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Three essential London restaurants will open new businesses at the new Market Halls Victoria development next month. Roti King — the iconic Malaysian and Singaporean roti specialist from Euston — will join new sites from peerless udon bar Koya and pub and seasonal dining room (The) Marksman, as reported by Eater last month.
Roti King’s second restaurant has been mooted for some time, with owner Sugen Gopal exploring the possibility of a Bloomsbury site last year. This opening, Gopal’s Corner, is an homage to the restaurant Gopal’s parents opened in Malaysia in the 1970s, with the flaky, fat-enriched roti canai that have become its Euston hallmark front and centre.
Koya Ko, which follows Koya’s original Soho restaurant and Koya City at Bloomberg Arcade, will focus on the udon noodles and dashi broths that have propelled chef Shuko Oda and John Devitt’s restaurants to the pinnacle of Japanese dining in London. ‘Ko’, which means child, recalls David Chang, Su Wong Ruiz, and Sean Gray’s Momofoku Ko in New York.
Bunshop, from Jon Rotheram and Tom Harris at the Marksman, will focus on the beef and barley buns that have become a synecdoche for the restaurant at large. Devilled fried potatoes seasoned with seaweed and seasonal sodas will accessorise the buns, whose flavours will change seasonally. Founders Rotheram and Harris exclusively told Eater that:
“This is not the first food hall approach, no, but we felt it would be a good one to go for because it was a chance to try out our buns in another part of London and keep it separate from the Marksman in Hackney. We both liked the site and it’s a beautiful, characterful building in one of Londons busiest stations.” They also revealed that they “hope to open up more bun shops around London, and hopefully continue outside London in the near future,” as well as “opening another Marksman vibe pub somewhere else other than east London.”
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Baozi Inn, which has quickly garnered a cult-Instagram-following for its attractive dim sum on Romilly Street, will open a new site serving the Northern Chinese cooking — long on Sichuan and Hunanese influences — that has earned the restaurant its recent acclaim.
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Market Halls has also tapped some of London’s most rapidly-expanding restaurant brands to round out the offering: Breddos Tacos, newly-minted Jewish deli Monty’s, Tom Griffiths’ Spitalfields favourite Flank, and fish and chip chain Kerbisher and Malt will join the three headline acts. There will also be posh-no-more Fanny’s Kebabs, pasta-in-residence experts Nonna Tonda, healthy concept Squirrel, and Press Coffee.
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Judging by this announcement, Market Halls Victoria pulls serious weight in attracting London chefs and restaurants. Optimising these additional sites for the food hall offer, rather than hacking an essential restaurant’s square peg into a round hole, also speaks to smart business sense. Nova Victoria, around the corner, could be forgiven for looking on at Market Halls wondering how they made it look so easy. The true test, whether the punters will show up, is of course still to come. But the feeling in Victoria is that, despite Nova, there remains an opening in the market.
More soon on the finer details of these essential London restaurants’ second and third comings, as well as the now even more hotly anticipated announcement of Market Halls West End.