New opening

Over the past few weeks, a contender for the hottest new bakery in London has opened its doors. But you won't find this one in Notting Hill or Soho; you'll have to travel out to Leyton for it.

Farha's key claim to fame is that in the kitchen is head baker Vanessa Campanelli, who was a baker at the area's much-missed Morny bakery. She's also worked in a roster of impressive London bakeries, including Toklas, Fortitude and Cedric Grolet at The Berkeley. Vanessa is supported by head of coffee Laura, who's an award-winning barista.

Owners Nargis Shaikh and Umar Raza are locals

Japanese handroll restaurant Temaki opened in Brixton in 2021 and quickly found a dedicated following. However, all good things come to an end and they closed up in Brixton last August, and went on the hunt for a new central London location. They've now found just that, thanks to help from The Crown Estate. The new Temaki will be launching on Maddox Street in Mayfair, taking over a space right next to Maddox Gallery and a few doors down from Patara. 

Not surprisingly, Temaki focuses on the Japanese handrolls of its title, originally taking its inspiration from Californian

Last year, we wrote about how The Evolv Group (previously D&D) were going all-in on their Sartoria brand, expanding the restaurant that was originally launched by Francesco Mazzei into a mini group of restaurants. Well, that's continuing apace as they're already about to launch the fourth outpost. 

Rather than opening brand new places, Evolv have been repurposing some of their existing restaurants, this one being just opposite Liverpool Street Station. Once, this was a pair of restaurants - New Street Grill and Fish Market. New Street Grill has relaunched as Liverpool

Chef Dom Taylor's The Good Front Room was a massive hit when it took over the Palm Court at The Langham for the best part of a year. He had won a reality TV programme, Five Star Chef, where the prize was to open a restaurant and he more than delivered the goods. 

Since then, the chef has been looking for a new location for the restaurant. He did open a more

13/1/25 - updated with the opening date and menu details.

The man behind the hugely popular Korean/Japanese restaurant Dotori is getting ready to open a second place, this time in the City. Alan Tse has been running the much-loved Finsbury Park spot for the past eight years, during which time he also managed to squeeze in training at the Japan Culinary Institute in Tokyo.

Now Tse is gearing up to open The Azuki, just off Chancery Lane. He's taking over the site that used to be The Pineapple Club on Rolls Passage and is turning it into what he's describing as an

Mid last year, the Shoreditch expansion of Nobu quietly drew to a close. And what was the Nobu hotel has now become the London home of Aethos hotels. However, even though the new hotel opened back in October, they were holding back on what was going to replace the space that housed the Nobu restaurant. But now we know what's coming. 

The new restaurant will be called Mitsu, which will be a Japanese restaurant that they say will be "capturing the spirit of East Tokyo's izakayas", albeit with something of an East London approach. So it sounds like less of a high-end affair than

In 2024, Opheem became the first Indian restaurant in the UK to be awarded two Michelin stars (followed only a few minutes later by Gymkhana). The restaurant is one of Birmingham's best and is its only two-starred venue. Now the man behind it, chef Aktar Islam, is coming to London for his first opening in this city. 

Aktar is opening Oudh 1722 in Borough in a three-storey listed Victorian building (it looks like it's taking over from Lupins). It's named after the Awadhi region, and that year refers to the roots of the local cuisine there, which originated

12/1/26 - updated with the opening date

For a small pub residency, Tiella at The Compton Arms got a lot of column inches. There was something about chef Dara Klein's cooking that reflected the places she'd worked in London (Brawn, Trullo, and Sager & Wilde) and her background that included a childhood spent both in Emilia Romagna and New Zealand. Her cooking was different, exciting, yet deeply hospitable.

Now, like The Compton's Four Legs residency before it, Tiella is moving into permanent digs. We have a strong gut feeling that Tiella Trattoria

Chef Michael Kwan has worked everywhere from The Fat Duck to Laduree and Hakkasan and, most recently, was the Executive Pastry Chef at The Dorchester. Now the Hong Kong-born chef is gearing up to open his much-anticipated new bakery in the heart of Soho.

ONSU sees the chef turning out a variety of breads and patisserie inspired by Asian flavours. On the sweet side, you've got the salted egg yolk mille feuille, popcorn and miso caramel Paris Brest and an oolong and milk chocolate tart. For the savoury, there's seaweed croissants, black truffle toast and a wagyu beef curry bun,

There couldn't be a more perfect time of year to open a stall devoted to steaming bowls of wonton soup than January. So hats off to the folks at HOKO who are doing just that. They're one of three new traders launching at Seven Dials Market this month.

Five years after launching, this will be the team's first central London spot. And unlike the milk tea diner in East London this one's going to focus on Hong Kong wonton noodle soup. The launch menu will feature three soups and two tossed noodles with wontons, along with new dishes like a Cantonese braised beef brisket and tendon

The team behind The Tamil Prince (and The Tamil Crown) are getting ready to open the latest of their curry house spin-offs, Tamila, and this one is their most central yet. The new Tamila is opening in Soho, which they're touting as being their flagship space. It's taking over a prominent corner site on Poland Street that was most recently the Obica Mozzarella bar. 

As with the other Tamilas (in Clapham and King's Cross), this is pitched as a modern version of a curry house with a focus on South Indian cuisine, influenced by executive chef Prince Durairaj’s heritage. So, the

7/1/26 - updated with the opening date and restaurant design

Tattu, the high-end Chinese restaurant with a view on the top of the Now Building, originally started as a group of restaurants in the North. Now the same team behind that are bringing another of their restaurants to London. This time it's the Mediterranean-inspired Fenix. 

Currently only in Manchester, Fenix will be taking over the space that was Henry's on Piccadilly (which closed mid 2024), a fairly big space next to Green Park station. From the plans (as we haven't actually been into Henry's

How Langosteria looks in Milan

It has been a VERY long time coming, but it seems that Langosteria is finally opening at The OWO in Whitehall. Originally planned for

London's pizza scene really exploded in 2025 and 2026 looks like it's off to a similarly strong start with Connie's Pizza. It comes from Andrea Asciuti, the founder of 081 Pizza, based in Peckham and Shoreditch, which has made it onto the Top 50 Pizzas in Europe list. 

Connie's (named after Andrea's wife) will be a little different from 081. As Andrea explains, it's offering up the "UK’s first Bri-talian pizza". That means it will be a London-style crispy pizza, albeit made by Italians. The ingredients will also be very different from your standard pizzeria, too,

A South London brewery that started life in a shed is now working on opening its third tap room. Br3wery, who already have two taprooms in Beckenham, are spreading their wings across to Furzedown.

"We’re excited to announce the opening of our third taproom in Furzedown," they told Hot Dinners. "For the first time, we’re stepping outside the BR3 area to bring our fresh beers to a new neighbourhood.

The move brings the opportunity to double down on current partnerships and bring in new ones. So they'll also serve up wines "from Crystal Palace Wine Club, an exquisite