As one might expect from the best new restaurants to visit in June, the theme of al fresco dining looms large over the month’s selections, with diners afforded the chance to enjoy food on rooftops and hillsides, in courtyards and gardens. It’s difficult to look beyond a new restaurant in Ibiza in this respect, where local produce and live-fire cooking combine with sea views to deliver a carefully considered meal set against a backdrop of true Balearic beauty.
In London, the food and drink offering at Raffles at The OWO only goes from strength to strength with the opening of Endo Kazutoshi’s new sushi spot, complete with spectacular rooftop terrace and private dining turret. There’s also excitement for vegans and fans of Thai food with two new venues catering to their tastes respectively. Adam Handling’s pub in Cornwall offers a bucolic retreat from the hustle of city life, while diners in New York get Brooklyn-based Italian-American food with a twist – and some great cocktails.
Read on to discover the most exciting new restaurants to visit this June.
The best new restaurants to visit in June 2024
Kioku by Endo
London, UK
The latest addition to the impressive range of restaurants at Raffles at The OWO, Kioku by Endo is a rooftop sushi venue by Michelin-starred chef Endo Kazutoshi, a man already considered gastronomic royalty thanks to the omakase restaurant Endo at the Rotunda. The sushi ‘infuses Japanese heritage with Mediterranean inspiration’ and is available a la carte, as part of a tasting menu and at the chef’s table. As well as some of the capital’s finest sashimi and nigiri, there are more substantial individual dishes, featuring aged monkfish, turbot, pork loin and duck, that incorporate fermented and umami-based elements. An extensive wine list including bottles from revered producers that are available by the glass is complemented by ten inventive cocktails – the mouth-watering Padron and Shiso is made from shiso spirit, mezcal, vodka, green gooseberries and Padron peppers. As good as the food and drink is the terrace on which to enjoy it, offering spectacular views of central London, as well as the private dining room in the restaurant’s turret.
Open now, kiokubyendo.com
Madunia
Ibiza, Spain
Madunia, billed as a ‘garden restaurant’, is perched on the hills of Cap Negret on the north-west coast of Ibiza, giving diners eating outside breathtaking views across the Balearic Sea as the sun sets. Ivan Beusnik, who trained at Michelin-starred restaurants in the Netherlands, is Madunia’s executive chef. He’s chosen an open-fire cooking approach via a Josper grill for many of the dishes, and will serve Spanish meat, locally caught fish and vegetables from farmer cooperatives to ensure there are the freshest ingredients to go with the flames. The menu includes gamba roja carpaccio (pictured), bone marrow tostados, Spanish Wagyu short rib and artichoke hearts with lavender butter – but it’s difficult to envisage any single dish trumping the panoramic views in the warmth of an Ibizan summer.
Opens 8 June, madunia.es
Chez Roux
London, UK
The seismic announcement, towards the end of 2023, that La Gavroche would close is a distant memory and now Michel Roux is back with a new restaurant at The Langham hotel in central London. The menu has been inspired by Roux’s childhood memories of the food he ate during the 1960s when his father, Albert Roux, worked as the private chef for the Cazalet family in Kent. As a result, the menu ‘showcases historical British favourites and traditional French culinary techniques’. It’s divided into a tasting option of five courses for £80 and an a la carte selection of five starters and five mains. Dishes include duck liver parfait, salmon rillettes, beef fillet, lemon sole meunière, summer pudding and rice pudding. Though the menu is undoubtedly about the nostalgia derived by Roux from his personal experiences, some of the food also serves as a reminder of the first menus at La Gavroche, so Chez Roux should have some added appeal for those already missing the Mayfair institution. If you’ve not been around long enough to reminisce fondly about the food of the ’60s, this is an opportunity to sample a Michel Roux menu in its own right – and while the food isn’t intended to reach the heights of that served at La Gavroche, at least the bill won’t reach the same level either.
Open now, langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/london/dine/chez-roux/
The Tartan Fox
Cornwall, UK
A short hop from Newquay, The Tartan Fox makes its home in a 400-year-old Grade II listed building in rural Cornwall and is the latest venue from chef Adam Handling. The idea is to ‘showcase sustainable British food’ using local produce, including some that’s been foraged, with the menu offering a selection of Handling’s signature dishes alongside pub classics. There’s plenty of space outside in sprawling grounds, so the pub’s arrival just in time for summer is perfect. As well as his Michelin-starred restaurant Frog in Covent Garden, Handling has already had success with The Loch & Tyne pub in Old Windsor, which has been voted one of the UK’s top 50 gastropubs, so The Tartan Fox should be a guaranteed winner.
Opens 11 June, tartanfoxpub.co.uk
Bar Madonna
New York, US
One of Williamsburg’s latest openings, Bar Madonna is an Italian-American spot that’s as much about food as it is drinks, despite the word ‘bar’ in its name. The other half of the title is down to one of the bar’s two co-founders, Eric Madonna, who previously managed New York institution Carbone. The menu here has a more modern feel than the stereotypical Italian-American selection of pasta and pizza drowned in tomato sauce and stringy cheese, with a mix of refined and playful dishes. Oysters with a mignonette of pickled vegetables and oxtail croquettes with blood orange sauce and celery salsa verde are two of the starters, while more substantial dishes include grilled octopus, hot wings with a buttermilk vinaigrette and herb-crusted lamb chops. There are ten house cocktails, as well as a selection of Italian wines – though an exception is made for half bottles of Krug, available if keeping it Italian with Prosecco just won’t do. A few tables are reserved for walk-ins, as are seats at the bar, but booking is recommended.
Open now, barmadonna.com
Koyn Thai
London, UK
Koyn in Mayfair will effectively become two restaurants on the same site as Koyn Thai opens in the basement to complement the existing Japanese Koyn on the ground floor. The Bangkok-born chef Rose Chalalai Singh brings her home-style Thai food together with the café culture of Paris, where she calls home, to the low-lit dining room. Dishes will include prawn choo chee, southern Thai crab curry and a chang mai platter featuring spicy homemade pork sausage, sticky rice and crackling pork skin.
Opens 16 June, koynrestaurants.com
Café Petiole
London, UK
Vegans rejoice, for there is now another spot in the capital going far beyond mushroom risotto as an alternative to dishes containing meat and dairy. Café Petiole is new to Somerset House and has been opened by chef Rishim Sachdeva, who has already won much praise for his plant-forward menu at Tendril, a restaurant off Regent Street in central London. Together with Tendril’s head of pastry, Tarryn Williams, Sachdeva has created sweet and savoury dishes for the menu, including corn tostadas with smoked artichoke and lime puree; grilled aubergine sabich with tabbouleh focaccia; pineapple, chilli and lime galette; almond, fennel seed and morello cherry cake and a chocolate tahini caramel slice. An all-vegan drinks list features kombucha and low-intervention wines on tap, which can be enjoyed, together with the food, in the beautiful surrounds of the Somerset House courtyard. A promising spot for a lighter lunch in the summer sun.
Open now, somersethouse.org.uk/eating-and-drinking/cafe-petiole
