The best new restaurants in London: March edition

Facing Heaven, Hackney

Chef-restaurateur Julian Denis was quick to earn acclaim for his pint-sized, plant-based, pocket-friendly restaurant Mao Chow. Roughly three years after the 14-seater Sichuanese joint opened on Mare Street, and Denis has shut up shop to grow the concept just around the corner. His new offering, Facing Heaven, sits 28 diners and while still entirely vegan, the menu incorporates Cantonese, Shaanxi and Yunnan dishes, as well as flavours and techniques Denis picked up while in LA, Portugal and Puerto Rico.

Goddard & Gibbs, Shoreditch

Housed inside swanky new hotel One Hundred Shoreditch, Goddard & Gibbs by Chef Tom Moore is the new glitzy place to enjoy a seafood-heavy menu in Shoreditch. In a yellow-accented, open-plan dining room – the centrepiece for which is a striking, egg yolk-coloured sculpture, soon to be all over your Instagram – tuck into a showy, fish-led menu, but not before biting into a plump sourdough roll with a lick of salty butter.

Starters are light and fresh. A tart and buttery crab salad is a highlight, as is the zingy sea bream ceviche from the Raw Bar portion of the menu. Mains range from a rich squid-ink linguine that looks like a piece of art to grilled lobster and chips. A Cornish fish stew speckled with chorizo will appease those looking to sample a broader range of sea dwellers; thick chunks of salmon sidle up to mussels in a lemony tomato broth. Desserts are the heaviest course: leave room to sample the heavenly fried doughnut with tangy malt ice cream, miso-caramel and peanut dust.

Fronting the venue is The Wine Bar, which piggybacks on the restaurant’s buzzy vibe and offers a chance to elongate your stay with a vino and a side of people-watching through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Lisboeta, Fitzrovia

Nuno Mendes, the acclaimed chef who planted Chiltern Firehouse on the map and earned Viajante and Mãos their Michelin stars, returns to London, joining forces with the MJMK group to open a new restaurant: Lisboeta. Showcasing the cooking of Mendes’ home country of Portugal, the Fitzrovia restaurant is spread across three floors, with a café-style area, an airy first-floor dining room and basement restaurant. From pastel de natas to petiscos and larger tasca classics, the restaurant aims to channel the culinary spirit of Lisbon.

Yinka Shonibare and India Mahdavi at Sketch, Mayfair

The Gallery restaurant at Mayfair venue Sketch has been stripped of its signature pink aesthetic to usher in a new era as it hits its 20-year milestone. British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare and project architect India Mahdavi are in charge of the redesign, bathing the high-ceilinged dining room in sunshine yellow and filling its walls with 14 new artworks that celebrate the legacy of African culture.

Caia, Notting Hill

Golborne Road gets a new neighbourhood restaurant and wine bar this spring 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.

Upstairs at the George, Fitzrovia

It has been said that any building, menu or stove touched by the JKS restaurant group turns to the culinary equivalent of gold, though the Sethi siblings behind the brand have yet to turn their attention to a pub. That is, until now, when they've teamed up with James Knappett, of two Michelin-star restaurant Kitchen Table, to revamp the upstairs restaurant at recently reopened The George pub on Great Portland Street.

In a plush dining room resigned to mimic the grandeur of late Georgian living, guests can enjoy a menu of hearty pub fare with a Knappett twist. Takes on sausage and mash, devilled veal kidneys, and Scottish langoustine scampi with chips all feature. For dessert, there’s a knickerbocker glory to sink your sweet tooth into. Do pay a visit to the adjacent English Sparkling Wine Bar, where the majority of bottles have travelled only the short distance from Essex or West Sussex.

Neyba, Notting Hill

Now here’s an intriguing venture: Burger & Lobster founder Misha Zelman has called upon some of his fellow industry bigshots to launch a hybrid culinary project that’s part restaurant, part takeaway and part gourmet grocer. Called Neyba, the Westbourne Grove venue spans multiple continents and cuisines, serving up the wares of Michelin-starred sushi chef Endo Kazotushi, pizza maestro Miguel Barclay, celebrity Scottish chef Tony Singh and Makes Miso founder Yoko Nakada.

The restaurant itself caters for just 16 diners at any one time, but the main emphasis here is on takeaway. In addition to your sushi or salami pizza, add to your basket some MOTH canned cocktails, beers from Big Smoke Brewery or coffee from carbon-neutral roastery Kiss the Hippo.

Noci, Islington

Perhaps you fell in love with his pasta-led creations at Bancone, or maybe it was his signatures at Tavolino? Now, Louis Korovilas is opening his own restaurant in Islington, Noci, where pasta will once again take centre stage. An open kitchen will afford diners a chance to watch their thick strands of bucatini be muddled with brown butter and black pepper, or their herbed lamb shoulder get pocketed inside bite-size parcels of ravioli. Drinks, meanwhile, include a refreshing selection of seasonal spritzes. Cin cin!

Brother Marcus, Borough Yards

March welcomes a third opening for best friends Arthur, Alex and Tas of eastern-Mediterranean all-day restaurant Brother Marcus. The concept, which first earned the favour of the Balham crowd, has since won over diners in Spitalfields and Camden Passage, and is now looking to do the same at polished new complex Borough Yards. Brunch favourites including sweet potato fritters and shakshuka remain on the menu, as do the honey bombs with pistachio and chocolate. Drinks, meanwhile, are a chance to get better acquainted with Greek wines as well as cocktails muddled with Turkish pepper and 12-year-old ouzo.

Madhu’s Brasserie, Richmond

Having fed shoppers on the 5th floor of luxury Knightsbridge department store Harvey Nichols, Madhu’s Brasserie has set its sights on southwest London, opening a second restaurant on a leafy corner in Richmond. Here, diners can tuck into sophisticated takes on traditional Indian recipes, including masala fish, chicken biryani, makhani dal; and Madhu’s trademark chicken thighs.