Heading into February, there are new openings from Michelin-starred chefs, an iconic nightclub reborn, Spanish tapas by The Thames and lots more to look forward to...
Joia
Battersea - 1 Electric Boulevard, Nine Elms, London SW11 8BJ
The final piece of the Battersea Power Station puzzle is nearly here. Joia sees top Portuguese chef Henrique Sá Pessoa (whose restaurant has two Michelin stars in Lisbon) opening as the flagship restaurant in the art'otel here. Expect dishes using the best British, Spanish and Portuguese produce including their signature version of Bacalhau à brás” - salted cod with shoestring potatoes, parsley, black olive, and egg yolk (pictured here).
Socca
Mayfair - 41 S Audley St, London W1K 2PS
Originally promised in the summer, this collaboration between Samyukta Nair (Koyn, Jamavar) and Michelin-starred chef Claude Bosi sounds extremely promising. The menu is influenced by the coastal towns of the South of France and we're told to expect their own takes on Riviera classics.
Lio London
Soho - 3-4 Coventry St, London W1D 6BL
Iconic nightclub Cafe de Paris closed during the pandemic after being open for almost a century. But now it's coming back in a new form, thanks to a group that has restaurants and clubs in Mykonos and Ibiza. The evening sees the space start as a restaurant and then morph into a club with plenty of cabaret acts and with food from chef Adam Rawson.
Hawthorn
Kew - 14 Station Parade, Kew, TW9 3PZ
Hawthorn takes over the space that was left when The Glasshouse closed last year, and sees some Glasshouse alumni return too. In charge of the food is chef Joshua Hunter (Kitchen W8, Murano) who's also spent time cooking for A-list celebs like Tom Cruise. On the menu will be dishes like oxtail raviolo, Ryeland hogget and roast veal rump with truffle creamed potato.
Kapara
Soho - James Court, Manette Street, London, W1D 4AL
Kapara sees Bala Baya's Eran Tibi open in the new Ilona Rose House Soho building (right next to Milk Beach). Here he's planning a Tel-Aviv-inspired bar and restaurant with a fair bit of bling involved. The menu brings in modern Israeli influences and there's attention given too to low-waste cooking in there too, with dishes like "Wasted?" featuring squid ink and yolk pasta, prawn bisque, saffron and cod's head fillets.
La Gamba
South Bank - Unit 3, Royal Festival Hall, SE1 8XX
The South Bank can sometimes be a challenging place to find a decent restaurant, so hopefully the arrival of the Spanish La Gamba will help with that. It comes from the family behind Applebee's in Borough Market and focuses on the north-western Galician region. As you might expect, there will be a Basque-style cheesecake on the menu.
All London's newly opened and upcoming restaurants...
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