We may be in the middle of a recession, but the UK’s restaurant scene remains vibrant, with plenty of new openings to look forward to in 2010. Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and New York darling Daniel Boulud are the big-budget ventures of the year but these are likely to be the exception to the rule, with the emphasis expected to be more on casual, inexpensive restaurants.
‘We’re going to see more bistro-type restaurants where it’s all about a relaxed atmosphere, nice food and value for money,’ says Will Smith, co-owner of Arbutus and Wild Honey, two of London’s most affordable Michelin-starred restaurants.
Sam Hart, joint owner of London restaurants Fino, Barrafina and Quo Vadis, agrees. ‘This year, it’s all about no-frills restaurants offering excellent value. There aren’t so many people spending £3m on a fit-out because it’s still extremely difficult to raise large sums of capital.’ So, what’s on the horizon in 2010?
Gordon Ramsay’s new Pétrus in Kinnerton Street, Knightsbridge is just a stone’s throw from the original restaurant (which was renamed Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley after Wareing and Ramsay famously fell out in 2008). Expect modern French cooking overseen by Royal Hospital Road chef Mark Askew and a 2,000-bottle wine list.
The Mandarin Oriental’s Foliage restaurant will be taken over by Fat Duck chef Heston Blumenthal in the autumn. Ashley Palmer-Watts, who has been with Blumenthal for nine years, will head up the kitchen. We’re promised Blumenthal’s ‘inimitable style of culinary alchemy’ combined with ‘a menu heavily influenced by his ongoing research and discovery of historic British gastronomy’.
Also opening in spring at the Mandarin Oriental will be the new Bar Boulud, from Lyon-born chef Daniel Boulud, which will follow his successful format of Bar Boulud in New York. Expect a Burgundy-inspired bistro menu with terrines, pâtés and an impressive wine selection with interiors designed by Adam D Tihany.
Marlon Abela, owner of Michelin-starred London restaurants The Greenhouse and Umu, is bringing his Bistro du Midi concept to the capital in March when he takes over the former Oratory site in Brompton Road. It will be his second Provençal-inspired restaurant and bar after opening in Boston in the United States.
There’s more light and affordable French dining to be had at Michel Roux Jr’s Roux at Parliament Square, opening in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors building, while French chef Bruno Loubet (who gained a Michelin star at The Four Seasons London before heading to Australia) has returned to the capital with plans to open a gastropub in Clerkenwell.
Following a two-year, £100m refurb, the London institution that is The Savoy Hotel is reopening soon, and with it the Gordon Ramsay-operated Savoy Grill.
Outside London, Nick Parkinson (son of TV chat-show host Michael) is launching his second restaurant in the Windsor area. Menus will be devised by Dominic Chapman, head chef at Parkinson’s award-winning Berkshire gastropub The Royal Oak in Paley Street, but the new venture will be more restaurant than pub. Could you make that a table for two, please? Now.
