Luxury travel and hotel company Belmond will give crumpets the spotlight they deserve at its new British bistro Willett’s, which is opening in its Chelsea hotel The Cadogan in April. The British breakfast classic will be served for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and late at night – with toppings like egg, hollandaise and Wiltshire truffles in the morning, and duck liver parfait and rhubarb, or Dorset crab later in the day. Willett’s is named after the Willett family, which built the 1887 townhouse the hotel occupies.
Willett’s takes the place of The LaLee, which opened in 2021, and will be led by executive chef Michael Turner (formerly executive head chef at Gordon Ramsay’s The Savoy Grill and The River Restaurant). The space has undergone a refurbishment by Studio Shayne Brady (The Park, The Maine), which, like the rest of the hotel, nods to Chelsea’s history as a cultural hub and pulls influences from even further back, when the area was dedicated to agriculture. A colour palette of dark greens and neutrals will highlight the original herringbone flooring and antique mirrors. Booths and linen curtains insert a bistro feel. The room will revolve around an open kitchen with counter seating, while a bar space will serve snacks and drinks as well as the broader restaurant menu.
“The history of the King’s Road and its market gardens gave us a rich starting point – craftsmanship, agriculture, abundance,” Brady said in a statement.
While it’s embedded in a heritage hotel, the bistro will be geared towards a local crowd. From lunch through to early evening, it will serve a £32 two-course menu and a £36 three-course menu. Cooking will flow with the seasons; expect dishes like prawn cocktail with Bloody Mary jelly, Sutton Hoo chicken and morel pie with mash and liquor, and classic British puddings – sticky toffee, jam roly-poly and custard tarts. The drinks menu takes a similar approach and is driven by a zero-waste ethos, with signatures like a house Bloody Mary and Rhubarb Punch alongside 20 wines by the glass with a focus on British producers like Hattingley Valley and Chapel Down.
“Our ambition is to create a true neighbourhood bistro, somewhere welcoming and centred around British cooking and produce,” Turner said in a statement.
Willett’s opens on April 2 at The Cadogan, Chelsea. Bookings open March 11.
