KORA, a super Mediterranean restaurant opened in the summer of 2025 on the ground floor of Beaufort House, the private members’ club and events venue whose home is a spacious Chelsea town house on the King’s Road.
KORA occupies a highly visible, and indeed pivotal, spot on the King’s Road and is certain to breathe life into this part of Chelsea. It stands proudly at the junction of the King’s Road and Beaufort Street providing swift access to Battersea Bridge, Chelsea Embankment, the Fulham Road and World’s End.
It is close to various Chelsea landmarks, such as the Bluebird, the Cadogan Arms and the Everyman Cinema. All of these are quintessentially British in their different ways.
KORA offers something invigorating and new to this charming pocket of SW3. It is unmistakably Mediterranean – more accurately Ionian – from top to toe. It is also distinctly affordable, which is rare for the flourishing Chelsea restaurant scene and a breath of fresh air for young and old alike in these straitened and uncertain times.
KORA’s décor is plain and unpretentious. Simple wooden tables are placed next to long velvet covered banquettes atop a wooden parquet floor. It is all about olive tones and clean lines. Whilst this is unremarkable in itself, light streams into KORA from Beaufort Street on one side and the King’s Road on the other. It is therefore wonderfully bright and welcoming.
The menu at KORA is divine and extensive, and meanders happily from dips to salads, main courses and enticing side dishes (the roasted pumpkin in chilli garlic honey is fabulous).
The entire menu is redolent of the Ionian coast, beginning with the handmade pita rolled in Mediterranean oregano and the huge, meaty kalamata olives which hail from the southern Peloponnese. The unmissable centrepiece of the menu is the Greek salad tossed in rock samphire and infused with galomizithra, a soft lightly salted cheese of Cretan origin.
The main courses are equally inviting and I particularly enjoyed the delicate chicken poussin and the enormous tiger prawns, which literally swam in a chilli, garlic and lemon sauce with a dash or two of ouzo, the dry aniseed flavoured aperitif which the Greeks and the Cypriots prize.
Some of the main courses are quite adventurous. The octopus Kokkinisto, for example, is a traditional Greek and Cypriot meat stew which is cooked for hours and left to simmer to ensure the utmost tenderness. It is a hearty dish and the octopus is submerged in a rich, aromatic sauce which is lent an alluring deep red colour from tomatoes. It brings to mind Lyonnaise cuisine.
The wine list, of course, favours wines from Crete and Greece, at reasonable prices. A glass or two of the organic Agiorgitiko from Nemea in Greece, where myth has it that Hercules slayed the Nemean lion, will not go amiss.
KORA will be popular with all age groups and those seeking everything from brunch or a relaxed lunch to early evening drinks or dinner. Crucially, it will also suit all budgets.
KORA is open every day, from noon until midnight from Monday to Wednesday and on Sunday and from noon until 1am on Saturday. The kitchen closes daily at 10.30pm. There is a discretionary service charge of 13.5%.
Bookings may be made by email at <[email protected]> or by telephone on +44 20 7352 2828.
KORA’ 354 King’s Road, Chelsea, London SW3 5UZ.
korachelsea.co.uk – @kora.chelsea