London’s Best New Restaurant Openings – December 2016

With plenty of exciting restaurant openings constantly taking place across the Capital, here’s our pick of the best new restaurants arriving in London over the coming month.

Ceru – South Kensington

After offering a number of tasters around the capital, as well as having appeared a number of music festivals in recent years, Ceru will open its first permanent site this month. Taking over a site in South Kensington, the restaurant is heavily inspired by husband and wife team Barry and Patricia Hilton’s travels in the Levant region, and will thus offer an array of dishes with influence from the eastern Mediterranean coast. Offering authentic Levantine dishes with a contemporary twist, the restaurant will be open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a selection of classic mezze dishes, grilled meats and healthy salads. Expect the likes of lamb shoulder slow-roasted in a secret blend of twelve spices; apple, pomegranate and mint salad with pea shoots, pine nuts and green chilli; and lamb kebabs marinated in rosewater. As for the drinks, the wine list will be predominantly Levantine with Ceru’s own three grain pale ale also available.

Ceru is set to open in December and can be found at 7-9 Bute Street, London, SW7 3EY.

El Pastór – Borough

The latest project from The Hart Brothers and Crispin Somerville, following years living in Mexico City and running cult nightclub El Colmillo, El Pastór will open just off Borough Market on 12th December. The no-resrvations, 70 cover space is named after the ‘al pastor’ taco – a Mexico City staple with origins in the Arab shawarma, roughly translating to ‘shepherd style’, which will feature heavily at the new restaurant. Elsewhere a selection of other tacos will be on offer, including short rib with guajillo rub, pineapple habanero salsa; prawn with al mojo de ajo; and squash with queso fresco, pumpkin seeds and mezcal soaked raisins. Elsewhere, the menu will include other Mexican treats such as Chicharrón de queso (rolled cheese crisp) and Sopa de Tortilla (spiced tomato soup with totopos, avocado, queso, morita and fresh sour cream). As for the drinks list, a strong focus on mezcal will be prominent, with 16 in total, as well as tequila, Mexican beers and Margaritas.

El Pastór is set to open on 12th December and can be found at 7a Stoney Street, London, SE1 9AA.

The Gate Seymour Place – Marylebone

First established in 1989 by brothers Michael and Adrian Daniel, The Gate in Hammersmith soon became regarded as one of London’s best vegetarian restaurants. Since then, another branch has opened in Islington, and now another is coming to central London – taking over a spot on Seymour Place in Marylebone. Like the other two restaurants, the Seymour Place outpost will strive to showcase vegetarian food at its best with a menu that puts vegetables centre stage. On the new menu, established favourites such as aubergine teriyaki and green banana fritters will be on offer alongside some new dishes. These new dishes include the likes of three-way filled globe artichoke; aubergine schnitzel; and wild mushroom rotolo. What’s more, the new space will be the first of The Gate restaurants to open for breakfast.

The Gate is open now and can be found at 22-24 Seymour Place, London, W1H 7NL.

inamo – Camden

Opening a site opposite Mornington Crescent tube station, futuristic concept restaurant inamo is set to launch a third site this month. With two other restaurants, one in Covent Garden and the other in Soho boasting the world’s first interactive ordering system and interactive table tops that even allow diners to choose their own interactive tablecloths, the Camden branch will continue to serve Pan-Asian food, plus a street food-style bar menu. Other new features exclusive to the Camden restaurant include a selection of dishes cooked on an outdoor Japanese-inspired Robata grill, with an al fresco garden and roof terrace also on hand.

inamo Camden is open now and can be found at 265 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 7QX.

Jamavar London – Mayfair

A new addition to Mayfair’s burgeoning Indian restaurant scene, Jamavar will open on Mount Street this month. First opened at The Leela Palace Bengaluru in 2001, Jamavar is the signature restaurant of The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts across India, with this new opening acting as the first outside of India and the sixth restaurant of the Jamavar group. With dishes at the new restaurant specifically designed to suit the palate of London diners, the menu will have a focus on smaller sharing plates with dishes such as Lobster Neeruli, Sindhi Gosht and Coconut Payasam.

Jamavar London is open now and can be found at 8 Mount Street, London, W1K 3NF.

Jon Hatchman

Jonathan is Food Editor for The London Economic. Jonathan has run and contributed towards a number of blogs, and has written features for publications such as Eater London, The Guardian, i News, The Independent, GQ, Time Out London and more.

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