Promising Modern Irish Restaurant Looks to Be Closed in Shoreditch After Staff Flux

Modern Irish restaurant Nuala has closed in Shoreditch, the first London dining casualty of 2019. It is understood that restaurant staff received no notice of the closure, nigh-on exactly a year after the restaurant opened.

Niall Davidson’s debut restaurant opened as December 2017 bled into 2018, promising cooking unambiguously influenced by Ireland’s history and products, an expansive wine list imaginatively categorised, and a pretty serious fire pit. After a series of kind, if caveated reviews from Fay Maschler and Jay Rayner, and some bizarre, boorish xenophobia from Julie Burchill, Davidson departed the restaurant — just four months into his tenure.

Shortly afterwards, acclaimed sommelier Honey Spencer departed to start Bastarda, before joining up with James Lowe and John Ogier ahead of the opening of new wine bar Flor; head chef Colin McSherry moved on to Richard Turner’s latest project, Gridiron in Mayfair; restaurant manager Charlie Sims returned to Noma, and rising star chef Anaïs Van Manen left to pursue Bastarda with Spencer, as well as Snackbar with Freddie Janssen and a development role at Bao.

Regardless, certain dishes — including a beef tartare with egg yolk and cheddar, and a starter of clams in a pistachio beurre blanc — received acclaim, and there was no suggestion that the slew of departures had been entirely fatal.

A request for comment to hello@nualalondon.com — the restaurant’s listed contact email — returned a failure to send; accounts for Nuala Limited are more than three months overdue.

More soon.