.
arepaandco.com/​

Abd El Wahab ​
Lebanese restaurant group Ab Del Wahab has opened its first site outside of the Middle East.  Lebanese and Middle Eastern cuisines more generally lend themselves well to sharing, and the menu at Abd el Wahab offers a mixture of both cuisines designed for exactly that. Dishes include mezze starters of hummus and other dips; pickled vegetables; and salads. Larger dishes include grilled meats and fish dishes.

1-3 Pont Street, SW1X 9E

Brat​
Former Kitty Fishers chef Tomos Parry is opening his first solo restaurant in Shoreditch with a mix of cooking on fire, Welsh and Basque cuisine. Located upstairs from Smoking Goat, the menu will include simple and gentle fire cooking. It will open on 17 March.

Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, E1 6JJ
bratrestaurant.com/​

Delamina​
The couple behind Shoreditch’s Strut & Cluck are launching Eastern Mediterranean restaurant Delamina in Marylebone. Amir Chen – who also co-founded the Apostrophe bakery chain – and his wife Limor will open Delamina later this month. Dishes will be inspired by Limor’s Israeli background with a focus on healthy, often vegetarian dishes.

56-58 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2NX

Ham​
Matt Osborne, a former head chef at ToastED in East Dulwich is taking the helm at a new, Ham. Owned by Rose Tuckey and David Houten, the neighbourhood restaurant will serve brunch and dinner menus created by the chef, who cut his teeth at The Ledbury in Notting Hill, The Other Naughty Piglets in Westminster and Salon in Brixton.

238 West End Lane, NW6 1LG
www.hamwesthampstead.com​

Hook​
Martin Burge has opened a seafood restaurant at Farncombe Estate’s boutique hotel The Fish as part of a £5m renovation project. Launched earlier this month, Hook serves a menu of responsibly sourced seafood dishes created by the chef – who won two Michelin stars at Whatley Manor before joining Farncombe Estate as culinary director in April of last year. Cooked in an open kitchen, menu items including Porthilly rock oysters, poached blue chip salmon, whole baked seabass and lobster thermidor, are served all day either indoors in the hygge-inspired restaurant, or outdoors on a terrace.

Farncombe Estate, Broadway WR12 7LH
www.thefishhotel.co.uk/eat/hook/​

Public​
Public is the new street food and bar destination from the Street Feast Group, which opened in Woolwich earlier this month.  The 86 year old former market has a massive ground floor, two mezzanine levels and an arched rainbow roof, and houses eight street food traders: Yum Bun; Yumplings; Burger & Beyond; INK; Salt Shed; HENhaus; La va Bar; and  Rust Bucket Pizza Co. The venue also has five bars.

Plumstead Road, Woolwich, SE18 7BZ
streetfeast.com/visit-us/public/​

Mare Street Market​
Pop-up chef and food writer Gizzi Erskine will open her first restaurant in the newly developed Mare Street Market in Hackney in partnership with BarWorks cofounder Marc Francis-Baum. She will also oversee a deli stocking products from local food companies. The restaurant 70-cover restaurant will focus on cooking over a wood fire. There will be a huge rotisserie and woodfired ovens, with menus inspired partly by the Californian farm to plate movement. The emphasis will be firmly on vegetables, although meat will also feature. 

115 Mare St, London E8 4RT

Parva Farmhouse Riverside Guesthouse​
Roger and Marta Brook, former head chef and restaurant manager at Shaun Hill’s Michelin-starred The Walnut Tree, have left to open their own guesthouse and restaurant. The eight-bedroom guesthouse, which opens on 2 March, will have a restaurant that will be open for non residents Wednesday to Saturday night. It will also serve residents breakfast, but will not be open at lunchtimes. Dishes on the sample menu include squab pigeon with pastilla and pomegranate; halibut with a basil and pine nut crust, red peppers and Charlotte potatoes; and loin of venison with a shortcrust pie and root vegetables.

A466, Chepstow NP16 6SQ
www.parvafarmhouse.co.uk/​

Tortilleria El Pasto​r
Sam and James Hart and Crispin Somerville are to open a smaller version of their Borough-market restaurant El Pastor that will offer tacos to eat in and takeaway. Tortilleria El Pastor will be located under railway arches at 106 Druid Street close to weekend hotspot Maltby Street Market. Like the original, the tortilleria, or tortilla factory, will make fresh tortillas from scratch every day, using Mexican heirloom corn.

106 Druid Street
tacoselpastor.co.uk/​

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Stem​
Mark Jarvis, chef-patron at award winning London restaurants Anglo in Farringdon and Neo Bistro, near Oxford Street, is opening his third restaurant. Stem will be set over two floors and will open in March on Princes Street in Mayfair, just off Regent Street. The restaurant will be similar in style to Anglo, Jarvis’ debut restaurant, and will be “informal but precise in terms of its modern British food.”

5 Princes Street, London W1B 2LF​
stem-byneo.co.uk/​

Vurger​
Vegan burger group The Vurger Co. is opening its first permanent site in Shoreditch in March. The long-awaited opening follows the brand’s successful July crowd fund, which saw it become the fastest restaurant ever to reach its target on the Crowdcube platform. Opening In a unit in Richmix Square on 12 March, the 30-cover restaurant will serve plant based burgers and sides.

Unit 9, Avant Garde, Richmix Square, E1 6LD
thevurgerco.com/​