The festive season tends to usher in a renewed zest for dining out. For those looking for a new place to bring in the Christmas season, there’s plenty of restaurant openings to get excited about. For Londoners, the city’s first modern Palestinian restaurant promises to titillate with a strict no-hummus policy, while celebrating the best of the Gaza Strip’s cuisine. A new residency at Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel in Cape Town, is showcasing the best of pan-African cuisine, using native ingredients across a selection of small plates and creative cocktails.
Across the pond, you’ll find the latest Italian-American opening in New York’s Soho, bringing old-school Little Italy glamour to the area. If you prefer your dinner with a little disco, head to Sydney’s Kissuu for modern Japanese-inspired sharing plates, fun cocktails and a mirror-ball-bedecked DJ booth.
Keep reading below for more hot new restaurant openings this month from across the globe.
New restaurants to visit around the world in December 2022
Goldfinch
Copenhagen, Denmark
A new casual Cantonese restaurant from ex-Geranium chef Will King-Smith has landed in Copenhagen this month and promises to recreate the flavours the chef misses most from his time in the region. Sharing food is the name of the game, and guests are encouraged to come in groups to make the most of the menu. Whole lobster on egg noodles, traditional whole roast duck, classic shrimp toast and spicy clams all feature, plus house-made lap cheong sausage. Cocktails will be available alongside the home-style Chinese menu, and will feature nods to classic drinks, as witnessed in a Hong Kong-style milk tea and a Lychee Martini.
Open now, goldfinch.dk
Kissuu
Sydney, Australia
December is the perfect time for a little glitz, and new Sydney spot Kissuu brings it in spades. The music-driven eating, dancing and drinking venue will serve experimental Janapese-inspired fare from ex-Nobu chef Adam Burke with dishes like lamb ribs with moro miso and pomegranate and kingfish sashimi taco, topped with a yuzu-togarashi dressing and finger limes. Cocktails are described as ‘quirky’ and guests can sip on the Twisted Geisha (gin, sake, lychee and lemon) or Next to the Koi Pond (coconut-washed Tequila, yuzu, lime and basil) next to the disco-ball-shaped DJ booth.
Open now, kissuu.com.au
Saltie Girl
London, UK
Boston seafood culture is coming to London’s Mayfair courtesy of Saltie Girl, which in its home state serves up New England’s largest tinned seafood collection (65 varieties, to be exact). The first UK outpost of the US restaurant will include a raw bar, seafood towers, fresh oysters, New England-style lobster rolls and fried lobster and waffles. To sip alongslide, there’ll be the much-photographed olive- and caviar-topped Martini, and a wide-ranging wine list including Saltie Girl’s own label Provence rosé. From a reserve section of the wine list you can order a bottle of 2012 Pol Roger Winston Churchill for a cool £1,056.
Open now, saltiegirl.com
Tir a Môr
Cardiff, Wales
Meaning land and sea in Welsh, Tir a Môr, a new opening in Voco hotel in Cardiff’s bay is set to serve up the best produce the country has to offer. The menu offers creative takes on classics with a strong focus on Welsh ingredients, like Anglesey mussels cooked in Welsh cider and punchy ‘nduja sausage, cawl (a Welsh stew) croquettes with homemade brown sauce and Welsh cockle and sea vegetable broth. The Welsh credentials carry through to the drinks list, with local spirits playing a starring role in signature cocktails, as well as contemporary artwork from local artists adorning the bay-side walls.
Open now, stdavids.vocohotels.com
Torrisi Bar and Restaurant
New York, USA
Not strictly a new addition to Soho’s restaurant scene, but back after a seven-year hiatus, Torrisi Specialities has become Torrisi Bar and Restaurant. The small ‘red sauce’ joint has been transformed into an homage to Italian-American fare, inspired by Little Italy and with dishes like San Gennaro bao, hand-pulled mozzarella, linguine with Manhattan clams, and short ribs with pastrami spices. To finish, there’s almond cheesecake and an array of gelato. Plenty of Martinis, Negronis and Spritzes will be available on the cocktail menu, and the wine list focuses mainly on European bottles, with a few Californian wines thrown in for good measure.
Open now, torrisinyc.com
Edge at the Belmond Mount Nelson hotel
Cape Town, South Africa
Is there any better place to sample the myriad flavours of Africa than overlooking Cape Town’s Table Mountain? Belmond Mount Nelson hotel is hosting pan-African restaurant Edge for a new culinary residency until April next year. Chef Vusi Ndlovu will serve dishes inspired by his own South African heritage, using underexplored native ingredients and recipes passed down over generations. There will be an emphasis on cooking over flames, and dishes will include Ujeqe noMsobho, a steamed bun traditionally eaten with hands and served with beef essence, and charred broccoli in groundnut sauce with roasted peanuts and dressed in a miso made with West African Bambara nuts. Wines will focus on local independent producers, and cocktails include African spirits and botanicals.
Opens 7 December, belmond.com/dining
Akub
London, UK
London’s first modern Palestinian restaurant is due to open this month, with chef and hotelier Fadi Kattan of Fawda in Bethlehem at the helm. Named after a thistle-like plant that’s highly prized in Palestinian cuisine, Akub will focus largely on sustainable, locally sourced ingredients. You won’t find hummus or falafel on Akub’s menu: instead, seafood dishes like vine leaves stuffed with skate, a pulled lamb dish popularised along the coastline of the Gaza Strip, meat stews influenced by the fiery flavours of nearby Egypt, and taboon flatbread will take centre stage. Arak, a distilled Levantine spirit, will be available alongside beer from Taybeh, a Palestinian brewery.
Opens 8 December, akub-restaurant.com
Kappou Mu & room 3
Hong Kong
A new dual-concept restaurant and bar has made its way to Hong Kong this month, showcasing the very best of Japanese cuisine. Kappou Mu is an exclusive dining room that will serve an omakase menu inspired by the food of Kyoto – Japan’s ancient culinary capital. Plenty of seafood will be available to sample, including crab, shrimp, Kinmedai (a type of snapper), Himi Kanburi (winter yellow tail), and Akasaki oyster. The in-house sake sommelier will recommend drinks to accompany the dining experience too. The sleek speakeasy-style bar next door (room 3) will take the form of three interconnected rooms inspired by bamboo forests and will serve ‘edgy’ cocktails with Japanese tapas.
Opens mid-December
