8 spring openings for your restaurant radar

James Beard Award-winning chef Jody Williams will relaunch her cult New York all-day restaurant Buvette in London's Covent Garden this spring (a first London Buvette, in Notting Hill, closed in 2024). Expect a replica of the West Village original, with coffee and cocktails, and French-inspired breakfasts, brunches, lunches and dinners as the New York-ification of London's restaurant scene continues apace.  

_{Photo courtesy Buvette}

Langosteria, the seafood-focused restaurant group, which started in Milan and now has six restaurants across Italy, Switzerland and France, will finally be opening a much delayed London outpost this spring, at Raffles London at The OWO in Whitehall. This is a fine-dining experience with Italian roots, so there is, of course, a pasta section on the menu, with dishes like paccheri with seabass, while main courses, or should we say secondi, include an interesting-sounding black grouper Chateaubriand. Desserts include a non-more Italian tiramisu.

Manchester’s Portfolio, ‘the UK’s first dedicated Champagne boutique’, opened in December, but May will see the launch of its full restaurant experience, led by chef Julian Pizer, previously of the city’s Another Hand. The 18-course tasting menu, we’re told, is “centred around the best part of any tasting menu – the snacks – taking the best single mouthful from a full plate of food in each course.” Something like Massimo Bottura’s The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna without the three-star baggage? The team will be revealing more in the coming weeks. Regardless, we wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment – snacks are the best part of a tasting menu.

Many were overjoyed, though not surprised, when Sally Abé announced that she’d be opening her own restaurant in East London, now confirmed for 26 March. Abé is a chef with a serious CV that includes The Ledbury, The Harwood Arms, and, more recently, The Pem and The Bull Charlbury. Abé is promising a “little British bistro in Hackney”, but we’re sure dishes like crab royale and venison faggots will have plenty of pazazz. Intriguing plays on British nostalgia include a ‘penny lick’ on the dessert menu.

_{Photo by Jodi Hinds}