Welcome to our weekly round-up of all that’s happening in London’s food and drink scene.
Inside this week: Crab & steak, John Burton-Race, bacon jam.
Crab and steak restaurant
London is set to gain a King crab and steak restaurant next month in the form of Beast. Opening on 6 May in Marylebone, it comes from the Russian-owned Goodman restaurant group who are behind three Goodman steak restaurants in London as well as five branches of Burger & Lobster. Beast will serve a three-course set menu with a surf ‘n’ turf main course consisting of King crab from the Arctic Circle, and American beef steaks. It will cost a steep £75 a head (without booze) and no substitutions or ‘off menu’ ordering will be available.
Race back to London
Top chef and reality TV show regular, John Burton-Race, will open his first London restaurant in over 12 years this month. He will launch The New Angel in Notting Hill, serving European food made with a focus on British ingredients, on 22 April for a soft-launch period before opening officially on 7 May. Back in 2000, Burton-Race won two Michelin stars for his JBR restaurant in the Landmark Hotel on Marylebone Road, but subsequently took a break from the industry and became better known for appearances on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! and other TV shows. He launched a restaurant called The New Angel in Devon in 2004 but left in 2010, so this slightly less new New Angel could be considered something of a rebirth.
White move
And John Burton-Race isn’t the only veteran of the restaurant world looking to secure a spot in the capital. Raymond Blanc told the Evening Standard this week that he was "'about to' secure a premises for the new London venture". He wouldn’t reveal a location, but did confirm that it would be fine-dining. The chef’s Oxfordshire two-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons is considered among the best outside of London, so a new opening from the chef will undoubtedly be a big deal for the capital’s restaurant scene.
Eat 9
Imagine if your local Spar served pizzas straight from a wood-fired oven and made their own bacon jam. That’s been the case for lucky Walthamstow for a while now, and the brilliantly named Eat 17 bistro that adjoins it has been a runaway success. Now they’re looking to expand, and have E9 in their sights with a restaurant, burger bar and convenience store planned for Chatsworth Road in Lower Clapton due to open later this month. While the store and burger bar will take the ground floor of the space that was formerly Brooksbys Snooker Hall, a full-service restaurant will be upstairs. The bar will be the first place to serve beers from Hackney Wick brewery Crate on tap.
More openings
Red Dog South, the cross-river sister of Hoxton Square’s Red Dog Saloon opened this week near Clapham North, while back on the square new semi-permanent pop-up The Pearl has opened above Dead Dolls Club. Prosecco and bellini bar Cartizze has launched in Mayfair. Rotorino by Stevie Parle (more info here) launches today, and tomorrow will see The Cat & Mutton pub on Broadway Market relaunch with food from pop-up Licky Chops, by the man behind the Lucky Chip burger van.
Talk To Us
We still want your help to keep these weekly food and drink news round-ups as relevant, up-to-date, and interesting as possible. Got any top tips, local gems or foodie news? Tried one of the new restaurants we mentioned? Leave a comment below or hit us up at [email protected]. ‘Til next week…
