The Basque regions of France and Spain are undoubtedly trending in the restaurant world and February sees two more exciting venues inspired by Basque cooking open in London. Away from the capital, English sparkling wine producer Hambledon is launching a restaurant at its estate in Hampshire with a chef boasting an impressive selection of Michelin-star-winning restaurants on his CV.
Looking further afield, New York welcomes an all-day destination serving Levant-inspired dishes and Sydney’s CBD gets a spectacular new grill restaurant with a wine list that ticks all the right boxes.
Read on to discover the most exciting new restaurants to visit this February.
The best new restaurants to visit in February 2025

Prince Arthur
London, UK
Adam Iglesias is behind the Basque-influenced menu at this newly refurbished pub in Belgravia. The chef has Basque roots plus a CV that features stints at Michelin-starred Alameda in San Sebastián, as well as Brat, Barrafina, and Sessions Arts Club in London. The idea for the pub’s upstairs restaurant is that he mixes ‘innovation and tradition’ while cooking with the best ingredients: ‘turbot dripping potatoes’ (pictured above, topped with tuna, urchin and caviar) immediately catch the eye, and can be ordered with caviar as a starter, while the small plates are mostly about seafood, including urchin, spider crab, lobster, cured red mullet and tuna. Main dishes are all cooked on a grill over open wood fire; there’s the almost obligatory ex-dairy beef, as well as monkfish, turbot, lobster rice and lamb sweetbreads with trotter sauce. Desserts include cheesecake, chocolate mousse and what looks, from the photos at least, like an unmissable pear and almond tart.
Open now, princearthurbelgravia.co.uk
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Cafe Zaffri
New York, US
Cafe Zaffri arrives from the team behind The Musket Room, a Levantine restaurant in Manhattan’s Nolita neighbourhood that has won a Michelin star. For this new venue, which is at the Union Square hotel but open to the public, the chefs are sticking with the same cuisine; a signature dish of lamb tartare has made its way over from The Musket Room and there will be dishes such as chicken liver mousse given Middle Eastern twists. Cafe Zaffri will serve cocktails incorporating ingredients like saffron and pistachio, and the wine list includes natural wines from Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Georgia. The restaurant is a generous size with a bar and lounge area for drinks and breakfast separate from the dining room.
Open 7 February, cafezaffri.com
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Eleven Barrack
Sydney, Australia
New for Sydney’s CBD is this grill restaurant that takes inspiration from ‘the grand dining rooms’ of New York and Paris. Guests can choose between a la carte or set menus but either way, dishes of ricotta dumplings with caviar, a king prawn bun, raw seafood and the like are followed by a choice from various steaks and chops cooked on the kitchen’s large open wood-fired grill. Sommelier Nick Hildebrandt is behind the wine list, which features some of the best bottles from Australia as well as ‘international benchmarks’ – it’s safe to assume there will be some prestigious red wines to accompany the punchy, primal flavours on offer. Suitable surrounds for the luxury dining experience are provided by a building originally built in 1849 and once a bank, so spectacular period features abound and a huge glass cabinet in the dining room displays the best wines in all their glory.

Bar Valette
London, UK
Fans of two-Michelin star The Clove Club will be excited to learn that owner Isaac McHale has opened another restaurant, one that uses the same suppliers and sees ex-Clove Club chef Erin Jackson in the kitchen. Bar Valette is on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch and is a small plates restaurant with a menu influenced by France and Spain. Intended as a more casual alternative to The Clove Club, which is now tasting menu only, the food at Bar Valette includes croquettes, venison meatballs, Madrid-style snails, preserved white asparagus and bigger plates, such as stuffed rabbit leg, lobster and grilled smoked trout. All of that can be paired with cider, beer and wines from Ribera del Duero, Rioja, the Rhône and elsewhere in two countries that are firmly in vogue on the 2025 restaurant scene.
Open now, barvalette.com

The Restaurant at Hambledon Wine Estate
Hambledon, UK
In yet another sign of strength for the English wine tourism industry, Hambledon is opening a new restaurant at its estate that promises visitors a special meal amongst the vines. At the helm is chef Nick Edgar, who has previously worked at Le Manoir Aux Quat Saisons and the Samling, so diners can expect refined seasonal dishes on a menu that changes frequently. The menu will be focused and concise, generally offering five options respectively for starters, mains and desserts, including the likes of grilled mackerel, braised beef cheek, roasted venison loin and pistachio soufflé. Housed in a barn overlooking the vineyards, the main dining room has high ceilings with exposed oak beams and is full of natural light. A set lunch will be available everyday other than Saturday, including a roast on Sunday, and there are two private dining rooms available for events.
Open now, hambledonvineyard.co.uk/restaurant
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Moss
Edinburgh, UK
Henry Dobson is a Scottish chef who has spent time in various Michelin-starred kitchens in Japan and most notably Noma, in Denmark. He is now launching a restaurant with his Japanese wife in Leith that will focus on Scottish produce but with stylistic influences from Japan and ‘new Nordic’ cuisine. Although the kitchen will only work with Scottish ingredients, techniques such as smoking, pickling and preserving will be used to keep textures and flavours varied and unusual. Sample dishes include mackerel with sorrel, apple and sunflower seed miso, and roe deer with a sheep cheese parmentier and damson. Dobson is heavily involved with one of the restaurant’s biggest suppliers, namely his family’s organic Scottish farm, and the drink list only features British wines, beers and spirits. Lovers of hyper-local, modern, creative food will want to visit.
Open now, www.mossedn.co.uk