Best new restaurants: London, October 2023

Nest and Nest Cellar, Old Street

Beloved Hackney farm-to-fork cubbyhole Nest has upped sticks and moved to a larger site in Shoreditch. Here, a low-lit, atmospheric, 24-cover restaurant twins up with a neighbouring wine bar, Nest Cellar – ideal for savouring every last drop of natural wine on their extensive and thoughtfully curated list.

The restaurant offers fine dining without ponce or white tablecloths. So expect to tuck into miniature marvels, flavour bombs and larger dishes fizzing with foam, but in a stripped-back dining room lined with jars of fermented goods.

Opening in time for game season, Nest 2.0 is serving its first guests a reasonably priced (£65pp) eight-course tasting menu, to which a wine pairing and cheese course can also be added.

With their 2022 opening Restaurant St. Barts, founding trio Johnnie Crowe, Luke Wasserman and Toby Neill proved they knew just how to dish up Michelin-worthy dinners. Now, they're bringing some of that splendour to those on tighter budgets, serving special occasion dining with a side of cool.

Kolae, Borough Market

From the founders of Spitalfields' fiery Som Saa comes a second Thai restaurant, Kolae, in Borough Market. Mark Dobbie and Andy Oliver's new outpost takes its name from a style of cooking local to the south of the country, with a focus on meats grilled on an open flame and coconut-based curries. Highlights include a Kolae chicken bamboo skewer; fried prawn heads with turmeric and garlic; and southern Gati curry of seasonal whole fish.

The restaurant proper can sit 100 covers across its two floors, while upstairs, a private dining room creates the same experience for parties of 12 to 16 guests.

65a, Spitalfields

While there's fun to be found in reinventing the wheel, sometimes all we want are the classics done well. Here to champion traditional French cooking is 65a, a new brasserie-style restaurant in a stately building by Spitalfields Market. Within a menu that's 'elegant yet uncomplicated', executive chef Maura Baxter is serving up French onion soup; free-range rotisserie chicken; and fillet steak with Café de Paris butter.

Drinks are slightly quirkier though. In addition to several French rosé wines are cocktails including a Green Mango Margarita (tequila, mezcal, caraway liqueur, green mango and tajin), and a Bloody Good Spritz! (honey tequila, oloroso sherry, blood orange sorbet and prosecco).

Bon appétit indeed.

Il Gattopardo, Mayfair

Italian cuisine can swing both high and low, and while a cheap and cheerful pizzeria is a must for every neighbourhood, so too do we welcome the opportunity to tuck into the nation's finer fare. Enter Il Gattopardo, a lavish dining room, inspired by 1960s Italy, that's serving up the wares of former Alain Ducasse chef Massimo Pasquarelli, who comes to the post from the Ritz Carlton Singapore.

Among the stand-out dishes on Pasquarelli's inaugural menu is a lobster bolognese with Agria potato gnocchi – who can say no to that?

Bambi, Hackney

If you've been mourning Hackney small-plate joint Bright, you can put away your tissues and blow out that candle, because its former London Fields site is in good hands. It's been taken over by James Dye, co-owner of Peckham rooftop bar Frank’s and stellar gastropub The Camberwell Arms. Opening under the name Bambi, it'll run as a music-led wine bar and restaurant, with former Peckham Cellars chef Henry Freestone getting behind the stoves. Come for the small plates, stay for the vinyl.

Mambow, Clapton

Peckham's loss is Clapton's gain this month, as chef Abby Lee takes her Malaysian restaurant Mambow from its home at SE15 food hall Market Peckham and replants it in lower Clapton. It's perhaps more of a homecoming for the chef, who first launched the concept on Commercial Street in the tricky year of 2020.

The new spot is bigger, with space for 40 covers indoors and a further 20 on a semi-covered terrace. Food-wise, she'll be cooking up more of the plates she's built her reputation on, putting playful spins on Malay dishes passed down through generations. Drinks-wise, expect natural wines (this is east London, after all) and a short cocktail list.

Bébé Bob, Soho

Can we ever get enough of pressing for champagne a la Bob Bob Ricard? It would seem not! With decadent dining rooms flourishing in Soho as well as the City, the team behind it are birthing an offspring, Bébé Bob, on Golden Square. A simpler affair, here you'll find a marriage of rotisserie chicken (which is truly having a moment this year), fine wine and, of course, champagne. Finger on the button!

Solis, Battersea

The latest addition to the ever-expanding offering at Battersea Power Station comes from the 'work-and-life partners' behind contemporary Asian concept TĀ TĀ Eatery, Ana Gonçalves and Zijun Meng (remember their Instagram-famous katsu sandos?). Here, the grill is taking centre stage, with spatchcock chicken and steak as two highlights to which diners can add their choice of dressing. Flavours from Spain, Portugal, Uruguay and Argentina are among the offerings. Elsewhere, devilled eggs meet spicy tuna and grilled corn is being thrust into the limelight (well, lime dressing).

Drinking? Do try the Sangria-based Uruguayan aperitif, Medio y Medio.

Lula, Queen's Park

Charming Queen's Park mews street Lonsdale Road has become something of a foodie quarter, what with brilliant Middle Eastern joint Carmel and Aussie spot Milk Beach on its cobbles. Joining the mix is chef Paul Delrez's new restaurant, Lula, which promises communal dining (upstairs) and dishes inspired by the chef's stint in Spain.