20 Upcoming London Restaurants, Bars and Cafes We’re Excited For

It’s already been a bang-up year for new London restaurants, bars, cafes and pubs – but there’s still plenty more to come. In the coming months, the capital will see the launch of an ambitious new pub by the team behind Sune, three new Thai spots, a spin on a classic pub by A Wong’s chef-patron Andrew Wong and more. Read on to find out the openings we’re excited about – and if you’re keen to check out the best of London’s new spots, read our round-ups of the best new restaurants, bars and casual diners of the year so far.

Former Kiln head chef Karla Knowles is going solo – and she’s kicking off with not one, but two new restaurants in the space of a few of months. First, in early November, is Pam: a playful Thai diner where Knowles will cook dishes that blend Thai flavours, British ingredients and European technique over fire. There’ll be dishes including miang kham – leaf wraps filled with seasonal British produce; khao soi noi, a spicy rice flour pancake; and a roast duck with skinny fries and curry sauce. When Aree opens in March 2027, it’ll be a bit more traditional and influenced by neighbourhood restaurants.
Pam opens in November, Aree opens in March 2027.

A Wong chef-patron Andrew Wong will bring his beautiful Chinese cooking to Kong, a new pub opening in Shoreditch in cahoots with Dishoom’s co-founder Amar Radia. They’re taking over an 18th century pub, melding east London’s pub legacy with a Chinese kitchen that’ll serve dumplings for breakfast, noodles at lunch and grilled food at dinner. Pints in the sunshine will be on lock, too, thanks to its sprawling courtyard.
Opening autumn.

Parillan in Borough has closed to make way for Los Primos: a new bar that’ll channel Spain’s buzzy cervecerías, neighbourhood bars that are open from morning till night. Vist in the morning for coffee and churros (and perhaps a sneaky third of a pint), then later in the day for hot and cold tapas, bocadillos (sandwiches) and wine on tap. Like Parillan, it’s by a group with Spanish form: Harts, which also runs Spanish tapas restaurants Barrafina, as well as Quo Vadis, Mexican bar El Siete and El Pastor taqueria.
Opening November.

London’s Filipino food scene is thriving – and when Omar Shah (the man behind spots like French Filipino bistro Belly and Filipino ice-cream parlour Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream) opens his next venue, it’ll be bringing a new dimension of Filipino cooking to the capital: its pizza and pasta culture. Like so many other cuisines in the Philippines, pizza and pasta have been adopted and adapted with a local flavour, and at Bunso that’ll mean pies topped with ongganisa (sweet, garlicky sausage) and calamansi hot honey, and Belly’s seafood kaldereta (tomato-based stew) reincarnated into pizza form, and served with mash and a house gravy.
Opening October.

You’ll run across the name Jones’ Crumpets frequently if you’re a regular drinker and diner across London: its crumpets are found everywhere from Jikoni to farmers’ markets. But it’ll have its name permanently above a door when it opens its first cafe later this month in Notting Hill. Its crumpets – in classic, double cheese, cheese and chive, and dark chocolate – will be served with a range of seasonal toppings, plus there’ll always be a lead breakfast dish, two all-day savoury dishes and a sweet option, and coffee by Allpress.
Opening October.

Bloomsbury’s brutalist Brunswick Centre will soon house Karam’s, a charming all-vegetarian restaurant by Jikoni’s Ravinder Bhogal. It’s a tribute to Bhogal and her husband and business partner Nadeem Lalani Nanjuwany’s ancestors, and the menu will feature dishes like panki – a sort of savoury pancake cooked in banana leaves – and dhal dhokli, a sweet and sour dhal with handmade chickpea flour pasta cooked in it.
Opening 2026.

South-east Londoners lost a few local treasures when South African group Kudu combined all its south London concepts into one (outstanding) Marylebone restaurant last year. But luckily for them, the team held onto its Nunhead space – and it’s here it’ll open Braai Bird, a casual rotisserie chicken joint, in November. While the menu is yet to be confirmed, it’ll be based around chicken cooked on a 700-kilogram wood-fired rotisserie imported from Spain.
Opening November.

French restaurant group La Nouvelle Garde opened its first international outpost in July: Brasserie Olivia, a charming new-wave Parisian spot in Chelsea. The group’s next move? Sultry subterranean Venus Bar, accessed via a grand wooden staircase from Olivia above. It’ll be wood panelled and intimate, with mind-bending drinks – including a cocktail that tastes like tzatziki.
Opening October 9.

Luke Farrell has casual Thai cooking down pat at his restaurants Speedboat Bar and Plaza Khao Gaeng. Next, he’s going fine dining, with the launch of Yai in Marylebone. It’ll focus on the cuisine of Phuket, Thailand’s biggest island, where seafood plays a starring role. The restaurant will be split across two floors, and use classic southern-Thai ingredients like deeply umami shrimp paste from Songkhla and Pattani sea salt.
Opening 2027.

Beloved Soho restaurant 10 Greek Street has its last service on August 8 – and something quite different will take its place this autumn. The address will soon house the third outpost of Portuguese bar and restaurant Bar Douro, bringing regional Portuguese dishes (some incorporating a rare breed of beef that’ll be served in London for the first time here), an expansive wine list and a respect for the Iberian nation’s culture into central. Opening October.

The Poet, a multi-level pub, is coming to Farringdon. But it’ll be much more than a neighbourhood boozer. By the team behind Broadway Market’s Sune, the venue will run across multiple floors. First to open will be a British pub and dining room, in November, followed by a 10-seat chef’s table led by ex-Aulis head chef Charlie Tayler, and an attic cocktail bar, both of which open in 2027.
*The Poet’s pub and dining room opens in November, and the chef’s table and cocktail bar in 2027.

The Lita team will open a huge West End restaurant, Salone, bringing Italian cuisine to a multi-level space around the corner from Burberry on Regent Street. Each floor will boast an open kitchen, with a pizzeria on the ground floor and a live pasta station on the first level. Leading the menu is Luca Natalini, of Milan’s Michelin-starred Autem.
Opening autumn.

British and Irish cooking will anchor the menu at B Penhale, the upcoming restaurant by the team and chef behind Camille in Borough. Chef-patron Elliot Hashtroudi will take his usual nose-to-tail approach to reinterpret Victorian dishes, served in the 60-seat dining room. As at Camille, he will draw on his time working at Padella and Trullo, as well as nearby Farringdon institution St John.
Opening November.

Camberwell’s in for a new lesbian and sapphic pub in the shape of Dorothy’s, which is taking over what was once St George’s Tavern on Coleman Road. It’ll be pouring drinks by queer-owned brands, and hosting supper clubs and rotating kitchen residencies. And while it is one of London’s few sapphic venues, it’s also got another major selling point: it’ll screen women’s sport (including women’s Arsenal games, which co-founder Molly McCabe tells Broadsheet was a big motivation for launching her own bar).
Opening October.

Sweet toast will steal the spotlight at Toastee, a new dessert spot by Florence Mae Maglanoc, the founder of a burgeoning empire that includes Donia – the first Filipino restaurant in the UK to get a Michelin Bib Gourmand – and Filipino bakery Panadera. The bakery’s pandesal (milk bread) will get a French toast-style treatment by co-founder Adrian Kyle Felipe and hit team, with flavours like matcha ganache, silky ube jam, and Milo cookies and cream.
Opening 2026.

The city’s hottest new precinct, 180 Quarter, is already changing the face of Temple thanks to its soon-to-open hotel St Clement, restaurant Cafe Clement and bar Bobbi’s. Crowning the development – literally, on its 11th floor, with impressive views across The Thames and beyond – will be Lunette, the first solo restaurant by Florence Knight, who was the launch head chef for Sessions Arts Club. It’ll be the sharpest realisation of Knight’s pared-back cooking to date, with a set menu and capacity of just 30 empowering her to be more exacting than ever.
Opening 2026.

The owner of Quince in Islington, Anna Higham, will open Clementine, a new cafe. Just yards away from Quince, it’ll celebrate British produce – but unlike its sibling it’ll serve breakfast, brunch and lunch. Expect dishes like porridge, soup and toasties, tattie scones, pies, buns and scones with jam and cream.
Opening October.

Bubala’s Middle Eastern cooking will find a fourth home when it opens in Covent Garden this autumn. Fans know the drill: veg-forward dishes like halloumi with chamomile and fennel honey, and the crispy confit latkes with toum, as well as its eternally popular Bubala Knows Best set menu. The new spot will have a larger focus on wine and cocktails, with bottles sourced from the Middle East and Europe, and cocktail ingredients built around what’s being used in the kitchen.
Opening October.

Multiple venues will launch in the London Museum when it opens its new home, in the former Smithfield General Market, in November. And some big names are involved. Expect an all-day restaurant headed by Robin Gill (Darby’s, Sorella, etc), a bar by Mr Lyan, a coffee house open till late and an incubator kitchen for emerging chefs.
Opening November.

Two big-name chefs are opening restaurants in London’s upcoming Waldorf Astoria hotel, which is taking over the historic Admiralty Arch near where Trafalgar Square meets Whitehall. Core chef-patron Clare Smyth will launch Coreus, a celebration of the UK’s coastline and the waters that surround it, while French chef-restaurateur Daniel Boulud returns to London with a restaurant for the first time since 2021 with a rooftop all-day restaurant Cafe Boulud.
Opening autumn.