Displaying posts tagged with 'kent'

This week has been a busy week for celebrity-owned restaurant openings; usually surrounded by hype and publicity – but some of this week’s were decidedly mute with no opening date announced in advance.

The Westbury Hotel’s restaurant, formerly Artisan, reopened on Saturday as Alyn Williams at the Westbury. The 45 cover restaurant serves a menu inspired by contemporary French cuisine, cooked using British ingredients. It is the chef’s first restaurant with his own name above the door, having previously been head chef at the two Michelin starred Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley.

Across town, the first of Jamie Oliver’s Union Jacks restaurants opened quietly in the new Central St Giles development on Wednesday. The new chain is a collaboration with American chef Chris Bianco, and serves the pairs’ own take on pizza – flatbreads topped with British sourced ingredients baked in a wood-fired oven. Puddings are inspired by British classics, with arctic roll and sticky treacle tart alongside some out of the ordinary ice cream flavours such as “bramble ripple eton mess” and “snickers bar”.

In Kent, Chef Omar Allibhoy had continued his mission to bring “proper Spanish food to the UK” with a second branch of Tapas Revolution opening in the Bluewater Shopping Centre just a year after their first at the Westfield shopping centre. The restaurant features an open plan kitchen surrounded by a 30 meter long pewter bar which allows diners to watch as the chefs preparing the food. The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

On Monday, Australian chef Bill Granger, who moved to London in 2009 opened his first UK restaurant. Granger & Co. on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill is the sixth restaurant for the self taught chef (with three each in Australia and Japan) and comes following a long search for as suitable UK site. In keeping with his cafés abroad, Granger and Co. will provide an informal setting for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Despite the opening not being announced, locals were quick to discover the café and Granger was left seeking additional waiters by the end of the week to keep up with demand.

Further south, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall opened River Cottage Canteen and Deli in Plymouth on Tuesday. The restaurant is situated in a Grade I listed former brewhouse, itself converted from naval use. Head chef Joe Draper will stay true to the River Cottage way by creating a menu from seasonal, locally sourced produce, taking advantage restaurant’s coastal location to incorporate plenty of seafood in the menus. As well as the restaurant, a deli area will offer a selection of locally grown and produced food for customers to take home.

Opening soon

Caprice Holdings latest opening,  34 on Grosvenor Square will open on the 24th. The menu will centre around steaks, cooked on the kitchen’s custom-made parrilla grill and will also feature fish and game.

Details are also starting to emerge for The Delaunay, the latest London opening from Rex Restaurant’s team Chris Corbin and Jeremy King. The Delaunay will follow a similar format to the pair’s Picadilly restaurant The Wolseley with a menu “inspired by the great cafés of Europe”.

Outside London, Sheffield pub The Millhouses has also been developed after closing earlier this year. It will reopen serving a locally sourced menu alongside cask ales and fine wines on November 24th.

Mishkin’s in Covent Garden opens for previews from Friday 25th November.