Restaurant radar: October 2022
Dumpling Shack/Sichuan Fry
John and Yee Li this month launch a Hackney site that will be home to both their Dumpling Shack and Sichuan Fry brands. Sichuan Fry, which majors in fried chicken burgers, will occupy the larger of the two spaces with Dumpling Shack taking a spot in the basement. Sichuan Fry’s dishes will include The Classic (spiced with Sichuan peppercorns, chillies and coated in a sauce made from doubanjiang then topped with pickles); The Vegan (fried panko coated aubergine with Sichuan sauce, honey mala sauce, pickled cucumbers and slaw on a vegan brioche bun); and The Hot and Mala Mapo (with mapo sauce-coated chicken) while in the basement the offer will include pork pan-fried soup dumplings; and dan-dan beef noodles.
2 Westgate Street, London E8 3RN
https://www.dumplingshack.co.uk
MUSU
Michael Shaw is overseeing the food at new high-end Japanese restaurant MUSU, which will open on Manchester’s Bridge Street this month. Translated as ‘infinite possibilities’, the new restaurant will give diners three different menu options - an a la carte ‘sentaku’ menu; a seven and 11-course kaiseki menu; and a omakase menu, which will be served at a six-seater omakase counter presided over by head sushi chef Andre Aguiar. The new ‘multi-million pound’ restaurant will feature bespoke Italian furniture and geisha wall designs and will have an open kitchen in the centre of the dining room as well as bar area.
64 Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3BN
St Barts
The team behind Nest in Hackney and Fenn in Fulham go again this month with an ambitious restaurant opening in Smithfield. St Barts will serve a 15-course tasting menu championing seasonal produce from across the British Isles, with bar snacks including house-cured meats such as Mangalitza belly; poached oyster and pea with lovage granita; Welsh wagyu Bellini with Exmoor caviar; cured red mullet kohlrabi terrine; and Cornish lobster with preserved peppers. The dining room overlooks the cloisters of St Bartholomew-the-Great church so expect an edifying dining experience.
63 Bartholomew Close, London, EC1A 7BG
https://www.restaurant-stbarts.co.uk
Sete
The duo behind Margate’s Barletta at The Turner Contemporary gallery are opening their new wine bar and restaurant. Inspired by the wine bars of Paris and southern France, Sète is said to draw inspiration from the rustic country kitchens of Marseille and wine bars of Paris with a menu of mostly small, sharing snacks influenced by French cuisines and dining culture. Simplicity is a bedrock of the offer, with dishes to include chicken and egg mayo with anchovy; pâté en croûte with pickled gherkin; potted smoked prawn with brown crab butter; chickpeas with persillade; and tarte a l’oignon, comete and Walmestone Growers salad. The wine list will have a leaning towards female winemakers with up to 60 wines available by the glass.
238 Northdown Road, Margate, CT9 2QD
St John Marylebone
Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver will open the doors to their Marylebone St John on 19 October. The all-day, wine-led restaurant will have a drinks offer of French and own-label wines curated by Gulliver with dishes, created by head chef Fintan Sharp, informed by the drinks list. Menu items won't disappoint fans of the pair's other London restaurants and will include deep fried Welsh rarebit and onion soup; bone marrow toast and parsley salad.
98 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2JE
stjohnrestaurant.com
Din Tai Fung
After much will-it-won’t-it Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung finally opens its third London restaurant at London’s Centre Point this month. Located in the space previously occupied by British brasserie Vivi, the 218-cover restaurant will serve the same menu as its sister sites in Covent Garden and Selfridges, including its signature xiao long bao, but unique to the site will be a large separate bar area, serving its signature cocktails Din, Tai, and Fung. The opening is well timed: the group is closing its Covent Garden restaurant from 3 October until 8 November to give it a refresh.
11 St Giles Square, Centre Point, London, WC2H 8AP
dintaifung-uk.com
Cycene
Meaning kitchen in Old English, Cycene will take over two floors of Shoreditch’s Blue Mountain School including the first-floor rooms that were previously home to Mãos. Former Akoko and Portland chef Theo Clench will work his magic in the 16-cover, first floor dining room where he will serve a 10-course menu with subtle influences from his travels across Eastern Asia and Australasia. Dishes on the launch menu will include Devon crab, white kombu and green tartlet; Carlingford oyster with cucumber and Kaluga caviar; mackerel with plum, shisho and dashi; and slow-cooked turbot, lettuce sauce, sake and Oscietra caviar.
9 Chance Street, London, E2 7JB
www.bluemountain.school/cycene
Elis
Da Terra chef Rafael Cagali is doubling up at Bethnal Green’s Town Hall Hotel with a more relaxed interpretation of his Brazilian-Italian heritage. Elis, named after famous Jazz artist Elis Regina and a tribute to Cagali’s mother and her first restaurant in Sao Paulo will serve ‘casual, rustic dishes’ from his childhood, so thing such as vitello tonnato; cod fritters; gnocco fritto, parmesan and speck; and baby monkfish tail with black tucupi glaze. It will take the space that was previously Corner Room.
Town Hall Hotel, Patriot Square, London E2 9NF
www.restaurantelis.co.uk
Orelle
Executive chef Chris Emery, previously of The Alice in Oxford and Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social in London and The Clocktower in New York is heading up the kitchen at D&D London’s first Birmingham restaurant. Located at 103 Colmore Row, the city’s tallest office building, Orelle takes its name from the French words for gold (or) and her (elle) and will serve a menu of classic and modern French dishes. There will also be a 38-cover ground floor café and bar serving breakfast, brunch, lunch and afternoon tea with a bar menu served in the evenings.
103 Colmore Row, Birmingham
www.orelle.co.uk
Kuro Eatery
Notting Hill coffee shop Kuro Coffee is this month expanding to include new restaurant and bakery. The 30 cover all-day dining restaurant will be headed up by chef Andriannos Poulis, who is originally from Greece and whose CV spans stints at Rovi in Fitzrovia, Cornerstone in Hackney and Mazi in Notting Hill. The menu will be inspired by Poulis’ Greek heritage and love of fish, with dishes to include cod ham; oysters, tomato ferment, oregano; spagghetoni, clams, bottarga; and pork, chilli pork fat, aged soy sauce.
5 Hillgate Street, London, W8 7SP
kuro-london.com
Casa do Frango
Taking over the former Ice Bar on Mayfair’s Heddon Street, the third Casa do Frango in the capital will open on 14 October. Set over two floors, the 200-cover venue will be the piri-piri chicken brand’s flagship and largest site to date and will serve a menu that mirrors that of its London Bridge and Shoreditch restaurants. What this means is piri-piri half chicken accompanied by Portuguese sharing plates that take inspiration from popular dishes from around the country, such as Iberico pork croquettes, bacalhau fritters, and African rice.
31-33 Heddon Street, Mayfair, London, W1B 4BN
www.casadofrango.co.uk
Mayha
Beirut-founded Japanese omakase restaurant Mayha will open a sister site in Marylebone this month. Located on Chiltern Street, Mayha will be spread over two floors with the ground floor home to a curved stone counter restaurant serving a daily-changing tasting menu; while the lower ground floor will offer a Japanese raw bar and courtyard. Head chefs Jurek Wasio and Yuichi Nakaya have relocated to London from Mayha Beirut for the project.
43 Chiltern Street, London, W1U 6LS
mayhalondon.com
Mr JI Camden
Samuel Haim is opening his modern Asian restaurant in Camden this month with a menu that will feature classic dishes as well as new ones. MR JI Camden's menu will feature the likes of prawn ‘in’ toast, a toasted brioche ‘box’ filled with prawns in a bechamel sauce with sweetcorn and Parmesan; the O’JI, a large fried chicken breast with chilli sprinkles, piccalilli mayo and golden kimchi - served with scissors to cut it; and the double cooked daikon cake with shiitake and garlic soy paste; and slow cooked ox tongue with wasabi dressing and fried capers. As with his previous venues, cocktails will continue to form a core part of Mr JI’s drinks offer, but the Camden restaurant will also feature a more wine-led focus, with an emphasis on low intervention international wines.
63-65 Parkway, London NW1 7WP
www.mrji.co.uk
Dorian
An experienced group of hospitality professionals will join forces to launch a ‘neighbourhood-style British bistro’ on the former Raoul’s site in Notting Hill later this month. Dorian will be led by Chris D’Sylva of Notting Hill Fish + Meat Shop who has brought together a team that includes head chef Max Coen, formerly of the two Michelin starred Kitchen Table; bar manager Ale Villa, who most recently led the drinks offering at Core by Clare Smyth; and former Corbin & King operator Ben Whitfield. The menu features ‘approachably priced’ dishes including Porthilly oysters at £2.50; potato rösti with crab or girolles and Cornish Yarg; mussels with cucumber and shiso; grilled beetroots and Autumn squash sourced from East Sussex’s Namayasai Farms; and wild sea bass with sauce vierge. There will also be a selection of grill plates including John Dory, côte de boeuf, sirloin or pork chop alongside other dry aged meats and fish, procured from suppliers including Cornwall’s Kernow Sashimi and Phillip Warren. D’Sylva describes Dorian as being an anti-Notting Hill restaurant for people that live in and love the area.
105 - 107 Talbot Roadd, London W11 2AT
www.dorianrestaurant.com
