JUst OPENED
This new restaurant, bar and club is all brash wallpaper and 1940s carpets. The top two floors are destined to be a private members' club in the spring, so get in there while you can.
Opened: 27 January
Owners: Ameet Mehgh, Madush Gupta, Jasper Tay and Elena Kolchina
Cocktails by: Jasper Tay (former Milk & Honey front man)
Food: The restaurant opens in March. It will serve a mix of European food with light and low-carb dishes for the healthy and and heartier options for the hungry. Dishes will include cured salt beef Reuben sandwich, and seared tuna dressed with slow-roasted tomatoes, capers and rocket.
Head chef: Santiago Guerrero Capacity: basement bar 150, top two floors 80 each, restaurant 20
Typical spend: £20 (lunch without drinks)
Address: 43 South Molton Street, London W1K 5RS
Tel: 020 7647 4343
BOXHEAD: The Grocer on Warwick, London
BOXTEXT: What used to be trendy nightspot the Sugar Club is now the Grocer on Warwick selling pastries, cakes, bagels, tartlets - all made in house - and ready-meals. It is joined by a restaurant and coffee bar at the back.
Opened: December 2004
Owners: Ashley Sumner and Vivienne Hayman
Pastry chef: Julian Sciascia
Head chef: David Selex (formerly at the Sugar Club)
Restaurant food: eclectic and Oriental, featuring chicken dumplings with lemon grass and nam prik (£4-£7), green chicken curry with sweet potato and beans (£6), as well as slices of pork belly off the r"tisserie (£8) and tandoori mackerel with lemon and oregano (£7).
Average spend: £30-£35 including wine
Seats: 50
Ready-meals: black cod in sweet miso; Thai chicken curry; minted broad beans with courgettes and peas; and saffron-poached pears
Address: 21 Warwick Street, London W1R 5RB
Tel: 020 7437 7776
CAPTION: The Grocer on Warwick
BOXHEAD: Shanghai Blues, London
BOXTEXT: Situated in the Grade II-listed building that formerly housed the St Giles library, this new Chinese restaurant promises stylish interiors and dim sum at the hands of a renowned Chinese chef. The project is part of the Weng Wah Group, founded by David Yiu, and cost £2.5m to create. Menus will focus on traditional regional cuisine from Shanghai.
Opened: 27 January
General manager: Andrew Hung
Chef: Hong Qiu Feng (formerly at Beijing International Conference Centre, but also in demand in Chinese government circles)
Food: Signature dishes include emperor dim sum, with abalone, sea cucumber and shark's fin; eel fillets in honeyed barbecue sauce; Shanghai shui jiao (meat dumpling) in exotic chilli sauce; and pumpkin dumplings with prawns and minced pork.
Seats: 180
Average spend: £60 with wine
Interior design: Tully Filmer (previous work includes London's Aubergine and Capital hotel)
Address: 193-197 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD
Tel: 020 7404 1668
CAPTION: Shanghai Blues
BOXHEAD: Fratelli Deli Caf‚, Loughton, Essex
BOXTEXT: This is the sixth Fratelli to open, bringing with it the usual selection of coffee and Mediterranean dishes. The people behind it are Antoni Motisi, who helped build the CaffŠ Nero chain, and Toni Mascolo, chief executive of Toni & Guy.
Opened: 20 December
Food: hot dishes such as cannelloni, aubergine parmigiana and spiedini de mara - prawn skewers on a bed of rocket - and panini and sandwiches
Seats: 24
Average spend: about £4
Address: 240 High Road, Loughton, Essex
Tel: 020 8508 5559
CAPTION: Fratelli Deli Caf‚
