Another High-End Closure Appears on City Restaurant Graveyard

The high-end Indian restaurant Darbaar in the City is currently closed, despite the owners saying it is not closed “for good.” The restaurant, by head chef Abdul Yaseen, sits inside the same development which has witnessed three other high-profile closures in the past five years. The most recent to close was L’Anima — Italian restaurant owned by entrepreneur Peter Murano — in March.

The development — Broadgate Quarter — sits on the cusp of the City and Shoreditch and had been a promising home for a small collection of high-profile, high-end restaurant operators. However, as well as L’Anima, the Japanese fine-dining restaurant Chrysan — by the well-established Hakkassan group — closed in 2013. It was on this site that Darbaar has operated since

HKK, a high-end Chinese restaurant and also part of the Hakkassan group, opened in 2012. That restaurant announced its sudden closure in October last year, citing a focus on global expansion.

darbaarrestaurant/Instagram

Chef and owner, Yaseen, is an award-winning chef and a modern Indian food specialist, moving to London from Jaipur fifteen years ago; he was a member of the founding team of iconic London restaurant, Cinnamon Club in Westminster.

Yaseen has featured in a number of cookery programmes on television, such as Celebrity Master Chef UK 2016, BBC2’s Hairy Bikers, ITV’s Great Britain’s Best Dish and the Alan Titchmarsh Show.

At the end of last week, Eater learnt that the restaurant has been served a “bailiff possession notice” — it outlines that the “landlord had exercised their right to instruct certified bailiffs to peaceably re-enter and take possession of the premises...This property is now legally occupied by the landlords.”

Eater London

When contacted by Eater, Yaseen insisted that the restaurant is not permanently closed. In an email, he said: “We are not closed for good !

“There are operational issues that we are sorting out with our landlords and shortly we will be able to overcome things .

“I appreciate our guests are patiently waiting for us to serve them again.”

Eater has asked the owners to clarify a timeline for re-opening.

More soon.