This Is What Happened in the London Restaurant World Last Week

Almost halfway through August 2021 and the London restaurant (re)opening wheel continues to turn.

Here’s everything you need to know about what happened the week commencing 9 August 2021.

• Last weekend, Caprice Holdings’s Ivy Asia Chelsea restaurant published then deleted a racist promotional video. Soon followed an “apology for offence caused” after multiple observers highlighted the video’s use of racist caricatures and reductive stereotyping. And yet, some were left wondering whether it was really that surprising that a brand which relies on those same stereotypes would use such material to promote its restaurant.

• Another week, another high-profile restaurant opening to add to the list of “coming attractions.” This week, pioneering Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes, was revealed to be the latest in a string of exciting partners for restaurant-group-in-a-hurry MJMK, for a project that will come to central London in the early part of 2022.
• The same restaurant group confirmed that it would also back chef John Chantarasak, who with partner Desiree, in the launch of a permanent space for the restaurant pop-up Anglo Thai, also in 2022.

• In a shocking turn 12 months after having announced it could not see a pathway to reopening, Eater understands that The Ledbury — chef Brett Graham’s seminal two-Michelin-starred Notting Hill restaurant — will reopen. It is understood that a team is in place to relaunch the restaurant in a more informal style at the same location later this year.

• In less surprising news, cult-followed mini-chain Gunpowder will open on the former site of Pizza Express on Soho’s Greek Street. Harneet Baweja and Devina Seth’s Gunpowder Greek Street is the latest in a series of “corporate indie” groups to make a move into Soho since the pandemic. They follow Harts Group’s Mexican-inspired El Pastor, Neapolitan pizzeria Rudy’s Pizza from Manchester, and Maginhawa Group’s Filipino-Japanese Ramo Ramen.

• Back to surprises: In a stunning revelation from one of London’s most famous restaurant institutions, Corbin and King’s chief executive Jeremy King this week detailed attempts by its landlord to pursue eviction through the courts after the owners had failed to meet rent arrears of almost £1 million — a total accumulated during the months of closure through successive coronavirus lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

• Elsewhere, Temple Fortune’s outstanding sabich and falafel shop, Balady confirmed last week’s story that it will open in central London, at 39-41 Leather Lane in Clerkenwell.

• Four years in the making, presenting...Eater’s Guide to London. Read, use, and share it.
• And, a little less time in the making, but no less useful, the Eater London Summer Dining Guide.

Until next week, eat well and stay safe.