New restaurants scheduled to open towards the end of a year will generally rush to ensure they have done so by November – it’s a great time to bank on custom as the hospitality sector embarks on its busiest period of the year in the run up to Christmas.
This month, there are exciting new venues to check out in London and New York, some of which are from chefs embarking on their first solo projects. The English capital also finally welcomes a Thai restaurant with a chef patron who has built an impressive reputation on the back of various popups and residencies in the last few years. A second restaurant from the Mexican chef behind Kol is already drawing in the crowds too.
Read on to discover the most exciting new restaurants to visit this November.
The best new restaurants to visit in November 2024
Wildflowers
London, UK
After a minor delay, Mediterranean-inspired Wildflowers has opened in Belgravia, joining Cornus a few streets away to give this part of town two great new restaurants to visit. Chef patron Aaron Potter has struck out on his own for the first time after working for Adam Byatt at Michelin-starred Trinity in Clapham and his menu combines punchy flavours with great ingredients, most of which are cooked over charcoal. A starter of lamb tartare, for example, comes with a house harissa and labneh; grilled red mullet is served with a puttanesca butter, cocoa beans and Amalfi lemon; Basque steak is complemented by a smoked bone marrow piperade. The wine list is a concise jaunt around continental Europe – mainly France, Spain and Italy – and there is the restaurant’s wine bar on the first floor if you just fancy a glass or a cocktail with cicchetti. Final words must go to the design, masterminded by Wildflowers’ Laura Hart, an interior stylist and florist, in collaboration with a London-based design studio; they have created a beautiful, warm, elegant interior.
Open now, wildflowersrestaurant.co.uk
Margo
Glasgow, UK
The team behind Ox & Finch in Glasgow have opened their second restaurant in the city, Margo. A menu of snacks and sharing plates is supported by bread and pasta that’s made in house, and much of the meat on the menu is butchered on site too. Small dishes include scallops, sobrasada and haricot beans; grilled celeriac, remoulade and hazelnuts; skate wing, kumquat kosho, trout roe and green peppercorns, while three sharing platters offer Carver duck, sirloin steak and lemon sole. Signature cocktails include frozen Martinis and there is an impressive selection of wines by the glass on a list that has representation from countries around the world, as well as classic and natural styles.
Open now, margo.restaurant
Fonda
London, UK
Mexican chef Santiago Lastra has undoubtedly made a big splash with his first London restaurant Kol, which now has a Michelin star, a £185 tasting menu and, often, a waiting list for tables. Another telltale sign that Lastra is now restaurant loyalty is Salma Hayek dropping in to visit Fonda, his second, more casual restaurant on Heddon Street off Regent Street. Here, Lastra continues with his mantra of ‘Mexican soul with British ingredients’ in cooking tacos, tostadas and quesadillas. Dishes are served in a refined style; the lightness of the batter for the cod in a Baja taco makes it tempura-esque, for example, and a side of refried beans is in fact a purée. The wine list is short and encompasses some unusual grapes and styles – a Spanish Monastrell and an Austrian blend of Blaufränkish, Zweigelt and St Laurent are on by the glass – but the cocktails instinctively feel like the natural choice. The mezcal Negroni is excellent, as is the clarified mezcal Fonda Margarita, and all the cocktails come in beautifully fine glasses with a singular cube of the clearest ice.
Open now, fondalondon.com
Bridges
New York, US
Fans of New York’s Estela restaurant will be interested to read that Bridges is the first solo venture from one of its former head chefs, Sam Lawrence. The style of the food is similar in the new restaurant; classical cooking with a European influence, and dishes such as sardines with anchovies, marinated pepper and aioli; Comté tart with chanterelles mushrooms; and grilled king crab with Bearnaise and pickles are already creating a buzz. The wine list is dominated by interesting choices from France, Italy, Austria and Spain and the interior design of the restaurant, previously a longstanding dim sum venue in Chinatown, is pleasingly individual and undoubtedly cool.
Open now, bridges-nyc.com
AngloThai
London, UK
As described in our recent piece on AngloThai and the local approach to international cuisine, this is a restaurant where chef John Chantarasak will cook Thai food with carefully considered British ingredients. This much anticipated opening in Marylebone comes after Chantarasak built a reputation for exciting, modern Thai food at various popups and residences over the last few years. Expect refined Thai curries, meat cooked over open fire and inventive twists on smaller plates like bone marrow and beef fat umami crumb, marinated mushroom skewers with dipping sauce and oysters with sea buckthorn and fermented chilli. Chantarasak’s wife Desiree is creating the restaurant’s wine list, sourcing low-intervention bottles to accompany the food.
Opens 11 November, anglothai.co.uk
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Postino Osteria
Sydney, Australia
New for the Summer Hill suburb of Sydney is this Italian osteria from Alessandro and Anna Pavoni, housed in an old post office. The concept is based on the osterias of Brescia that Alessandro was taken to as a child, so the menu is about comforting nostalgia generated with quality ingredients. Dishes on the menu include parmigiana, tonnato, homemade spaghetti with meatballs and even veal tripe if you fancy going truly traditional. Pistachio tiramisu catches the eye amongst the desserts and, as you might expect, the wine list is dominated by Italian wines with the odd concession made to the best from elsewhere (Egly-Ouriet makes it in amongst the sparkling wines, for example, and some of the big names from Australia and New Zealand are on the list too).
Open now, postino.au
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Bottarga
London, UK
The latest place in which to be seen on the King’s Road in Fulham is Bottarga, a hip, candelit restaurant taking inspiration from the Greek islands. The menu lives up to the general theme, with a selection of dips and mezze for starters that includes saganaki bites with sesame and thyme honey; bluefin otoro toast with gyros spices and deep-fried courgette with black garlic aioli. As well as grilled prawns and sea bass as mains, there are dishes of lamb belly with Greek Easter seasoning; soutzoukakia (Greek meatballs) and ribeye steak with a bone marrow stifado jus. Anyone wishing for an all-Greek wine list will be disappointed but there are several bottles from across the country dotted throughout, amongst more classical picks (this is west London after all). The pudding of chocolate burnt cheesecake is about as Instagram-friendly as they come, particularly as it’s gratuitously dressed from a height with salted caramel chocolate sauce – it’s not immediately obvious how Greek it is but chances you are you won’t care once you’ve taken a bite.
Open now, bottarga.london
