January is finally over and those emerging from a month’s hibernation will discover a tranche of new restaurants around the world to tempt them back into dining out.
In London, a Hackney venue is taking inspiration from all that’s good on the food scene in Hong Kong, while in Wimbledon, a former Masterchef winner has opened his debut restaurant. Brooklyn welcomes a permanent home for a pop-up specialising in food from Northern Mexico and Manhattan gets the first outpost of a Las Vegas institution. The perennial appeal of French food shows up again in the form of new brasseries in London, Los Angeles and Sydney. And whichever recent restaurant opening you may find yourself in this month, it’s unlikely you’ll ever be far from a Martini, as another trend surges on.
Read on to discover the most exciting new restaurants to visit this February.
The best new restaurants to visit in February 2026
Cafe Kowloon
London, UK
A new Cantonese restaurant for the capital inspired by ‘the way Hong Kong likes to eat and drink’ has opened in London Fields. Cafe Kowloon is the latest venture from the owners of Mr Bao and Daddy Bao, popular Taiwanese restaurants in Peckham and Tooting respectively, focusing on punchy flavours and family-style dining. In that spirit, the menu is divided into snacks, sharing plates and sides, with the snacks including steamed scallops with glass noodles and XO; grilled curry fish ball skewers; and beef tendons. Prawn toast; steamed sea bass with seasoned soy sauce; steamed duck egg with yauh ja gwai; and cha siu (pork) collar, grapefruit and mustard leaves are amongst the sharing dishes. There are six signature cocktails on the drinks list, plus a low-intervention wine selection created by Theatre of Wine that includes 13 wines by the glass.
Open now, cafekowloon.co.uk
View this post on Instagram
Golden Steer
New York, US
It would be difficult to describe New York as wanting when it comes to steakhouses but more room has been found in the city for an outpost of legendary Las Vegas restaurant Golden Steer, a spot that once counted Elvis Presley and members of the Rat Pack amongst its regulars. Open in One Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village, the NY Golden Steer imports many of the favourite seafood and steaks from the mothership in Sin City, so starters of jumbo shrimp cocktail, oysters and beef tartare precede an extensive list of steaks that culminates in tomahawk and porterhouse cuts to share. Diners can also expect a long wine list and classic steakhouse cocktails.
Open now, goldensteer.com
Orion
London, UK
Any viewers that were wowed by Alex Webb’s cooking in the 2020 series of Masterchef: The Professionals (of which he was crowned winner) can now experience it for themselves at his debut restaurant in Wimbledon. Classic French technique using British ingredients is his style, with standout seafood dishes on the menu including Webb’s signature lobster and prawn toast with black sesame, lime, chilli and carrot purée. A cod fillet wrapped in hispi cabbage with pickled kohlrabi, seaweed powder, white bean cassoulet and dill oil is on the list of mains, as is grilled Cornish monkfish with celeriac purée, pickle, remoulade, sea herbs and warm tartare sauce.
Open now, orionbyalexwebb.com
View this post on Instagram
Border Town
New York, US
The cuisine of northern Mexico is on the menu at this walk-in-only Greenpoint spot specialising in tortillas. The owners had until recently been running pop-ups around New York but Border Town becomes their permanent home, where the menu includes aguachile, tostadas and tacos in addition to the tortillas, which are made from two key ingredients: imported Los Gallos Sonoran wheat flour and pork lard. The drinks offering includes cocktails made from some of the ‘alternative’ agave spirits – the Desert Negroni incorporates sotol, for example – but there’s also plenty of Tequila and mezcal on the back bar too.
Open now, www.bordertown.co
Brasserie Angelica
London, UK
New Fitzrovia hotel The Newman has opened with its own brasserie restaurant headed up by exec chef Christian Turner. He has previously worked at The Wolseley, Colbert and Manzi’s in Soho, and has devised an all-day menu that includes dinner dishes of chicken pie with cep cream sauce, confit duck leg with haricot beans and parsley salad, alongside a selection of fish, steaks and chops from over a wood-fire grill. Talk of a continental European influence should fend off the stodgy style that can detract from the food at some hotel restaurants, as should the pressure of recently opened competition: Carbone at the new Rosewood hotel and Labombe by Trivet at COMO Metropolitan, for example, show that restaurants attached to hotels can be exciting.
Open now, brasserieangelica.com
View this post on Instagram
Hermon’s
Los Angeles, US
Something between bar, grill and bistro, Hermon’s is a neighbourhood restaurant in the eponymous suburb on the way to Pasadena from central LA. The menu is full of classics, including a prawn cocktail, cheeseburger, steak and bolognese, and the drinks menu majors on cocktails, including four different Martini options. The wine list features around 20 different bottles and is a mix of US, French and Italian producers.
Open now, www.hermonsla.com
View this post on Instagram
Darling Glebe
Sydney, Australia
A new luxury brasserie has opened in the dramatic subterranean space that was once the fork-to-farm restaurant Darling Mills. The chef behind the menu at Darling Glebe is Jeff Schroeter, the creator of a range of French dishes with a twist, such as riffs on duck à l’Orange, vegetable en cocotte and seared foie gras. As you’d expect of almost every new restaurant with its own bar in 2026, there is an extensive Martini menu but a selection of other signature cocktails is on offer too, plus a wine list that draws on a cellar with space for almost 3,000 bottles.
Open now, darlingglebe.com.au
