All the London Restaurant Openings We’re Excited About in 2026

While 2025 was a bumper year for new London venues, it doesn’t look as though 2026 will be any less abundant. French flair will come courtesy of two new imports – one from New York City, the other from Paris – plus a couple of old faithfuls that are being reinvigorated by new owners. There’ll also be two follow-ups to Marylebone’s inventive, warming Jikoni, an ode to the energy of Cairo and more. Here’s what to get excited about in London’s restaurant scene in 2026.

Cooking over fire has become à la mode in London of late, but Impala will bring something different to the flames: a menu incorporating influences from North Africa, the eastern Med and Cyprus, as well as London – and particularly the diaspora cooking of north London. It’s by Meedu Saad, the ex-head chef and co-owner of Soho’s perennially excellent Thai diner Kiln, who is bringing influences from his London upbringing and Egyptian heritage into dishes like skewered meats and fish flash-cooked over coals and oxtail with bird’s tongue pasta (similar to orzo and inspired by Cypriot kritharaki).
Opening spring.

Ravinder Bhogal and Nadeem Lalani Nanjuwany, the husband-wife duo behind clever borderless Marylebone diner Jikoni, have a big 2026 ahead. In spring they’ll open a restaurant in the new V&A East at Stratford. And in the second quarter of the year the duo will bring Karam’s, a South Asian vegetarian diner, to Bloomsbury. There, chef Bhogal will celebrate her and Nanjuwany’s Indian ancestors with recipes passed down through generations of women, including panki, a savoury pancake cooked in banana leaves, and dhal dholki, a sweet and sour dhal with handmade chickpea flour pasta cooked in it.
Karam’s opens in the second quarter of 2026 and the venue in V&A East opens in spring.

Jeremy King’s long-awaited rebirth of 200-year-old institution Simpson’s in the Strand will finally open in February. Encompassing two restaurants, two bars and a ballroom, it’ll realise the restaurateur’s 20-year dream of running what he calls “the last of the ‘grande dame’ restaurants that still retains its original decor and features”. King – an icon himself – will respect the Grade II-listed building’s heritage, while building on it for a 21st-century audience, including via an underground bar, Nellie’s, that will be open until 3am. At the venue’s heart will be the original Edwardian dining room, around which silver trolleys of carved meats will be pushed, while a first-floor diner, Romano’s, will offer a more casual experience. There’ll also be Simpson’s Bar, a classic cocktail lounge. It could just end up being King’s magnum opus.
Simpson’s in the Strand opens in February.

London’s oldest chophouse, Simpson’s Tavern, closed in 2022 after more than 250 years of operation. It’ll be revived by the team behind Cloth in Farringdon, which will retain the restaurant’s old-world chophouse spirit with a produce-driven menu of classic steaks, chops and sausages. Much of the listed building will remain the same, while the wine list – like at Cloth – will be extensive and lean classic.
Simpson’s Tavern opens mid-2026.

Sale e Pepe has been an Italian-dining staple in London for more than 50 years. And this year, it’ll expand, with a new restaurant in The Langham that celebrates Italian coastal dining. It’ll boast Sal e Pepe classics like linguine all’aragosta (linguine with lobster, tomatoes and basil) and salt-baked whole sea bass, plus new dishes such as bluefin tuna on baked brioche with confit tomato and garlic and seabass sashimi with yuzu soy. Expect 50 years of experience to be funnelled into one opulent space.
Sal e Pepe Mare opens in February.

Hand-rolled pasta and a dedicated risotto cook will be two reasons to visit Charlie Mellor’s fresh foray into hospitality, following the closure of The Laughing Heart, his good-times Hackney Road diner, in 2022. Osteria Vibrato will take cues from traditional Italian dining, following a classic antipasti, primi, secondi and dolci format, and Mellor also plans to revive artisanal dried durum-wheat pasta to ensure a “proper al dente bite”, he says. Throw in a 300-bottle-strong wine list and that’ll be more than enough to get us into one of its rust-red leather banquettes.
Osteria Vibrato opens in early 2026.

Dara Klein’s residency at Islington’s The Compton Arms, Tiella, lasted for nearly two years and amassed an impressive fanbase for its regional Italian cooking. Later this month it will go permanent in an old Victorian pub on Columbia Road, where Klein will draw from her Italian background to cook a menu that traces dishes and traditions from the country’s north to its heel. Think ricotta with Calabrian chilli and Sardinian honey, chicken Milanese and bay leaf panna cotta. While Tiella at The Compton Arms was temporary, Klein plans “to cook here for decades”.
Tiella opens mid-January.

London-raised baker Richard Hart has baked his way across California, Copenhagen and Mexico City – but later this month he’ll finally return to the capital, bringing his famous sourdough loaves with him when he launches Claridge’s Bakery. He’s also paying tribute to his background and Claridge’s place in the pantheon of London legends with nostalgic British bakes: jammie dodger tarts, iced fingers, boomers and Bakewell tarts. We’ll see you in the bread line.
Claridge’s Bakery opens in mid-January.

Trullo managing director, chef and co-owner Conor Gadd will launch Burro, his first solo restaurant early this year. Burro translates to “butter”, and the chef will be buttering up guests with Italian classics including Roman-style fettucine alfredo, Dover sole with caviar and vitello al burro (veal with butter). For dessert, expect playful riffs on classics: tiramisu bomboloni and almond cake served with butter and a glass of marsala. As for the design, it’ll nod to mid-century Italian bistros and Gadd’s Irish roots.
Burro opens early 2026.

Two top chefs will converge on the new Waldorf Astoria Admiralty Arch hotel, just off Trafalgar Square, when it opens later this year. Clare Smyth (Core) and Daniel Boulud (who runs a slate of Michelin-starred restaurants across the US, Singapore and the Middle East) will both launch venues in the complex. Coreus by Smyth will celebrate the UK’s coastline and waters that surround it; she’ll also bring her Whiskey & Seaweed bar to the hotel, with whisky from every distillery in the UK stocked behind the counter. Meanwhile, Boulud’s all-day restaurant, Café Boulud, will occupy the hotel’s rooftop, offering the chef’s take on French classics.
Waldorf Astoria Admiralty Arch opens in summer 2026.

London’s Mexican moment shows no signs of abating, with the impending launch of Cometa in the former Carousel wine bar space just the latest in a litany of new openings celebrating the country’s cuisine and spirits. Get excited for ceviche, spicy Margs, lobster with a smoked chilli paste and more.
Cometa opens February 17.

Atmospheric New York bistro Buvette is coming to town (again). It first opened in NYC’s West Village in 2011, and launched in Notting Hill during the pandemic, closing in 2024. It’ll make another go of it later this year – this time in the former St John Bakery space in Covent Garden. Expect its Parisian-inspired ambience and an all-day menu of generous French classics that might include croque monsieur, steak tartare and silky steamed eggs.
Buvette opens in spring.

Chelsea slowly started to regain some of its cool cred in 2025 with a handful of new venues that helped it bring back its edge – listening bar New Forms, The Trafalgar pub on the King’s Road and Martin Kuczmarki’s follow-up to The Dover, Martino’s. Brasserie Olivia will help boost that kudos; it’s the first international restaurant from La Nouvelle Garde, one of France’s most popular hospitality groups. Like the group’s French venues it’ll be a modern take on classic brasseries – and plenty of fun.
Brasserie Olivia opens spring 2026.

Additional reporting by Jo Taylor.