Read our guide to the latest new restaurant openings and events for June 2015
The Ivy relaunches, ex-Polpo chef director opens his own restaurant, Angela Hartnett’s Cafe Murano gets a sibling in Covent Garden and much more!
Oldroyd
Chef Tom Oldroyd opens his first solo restaurant ‘Oldroyd’ this June on Upper Street in Islington. Tom was previously Chef Director at the Polpo restaurant group for five years.
The 40-seat restaurant will be split across two floors, with a café-style area downstairs and bistro-style dining upstairs.
Osteria Francescana at Sotheby’s London
Chef Massimo Bottura will bring Osteria Francescana, his three-Michelin star restaurant in Modena, Italy to the Contemporary Art Galleries of Sotheby’s London.
Taking place on 27th, 28th and 29th June 2015 offering a seven-course tasting menu ‘carefully selected to provoke a dialogue between food and art’. By reservation only, the menu including an aperitif will cost 250 with wine pairing available at £95.
Taste of London
From 17 to 21 June, the Taste of London festival returns to Regent’s Park, with London’s top restaurants and some of the world’s most acclaimed chefs in attendance.
Highlights from our visit included the lamb chops from The Clove Club and the take on ‘Mince and Tatties’ from The Modern Pantry. London favourites like the Duck and Waffle from Dan Doherty are also available. With so many top dishes to choose from, you could spend the whole weekend there!
Antidote Wine Bar & Restaurant
Tucked away among the independent boutiques of Newburgh Quarter off Carnaby Street, Antidote re-opens this month with new menus, a refurbished interior and terrace for outdoor dining.
The new menu offers value for money with a set lunch menu available throughout the whole restaurant priced at £19 for two courses and £23 for three; the first floor exclusively offers an À La Carte Menu and a four-course Tasting Menu for £40 with the option of a £30 wine pairing at lunch or dinner.
Balls & Company
Balls & Company, ‘the first Soho restaurant to offer a gourmet meatball focused menu’, opens in June on Greek Street. The 50-seat restaurant is the work of Australian-born chef Bonny Porter, former finalist in the Australian MasterChef TV series.
Balls & Company will open for lunch and dinner, Monday to Saturday.
The Ivy reopens in Covent Garden
Following a redesign, The Ivy in Covent Garden, reopens its doors on 1 June 2015. We visited for a preview recently and the design is gorgeous with a new large bar in the centre of the room – perfect for counter dining.
In the kitchen, Executive Chef Gary Lee remains at the helm, and has created a new menu that ‘comprises recognisable Ivy staples alongside modern dishes with international influences, with a particular nod to Southern Europe and Asia’.
Café Murano, Covent Garden
Angela Hartnett will open a second Café Murano on Tavistock Street in Covent Garden in June. The 140-cover restaurant will be set across two floors and the menu will be ‘northern Italian in focus, with a particular emphasis on the coastal regions’.
The original Cafe Murano in St James’s is pictured above.
Morden & Lea
Mark Sargeant will open modern brasserie, Morden & Lea, in Soho. The 62-cover space will serve ‘a varied menu of individual savouries, charcuterie and snacks’, from 11am until late, Monday to Saturday, with a brunch menu available on Sunday.
Smith & Wollensky
Opening this June in the grandiose Art Deco Adelphi Building off the Strand, Smith & Wollensky will have two bars, two dining areas and three private dining rooms for parties.
The Smith & Wollensky London will also feature butchery quarters and a dry-ageing room.
Social Wine & Tapas
This June, The Social Company and executive sommelier, Laure Patry, will open Social Wine & Tapas on James Street in Marylebone, London.
The 70-cover bar and restaurant will offer ‘quality, rare and fine wines accessibly priced alongside a tapas and snacks menu’, created by head chef Frankie Van Loo (formerly Social Eating House). Social Wine & Tapas will also incorporate a large wine shop.
Camino Bankside
Spanish bar and restaurant group Camino are launching ‘an authentic tapas bar format’ at Bankside, Southwark. Designed to suit the local area, this new take on their existing locations aims to ‘bring a more flexible and relaxed offering to Bankside, similar to that of typical tapas bars in Spain’.
Masala Grill
Masala Grill has just opened in Chelsea’s Kings Road, London. The newest restaurant from MW Eat, Masala Grill is ‘a stylish yet informal and eclectically designed dining room focusing on the best of authentic Indian home cooking, street food and grilled dishes’. Masala Grill is open daily for dinner and also for lunch on Sunday.
‘July is Chocolate Month’ at The Providores and Tapa Room
Fusion Chef, Peter Gordon, and Artisan Chocolatier, Paul A. Young, have collaborated to create an array of cocktails, a four-course Chocolate Tasting Menu and brunch dishes, all inspired by, and featuring some of the world’s finest chocolate.
To mark the beginning of ‘Chocolate Month’, Gordon and Young will host a ticketed, four-course, wine-matched dinner at The Providores and Tapa Room for 40 guests on 1st July at 7pm. Tickets costs £100 per person and are available from The Providores and Tapa Room.
Read some of our recent restaurant reviews including Ceviche Old St, Pachamama and Fera at Claridge’s.