A New Design-Focused Mediterranean Restaurant Has Opened in Pimlico

Omar’s Place is a brand new Mediterranean restaurant, in Pimlico, close to the south side of Victoria station. It opened yesterday; the space an ultra design-focused collaboration between Sella Concept and architecture consultancy Wilson Holloway. Eater understands the restaurant is currently operating a ‘soft launch period’ and will officially open on Monday 26 March.

Egyptian-born Omar Shabaan, the owner, is from a family of restaurateurs and hoteliers. In Egypt, the Andrea Mariouteya hospitality brand has been in the family for 60 years; today, Shabaan oversees over a mini-empire of restaurants, bars and a boutique hotel. But, he says, it has been a long-standing dream to “bring the best of the Mediterranean to London,” the city where he spends much of his life.

Omar’s Place has been a year in the making. Shabaan identified a disused pub — a Grade-II listed, four-storey Victorian corner property on the corner of Hugh and Cambridge Street — and has, an announcement says, been “fantasising about a buzzing Mediterranean restaurant and bar with a creative tapas kitchen, a contemporary cocktail bar and a convivial, local-hangout atmosphere.”

In the kitchen is the Mallorcan-born “Michelin-kitchen veteran” chef Vicente Fortea, whose Mediterranean dishes have been “carefully selected from the coastal towns of the region.”

Omar’s Place is an invitation to the most essential flavours and smells of the Mediterranean, tapas, selected wines and cocktails; a journey through countries bathed by such a mythical sea. From Mallorca to Istanbul, like the Serrat song. More than twenty countries, with many elements in common. With an innovative, indulgent and elegant setting signed by chef Vicente Fortea.

Omar’s Place/Facebook

The restaurant promises “a touch of the Mediterranean flavours via both lively ambience and avant-garde cuisine specialising in tapas and sharing plates appealing to all your senses.”

Nicholas Worley/Omar’s Place

After several months of work (including the planning labyrinth that comes with turning a listed pub building into a modern Mediterranean restaurant without cutting into its character), Omar’s Place seats 36 diners on the ground floor and room for a further 50 in a wine-cellar-style private-event venue downstairs, which is scheduled to open in the middle of this year.