[Special offer: Hot Dinners readers will get 50% off food at Heliot for the first week of opening from Friday 13th July. To book go to heliotrestaurant.com and quote Hot Dinners when making your reservation to get your discount.]
Having recently returned from Las Vegas, Hot Dinners has seen first-hand how big name restaurants and casinos go hand in hand in that town. Now London's about to get a flavour of that as the Leicester Square Hippodrome is converted into an "international casino" and gets a big new lounge bar and restaurant to go with it.
The Heliot will cover three floors of the casino. Of those floors, the top will be reservations only, the middle for walk-ins and the bottom floor will be the bar area. Aiming for a similar vibe to the late and somewhat lamented Atlantic Bar & Grill, this restaurant is being opened by the same folks behind the recently announced STK restaurant.
Food-wise, it's going for a British brasserie style. So, to kick off, that means Bloody Mary shots or Scotch quails eggs snacks and starters that include caramelised onion tart with Cornish yarg.
Moving onto mains, there's the intriguing lobster fish fingers with chips and a wasabi mayonnaise or maple caramel roasted pork belly with baked apple and ginger sauce. Alongside this, there are a range of "comfort dishes" like corned beef hash with fried eggs and a curried apple chutney or kedgeree pot pie. Alternatively. there are a selection of sharing dishes like "fish and chips for two" - whole whiting, chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce - or truffle macaroni and pheasant egg with gruyere as well as steaks, burgers and more.
Drinks-wise, mixologist supremo Tony Conigliaro of 69 Colebrooke Row is behind the creation of the cocktails. The bar itself promises to be very affordable for those who have lost everything at the tables, with a glass of wine starting at £4 and cocktails from £7.50 which is frankly a steal.
In addition to this, it's worth watching for the Matcham Room, also to open in the Hippodrome. While mainly a "performance space" (run by an ex-Executive Producer of the Donmar Warehouse), it'll be converted into a speakeasy once the night's entertainment is done.
The Heliot Bar & Lounge opens at the Hippodrome on the week starting July 13.
Find out about more upcoming London restaurants
