Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Asian Eating House’ Has a New, Very Familiar Neighbour in Mayfair

Prolific chef-restaurateur Jason Atherton will take over dining operations at The Biltmore Hotel on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair. His new restaurants will open directly opposite former mentor Gordon Ramsay’s soon-to-open ‘Asian eating house,’ Lucky Cat, on the site of the Michelin-starred Maze that the duo oversaw together for five years, in a restaurant face-off that surely requires a German word.

Atherton will oversee The Betterment, The Terrace, The Tea Lounge and The Pine Bar at the Hilton ‘LXR’ hotel opening, which was previously The Millennium Hotel, as reported by Hot Dinners and confirmed by the Evening Standard. Head chef Paul Walsh, previously of Atherton’s Michelin-starred City Social, will serve “wood-fired fish and meats, fresh seafood, signature salads and plant-based plates” at the flagship Betterment, which has undergone a £15 million refurb.

Atherton said of the opening opposite Ramsay:

I would not be the man I am today without spending 12 years with him. I learned so much.

But I never thought of him as my friend. He was my boss and I always knew at some point I would have to leave to make my own success and my time came 10 years ago — and here we are today. Gordon’s a busy man, he’s got better things to do than text me, right? He’s got four TV shows on the go and dozens of restaurants around the world. I’ve only got 18 and I’m busy enough. I’ll go there for sure, I can’t wait to go there and try it out if I’m welcome.

Atherton’s London portfolio has quietly evolved in recent weeks, with Mayfair’s Little Social pivoting from French to British and renaming to No. 5 Social, and the chef selling Marylebone’s Social Wine and Tapas. Plans for a new, 16-seater called H.O.M.E. next to Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social and the evolution of Sosharu remain in the pipeline.

More soon.