Acclaimed Peckham Restaurant Kudu Will Open Sister Restaurant Next Door

Kudu, the widely acclaimed, South African-inspired restaurant in Peckham, will open two new sites in the area in the coming months. Little Kudu, which promises “tapas tastes,” will open at 117 Queens Road, right next door to the original restaurant at 119, while Smokey Kudu, billed as a cocktail bar, will open at 133 Queens Road. Kudu teased the opening on Instagram, writing: “We have some exciting news! We will be opening our second site later this year. Come follow us @little.kudu.”

Kudu opened in January 2018, winning a Michelin Bib Gourmand in September 2018, with the prestigious guide saying simply that, “you’d want it as your local.” It has won particularly fervent fans of its signature brioche baked in a pot, served with foaming, molten compound butters, incorporating either lardons and sumac or seafood and baby shrimp, or, as the menu winningly puts it, just “both butters.” A dish of onglet, with velvet potatoes and enoki mushrooms, has also become a star. David Sexton gave the restaurant four stars as soon as a month after opening in the Evening Standard, saying that “every dish here has lots to say, an amazing set of statements about what tastes right, right now.”

Kudu is run by Amy Corbin and Patrick Williams, and supported by Chris Corbin, of the redoubtable Corbin & King — the duo behind such restaurants as The Delaunay and The Wolseley, as well as newly opened Soutine in St. John’s Wood and the upcoming seafood restaurant, Manzi’s, in Soho. Williams, who heads up the kitchen, was previously sous chef at Paradise Garage, the now-closed Bethnal Green satellite operation from the team behind south-London stalwarts The Dairy and The Manor.

Little Kudu Ltd has been incorporated as a separate company to Kudu Collective Ltd, as has Smokey Kudu Ltd. More soon on details of both new openings.