The best new restaurants: London, July 2022
Caia, Notting Hill
Golborne Road gets a new neighbourhood restaurant and wine bar this July that's truly run by locals: founders Rishabh Vir and Tim Lang live near by, and together they’re hoping to make their 60-cover bar, restaurant and music venue a pillar of the community. Caia, which takes its name from the Roman goddess of fire, boasts a chef’s table which allows 10 guests to watch the open-fire cooking in action. Elsewhere, a 12-cover wine room showcases a floor-to-ceiling display of bottles, and a basement featuring a Kuzma R record player and Auditorium R-25 A speakers hopes to keep guests dancing to everything from rare jazz to tropical house until the early hours. Look out for special events with guest speakers and acoustic live sessions.
Read more ...Tatale, Southwark
His supper clubs teased us with dishes spanning the African continent, now chef Akwasi Brenya-Mensa has opened a permanent site for his restaurant concept Tatale, which takes its name from Ghana’s plantain pancake (pictured). Housed in Southwark’s Africa Centre, the restaurant specialises in plates inspired by Brenya-Mensa’s Ghanaian heritage, as well as favourites from the aforementioned supper clubs, including a chicken burger spiced with yaji and shito, previously on the menu as part of James Cochran’s lockdown delivery menu from his Islington restaurant 12:51.
Read more ...Pascor, Kensington
We are all ears (and stomachs) for any new venture launched by a former hand in Jerusalem-inspired restaurant the Palomar, so word of its co-founder and chef Tomer Amedi going solo to launch Pascor in Kensington has seriously whet our appetites. Pascor means ‘to indulge’ in Latin, and it’s a fitting name for this ‘Levantine fire kitchen’, serving up the likes of burnt aubergine dressed with black tahini, pine nuts and pickled tomatoes; kombu-wrapped halibut with pickled kohlrabi, tarragon and chilli almonds; and charcoaled wagyu skirt drizzled with bone marrow, pomegranate, coriander and watercress chimichurri. Dividing up its menu in largely the same way as Palomar sibling The Barbary, Pascor's goods are separated into ‘breaking bread’, ‘sea’, ‘land’ and ‘garden’, with smoky, fire-scorched flavours uniting them all.
Read more ...Miznon, Soho
London’s appetite for Tel Aviv-inspired cooking knows no bounds and now we get a forkful of the real deal courtesy of Miznon, the first UK branch of chef Eyal Shani’s successful chain of pitta parlours, which already has international branches in Paris, New York, Melbourne and more. Smoking up the grills on Soho’s Broadwick Street, this restaurant will boast the brand’s signature, rustic designs by Jakov Turjeman, as well as its most popular dishes including the whole cauliflower, lamb kebab, and minute steak plate.
Read more ...Bubala, Soho
A second site to tuck into one of restaurateur Marc Summers and chef Helen Graham’s superlative veggie Middle Eastern spreads? Yes please. Following the success of Bubala in Spitalfields, the pair are opening a second site in Soho. A quick look at the menu confirms their signature potato latkes make the cut. Try them here with a main of braised hispi cabbage, seaweed, dried orange and sesame. And don’t scrimp on desserts when baklava semifreddo is on the list.
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