Turnips With Tomas Lidakevicius secures permanent home at Borough Market

The Borough Market pop-up created by former executive chef of Jason Atherton’s City Social, Tomas Lidakevicius, has secured a permanent restaurant under the arches of the historic market.

The restaurant was first opened by Lidakevicius and produce stallholder Charlie Foster in July 2020 as a pop-up. Lidakevicius oversees the menu using produce predominantly sourced from the stall, which has been trading from Borough Market for over 30 years.

The restaurant's tables and chairs are situated beside the seasonal fruit and veg stand, which has recently been refitted by Foster. Informal sharing plates are available during the daytime and at night, along with a six-course fine dining option in the evening.

Lidakevicius said: “Being able to wander around the stall with Charlie, picking out some of the freshest and best seasonal produce in the world, is a completely unparalleled experience and makes being head chef at Turnips for the long haul a seriously exciting prospect.”

Foster added: "We’re absolutely buzzing to be able to confirm that our lockdown project is here to stay. It’s been the silver lining of lockdown."

The restaurant also focuses heavily on foraged produce, with highlights including fireweed asparagus, wild sorrel, brassica flowers, chicken of the woods mushroom, sea buckthorn juice and bilberries. Turnips also features a custom-built, temperature-controlled fermentation room to preserve ingredients such as bilberry kombucha, wild garlic kombucha vinegar, mackerel garum, and misos made from pea and mushroom.

Daily changing sharing menu dishes will include the likes of: brassicas, Cheddar, Gorgonzola and hen's egg; ridged cucumber, shiso yogurt and grilled mackerel; and wild garlic, Salanova lettuce and chicken thigh. Desserts will feature Tulameen raspberries, double chocolate cake, and Victoria pineapple, rum baba and alphonso mango.