Features

The hottest new restaurants to visit in July 2022

From sun-drenched Mediterranean tables to restaurants dishing up elegant seasonal plates by top New York restaurant alumni, these are the most exciting newly opened restaurants ready to visit this month

Words by Louella Berryman

new restaurants july

There’s a bumper crop of new restaurants that opened in June to explore, as summer takes hold and good weather prompts much bustle and buzz over new openings around the world. And the good weather might be having another impact: Mediterranean coastal cuisine appears to be the theme of this month’s openings – no matter the geography – with restaurants from Sydney to London developing menus inspired by Turkey’s lesser-known vegetarian food scene, Greece’s traditional sharing-style dishes and Venice’s artful use of to some of the Med’s best seafood. There are openings inspired by the Northern European coast too, with TRI celebrating the spoils of North Jutland’s land and sea.

new restaurants july 2022
Coastal cuisine is the theme of many new openings this month, including Venice's Il Porticciolo at the Cipriani Hotel
(Photo: Cipriani Hotel)

If you prefer classic European cuisine, there’s LA’s new decadent take on the French bistro, Mes Amis, being brought to the city by renowned pastry chef Lincoln Carlson; or Paris’ own Le Passionné, where you can sample a menu that showcases local French producers and classic French cookery. Hong Kong’s Nez Wine Bistro takes inspiration from Paris too, with much excitement in particular around a wine list curated by one of HK’s top sommeliers. If European-holiday-destination eating isn’t what you’re dreaming of, take a trip to Mexico via New York’s fun new café and agaveria, doing a fine line in tacos, Tequila cocktails and, er, Whispering Angel.

New restaurants around the world to visit in July 2022

bise malmo

Bise

Malmo, Sweden

Bise (short for ‘bisous’ in French) has opened as a restaurant, wine bar, and cocktail bar in the culinary capital of Sweden, serving up natural wines, small plates, a formal three-course menu and a series of exciting collaborations and pop-ups. Since opening, Bise has already hosted an evening coined ‘Open Sea’, which paired Japanese wines and Pet Nat with Yakitori barbecue skewers. On the more permanent menu, you’ll find dishes inspired by Southern Europe, including spring chicken with peppers and olives and Basque cheesecake with rhubarb. The wine bar boasts a streamlined wines-by-the-glass menu and bar snacks, but the cocktail menu remains under mysterious secrecy at the moment.
bise.se

citrico cafe new york

Citrico Café

New York, USA

Buzzy Mexican restaurant Citrico Café is the latest in a wave of exciting new venues celebrating the nation’s food and agave spirits, with a sizeable taco menu and fun frozen cocktails. Expert in ‘meat and fire’ Steven Londono is at the grill, making LA-style tacos including pork belly char siu and battered fish with cabbage confetti. There’s a ‘raw bar’ too, serving oysters with salsa criolla mignotte, burnt tomatillo and lemon as well as ceviche and fish tostadas. From the agaveria, there’s classics like Frozen Margaritas and inventive offerings like the Horchata Mezcal Martini. Fancy a glass of wine? It’s Whispering Angel by the glass only.
citricocafe.com

IL PORTICCIOLO venice

Il Porticciolo

Venice, Italy

Summer dining demands sunshine, seafood and beautiful surroundings. Il Porticciolo, helmed by ex-Noma chef Riccardo Canella, has all three. The Cipriani Hotel’s restaurant and oyster bar overlooks the island of San Giorgio and its 16th-century Benedictine church, and boasts a private jetty for guests to arrive via boat. A daily delivery of Adriatic fish and shellfish makes up the majority of what’s on the menu: expect dishes like a seafood risotto made with Carnaroli rice, herb pesto and seaweed oil, and a dessert of a hollowed-out Amalfi sfusato lemon filled with lemon sorbet and a fermented rice infusion and topped with green olive salt and praline pistachios. Wines stay mostly local, although sparklers veer into big-name territory with the likes of Krug, Ruinart and Dom Pérignon available by the glass.
belmond.com/ilporticciolo

maria gs london

Maria G’s

London, UK

UK chef Robin Gill might be best known for his take on modern British cuisine, including at the much-missed Clapham restaurants The Dairy and Counter Culture, but this month he’s going Italian with a new opening in Kensington inspired by the country’s ever-popular cuisine. Fresh pasta will be a big menu staple, along with house-cured salami and cicchetti (small Venetian snacks). Ivy House ricotta agnolotti, wild rocket and baby purple artichoke will be on the pasta offering, house-cured rosemary and Sicilian orange bresaola for meat fans, and Penzance red mullet, Amalfi lemon and wild fennel aioli will make the most of British fish and Italian produce. Ample Spritzes on the cocktail menu provide the perfect start to an Italian feast, and the bijou wine list continues with an Italian slant too.
mariags.co.uk

Maydanoz sydney

Maydanoz

Sydney, Australia

The Mediterranean trend continues with a new venture from Turkish-Australian celebrity chef Somer Sivrioğlu. Maydanoz, which is Turkish for ‘parsley’, will take a different route to the country’s cuisine, celebrating vegetables instead of what some might consider Turkey’s most classic meat dishes. Imam bayildi (stuffed aubergine), rhubarb and aged feta sandwiches, and honey, sesame and rosemary haloumi kebabs feature on what might just be a vegetarian’s dream menu, as well as a lean selection of meat options – including the famous ‘sheep’s head wedding soup’. Cocktails take a Turkish lean, with a ‘spice market’ Negroni integrating seven spices into the classic, and a Turkish Coffee and Date Martini for afters.
maydanoz.com.au

mes amis la

Mes Amis

Los Angeles, USA

Lincoln Carson, the award-winning chef and pastry expert behind LA’s Bon Temps (sadly, a casualty to the Coronavirus pandemic), opened his latest project in the city this month: Mes Amis. A far cry from the minimalist, small-plates restaurants that have become all the rage in recent years, the French decadence of Mes Amis is reflective of its menu. Raw bar (we’re still in LA, don’t worry) towers with scallops and prawns are on offer to start, with traditional brasserie mains like steak au poivre and whole poached lobster next on the list. There’s a large selection of sparkling wines and a pleasingly kitsch Champagne trolley too.
mesamisla.com

nez wine bistro hong kong

Nez Wine Bistro

Hong Kong

Taking its name from the French word for ‘nose’, the focus of this smart new bistro in Central Hong Kong is firmly on the wine. With a programme curated by Victor Petiot, sommelier at Three-Michelin-Starred Caprice, there’s an impressive selection of hard-to-source bottles available, including plenty of natural wine from French estates, including what’s touted as one of Petiot’s favourite Loire Valley producers: Domaine de Bellevue. The Parisian-inspired bistro also boasts a simple a la carte menu filled with classics – take the French bean salad with organic egg mimosa to start or a main dish of moules marinière with fresh herbs and French fries.
nez-hk.com

noortwyck new york

The Noortwyck

New York, USA

New York’s West Village gains another upscale neighbourhood restaurant with the opening of The Noortwyck, whose menu and name (taken from an old name for a West Village settlement called the North District) celebrates the best of seasonal America. The ex-Eleven Madison Park chef and sommelier duo Andrew Quinn and Cedric Nicaise will serve up a menu of seasonal plates like scallop crudo, Peeko oysters with cucumber, and bucatini with ramps (or wild garlic, if you’re based UK-side). The impressive offering with include in-house breadmaking, butchery and dry ageing too. There are 250 wines to choose from, ranging from affordable Gruner Veltliner to special occasion bottles of Dom Pérignon.
thenoortwyck.com

passione paris

Passionné

Paris, France

There’s no doubt Passionné has set out to celebrate the best of French cuisine. The menu is designed to shine a light on small local producers, showcasing Parisian food in a spot that once housed some of the city’s market traders. There’s a carte blanche menu that leaves your dining experience entirely in the hands of head chef Satoshi Horiuchi (formerly of Michelin Guide-recommended Au Bon Accueil), and which celebrates vegetables, local meat and fish. Brill fillet with white asparagus and smoked garlic oil, Challans duck with carrots and mustard, and radishes with bottarga and pickleweed sauce all feature on the menu, with paired wine flights available too.
restaurantpassionne.com

the spence edinburgh

The Spence

Edinburgh, UK

An all-day restaurant that takes you from Bloody Marys through to nightcaps, and which is working with local producers to create a seasonal menu. Heading up the kitchen is Jonny Wright, a chef from Evelyn’s Table, one of London’s latest Michelin Star success stories. Here, he’s returning to his native Scotland to create a menu rooted in the classics: think wild mushroom tart with goat’s curd and hazelnuts, and a chilli and Scotch baba with praline sauce and mascarpone. The wine list is comprehensive, with plenty of established producers and a smattering of new names, as well as an (to-be-expected) excellent whisky list featuring drams from The Macallan, Glenmorangie and The Balvenie.
gleneagles.com/the-spence/

tri denmark

TRI

North Jutland, Denmark

With Copenhagen offering so much in the way of culinary sightseeing, it’s easy to overlook the rest of Denmark’s restaurants in favour of city-slicking venues. The newly opened TRI is situated in remote North Jutland and is being steered by chef Nicolas Min Jørgensen of the Michelin Guide-recommended Substans in Aarhus. The tasting menu on offer at TRI will showcase the best the Nordic Sea and Limfjorden (the channel of water connecting North Jutland with the North Sea) has to offer, with a frequently changing menu featuring Danish lobster, sea snails and locally foraged greens, and desserts including rhubarb with local chamomile.
restaurant-tri.com

zephyr london

Zephyr

London, UK

What if we said you could take a trip around the Greek Islands without the delays and cancellations blighting airports this month? Okay – it’s not quite the same, but Zephyr, the new first non-Peruvian opening from the Pachamama Group, comes pretty close with its Mediterranean-sun-soaked Grecian menu. Dishes like seabass carpaccio with lemon-oil dashi and bottarga and whole smoked aubergine with citrus yogurt and dukkah are served sharing-style on Notting Hill’s Portobello Road, with a secret (or not so much now) plush downstairs bar serving ten signature cocktails.
zephyr.london