Best new restaurants: London, March 2023

Maene, Spitalfields

Taking European bistro culture and replanting it atop a four-storey Victorian warehouse on Fashion Street in Spitalfields, Maene is the second site from Nick Gilkinson, who opened Townsend in the Whitechapel Gallery in 2020.

The restaurant serves breakfast through dinner, and much of the fun here will take place around a large sharing table (but there are counter seats and tucked-away banquettes for those who really can't bear the thought of discussing their meal with strangers), with a sprawling terrace promised for summer.

Tuck into Mersea oysters with pickled jalapeño and sorrel; allotment fritto misto with smoked chilli aioli; and Springfield farm chicken with all the trimmings, including Keats farm salad with pickled onion and miso dressing.

Nessa, Soho

Chef Tom Cenci (Duck & Waffle, Loyal Tavern) has joined forces with the Mortimer House team to open new Soho bistro Nessa. Expect playful twists on British classics including a breakfast dish of rye porridge with plum and hibiscus compote; and all-day plates of trout crudo and stuffed savoy cabbage. There's rumours that a fresh take on the roly-poly is making its way onto the pud menu, too.

The Parakeet, Kentish Town

The brains behind popular music-cum-dining venues Jazz Café and The Blues Kitchen have teamed up with chef Ben Allen (of Brat acclaim) to launch a neighbourhood pub specialising in live-fire cooking. From a menu teased on Instagram, diners can expect oysters, pickles, crudo and a larger dish of grilled sardines served with braised leeks and potato cake.

Archway, Battersea

Pasta and wine is the tagline of this new restaurant from Emily Few Brown, owner of luxe contemporary catering company Spook London. It's located not in Archway itself, but in a railway arch in Battersea, and serves a far more varied offering than wine and pasta. Heading up the kitchen is ex-River Café chef Alex Owens, whose inaugural menu features sharing starters of flatbreads, deep-fried quail and burrata. This rolls into pasta dishes, including a scrumptious-sounding pappardelle with radicchio and scamorza. Secondi dishes, meanwhile, include dressed-up plates of lamb's neck and slipsole. A sure-fire hit with the 'in' crowd, Archway is where to dine with a side of people-watching this season.

King pop-up at Carousel, Fitzrovia

In what has to be one of the most exciting culinary events of the year, King – a restaurant you could legitimately plan an entire trip to NYC around visiting – has arrived in London in pop-up form for five nights only. By which we mean co-owner and chef Jess Shadbolt and executive chef Angeles Chavarria are getting behind the stoves at Carousel in Marylebone where they'll be turning out some of the dishes on which they've built their stellar reputation. Fellow co-owner and beverage director Annie Shi, meanwhile, is working the room, pouring interesting wines to match.

Menu highlights include hand-cut ravioli with Swiss chard, potato and saffron butter; and poisson en papillote of monkfish, red mullet and mussels with Florence fennel and pastis.