World-Famous Xiaolongbao Specialist Expects Five Hour Queues in Covent Garden

Din Tai Fung’s pre-opening show is in full swing

Din Tai Fung’s first London restaurant is expecting four to five-hour queues. The official U.K. website for the Taiwanese dumpling chain now features a ~ countdown timer ~ for the 5 December opening, as well as the following nifty and natty acrostic:

“CREATE A LITTLE DIN
IT’S TAIM
TO HAVE A LITTLE FUNG.
COUNTDOWN TO HAPPINESS, UNVEILING SOON.”

Serial west London restaurateur eyes up number four to the south

Jasper Gorst will open a fourth restaurant, The Oak SW11, in Battersea in 2019. Gorst’s three other restaurants — The Oak in Notting Hill, The Oak W12 in Ravenscourt Park, and The Bird in Hand in Brook Green — follow a modern European slant, with a focus on pizza. [MCA Insight/Paywall]

London chefs shadowbox over test kitchens and Hong Kong

Simon Rogan and Jason Atherton are engaged in a very specific expansion strategy battle — or at least, they’re taking very similar paths. Rogan has moved to open his first two overseas restaurants in Hong Kong — Aulis first, followed by Roganic — where Atherton already has two restaurants. Atherton, meanwhile, is to open H.O.M.E., a 16-seater “creative outlet” that he bills as his “Araki”; it sounds rather more like Rogan’s eight-seater Aulis. [Big Hospitality]

Los Angeles yolk disciples will land in the capital

California egg hypebeast and ‘this has not aged well’ namecheck Eggslut will open at least one London restaurant.