Jesse Dunford Wood to open Harvest restaurant next year

The chef and restaurateur has taken on former Indian restaurant Bawarchi on Chamberlayne Road in Kensal Rise, north west London, to open Harvest restaurant in February or March 2023.

The all-day venue will open for breakfast from 8am and then move into brunch, lunch and dinner serving a menu of regularly changing seasonal and British-led dishes. There will be an emphasis on contemporary vegetarian food as well as meat and fish.

While the exact menu is still being decided, Dunford Wood says it will follow an a la carte format and will have the essence of his other venues without cannibalising them.

“Harvest will be hybrid between Portland Road and Parlour,” he says. “We’ve got a few months to work out the actual details but the good work that we’ve started will bleed into the next project.

“It will be quite close to Parlour and we don’t want to butcher each other’s business by offering a very similar thing, so there will be distinction. But the chicken Kiev might make an appearance.”

The drinks offer will focus on wine and cocktails but there will also be a strong non-alcoholic offer.

Harvest will have space for 40 diners inside and an additional 30 outside in a heated covered garden with its interior featuring will be natural colours, lots of wood and wrought iron wall art from Dunford Wood’s father Hugh.

Dunford Wood made a name for himself when he opened the Mall Tavern in Notting Hill Gate in April 2010. He later moved to open Parlour in Kensal Green in 2012, followed by Six Portland Road, which opened in Holland Park in November 2020.

He says the decision to open a third venue was driven by opportunity rather than being part of a strategy to grow. “Some people lead their life through careful strategy and others through opportunity and chance. I’m more of the chancer who has a little bit less strategy about the growth of the business.

“Portland Road came through opportunity rather than pinpoint planning and it's the same with Harvest.”