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Perhaps the most significant restaurant opening of the year so far, Manzi’s is the long-awaited new Soho fish restaurant from the recently renamed Wolseley Hospitality Group, owner of landmark see-and-be-seen dining rooms The Wolseley in Mayfair and the Delaunay in Aldwych, as well as the day-tripper’s favourite, Brasserie Zedel, in Piccadilly, and chic neighbourhood restaurants in some of the capital’s glossier locales: Marylebone (Fischer’s), Chelsea (Colbert), Islington (Bellanger) and St John’s Wood (Soutine).
The chatter around Manzi’s is amplified by the fact this is the first of the group’s restaurants to open since the exit last year (until when the company was called Corbin & King) of its founder, the legendary London restaurateur Jeremy King, who with his business partner Chris Corbin conceived, launched, operated and personally patrolled all the above restaurants, for close to two decades. (Before that they were the masterminds behind the Ivy, J Sheekey and Le Caprice RIP; it’s no exaggeration to say they are the most influential figures in London hospitality of the past 40 years.)
So it was King who, before his departure, developed Manzi’s. It was his idea. He found and secured the site — a large space over two floors on Bateman Buildings, a previously deeply shady alleyway running south from Soho Square, parallel to, and in between, Frith and Greek Streets. He decided it would be a fish restaurant. He named it. But he’s no longer in place to open it.
Would Manzi’s have been different if Jeremy King had still been in charge? Impossible to know. What we can say is that it is very much in the Corbin and King tradition: a stylish but comfortable room, an extensive but uncomplicated menu, an attentive but not ingratiating staff, an ineffable feeling that you have come to the right place.
Esquire had an early preview a few days before the opening, when the paint was still wet on the doors, the sizeable outdoor terrace was yet to open and the builders were still installing fixtures and fittings upstairs. We took a booth on the light-filled ground floor, ordered potent celery gimlets (Tanqueray, lime and black pepper cordial, celery juice, fino sherry); a dozen Carlingford Lough Rock oysters (surprisingly sweet, entirely delicious); followed by “Newcastle brown” clams, yellowfin tartare, Arbroath souffle Suisse and — best of all — Manzi’s fish and chips, which turns out to be haddock goujons, in breadcrumbs not batter, wrapped in paper and served with tartar sauce. All very pleasing.
Of course, Corbin and King’s restaurants were always about much more than the food. Manzi’s is, by design, not as grand as the Wolseley or the Delaunay, and the clientele is perhaps not likely to be quite so starry; it’s hard to imagine Joan Collins, 2023 vintage, weaving through the rubbish on Bateman Buildings. The interiors, as befits a fancy fish shop, are nautical in theme, possibly a bit gaudier than King might have signed off on: a large swordfish in reception, mermaids in the upstairs bar, a colour scheme that unapologetically embraces the life aquatic. (Wes Anderson really does have a lot to answer for.)
The original Manzi’s, as all true Londoners know, was for close to eighty years a famous London fish restaurant, on the edge of Soho. (It closed in 2006.) And everyone knows at least one Manzi, a member of the sprawling London Anglo-Italian clan which owned that and many other businesses, both legitimate and, erm, otherwise. The Manzis are not involved in the new restaurant that carries their name. Neither is the man who dreamed it up. But those who mourn his absence from the London dining scene need fret no longer: the day after our visit to Manzi’s Esquire ran into Jeremy King outside Anderson & Sheppard (of course!), on Clifford Street, in Mayfair. Discreet as ever, he wouldn’t go into specifics on the record, but the announcement of a new restaurant is imminent, and it should be open early next year. With, perhaps, another to follow.
Until then, we recommend a visit to Manzi’s. It’s bright and fun, the food’s good, the service is excellent and, right now, it’s the hottest reservation in London.
