London Food And Drink News: 9 July 2015

Ben O' Norum
By Ben O' Norum Last edited 104 months ago
London Food And Drink News: 9 July 2015

Room up top: visit floors 39 and 40 of the Gherkin

Welcome to our weekly digest of all that’s happening in London’s food and drink scene.

Inside this week: gherkins, chips and hoppers

Gherkin grub

Londoners are getting the rare chance to dine at the top of the Gherkin without being a member this summer, as Moroccan-themed pop-up Art of Spice arrives on floors 39 and 40. The lower floor restaurant will offer a five-course tasting menu (£59), while the upper bar area will serve Moroccan-inspired cocktails and bar snacks. It kicks off on 20 July and will run until 5 September — advance booking is recommended.

Chips not choice

It had to happen before long: a restaurant serving only chips is landing in Covent Garden this autumn. Landing is the appropriate word given the site – called Come Fry With Me – will be aviation themed, with staff wearing cabin crew uniforms and condiments served on hostess trolleys. It will offer chips flavoured with bacon and cheese, steak and stilton, pesto chicken and Marmite.

School dinners suppers

Alphabet spaghetti and shepherd’s pie will feature at a school dinners-themed pop-up coming to Hackney later this month. The After School Club is being brought about by foodie collective The Art of Dining, and will take over Clapton’s Round Chapel Old School Rooms – you can guess what they used to be – just off Lower Clapton Road from July 22-August 6. There’s plenty planned to make the experience take you back to your school days, including milk monitors, blackboards, pencil cases and homework — along with five courses of ‘posh school dinners’. You’ll need more than a little dinner money — tickets cost £55 including one cocktail.

Hip to Hopper

A new Indian restaurant is coming to Soho from the Sethi family, who are behind Marylebone’s Trishna and Mayfair’s Gymkhana as well as Bubbledogs, Kitchen Table and Bao. Hoppers will open in October, and has been inspired by the roadside shacks of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. It will major on hoppers – also known as appams, similar to dosa — which are thin, bowl-shaped pancakes made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk. They’ll be served with a choice of meat, seafood or vegetable curries and a selection of sambals and chutneys. The menu will also offer other street-food inspired snacks and dosas, alongside a short cocktail list.

Street eats

The area around Carnaby Street and Kingly Court will be filled with food stalls on Saturday as Carnaby Street Eat comes round again. More than 25 of the area’s top eateries will be taking to the streets and offering £5 ‘taster dishes’ of some of their signature serves, while there’ll also be a live demo kitchen. Restaurants taking part include Cinnamon Soho, Dehesa, Pizza Pilgrims, Shoryu ramen, Stax Diner and Señor Ceviche. It runs from midday to 7pm with free entry.

Soho roof terrace

Central London has gained a new rooftop bar in the form of the Soho Sky Terrace atop the Courthouse Hotel on Great Marlborough Street. The hotel is housed in the building which was the second-oldest magistrates court in the UK, dating back to the 1800s. The drinks list includes a selection of champagne cocktails while snacks such as grilled prawns and chorizo are also available. The best bit? Everyone hasn’t caught on yet, so you should still be able to fit in when the sun’s out.

New openings

This week has seen the opening of Pidgin in Hackney, a collaboration between supper club hosts James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy which will have a supper club-style weekly changing menu; Oldroyd, a neighbourhood restaurant in Islington from the former chef-director of Polpo; an outpost of Buenos Aires restaurant Casa Cruz in Notting Hill; and Greek street food restaurant Suvlaki in Soho.

Next week will mark the launches of Paradise Garage in Bethnal Green, the latest opening from the team behind Clapham’s The Dairy and The Manor; a branch of ramen restaurant Ippudo in Canary Wharf; and the third Barrafina restaurant on Drury Lane.

We round-up London’s biggest food and drink news stories and the latest new and upcoming restaurant openings in this handy digest every Thursday afternoon. See our previous editions.

Also see:

The Best Food And Drink In London — recommendations of where to enjoy the capital’s top food and drink, categorised by cuisine, food type and more.

New Restaurant Reviews — our views on London’s latest openings.

More food and drink on Londonist.

Last Updated 09 July 2015