Restaurant radar: February 2023
Higher Ground
Opening in the Manchester’s Chinatown enclave on 18 February, Joseph Otway, Richard Cossins and Daniel Craig Martin’s new restaurant builds on the pop-up of the same name the trio ran a while back. This time round their British bistro and bar will serve a daily changing menu that champions small-scale agriculture and small herd, whole carcass cookery. An la carte menu will be offered alongside a sharing option, made up of individual courses and sharing dishes.
Faulkner House, New York St, Manchester, M1 4DY
https://www.highergroundmcr.co.uk/
Hawthorn
Chef Joshua Hunter and Patra Panas will launch a restaurant on the former site of The Glasshouse in Kew Village next month. Called Hawthorn, their refined neighbourhood restaurant will serve a menu of modern European dishes using predominantly British seasonal ingredients, with sample dishes to include grilled tiger prawn with nduja butter, pickled cucumber, buttermilk and dill dressing, and agretti; roasted shallot tarte tatin; and Cornish monkfish with chicken skin butter, cime di rapa, hazelnut and jus gras. Weekend lunch will be £45 for three courses, with dinner priced at £65.
14 Station Parade, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3PZ
https://www.hawthornrestaurant.co.uk/
Grill by James Martin
James Martin will open the first of two restaurants at Cotswolds-based The Lygon Arms this month. Grill will be located in a large hall of the 600-year-old coaching inn and will serve a regularly-changing menu that will feature launch dishes including Thai-spiced Cornish crab risotto; burnt aubergine, vegan ricotta, harissa, bulgur wheat and soft herbs; and Laverstoke ‘buffaloumi’ with confit roscoff onion, chilli jam and Treviso alongside a grill menu featuring market fish of the day; steaks, and pork chops.
The Lygon Arms, High Street, Broadway, Worcestershire, WR12 7DU
https://www.lygonarmshotel.co.uk/eat-and-drink/grill/
Stock Market Grill
Joe and Daniel Schofield and wine-expert James Brandwood are opening their first restaurant concept at Stock Exchange later this month. The brothers, who are known for their bar venues Schofiel’s Bar, Atomeca and Sterling, have appointed Joshua Reed Cooper as head chef of the new restaurant, serving a menu that will include dishes such as; whipped black pudding with yolk on toast; tartare of rib-eye with caper jam and smoked dripping; steamed cod with caramelised mash and tartare sauce; and a sticky toffee tart with honey custard.
4 Norfolk Street, Manchester, M2 1DW
https://stockexchangehotel.co.uk/schofield-brothers-launch-the-stock-market-grill
Joia
Portuguese chef Henrique Sá Pessoa finally throws open the doors of his Iberian restaurant and bar that sits on the 14th and 15th floors of the new art’otel London Battersea Power Station. The impressive 85-cover restaurant will serve a menu that features Sá Pessoa’s signature croquette made with potato and Portuguese Alheira sausage, served with tomato and sofrito sauce alongside dishes such as octopus salad with red pepper, potato and smoked paprika; bacalhau à brás - salted cod with shoestring potatoes, parsley, black olive served with an raw egg yolk mixed tableside; and braised Iberian pork cheek with apple and turnip puree, fig and plum chutney.
1 Electric Boulevard, London, SW11 8BJ
https://www.joiabattersea.co.uk/
Crocadon
Chef and grower Dan Cox will finally open his long-awaited Cornwall restaurant early this month. ‘Celebrating the connection between food and agriculture', Crocadon will serve regularly changing tasting menus based on what has been harvested on Cox’s organic and regenerative farm of the same name that week. The 25-cover restaurant will be set in a restored barn.
St Mellion, Saltash, PL12 6RL
https://www.crocadon.farm/
La Gamba
Jack, Harry and Matthew Applebee, the brothers behind Borough Market restaurant Applebee’s Fish, are opening a tapas concept at London’s Southbank Centre next month. Situated on the Queen’s Walk at the front of the Royal Festival Hall, La Gamba will largely showcase recipes and cooking techniques from the north-western Galician region of Spain, with a leaning towards seafood. Dishes will include St Austell Mussels cooked in an albariño and chorizo sauce; and Cornish crab and fennel tostada.
Unit 3, Royal Festival Hall, SE1 8XX
www.lagambalondon.com
Mowgli Brighton
Nisha Katona’s Indian street food restaurant group will open its most southernly restaurant to date in Brighton. Bookings are being taken from 24 February at the restaurant, which is opening on Dukes Lane in the city. Menu items will include its tiffin boxes for one alongside favourites such as yoghurt chat bombs; treacle tamarind fries; and the Mowgli chip butty.
12-14 Dukes Lane, Brighton, BN1 1BG
www.mowglistreetfood.com/
Socca
Claude Bosi and Samyukta Nair’s French-Mediterranean bistro will launch on Mayfair’s South Audley Street on Valentine’s Day. The restaurant will pay homage to the coastal towns and flavours of the French Riviera with dishes inspired by Bosi’s childhood. Launch menu items will include globe artichokes and Ortiz anchovy dip; salad of puy lentils, confit shallots and sherry vinegar; blue lobster orecchiette; troncon of turbot with Romanesco sauce; whole baked sea bass in salt crust; and beef cheeks Provencal. To finish there’s crème brûlée; and warm orange blossom madeleine with olive oil ice cream.
41A South Audley Street, London, W1K 2PS
https://soccabistro.com/
Kapara
Israeli-born chef Eran Tibi follow-up to his Southwark restaurant Bala Baya will take inspiration from the sights and sounds of Tel Aviv’s rooftop bars and the streets of the city’s artistic neighbourhood Neve Tzedek. The venue will have a 50-cover alfresco terrace, a lounge and bar area and a 70-cover main ground floor restaurant with a raised stage for live music and performances. A ‘debaucherous soundtrack’ is also promised.
111-119 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DU
https://kapara.co.uk/
Lucy Wong
London-based cocktail bar and restaurant operator The Breakfast Group’s latest venue is a tribute to the 1957 novel The World of Suzie Wong by Richard Mason, a love story set in 1950s Hong Kong. Brothel vibes aside, the Fitzrovia venue will serve a Cantonese menu with a focus on roasted meats and dim sum, accompanied by a bar programme overseen by mixologist Dré Masso.
33-34 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1JN
www.Lucywong.co.uk
