The Best London Restaurant Openings This October
By Something CuratedHighlighting this month’s most promising restaurant launches, Something Curated takes a closer look at what to try, as well as the founders and proprietors behind the openings.
Omotesando Koffee || Eiichi Kunitomo
Housed on Rathbone Square and helmed by Eiichi Kunitomo, Omotesando Koffee started life as a unique coffee experience in Tokyo back in 2011. A hidden doorway in a residential neighbourhood proved to be a compelling concept. The site features a cubic bar design wherein a single barista serves a single customer, focussing on ritual and presence while brewing.
Rathbone Square, Fitzrovia, W1T 1PB
Kyms || Andrew Wong
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm087gnnwXQ/?taken-by=kymsrestaurant
The new, two-floor 120-cover site at Bloomberg’s new European headquarters is significantly larger than sister restaurant A. Wong. The menu at Kym’s will feature Wong’s interpretation of classic Chinese dishes, including sharing platters of crispy duck, pancakes and plum sauce as well as classics such as slow-poached soy chicken, ginger relish and rice.
Bloomberg Arcade, EC4N 8AR
Two Lights || Chase Lovecky
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUu4Lt7lDiX/?hl=en&taken-by=clovecks
The new eatery is on Kingsland Road and has Clove Club’s head chef of three years Chase Lovecky at the helm. Hailing from the US, chef Lovecky was inspired by the name of a skate park near to his hometown in Maine, also called Two Lights. The menu has US and British influences, with dishes including Hereford beef tartare & togarashi; and grilled mackerel with cherries and black olives.
28-30 Kingsland Road, E2 8DA
Berenjak || Kian Samyani, Karam, Sunaina & Jyotin Sethi
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnA-iTcgOSm/?hl=en&taken-by=berenjaklondon
Berenjak, which will be led by the Iranian chef Kian Samyani with the support of the JKS siblings, will open on Romilly Street. Samyani has been cooking at Brigadiers in the City since it opened earlier this year. The food at Berenjak will depart somewhat from Indian mess hall dining, leaning into Persian tradition, offering kababs, khoresht, and sharing plates.
27 Romilly St, Soho, W1D 5AL
Barrafina King’s Cross || Angel Zapata Martin, James & Sam Hart
The menu at Barrafina’s latest outpost will all be courtesy of their executive head chef, Angel Zapata Martin. He’ll be drawing on his childhood, and later experience at the triple Michelin-starred Can Fabes, to put together an all-Catalunyan set of dishes. This opening is one of many in Coal Drops Yard, the new canal-side shopping and dining quarter nestled between the cobbled streets, coal-shuttling viaducts and Victorian industrial architecture of King’s Cross.
Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, N1C 4AB
Daylesford Farmshop & Café || Carole Bamford
The enormous new site on Sloane Avenue in Brompton Cross spans three floors. In the farmshop there will be daily deliveries of organic food made on the Daylesford farm, including cheese, milk, yoghurt and butter made in their Creamery; freshly baked bread, cakes, pastries and biscuits, ready meals and soups as well as meat. The café, which has room for 80 diners, will also be open all day.
76-82 Sloane Avenue, SW3 3DZ
Levan || Nicholas Balfe
Chef and one-time Young Turk-affiliate Nicholas Balfe and the team behind Salon in Brixton, will open a second restaurant, this time in Peckham, called Levan. Guests can expect seasonal pastries in the morning alongside other breakfast favourites like a croque monsieur. In the afternoons and evenings, diners can choose from a menu consisting of smaller sharing plates and heartier dishes.
12-16 Blenheim Grove, SE15 4QL
Caractère || Emily Roux & Diego Ferrari
Emily Roux will be the third generation of the Anglo-French Roux family to run their own restaurant in the UK when she launches her new eatery Caractère in Notting Hill. The food will be a blend of Italian and French, riffing off Emily’s Franco-centric culinary upbringing, and her husband’s own Italian heritage.
209 Westbourne Park Road, W11 1EA
Custard by Gunpowder || Harneet & Devina Baweja
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmu-lO1lune/?hl=en&taken-by=gunpowder_london
Opening on the ground floor of Gunpowder’s recently launched site this October, Custard, the bakery and wine bar, inspired by the old coffee houses of Kolkata, will serve up treats like butter chicken puffs, Bombay sandwiches, Goan pork sausage rolls, Narangi custard tarts with pistachio meringues and almond cherry and ghee cakes alongside coffee.
4 Duchess Walk, SE1 2SD
Feature image via Levan