Food never, ever stops. This September is pretty much the Olympics of London openings, with a frankly excessive amount of restaurant openings across the capital. Before we even get into the nitty gritty of the best of the best, we bring you chain-adjacent news, with a new Notting Hill branch of Covent Garden’s The Barbary, an Ealing version of Cantonese fast food spot Three Uncles, a Covent Garden site for Eastern Med chain Three Uncles, and a new Lina Stores pasta parlour for Shoreditch, as well as branch of Lima, Fitzrovia’s Peruvian fine dining spot. OOF. You want a new pub in Peckham, too? Well you got one; The Clock House Tavern will open on the corner of Peckham Rye in the middle of the month. Here’s the best of the rest.
1. The fancy one in a crypt
Undercroft, Mayfair
A big name in Brum, Brad Carter is finally making moves on London. The self-taught chef-director of the much-loved Michelin-starred Carters of Moseley will launch Undercroft down in the crypt of Grade I-listed St George’s Church during the first week of September. His plan is to make heroes of historic British recipes, so expect a menu brimming with long-forgotten foods, such as sea tripe and seaweed soup, Tamworth pork with creamed snails and sorrel and strawberry layer cake.
St George's Church, 2A Mill St, W1S 1FX
2. The fabulous food festival
Black Eats Fest, Woolwich
Black Eats LDN isn’t just an invaluable directory of over 100 Black-owned restaurants in the city, but the source of London’s tastiest food festival. Taking place September 14-15, this two-day triumph has moved from Hackney to Woolwich for 2024 and brings with it the likes of wings specialists Foodie & Grubbies and Texan-Jamaican fusion barbecue dons Rack City Ribs, as well as live music and art.
Woolwich Works, The Fireworks Factory, 11 No 1 St, Royal Arsenal, SE18 6HD
3. The bar with great snacks
You Call The Shots, Hackney
Named in honour of post punk poet John Cooper Clarke’s ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ (and not Girls Aloud’s ‘Call The Shots’) You Call The Shots soft launched at the end of August and is now in full, fabulous flow. From the same team behind great London Fields gastropub The Prince Arthur and Homerton’s The Plough, see it as a home base for a menu of mighty bar snacks devised by The Prince Arthur's Joe Couldridge, such as prawn guanciale, mini devilled crab donuts, cheeseburger dogs, and cherry and Courvoisier cannolo.
13 Morning Ln, E9 6ND
4. The timely takeover of a classic spot
Sesta, Hackney
RIP Pidgin. The ever-changing tasting menu spot served up its last no-repeats menu a few days ago, but worry not; the cosy, living room-like space by London Fields is to be reborn as Sesta, opening September 11. The debut restaurant from former Pidgin head chef Drew Snaith and general manager Hannah Kowalski, it’ll be all about seasonal British ingredients from Sussex farms. The launch menu includes such delights as cider flambee mussels with caramelised cream, lemon verbena and bottarga toast, as well as cornish brill with hard herb pil-pil and something they’re calling aggressive aioli, as well as mutton bacon ribs with fermented garlic and Thai chilli honey and coriander mustard. French wines will flow. Yes please.
52 Wilton Way, London E8 1BG
5. Turkish dining in a posh new hotel
Leydi, Farringdon
Situated inside the newly opened Hyde London City inside a grand old Victorian hotel, you’ll find the latest London restaurant from Selin Kiazim of the much-missed Oklava. Turkish cuisine, done sleek Istanbuli style, is an all-day affair here, from bountiful breakfasts of böreks, stuffed Lavash rolls and menemen, to dinners cooked on the mangal, with hand-chopped adana kebap, Welsh lamb kebap and chicken thigh shish with fenugreek marinade. Don’t miss out on an XL künefe for pudding.
15 Old Bailey, EC4M 7EF
6. The jazzy spot with live music
Soul Mama, Stratford
Sax player and broadcaster YolanDa Brown’s Soul Mama venue has been in the works for a while, and finally opens this September. Expect jazz gigs and gospel brunches at the space in the Design Hotel, The Gantry, with fabulous food from exec head chef Aleandro Brown (formerly of Helene Darroz at The Connaught, Sketch and The Ritz London.) Here, he’ll be serving up Afro-Caribbean dishes such as coconut chicken curry with rice and peas, Ghanaian-style kelewele plantain, as well as mango jerk cauliflower and cornbread arepas.
40 Celebration Ave, E20 1DB
7. Jason Atherton’s new one
Sael, St James’s
Jason Atherton could never be accused of simply sitting on his arse. After the swift closure of Pollen Street Social in Mayfair and Social Eating House in Soho, the Michelin-star chef is back at it again with Sael. Opening September 6, he’ll bring Pollen Street Social’s exec chef to this new ‘best of British’ spot before opening all-day bistro Three Darlings in Chelsea in October. Busy chap.
1 St James's Market, London SW1Y 4QQ
8. (Another) posh pub up west
The Blue Stoops, Kensington
A big deal for brewery buffs, this marks the first ever London pub from Midlands beer people Allsopp’s – and the brewery’s first new pub in almost 100 years. Pub food comes from the mind of Caravel founder and official Time Out London hot chef Lorcan Spiteri, so expect excellent scran.
127-129 Kensington Church St, W8 7LP
