Launch dates are liable to get moved about — we've listed details where available but check in with the venues for the latest word on their openings.
Pastaio, Soho
Stevie Parle's new Carnaby venue looks set to follow in the footsteps of his others: we want to eat everything on the menu, vegetarian options at least as alluring as the meatier ones, informal friendliness from the staff and decent prices for food that sounds like a special occasion. Also the insistence that Fernet Branca's something you'd genuinely want to drink for non-medicinal reasons. Troubling thing is, Parle's so on-point about the rest of it, we might even find ourselves buying into the Fernet.
Pastaio, 19 Ganton Street, W1F 7BN.
CircusXO, Mayfair
We're fans of StreetXO, David Muñoz's big, theatrical Mayfair restaurant — you can read the review here. Their new bar, attached to the restaurant, promises to be just as experimental — the cocktail menu features the Tom Kha Khai, with its blend of coriander, kaffir lime, coconut and chilli, garnished with flying fish roe, and the Yellow Curry, with saffron, ginger, lemongrass, cumin and basil. If it's anything like its restaurant, it'll be a high-concept whirlwind of flavours, props, colours and smoke effects.
CircusXO London, 5 Old Burlington Street, W1S 3AJ.
Little Havana, Camden
Frozen rum cocktails. Live music. Regular salsa nights. This new Camden bar's talking a summery talk, and we haven't even got to the Cuban dishes coming out of the kitchen yet — tamales Cubanos, salt cod fritters and roasted pork belly. Those and a banana daiquiri sound like as good a way as any to stave off the sense of winter outside.
Little Havana, 20 Inverness Street, NW1 7HJ. Opens 22 November.
Yen, Embankment
Japanese restaurant Yen makes the leap from St. Germain de Pres in Paris with its first London branch, specialising in soba noodles and minimalist design. The soba come with ceremony here — handmade every day in the restaurant, on show to diners, and forming the basis of a number of hot and cold dishes on the menu. There'll also be robata grill dishes and a sushi counter, offering soba sceptics a reason to visit.
Yen London, 190 Strand, 5 Arundel Street, WC2R 3DX. Opens 28 November.
More November food news
November's offering up some good causes, with the Raise Your Hands wrap party on 22 November at the Union Club on Greek Street — tickets are £10 for non-members and include food and a chance to hear about RYH's charity sector work.
At the Imaginarium in London Bridge, they're offering an alternative Thanksgiving on 22 November. Things to be thankful about include soulfood from Slap Ya' Papa, an exploration of Native American storytelling — and the fact proceeds are going to three charities, with discounted tickets for the event available for those who might struggle to join otherwise.
And over in Shoreditch, Women for Rwanda are keeping the Day of the Dead spirit alive for an extra week with their Dia de los Muertos supperclub on 11 November. £30 gets you five courses of Latin American food and a welcome cocktail — along with the promise of an after-dinner piñata. Profits are going towards creating a sustainable enterprise for a group of female genocide survivors in Rwanda.
Londoners are so hardy that winter's no barrier to our love of a rooftop. We reckon these new pop-ups look worth wrapping up for:
Sliders, London's only rooftop curling club — bringing icy competition and boozy hot chocolate to Roof East. Every Tuesday in November there's the added incentive of half-price cocktails and high-quality puns — show your e-ticket at the bar to get Londonist Curling Me Softly cocktails for £5.
The Woody Bear winter pop-up — serving up hot cocktails, raclette and, for the brave, egg nog, on their Oxford Street rooftop.
The South Pole Saloon on Brixton Rooftop — running Thursday to Saturday, and featuring wood cabins, mac and cheese, and molecular cocktails. Opens 23 November.
