Native to relocate to Essex's Osea Island to create hyper local food restaurant

Head chef Ivan Tisdall-Downes and Imogen Davis’ first venture for Native outside of the capital is part of the duo’s desire to create a closed-loop restaurant system and cement its position as one the leading sustainable restaurants in the UK.

The restaurant, which is dues to open in October, will serve hyper local and seasonal food, with many of the ingredients to be sourced from the fields, forests and shores surrounding the island.

Guests will be able to access the new island restaurant via boat or by car via an ancient Roman causeway, with dining times to be dictated by the tide.

A typical meal will begin with drinks and snacks around a campfire on the beach before moving to the converted torpedo store for a tasting menu priced a £75 per person, with £55 for wine pairing.

The menu has been designed to tell the story of the island and its ecosystem, with dishes to include Blackwater oysters smoked over fire; wild line-caught seabass served with fennel and lavender; and desserts made from foraged sea buckthorn and berries.

The restaurant’s wine list will feature a range of organic, biodynamic and low-intervention wines available by the glass and the bottle as well as Native’s house made cocktails, including ones made with Osea island vermouth and foraged teas.

The 30-cover restaurant will initially operate from Thursday to Saturday in the evenings and an early afternoon service on Sunday, tide dependent.

It will also run seafood shack the Native Oyster shed, specialising in Blackwater and West Mersea oysters.

“It’s always been a dream of ours to escape the city and look for a restaurant near the sea where we can further expand our closed-loop and regenerative agriculture practices” says Davis.

“Our menu has always been a snapshot of what’s available in the fields, forest and coastlines that day – and we’re looking forward to developing our menu to reflect the wealth of produce that Osea island and the surrounding area has to offer,” adds Tisdall-Downes.

The move marks the latest chapter in the story of the wild food restaurant, which started out as a pop-up in 2015 and which opened its first bricks and mortar site in Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden. The restaurant later relocated to Southwark ​​in a building beneath Algarvian restaurant Casa do Frango, but vacated the site earlier this year.

Native opens on Thursday 22 October and tickets must be booked in advance online here​​. The booking line is now live.