Acclaimed Spitalfields Restaurant Bubala Will Move Into Soho This Spring

Helen Graham and Marc Summers won’t change a winning formula when they open their second restaurant in Soho this April. Bubala, which opened in Spitalfields in autumn 2019, will continue to serve a menu of bright, Sephardic-influenced vegetarian cookery when it moves into Poland Street. It takes over from Vasco and Piero’s, the beloved Italian restaurant forced out after a rent dispute with the building’s landlord.

The menu will bring over many of the east London restaurant’s greatest hits — beautifully crisp-yielding aubergines with date syrup and zhoug; potato latkes treated to the city’s favourite spud technique, the confit; and the flaky, laminated Yemenite Jewish pastry, malawach.

Bubala, like many restaurants in the city, adapted quickly and decisively to the Covid-19 pandemic. It brought in meal kits and home delivery, but also changed its model, introducing a set menu at dinner under the cute-yet-firm moniker, Bubala Knows Best.

Summers said that the restaurant represents the realisation of a long-, but carefully held ambition.

“It’s always been a long-term goal for Bubala to grow, but it’s a step that I wanted to take carefully and one that I didn’t want to rush. I feel like we’ve got the best possible team now and the site feels perfect. I just can’t wait to open and bring a bit of Bubala to central London.”

More soon.