London restaurants opening in May, from Café Britaly to Chez Roux

Going Out | Restaurants

London restaurants opening in May, from Café Britaly to Chez Roux

Britalian in Peckham, Italian in Chelsea and Anglo-Irish on Fish Island: Ben McCormack rounds up this month’s most notable new openings

Eight is the magic number this month, with a trio of new openings launching on May 8. One of them, Julie’s, is one of the most famous restaurants from the Seventies, and for anyone whose taste in restaurants runs to the revisionist, then it’s also worth knowing that the Dining Room at The Goring hotel reopens on May 20 with a swish new look, ditto Paradise in Soho, which is going tasting menu-only from May 28.

Otherwise, embrace new ideas at one of the London restaurant launches below: all guaranteed to put a spring in your step this May. 

Café Britaly

Steven Joyce

This knowingly “Britalian” restaurant in Peckham come courtesy of Richard Crampton-Platt and Alex Purdie, two Brits who met working at Bocca di Lupo, though their first venture will not be following the Soho restaurant’s rigorously authentic approach to regional Italian cooking. Instead, expect the sort of dishes one might encounter at a dream children’s birthday (or hungover lunch, which amounts to the same thing): spaghetti carbonara dolloped with cream and topped with a fried egg, or a “full Britalian” breakfast of fennel sausages, fried pizza and Tuscan beans. Lino-lined interiors will nod to the Italian caffs of old, though sourcing as many ingredients as possible from local food shops in Peckham feels like a very contemporary idea.  

Opens: May 8

191 Rye Lane, SE15 4TP, cafebritaly.com

The Hero

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With regulars at The Pelican in Notting Hill including Princess Eugenie and Dua Lipa and the Beckhams ushered through the back door of The Bull in Charlbury, one can expect to encounter pop royalty and the real thing somewhere on one of the four floors of this third pub from the same team of well-spoken Cotswold gents. The ground-floor bar is the place for cheese toasties and pints, the smart first-floor grill cooks fish and meat over fire in an open kitchen — lamb chops and quarter of cod, say — the Library bar up above pours pre-batch cocktails for comedy nights, while there’s a private room at the top. All in all, pretty much the perfect Maida Vale local for a well-heeled area strangely light on places to eat and drink. 

Opens: May 13 (pub), June 3 (grill)

55 Shirland Road, W9 2JD, theherow9.com

Inis

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Is there a more evocative London restaurant location than Fish Island in Hackney Wick? Local couple Lynsey Coughlan and Lindsay Lewis — destined to be the 2020s equivalent of Moro’s Sam and Sam Clark — have a bluechip pedigree: Coughlan is a former director of the Ginger Pig butchers and advises Borough Market on animal welfare and provenance; Lewis is a graphic designer whose clients have included Daylesford Organic and The Gentlemen Baristas. Expect a good-looking space with food and drink that is good for the planet, from breakfast, brunch and lunch of seasonal British and Irish food, to coffee, wines and cocktails.

Opens: May 8

3 Rookwood Way, E3 2XT, inisfishisland.com

Julie’s

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Hot on the heels of Arlington comes another re-boot of a 20th-century classic — and one with an even older vintage than Le Caprice. Julie’s originally opened in 1969 and acted as a barometer for the beau monde of each subsequent decade — McCartney and Jagger in the Seventies, Princess Di and Tom Cruise in the Eighties, the Cool Britannia-era Gallagher brothers — before falling out of favour as London’s social axis swung east, eventually closing in 2022. Now Notting Hill is once again home to London’s hottest tables, Holland Park is surely the new Hoxton? Party like it’s 1969 with seafood towers and chandeliers, martini trolleys and lobster soufflés: proof that if one hangs around for long enough, everything eventually comes back into fashion. 

Opens: May 8

35 Portland Road, W11 4LW, juliesrestaurant.com

Kioku

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Is Kioku the restaurant to finally make an appealing dining destination of the OWO hotel after the muted reception extended to the likes of Mauro Colagreco and Café Lapérouse? The rooftop location, certainly, sounds stunning — especially the private room enclosed by a turret — but with Endo Kazutoshi behind Niju, Sumi and the Michelin-starred Endo at the Rotunda, the chef has the chops to make sure that what’s on the plate looks as good as what’s out the window. The big idea is Japanese food with a Mediterranean influence such as cuttlefish nori pesto — Kazutoshi’s Nagoya sushi master sent him to work at the Japanese embassy in Madrid — washed down with the largest saké collection in Europe. 

Opens: May 15

The OWO, 57 Whitehall, SW1A 2BX, kiokubyendo.com

Also opening

SMSH BN
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All’onda

The name means “on the wave” in Italian and refers to the technique of tossing rice in a pan to create the flowing texture of the perfect risotto: the house speciality of this ingredient-led newcomer that also offers three regularly changing main courses.

Opens: May 2

67 Charlotte Street, W1T 4PH, allonda.co.uk

Fellini

Readers with long memories may recall Chelsea’s Paparazzi Café from the Nineties; now owner Tony Aalam is opening this veggie-friendly Italian near Brompton Cross just in time for the Chelsea Flower Show

Opens: May 6

149 Draycott Avenue, SW3 3AB, thefellini.com 

SMSH BN

Can’t be bothered to queue for Supernova? Try this all-day smash burger specialist sending out wagyu and vegan patties, plus egg muffins for brekkie and salted caramel milkshakes. 

Opens: May 20

126 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0LA, smsh-bn.com

Chez Roux

Michel Roux’s first London launch since closing Le Gavroche sees the chef back on familiar territory at the Langham. He’s moved from Roux at the Landau to the hotel’s Palm Court to offer retro British dishes inspired by his 1960s Kent childhood.

Opens: May 22

The Langham, 1C Portland Place, W1B 1JA, langhamhotels.com

Doña

Dalston cocktail bar Doña is opening a restaurant upstairs, serving a Latin American menu of empanadas, cassava fries and tamales, with everything made from scratch in house and washed down with mezcal margaritas.

Opens: May 24

92 Stoke Newington High Street, N16 7NY, bardonalondon.com

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