Cielo Blanco
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food
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.
First opened in Leeds, Mexican restaurant Cielo Blanco is set to join the likes of Dirty Burger and Pizza Pilgrims in Exmouth Market as of this month. Launching as the restaurant’s first London outpost, Cielo Blanco is inspired by the Barbacoa markets of Oaxaca and although the new menu is yet to be announced, the Leeds venue offers various specialty sharing boards alongside a range of tacos, tostadas, quesadillas, and flautas. Alongside the food menu, the drinks menu at Cielo Blanco also boasts an extensive cocktail list as well as an unsurprisingly vast selection of tequilas.
Cielo Blanco is set to open in May and can be found at 55-57 Exmouth Market, London, EC1R 4QL.
Having forged his career within the kitchens of highly regarded restaurants that include Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous three Michelin starred restaurant in Chelsea, as well as a more recent stint at The Dorchester Hotel – Christian Honor opened Chriskitch in Muswell Hill back in 2013. Hoping to get back to cooking, juxtaposed to running a brigade of 200 chefs, as was his role at The Dorchester, Chriskitch was set up as a local café, and is set to open a second outlet this month, this time opening on Hoxton Market. Set to run with a daily changing menu, most of the food at the new opening of Chriskitch will be cooking on an open fire grill, and dishes will include the likes of oysters poached in champagne while an alcohol license – unlike the original – allows the Hoxton Micro Brewery to provide accompanying beers for the new restaurant.
Chriskitch is set to open in May and can be found at 5 Hoxton Market, London, N1 6HG.
Following the success of The French House, set up 18 months ago in East Dulwich, French chef Audrey Michel has launched a second outpost of the popular restaurant, opening a mere stone’s throw from the original, taking over a spot in Crystal Palace. Like the original, guests can expect classic Alsace cooking within a 1960s bar à vin inspired restaurant that’s open daily, offering French patisseries before lunch and dinner service brings the likes of Alsacian tartes flambées, choucroute and fondue, all served alongside a selection of other classic French dishes.
The French House Crystal Palace is open now and can be found at 72 Westow Hill, London SE19 1SB.
Taking over a space in Kensington previously filled by The Collection, Tom Sellers – best known for his massively acclaimed Restaurant Story – will launch his second London restaurant this month. While Tom will be overseeing the menus, the restaurant’s Head Chef position will be filled by Daniel Phippard (previously of Ernik in Moscow, and London’s Kensington Place) and the food on offer is promised to have classic and contemporary European influences. The menu for Restaurant Ours is as-of-yet unannounced, but if it’s as adventurously intriguing as the Michelin-starred Restaurant Story, guests of this new venue are going to be in for a real treat.
Restaurant Ours is set to open in May and can be found at 264 Brompton Road, London, SW3 2AS.
With the continuing success of Moro, Sam and Sam Clark – the pair behind the original restaurant – are set to open another outpost of sister restaurant Morito this month, opening on East London’s Hackney Road. Set to be open all day, the new restaurant’s kitchen will be run by Samantha Clark and Marianna Love (current Head Chef at Moro) serving a menu that’s inspired by food from Spain, Morocco, Turkey and Crete. A range of Moroccan flat breads will be on offer for breakfast, while the lunch and dinner menu will focus mainly on tapas dishes, including the likes of asparagus with clams, homemade halloumi with pickled za’atat, and kid mechoui served with goat’s curd, preserved lemon and harissa.
Morito is set to open on May 11th and can be found at 195 Hackney Road, London, E2 8JL.
Also opening in East London this month, the team behind Soho neighbourhood Italian restaurant Mele e Pere are set to open Gotto Trattoria within Here East – a new complex near the Olympic Park in Stratford. Joining the likes of The Breakfast Club and Randy’s Wing Bar, Gotto Trattoria will have a strong focus on Italian food while using both British and Italian ingredients, and the regularly changing seasonal menu will feature the likes of home-made bread, various pasta dishes, octopus polpette, paglia e fieno pasta with pheasant ragu, and goats milk ice cream with fresh cherries. What’s more, alike Mele e Pere, homemade vermouth will be a speciality at Gotto Trattoria, available on tap and joining a drinks menu that also features a selection of craft beers, Italian wines and cocktails.
Gotto Trattoria is set to open on May 16th and can be found at Canalside, Here East, London, E20 3BS.
