Another year, another flurry of decadent restaurant openings in London. Already established as a culinary capital of the world, 2024 will see the city’s thriving food scene attract even more established chefs and promising newcomers setting up shop to serve London’s foodies the very best. Don’t miss the reopening of Restaurant Story as two Michelin-starred chef Tom Sellers relaunches his original Bermondsey haunt, and be sure to book a table at one of renowned Japanese chef Akira Back’s three culinary destinations spanning the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair hotel come spring. Plus, discover new projects from the talented teams behind Los Mochis, Fallow and Taku Mayfair – here are the best new London restaurants opening in 2024. 

Iné by Taku, Hampstead

The team behind Michelin-starred Taku Mayfair has taken to the cobbled streets of Hampstead to launch its latest venture, Iné. Translating from Japanese as ‘rice’, the new restaurant offers a contemporary Japanese menu and a 15-course omakase with specialty sake and wine served across two levels in four distinct spaces. Iné’s main dining room – decorated with clean whites and natural woods in homage to Hampstead Heath – features booth-style seating, while the eight-seater omakase counter is secluded from other diners and the unique sake and art lounge is the perfect place to unwind and indulge on snacking plates including chicken karaage and toro burrata.

The kitchen is helmed by head chef Meng – who trained in the Taku kitchen and brings 23 years of experience as a Master Sushi Chef – and serves plates of lobster with cauliflower and sudachi jelly, wagyu beef katsu sando, grilled yuan chicken and futomaki as well as daily fresh sashimi including toro, akami, hamachi, salmon and suzuki. Book the unique omakase experience to sample Meng’s 15-course tasting menu, echoing the Michelin-starred Taku’s ever-changing menu that uses the freshest ingredients served edomae style.  

Projected opening: Open now

Address: 16 Hampstead High Street, NW3 1PX

Visit inebytaku.com

Restaurant Story, Bermondsey

After closing last year to undergo an extensive refurbishment, fans of accoladed chef Tom Sellers can finally book a table at his two Michelin-starred Restaurant Story through to March 2024 as it reopens this week. Now featuring a new dining area upstairs – dedicated to larger groups and private dining – guests can also book the renovated main dining room and outdoor terrace with views across to the Shard, all trendily housed in a former Victorian public toilet block in Bermondsey. This major refurbishment will mark a new chapter for the restaurant as it celebrates its tenth year and, as Sellers sees it, the start of ‘Story 3.0’. Expect Sellers’ signature innovative and imaginative tasting menus, featuring dishes of barbecued langoustine with preserved tomato, pumpkin agnolotti with toasted milk and turbot with fermented cabbage and roasted fish bone sauce. 

Projected opening: 12 January 2024

Address: 199 Tooley Street, SE1 2JX

Visit restaurantstory.co.uk

Clap, Knightsbridge

Celebrating sensory Japanese dining, Clap is opening the doors to its first London outpost in Knightsbridge on 12 January. Following rave success in Dubai, Riyadh and Beirut, the London-based Clap has transformed a refurbished tube station into a three-storey culinary destination, featuring a rooftop bar and lounge boasting panoramic views of central London. Book the omakase offering or pick from an extensive menu featuring Hokkaido scallops with roasted tamara king crab leg and vibrant ceviche, and meinkōsu (main courses) of sea bass amapeño, and pistachio-crusted baby chicken with yuzu and daikon. 

Projected opening: 12 January 2024

Address: 6th and 7th Floor, 12-14 Basil Street, SW3 1AJ

Visit claprestaurant.com

Josephine, Chelsea

Michelin-starred chef Claude Bosi and his wife Lucy are set to open charming neighbourhood French bistro, Josephine, on Fulham Road in February 2024. Inspired by and named after Claude’s late grandmother, this will be the couple’s first joint venture and their most personal project to date, as it reimagines a restaurant reminiscent of the traditional bouchons so often frequented by Claude and Lucy in his hometown of Lyon. Inside, the 76-cover space will take on the character of rustic French restaurants, featuring antique mirrors, warm candelabra lighting and small bistro tables, while a semi-private dining area, seating up to 20 guests, can be found at the back of the dining room tucked behind a curtain.

Claude – who recently opened Brooklands at The Peninsula – will develop and oversee the menu, serving the food that his grandmother Josephine used to cook for him. Think French onion soup, rabbit in mustard sauce, and endive, gruyere and walnut salad, as well as regional Lyonnaise specialities such as chicken liver terrine with vin jaune and rich Lyonnaise sausages baked in brioche and Beaujolais sauce. In keeping with the classical French feel, the wine offering will feature a bouchon-style metre wine, allowing diners to pay only for what they drink and encouraging them to try something new. 

Projected opening: March 2024

Address: 315 Fulham Road, SW10 9QH

Visit josephinebouchon.com

Bellazul, Marylebone

The beginning of February will also see the opening of Bellazul – a Mediterranean restaurant and bar on Marylebone’s Blandford Street – transporting diners to the sun-kissed shores of the Mediterranean via both its interiors and menus. Featuring large arched windows that frame the entrance, flooding the room with natural light, the menu curated by head chef Simone Serafini has been inspired by the sunny climes of Europe, from the rolling hills and rich flavours of Italy, to the shores of Greece, and, from further afield, the warm spices in Morocco. Seasonally-changing sharing plates will include Moroccan lamb tagine and lobster spaghetti while lighter dishes feature grilled salmon salads served with quail eggs and green beans.

The drinks menu also reflects the culinary diversity of the Mediterranean with pours from Portugal, France and Italy among other, lesser-known wine regions. For those after cocktails, look no further than the Bellazul Martini, with focaccia-infused gin, basil and tomato water, burnt garlic and homemade curacao syrup, and the Retro@43 with bourbon, clarified milk punch, smoked vanilla syrup and orange bitters.

Projected opening: 1 February 2024

Address: 43 Blandford Street, W1U 7HF

Visit bellazul.co.uk

Mistress, Mayfair

Joining Mayfair’s star-studded social scene in February is Parisian-inspired restaurant and after-hours lounge, Mistress, concealed below street level on St James Street. Dressed in a fusion of sultry reds, alluring pinks and plush velvet, Mistress is inspired by the historic, clandestine tunnels beneath the capital, where secrecy once reigned and ladies of the night were smuggled in at the behest of the male members of White’s private club. Come evening, DJs will be spinning funk, soul and disco tunes to get revellers in the party spirit as they tuck into a refined French menu featuring lobster rolls, oysters, fillet mignon, caviar, truffle, and, of course, French fries. Complemented by a roaming champagne trolley, classic cocktails, and an extensive wine list, Mistress will be the place to see and be seen… 

Projected opening: February 2024

Address: 48-49 St James's Street, SW1A 1JT

Visit mistressofmayfair.com

Los Mochis, The City

Those already well acquainted with Los Mochis’ beloved Notting Hill outpost will be delighted that the Tokyo-meets-Tulum restaurant will be expanding into The City this spring. Founded by Markus Thesleff, the sister restaurant will make its home on the ninth floor rooftop of 100 Liverpool Street, boasting a 3,000-sq ft outdoor terrace with panoramic views of London. Led by ex-Nobu executive chef Leonard Tanyag, the menu will showcase Los Mochis’ classics as well as showstopper dishes such as ‘make your own tacos’ with king crab legs and wagyu grade five tomahawk steaks, designed for guests to assemble themselves and share, elevating the humble taco experience.

Projected opening: March 2024

Address: 9th Floor, 100 Liverpool Street, EC2M 2AT

Visit losmochis.co.uk

Roe, Canary Wharf

In spring 2024, chefs-come-entrepreneurs Will Murray, Jack Croft and James Robson will launch their next venture, Roe, in Wood Wharf. Named after the native deer of the British Isles, Roe will follow the same nose-to-tail ethos as its critically acclaimed sister restaurant, Fallow St James’s, and Fowl, the trio’s new chicken shop. Since founding Fallow in 2019, Murray and Croft have surged to the forefront of London's sustainable dining scene, with diners flocking to Fallow to sample cult dishes like the sriracha cod's head: a dish which spotlights a kitchen by-product and saves 400 cod's heads a week from being wasted.

As well as championing modest, British ingredients, Roe’s dishes will showcase underused and underappreciated produce, such as rare meats and carefully sourced fish from the British Isles as well as regenerative crops like wildfarmed native grain. Menu highlights include maitake pasty featuring shiitake mushrooms with thyme, a fresh take on the humble baked potato cooked in kombu stock, served with walnut and truffle ketchup and topped with crispy seaweed, and the Roe mixed grill, featuring underused cuts of venison three ways – grilled marinated haunch, confit shoulder and a venison skewer.

Projected opening: Spring 2024

Address: Five Park Drive, E14 9GG

Visit roerestaurant.co.uk

Akira Back at the Mandarin Oriental, Mayfair

World-renowned chef Akira Back will make his UK debut in spring 2024 with two cutting-edge restaurants: the eponymously named Akira Back and Dosa, plus a cocktail destination called ABar Lounge housed within the five-star Mandarin Oriental Mayfair. Akira Back is a 148-seat Japanese restaurant showcasing an array of Back’s greatest hits, including the AB tuna pizza consisting of a wafer-thin crunchy crust, umami aioli and tuna sashimi, and the 48-hour Australian wagyu ribs cooked in a traditional galbi jjim marinade. Exclusive to London, however, is the wagyu tempura Wellington, paying homage to the traditional British dish and using Highland British wagyu cooked in tempura rather than pastry. 

Elsewhere, Back will also be relocating his Michelin-starred concept Dosa to the capital – offering the ultimate culinary theatre experience with Korean seasonal dishes served at an intimate 14-seater Chef’s Table – and launch ABar Lounge, offering classic cocktails, avant-garde masterpieces and an array of small bites, including kaluga caviar, duck spring rolls and Korean chicken wings. 

Projected opening: Spring 2024

Address: Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, 22 Hanover Square, W1S 1JP

Visit mandarinoriental.com

Julie’s, Holland Park

Julie’s, the celebrated Holland Park restaurant, will reopen its doors under new ownership this spring after a whopping 53 years in business. The much-loved dining and drinking haunt, renowned for its celebrity clientele (think Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and even Princess Margaret) and bohemian charm, will return to its rightful position at the heart of West London’s culinary scene thanks to new owner Tara MacBain, a Holland Park resident and Cordon Bleu trained chef, and chef patron Owen Kenworthy of Brawn and The Pelican fame. Much of the menu has been kept under wraps, however, diners can expect an all-day menu featuring sumptuous seafood towers and oysters sourced from the UK and France, alongside a theatrical martini trolley offering a customised tableside cocktail experience. 

Projected opening: Spring 2024

Address: 135 Portland Road, W11 4LW

Visit juliesrestaurant.com

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