Restaurant radar: welcome autumn with these essential new openings

Atlas sees the return of James and Maria Close to the fine-dining world after the closure of their two-Michelin-star Raby Hunt in County Durham in 2024. Now they’ve pitched up just down the road at a renovated Rockcliffe Hall, where James will now serve as Culinary Director across six F&B offerings at the five-star resort. The flagship will be Atlas James & Maria Close, opening 9 September, a 36-cover tasting-menu-only restaurant, with dishes inspired by the couple’s travels to places like France, Japan and Latin America. Expect combinations like vin jaune and quail, grilled wagyu and globally-inspired snacks riffing on pintxos and ceviche. 

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Following a fire at his revered Endo at the Rotunda last year, and a Mayfair pop-up, sushi master Endo Katzutoshi will pick up his knife again for Endo, a new 10-seat omakase experience set to open in October. Situated on the ground floor of a two-storey Chelsea townhouse, Endo will offer a blind tasting in a setting inspired by the sushi counters of early 20th-century Tokyo, with exclusively wild-caught British fish and key ingredients like nori and rice flown in from Japan. Upstairs, guests will find Moga, a Japanese listening bar, which will initially only be accessible if dining at Endo – look out for the “undulating ceiling made from masu sake cups”, according to a press release. 

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A collaboration between chef Sertaç Dirik (Mangal ll) and restaurateur David Carter (Smokestak, Manteca, Oma), Kid, which has just opened in London’s Soho, offers a taste mainly of Turkey’s Central Anatolia region. Dirik draws on dishes from his childhood and utilises prime British produce across a menu that includes wood-fired breads, selections of meze and salatas, grilled Cornwall XL scallops and clay pot-braised goat kid, to name just a few dishes. All of this comes with the contemporary edge Dirik picked up working at the likes of 108 and Amass in Copenhagen, and which he also applied at Mangal ll, his family’s ocakbaşı restaurant in Dalston, to much acclaim. 

Nettle marks the London debut of chef Will Devlin of Acre, a Kent and Sussex-based hospitality group. Devlin is a committed farm-to-table advocate at restaurants like The Small Holding in Cranbrook and will be transporting that ethos to a Covent Garden rooftop when Nettle opens at the new Conduit members' club in mid-September. With a focus on live-fire cooking, the menu will be built around produce largely sourced from Devlin’s own Kent farm and butchery. Think snacks such as pork scratchings and blackened apple sauce, and larger plates such as wild venison with nasturtium and shiso, plus responsibly caught British seafood. Devlin will be joined by Head Chef Miguel Maragno Roma, ex of Silo, Manteca and Grace and Savour. 

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