The new London restaurants to book now

London in the 21st century is the restaurant capital of the world. British chefs vie with the most famous names on the international food scene to secure the primest sites for their new ventures. Here you can find almost any cuisine on the planet, often made with seasonal British ingredients, whether organic meats, sustainably caught fish and regeneratively farmed veg, but food is only half the story: chefs collaborate with designers to ensure that the surroundings look every bit as enticing as what’s coming out of the kitchen. Keep scrolling to discover the best new restaurants in London.

Discover the best new restaurants in London

September restaurant openings

Endo at the Rotunda

Not a new restaurant but very much a new era for Endo Katzutoshi, who has already launched Nijū in Mayfair and Kioku at the OWO hotel this year. Here on the roof of the former BBC Television Centre the chef is re-opening the lift doors of his Michelin-starred flagship following a period of “culinary reflection” and a spruce-up by architect Kengo Kuma, who designed the Japan National Stadium for the Tokyo Olympics.

The Mood: Into the woods

The view might be of the bleak Ballardian future-scape of White City but, inside, the restaurant’s refreshed look leans into the gentleness of the natural world. A wooden seating area for pre- or post-dinner drinks has replaced what was formerly the bar with a wave of cedar planks, while the 10-seat cypress sushi counter has been re-figured to foster greater interaction between chefs and guests. The overall look is influenced by omotenashi, the Japanese art of empathy-driven hospitality, with the use of mobile phones and cameras frowned upon. Empathy, alas, comes at a price: £248 for the 18-course omakase menu.

The Food: New-style sushi inspired by the past

Kazutoshi is a third-generation sushi master who grew up in his family’s Yokohama restaurant. Now the chef is returning to the recipes and techniques of his grandfather, who himself was inspired by a collection of 200-year-old notebooks, to evolve his own style of sushi into something new but rooted in his family heritage. Rice, wasabi and soy sauce come from trusted suppliers in Japan, but the raw material of spanking-fresh seafood is fished from Cornish and Spanish waters before being turned into phenomenal nigiri, or cooked quickly on the grill. Saké pairings include one-off bottles made exclusively for the restaurant. Kanpai!

Endo at the Rotunda is available to book now and re-opens on 17 September. It is located at 8th Floor, The Helios, Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, W12 7FR

endoatrotunda.com

Amélie

The trend for homely French bistros is so vieux chapeau; hot-on-the-heels of the Côte d’Azur-inspired Mimosa at the Langham hotel comes another glamorous homage to Provence, Amélie. The 19 Motcomb site is also home to Luum, a Mexican-accented cocktail lounge, and Sachi, a rooftop Japanese left over from the building’s previous incarnation as Pantechnicon, a brand association that new owner Sunset Hospitality Group is keen to avoid but, with the name etched into the building’s 19th-century frontage, is hard to ignore.

The Mood: The Belgravia riviera

Old-money Belgravia has always been a cut above the arriviste thrust of neighbouring Knightsbridge but with Sunset Hospitality operating 80 venues in 22 countries from the USA to the UAE, might this quiet corner of SW1 become London’s answer to Saint-Tropez? Certainly, there’s no shortage of posing opportunities in the re-design of the building’s ground floor, from catching one’s reflection in a gilded mirror by the Art Deco-style bar to swanning up the grand staircase to a mezzanine dining area illuminated by ornate chandeliers. Seats outside on the terrace, meanwhile, are shaded by tasselled parasols.

The Food: Naughty but niçoise

Handsome head chef Steve Raveneau not only looks and sounds the ravishing French part but, having cooked in the kitchens of Annabel’s and The Arts Club, also knows how to tickle the fancy of the London beau monde. That might mean seared Dover sole with Champagne sauce and Provençal condiments, orzo rice with whole blue native lobster and rouille, or tuna tartare prepared on a trolley tableside with the option of a dollop of caviar from the selection of sturgeon eggs produced exclusively for the restaurant. La cuisine paysanne, this very much is not.

Amélie is available to book from 23 September and opens on 26 September. It is located at 19 Motcomb Street, SW1X 8LB

amelie-restaurants.com

Wildflowers

A new restaurant and deli close to the antiques and interiors shops of Pimlico Road, Wildflowers is the first solo project of chef Aaron Potter and his business partner Laura Hart, a florist and stylist who used to work for Heal’s and Petersham Nurseries. The pair have taken the rustic dining culture of Spain, France and Italy for inspiration, transplanted to the artsy urban enclave of Newson’s Yard, designed by Stiff + Trevillion.

The Mood: All things bright and beautiful

Hart has worked with London-based hospitality design outfit Studio Found to bring the outside in to the intimate 54-cover space, with textured walls, warm timber tones and floral displays evoking dining alfresco in the Med but sheltered from the London weather. Sustainably sourced furniture includes vintage pieces where possible, though all eyes are likely to be on the open pass, with dishes cooked over live fire before being handed to diners.

The Food: Best-in-season simplicity

Potter headed up the Michelin-starred kitchens of Trinity in Clapham and Elystan Street in Chelsea but will here be offering a more pared-down take on ingredients-led, flavour-first cooking. Moules farcies cooked in wild garlic and parsley butter might by followed by barbecued Herdwick lamb with harissa and labneh: simple assemblies reliant on expert technique and top-quality produce. Not so hungry? Small plates will be served alongside wines on tap in the wine bar upstairs, or there are daily pastries and sandwiches to take away.

Wildflowers is available to book from Thursday 29 August. and opens on 27 September. It is located at Newson’s Yard, 57 Pimlico Road, SW1W 8NE

wildflowersrestaurant.co.uk

August restaurant openings

Oriole

Oriole is part of the same avian-themed group of cocktail bars as Swift and Nightjar and is named after a golden-feathered relative of the blackbird. Now it’s flying west from its original home in Smithfield Market to a new and improved site in Covent Garden, complete with a South American-themed restaurant.

The Mood: Live cabaret and cutting-edge cocktails

Three-course meals in the dining room will be soundtracked by live jazz, cabaret and world music, while furnishings in both here and the upstairs bar will be familiar from the original Oriole – woven bamboo ceiling panels, tropical wall murals, cabinets of curiosities and a centrepiece bar hewn from Brazilian quartzite. Look out for the in-house bar lab, where avant-garde cocktail technique will be applied to clarified juices and syrups while an ultrasonic homogeniser creates barrel-aged extracts at the flick of a switch: a taste of things to come.

The Food: Nobu-style nikkei and Latin American fusion

Argentine-born chef director Gustavo Giallionardo is bringing together ideas from across South America, including the Peruvian-Japanese nikkei cuisine beloved of Nobu in the likes of hamachi tiradito kimchi aguachile. The chef has given his own creativity free rein, too, with sea trout accompanied by a beurre blanc made with torrontés, the signature white wine of Argentina. Snacks including octopus karaage are served in the bar alongside draught cocktails such as The Lost Explorer (Espadín mezcal, pickled pink ginger, Lillet Rosé vermouth and timur berry soda).

Oriole is available to book now and opens on 28 August, with 25 per cent off the bill during 21-24 August soft launch. It is located at 7-9 Slingsby Place, London, WC2E 9AB

oriolebar.com

Ambassadors Clubhouse

The first new Indian in six years from JKS Restaurants opens six months after their flagship Gymkhana won its second Michelin star. Ambassadors Clubhouse is a tribute to the grandfather of owners Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina (J/K/S) Sethi, a former Indian ambassador. The Mayfair newcomer will celebrate the food, drink, music and culture of Punjab.

The Mood: Ambassador, you are really spoiling us!

The restaurant draws inspiration from the summer house of the Sethi siblings’ grandfather in the hill-station of Dalhousie, formerly in the Punjab Province of British India. The 140-cover restaurant is spilt over two floors and includes a heated veranda on traffic-free Heddon Street – here’s hoping an Indian summer is coming our way! A gold-domed bar on the ground floor is the first thing to catch the eye, though there are attention-grabbing features wherever one looks, from classic Indian patterns to zingy contemporary prints. The restaurant isn’t just a feast for the eyes, however. From September, Punjabi cultural curator Sukhchain Sohal will oversee resident and guest DJs.

The Food: Club-class Punjabi cooking

The menus seek to reflect the cooking of the undivided Punjab before partition with papads and chaats, tandoor-roasted kebabs and curries cooked in cast-iron karahis and clay matkas, all mopped up with freshly baked breads. Though this being the Sethis, the traditional dishes are brought bang-up-to-date to appeal to the 21st century Londoners who have made Gymkhana one of the hardest-to-book tables in town. Karahi langoustines, fragrant with fennel, and herb-infused haryali rara rabbit keema are likely to among the must-order signatures, washed down with Tequila and mezcal cocktails mixed with north Indian fruits.

Ambassadors Clubhouse is available to book from 9 August and opens on 20 August. It is located at 25 Heddon Street, London, W1B 4BH

ambassadorsclubhouse.com

Cornus

This rooftop fine-dining restaurant comes with impeccable haute-cuisine credentials. Owners Joe Mercer Nairne and David O’Connor have run Michelin-rated Medlar in Chelsea for the past 13 years. Here they’re joined by executive chef Gary Foulkes, whose last gig was at Michelin-starred Angler in The City. All those accolades might sound stuffy but the light-filled location channels laid-back luxury.

The Mood: An eyeline of skyline

A 19th century warehouse near Victoria Station has been re-imagined along Mid-century modern lines, with muted greens and rich woods in the dining room, and bronze lighting illuminating the marble counter and banquette seating of the bar area. All eyes, however, are likely to be on the rooftop views through the wraparound windows. Expect service to be as slick as the surroundings. O’Connor is a legend among maître ds – with the podcast to prove it – and will be joined out front by his wife Monika, while wine director Melania Battiston won awards for her list at Medlar and is an expert at suggesting the perfect match.

The Food: Reach for the Michelin stars

The seasonally changing menu takes the best bits of French and British cuisine, with foodie savoir faire brought to bear on native ingredients given a gloss of European sophistication. Roast Landes chicken is partnered with Scottish langoustines, sweetcorn and roast chicken sauce, while hand-rolled spaghetti is laced with native lobster, Amalfi lemon, N25 caviar and small-batch olive oil from Two Fields on Crete. Not a wine drinker? The non-alcoholic options are equally well-considered and there are sakés and premium teas, too.

Cornus opens on 6 August and is in soft launch until 3 August, with 30 per cent off the food bill. It is located at 27c Eccleston Place, London, SW1W 9NF

cornusrestaurant.co.uk

July restaurant openings

Plates

Gourmet vegan cuisine is having a moment in London – French chef Alexis Gauthier has just opened 123V in Mayfair while pop-up-turned permanent Holy Carrot launches in Notting Hill this month. Neither, however, comes with quite the same cachet as Plates, owned by brother and sister Kirk and Keeley Haworth. Kirk was the first plant-based chef to win Great British Menu’s Champion of Champions and Plates is already booked solid until February; reserve a table now for spring and eat on the terrace in the meantime, where bookings are only taken 24 hours ahead.

The Mood: Bringing the outside inside

Keeley has worked with Emma Shone-Sanders of East London-based Design & That Studio on the look of a restaurant that reflects Kirk’s food philosophy of ‘turning the humble into the heroic’. Only pigments found in nature have been used in the low-lit, 25-cover dining room while materials have been repurposed and recycled wherever possible. The centrepiece bar and chef’s counter has been made from felled London trees that would otherwise have been destroyed, a banquette crafted from wood and linen wraps around the entire dining room, textured walls incorporate ingredients from the menu such as buckwheat and quinoa and there is an installation fashioned out of dried seaweed.

The Food: You are what you eat

Kirk adopted a plant-based diet following a diagnosis of Lyme disease in 2016 and his menu reflects the healing ingredients he believes have helped him manage the condition. Not that you’d know the six-course tasting menu was packed with medicinal properties. The chef uses whole, organic produce from trusted suppliers to produce complex dishes of multi-layered flavour and texture. Carrots, for instance, are brined in Korean aromats before being lightly smoked and caramelised over coals, then topped with leek kimchi, whipped aioli, crispy wild rice and spirulina powder and served with pickled kohlrabi and spiced pear.

Plates is available to book now but opens on July 3. It is located at 320 Old St, London

plates-london.com

June restaurant openings

The Park

The second of Jeremy King’s trio of new London restaurants – Arlington launched in March 2024; Simpsons in the Strand will follow in early 2025 – The Park is a departure for the veteran restaurateur who made Le Caprice, The Ivy and The Wolseley the seminal restaurants of the 1980s, 1990s and noughties. Not only is The Park King’s first contemporary restaurant in a new building, but it is also his first focused on American cuisine and his first in west London, opposite the northern entrance to Kensington Gardens by Queensway Tube.

The Mood: Mid-century Midtown

The American equivalent of a Wolseley-style, Mitteleuropean grand café is… the diner? But while King has taken the classic diner tropes of wood-panelling and orange booths, he has filtered them through a Mid-century, Midtown sensibility. King has said his inspiration was The Four Seasons Restaurant in Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, which opened in 1959, and architecture is a motif throughout, with walls hung with illustrations by Le Corbusier and photos by Ti Foster, son of Sir Norman. It’s dog-friendly in the daytime, if you’ve been for a walk in the park.

The Food: Stateside breakfasts and Cal-Ital suppers

King has got all the diner details right at breakfast and brunch: mugs on the tables for refillable filter coffee, stacks of fluffy pancakes drenched in maple syrup. Lunch and dinner, meanwhile, reflect the Californian-Italian cuisine pioneered by chefs such as Alice Waters. Mains like zucchini and ricotta rollatini are billed as entrees, salads are very much a thing, and because it wouldn’t be a Jeremy King restaurant without some sort of schnitzel, here there’s a chicken Milanese. An exclusively Italian-American wine list includes bottles from Oregon and Washington State as well as Californian big-hitters.

The Park is located at 2 Queensway, London

theparkrestaurant.com

The River Cafe Cafe

The River Cafe is one of the most famous restaurants in the country, but it comes with two distinct drawbacks: getting a table in the first place, then having the funds to pay the bill. Neither should be an issue at this more affordable, no-bookings offshoot in the warehouse next door, which trumps the original with a terrace with a view of the Thames. Finally, the River Cafe lives up to its name.

The Mood: Bright and breezy, River Cafe easy

The River Cafe began life as the in-house canteen for the Richard Rogers Partnership and co-founder and chef Ruth Rogers originally trained as a graphic designer, so the look of the restaurant has always been as important as the food on the plate. Here in the former office of Sir Richard Rogers, the visual cues of the River Cafe – paper-clothed tables standing on a cobalt-blue floor, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the kitchen garden – are set off by a huge Damien Hirst painting of cherry blossom. Want to take the lifestyle home? The shelves surrounding the tables groan with River Cafe cookbooks and foodie goodies: boxes of cantucci for £15, bottles of Negroni or limoncello for £40.

The Food: Tuscany on Thames

A café it may be, but Rogers and her chef team were adamant that the food had to be Italian. For breakfast that means cornetti deep filled with cream or chocolate, fruit so ripe it might have been picked moments before, and Duralex tumblers thick with bitter hot chocolate. The all-day menu might include courgette and pesto soup for lunch, vitello tonnato for dinner and, in-between in the afternoon, house-made ice cream. Best of all, River Cafe classics like the chocolate Nemesis can now be enjoyed by themselves, while the bar team have been given free rein with the likes of a bergamot margarita: raise a glass to the evening sun setting over the river.

The River Cafe Cafe is located at Thames Wharf, Rainville Rd, London

rivercafe.co.uk/#Cafe

Akira Back

The signature restaurant of the new Mandarin Oriental in Mayfair marks the UK debut of Akira Back, who is a very big deal in Asia and the States. The Korean-born, Colorado-raised snowboarder-turned-chef has cooked for everyone from the Dalai Lama to Bill Clinton and operates 28 restaurants from Doha to Dallas, Bangkok to Beverly Hills. Dosa, the relocation of the chef’s Michelin-starred Seoul chef’s table, will open later in the year, along with ABar Rooftop. Checking in? Back is also responsible for in-room dining across the 50-room hotel.

The Mood: Glossy glamour at the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair

Tokyo-based studio Curiosity has brought an elemental approach to the design, with earth, wind and water reflected over the 148-cover dining room and ABar Lounge. A circular marble staircase delivers diners to the triple-height lower ground-floor space, where light catches on the bronze ceiling of ABar Lounge. Back has had a hand in the design too: artwork by his mother is a key component of all the chef’s projects.

The Food: Modern Japanese creativity and cutting-edge cocktails

Back’s globetrotting cooking style grafts influences from his Korean-American childhood onto a thorough understanding of Japanese cuisine, with a strong taste for the contemporary. Signature dishes imported from the international outposts include ‘AB Tuna Pizza’, a crunchy wafer-thin crust topped with ponzu aioli, tuna sashimi and white truffle oil, while London-specific dishes such as turbot with white asparagus and saké beurre blanc will debut in Mayfair. Meanwhile, snacks such as wagyu tartlet will be served in the ABar lounge: not just any old bar lounge, it features cocktails with ingredients like lacto-fermented peaches, a 2.30am weekend licence and a roster of live DJs.

Akira Back is available to book now but opens on June 3. It is located at the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, 22 Hanover Sq, London

mandarinoriental.com; akiraback.com

Koyn Thai

Never one to miss a gap in the local market, Queen of Mayfair Samyukta Nair has converted the basement of her Japanese restaurant Koyn into a Thai dining room overseen by Paris-based chef Rose Chalalai Singh. Nair says she is aiming for approachability but the West End’s only high-end Thai is likely to be as gilded as her other Mayfair restaurants Jamavar, Socca and Mimi Mei Feir.

The mood: Bangkok by night

Designer Tom Strother of Fabled Studio has given the dark and moody Japanese decor a subtle Thai makeover, incorporating burnt orange leather upholstery, hand-painted tapestries and works by Chiang Mai artist Kitikong Tilokwattanotai to contrast with the black oak ceiling and black marble counter. Food and drink are the focus of the refreshed look: wine is stored in a flower-bedecked sommelier station while food is cooked over live fire in the open kitchen before being served in handmade woven baskets.

The food: Home-style cooking that travels around Thailand

Bangkok-born Chalalai Singh has made a name for herself in Paris at her 11th-arrondissement restaurant Ya Lamaï, named after the grandmother who taught her to cook. But it was at her private Rose Kitchen within the Marché des Enfants Rouges, the city’s oldest covered market, that the chef became a hit with the Parisian fashion community and impressed Nair with recipes drawn from the length and breadth of Thailand. Expect dishes such as a Chiang Mai platter of spicy homemade pork sausage, capsicum nam prik sauce, sticky rice and pork crackling, or a southern Thai crab curry with wild betel leaf.

Koyn Thai opens on June 16 but is available to book now. It is located at 38 Grosvenor St, London

koynrestaurants.com

May restaurant openings

Julie’s

First opened in 1969 by interior designer Julie Hodgess, Julie’s was the belle of the beau monde. McCartney and Jagger partied here in the Seventies, Princess Di was an Eighties lady who lunched while Kate Moss threw her 22nd birthday here in the nineties. The 21st century wasn’t so kind – the restaurant closed between 2015 and ’19, and again in 2023 – but the star quality of the Julie’s name remained undimmed. Now Holland Park’s most famous restaurant has been bought by Tara MacBain, a long-time local and venture capitalist turned restaurateur.

The mood: Naughty but nice

MacBain is so committed to her new venture that she has the letter ‘J’ tattooed on her forearm. ‘G’, however, is the most famous letter here on account of the alcove known as the G-spot. Tina Turner dancing on the table (her heel marks are still etched into the wood) is the tamest thing to have happened behind the curtains. But while the brown awnings above the pavement terrace still look like the Julie’s of old, everything else inside is new, courtesy of interior designer Rosanna Bossom. Banquettes are upholstered in custom-made Le Manach fabric, timber tables finished with walnut tops, flower-shaped chandeliers hang from the ceiling and one-off prints on the walls.

The food: Seventies nostalgia given a 21st century update

Julie’s, arguably, has always been more about the mood than the food, though neither, alas, has been a forte in recent years. With a Cordon Bleu qualification under her belt, MacBain wants people to be talking as much about what’s on the plate as what’s on the walls and has enlisted Owen Kenworthy as chef patron. Kenworthy’s last gig was as exec chef of The Pelican (an aesthetically-pleasing pub with a great natural wine selection), so he knows a thing or two about what well-heeled Notting Hillbillies want from their local, namely an all-day menu of Franglais classics with an emphasis on simple sophistication rather than cheffy showboating: devilled eggs with harissa, lobster soufflé with leeks and Gruyère, rhubarb and almond tart with custard.

Julie’s is located at 135 Portland Rd, London

juliesrestaurant.com

Kioku

The OWO hotel launched last autumn with offerings from some of Europe’s glitziest operators (Mauro Colagreco, Café Lapérouse) but has saved the best till last with Kioku: the fourth London restaurant from Endo Kazutoshi, the chef behind Sumi in Notting Hill, Niju in Mayfair and the Michelin-starred Endo at the Rotunda in White City. The rooftop views here are even better than at the Rotunda, with a 360-degree panorama of central London from the dining room and terrace.

The mood: Magical views and privacy

It’s easy in a rooftop restaurant to focus all the attention on what’s beyond the windows rather than inside but designers Pirajean Lees have emphasised texture as much as natural light in details such as carved oak service stations, accents of aged brass and oxblood leather, and mesh screens to break up an already intimate 55-cover space. Oak chairs covered in Japanese embroidered silk reference Kazutoshi’s favourite hotel in his home city of Yokohama, with the best seats in a spectacular private dining room housed within one of the building’s turrets overlooking Whitehall and St James’s Park.

The food: European-accented Japanese cooking taken to new heights

Don’t mention the f-word (fusion): Kazutoshi gained an in-depth education and appreciation of Mediterranean cooking when his Nagoya sushi master sent him to work at the Japanese embassy in Madrid. The cuisine at Kioku isn’t so much east-meets-west as classic European with a Japanese accent: ravioli made from ramen pasta stuffed with chashu pork, say, or native lobster with fregola, shiso oil and sancho. Purists can rest assured there is also the sushi and sashimi that have made Kazutoshi’s name, with tuna sliced tableside from a bespoke trolley, while Europe’s largest saké collection – 300 bottles of over 110 varieties – is stored in a ‘saké safe’.

Kioku is located on the sixth floor of The OWO, 2 Whitehall Pl, London

kiokubyendo.com

See also, April's hottest openings: Oma, Arlington, Lita, Josephine Bouchon and ABC Kitchens.