The New London Restaurant Openings to Book This Week

Those who remember the heyday of Le Caprice — among the essential dining rooms of 1980s and 1990s London — will experience a Proustian rush when walking through the doors at Arlington, which is the new name for what is essentially the old restaurant reborn, under the auspices of the man who made it famous in the first place: Jeremy King, the Jedi master of London restaurateurs. Those who never went to Le Caprice will find simply a brilliantly run, utterly chic restaurant. A monochome colour scheme, rattan chairs, a long mirror behind the bar, walls decorated by David Bailey photos of London’s great and good. The food is just as it should be: bang bang chicken, crispy duck and watercress salad, salmon fishcake, shepherd’s pie. And in this corner of St James’s, all is well with the world.

Arlington, 20 Arlington St, St. James's, London SW1A 1RG, arlington.london

At the tail-end of 2023, a bad trip descended on Soho’s Broadwick Street. You might have seen them: two giant pink elephants in top hat and tails, holding magic wands and juggling balls, hoisted over the entrance of the newly opened Broadwick Hotel. Terrifying, yes, but they set the right tone. Peek inside the 57-room hotel – the first from tech entrepreneur Noel Hayden – and you’ll be overwhelmed by a kitschy, carnivalesque mix of glitzy maximalism and disco pop ephemera, inspired by the Bournemouth hotel that the owner called home during the Seventies and brought to life by Swedish designer Martin Brudnizki (Annabel’s, The Rosewood Hotel). The fun follows you downstairs into Dear Jackie, a dimly-lit Italian restaurant made memorable by its red silk walls, plush booths, traditional Sicilian patterns and reassuringly short menu. The latter has been pulled together by head chef Harry Faddy, formerly of Aquavit, and on our visit the standout dishes were the seared yellowfin tuna and braised rabbit tortellini, best followed up with a trip to the seventh floor for a drink in the Flute bar, overlooking the Soho streets. You should give it a visit – the giant elephants can’t hurt you anymore.

Broadwick Soho, 20 Broadwick St, London W1F 9NE, broadwicksoho.com/dearjackie

It’s testament to Yi Qi’s already burgeoning reputation that, at 6pm on a Thursday when Esquire visited this new tucked-away Chinatown hot spot, the place was already packed. Though the restaurant’s teal awning describes its offering as “pan-Asian”, which might make you think it means a conglomeration of West-familiar dishes of the pad Thai/satay chicken variety (though, as it happens, superior versions of both feature on the menu), what it actually delivers is “Nanyang” cuisine, referring the coastal regions of China and the countries of southeast Asia: a considerable culinary terrain at which Yi Qi’s executive chef Stanley Lum Wah Cheok proves himself a master. There’s Chinese cordyceps flower chicken soup and “childhood radish cakes”, Indonesian gado-gado salad, Malaysian “night market” prawn fritters, Singaporean oyster omelette… And that’s just the starters. Make sure you’re hungry when you go as you’ll want to sample a lot, though reserve room for the spectacular desserts, including the dramatic shaved ice with sweetcorn, and the ‘gram-worthy Wagyu mousse.

Yi Qi, 14 Lisle Street, London WC2H 7BE, yiqipanasia.co.uk

It’s somehow slightly astonishing, or at least to those from Highbury, that Highbury Barn hasn’t yet been home to a swanky restaurant. Sure, the bijou high street at the heart of one of north London’s most charming neighbourhoods has got the original La Fromagerie, and the stalwart Turkish restaurant Iznik, but now, with the arrival of Saltine in October, in can be officially declared to have a scene. The brainchild of Mat Appleton and Jess Blackstone, who also run the popular Fink’s cafes (of which there are now four around north and east London), Saltine sees the pair trying their hand at fine-dining. In doing so, they are more than ably abetted by head chef Phil Wood, whose past gigs have included St John Marylebone and Spring, and has put together a menu that is as unapologetic as it is delicious; we tried melting Gubeen and onion tart, rainbow chard with oozing Stracciatella and anchovies, hearty rabbit and lentils, and Saltine’s already heralded sticky toffee apple cake. We might have had to be rolled home, but with no regrets.

Saltine, 11 Highbury Park, London N5 1QJ, saltine.co.uk

Although fin-to-gill may not be the most appetising name for a concept (to be fair, nor was Fergus Henderson’s famous “nose-to-tail”), a visit to Kima, the bijou sister restaurant to Marylebone Greek-cuisine stalwart Opso across the road, proves there’s plenty of deliciousness to be had. First you must meet your fish – on the day we visited, there were whole seabass, turbot and bream glistening on ice – and then sit back and let the kitchen, overseen by executive chef Nikos Roussos, do the rest. We enjoyed beautifully subtle tarama and crisp flatbread to kickstart things, followed by morsels from the bream’s head (the cheeks – and, if you’re bold, the eyes) and the collar, before the perfectly grilled fillets appeared on a bed of tangy giouvetsi-style orzo. Even the dessert, “nori millefeuille”, a cuboid of coffee cream blobs interlaced with thin sheets of seaweed, had a texture, and actually quite pleasantly, that was redolent of fish skin. But the real beauty of Kima is not the natty concept but the classiness and care of the cooking (not to mention the excellent wines): ingredients come first, as does a wonderfully warm sense of being hosted, and you’ll leave feeling both dazzled and coddled

Kima, 57 Paddington Street, W1U 4JA, kimarestaurant.com

It was certainly no surprise to anyone who has had the pleasure of eating there that HUMO, the fire-forward restaurant headed up by charismatic chef (and young Adam Driver look-a-like) Miller Prada, won its first Michelin star this year, a mere year after opening. Not only is the food genuinely dazzling – an innovative fusion of Japanese cooking techniques with robust South American flavours and ingredients – but there is a sense that you might be eating something genuinely ground-breaking and new. Divided into four sections – “ignite”, “smoke”, “flame” and “embers”, that might be yellow tail with coffee from Miller’s family farm, or turbot with mushrooms, sea buckthorn and mole (although make sure you don’t confuse the refreshing hand towels, served in expandable pellet form on a bed of pine cones, with your first appetiser. You almost certainly wouldn’t be the first). The cocktails, masterminded by Angelos Bafas, and wine offering, overseen by Julia Reynals, are also exceptional.

HUMO, 12 St George St, London W1S 2FB, humolondon.com

Mystic Burek founder Spasia Dinkovski is undoubtedly a whiz at marketing – check out her eye-catching Instagram feed and her team’s bubblegum-pink uniforms – but all that eye candy would be meaningless if the food she makes in her tiny South London restaurant didn’t deliver on the promise. Happily for residents of the Forest Hill/Sydenham environs, Mystic Burek makes truly delicious burek pies – of the Macedonian variety – filled with all kinds of fun things (feta, lamb, egg, spinach, squash) in all kinds of fun combinations, with all kinds of dipping sauces, as well as sweet varieties if your pastry itch still isn’t scratched. Such a phenomenon has it proved that Dinkovski has plans for bigger premises and has a cookbook, Doma, out in April. In the meantime whole pies are available for pre-order and collection from her teensy restaurant, or you can also come sit on one of the cute tables for – to quote Julia Roberts’ t-shirt in 1988 feelgood classic Mystic Pizza from which Dinkovski’s joint got its name – a slice of heaven.

Mystic Burek, 227 Dartmouth Road, London SE26 4QY, mysticburek.com

Admittedly, I was one of the lucky ones. On the night that I visited Tiella, the trattoria-style Italian that operates out of a small kitchen in Islington’s Compton Arms pub, chef Dara Klein had not long returned from a Big Shop in Bologna. In her suitcase: a bottle of syrupy sweet 34-year aged balsamic vinegar, which she was now glooping over the evening’s ricotta dish, itself topped with multicoloured winter tomatoes and bedded in olive oil. It was simple, nutty, extremely tasty and – given that the menu changes regularly and the bottle is now probably in a recycling centre somewhere – essentially useless to you as a recommendation. But it’s indicative of Klein’s ambitions for the place: a friendly and authentic neighbourhood spot with a taste for the finer things. You could just as easily opt for the tagliatelle alle vongole, or the Sunday sugo, or the zingy panzanella, and be just as confident of a good time. The Compton Arms kitchen served as a launchpad for Ed McIlroy and Jamie Allan, the chef duo known as Four Legs, who went on to open The Plimsoll in Finsbury Park (otherwise known as the boozer with the best burgers in London) – basically, get a table while you still can.

Compton Arms, 4 Compton Ave, London N1 2XD, comptonarms.co.uk

If you want a restaurant that has a relaxed post-work vibe that is a cut above your average pizza joint, then Daroco, recently opened just off Soho Square, might just fit the bill. The first London outpost of the small Paris-based group of “modern-day trattorias” gives you energy and a bit of pizzazz – a nice, buzzy dining room, with mirrors and brass everywhere and a surfeit of banquettes and booths – combined with a menu of comforting Italian classics. The offerings certainly lean towards the meaty and the carby – arancini, bresaola, vitello tonnato, as well as a range of pasta and pizza (OK fine, pizze). And yes there are secondi – beef cheeks, veal cutlet, etc – but as many a superior Italian restaurant over here has discovered (Trullo, Padella, Artusi, etc), a big bowl of pappardelle and ragu is what we’ll order every time. Should you find yourself able to push through the carb slump, there’s also a comfy cocktail bar downstairs – the bizarrely named Wacky Wombat – where you can keep the post-work party going.

Daroco, Manette Street, London W1D 4AL, daroco.com

The humble dumpling is the lingua franca of those concerned with good eating. Little pockets of dough stuffed with slightly littler bundles of meat and vegetables that betray everything about the culture that made them. Even a bad dumpling is better than no dumpling at all. Named after the Khinkali, Georgia’s contribution to the scene – a bulbous, twisted shape with a dense tip thick enough to hold – the dumplings at new Fitzrovia restaurant Kinkally do everything good dumplings should: they delight, surprise, and soothe. Try the langoustine, tarragon, and matsoni (Georgian fermented yoghurt) and the pumpkin kveri, gorgonzola, amaretto khinkali. And don’t leave without sampling the brilliant Nomad, a strawberry-skewed take on the classic negroni, which you can take at the table, or downstairs in the moodily lit and friskilly-named, Bar Kinky. It’s open late, and you don’t need a reservation, and even better, it’s dumpling-adjacent.

Kinkally, 43 Charlotte St., London W1T 1RS, kinkally.co.uk

For too long theatre-goers have resigned themselves to, at best, a tired sandwich or a fridge-cold salad from on-site food vendors – or, if really pressed for time, just an over-priced interval ice cream – so the arrival of a branch of Forza Wine at the National, alongside the slightly more formal Lasdun, has been something of a revelation. In its position on an upper mezzanine floor with views of the Thames, Forza Wine gives you a sophisticated, energised restaurant experience without the fear that you’re going to have to hot-foot it through the West End cradling your stomach: just nip into the lift and take your seats. Even better yet, the food is actively great, so you can get Forza staples like cauliflower fritti and soft serve (familiar to patrons of their other restaurants in Peckham and Camberwell), as well as seasonal small plates such as, say, white beans, cavolo nero and anchovies or pork collar with calcots and romesco, and wash it down with a glass of something delicious as the restaurant’s name suggests (though the cocktails, also, are worthy of your consideration).

Forza Wine, National Theatre, Upper Ground, London SE1 9PX, nationaltheatre.org.uk

The baby sister restaurant of swish Soho stalwart Bob Bob Ricard, Bébé Bob is surely among London’s most instantly appealing recent openings. The sell is uncomplicated: Champagne, caviar, rotisserie chicken and chips. To borrow a slightly irritating phrase, what’s not to like? The caviar arrives in triplicate: Siberean, Oscietra and Amurski, served with blinis and crème fraîche. Starters are straightforward and excellent: prawn cocktail, smoked salmon. Then, as it says on the menu, “any main course the customer wants as long as it is chicken or chicken.” Choose between Vendee or Landes (slightly richer) for your bird, served with jus. Select sides (roast potatoes, truffled cauliflower cheese, winter leaf salad), and a bottle of Burgundy. And save space for the honey cake. The room is glamorous, as you’d expect from the people behind Bob Bob Ricard, but the emphasis is very much on fun.

Bébé Bob, 37 Golden Square, London W1F 9LB, bebebob.com