Casual Italian may have been the big story on the capital’s restaurant scene in the past 12 months, but Londoners’ appetite for the sort of French bistro that wouldn’t disgrace the set of ’Allo ’Allo! shows no sign of waning – so much so that we’re now having to import them.

Buvette comes courtesy of New York-based restaurateur Jody Williams, whose West Village original, opened in 2011, is one of five Manhattan hotspots she co-owns with wife Rita Sodi. This is the US400 couple’s second bite at a London Buvette, after a Notting Hill outpost opened in 2020 and closed three years later.

Covent Garden, however, already feels like a better fit: squint from a pavement table under the red awning in Neal’s Yard and you could be in a French square straight out of Emily in Paris – or, perhaps, an especially photogenic enclave of Greenwich Village.

Wallpaper* dines at Buvette, London

The mood: Flea market chic

A buvette is the French word for a small bar, though Williams prefers to describe this place as a gastrothèque, her own word for a mash-up of café, bar and restaurant where one is as likely to drop in for a breakfast croissant and café au lait as a supper of cassoulet and Beaujolais.

Williams says that the New York Buvette was inspired by visits to flea markets and antique fairs, though here in London she’s been equally influenced by the building’s 400-year history and that of Neal’s Yard itself, where the British whole-food scene was kickstarted in the 1970s with the likes of Monmouth Coffee and Neal’s Yard Dairy.

Inside are exposed brick walls, warm wood finishes, a tin ceiling embossed with metallic garlands and close-set tables for two. If the dimensions feel more cramped than cosy, the best way to approach Buvette might be as an hour spent en route to somewhere else: a breakfast meeting before the office or pre-theatre ahead of the Donmar. Or pull up a solo stool at the marble counter.

The food: Small plates of bistro cooking

Williams might have a James Beard Award to her name for New York City’s Best Chef, but she taught herself to cook and spent five years in Italy and Japan before opening Buvette. All of which is to say that she is not bound by tradition. So while the menu is a love letter to traditional bourgeois cuisine – coq au vin and charcuterie, steak tartare and tarte Tatin – the presentation of the food as small plates feels bang up to date.

Not that you’ll want to split everything: a croque-monsieur, bubbled with golden-brown blisters of gooey Gruyère, is far too good to share. Carb-loading is the way to go: garlicky escargots come with slices of sourdough toast for dunking, while a tartine is spread with an artery-clogging amount of butter and draped with a salty sliver of anchovy and a tangy caper.

Not everything works quite so well when presented in miniature. A pot of moules topped with a pile of French fries makes excavating the mussels from their shells awkward, though it’s worth persevering, as the curry sauce beneath makes an excellent dipping sauce.

Even if you just stick to tap water, do take time to admire the design of the drinks list, which is beautifully illustrated as a homage to the Belle Époque and is as lovely to look at as everything else here.

Buvette is located at 2 Neal’s Yard, London WC2H 9DP, UK

Despite the foggy morning marine layer at the shore, summer is upon us in Los Angeles, and that means many trips to the beach for fresh seafood and frothy margaritas. Enrique Olvera of local Downtown LA favourite Damian, and award-winning Pujol in Mexico City, has recently unveiled a new concept for Mexican mariscos and agave cocktails in Venice, San Damián. Here's what to expect.

Wallpaper* dines at San Damián, Los Angelesdamian

The mood: Airy California cantina

The former ATLA space on Abbott Kinney was taken up a notch by Mexico City-based architecture studio TALLER ADG who collaborated with brand consultant Charlotte Fischli to refresh the dining room and bar. Lush greenery pops against the airy palette of light timber, which includes tables from Artless and chairs by Mexican architect and designer Oscar Hagerman.

The petate ceiling, made from woven palm fronds, adds a touch of tropical whimsy and draws the eye to colourful pieces from Mexican artists Marcela Calderon and Perla Valtierra. Coming soon: the back patio will become a taqueria, which will no doubt also be packed on the weekends.

The food: Michelin-level Mexican seafood

The pottery and ceramics for plating were all sourced In Mexico City, Oaxaca and Michoacán and make a stunning backdrop for the Mexico-meets-California focused dishes from chef Chuy Cervantes (also of Damian DTLA).

Cervantes is a master of ceviches and tangy poached shrimp aguachile, and you will be tempted to order everything from the raw dishes, along with a smoky mezcal Paloma or Mijenta Blanco margarita. But don’t overlook the crispy tlayuda topped with chorizo de pescado; fish tacos; or a crunchy Weiser Farms potato flauta. Large format plates include pescado asado guacachile amarillo – a whole fish (usually branzino), that is served with tortillas and salsas. And remember to save room for classic churros with a rich chocolate dip. You can walk it all off later on the boardwalk.

San Damián is located at 1025 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291, United States

Toronto isn’t short of good Japanese restaurants by any means, but Shinji is creating buzz among local foodies. Located in the base of the West Tower at Bay Adelaide Centre, a 1920s heritage building tucked beneath one of Toronto’s newest office towers in the Financial District, this modern Japanese steakhouse comes from Harlo Entertainment – the hospitality group behind local stalwarts, Mimi Chinese and Sunny’s Chinese – who asked Toronto studio Odami for a restaurant that felt Japanese without falling into cliché.

Founders Arancha González Bernardo and Michael Fohring found their answer in denim. ‘It is equally at home in workwear and high fashion, and that balance between humility and refinement became the conceptual lens through which we approached the entire project,’ says Fohring, who saw in denim’s rough, functional glamour a fitting metaphor for a steakhouse built on craft rather than spectacle.

Wallpaper* dines at Shinji, Toronto

The mood: Indigo walls, one neon surprise

An existing ramp into the dining room is now enclosed in dark-stained wood and acoustic panelling. ‘Rather than treating it simply as passive circulation, we transformed it into a critical part of the experience,’ says González Bernardo. The walls and ceiling are coated in a custom indigo limewash, layered by hand until the surface reads more like ink or dyed cloth than paint.

Overhead, navy felt baffles dampen the noise of a full room while echoing the texture of woven denim without spelling it out. The one bright interruption is saved for the washroom corridor, where pink light bleeds into view gradually – a wink at Japan’s neon-lit nightlife that’s kept apart from the dining room and appears as a surprise only when guests go looking for the washroom.

The Food: Wagyu, direct sourcing, shared plates

Executive chef and partner Jia Zou, who cut his teeth at Miku and Kasa Moto, has built a literally sizzling à la carte menu around Shinji’s central grill, where raw preparations and nigiri sit paired with a full run of Japanese wagyu from A3 to A5, sourced from Iwate, Miyazaki, Hokkaido and Kagoshima, alongside true Kobe beef brought in directly from Hyogo prefecture. For guests after a more curated progression, there’s also a chef’s choice menu and a dedicated omakase experience at the chef’s counter.

Fish, shiso flower and kinome leaf arrive from Japan several times a week to keep things close to source. Start with the A5 wagyu, ordered by the ounce, or the Shinji surf and turf – black cod and sliced wagyu in yakiniku sauce with crispy leeks – which Zou calls ‘the single bite that captures the restaurant’s dual identity most efficiently.’

Shinji, base of the West Tower, Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay St, Toronto ON M5H 2R2, Canada

Mayfair dining rooms often arrive fully dressed. Latine is better when it changes outfit. Set in Lancashire Court, the Franco-Latin restaurant by London-based interior designer Victoria Vogel moves from a bright ground-floor crudo bar to a candlelit first-floor salon, a mural-wrapped private dining room and a basement lounge in lacquer, velvet and brass.

Wallpaper* dines at Latine Mayfair

The mood: A venue of many temperatures

The ground-floor restaurant is the brightest chapter: limewashed walls, solid wood tables, bouclé seating and a marble-fronted crudo bar, all gathered around an exposed brick rotunda and central chandelier. Decorative tiling nods to the seafood-led menu, while cream, terracotta, chocolate and pale timber give the room its soft sense of warmth.

Upstairs, La Candela brings white wainscoting, twin crystal chandeliers and terracotta accents into a candlelit salon. On the second floor, El Cielo turns private dining into a scenic room, wrapped in a hand-painted mural by Melissa Wickham beneath exposed oak beams and a sculptural bronze chandelier. Downstairs space, LACAV, drops the temperature: lacquered walls, burl walnut, velvet seating and brass lighting make it the late-night room: darker, richer, and much happier after dinner.

The food: Ceviche first, Béarnaise later

The menu opens with colourful crudos: bright, sharp and built around citrus, heat and sweetness. Sea bream tiradito comes with coconut leche de tigre; red prawn ceviche with mango and yuzu. Yet, the starters are where the Franco-Latin exchange gets better: snails baked with chimichurri butter and served with brioche; Cornish mussels with Latine marinière and fries; pão de queijo filled with Camembert, with the option to add Oscietra caviar.

Mains continue the exchange: grilled hispi cabbage with Peruvian curry sauce and Comté, wild sea bass with ají amarillo beurre blanc, bouillabaisse with ají panca rouille, and chargrilled ribeye with chimichurri Béarnaise.

Latine Mayfair is located at 10-11 Lancashire Ct, London W1S 1EY, United Kingdom

Most fine dining rooms worry about lighting levels. Huset has to deal with the sun disappearing for months. The restaurant sits in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. At 78 degrees north, it is the world’s northernmost fine dining restaurant.

Huset, which means ‘the house’, is located in a building completed in 1951 for a mining town that needed one roof for almost everything: church, hospital, sports hall, school, post office, cinema, concert venue. The building has outlived the industry that made it necessary, but not its role in the town, remaining a gathering place, only now with a 14-course Arctic tasting menu and one of Scandinavia’s largest wine cellars.

Dubbed the heart of the town by locals, Huset now begins a new chapter following an extensive transformation by Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, which treated the restaurant as a building of leftovers, repairs and accumulated habits. That matters in Svalbard, where materials arrive by ship, weather interrupts everything, and resourcefulness is a mindset of daily life.

Wallpaper* dines at Huset, Svalbard

The mood: no snow-globe romance

The interior is warmer than the latitude suggests. Two tones of stained oak run through the fixed joinery and bespoke furniture, picking up the mixed woods in the coffered ceiling of the former cinema hall. Öland stone appears on counters and a large dining table; red linoleum gives the floor a blunt, practical heat, while accents of stainless steel cut through the softness.

‘Creating a warm and intimate atmosphere in a place as full of contrasts as Svalbard is both demanding and incredibly exciting. In a setting where it’s either always light or always dark, it calls for a very particular approach to lighting and surfaces,’ says project manager and team lead interior at Snøhetta, Marlene Fenger Vedal.

The smartest move is the textile work. Snøhetta used three layers of transparent fabric to create panels with a moiré effect, so the walls seem to shift as the light changes. Similar panels slide along the windows in timber frames, filtering the view without turning away from it.

‘By working with what already exists, it’s possible to develop more sustainable and meaningful solutions in line with a place’s history and identity, where history is not only preserved but activated as a resource in shaping the future,’ adds Fenger Vedal.

Throughout, the furniture has a sculptural sharpness: solid Swedish pine chairs by Simmer, supplied by Verk, and round tables designed by Snøhetta, including versions with cone-shaped bases. The adjacent chambre séparée is enclosed with fabric-clad screens and centred on a three-metre custom oak table.

The Food: Permafrost, preservation, wine below ground

Head chef Alberto Lozano cooks from a place where abundance is not guaranteed. The kitchen works with trappers, fishers and foragers, using Nordic preservation techniques and whatever the fjords, tundra and seasons allow. ‘Everything starts with what we can find here,’ he says.

That restraint gives the 14-course Arctic Experience its edge, with Arctic cold cuts, such as Reindeer charcuterie, Ptarmigan pâté en croûte and Huset chees. Examples of preservation include scallops in kefir cream, petrified langoustine with collagen and black shallots, and hay combined with lacto-fermented Norwegian green tomatoes. Below it all sits the wine cellar, dating back to the 1980s, with more than 1,000 titles.

Huset Restaurant is located at SJ, Vei 300, Longyearbyen 9170, Svalbard & Jan Mayen

Felice’s newest New York restaurant opens at one of Flatiron’s most privileged corners, where Fifth Avenue meets 26th Street beside Madison Square Park. Set inside a 21-storey neo-Gothic building completed in 1912, the site gives the family-run Italian brand a dining room with unusual scale, daylight from three sides and a strong connection to the street.

Wallpaper* dines at Felice Flaitron, New York

The mood: go big and come home

Since opening on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 2007, Felice has grown to fourteen locations across New York, Connecticut and Florida. Designed by local studio Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture, Felice Flatiron is arguably the brand’s most architecturally ambitious opening to date. The room boasts 18ft ceilings, windows on three sides and a Fifth Avenue presence that changes with the light. Afternoon sun cuts across amber banquettes, pale tablecloths and warm timber.

‘We wanted the space to feel instantly familiar but elevated in every detail, Tuscany in its materials, New York in its energy,’ says Enrico Bonetti, co-founder of Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture.

The design works through proportion, material and cathedral-like drama: custom Italian oak millwork crafted in Florence, Chianti terracotta sourced from Tuscany, deep red blinds, leather seating, soft pendant lamps and a 30ft illuminated wine wall. At the centre is Felice’s largest bar to date, wrapped in Grigio Versilia marble and engineered to be the restaurant’s social anchor.

The food: all-day entertainment

The menu stays close to Felice’s Tuscan roots: seasonal ingredients, regional recipes, signature pastas and dishes made for sharing. New to Flatiron is the Il Toscano Plate, with rotating salumi, pecorino, olives and crostini, alongside a tableside tiramisu cart and an interactive amaro station.

Wine remains central. The by-the-glass list champions small producers, with Italian bottles joined by selections from Spain, California and elsewhere. A ‘Back to Natural’ section brings in low-intervention wines, while the cocktail programme leans full dolce vita: Dirty Martini Spritz, aperitivo drinks, and a nightcap menu running from Amaro Shakerato to Affogato Martini.

Felice Flatiron is located at 220 5th Ave, New York, NY 10001, United States

Mayfair has no shortage of polished dining rooms, but Miko Mei Fair has arrived to turn up the heat. On the ground floor of MiMi Mei Fair’s Georgian townhouse, the 50-cover Thai restaurant is the latest opening from Samyukta Nair, the restaurateur behind London hotspots Jamavar, Bombay Bustle, MiMi Mei Fair and Nipotina. Led by chef Soonthorn Apaipat of Koyn Thai, it pairs townhouse glamour with cooking rooted in fire, balance and sharing.

Wallpaper* dines at Miko Mei Fair

The mood: MiMi’s more eccentric sibling

Miko Mei Feir delivers a darker, more intimate mood than the usual Mayfair new opening: candlelight, glossy wood, patterned banquettes. The interiors keep the townhouse framework and dial up the colour: teal and timber panelling, red leather booths, brass accents and tropical wallcoverings, with gold-leaf lotus details adding a subtle Thai nod. The Peacock Room, set behind folding timber screens, adds a private dining room for eight, while hand-painted chinoiserie wallpaper ties it back to MiMi Mei Fair upstairs.

The food: Robata smoke meets Thai balance

Chef Apaipat moves across Thailand – Isaan heat, Southern coconut richness, Central Thai balance – with Koyn Thai’s robata-style grill guiding the kitchen. The headline dish is the Apple Wood Fire Peking Duck Penang Curry, adding MiMi Mei Fair’s signature duck into one of Thailand’s best-loved curries. Elsewhere, there are spring rolls with tofu and spring onion, prawns pla ra, and toasted rice beef tenderloin. Don’t miss Sabai Sabai, the signature cocktail, which mixes Mekong rum, kaffir lime, Thai basil and soda. For no-alcohol drinkers, Akoya comprises cucumber, Thai basil, lychee, lime and sparkling jasmine tea.

Miko Mei Fair is located at 55 Curzon Street, London W1J 8PG, United Kingdom

Chef and restaurateur Jackson Boxer has form when it comes to opening beloved local restaurants: Brunswick House has been going strong in Vauxhall since 2010, while in 2025, Dove replaced Boxer’s Notting Hill restaurant Orasay, on the same site, with something more approachably laid-back (not least with its off-menu cheeseburger, rationed to ten per service).

For his latest venture, the chef heads to Clerkenwell with Vesper, its name the Roman word for the planet Venus, as it appears at sunset: the time to enjoy one of the restaurant’s bracingly cold cocktails, ideally at a bistro table on the pavement as the Exmouth Market passeggiata slides by, with the promise of a Gorgonzola and dry-aged beef burger to follow.

Wallpaper* dines at Vesper, London

The mood: Built to last

Designer Jermaine Gallacher, a longtime friend of Boxer’s, approached Vesper with the simple brief of creating somewhere he would wish to be a regular himself. ‘I wanted to give Jackson a restaurant that would stand the test of time,’ he says, ‘something classic and refined.’

The result occupies a double-fronted corner space with timber-framed floor-to-ceiling windows, a bar by the entrance and a candlelit dining room beyond. Gallacher found his design cues in unlikely places – an ancient studded door spotted on a trip to Italy became the inspiration for the bar, while a photo of a pair of carved lips in an old book about 1980s New York restaurants informed the stonework.

The team of London artisans Gallacher collaborated with were closer to home: architectural stone carver Tom Pullen hand-carved the limestone panels according to Gallacher’s drawings, artist Lawrence Andrew Chalk made the studded zinc bar and curved cloakroom door, while the steel and brass sconces, candlesticks and cast-pewter door handle come courtesy of sculptor Will Jack. ‘I think what’s so magical about really good restaurants is that they are the sum of all parts,’ Gallacher says. ‘It’s not just about the food or the interior or the people that frequent them. It’s all of those things and more. Things made with love are honest, true and never date.’

The food: Comfortably ambitious

Boxer is far too canny an operator not to give his customers what they want, which here means including an edit of the Dove greatest hits: not just that beef-rib burger, but a spin on the fermented potato pizzette, here topped with stracciatella, mortadella and mostarda.

But Vesper goes beyond merely transplanting the Dove menu from Notting Hill to east London. Take the chuck-eye steak Diane with grilled maitake mushrooms and baked saffron rice, which promotes a neglected cut of beef to star billing. It’s the sort of clever update on a retro British classic that has made Boxer one of the UK’s most in-demand chefs (he’s also a consultant chef at Cowley Manor). But if you prefer your classics more straightforward, order the half-roast chicken with bread sauce to share.

And if you’re here just to drink: a bowl of homemade salt-and-vinegar crisps with trout roe and French onion smoked cream is the poshest version of chips and dips to snack on with a citrus-spritzed martini.

Vesper is located at 8-10 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QA, United Kingdom

FOOD was a cultural hub and restaurant in the early 1970s on the corner of Prince and Wooster streets in SoHo, New York, where it blended the rituals of dining with an experimental spirit. Robert Rauschenberg and Donald Judd crafted performative dishes while the restaurant’s co-founder Carol Goodden turned soups into paintings. In its three-year life, the restaurant saw its other cofounder Gordon Matta-Clark turn bones into necklaces. Today, a norm-pushing edge is a memory in this downtown pocket of soaring lofts and posh boutiques, but the New Museum remains something of a hub for the bygone avant-garde spirit. The institution’s recent doubling of its exhibition space by OMA has finally made possible an essential that many of peers have long enjoyed: a restaurant.

Oberon opens this week (7 July 2026) with 90 seats inside the 60,000 sq ft expansion, in the form of a self-contained black box on the ground floor. Brooklyn-based restaurant group The Oberon operates the eatery with a menu created by chefs Julia Sherman and Ali Ghriskey. The hospitality group’s founder and managing partner Henry Rich sees an opportunity in the New Museum’s alchemy of heritage and a downtown sensibility. ‘The museum straddles the world of New York institutions and edgy galleries around here,’ he tells Wallpaper* and says the non-profit holds a ‘unicorn position with a stature and a commitment to most forward-looking art’.

The non-collecting museum has held a pivotal role in career-making exhibitions for many global artists, yet it had lacked a proper restaurant throughout its 49-year history – in its first eatery, cork anchors the visual statement. Without a direct contact with Bowery Street, the interior wraps its guests as a concentrated experience in which the dominant material appears in five different ways, both in recognisable and distinct qualities.

OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu and associate Jake Forster who oversaw the expansion planned the pocket inside the overall metallic mesh and steel-heavy building to, as Shigematsu puts it, ‘complement the rest of the series of gallery spaces’. Besides FOOD, their mood board included the community gardens peppered throughout SoHo and Lower East Side. ‘We looked into communal spaces that have brought artists together and conceived the restaurant as its own volume,’ he says. A generous potpourri of plants outlines the opaque window, which lets museum-goers notice diners’ silhouettes within the silver-leaf cork exterior. Inside, Portuguese company Sofalca created black cork surfaces through a process in which the negative-footprint carbon-absorbing material is heated to extreme temperatures and blended with resin to yield large monolithic blocks. A series of textural cork domes, created by CNC milling, form overhead booths with serrated cork around their perimeters. An intensely textured cork ceiling in the centre is suspended above 20 or so two-seater wooden tables designed by Minjae Kim.

The Brooklyn-based designer says the main challenge in his first restaurant commission was to implement his vision into a fully-baked vision. ‘I responded to the inventive use of cork with texture and warmth,’ he says. For the 30ft bar, he summoned the technique of sanding into the grain of ash wood for a distressed rippling texture, with a lacquer finish. Kim also designed nine quilted fibreglass pendants through a process of running woven fibreglass in a sewing machine for an ornate sculptural effect, in contrast to the sturdy cork-led interior.

While enjoying meals such as a classic hamburger and martini pairing, art-loving diners can curb their visual appetite with Ian Cheng’s video installation behind the bar. The New York artist, known for his contemplative live simulations and real-time animations, here delivers dancing visuals, alive with a moody energy. In an homage to FOOD’s Fluxus roots, avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson provides a farewell to diners in the form of poems she has penned for the wrappings of parting chocolates.

Steps away from the surrounding neighborhood’s bustle, the hermetic culinary experience interprets cork’s thick hug into sculptural accents, complemented by a textural use of wood and a generous wash of greenery. ‘We are privileged to cater to a community that already likes to hang out,’ says Rich.

Every London village needs its butcher, baker and, if not a candlestick maker, then a fishmonger. All are to be found on Chelsea’s Pavilion Road, which over the past decade has established itself as one of London’s smartest foodie thoroughfares. Now, after seven years of success, the street’s resident fishmonger, The Sea, The Sea, has moved over the street into bigger new digs, where the original fresh fish counter-cum-chef’s table concept has been expanded and joined by a 40-cover bistro upstairs and a terrace for 28 out front.

Wallpaper* dines at The Sea, The Sea

The mood: Restaurant and retail

Designer Benjamin Wilkins worked on the first iteration of The Sea, The Sea and says he ‘borrowed from the brand DNA, which I broke down into three core elements: the hard-working utilitarianism of the seafood industry, the natural beauty of the food offering, and the comfort of the guest.’

Weathered timber and textured plaster contrast with stainless steel and bright lighting in the downstairs seafood shop to evoke the energy of a fish market in Cornwall or Scotland, where much of the produce for sale on the central ice-display table is sourced from small boats. Come the evening, the table transforms into a seafood bar for 10 diners, surrounded by dry-ageing cabinets displaying house-aged fish.

As The Sea, The Sea founder Alex Hunter explains: ‘First and foremost, this is an operationally practical design. We’re effectively running two businesses – restaurant and retail – in one building, so that operational efficiency is paramount, but we do it in a way that feels clean, un-muddled and elegant, much like the plating of our food.’

Upstairs in the bistro, Wilkins says that ‘the existing pitched ceiling evokes the hull of a fishing boat and lends itself to the narrative of the space.’ Which is to say an airy and unpretentious room where art from Patrick Caulfield and Alexander Massouras lines the walls. Fans of the original The Sea, The Sea will find it comfortingly familiar; for newcomers, it’s convivial and relaxed.

The food: Quite the catch

Hunter numbers some of London’s best restaurants among his clients – two-Michelin-starred Ikoyi and one-star Kol buy their fish from him – so rest assured that the quality is top-notch. Head chef Nick Marsden has the likes of Dovetale, Pitt Cue and The Laughing Heart on his CV, so is a dab hand at putting together plates that offer sophisticated simplicity: pickled Fowey mussels with sunsweet melon and lovage from the raw bar, perhaps, ahead of grilled half Cornish lobster with vin jaune sabayon.

Small plates include cuttlefish ragu with salsify and green almond, while larger plates to share take in whole fish such as plaice with wild garlic, capers and pickled dulse (the shop has its own seaweed counter). And of course there are oysters everywhere, presented with cucumber and apple vinaigrette on the side and the option to add the restaurant’s in-house caviar per oyster.

In a hurry? There are freshly prepared lunch boxes to take away, whether ready-to-eat sashimi sets and shellfish rolls or a miso black cod or Singapore chilli crab to put in the oven. After all, what else would you expect to find in Chelsea than London’s poshest ready meals?

The Sea, The Sea is located at 243 Pavilion Road, London, SW1X 0BP, United Kingdom

A cooling evening breeze is much appreciated after stepping out of the Tube exit at Notting Hill Gate. What is even more of a relief in the summer heat is that Kinz, a new Lebanese brasserie in the district, is only a few steps away.

Locals in the area may recognise the building from a previous incarnation. Designed by Sir Edward Maufe, it was a branch of Lloyds Bank. With tall ceilings and exposed brick walls, it has the restrained and almost clinical elegance that Maufe was known for. Yet, once you’re inside Kinz, his 1930s architectural severity is balanced with a warm and inviting atmosphere.

If you think the interior is reminiscent of Palestinian restaurant Akub, you are not mistaken. Founded by Rasha Khouri Bruzzo, co-owner of Akub, alongside brothers Jad and Karim Lahoud, Kinz blends authenticity and modernity in both its aesthetic and its food, highlighting the multifaceted flavours of Lebanese cooking.

‘The project is rooted in the food and traditions I grew up with – the small details, rituals and flavours that are passed down at home rather than written down. Kinz takes its name from the Arabic word for “treasure” and is our tribute to those treasures: cherished recipes, generous cooking, and the spirit of Lebanese food as it’s meant to be shared today,’ says Khouri Bruzzo. ‘It’s a place designed to feel as natural for everyday visits as it does for long, lingering meals.’

Wallpaper* dines at Kinz, London

The mood: a trove of authenticity and modernity

The interiors were spearheaded by London-based Fare Inc. Working with the pre-existing architecture, they implemented pockets of warmth by injecting colour. This is seen with the bright teal in the entrance deli space, which is broken up with a neutral tone in the central area. The ochre-hued bar and mezzanine glow from the far end. ‘Refined zones are needed in such a large space to create a more inviting atmosphere, yet we still wanted to highlight the original architecture of the space with pared-back tones that complement it throughout the main room,’ explains founder Annabel Harrison.

Above the heart of the dining area is a wine-red, oversized lantern that acts as a modern ‘sun’ for what feels like a courtyard-style space, albeit indoors. ‘The lantern [helps create the feel of] an elegant terrace, accentuated further by striped banquette seating and iron dining chairs,’ says the designer. ‘The red was chosen to add vibrancy to the otherwise delicately finished ceiling and original metal braces of the bank.’

The bank vault is converted into a wine room. A space that was built for security has been softened to allow for intimacy. ‘Lighting has been really important here, so there is pretty much no overhead lighting, only very low-lit wall lights and soft LED highlighting the wines. The walls and ceilings are drenched in Roman Plaster paint, which has softened the swathes of concrete and the steel beams, and we have a single, glass-grape pendant over the sharing table, for a playful nod to its purpose,’ says the designer.

The urban charm of Lebanon informed the practice’s design choices. Taking inspiration from Beirut’s metalwork, the studio designed iron screens to divide the retail and entrance area from the restaurant space, and continued this up the staircase and along the mezzanine edge to create a street-balcony feel. Harrison explains that they wove in squares of colourful seeded glass that glow in the sunshine and add a vibrancy to the space.

The food: a menu designed to be shared

The menu offers an array of flavourful morsels that showcase the best of the country’s flavours. Plates come out at similar times, creating a beautiful spread. To begin, we recommend the hummus, meat kibbeh (bulgar shells stuffed with spiced lamb and beef, with pine nuts and onions), and the spinach patayer, which are filled triangular pastries.

There are three salads, which add a refreshing zestiness to the savoury dishes. We suggest the fattoush, which is scattered with gem-like pomegranate seeds and fresh mint. A menu highlight is the warak enab – tender lamb cutlets resting on a bed of vine leaves and courgettes stuffed with fragrant rice and spiced lamb. But leave room for the flourless chocolate cake. It’s decadently delicious; you can’t go without.

The constant bringing and clearing of plates adds a sense of buzz to the atmosphere, giving Kinz the feeling of a welcoming local restaurant. It is easy to find comfort in the design’s small cultural details and the consideration of the menu, making you feel right at home.

Kinz is located at 50 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JD, United Kingdom

Nick Molyviatis spent his career in some of London’s most respected kitchens, including Kiln and Oma, before becoming co-owner of Singburi. For Zylia, he has teamed up with restaurateur Barry Karacostas, whose Cypriot heritage and two decades in hospitality informs the menu alongside Molyviatis’s Athenian upbringing. The result is a contemporary Greek-Cypriot taverna shaped by childhood memory, family recipes and professional experience – and a shared obsession with charcoal grills.

Wallpaper* dines at Zylia, London

The mood: Built on contrast

The idea for Zylia’s interiors took shape over several Cypriot beers in Nicosia. Architect and Red Deer co-founder Lionel Real de Azúa was being shown around Cyprus by Karacostas when the pair began talking about the contrast between sleek modern design and the pieces Karacostas had grown up surrounded by. ‘We wanted to bring together the confidence and elegance of the London hospitality scene with the warmth, generosity and familiarity of your giagiá’s dining table or local taverna,’ Real de Azúa says.

Delicate Lefkara lace sits against stainless steel tables and shelving, handwoven wicker bread baskets sourced from Limassol rest against stripped-back London brick, and a service counter is built from stone quarried at Gerolakkos. ‘Nothing is intended to feel nostalgic,’ Real de Azúa says, ‘but everything carries a sense of memory and patina.’ His reference point throughout was Diporto, the 139-year-old taverna in a basement near Athens Central Market. ‘The materials are simple, the proportions are right, and the beauty comes from authenticity.’

The other reference point came from the menu itself, with Molyviatis’s sheftalia – small, rustic, packing a punch – becoming a kind of metaphor for the design brief. ‘There’s a directness to both the food and the interior,’ Real de Azúa says of details such as traditional Cypriot tiles and green leather booths. ‘Warmth comes from texture, craftsmanship and use rather than embellishment.’

The food: Dip and mix

Those sheftalia appear as four chubby caul fat-wrapped pork parcels resting on sliced onion, parsley and sumac – but before that, order some bread, which arrives as a basket of oregano-flecked warm pitta to dredge through creamy-and-crunchy taramasalata with cracked carob rusk or smashed feta and yoghurt adorned with a roasted chilli pepper to mash up for heat.

Then it’s a case of pick-and-mixing your way through a selection of small plates such as Metsovone cheese balls slicked with honey, or a contemporary spin on spanakopita presented as a pastry stack of crispy hand-stretched filo, before hitting up the charcoal grill for a heap of chops (pork, beef or lamb), or the house special of milk-fed lamb shoulder kleftiko, a blanket of slow-cooked comfort food. Either way, a bowl of hand-cut chips is non-negotiable.

Wines are Greek, beers Cypriot and the cocktails a blend of cutting-edge mixology and Mediterranean ingredients: as creative a blend of heritage and here-and-now as the rest of this place.

Zylia is located at 6 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9HZ, United Kingdom

London’s Spanish restaurant scene has never been more varied or more vital. The city’s love affair with Iberian food stretches back decades – from the early champions who first put Manchego cheese on the map, to the tapas bars of the Noughties that made small-plate dining a way of life – but what is happening now goes well beyond chorizo and calamares.

Today’s Spanish London spans Basque grills, no-bookings tapas counters and neighbourhood gems devoted to regional cuisines, all underpinned by a shared reverence for quality ingredients and the pleasure of eating well without spending a fortune. That, at least, is the idea, although the final size of the bill is likely to depend on the amount of Spanish wine consumed. Here are the eight best places in London to sort your jámon from your jerez.

The best Spanish restaurants in London

Alta

This elemental-looking two-floor restaurant (a sibling to Japanese Moi on the other side of Soho) brings the live-fire cooking traditions of northern Spain’s Navarre region to Carnaby Street. Upstairs, beautifully presented plates of artfully sauced dishes excel with vegetarian options – try the oyster mushroom with shiitake and pine nuts – though there’s also 35-day aged sirloin to share. From mid-June, downstairs has become the more informal Bar Alta for pinxtos and vermouth.

Alta is located at 9 Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London W1B 5PW, United Kingdom

Arros QD

Quique Dacosta holds three Michelin stars for his eponymous restaurant down the coast from Valencia and the chef brings the same serious approach to bear on Spanish rice cookery at this Fitzrovia dining room. The paella valenciana – chicken, rabbit, garrofón beans, artichokes, veal and herb stock – is a revelation for anyone who think paella is just prawns, and if the 10 other rice dishes don’t appeal, there’s Atlantic octopus cooked on the six-metre wood-fired stove.

Arros QD is located at 64 Eastcastle Street, London W1W 8NQ, United Kingdom

Barrafina Dean Street

Cal Pep in Barcelona inspired this now five-strong group of tapas bars, but the no-reservations Soho branch is the most fun and closest to the spirit of Spain. Arrive before 6pm to avoid a long wait, but even if you do have to queue, there are few more pleasant ways to stand in line that with a glass of rosé cava in one hand and a plate of ham croquetas in the other. The straightforward cooking is based on quality ingredients: crinkly pimientos de Padrón, runny-yolked chorizo tortillas, or a fleshy-pink plate of gambas rojas.

Barrafina Dean Street is located at 26-27 Dean Street, London W1D 3LL, United Kingdom

Ibai

A Basque-accented steakhouse near Smithfield Market, Ibai specialises in Galician Blond beef from cows raised on grass pastures until the ripe old age of 16, by which point the meat has developed a rich pungency. Grilled over charcoal, it is the beefiest beef imaginable. Elsewhere are Cantabrian anchovies with arbequina olive oil and pâté Basque with truffle honey and grilled bread. The meat-importer owner’s smaller tapas bar Donostia and charcoal grill Lurra occupy opposite sides of Seymour Place in Marylebone.

Ibai is located at 90 Bartholomew Close, London EC1A 7BN, United Kingdom

Morito

This tiny offshoot of Sam and Sam Clark’s Moro grafts that restaurant’s North African sensibilities onto Spanish small plates. A handful of tables line the corridor-like space, but the counter is the place to sit – or at an outside table on vibey Exmouth Market when the sun is shining. Order the crispy chickpeas with chopped salad and tahini yoghurt.

Morito is located at 32 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QE, United Kingdom

Pizarro

Extremadura native José Pizarro has established himself as Spain’s unofficial food ambassador to Britain and Bermondsey Street is his embassy. For breakfast there’s his all-day dining spot Lolo’s and tapas at his no-bookings José; Pizarro is the chef’s full-scale restaurant that moves from small plates to more substantial main courses including a signature presa Ibérica of acorn-fed pork shoulder. The room, with its L-shaped marble counter, open kitchen and Spanish tiling, manages to feel both neighbourhood and destination.

Pizarro is located at 194 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ, United Kingdom

Sabor

At Sabor, Bilbao-born chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho distils her years of London experience into something more expansive than the standard tapas formula: a ground-floor counter where the classics are executed with contemporary flair, and a first-floor ‘asador’ devoted to regional cooking such as the showstopping Segovian suckling pig. The chef’s follow-up restaurant, Legado in Shoreditch, was awarded a Michelin star six months after opening in August 2025.

Sabor is located at 35-37 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BR, United Kingdom

Tranga

This long-running neighbourhood gem serves a daily-changing menu in which quality produce is given elegant treatment. Expect piquillo peppers stuffed with prawn bechamel and shellfish fumet, or a paella of Ibérico pork tenderloin, alongside a carefully chosen list of sherries and Catalan natural wines. The candle- and chandelier-lit interiors, strewn with vintage finds, are as attractive as the cooking.

Tranga is located at 61 Newington Green, London N16 9PX, United Kingdom

Eight years after closing Restaurant André in 2018 at what he called ‘a moment of perfection’, the Taiwanese chef André Chiang is back in Singapore. He has chosen to return inside one of Asia’s most mythic addresses: the former Raffles Grill at Raffles Singapore, a high-ceilinged room that has hosted coronation dinners and colonial galas since 1887. That year – the hotel’s founding – gives the 42-seat restaurant its name, and its culinary conceit: a menu that moves through time rather than through courses.

Wallpaper* dines at 1887 by André

The mood: whimsical grandeur

Inspired by the idea of a leafy, tropical conservatory, the Bangkok-based interior designer Bill Bensley has kept the room's colonial bones – arched colonnades, original herringbone parquet – while imprinting his trademark extravagance into every surface. Towering metal-foiled Traveller's Palms rise toward a trompe-l’oeil glass ceiling complete with powder blue sky and wispy white clouds hand-painted by Bensley, whilst mechanised punkah fans, their blades cut in the shape of great green hearts, flap slowly overhead.

A curved glass cabinet at the entrance displays the hotel's silverware collection, including antique pieces buried in the hotel grounds during the Japanese occupation and unearthed after the war; and at the far end, a raised semicircular bar – its stools monogrammed, its marble top deep enough to dine at – accommodates walk-ins and solo diners. The room is unapologetically theatrical, and no one minds at all.

The food: time, unravelled

Chiang spent over a year in Raffles Singapore’s archives, rifling and leafing through sepia menus from the hotel’s past. What he found was quietly startling, not least wild rose ice cream, turtle soup as a Victorian luxury, and Duck Apicius roasted with ancient Roman spice. The result of all this gastro forensics is a menu that Chiang has conceived as a time machine in which each course represents a different era, and each table, depending on what is ordered, sits in a different year on the 1887-to-present continuum.

In practice, this means an intriguing trawl through nearly 60 dishes – Victorian, Singaporean and Chiang's personal signatures all present simultaneously – that dismantles the conventional tasting sequence entirely. For those who prefer a guide, three formulas named after French cultural figures – Monet, Eiffel, and Bernhardt – offer a curated path through the labyrinth.

But the invitation to roam freely is the point. A preview tasting yielded Légumes en Vessie Sarah Bernhardt – vegetables cooked inside a pig's bladder using a Belle Époque technique all but vanished from contemporary kitchens – alongside a more contemporary East-meets-West Blanquette de Bak Kut Teh and a Green Curry King Oyster Mushroom that needed, besides sheer culinary chutzpah, no historical justification at all. ‘You can stop anywhere you want,’ Chiang says. ‘Mix and match. Decide which time period you want to go to.’

Unlike his previous restaurants, which he tends to close just at the height of their fame and move on, 1887 by André is conceived as something more permanent – a place, he says, that generations of diners can keep coming back to.

Appropriately, the kitchen is helmed day-to-day by Ben Wang and Roy Kuo, both trained and seasoned by Chiang at RAW in Taipei, a restaurant he ran, he says, as ‘a gallery, a museum, an exhibition hall’ whilst staging seasons of grand classic French cooking and VR dinners before closing it at the end of 2024. A culinary academy will open in its place later this year.

For a chef who returned his stars, closed his restaurants at their peaks and built a cooking school, 1887 by André feels less like a comeback story (which, of course, it is) than an act of custodianship – for a city, and a culinary culture, he has never really stopped calling home.

1887 by André is at Raffles Singapore, 1 Beach Road, Singapore 189673

Japanese hand rolls are, ahem, on a roll in London – this year we’ve already welcomed Kumori and Maki Nori to Soho, with Saltwater and Miokuru due later this summer. They all have Temaki to thank for their popularity – the Brixton sensation which earned a devoted following in south London and beyond for owner AM Dupee’s Californian approach to Japanese cuisine. Now, after four years south of the river, Dupee has upped sticks from Brixton to Mayfair to a new and significantly larger home, with an expanded menu to match.

Wallpaper* dines at Temaki Mayfair

The mood: Counter culture

Thessaloniki-based architecture and interior-design studio Adamidis designed the space to feel ‘modern, relaxed and a little bit Japanese-inspired’, says Dupee, who wanted minimalism without coldness in much the same way that the food marries Japanese precision to Californian mellowness. ‘We used artwork and texture to bring some warmth and personality into the restaurant,’ Dupee says, ‘with neutral colour and clean lines to let the produce really stand out.’

Upstairs is a stripped-back wooden chef’s counter for 14 diners, with handrolls passed directly over the oak. Downstairs is more restaurant-in-feel, with a softer, listening-bar vibe, seating gathered around a central counter and a dry-ager displaying the raw materials that end up on the plate.

The food: Roll with it

The restaurant takes its name from te (hand) and maki (roll), the no-chopsticks-required version of sushi believed to have been invented in the 1920s and inspired by American ice-cream cones.

Like all the best ideas, temaki is blissfully simple: pristine fish, vinegared rice and crisp nori, rolled to order and best enjoyed straight from the chef’s hand. The signature Temaki combines akami, otoro and caviar, while fillings such as prawn tempura, baked scallop and barbecued eel demonstrate the breadth of the format. The set menus that built the restaurant’s loyal Brixton following remain a cornerstone of the experience, providing an ideal introduction to Temaki’s Californian-inflected take on Japanese dining.

Also order a couple of rounds of Japanese small plates designed for sharing: some yellowtail sashimi here, some grilled aubergine with sesame sauce there, with some crispy rice topped with spicy trout for carbs, a gyoza of the day if you’re still peckish and, if you really insist on eating with your fingers, an A4 Wagyu slider. After all, who needs chopsticks?

Temaki Mayfair is located at 11 Maddox St, London W1S 2QF, United Kingdom

13 Rue François Sibilli has seemingly become the epicentre of Saint-Tropez’s summer social circuit. Two stone pillars, each bearing a discreet Dior medallion, open onto a herringbone brick path that heralds a sprawling manifestation of the maison’s universe, luring in both ritzy passersby and those with weeks-in-advance bookings. Here, the majestic boutique – with its pale blue shutters and ivy-clad façade presiding over the whole scene – showcases the latest creations by Jonathan Anderson alongside Riviera-inspired pieces.

Meanwhile, a chic café, open all year round and offering a delectable afternoon tea experience, faces a lush scene punctuated by a colourful stone totem by Swiss sculptor Ugo Rondinone and a carp-shaped gilt bronze sculpture by French visual artist François-Xavier Lalanne.

A new chapter in Dior’s Saint-Tropez story

New for this season is Monsieur Dior, a restaurant helmed by three-Michelin-starred Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco of Mirazur fame as a tribute to the late couturier. Its entrance is discreetly concealed, tucked into a garden beside the boutique where lavender, sunpatiens and cape plumbago grow freely, and the scent of jasmine drifts through the air. The setting is open to the sky, shaded by cream parasols with frilled golden edges and anchored by rattan details echoing Dior’s cannage motif: a geometric pattern of interlacing squares and diagonals.

Colagreco is no stranger to cooking in dialogue with the maison. The first iteration of Dior by Mauro Colagreco opened in Bangkok as a café in 2024, within a Dior boutique infused with Thai craftsmanship and flavours such as pandan and coconut. Saint-Tropez is its Mediterranean counterpart. To prepare for this collaboration, Colagreco spent a week in Paris, fully immersing himself in the Dior museum and the archive with a research team that included anthropologists, artists, writers and ethnobotanists alongside his cooks.

‘It made us leave our creative process,’ he tells me, from one of the café’s deep wicker armchairs. ‘In general, we take an ingredient or a culinary technique. Here it was a dress, a way of thinking of Monsieur Dior.’ Among the most unexpected discoveries: a cookbook. ‘Christian Dior cooked, and cooked with conviction. His recipes revealed more about the man’s sensibility – a love of simplicity, an attentiveness to quality – than any archive photograph could.’

Beyond their shared passion for gardens, the deeper connection is celestial. Christian Dior consulted astrologers before each collection, carried talismans and read the tarot. Colagreco, meanwhile, has farmed biodynamically for years – his calendars at Mirazur are determined not by season alone but by lunar cycles. When he began reading about Dior’s beliefs, something clicked into place. ‘The cosmic influence on the plants is one of the bases of the biodynamic techniques we use at Mirazur,’ he says. ‘It is much more known in winemaking than in agriculture. We follow a lunar calendar to grow our produce.’

The menus follow the rhythm of the day. Breakfast ranges from the pared-back Lever de Soleil to the more generous Rosée du Matin and Éveil Gourmand, centred on artisan breads, seasonal fruit and eggs cooked to order. Lunch is served as the three-course Déjeuner de Soleil, while dinner takes the form of the five-course Clair de Lune. Most ingredients arrive from Colagreco’s biodynamic orchards and vegetable gardens in Menton within 48 hours of harvest.

When I ask Colagreco what he would serve Monsieur Dior first, were he to be seated here with us, his eyes light up. ‘The Champ de Trèfle,’ he says without hesitation: a tartare of red Sicilian gamberoni with lime and wood sorrel, the scattered leaves standing in for the four-leaf clover Monsieur Dior never left home without.

At breakfast, the Casse-croûte truffé combines flaky brioche with a softly set egg, jasmine-infused cream and shaved summer truffle. The Mediterranean John Dory, wrapped in a zucchini flower and served in a saffron sauce (dubbed Drapé de Soleil), is among the menu’s standouts. During my visit, a special of Poisson Mille-Fleurs – the menu changes every three weeks – arrived covered in petals and herbs, assembled with the precision of couture embroidery.

The attention to detail extends to the smallest gestures: amuse-bouches served in rose petals, desserts finished with insect-shaped golden chocolates. The references are deliberate. Throughout his career, Christian Dior returned repeatedly to the garden as a source of inspiration, weaving flowers, leaves and insects into his collections. At Monsieur Dior, Colagreco translates those same motifs onto the plate.

The cocktail list continues the narrative. Jardin d’Étoiles, a pear and fig leaf cordial, references Christian Dior’s belief in fate and the lucky star he carried throughout his life, while Brume Marine is built around passion fruit and tomato distillate, drawing on Saint-Tropez and the couturier’s enduring relationship with the Riviera.

Towards the end of our conversation, I asked Colagreco what he most enjoys growing in Menton. The answer is not fruit or vegetables, but trees. ‘When you plant a tree, you plant it not for yourself, but for everyone that comes after you.’

Monsieur Dior by Mauro Colagreco is located at 13 Rue François Sibilli, 83990 Saint-Tropez, France

Birmingham native Aktar Islam is the chef-owner of the city’s Opheem, one of only two Indian restaurants in Britain to hold two Michelin stars (Gymkhana is the other). His original plan, however, was to open Opheem in London – an ambition now realised with the launch of Oudh 1722. The restaurant takes its name from the year Awadh (Oudh), the Mughal province of northern India, was established as an independent province. It marked the birth of a food culture that would thrive for more than a century in the royal city of Lucknow, and now in a three-storey listed Victorian building near Borough Market.

Wallpaper* dines at Oudh 1722

The mood: The texture of time

Islam worked with designer Polina Sychova on interiors inspired by the architectural language of Lucknow – ‘not in an obvious or decorative way,’ Sychova says, ‘but in its atmosphere. The softness of lime-plastered walls, the slightly faded tones, the way arches frame movement through space. There’s a quiet confidence to those interiors that I wanted to hold onto.’

Limewash surfaces create a sense of lived-in depth and texture across the two dining rooms and are paired with walnut joinery and mustard velvets; the effect is intended to envelop diners in a mood of soft intimacy. Green elements such as tiled surfaces and glass details introduce contrast without disrupting the calm. ‘They lift the space,’ Sychova says, ‘in the same way acidity or herbs lift a dish.’

Screened banquettes and smaller rooms, meanwhile, create what she describes as ‘a kind of pacing, similar to how a meal unfolds, with moments of openness giving way to moments of enclosure.’

The food: Courtly cooking

Lucknow was recognised by UNESCO in 2025 as a Creative City of Gastronomy and Islam has channelled that legacy by showcasing the precision and nuance of Awadhi cuisine. So while there is a tasting menu at Oudh, the à la carte is the best way to get the most from the kitchen, especially if you want to share.

Kick off with papads accompanied by notably fresh-tasting chutneys ahead of snacky plates of vibrantly coloured chaat and a headily spiced Herdwick lamb kebab. Larger plates include the slow-cooked dum dishes for which Lucknow is renowned; try the oxtail biryani, steamed to melting tenderness under its pastry lid. Curries include tandoori chicken with smoked tomato cream, which tastes like a rich take on butter chicken, best mopped up with coriander naan.

Ask the clued-up sommelier for advice on Oudh’s 300-strong wine list; the Muses Estate Mouhtaro, a rarely seen red Greek grape grown on the foot of Mount Helicon near Thebes, was a revelation with Indian cooking, like a mouthful of red cherries.

Oudh 1722 is located at 66 Union St, London SE1 1TD, United Kingdom

Last year, chef Daniel Patterson did something radical: He opened a restaurant in his own house, Jaca Social Club, with his wife Sarah Lewitinn. The critically-lauded dinner spot was a prelude to the couple's latest venture, Jacaranda, now open in Hollywood. Patterson, previously of Alta Adams in LA and two-Michelin-starred Coi in San Francisco, was lauded by Anthony Bourdain as one of ‘the most important voices in food,’ for his modern California cuisine. Jacaranda marks a return to fine dining, but with the relaxed dinner party vibes of the pair's at-home restaurant. Here's what to order.

Wallpaper* dines at Jacaranda

The Mood:

A uniquely refined dining experience with a relaxed, convivial atmosphere was brought to life by local architecture design firm Preen Inc. (Lucia and Badmaash). The transformation begins from the lilac-tinted floor-to-ceiling windows, that reveal a 30-seat dining room holding a commissioned painting by the Belgian-born artist Adele Renault of the restaurant's namesake jacaranda tree.

Much like a home, family art lines the grass-cloth-clad walls, but in this instance its by Lewitinn's great-uncle, Landès Lewitin –  a founding member of the New York art collective, The Club, which included Willem de Kooning, Isamu Noguchi and Robert Motherwell. Tying the interior together is a sprawling, 15-foot metal ceiling sculpture reminiscent of a jacaranda leaf.

The Food: seasonal gems

Patterson has returned to his distinctly Californian style of cooking with a 10-course menu showcasing many foraged seasonal, local ingredients, beautifully plated with pottery by a range of talents from Etsuji Noguchi to Ella Norlin.

Some of those creations might include grilled and raw vegetables in green juice of yerba santa, or soft tofu with fresh seaweed and caviar both perfectly presented as if it was for the cover of a magazine shoot. Habanero and saffron-laced steamed Kauai prawn is followed by earthy stuffed morels that lead way to the final savoury course of pepper-crusted duck with roasted blueberries.

Another cool twist is the option to choose your own beverage pairings, from wines to to fine sake to non-alcoholic options, which include sparkling elderflower kombucha or a rare aged oolong tea from 1978. Can’t decide? The team will concoct a hybrid option for the meal.

Jacaranda has also partnered with LocoL Community in Watts (co-founded by Patterson and chef Roy Choi) and hires directly from the nonprofit’s vocational training and development program.

Jacaranda is located at 6623 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038 United States

Capella Kyoto is many things: the long-awaited Japan debut of the Singapore luxury hospitality brand, Kengo Kuma’s reimagining of a former elementary school as a contemporary machiya, and now the home of SingleThread’s first international outpost. It’s a fitting homecoming for owners Kyle and Katina Connaughton, who spent years living and working in Japan before opening their acclaimed three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Healdsburg, California.

Wallpaper* dines at SoNoMa by SingleThread, Kyoto

The mood: foliage and flowers

Like the hotel itself, SoNoMa by SingleThread was designed by Hong Kong and Singapore-based Brewin Design Office. Here, the journey begins long before the first course arrives. Beyond a white noren curtain lies a residential-style lounge furnished with antiques and objects sourced from Kyoto’s auction houses and vintage shops, where a seasonal welcome drink and amuse-bouche ease diners into the evening before a sliding screen reveals the chef’s counter beyond.

The 12-seat dining room overlooks the hotel’s tsuboniwa courtyard garden through a floor-to-ceiling wall of glass. Cherry blossom, camellias, stone and still water form a living backdrop that shifts subtly as daylight fades, reinforcing the restaurant’s connection to seasonality. Custom tables and seating by Brewin Design Office are paired with table mats crafted by Tajiri-san of Lether Kyoto, while floral arrangements by Katina Connaughton and Capella’s flower team bring seasonal softness to the room. Timber, plaster and stone create a space that feels warm, tactile and distinctly Kyotoite.

Pay attention to the tabletop too. Handcrafted vessels by Hasu Yoshitaka, Nagatani, Kojima Kenji and Kojima Yosuke transform each course into a study of materiality, while cutlery by Yuichi Takemata, Kyo Amahare and Marunao sits alongside glassware from Sus Gallery, Kimura Glass and Austrian crystal specialist Zalto.

The food: ‘The story of the day’

Head chef Keita Tominaga grew up in Sonoma County, the region from which the restaurant takes its name. The title is also a play on the Japanese characters for imagination (so), possession (no) and space (ma). The resulting omakase reflects both worlds, weaving Kyoto’s seasonal produce together with ingredients from SingleThread Farm.

Spring announces itself through white asparagus with sweet shrimp and young burdock, before a sequence of beautifully judged small plates arrives: fava beans with Hokkaido sea urchin, spring sea bream sushi over matcha vinegar rice, and firefly squid sharpened with chrysanthemum chimichurri and aonori.

A standout dish of bamboo shoots, harvested each morning from a private grove outside Kyoto, captures the season’s fleeting nature, paired with tofu, lemon, and a finishing drizzle of SingleThread’s estate olive oil. Seafood is a particular strength. Kinmedai and sakura buri are dressed simply with shiranui ponzu and kohlrabi, while smoked silver cherry salmon balances delicate richness with plum and flower pepper. A silky clam chawanmushi, meanwhile, demonstrates the kitchen’s inventive twists.

The meal deepens with Nanatani duck, one of Kyoto’s most prized heritage breeds, slow-grilled over coals and served alongside spring cabbage, kumquat and seasonal Honda Miso. It is followed by one of the evening’s highlights: hairy crab rice enriched with herb butter and dashi. Desserts are equally assured, from satsuma mandarin scented with California bay leaf to Hokkaido milk and local honey.

The 440-bottle cellar leans heavily towards California but leaves room for discovery, including a thoughtful selection of Japanese wines, such as Pinot Noir from Hokkaido, and a sake programme that highlights Kyoto’s distinctive brewing culture.

SoNoMa by SingleThread is located at Capella Kyoto, 130 Komatsucho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 605-0811, Japan

Swedish chef duo Adam Dahlberg and Albin Wessman have opened some of Stockholm’s most popular restaurants in recent years. It started with their fine dining restaurant Adam/Albin in 2012, which was awarded a Michelin star in 2022, followed by Solen – an 800-square-metre vibrant restaurant in the heart of the newly developed meatpacking district – and the izakaya-brasserie Misshumasshu in the historic Birger Jarlspassagen in Östermalm.

The duo’s most ambitious project so faris Adam Albin, a new restaurant overlooking the Royal Palace, the Royal Opera and the Swedish Parliament. It is an evolution of their original fine-dining concept, with a focus on seasonal Swedish produce, while still incorporating flavours from around the world.

Wallpaper* dines at Adam Albin, Stockholm

The mood: Eclectic mix

The chef duo has teamed up with Swedish design agency Halleroed. Led by Ruxandra and Christian Halleröd, the agency is known for its sleek fashion stores for brands such as Acne and Toteme. Marking their first restaurant project, the duo has worked to align the interior with the gastronomy.

Guests move through a sequence of rooms, including a lounge where dark wooden panels create an intimate setting, and a large dining room with arched windows that flood the space with light. Svenskt Tenn chairs, handblown glassware by Simon Klenell, and steak knives by Sámi craftsman Jon Tomas Utsi are just some of the carefully chosen objects. The open kitchen creates the feeling of a rustic home rather than a strict fine-dining restaurant, complete with Italian orange handmade tiles, stainless steel worktops and wooden chopping boards.

Overall, Halleroed aimed to create an eclectic mix – not something strictly Swedish or international, but rather a blend of styles. ‘It was important not to confine ourselves to any one country or style, but to work more intuitively,’ Ruxandra Halleröd explains. While classic white tablecloths are present, other elements, such as the 1960s and 70s aesthetic, add a sense of contrast. ‘We wanted to introduce small clashes in the interior,’ she says, noting that it reflects the chefs’ approach: ‘fine dining with classic rock – exuberant yet relaxed.’

The art, curated by local gallery Magnus Karlsson, features Swedish artists. Highlights include a sun in glazed porcelain by Klara Kristalova in the lounge, an oil painting of a large pink sofa by Anna Bjerger in the dining room, and Jockum Nordström’s collage Europa in the private chamber. Even the wine cellar has been given attention – a metal assemblage by Lisa Jonasson designed to withstand the cold and humid conditions.

The food: Swedish produce with panache

Having been able to build their dream kitchen, Dahlberg and Wessman have made sure to include the details they missed in their previous one. During Wallpaper*’s visit, the on-site pastry chef prepares items such as croissants filled with cheese and onion for snacks, bread buns, and chocolate sticks for coffee.

With one seasonal tasting menu and a selection menu – where guests choose two starters, one main course and one dessert – the kitchen is in constant flux. ‘It also depends on what produce is available,’ Wessman says, pointing to a box with quail birds currently on the menu. ‘We now place a greater emphasis on individual ingredients, allowing them to stand out on their own.’

One of the first courses features blue-shelled lobster with smoked reindeer and blackcurrant leaf ponzu, presented on handblown plates by Klenell. There is also grilled Swedish squid with Noir de Bigorre lard, chestnut honey ice cream with meringue and scallop and wagyu cooked in elderflower juice – altogether, food that leaves you wanting more. Spices and flavours such as cardamom, fig and leaf cilantro hint at the chef duo’s mixed sources of inspiration.

‘We have thought a lot about what a fine dining experience is,’ Dahlberg says. ‘For us, it’s about the pleasure of food – not the most precise techniques or perfection. We’ve tried to create an experience that goes beyond the food: it’s the chairs you sit on, the service you experience, and the overall ambience.’

Adam Albin is located at Regeringsgatan 2, 11 53 Stockholm, Sweden

'Institutional restaurants are not generally considered places that are very sensory, romantic and interesting. They tend to be a very intentional sidebar to what is the main focus, which is academic and cultural excellence,' observes Robin Alesch who, with her husband Stephen, co-founded the New York design studio Roman and Williams.

The duo recently partnered with Sotheby’s on Marcel, a new continental restaurant in the auction house’s new-ish home in the iconic Breuer building on Madison Avenue. 'The fact that it was Sotheby’s, and not a museum, gave us the freedom to create an eco-system where all of that can happen in one place,' Robin adds.

It also meant that the duo was immersed not only in the design of the space, but in creating the menu, the branding and even the rotating selection of art on the walls and design objects in vitrines. (Robin recounts a moment when she wished there were a Chagall to hang in the private dining room, only to be told, 'We have one!')

This is not the Alesch’s first go with either Sotheby’s or the restaurant business. Two years ago they designed an installation of works by the Nabis that were offered in Sotheby’s New York sales. And it’s been almost a decade since they debuted both their restaurant, La Mercerie, and their shop, Roman and Williams Guild, in the same SoHo space.

The 'restaurant-in-a-shop' idea appealed to Sotheby’s top brass. 'I think they really appreciated the intersection between art and objects in the Guild and about a space doing more than one thing,' Robin notes.

But Marcel presented an entirely different challenge: how to bring warmth, movement and intimacy into one of New York’s most imposing brutalist interiors without diminishing its force. 'The building is this big, powerful being, but we’re not afraid of it,' says Stephen. 'We love this beast. We want to dance with it.'

Wallpaper* dines at Marcel

The Mood: Brutalism gets a softer side

The dance they chose was less go-go and more stylized social dancing of the mid 1960s, channeling the tension between weight and lightness that defines Breuer’s work, while simultaneously 'standing up to Breuer and bringing something new,' Robin adds.

The strategy was a variation of divide and conquer, as one portion of the restaurant is landmarked, and the other is not. A unified narrative was achieved through materials; Robin points out that Breuer used bronze, walnut and granite, so the team' 'really lucked out,' (and added silver and glass to the mix). Walnut walls and ceilings envelop guests in the non-landmarked portion of Marcel, which includes the bar, set with vintage Bauhaus stools and vintage Breuer lamps, and the kitchen.

Early in the design process, the designers made a fortuitous discovery: Breuer had designed custom hardware for a model house he built in MoMA’s sculpture garden in 1949, but it had never been put into production. Turns out that E.R. Butler (a specialist in architectural hardware) had the original drawings in its archive, made the pieces for the restaurant and also available on their site).

The food: Madison Avenue, à la française

Marie-Aude Rose, who also oversees the menu at La Mercerie, is chef-partner at Marcel; she, along with executive chef Juan Moncalvo, created a menu descried as 'continental with a French emphasis.' Which translates to dishes including escargots and côte de boeuf but also a chicken paprikash (rumoured to be based on Breuer’s mother’s recipe) and a 'Que voulez-vouz' section where one can choose their cut of steak, or preferred fish, and have it prepared to their liking. Best yet: diners can select an accompanying wine from Sotheby’s own cellar (although those who order a martini will find it served in a weighty brutalist coupe of sorts). Marcel is also home to La Mercerie Patisserie, a bakery and café open all day and offering coffees, pastry, tarts and other treats, to stay or take away.

Retail plays a discrete but significant role in Marcel. Much of the art on the walls is for sale, as are the items displayed in vitrines. If diners fancy the chair they are sitting on, their brutalist martini glass, or one of the table lamps, they’re all part of the Marcel collection available through Roman and Williams (said collection also includes a bar cart, credenzas, a large selection of glassware and lighting).

Truth be told, this may be the easiest way to 'experience' Marcel as the restaurant is booked weeks in advance. Part of that is undoubtedly due to the highly competitive nature of New Yorkers who absolutely must get to the buzziest new place before their friends. But it’s also because Marcel is very of its environs (it can be viewed from the street, and is especially cinematic at night) and feels like it has always been there.

'The building hasn’t had a powerful [restaurant] inhabitant, a committed inhabitant, in a long time,' Robin notes, adding 'We really wanted to make something committed.'

Marcel is located at Marcel 945 Madison Ave New York, NY 10021. Book here

Casele began with a Sunday walk. Raffaele Colonna – the restaurant’s German-Italian owner, chef, host and sommelier – was strolling through Glockenbach, one of Munich's more colourful neighbourhoods: dense with independent addresses, shaped by a long queer history along Müllerstraße, and the kind of place where a culturally alert crowd still does its own grocery shopping. He chanced upon a vacant shop on the street: the former Schlagbauer, a family butcher that had anchored the neighbourhood for 75 years before closing in March 2024. Colonna recognised its potential immediately.

Wallpaper* dines at Casele, Munich

The mood: A mash-up of mahogany and British racing green

Casele – short for Casa di Raffaele – is what followed: a southern Italian restaurant and bar with no interest in diluting its provenance for its postcode. Somewhat quixotically, diners enter through the bustling kitchen and into a courtyard festooned with the hanging laundry of the building’s residents above. One half expects a young Sofia Loren to lean out over a balcony crooning a saucy ditty, which is the point. ‘It does not read like a branded restaurant concept,’ says Colonna, ‘but more like an extension of its host – personal, informal, a little idiosyncratic.’

Local design studio, Holzrausch – founded by Tobias Petri and Sven Petzold – worked with Colonna to keep the butcher’s shop skeleton intact. ‘Instead of smoothing the past away,’ says Petri, ‘we kept the old counter, the cooling rooms and the logic of the place alive.’

Around that armature are layers of coffered timber ceilings, pale glazed wall tiles, dark green stone at the bar, stainless-steel elements and brass lighting. Velvet banquettes in British racing green – a nod to Colonna’s love of classic cars – sit alongside blush-toned upholstered chairs and vintage pieces. One room goes further still: a boardroom from a large Munich insurance company was rebuilt on a one-to-one scale inside the restaurant, giving that corner of Casele a strangely intact, almost cinematic second life.

Art circulates rather than decorates: mirror works by Alexander Deubl and lighting pieces by OHA here, mixed-media works by Stefanie Seethaler and flash photographs by Dylan Don there. ‘The logic is intuitive rather than formal,’ says Petri of the curation. ‘Whatever feels stranger, sharper or less expected than the obvious choice.’

The food: Naples by way of a Glockenbach butcher’s shop

Channelling Colonna’s own heritage, the menu is unapologetically southern Italian: fried octopus with chickpeas and Sicilian capers; aubergine involtini with Provolone DOP and San Marzano tomato; Paccheri Genovese with beef shank and eight-hour onions. ‘My cooking is built on product and memory,’ he says, ‘but handled with enough precision to keep it from turning nostalgic.’

The wine list – Ferrari Perlé 2018, Antinori Tignanello 2022, Gaja Barbaresco 2012, several vintages of Sassicaia – reflects years of nurtured relationships with producers, estates visited, and long evenings with the growers behind the bottles. At the bar, the cocktail programme is as idiosyncratic as the interior. ‘Guests can simply say what they feel like drinking,’ says Colonna, ‘and have something mixed around that.’

Casele – Cucina e Bar del Sud is located at Müllerstrasse 25, 80469 Munich, Germany; Reservations essential; the dining room is currently booked three to four months ahead. Walk-ins welcome at the bar.

Dining at MA/NA Mayfair, the new restaurant in one of London's swankiest neighbourhoods, not only means a tummy-full of some of the most delicious, authentically Japanese food in town (its owner, Thesleff Group, is also behind Los Mochis, Juno, Luna Omakase and Sale e Pepe); it also provides the perfect setting for fun, convivial meals with friends – a spot that is luxurious but also comfortably relaxed and friendly, chic yet unassuming.

Set a stone's throw from Hyde Park, MA/NA combines a number of things. There are quality ingredients and delicious cocktails (you cannot go wrong with the Blistered Margarita, a mix of Patrón Silver Tequlia, lime and blistered jalapeño agave that makes for an elegant flavour with a suitably spicy aftertaste); comfortable music levels (yes, you can be immersed in uplifting tunes and hold a conversation with ease); and importantly, friendly, but discreet, and knowledgeable staff who make you feel like the restaurant's lounge and main floor are a perfectly calibrated extension of your living room.

Wallpaper* dines at MA/NA Mayfair

The mood: warm yet energetic

MA/NA takes its name from the Japanese philosophy of 'mana'. At its core lies the belief that ingredients carry power – an invisible and sometimes imperceptible force of life. Inspired by this, the restaurant aims to draw on the quality of its culinary ingredients to create and enrich the dining experience. This translates into the food and drink options, of course, but also the space, which displays touches of Japan, designed by Los Angeles-based studio OV&CO with lighting by dpa lighting consultants.

Set in brown and golden tones – 'serene warmth of a Kyoto autumn with the energy of Tokyo at night', the designers explain – the interior is cocooning and refined (brown represents the current chromatic zeitgeist, after all).

Occupying a generous, long, ground-floor space divided into sections via clever level changes, MA/NA guides you through its lobby into a lounge and bar area, where expert bartenders are ready to mix up your favourite cocktail. A taste chart on the menu, indicating drink options according to flavour character ('refreshing', 'umami', 'spirituous' or 'fruity') can help you decide what you feel like (non-alcoholic options are also, of course, available).

A couple of steps down is the main dining floor, anchored by a handblown Magma lighting installation by EWE Studio, while a private dining room for up to 20 guests is on offer for more intimate gatherings.

The food: rich and hearty, yet delicately Japanese

A restaurant inspired by a concept centred on the ingredients' life force and nature's invigorating power promises a discerning menu, and MA/NA Mayfair delivers. Be it a starter, main dish, or late-night cocktail, there's palpable energy and effortless balance at MA/NA.

The restaurant's menu is led by executive chef Leo Tanyag. The à la carte menu has a bit of everything – vegetarian, fish and meat, while everything is gluten-free. Classic Japanese flavours, such as O-Toro Tartare, Japanese teriyaki mushrooms, sesame, Wagyu tenderloin and wasabi come in hearty portions. We recommend ordering to share.

Our personal highlights? Iwa-ebi Wasabi (rock shrimp tempura and wasabi mayonnaise make for a combination that is hard to resist); nasu (classic, buttery miso aubergine); rich (but not too rich) scallop maki; and the restaurant's signature A5 Wagyu Ishiyaki steaks, as soft and refined as you'd expect.

Indeed, MA/NA is one of the very few London restaurants that are officially certified to serve Kobe beef, coming exclusively from the Tajima strain of Japanese Black cattle raised in Hyōgo Prefecture.

Everything can be accompanied by wine or sake, and the house somelier is always at hand to help with the selection. Sake's delicate flavours can be swapped for playful cocktails back at the bar, after the meal. The drinks programme is orchestrated by Thesleff Group's bar director Pietro Collina (of Viajante87, and formerly of Nomad, Side Hustle and Eleven Madison Park), so you know you are in good hands.

MA/NA Mayfair is located at 30 Upper Grosvenor St, London W1K 7PH

This new London Fields dining room in the old Papi space has impeccable neighbourhood credentials: chef Mike Bagnall is the brains behind the ongoing Elm residency, currently at the Montpelier pub in Peckham, while his co-owner and general manager Dylan Walters is formerly of listening bar Bambi. So far, so cool London cliché, but the pair are bringing something new to the capital, with an emphasis on the cooking of Abruzzo, the rugged region halfway down the Adriatic side of the Italian peninsula.

The mood: Between Hopper and Hackney

Bagnall and Walters designed and renovated the space themselves on a self-funded budget. Abstract paintings by Leevar Spies hang on the walls, though the restaurant’s guiding artistic spirit is the life-sized print of Edward Hopper’s Soir Bleu that has pride of place in the light-filled dining room.

'The painting pictures a clown dining in a Parisian bistro,” Walters says, “living in a strange, liminal space, seen through a slightly alienated, theatrical lens. Hopper does a fantastic job of referencing European bistro culture as an outsider. In turn, Auguste is less about recreating the European café than staging it.'

Other decorative touches include natural wine bottles displayed along one wall of a dinky bistro-like dining room. The hand-varnished plywood shelves are meant, Walters says, “to be reminiscent of those you would find on a temporary stage set.” If the restaurant’s name is a misdirect – Hopper’s fag-in-mouth clown is a white-faced Pierrot, rather than a red-nosed Auguste – so too are the stylings: what comes out of the tiny open kitchen is Italian trattoria, not French bistro.

The food: All things Abruzzo

Bagnall’s menu is built around arrosticini – the flame-grilled skewers that are a traditional speciality of Abruzzo, here rendered with cull yaw, liver and wild boar, and perfect for sharing across the four-seat chef’s counter. But there’s more to Auguste than meat on sticks. Top-notch sourcing is also evident in La Latteria stracciatella served with black iberico tomatoes, and crème fraiche cappelletti bobbing in a lamb brodo.

Bagnall used to live in Abruzzo, and his affinity for the region's produce extends to its wine. Expect to find Abruzzese grapes such as Montepulciano on Auguste’s list of low-intervention bottles, alongside Negronis and savoury martinis.

Serving simple Italian food and drinks in a small dining room offers no space for clowning around – but Auguste’s charming owners deliver an impressive performance.

Auguste is located at 373 Mentmore Terrace, London, E8 3DQ

A new all-day café has sprung up in Vancouver’s downtown, with a space inspired by North American nostalgia. Behind the interiors is Vancouver-based McKinley Studios, who took inspiration from the 1990s – baseball clubhouses, early record shops, and varsity iconography – for the 2,800 square-foot space. McKinley Studios worked collaboratively on the interior design with owner Jess Reno, who previously founded the award-winning Nemesis Coffee (ranked the top coffee shop in Canada by the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops 2026 list).

Bam Bam, Vancouver

‘As soon as you walk in, there’s an emphasis on immediately feeling the social aspect and a buzz of activity,’ says architect Walker McKinley, the founder and CEO of McKinley Studios. ‘You’re greeted by the team, the music is front and centre, and the experience unfolds naturally from there.’ Walking in, waxed stainless steel counters stretch across the space, with a curved cherry veneer bar. Built-in speakers pay homage to founder Reno’s love of music, as well as the record shop nostalgia inspiration. On the countertop, an enticing array of donuts and pastries sit on stainless steel pedestals, all baked in-house.

Anchored by warm woods and steel, the rest of the interiors comprise distinct yet interconnected spaces that balance nostalgic references with a futurist sensibility, underlining the design with a freshness and dynamism. ‘Jess and the team wanted to build an experiential world,’ says McKinley. ‘Our approach was to create a series of episodic spaces across the interior, each focused on different moments.’

A retro-futuristic metallic sofa and armchair are a compelling centrepiece, while a vibrant green communal banquette table is accented by an orb-like chandelier from Vancouver lighting studio A-N-D (the brand’s Pebble sconces also feature near the entrance). A dedicated retail space with powder blue lacquer shelving displays the Bam Bam’s debut apparel collection, which draws inspiration from vintage varsity apparel and features their bulldog iconography. Throughout, paintings from Filipp Jenikae reference early hip hop artists and street photography.

The menu at Bam Bam is playfully nostalgic. Classic coffees are served alongside speciality drinks like a cherry pie matcha, an apple pie latte, and diner-inspired cream sodas. A rotating assortment of pastries is on offer, such as a strawberry shiso doughnut or a honey sea salt roll, alongside a menu that features crispy fried chicken sandwiches. A selection of cocktails, such as a strawberry shiso negroni or hot honey margarita, extends the enticing nostalgia into the evenings.

Bam Bam is located at 160 W Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6B 4P4, Canada

50 Willow Street has form when it comes to Japanese restaurants: the Shoreditch address was home to London’s first Nobu Hotel before reopening last year as the Aethos. The new in-house restaurant has big shoes to fill, but Mitsu has headed in an edgier direction to Nobu, seeking to transplant the energy of east Tokyo’s street culture into the streets of Shoreditch.

Wallpaper* dines at Mitsu, London

The mood: east Tokyo comes to east London

‘Japanese urban street food and the social vibrancy of Shoreditch are the main inspirations behind Mitsu,’ says Óscar Engroba, co-founder of Astet, the Madrid-based studio that designed the restaurant. ‘We’ve brought these two universes together to create a contemporary vision of an izakaya that feels as if it has evolved over time: a lived-in, warm space with a strong and vibrant energy.’

From the street, the raw concrete façade of the Aethos has been marked with the restaurant’s name in oversized lettering; once inside, guests arrive through an entrance corridor of LED arches and throbbing beats. ‘What truly influenced specific design elements was the essence of Japanese heritage and the urban character of Tokyo in the 1970s and 80s,’ says Engroba’s Astet co-founder Ala Zreigat. ‘It was a period marked by glowing neon signs and dynamic graphics that shaped the city’s visual landscape.’

Mitsu’s visual landscape is shaped through filtered layers. Light passes through shoji-inspired glass and large backlit panels integrated into the walls, while partition screens between tables create intimacy. The interior’s most dramatic feature is the noren – traditional fabric hangings found at izakaya entrances – reimagined as large pieces suspended above diners and hand-painted with motifs evoking saké.

The food: The full izakaya experience

The menu offers a greatest hits of the modern Japanese repertoire. Kick off with snacks of spicy edamame and shishito peppers before grazing your way through small plates of chicken karaage, pork sandos and soft-shell crab tempura. There’s raw fish too – maki and temaki, nigiri and sashimi – but the centre of the open-kitchen action is the fire and smoke from the robata grill, which delivers everything from Brixham turbot with yuzo miso to unadon: sticky fillets of lacquered grilled eel served atop a bed of omelette.

To drink, a collaboration with Suntory delivers Japanese whisky on draft, served as highballs paired with three bespoke sodas – yuzu, sakura blossom, and apple and pea – alongside a saké list developed with Kanpai brewery in Bermondsey: just the thing to lubricate the vocal cords before hitting up the karaoke room. Prefer to listen to the professionals? There are DJ decks outside on the terrace.

Mitsu is located at 10-50 Willow St, London EC2A 4BH, United Kingdom

In the hands of a skilled kitchen, a tasting menu distils the chef’s vision into a thoughtfully orchestrated sequence of dishes that offers guests a perfectly balanced kaleidoscope of texture and flavour. And while once a tasting menu was synonymous with haute cuisine – usually French, often unpronounceable and served against the starchiest and stiffest of fine-dining backdrops – London’s tasting-menu scene today embraces everything from West African and Indian to Mexican and vegan, often without a starched tablecloth in sight.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the sky-high pricing; the figures quoted below are for dinner, but do check before making a reservation as they have an alarming tendency to increase. Eating at lunchtime can be significantly cheaper and represent outstanding value for the quality of cooking and service on offer. Many of the restaurants below also offer vegetarian, vegan and pescatarian tasting menus as an alternative to the meat-based showcase: again, consult the restaurant’s website. After all, why settle for three courses when you can have 13?

Akoko

One of only two Michelin-starred West African restaurants in London, Akoko is more traditionally fine-dining formal than its fellow Fitzrovia Michelin star Chishuru. The 10-course tasting menu draws on techniques gathered from across Africa and applies them to British ingredients with striking results. The chef’s counter overlooking the open kitchen is the best seat in the house, though the terracotta-toned dining room – bespoke cutlery, handmade crockery, a playlist of Nigerian pop – is atmospheric from any angle.

10 courses, £130; wine pairing, £100

21 Berners Street, London, W1T 3LP, akoko.co.uk

Bibi

The JKS group – Gymkhana, Trishna, Ambassadors Clubhouse – has an unerring eye for talent, and Chet Sharma, who swapped a PhD in physics at Oxford for a career in professional kitchens, is among its finest promotions (Sharma was development chef at three-star Moor Hall before JKS). Academia’s loss is hospitality’s gain, with Sharma’s scientific exactitude now applied to an Indian tasting menu of sophisticated spicing and high-end ingredients. Read our review of Bibi.

Five courses, £145; wine pairing, £125 or £395

42 North Audley Street, London, W1K 6ZP, bibirestaurants.com

Bonheur by Matt Abé

Gordon Ramsay has entrusted the former Le Gavroche site to his protégé Matt Abé. The Sydney-born chef has made the space entirely his own – warm ochre and peach tones, yellow leather tabletops – and the cooking follows suit, with Abé’s total creative freedom finding expression in the likes of Cumbrian 125-day-aged Blue Grey sirloin developed exclusively for the restaurant with Lake District Farmers. The option of a five-course tasting menu is a godsend for lighter appetites. Read our review of Bonheur by Matt Abé.

Five courses, £195, seven courses, £225

43 Upper Brook Street, London, W1K 7QR, bonheurbymattabe.com

Core by Clare Smyth

The first and only British woman to hold three Michelin stars, Clare Smyth designed every aspect of her Notting Hill restaurant herself, from the marine-grade leather tabletops to the custom-made glassware and furniture and the bespoke suits worn by the staff. First-timers should order the Core Classics menu of signatures such as the Charlotte potato with dulse beurre blanc and herring and trout roe; regulars, of whom there are many (including many celebrities) go for the latest creations on the Core Seasons menu.

Seven courses from £255; wine pairing, £175

92 Kensington Park Road, London, W11 2PN, corebyclaresmyth.com

Humble Chicken

Half German, half Japanese chef Angelo Sato made his name with the Humble Chicken yakitori concept, before really letting his creativity take flight with a 16-course omakase menu, served to just 13 guests per sitting around a completely open kitchen. His ambition has been rewarded with two Michelin stars in recognition of a personal approach that draws on both his Japanese childhood and his time in top European kitchens. As everything is prepped fresh daily, dietary requirements cannot be accommodated.

16 courses, £235

54 Frith Street, London, W1D 4SJ, humblechickenuk.com

Ikoyi

The lengths Jeremy Chan goes to in order to source his produce – driving to the Pyrenees for citrus, to Munich to select his caviar in person – tells you something about the intensity of what arrives on the plate at this 22-cover open-kitchen dining room, one of only two UK restaurants on the World’s 50 Best list (Kol is the other). The 14-course menu is based on micro seasonality, with daily changing ingredients treated to incredibly labour-intensive preparation and presentation. The result is a thrillingly unique cuisine unlike anything you’ve ever tasted before. And it also won a Wallpaper* Design Award in 2023.

10 courses, £380

180 Strand, London, WC2R 1EA, ikoyilondon.com

Kol

Before opening in Marylebone in 2020, Kol’s chef-owner Santiago Lastra spent two years immersing himself in British produce, learning that gooseberries can replace lime in summer and Bramley apples mixed with pine do the same in winter. The resulting tasting menu is rooted in the flavours and traditions of Mexico but made entirely from British ingredients, as exemplified by the signature dish of langoustine taco with sea buckthorn. Equally creative desserts, meanwhile, are served downstairs next to an open pastry kitchen.

Seven courses, £145; wine pairing from £95

9 Seymour Street, London, W1H 7BA, kolrestaurant.com

The Ledbury

Brett Graham’s three-Michelin-starred Notting Hill restaurant now has a more seductive, evening-appropriate interior of mirrors, marble and softer lighting, but the precision of the cooking remains as laser-focused as ever. Mylor prawn spiked with jalapeño and English wasabi; wild Cornish seabass ‘en farci’; Herdwick lamb served in two courses: the eight-course tasting menu is a procession of impeccable cooking that rewards the kind of diner prepared to give a meal their full and undivided attention.

Eight courses, £295; wine pairing, £160

127 Ledbury Road, London, W11 2AQ, theledbury.com

Plates

Kirk Haworth adopted a vegan diet following a diagnosis of Lyme disease in 2016, and his menus at the UK’s first Michelin-starred plant-based restaurant reflect the healing ingredients he believes have helped him manage the condition. The eight-course tasting menu uses whole, organic produce to achieve multi-layered flavour and texture, served in a low-lit dining room where the centrepiece chef’s counter has been made from reclaimed London timber, and textured walls incorporate ingredients from the menu such as buckwheat and quinoa.

Eight courses, £109; wine pairing, £75

320 Old Street, London, EC1V 9DR, plates-london.com

Sketch Lecture Room and Library

The three-Michelin-starred segment of Sketch is reached via one of the most theatrical approaches in London dining – past Swarovski-encrusted lavatories and artwork that wouldn’t disgrace the Saatchi Gallery – before guests settle into a former Christian Dior atelier where ivory leather walls, tables spaced at almost antisocial distances and a ratio of one staff member per guest set the tone for spectacular cooking overseen by French masterchef Pierre Gagnaire.

Seven courses, £225; wine pairing from £165

9 Conduit Street, W1S 2XG, sketch.london

Milan Design Week has come and gone but, luckily, if you live in Los Angeles that is, you can keep the party going, thanks to Bar di Bello, a new Italian eatery now open in Silver Lake. The restaurant, located in the Sunset Row complex at the heart of the neighbourhood, is a seductive new concept from a team of hospitality heavy-hitters that brought locals spots like Gigi’s (now defunct), Wexler’s Deli and Nomadica. With interiors that nod to Milanese landmarks like La Scala and Negronis just as large, Bar di Bello is sure to transport you back to the streets of Brera in no time.

Wallpaper* dines at Bar di Bello

The Mood: Italian and LA icons

Bar di Bello's entrance is almost undetectable, tucked-away behind a wall of red velvet curtains. A customer slides in, and the drapes are immediately closed again to keep the ‘secret’ safe inside. Designer Dean Levin of Los Angeles-based 22RE pulled inspiration from storied establishments in LA and Milan alike, including Musso & Frank, La Scala and Giorgio Baldi as key references. ‘I’d consider them icons of Italian dining in Los Angeles,’ Levin says.

The team also culled from recent trips to Milan and Paris. A red travertine central bar is a focal point upon entry but the entire room is ensconced in deep walnut custom millwork with Afra and Tobia Scarpa sconces and Vico Magistretti chairs as a nod to Italian modernists. The lighting was a key focus in shaping the atmosphere and was incorporated into the ceiling elements and throughout the millwork, using vintage pieces to balance the more modern forms. Levin and his team wanted the transportive space to feel ‘grand yet approachable, while still feeling intimate and elevated.’

The Food: Modern Milanese

You must start the meal with a palate-opening with either a tiny-tini, or a full-version of the greenhouse martini that mixes tomato water with gin. Or maybe a giant Negroni the size of your head is more your speed.

There are plenty of nibbles while you peruse the menu from flat bread style crackers in a trio of flavors (cacio e pepe was the most interesting), to addictive, salty fried olives. This can be followed by yellowtail carpaccio and a mushroom salad, but do order the trofie alla Genovese made in-house, laden with pesto, green beans and potato. Orecchiette with ragù bianco veal, guanciale, sage, and cream is also worth the carbs.

The already signature breaded chicken cutlet is doused tableside with a sauce of shallot soubise, guanciale and capers and is enough for two people to share, ditto the osso buco with saffron risotto and salsa verde. Leaning heavily on regions from in the ‘Mother country,’ the wine list was carefully curated by partner Kristin Olszewski with a mix of California labels as well.

BAR di Bello is located at 3300 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026 United States

Olympia has always been more than an exhibition centre. The Victorian venue hosted one of Britain’s earliest film screenings, and its Pillar Hall was transformed into a catwalk for London Fashion Week. Vivienne Westwood staged her debut collection, Pirate, here in 1981, while the west London venue also played host to gigs by Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. After five years of redevelopment, restaurateur Des Gunewardena (the co-founder and former CEO of D&D London) has brought the 30,000 sq ft hall back to life with Idalia, the first hospitality opening in Olympia’s £1.3 billion regeneration.

Wallpaper* dines at Idalia, London

The mood: Country house rebel

Robert Angell Design International has taken an 1880s space flanked by eight Corinthian columns and given it a contemporary twist. ‘We painted the ceiling with a patchwork of gold and cream abstract patterns that rebel against how a highly moulded ceiling should be decorated,’ Angell says. ‘It goes against tradition, much like the fashion designers and bands that performed here.’

Columns are draped with climbing plants, bold upholstery fabrics echo art and fashion and banquette seating is tailored with flowing and geometric shapes.

At the centre, an oval bar is crowned with translucent orange panels that bathe the room in a warm glow that Angell compares to ‘that punkish element of standing out amongst the crowd.’ Gold mirrors reflect the light throughout, while an oversized fireplace punctuates the far end of the room, bringing flames and theatre to a space conceived as a modern country house.

The food: Dressed to impress

‘Idalia is a grand celebratory room,’ Angell says, ‘and the menus reflect that with food and wine for celebration, not contemplation.’ Gunewardena has recruited two big hitters to deliver on that promise: executive chef Samantha Williams, formerly group executive chef for Angela Hartnett’s restaurants, and executive pastry chef Lorena Tommasi, previously head pastry chef for Jeremy King Restaurants.

Seasonal British ingredients are inflected with an international accent: whole wood-roasted turbot with shichimi togarashi butter and pickled daikon, or herb-crusted Herdwick lamb cutlet with courgette flower, rolled belly and ricotta. The signature dessert is the Vivienne Heel, a chocolate stiletto nodding to Westwood’s Olympia debut – not perhaps the footwear to show off in the guestlist-only Pepperbird bar downstairs, unless you want to take a Naomi Campbell tumble after a couple of cocktails.

Idalia is located at Pillar Hall, 5 Olympia Way, London W14 0EY, United Kingdom

Purveyor of artfully scuffed contemporary gastropubs, Public House unveils Cece’s, the latest addition to its portfolio of hot dining tickets, including The Pelican in Westbourne Park, The Hero in Maida Vale, Cotswold bolthole The Bull in Charlbury, and, most recently, The Hart in Marylebone. For their most garlanded opening to date, childhood friends James Gummer and Phil Winser, alongside hospitality veteran Olivier van Themsche, return to their roots to bet on something slightly different: an Italian restaurant with a hint of Hollywood in a quiet corner of Notting Hill.

Wallpaper* dines at Cece’s, London

The mood: a transportive portal

Less a hub for beer-sloshing conviviality, Cece’s is a refined, opulent haunt for a glamorous rendezvous. It might feel slightly out of place on the residential street it occupies, with its over-the-top biophilic façade and grand reflective copper entrance guarded by a sharply suited host – but that’s precisely the point.

‘We want people to feel like they have stepped into a different time. The interiors are like no others in Notting Hill. They are opulent and surreal, with low lighting creating something that feels almost cinematic. As soon as you step through the copper door, we want you to feel transported into a different world,’ van Themsche tells Wallpaper*. Inside, a two-level, somewhat mysterious restaurant unfolds like an eccentric members’ club, rich in character, where glossy finishes are juxtaposed with soft fabrics and a plethora of plants.

The food: Italian with a hint of Hollywood

As with the rest of the Public House restaurants, the menu is deliberately ascetic, focused on seasonal simplicity and serious sourcing. Italian in spirit, it opens with stuzzichini – small, rich bites such as crab, tomato and aioli crostini – before moving into antipasti – bream carpaccio with cucumber, or a well-judged fritto misto are among the favourites. For primi, do not miss the comforting pappardelle with ragù bianco, or tagliatelle layered with scarlet prawn and lobster.

The veal Milanese is recommended as the go-to for the secondi, best accompanied by a side of olive oil potatoes. Elsewhere, desserts remain classic, from chocolate torte with crème fraîche to ricotta and honey gelato. The wine list leans Italian, with considered detours through Burgundy, Bordeaux, and further afield.

Cece’s is located at 123A Clarendon Rd, London W11 4JG, United Kingom

If you’re a Hackney local, you may have seen a long, snaking queue curving around buildings, leading to a small corner site, its interior theatrically masked by a curtained entrance. Welcome to Logma, an Iranian-Iraqi bistro café on Goldsmiths Row in east London.

The bistro café was founded by the couple Ziad Halub and Farsin Rabiee, who wanted the space to be deeply connected to Middle Eastern culture and embrace the local community. ‘Logma’ is derived from the Persian, Arabic and Turkish word loghmeh, meaning ‘perfect bite’.

Inside Logma, the Iranian-Iraqi bistro café drawing crowds in Hackney

It all started in 2024, when Halub (born in London, with roots in Basra, Iraq) and his partner Rabiee (born in Colorado, with roots in Arak, Iran) began hosting supper clubs for friends and family drawn to their fresh dishes. This soon spiralled into takeovers at east London venues like E5 Bakehouse. In December last year, the couple stumbled upon a corner plot and decided it would be the place to set up shop permanently.

The offering centres on their kofte and aubergine sandwiches, alongside daily specials like fennel stew with saffron rice, served until they sell out. If you’re early, there are also tahini buns, which tend to disappear within the first hour of opening.

‘Our menu is in a state of constant motion, evolving as we explore regionality through the lens of seasonality,’ Rabiee and Halub tell Wallpaper*. ‘My recommendation is always to look towards the specials at lunchtime; they are the purest reflection of the current harvest and our exploration of it through an Iranian-Iraqi lens.’

On Wednesday evenings, the pair host Logma Lates, inviting 18 guests to gather around a communal, candlelit table or at the counter. It feels like stepping into someone’s home – expect to leave exceptionally full, buoyed by generous food and conversation.

‘Since we first met, we have been fascinated by the exciting overlaps and the glorious differences between the Iranian and Iraqi kitchen,’ the couple say. ‘These intersections are often regional; cultures naturally bleed into one another in areas where shared history extends far beyond modern borders, particularly in the Kurdish-speaking regions or the southern Gulf.

‘We explore this through a curation of techniques and ingredients that feel intuitively right together. In some instances, a dish will appear exactly as an Iraqi or Iranian would expect. In others, the combination results in something entirely new. And finally, some dishes simply sit beside one another like distant relatives meeting for the first time, each possessing its own distinct personality, yet making perfect sense in each other’s company.’

This symphony of flavour, culture and authenticity is proving a popular draw. At midday on the Wednesday of our visit, a queue of at least ten people has formed outside, while the inside is already packed with diners. As you step through the curtained entrance, the interior reveals a bustling, compact dining space, with a kitchen at the rear. At the front sits a large communal table, anchored by a floor-to-ceiling mirror, the menu scribbled on its surface in white marker pen.

On the right is a high seating area in a sleek butter yellow. It acts as a strategic divider, separating hungry guests from waiters busy taking orders and taking care of a steady flow of customers. A favourite detail is the delicate lace trimmings and ornate lighting, a quaint vintage note within an otherwise contemporary space.

The founders asked their close friends, design duo Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad and Farrokh Aman, to help bring their vision to life. ‘We focused on designing the atmosphere more than the space,’ Hashemi-Nezhad and Aman explain. ‘Not trying to recreate the past, but the idea of the bistro as it would have evolved in the present, indifferent to trends, and always asking ourselves the question, “What is a contemporary Iranian-Iraqi café in Hackney like?”

‘We looked in multiple directions: the way Western cafés and bistros influenced the atmosphere of such spaces in the Middle East; conversely, how the grand cafés of Vienna and Budapest took inspiration from the East. Simultaneously, we looked further back to more traditional coffee houses, as well as domestic spaces from our region.’

The designers, in close collaboration with the founders, curated a world that translates their lived experiences and visual memories. This is expressed through considered details such the ornate lace, as well as chandeliers and furniture. The overarching aim is to create an atmosphere of comfort and memory. As Hashemi-Nezhad and Aman summarise, visitors should feel ‘momentarily enveloped by the space through all five senses equally, and leave with a desire to return’.

Logma is located at 81 Goldsmiths Row, London E2 8QR, United Kingdom

Since opening in Downtown Los Angeles in 2013, BADMAASH has redefined what Indian cuisine can be. The restaurant, founded by brothers Nakul and Arjun Mahendro, gained notoriety for its cheeky takes on classics, like chicken tikka poutine and masala steak frites, and has expanded its footprint with locations in Fairfax and even a London pop-up. This spring, BADMAASH has launched its third and most elevated location in Venice, California with an art-filled setting on Abbott Kinney. 'Venice has always felt like a natural extension of our brand,' Nakul Mahendro says. 'It’s a place where creativity, culture and food intersect, and we felt it was the right time to bring our illest concept here.'

Here's what to expect.

Wallpaper* dines at BADMAASH, Venice

The mood: Elevated Brutalist hideaway

The Mahendro brothers’ vision melds culinary, culture and lifestyle, brought to life by local hospitality design firm Preen (whose most recent projects include Lucia, Maydan Market and Club 88). 'We’ve always wanted BADMAASH to feel like more than a restaurant,' Arjun Mahendro explains. 'Venice has a creativity and energy that really speaks to us. It’s the perfect place to bring our next chapter to life.'

The art-filled space starts right at the entrance with an installation piece in the form of a mottled charcoal and rust concrete service table holding wines and bubbly or as the staff calls it ‘amuse booze.’

Framed by blackened brick walls, the main dining room is dark and moody with pops of colour in the tie-dyed textiles and art, including a piece in the ‘gallery’ room by Action Bronson depicting characters from the video game classic Street Fighter. Food is served on marble and bone inlay tables with a nod to India but with California twist, thanks to denim and distressed leather banquettes designed by LA-based fashion designer Guillermo Andrade. The back bar lighting was designed by John Barlow, and inspired by the chest of gold from Pulp Fiction, with ivory and gold-tinted plaster walls by Guerin Swing. The final layer of the space leads to the ‘the Cave,’ a spot that's prime for VIP dinner parties with cosy red booths and a separate back entrance.

The food: Reimagined Indian comforts

The BADMAASH brand has expanded into the retail and lifestyle, with a butter chicken sauce so good, they had to bottle it and sell it online, and you have truly arrived when your Oatmilk Chai is carried at Erewhon. The restaurants became known for serving traditional Indian dishes alongside inventive reinterpretations, along with a strong natural wine program. Fans will be happy to see many of the signatures on this menu from the serrano chili and cheddar cheese naan; chicken tikka poutine with masala fries, cheese curds and beef gravy; and Dad’s famous coconut curry mussels, along with various lamb dishes. For the first time, cocktails also take center stage with an olive-oil washed dirty martini, a mezcal margarita or the soothing date jam (made in-house) with bourbon, Madeira and lemon.

BADMAASH is located at 1616 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291, United States

Super 8 is the restaurant group behind some of London’s coolest tables (Kiln, Brat), but distinction, not domination, defines its approach, with restaurants taking half a decade to develop. Chef Meedu Saad began planning Impala five years ago, when he was head chef of Kiln – and his debut solo restaurant has been worth the wait. Named after the 1964 Chevrolet that the chef used to drive on family holidays in Egypt, Impala has roared into Soho as one of the year’s hottest openings.

Wallpaper* dines at Impala, London

The mood: Concrete concept

Super 8 co-founder Benjamin Chapman has worked with the group’s long-term design collaborator, Dan Preston, drawing for inspiration on everything from Italian modernist architects Carlo Mollino and Carlo Scarpa to Friday-night markets in Cairo.

Preston has softened the concrete exterior of the 1960s building with an iroko-wood frontage, screened with timber blinds. Inside, the light from four industrial skylights is diffused through fabric panels suspended from a steel frame, while bespoke lighting by Joe Armitage, nodding to Mollino’s Casa Vladi Orengo in Turin, is hung across the bar tables.

Materials become visible as the day unfolds, with concrete pillars contrasted with polished veneers – though all eyes are on the open-fire grill, visible from almost every seat in the 90-cover space. The audio element is just as important as the visual, however. The bar at the front is framed by a custom-built speaker system fashioned from repurposed cinema horns.

The food: Thrilling grilling

Saad grew up in north London, where his first job was at a Turkish Cypriot grill on Green Lanes, before he spent a decade training in classical French kitchens, followed by eight years at Kiln, arguably London’s best Thai restaurant. Here at Impala, he’s putting a lifetime of influences on the menu, including research trips to Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean and Japan, all centred on the custom-built charcoal grill and wood-fired oven.

It’s not just any old grill, though. The charcoal is fanned down to soft white coals by hand, a technique for controlled, low-flame cooking that Saad picked up working with chef Toshi Akama at Ukiyo in Tokyo. As for the oven, it’s modelled on shared community ovens in Egypt.

What ends up on the plate, however, is based on British ingredients: grilled Tamworth pork sheftalia wrapped in caul fat; slow-cooked shoulder of cull yaw from Exmoor farmer Matt Chatfield, braised with jute leaves; and the signature dish of dry-aged duck from Cornish butcher Philip Warren, stuffed with black lime and chillies and roasted over wood embers with molasses – the dish that inspired Saad to open Impala when he first ate it at a friend’s house in Egypt.

Is the cooking authentically Egyptian? Maybe not, but it is authentically Meedu Saad –and it is absolutely, exhilaratingly unique.

Impala is located at 13, 14 Dean St, London W1D 3RS, United Kingdom

At the centre of Gourmega, a new restaurant in New York, there’s a single long table, topped with interconnected circles of Nubian alabaster. Guests sit around its unusually contoured edge on walnut chairs that, when placed back-to-back, resemble the arches of The Bronx’s High Bridge.

But Gourmega isn’t in the Bronx. In fact, it’s located in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The choice was an intentional one: Gourmega sits in what was known more than three centuries ago as Land of the Blacks – the first free African settlement in North America. Later on, it played host to many Black supper clubs.

Such references are at the heart of Gourmega, which was designed by award-winning Niamey, Niger; Zurich and New York-based Nigerien architect Mariam Issoufou for celebrated culinary collective Ghetto Gastro. The restaurant marks Ghetto Gastro’s first permanent, self-operated eatery and is a holistic celebration of both African and African diasporic culture. Every detail, colourway and material – as well as a closely curated seasonal chef’s tasting menu – nods to this rich source of inspiration.

‘One of the reasons I helped start Ghetto Gastro 15 years ago was because I was going to all of these restaurants and they were playing ‘90s hip-hop and I would look at the dining room and the kitchen and there was no representation of the people that created the style,’ says Jon Gray, Ghetto Gastro co-founder and Bronx native. Today, less than five per cent of Greenwich Village’s population identifies as Black. With Gourmega, Gray adds, ‘I wanted to do something to turn this on its head.’

Wallpaper* dines at Gourmega, New York

The mood: New York cool with sacred references

Gray set out to create a space as an immersive in-person experience, not just a social media ‘moment’. He wanted Gourmega to recapture the sense of discovery he felt when he first frequented downtown haunts like La Esquina and The Box two decades ago. He tapped Issoufou, an old friend, for the job.

‘I noticed that in many restaurants, couples and groups of friends sit together and spend much of their time looking at their phones,’ Issoufou says. ‘In my view, placemaking is ultimately about making people feel that they can appropriate the space, that it was made for them, with care.’

One of the main moves was the custom table, which breaks into smaller units for cafe seating during the day. During dinner hours, however, the pieces create a communal table, which allows for impromptu conversations among guests, not just those you came with.

The move is also a subtle rebuke of the ‘hegemony and patriarchy,’ as Gray puts it, of traditional European rectilinear tables and instead evokes the ancestral practice of gathering around a fire. ‘It’s more diplomatic and egalitarian,’ he adds.

Another key feature – a swinging semi-transient, semi-circular, yellow-toned door that separates the kitchen from the main dining space – evokes the sun, a divine force in many African cultures.

The kitchen is shared with Rethink Food, a long-established non-profit taking restaurant food waste throughout New York City and turning it into fine-dining meals delivered to neighbours in need. A similar spirit of resourcefulness informed many of Issoufou’s material choices: cork flooring, engineered wood wall panels limewashed in black. 'When the first African Americans arrived in this area, they too had to make do with whatever materials they could source to build shelter,’ she explains. ‘The contrast with alabaster is not a contradiction but an argument: humble and sacred materials in dialogue, the way communities themselves contain multitudes.’

Issoufou also incorporated bronze wall hangings by Nigerian designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello that evoke the Kingdom of Benin tradition of scarification, the scratching and etching of women’s faces to represent health and nourishment. ‘Because we’re close to King Street, we really wanted to think about the idea of honouring Queens, especially Black Queens throughout the diaspora and from the continent: Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba; Queen of Sheba and Nefertiti, but also revolutionaries like Nina Simone and Angela Davis. Artworks by Rashid Johnson and Hugh Hayden will soon follow.

The food: an intentional fusion

The dining experience – two nightly services with a maximum of 14 guests who reserve by word-of-mouth by DM-ing Ghetto Gastro on Instagram – is also in fact a carefully sequenced ritual. They enter through an unassuming garage door and are immediately ushered into a side-kitchen where Pot Likka – a collards and unani broth – is served from an altar custom built out of the USM Haller system. They’re then led into the main black-toned dining room and seated around the table where the chef’s tasting menu – right now a careful fusing of receipts and ingredients from Asian, African, and the Americas – continues to unfold. As the dishes arrive – the bluefin with rice and watermelon ‘Roll Play’ and N.O.T.I (Nori Butter Roti) – the Sun Door opens again and again, revealing what’s happening behind the scenes in the kitchen.

Aligned with Issoufou’s intersectional sustainability philosophy, the current menu reflects what Gray calls ‘cultural collusion.’ The first offering focuses on melding Asian and African influences with Americana, ‘not the white supremacy version but the Americas version: Chinese influences in Peru, the Japanese in Brazil, Indian curries throughout the West Indies,’ he explains.

‘I’ve always been a sampler, like a hip-hop producer that takes things that don’t typically go together; All of these ingredients can be used to create a new vernacular,’ Gray continues. ‘That’s what we want to do with food, space and everything else.’

Gourmega is located at 116 West Houston Street NYC 10012, USA

It’s rare to encounter a bistro built entirely around a vegan menu – rarer still for it to feel so instinctively right. The format’s inherent warmth and intimacy lend themselves naturally to plant-forward cooking, yet few have made the pairing stick. In Notting Hill, Holy Carrot proved there is an appetite, evolving from a cult pop-up into a neighbourhood fixture in just five years. Now, it heads east for its next chapter, settling into a quiet corner of Spitalfields Market. Founder Irina Linovich is still very much at the helm, with executive chef Daniel Watkins (also co-founder of Acme Fire Cult) leading the kitchen.

Wallpaper* dines at Holy Carrot Bistro, London

The mood: a dreamscape

Leave it to British designer Faye Toogood to etch out a bistro of dreams through her signature interplay of sculptural forms and raw materiality. ‘I wanted Holy Carrot Bistro Spitalfields to feel grounded in something ancient and elemental,’ she tells Wallpaper*. ‘A place where materials are honest and gestures instinctive – a playful, memorable space shaped by hand, by soil, by time.’

The snug room unfolds in a stripped-back palette of natural tiles, steel, linoleum and canvas, offset by a hand-painted mural in deep pinks. Figures and oversized vegetables emerge across the walls: a surreal ode to soil, sustenance and regeneration, where body and earth blur into one.

Furniture follows a similarly considered mix: antique pieces sit alongside contemporary and custom designs, including powder-coated steel bar stools upholstered in Opio and Orzo. ‘There’s a tension I enjoy between the everyday and the theatrical,’ says Toogood. By day, the space reads as light and utilitarian; by night, it softens: candlelight flickers from textured aluminium holders, white tablecloths begin to gather generous, colourful spreads.

Details reveal themselves gradually: a paper-sculpted candelabra; a downstairs anteroom lined with vivid bespoke tiles. On your way to the restroom, spot Studio Toogood’s Gummy Armchair in Opio Kiwi wool paired with a Cobble Side Table in Bottle green, set against a 1960s Italian floor lamp.

The food: divine vegetables

This is cooking that makes you want to declare: ‘I am what I eat’. Seasonal produce is treated with imagination, shaped by fire, fermentation and spice. Watkins, alongside head chef Maria Criscuolo, works closely with small-scale organic producers, embracing a near-zero-waste approach that honours each ingredient from root to leaf.

Start with coal-roasted beetroot paired with sharp ezme, or flatbreads enriched with fermented koji and silken tofu. For something deeper, the smoked chilli mushroom ragù delivers real depth and richness. The tempeh and smoked tofu schnitzel – finished with celeriac remoulade and a curry-leaning café de Paris butter – is a standout.

Cocktails follow suit: bold, layered, and playful. Heat is the restaurant’s take on the spicy volcán margarita – with pineapple, coriander, poblano chilli and sherbet – and lands with a lingering kick.

Holy Carrot Bistro is located at 61, 63 Brushfield St, London E1 6AA, United Kingdom

Revered restaurateur Jeremy King, whose era-defining London hotspots have included Le Caprice, The Ivy and The Wolseley, has recently launched his most ambitious undertaking to date, a bold reimagining of storied dining institution Simpson’s in the Strand, which closed in 2020.

Check mate: Simpson’s in the Strand, London

Founded in 1828 as a cigar-smoking coffee room, in 1848 it became Simpson’s Tavern and Divan, introducing the ritual of silver trolley service and table carving. By the late 19th century, it had evolved into both a bastion of British dining and a cultural nexus for those from the worlds of theatre, literature and politics. At the turn of the 20th century, it was acquired by the Savoy Hotel and, although the original building was demolished during the Strand widening scheme, its legacy was absorbed into the Savoy’s expansion, where it remains today.

‘I feel a responsibility to protect its character,’ says King. Long aware of Simpson’s cultural weight, he recalls ‘falling in love with it more than 40 years ago’. After securing ownership in 2022, King brought in Studio Shayne Brady, continuing a longstanding collaboration that includes recent openings The Park in Bayswater and Arlington in St James.

Shayne Brady describes Simpson’s as balancing ‘the soul of a theatre with the ritual of a grand dining room’. Rather than freezing the Grade II-listed building in time, the London-based studio’s approach instead layers a palimpsest of Victorian, Edwardian and art deco references into a contemporary dining destination that’s in touch with its heritage.

Central to the process was a line that King shared with Brady early on: ‘What would Simpson’s look like today if every custodian had treated it with care?’ It became a guiding principle. Treating heritage not as an architectural detail, but as an emotional memory, the studio played with storytelling rather than pure replication, while encouraging material authenticity. Timber panelling was revitalised, chandeliers were relamped and fireplaces reinstated.

Historic artworks remain, while new commissions, such as Michael May’s Four Seasons, were introduced in a considered dialogue with the building’s history.

Beyond the entrance, defined by sepia murals of chess players (the restaurant was once a home for international tournaments), arches and faux-marble columns, Simpson’s unfolds gradually across two restaurants, two bars and a ballroom. Each is imbued with its own unique undercurrent of theatricality that ensures each venue has a singular identity, while executive chef David Stevens’ modern take on the quintessential English menu unites the offering.

All-day dining room Grand Divan sports distinctive marquetry, custom-designed, Edwardian-inspired leather chairs, and sensitively reworked pew-like banquettes, which emanate a dramatic, darkly-hued atmosphere. Brady describes it as ‘the emotional heart of the space’, where dishes include Devonshire beef ribs, slow-roasted overnight and carved from restored original trolleys, as well as grilled Barnsley chops, steak and kidney pudding, and railway mutton curry.

A chequered board stair runner, detailed with chess piece motifs, leads to the first floor where Romano’s offers a lighter interpretation of brasserie dining amid a backdrop of green leather banquettes, filigree moulding, expansive windows and striking columns. Also on the first floor, the art deco-inspired Simpson’s Bar adopts a more intimate mood. Rich upholstery and archival detailing frame a fireplace, above which hangs a caricature of the Russian-born chess champion Vera Menchik by US illustrator John Mattos, while a bar lit by counter lamps serves classically-inclined cocktails centred on British spirits and sparkling wines.

On the lower ground floor, late-night bar Nellie’s Tavern introduces a more decadent register. ‘Jeremy let me work some magic with a carte blanche approach,’ says Brady. Oxblood panelling, red velvet and animal prints define the space, where a specially commissioned portrait of renowned operatic soprano Nellie Melba hangs alongside that of her lover, the Duke of Orléans, who gives his name to a bourbon-based cocktail, infused with notes of dry sherry and black walnut.

For all its stately presence, Simpson’s is defined by the choreography and spontaneity that sustained it for centuries. Observes Brady, ‘It’s a place of occasion that never feels stiff – here there is theatricality, but there is also comfort, history and life.’

Simpson’s in the Strand is located at 100 Strand, London WC2R 0EZ, United Kingdom

A version of this story appears in the May 2026 Design Issue of Wallpaper*, available on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + now. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Chef Sally Abé has headed up some of the country’s top kitchens, from hotel dining rooms (The Pem at the Conrad London St James) to the poshest of pubs (The Bull at Charlbury and Fulham’s Harwood Arms, where she retained the Michelin star). Teal finds her in Hackney, London, opening her first solo restaurant, championing British ingredients based on quality and sustainability (the restaurant is named after the game bird, not the Pantone colour).

Wallpaper* dines at Teal by Sally Abé, London

The mood: Sister act

Abé’s memoir is titled A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen, which gives a flavour of both the femininity and the feminism that infuses the chef’s approach to hospitality. Abé has designed Teal with her sister, Alice Webster; black-and-white posters depicting historic women’s rights marches and slogans hang on bottle-green walls, alongside other decor touches that feel like a British take on a French bistro. Bentwood chairs sit alongside mustard-yellow banquettes, while vintage Winchester stools are gathered around an oak bar in a room illuminated by natural light by day, and antique brass table lamps come the evening.

Webster looked for inspiration from the teal, incorporating the green and orange of the bird’s face into the colour palette of pieces from HK Living, Alice Palmer and Pooky lighting.

‘Overall,’ Webster explains, ‘we wanted to keep the design a little more minimal to reflect the core concept of the restaurant and Sally herself: good, honest food that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s meant to feel like a little place for locals to come for dinner, that also happens to serve top-tier food in a relaxed and informal setting.’

The food: Refined retro

If it’s British, seasonal and nostalgic, it’s probably on the menu here. But while there’s a hefty dose of dinner-party retro and 1980s children’s party – snacks of angels or devils on horseback; desserts of raspberry marshmallow teacake and marmalade ice-cream sandwich – ingredients are put together with an eye for integrity, not irony.

So, Cornish mussels come with Jersey Royals, cauliflower and sea kale, and a haunch of deer with pickled walnuts and cavolo nero: dishes in which complementary and contrasting flavours are held in beautiful balance.

In the kitchen, Abé works alongside head chef Abbie Hendren, continuing her longstanding commitment to hiring and mentoring women. And just to underline that Abé’s campaigning days are not behind her, all proceeds from her penny lick – the Victorian ice cream updated for the 21st century – are donated to Hackney Foodbank. A guilt-free dessert may be Abé’s greatest legacy yet.

Teal by Sally Abé is located at 52 Wilton Way, London E8 1BG, United Kingdom

Across all Belmond properties, a sense of warmth and intimacy envelops every charming corner. This is especially true for the newly introduced on-site restaurant at the group’s only London hotel, The Cadogan. Astutely positioned at the crossroads of Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Chelsea, the brand-new Willet’s offers a quintessential take on the British bistro under the guidance of executive chef Michael Turner, who previously held the same role at The Beaumont Mayfair.

Wallpaper* dines at Willett’s, London

The mood: buzzy, warm and convivial

Willett’s, which replaces the former on-site restaurant The LaLee, is named after the family of the same name that built the 1887 Chelsea townhouse now home to The Cadogan. Its serene, polished interior, courtesy of London-based Studio Shayne Brady, exudes the energy of a spring afternoon spent in a botanical garden. Brady drew inspiration from the area’s heritage, in particular its legacy of market gardens, dairies and craftsmanship.

Open from breakfast to dinner, the 44-cover space naturally evolves throughout the day. Guests enter through a subtly dramatic bar and pass by an open kitchen and chef’s counter defined by ribbed glass shelving and antique brass detailing on their way to the main dining room. Timber dining chairs stand out against the heritage green and blue colour palette, while the botanical theme continues with patterned café linen curtains at the windows, sculptural floral pendants and whimsical brass bee detailing. Conversely, antique mirrored panels and original 1887 herringbone timber flooring and ceiling roses add depth.

‘The approachable design focuses on pieces that feel tailored to the space, from the precision of the shelving to the richness of the leather banquettes and the refinement of the tailored fabric wall lights, which emit a soft warmth,’ Brady tells Wallpaper*. There’s also a refreshed outdoor space, reimagined as a lush 16-seat terrace.

The food: a celebration of the British bistro experience

Nostalgic British favourites are executed with surprising twists and utmost savoir faire. Begin your experience at the bar with a drink, such as the Smoked Pears & Walnut, where savoury Stilton-washed rye meets sweet Herefordshire pears and walnuts, and pair it with bite-sized sourdough crumpets toasted in butter and topped with rotating choices of the likes of Dorset crab or duck liver parfait with Yorkshire rhubarb.

Executive chef Turner recommends the Wye Valley asparagus with fried duck egg, morels and wild garlic as a starter, calling it ‘a seasonal dish that reflects the kitchen’s approach to produce, celebrating ingredients at their peak with minimal interference.’ Follow this by the hearty Sutton Hoo chicken and morel pie with mashed potatoes and gravy: ‘a proper British classic, both celebratory and rooted in British dining culture.’ On the sweeter side, Granny Campbell’s sherry trifle is a nostalgic and generous choice.

Not to be missed, Willett’s also offers meat and fish-focused daily specials, as well as British sharing-style Sunday lunches.

Willett’s is located at 75 Sloane St, London, SW1X 9SG, United Kingdom

There is a moment, twice a year, when, depending on which hemisphere you’re in, the sun reaches its northernmost or southernmost limit and briefly holds still before reversing course. ZS Hospitality Group – the force behind Hong Kong’s lauded Hansik Goo and Ying Jee Club – has taken this astronomical pause as the creative conceit for one of its most intriguing projects yet. Located in buzzy Lyndhurst Terrace in Central, Solstice Culinary Space spreads across two floors: a cooking studio and Sol restaurant on the fifth, and Uncle Quek restaurant on the sixth. The three interconnected concepts are bound by a single design philosophy and the conviction that gastronomy, like the natural world, is inseparable from change.

ZS had wanted to do something beyond restaurants for some time, and describes the cooking studio as ‘the next natural step, leveraging existing chef resources’.

Solstice Culinary Space, Hong Kong

The concept took more than a year to develop. For the interiors, ZS returned to Snøhetta, the Oslo-headquartered practice that designed Whey in 2021 – ZS’s Wellington Street restaurant, where chef Barry Quek built his Hong Kong reputation and which now, with Quek helming Uncle Quek upstairs, makes Solstice feel like a gastronomically seamless second act. The decision to re-engage Snøhetta, says ZS, was deliberate. ‘Their minimalistic, timeless style perfectly aligns with what we want to present.’

Ana Patricia Castaingts Gómez, Snøhetta’s lead interior architect on the project, organised the 340 sq m scheme as a journey between seasons. The cooking studio reads as winter: deep charcoal and indigo surfaces, tactile finishes, a focused atmosphere scaled to education and technique. ‘It is a moment of introspection, focus, and learning,’ she says. As guests move upward, the palette lifts – materials grow lighter, lighting warmer, the rooms more expansive.

Sol carries the arrival of summer in its muted earthy neutrals, while Uncle Quek takes the same season and turns up the energy, brighter and less ceremonial. ‘We created variations within one cohesive language,’ says Castaingts Gómez, describing the two spaces as ‘two unique interpretations of the same conceptual spectrum’. The honey-toned woodwork that recurs through both rooms – and through Whey before them – is less a signature than a thread: the same material inflected differently according to each room’s MO.

The existing low structural ceiling on both floors presented the most immediate obstacle. Castaingts Gómez’s response was to co-opt the constraint by exposing the ceiling and introducing a concave reflective surface in the main dining area. The result, she says, is ‘a poetic gesture mirroring the arc of the sun across the sky’.

The building’s existing elevator connects the floors, but an internal staircase offers a more deliberate transition between the two venues. ‘That brief moment allows guests to sense the shift in tone and temperature,’ says Emily Yan, director of Studio Hong Kong (Asia Region), ‘as though stepping between seasons.’

Meanwhile, at Sol, the menu sets Korean home-cooking traditions against French technique, with the Samgye Chicken among its more arresting dishes. One floor up at Uncle Quek, executive chef Terry Lam worked with Quek to dream up a menu rooted in Hokkien memory: lobster laksa, cereal fried chicken, and a house-made sambal built from chilli and dried shrimp that diners have taken to ordering with everything.

And for guests who like to tinker in the kitchen, the cooking studio is cheerfully democratic in opening classes to home cooks and aspiring professionals and teaching Korean, Cantonese, and Southeast Asian cuisines in glossy Gaggenau-equipped kitchens.

It is this last space that makes Solstice something more than yet another restaurant group’s expansion – the room where the project’s educational ambitions become literal. That seriousness of purpose runs through the whole scheme. Snøhetta’s design decisions feel considered precisely because they were made in dialogue with the food brief rather than around it: every material shift, every degree of light calibrated to the intention of each space.

It is worth noting that for a practice behind hulking marquee projects – not least Hong Kong’s Airside tower and the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo – Snøhetta is not an obvious choice for 340 sq m of restaurant interiors. But as Castaingts Gómez points out, scale doesn’t change the fundamental questions: what experience is being created, how do people feel in the space, and what story does the design tell? Besides, she adds, ‘interior spaces demand a heightened degree of precision because every detail is experienced at arm’s length’.

At that proximity, ZS’s long-honed instinct for building rooms worth eating in finds a new expression. With Solstice, it has also created one worth learning in too.

Solstice Culinary Space is located at 6/F, 8 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong

Contemporary Japanese restaurant Kino has opened its doors on Draycott Avenue, a short walk from London's buzzy South Kensington. The experience begins beneath the watchful lens of Daidō Moriyama, whose ‘Tattooed Girl in Shinjuku’ sets a moody, cosmopolitan tone. While Kino’s staid interiors are far from the neon-lit Tokyo district in Moriyama’s photo, they perfectly capture the contrasts one experiences when visiting the Japanese capital.

Wallpaper* dines at Kino, London

The mood: ascetic minimalism

If you have the appetite for a transportive restaurant, Kino is a must-visit. Studio APAA approached the project with the idea of ‘ascetic minimalism’, or intentional simplicity. ‘We tried very delicately to fill the space with the spirit of Japan using contemporary art and Japanese antiques,’ say founders Alexey Penyuk and Anastasia Artemeva.

The dining room is anchored by a tactile bar island carved from volcanic stone, offset with a raw steel countertop. Overhead, rough-hewn wooden beams draw the gaze upward, adding subtle architectural drama. Furniture becomes a cultural bridge: Isamu Noguchi’s Akari lanterns cast a soft glow alongside Santa & Cole’s candle-like lamps, while Tobia Scarpa’s Dialogo chairs meet an origami-inspired table by Charlotte Perriand for Cassina.

The food: elevated Japanese crowd-pleasers

Led by Latvian-born, Japan-loving chef Pavel Baranovs, who previously spearheaded the Pan-Asian restaurant UBA at Hart Hotel in east London, Kino meshes Japanese techniques with a subtle Eastern European undertone. ‘The flavour is bold but controlled, and every ingredient is used with respect. It’s about stripping things back, focusing on seasonality, fermentation and provenance, and letting the food speak for itself,’ says Baranovs.

Wagyu udon soup arrives layered with bamboo shoots, spring onion and shiitake, while Imperial black cod is glazed in sweet yuzu miso, its richness cut by citrus brightness. Elsewhere, pristine nigiri, sashimi and rolls underline the kitchen’s precision. To finish, a matcha tiramisu – lifted with Suntory whisky and matcha-soaked ladyfingers – offers a playful, contemporary note, echoed in a cocktail list served in characterful glassware.

Kino is located at 96 Draycott Ave, London SW3 3AD, United Kingdom

Popular Japanese-Brazilian global concept Sushisamba has opened next to the Kimpton La Peer in the West Hollywood Design District. The multi-level outdoor space and an intimate indoor private dining room are a departure from the other incarnations of Sushisamba in London, Dubai, Singapore, Milan, and beyond.

Wallpaper* dines at Sushisamba Los Angeles

The mood: Energetic, design-forward patio

Designed by Dizon Collective, a jaw-dropping open-air entrance opens into a central courtyard with over a dozen booths and tables across two levels. At one end sits a large circular bar; at the other, a stage for live performances and DJs. Pops of orange run throughout: from bar-lounge sofas to seating in the main dining area, which is set against brightly painted wall murals by Long Beach surfer and artist Steve Fawley, whose wave-like strokes bring bursts of primary colour. A bubblegum-pink wall sculpture by Brazilian artist Daniel Boccato adds a playful contrast.

Paying homage to Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, the space features lush greenery outdoors, but don’t overlook the intimate indoor area. Here, a private elevator and dedicated VIP entrance lead to a secluded dining room with hand-painted, textured gold-leaf wallpaper, alongside a sushi bar and robata grill counter. Overhead, globe lights in varying shapes by Neal Studio in San Diego complete the look.

The food: Japanese, Peruvian, and Brazilian mix

Led by executive chef Maxwell Terheggen and Corporate Chef John Um, the three kitchen concepts span a robata grill, sushi master, and Peruvian ceviche specialities. Top starters – perfect at the cocktail bar – include yellowtail taquitos, crisp mini shells filled with fish in a spicy ají panca sauce, and green bean tempura. Skewers are made for sharing, ranging from seabass to filet mignon, served over chunky Peruvian corn kernels.

The signature sushi rolls are generously sized with inventive combinations. The standout is the Samba LA Roll, created exclusively for this location, featuring Japanese A5 Wagyu, soft-shell crab tempura, chestnut purée, tomato chimichurri, and a balsamic soy reduction. Purists, meanwhile, may prefer to keep it simple with sashimi, nigiri, or hand rolls. For something more substantial, the Brazilian seafood stew is ideal for sharing, brimming with shrimp, squid, sea bass, mussels, and clams in a rich blend of coconut milk and dendê oil, served with chimichurri rice.

Meanwhile, the bar menu is overseen by mixology veteran Devon Espinosa, who brings tropical, frothy, and fruity pina colada-type concoctions, along with new spins on stronger negroni and paloma-style cocktails. There are also non-alcoholic offerings featuring homemade Brazilian lemonade or matcha over a cooling long block of ice.

Sushisamba Los Angeles is located at 639 N La Peer Dr, West Hollywood, CA 90069, United States

Eight years after opening in Ibiza, Jul’s has crossed the continent to St James’s – a London neighbourhood more usually associated with hushed members’ clubs than the nightclub-adjacent restaurants of the White Isle. Greek chef and co-founder Christos Fotos has another Jul’s spin-off in Athens, called Humain by Jul’s, and there’s a strong Hellenic influence detectable here in everything, from the cooking to interiors that blend grand heritage architecture with Mediterranean touches of marble and mosaic.

Wallpaper* dines at Jul’s, London

The mood: Chiaroscuro and craft

Athens-based interiors studio ArcSet worked with the building’s existing architecture rather than against it. ‘The idea was to create a space that feels calm, grounded and original,’ says founder Ioannis Mourikis. ‘Rather than focusing on decoration, we worked with strong materials of stone, plaster and wood, and natural light.’ Byzantine and Roman details are referenced discreetly to connect the space to its Mediterranean identity without shouting about it: the blue walls, for instance, use natural stone pigment in the plaster rather than factory-produced paint. Lighting, too, has been handled with sensitivity to create a moody chiaroscuro of shadow and texture.

A 6.5m glass wine wall runs the full height of the ground floor; below, the bar, No. 11, functions as a laboratory where drinks maestros Dimitris Karapanos and Vasilis Sgouromallis develop cocktails through distillation and infusion, with flavour profiles to reflect the food coming out of the kitchen above.

The food: From the Aegean to SW1

Greek in instinct, Mediterranean in scope and grounded in British ingredients, Fotos’ approach is all about achieving balance. Octopus comes with prespa bean purée and pepper salsa; bluefin tuna tartare is spiked with blood orange ponzu and a beetroot and raspberry sorbet; silver cod arrives with corn velouté, fennel salad and chilli glaze. It’s not all so health-conscious: the slow-cooked lamb flatbread is topped with red onion jam, yogurt and Gruyère.

Drinks are taken as seriously as the wine wall suggests: the list draws on both well-established and small-scale artisanal European producers, including a dozen from Greece. ‘Just as there’s a deliberate restraint in the design,’ Mourikis says, ‘the food lets ingredients speak for themselves. Everything is refined, but quietly so – we didn’t want anything to feel excessive.’

Jul’s is located at 11 Waterloo Place, London, SW1Y 4AU, United Kingdom

Via Aurelia – its name a nod to the ancient consular road connecting Rome and Pisa – is an elegant gathering spot in San Francisco’s Mission Rock neighbourhood. Located on the ground floor of Visa’s global and North American headquarters, the dinner-only spot, which boasts views of Mission Bay and the Giants’ ballpark, is run by Back Home Hospitality, the team behind the buzzy trattoria franchise Che Fico and casual counter-service deli Bubbelah.

Wallpaper* dines at Via Aurelia, San Francisco

The mood: Italian whispers

Local design firm DLC-ID, a close collaborator of the hospitality group, has dreamt up a softly hued setting inspired by the textures and pigments of Tuscany. ‘My aim was to channel the ubiquitous touchstones of Italian style – pared back to their purest forms and hues – and then layer them with a soft, modern hand,’ says studio founder Jon de la Cruz.

Florentine sandstone, vaulted ceilings, frescoed plaster patinas, and muted lighting make for a richly layered, old-world-style interior. ‘It’s fine dining, but I wanted it to feel as if you’ve stepped into a casual coastal town – tranquil, sun-washed, and timeless,’ adds de la Cruz, who collaborated with paint shop Color Atelier to create tonal depth through the limewashed wall finishes in a custom palette of olive, terracotta, ochre, and blue juniper hues.

The food: Tuscany via San Francisco

Native chef David Nayfeld, who describes the evening menu as a love letter to Tuscany and San Francisco, meshes techniques from this coastal Italian region with season-led produce from neighbouring suppliers. Guests are invited to choose from a five-course ‘degustazione’ menu or à la carte, which comprises highlights such as the creamy orzo with San Francisco Bay Dungeness crab, chanterelle, preserved lemon, and chervil, or the perfectly seared Maine Diver sea scallop, accented by a silky, burnt pear purée, hazelnut and pear relish and finished with Golden Osetra caviar.

The wine list is equally as comprehensive, with 650 bottles from French and Italian regions. Nayfeld recommends relishing the decadent torta al cioccolato while sipping Fratelli Mossio ‘Le Margarite’, a Dolcetto, dessert wine from the Langhe region in Southern Piedmont.

Via Aurelia is located at 300 Toni Stone Xing Suite A, San Francisco, CA 94158, United States

Michelin-starred Swedish chef Marcus Jernmark, who made his mark at Aquavit in New York, has opened the doors to his first stateside restaurant. Lielle, which takes its name from Jernmark’s daughter, sits in the heart of Beverlywood, right behind the new Cameo Beverly Hills hotel.

Wallpaper* dines at Lielle, Los Angeles

The mood: date night in a wine cave

Designed in partnership with Lovers Unite (Bar Etoile in Melrose Hill), the 42-seat subterranean space is lined with snug wine-toned leather banquettes and custom cherry wood tables – make sure you are dining with someone you don’t mind sitting close to. The vaulted ceilings are lined with cork and vintage Scandinavian lighting, which sets the tone of fine European craftsmanship but with a laid-back, SoCal sensibility and an upbeat mixed soundtrack of global pop hits. Jernmark’s wife, Andrea, also collaborated with Lovers Unite on the design, including handcrafted details showcased in her hand-sewn linens and kintsugi ceramics.

The food: best of California ingredients with a European touch

This is a four-course tasting menu crafted by a Michelin three-star chef. However, don’t expect overly formal service; instead, you can look forward to a relaxed, family-style dining experience. The California Bistronomy menu changes with the seasons, but one consistent highlight is the bread program. According to Chef Jernmark, ‘It’s the programme we have been working on the most.’

The miso sourdough is salted and fermented for 36 hours before being served with fresh butter. Each Monday, the ‘milk man’ delivers the ingredients, and then the kitchen works for two hours to churn and paddle the butter to achieve a creamy consistency. You’ll also find butter featured in an emulsion dip served with fresh radishes, providing a crisp contrast. Other dishes may include an artichoke salad dipped in lemon water before serving, or grilled abalone served over Luna rice from Sacramento, complemented by a fermented mushroom sauce and fried Brussels sprouts topped with Beluga caviar.

For pasta lovers, the spaghetti features hand-cut charred noodles finished in a sauce made with yellow tomatoes and Girl & Dug Farm yuzu zest, topped with Santa Barbara sea urchin.

For dessert, you can enjoy a creation that lies somewhere between a brioche and a bread pudding. This dish is layered with caramelised pumpkin seeds, honeycomb, tea, and sea buckthorn sorbet, and is served alongside ‘No Bad Vibes’ small buns baked with cardamom sugar, cream, Indonesian rum, and black tea.

Lielle is located at 9575 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035, United States

For close to four decades, the Baldi family has been a force in LA’s local Italian dining scene. From Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica to e.Baldi in Beverly Hills, the family-owned and operated business, could easily rest on its laurels. Instead, owner and chef Edoardo ‘Edo’ Baldi has evolved again, opening a deeply personal, upscale Tuscan steakhouse inside the flagship Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills.

Wallpaper* dines at Baldi at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

The mood: Tuscan estate in Beverly Hills

The entrance sets the tone for family and community gatherings, where a mural depicting an Italian dinner party scene, designed by Drawing Room NYC, anchors the space. The transformation of the former cavernous Jean-Georges restaurant was carried out by Ezequiel Farca Studio.

The 180-seat restaurant – including a bar, main dining room, enclosed patio, and private dining room – manages to feel warm and intimate thanks to woven lanterns, leather booths, deep woods, terracotta, and rich natural tones. Taking inspiration from chef Edo’s home in the Chianti countryside, not far from the Tuscan coast where he was born and learned to cook from nonnas, olive trees line the different spaces.

The food: Tuscan spirit with plenty of prime beef

The Tuscan cooking philosophy is simple: less is more. Yet that is not what first comes to mind when perusing the steak section of the menu. An impressive array of USDA Prime beef from some of the top ranches, alongside Wagyu cuts from Japan to Australia, is minimally seasoned with herbs and spices before being cooked over an olive-wood open flame, allowing the meat to shine.

Standout pastas include lobster linguine with spicy tomato and the swoon-worthy sweet corn tortellini with mascarpone and truffle butter. For a lighter option, try Dover sole with lemon sauce, the fan-favourite sliced artichokes with fennel and mild pecorino, or chicken meatballs with Niçoise olives. Plan ahead for dessert if you want to order the pancake soufflé for two with rum and Grand Marnier sauce, as it takes 20-30 minutes to prepare.

For a more casual evening at the bar, some of e.Baldi’s classic dishes come into play, including thin, crispy-crust pizzas and lightly fried shiitake mushrooms with pecorino tartufato – a 36-year Baldi tradition. Wherever you take a seat, set the tone with a citrusy spritz made with Malfy Limone gin, limoncello, and Prosecco, or the Negroni Classico di Baldi with Malfy Gin Originale, St. George Bruto Americano, and Carpano Antica vermouth. Alternatively, opt for a glass from the wine programme, which spans Italy’s most celebrated regions.

Baldi at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is located at 9850 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, United States

Since 1974, Sale e Pepe in Knightsbridge – voted one of our favourite Italian restaurants in London – has been serving the sort of Italian cooking most Brits have grown up eating. A 2024 refurb aside – courtesy of new owners, the Thesleff Group (the name behind Los Mochis and Juno Omakase) – very little has changed in over half a century. Change is now afoot, however, with this seafood-focused spin-off in the grand bow-windowed dining room of The Langham, which finally promises a food offering to match the hotel’s world-beating Artesian bar.

Wallpaper* dines at Sale e Pepe Mare at The Langham, London

The mood: Southern sun, Milanese gloss

Thesleff Group CEO Markus Thesleff was taken to Sale e Pepe as a child and has a deep affection for the brand he eventually ended up buying, so evolution – not revolution – is the watchword here. Wood panelling and Italian fabrics set the tone, while blue hues and gentle lighting nod to the Mediterranean. Come evening, live music brings a touch of Italian brio.

The project was a personal one for designer Manuela Hamilford, creative director of Hamilford Design. ‘Growing up in Italy shaped my understanding of how these environments should feel,’ she says. ‘I wanted to balance the warmth of southern Italy with the poise and structure of northern cities like Milan. The deep azzurro blue gives a real sense of the Italian Riviera, with the striking architectural arches and lighting adding a Milanese touch.’

Fluted wood detailing, custom joinery and a carefully considered lighting scheme give the room its own identity, shifting the atmosphere seamlessly from lunch to late evening. ‘The material palette is rich and grounded – timber, marble and brass – which give a sense of permanence,’ Hamilford says. The result is a space that feels more Portofino than Portland Place and, because it’s a hotel, the dining room is open for breakfast espressos too.

The food: Seafood and spectacle

The menu traces Italy’s coastline from Amalfi to Puglia, anchored by a prominent display of the freshest seafood – from oysters and langoustines destined for towering shellfish platters to seabass sliced into crudo. A Josper grill handles whole turbot, but it’s the tableside preparation that really sets the scene: Caesar salad, bucatini cacio e pepe and risotto ai funghi porcini are all finished in front of guests, while a roaming dessert trolley bearing the house tiramisu completes the performance.

The wine list journeys through Italy’s regions, from alpine northern whites to sun-soaked southern reds, with a page devoted to the Barbarescos of the Gaja estates in Piedmont and a strong showing of Super Tuscans. A roving Champagne and Negroni trolley – the latter mixed from aged spirits – adds further theatre, while what the restaurant claims is one of the capital’s most comprehensive amaro collections, makes a persuasive case for lingering over a digestif. Or, for a nightcap, there’s always Artesian next door.

Sale e Pepe Mare is located at The Langham London, 1C Portland Place, London W1B 1JA, United Kingdom.

Since its hoardings came down in 1929, The Quadrant at 19 Cecil Street has been home to several Chinese banks, and the evidence is still down in the basement. Here, the original bank vault has been reimagined as a soigné, mood-lit private dining and tasting room, its walls lined with staves – the individual curved planks from retired Suntory distillery barrels still carrying a faint whiff of aged oak. It sets the tone for what awaits upstairs: Barrel Story of Hibiki, a joint venture between The House of Suntory and chef Sho Naganuma of cult-favourite Torasho Ramen & Charcoal Bar in nearby Tanjong Pagar.

Wallpaper* dines at Barrel Story of Hibiki, Singapore

The mood: wood, fire and a bank vault

The building’s gently curved Art Deco facade was designed by Keys and Dowdeswell, the British firm responsible for much of what still stands in this part of Singapore's CBD, including the Fullerton Hotel, a few blocks away at the mouth of the river. The interiors are a case study of how the past of a heritage space can be put to genuinely elegant use. Tokyo designer Junpei Yamagiwa of Designpost has anchored the main dining room around a 10-seat counter wrapping the central wood-fire grill, with dark timber and textured stone keeping the mood focused.

The double-height ceiling – a genuine rarity in Singapore restaurants – gives the room a sense of occasion that the rest of the design works carefully not to oversell. Hibiki, Suntory's premium blended whisky whose name translates as ‘resonance', provides the conceptual framework, which the restaurant lists as fire, patience, and natural harmony. These are not just marketing words here. They show up in the Jenga-block-pattern ceiling, the barrel-wood fuel stacked behind the pass, and the ceramic plate-ware, which is delicate and detailed enough to warrant a second look every time a dish arrives.

The food: izakaya, upgraded

Naganuma's menu is built for drinking alongside, and it segues well. The archly-named Uni-corn Croquette – crisp potato shell, creamed white corn, sea urchin – pits sweetness against brine and lets both win. A potato salad topped with cured egg yolk lands somewhere between a side dish and a vegetarian steak tartare. The seafood donabe is the dish to order: every grain of rice arrives glossed and smoky, broken up by the sudden saline punctuation of tobiko and bijoux cuts of squid and prawns. The wood fire earns its keep in the cooking rather than the air – you taste it in the opening bowl of smoked nuts, in the grilled XL tiger prawns, and most memorably in the off-menu fish collar, which can, depending on season and availability, include marlin and tuna, and should be requested when you book.

Currently the only Singapore venue pouring Hibiki by the glass, Barrel holds one of the more serious Suntory collections in Asia. The entry flight (S$38) presents Japanese Harmony three ways – highball, rocks, mizuwari – and it’s less a tasting exercise than a demonstration of how radically the same whisky shifts character depending on how it meets water. The cocktail list has its own tricks: the Hibiki Champagne Style Highball arrives without ice, its bubbles doing the work without the stress of melting dilution, while the Hibiki Sling cheerfully faces off against Singapore's most iconic drink and more or less wins. The Barrel flight reaches vintages up to 30 years old, though at S$988, we suggest you come armed with a fully charged Amex.

Barrel Story of Hibiki is located at 19 Cecil St, #01-01 The Quadrant, Singapore 049704

When a Greek recommends a Greek restaurant in London, you know you’re onto something good. That’s certainly the case with Notting Hill favourites Mazi and Suzi Tros, the steadfast neighbourhood institutions founded by Christina Mouratoglou and Adrien Carré and beloved by everyone from loyal locals to the Greek royal family. Next for the duo is a restaurant tethered to Mayfair yet rooted in the transportive spirit of a 1980s Athenian taverna.

Wallpaper* dines at Maza, London

The mood: Mediterranean summer reverie

Located on the charming mews of Bruton Place, opposite Grosvenor Square, Maza borrows the convivial spirit of its siblings – the din, the chatter – translating it into a slightly more theatrical, larger-scale setting suited to a West End clientele. London-based Archer Humphryes Architects – recently behind the redesign of the first-floor room at Ronnie Scott’s – avoided pretension, instead shaping a retro-chic 90-seat venue with the kind of attention to detail that vies with a table laden with colourful, freshly prepared meze.

‘Christina and Adrien’s family background in Athens has strongly shaped the restaurant’s expression. It reflects the energetic casual dining scene that has emerged across neighbourhoods such as Syntagma, Pagrati, Monastiraki and Exarchia,’ say studio founders David Archer and Julie Humphryes. They continue: ‘Their imprint runs through both menu and design, with the kitchen walls lined with framed recipes from Christina’s grandmother’s handwritten cookbook.’

Guests enter through a cocktail bar with a woven wicker ceiling by Somerset Willow, centred on a DJ station with turntables and a vintage sound system. A liquor display and banquette seating lead towards the open kitchen, anchored by a central chargrill and counter dining, framed by a pressed-glass gantry by Tony Sandles, with a wine display above. Lighting designer Tim Henderson introduced bespoke pendants throughout the dining and bar areas.

Rich colours, mirrored surfaces and polished brass run across two dining levels. The main room connects to an outdoor space lined with Mediterranean planting, while an upper tier offers group seating on a raised dais with banquettes overlooking the restaurant. Quarry tiles from Ketley in Yorkshire provide a durable floor, layered with bespoke rugs from Nordic Knots, whose showroom sits just around the corner.

The food: A slice of Athens in Mayfair

The menu, concocted by the founders alongside executive chef Sofoklis Maragoudakis, leans toward modern Athenian Greek cuisine. ‘We’re all about the ingredients,’ says Maragoudakis. ‘Fresh fish arrives daily from the boats, and we serve whatever the fishermen have caught. Some vegetables also come directly from Greece, including the spicy peppers.’

The chef adds: ‘It’s hard to choose a favourite, but if I had to pick one dish, it would be the grilled vine-leaf dolmades with rice and mint yoghurt. It takes me straight back to childhood and my grandmother’s kitchen.’

Start with spicy feta and warm homemade flatbread, paired with a crisp glass of white wine. The catch of the day, prepared bianco with lemon and olive oil, highlights the natural collagen of the fish, while crispy pork belly gyros offers a richer note. To finish, Greek yogurt and bergamot ice cream – made from the citrus fruit found across Athens – provides a bright, fragrant close to an evening soundtracked by 1970s and 1980s Greek tunes.

Maza opens 12 March 2026 and is located at 21-23 Bruton Place, Mayfair, London, W1J 6NB, United Kingdom

Meaning ‘butter’ in Italian, Burro is the latest restaurant by chef Conor Gadd. His name may be familiar to connoisseurs of the London Italian food scene, as he is also the co-owner of Trullo, a fixture in Islington for the past 16 years.

Burro, which is located in the intimate Floral Court in Covent Garden, marks Gadd’s first solo venture, one rooted in produce-led cooking and warm hospitality. ‘Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine opening a restaurant in Covent Garden, but as soon as I saw the room, and the courtyard, I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss,’ says Gadd.

The mood: part Irish country house kitchen, part 1950s Italian bistro

Lisa Helmanis of Day Studio, who led the design, tells Wallpaper*: ‘The interiors [of Trullo and Burro] share a simplicity and honesty; they are both designed to age well. Burro is slightly more formal, grander in scale and with a bar featuring leather stools ideal to enjoy a perfectly balanced Martini.’

Nodding to Gadd’s Irish heritage, the interiors have been described as ‘part Irish country house kitchen, part 1950s Italian bistro’. ‘Italian and Irish hospitality have a lot in common, and obviously, Conor is an Irish chef serving Italian food, so I felt it needed to really capture this blend – always a place at the table, always in charge,’ says Helmanis. ‘For me, both [styles of hospitality] feel aspirational but also comfortable and confident. Neither feels the need to perform; they are happy to go in and out of fashion without doubting their relevance.’

The space boasts high ceilings, while walls are coated in faded reds and dusty yellows, inspired by Rome’s sun-speckled streets. A large feature canvas by Irish artist Dan Ferguson, depicting an Italian scene, brings the room together. Even the smaller details feel tactile, from deep red Rosso marble on the bar and curved woodwork to velvet banquettes and crisp white tablecloths.

‘I like a room to feel evolved and layered, never too matchy matchy,’ adds Helmanis. ‘The palette is quite simple, using the faded reds and yellows that are so evocative of Roman piazzas. We were lucky enough to get a rare haul of midcentury chairs from a Czech convent; it's unusual to get so many.’

The food: buttery Italian classics adapted with British produce

Italian cuisine is naturally at the heart of Burro. After perusing the generous wine and cocktail list, rich with negronis, martinis, and spritzes, start with fresh antipasti, which includes favourites from salumi and focaccia to Venetian chicken livers on garlic-coated toast, and the house ‘Burro’ caponata.

As with Trullo, pasta stands front and centre: egg-rich and rolled daily. Hearty and comforting, the ragù main pairs Aylesbury duck and dried porcini. This is cooked for five hours, so the soft duck meat wraps itself smoothly around the tagliatelle. For his tortellini, Gadd drew upon his time spent in Bologna, proposing a lush filling made of pork and salami coupled with mortadella and prosciutto.

Secondi dishes are heavier, built upon the produce of British farmers and fishermen. From Dover sole and caviar to buttery veal and lobster acqua pazza, all classic Italian dishes have undergone a British treatment using local produce. To satisfy the sweet tooth, try the tiramisu doughnuts, or almond cake, followed by a cool glass of Marsala from the Curatolo Arini vineyard in western Sicily.

Helmanis advises not to overlook the sides, recommending the courgette scapece: ‘It captures what Conor does so well,’ she says. ‘Exquisite ingredients are artfully handled, resulting in a side dish to haunt your dreams.’ Overall, the restaurant feels like an energetic and sumptuous treat, while remaining inclusive. As Helmanis puts it: ‘It’s a place to have a really, really great evening.’

Burro is located at 2 Floral Court, Floral Street, London WC2E 9FB, United Kingdom

Restaurants in New York seem to be getting smaller, more intimate and increasingly exclusive by the day – a trend that aligns perfectly with omakase. This ever-more fashionable Japanese dining style centres around the curation of a personalised, multi-course meal based on the freshest seasonal ingredients. Omakase differs from kaiseki in its more direct interaction with the chef, who typically talks guests through each dish and its ingredients as it is served. These intimate experiences can span up to 22 bite-sized courses, prepared and presented by the chefs directly at the counter for as many as 20 diners, or as few as just six

Japanese cuisine first gained widespread favour in the US in the early 1980s, amid an economic boom and a growing cultural curiosity. Today, a renewed fascination with Japan as a travel destination – fuelled by a weak yen and a post-pandemic appetite for culture – is filtering back into American cities, in a manner as decadent as it was 40 years ago. As evidence, a wave of omakase-style restaurants has opened across New York City in recent years, each offering a highly stylised gastronomic experience within carefully crafted interiors that elevate the meal. Here are six of our favourites, leading the charge in both cuisine and design.

Bar Miller

Designed by Polonsky & Friends, this Michelin-star spot in Alphabet City is enveloped in burl wood veneer panels and colours chosen to resemble bird feathers. Bar Miller’s menu borrows from traditional sushi craft, but isn’t strictly Japanese, so the interiors intentionally steer away from tropes that might be deemed misleading. Instead, deep blue-green Avocatus stone forms the bar counter, tonally matching a trio of panels featuring a custom wallpaper by artist Hollie M Kelley that depicts the plumage of an eastern rosella bird. A custom ceiling pendant resembling a string of beads by Pablo Bolumar hangs overhead, illuminating the dutifully prepared dishes local seafood and produce—to be enjoyed over 15 courses with sakes from a selection of Japan and Brooklyn-based breweries, and an orange-forward wine list.

Bar Miller is located at 620-622 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009

Enso

Japanese minimalist design is fully embraced at Enso in Williamsburg, where the interiors offer a contemporary take on classic Kyoto wabi-sabi design. In the 10-seat omakase room, a 20-foot counter is made from a single plank of Italian sapele, while the sushi bar ceiling is crafted from wood sourced directly from Japan. Chef and owner Nick Wang, who designed the space himself, also created an additional lounge space that offers a 12-course menu for walk-ins as well as reservations, and a garden with a retractable wood ceiling, Japanese maple trees and a fountain. Seasonal floral installations by Brooklyn-based artists help to bring the space to life, while the fish delivered straight from Japan is accompanied by either sake, whiskey or wine pairings, depending on guest preference.

Enso is located at 117 Berry St, Brooklyn, NY 11249

Frevo

A contemporary art gallery fronts this West Village gem, which invites diners back through a pivoting door into a secret dining room. Although Frevo has been around since 2019, a recent renovation by Rockwell Group refreshed the interiors and kickstarted a new chapter. Dark walls and ceilings direct attention to the softly illuminated counter, which runs almost the full length of the narrow space, which accommodates 24 covers in total. The Michelin-starred establishment follows the omakase tradition in terms of service style, but the highly colourful menu created by Brazilian chef Franco Sampogna isn’t confined to a particular cuisine. Instead, dishes incorporate ingredients like coconut, pineapple and a wide variety of international spices – the curried carrots with almond sorbet, and a zesty jalapeno gazpacho are standouts. But there are plenty of nods to Japanese flavours too, such as the wasabi ice cream that accompanies a lighter-than-air chocolate mousse, and, of course, the fresh sushi.

Frevo is located at 48 W 8th St, New York, NY 10011

Koju

Tucked at the back of the Ace Hotel Brooklyn lobby, Koju offers a 14-course seasonal tasting menu led by Chef Kevin Garrison, served to the sounds of a curated Japanese vinyl record collection. The plant-filled interiors by Studio Tre blend exposed concrete elements – including breezeblocks with circular holes – with traditional Japanese materials such as sudare woven bamboo blinds and shibori indigo-dyed cushion covers. In addition to the counter seating, which forms a U-shape around the kitchen area, small clusters of lounge chairs and tables along the perimeter provide guests comfy seats from which to enjoy welcome cocktails or sake before embarking on their dining experience.

Kuju is located at 252 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Ikigai

An atmospheric wood-lined interior creates a cosy setting for Ikigai, which translates as 'the secret to a joyful life.' Hidden behind an unassuming door in Fort Greene, this not-for-profit restaurant’s proceeds go toward fighting food insecurity – helping Rescuing Leftover Cuisine save over 575,000 lbs of food to date. The interiors designed by Scott Kester feature a sweeping counter that curves around the compact open kitchen, accompanied by 12 seats upholstered in forest green fabric, and a shelf below that encourages guests to leave their cell phones and be present for the meal. Behind the prep area are a series of backlit timber panels, charred using the shou sugi ban technique, which continue onto the ceiling in a radial pattern. The menu is prepared by Chef Rafal Maslankiewicz to blend Japanese-sourced fish with local New York farmers' market produce, all of which is plated on delicate ceramics.

Ikigai is located at 87 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Mekumi

A celebrated restaurant from Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture recently opened a location in Hudson Square, under the direction of chef Hajime Kumabe who worked under the renowned Takayoshi Yamaguchi at the original location. At Sushidokoro Mekumi, diners pass through two doorways to reach a quiet eight-seat dining space, where walls are washed with deep blue “Kanazawa” plaster that contrasts the light hinoki wood counter. Designed by Suzumori Architecture, the space also features dark granite flooring, while custom artisan-crafted tableware adds flourishes. Seasonal Ishikawa fish and rare sasahigure rice are highlights on the menu, supported by various textures and umami flavours to bring out their delicacy.

Mekumi is located at 70 Charlton Street in Hudson Square, New York, NY 10014