September's restaurant openings from Jan to Jikoni
As one of the multicultural cities in the world, September welcomes new openings with Mexican, Burmese and East African ifluenced cuisines
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Jikoni, meaning ‘kitchen’ in Swahili, will open on Blandford Street and the menu will focus on cuisines from Britain, East Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Ravinder Bhogal (a former protégé of Gordon Ramsay) has partnered with Ratnesh Bagdai (Mark Hix's longtime business partner) and Sat Ghuman (of Barrio Bars) on the new restaurant.
The restaurant will draw on award winning food writer and cook Ravinder’s mixed heritage and travels, with flavours and culinary traditions. Ravinder’s scotch eggs take pride of place on the menu, with unusual takes including a Prawn Toast quail scotch egg with Banana ketchup and pickled cucumber, and Goan inspired pork scotch egg served with tomato and ginger chutney and a spiky carrot achaar. Small plates include an Indian take on the American ‘sloppy joe’ made with Herdwick Mutton Keema, pickled onions and mint chutney, and crisp Soft shell crab to be served with Ravinder’s take on a peanut sauce. Big plates’ include comfort food dishes such as a spiced up Shepherd’s Pie and home ground Ras Hal Hanout Lamb served with Mujadarra.
Bar Douro
Bar Douro will open in Flat Iron Square, London Bridge this September and draws its inspiration from the traditional cervejarias and tascas of Lisbon and Porto. Owned by Max Graham, whose family own Churchill’s Port. Between selling out supper clubs, Max and chef Tiago Santos (previoulsy of Casa da Calcada and The Yeatman Hotel), have spent the past year travelling around Portugal discovering local culinary secrets and sourcing the finest Portuguese produce. Bringing together the fruits of their labour is Bar Douro’s small-plate focused menu. The carefully curated Portuguese wine list explores key wine growing regions and highlights the huge range of native grape varieties that Portugal has to offer with a focus on independent winemakers.
El Pastór
El Pastór is inspired by Sam and business partner Crispin’s collective 15 years in Mexico and their subsequent desire to create a taqueria – a Mexican restaurant specialising in tacos – akin to those in Mexico’s capital and beyond. A mighty trompo (upright grill) will take pride of place and be used to make the Mexico City staple ‘al pastor’, a pork-based taco meaning 'shepherd style', from which the restaurant’s name is inspired. The restaurant boasts their own special house marinade and has dedicated the entirety of the mezzanine floor to a tortilla factory. There will also be a compact selection of meat, fish and vegetarian tacos – all will be served with a selection of salsas made freshly and daily in-house as well as a selection of snacks - including: Mexican seafood tostadas, chicharrón de queso and chargrilled esquites.
Kiln
Ben Chapman, founder of one of London's hottest restaurants of last year – Smoking Goat – is set to open a second Thai BBQ venture in Soho. Kiln, due to open in September, is described as a “side-of-the-road” restaurant, which will serve grill dishes (using an open fire), inspired by Thai cuisine using seasonal (well sourced) British produce.
Inspired by the Thai borderlands, including Burmese and Yumanese spices and flavours expect flavourful yet simplistic dishes as well as a daily noodle speciality dish, designed around typical comfort food and created using their own recipe of chewy egg noodles. Animals are being specifically bred for the restaurant, such as the lamb from the Cornwall Project, which will be grilled over wood embers and served with chilli, cumin and fresh Szechuan pepper in the gaeh ping dish. Other dishes include northern-style cumin Yunnan cured sausage, roast suckling pig and curried cockles and roast goose with pickled greens and grilled aged sirloin.
Jan
Inspired by the cuisine from the banks of the Caspian Sea, is Jan, a Middle eastern restaurant. Celebrating the flavours that border the Eastern Water, taking influence from the likes of Iran and Turkey Jan’s cooking is a medieval-style charcoal oven - acting as the centre point of the menu producing traditionally cooked bread, meat and vegetable dishes. Beyond the charcoal dishes, there is also a selection of smaller plates perfect for sharing – served with Jan’s flatbread and Za’atar spiced oil. There is space for 50 people, with a heated outdoor space. Spiced Middle Eastern cocktails are complemented by own-brand Jan beer created by Bermondsey's Brew by Numbers.
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