Borealis restaurant opens in London

Dining space at Borealis restaurant with decorated tables, light wood chairs, wooden bar counter, dark bar chairs, round pendant lights, wooden floors and large windows. — (Image credit: TBC)

As dark evenings draw in, Borealis in Borough offers Londoners a serene Nordic inspired retreat. The concept, from restaurateur Soren Jessen of city-worker favourite 1 Lombard street, is Scandinavian, simple and fresh, and like Lombard, offers a characterful spot worthy of both a smart meeting or an intimate dinner for two.

Borealis is connected to Fora, a pioneering co-working company from Enrico Sanna and Katrina Larkin, who worked together with design studio JLK to curate an atmosphere that combines effortless Scandinavian cool with a suave London member’s club aesthetic.

Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs in oak and rows of low hanging Louis Poulsen VL45 Radiohus pendants bring warmth to dark timber surfaces and bespoke, ribbed metal dividers. And, the service matches the concept and design, as Fora train their front of house at École hôtelière de Lausanne.

Scandi-staples ensue across the menu and the freshness of the fish and meat makes up for the simplicity, where capers, cress, ligonberry, dill, shallots, horseradish, pickled cucumber, beetroot and Kolhrabi, all reoccur in variously refreshing melodies.

One note that is particularly piquant; the smørrebrød features herring four different ways – curried, fried and picked, spiced, and with tomato – all somewhat surprisingly refined, certainly if the last time you braved herring was in a white baguette on the north German coast, not quite Scandinavia.

A restaurant dining area with small decorated white tables, a leather seating bench, black bucket chairs, round pendant lights and wooden flooring.

A restaurant with decorated round tables, light wooden chairs, bar counter, round pendant lights and large windows.

A restaurant with decorated round tables, light wooden chairs, bar counter and round pendant lights.

ADDRESS

180 Borough High St

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Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.