New openings around the world this month take a luxurious direction, with tasting menus and premium ingredients galore. In London, there’s Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royale in Mayfair, which aims to impress diners with two tasting menus featuring the likes of kaluga caviar, fine de claire oysters and golden eggs injected with vacherin cheese. Pure indulgence. Luxury takes a more whimsical slant at Singapore’s Ce Soir, with floral décor and plating elements.
Heading a little more down to earth is Oregonian winery Willamette Valley, which is branching out into the restaurant space with its new venture, showcasing the best of local Pacific Northwest flavours and pairing them with a selection of its best wines. To discover more brilliant places to add to your ‘must go’ list, keep reading below for a selection of the best new restaurants to visit this month.
New restaurants to visit around the world in October 2022
Alex Dilling at The Hotel Café Royale
London, UK
Fans of fine dining will be delighted with the new offering at The Hotel Café Royal, one of London’s most prestigious hotels. With a rare view of Regent’s Street and Piccadilly Circus, the white linen-tableclothed dining room provides respite from the restaurant’s central location. Chef Alex Dilling’s well-known fine-dining roots include experience at the Michelin-starred The Greenhouse and Hélène Darroze. Here, he presents his first solo venture in the form of a tasting-menu-only offering. Menu items include Limousin veal sweetbread, Brittany pigeon farci with foie gras, preserved truffle and Albufeira sauce and Cornish sardine with buttermilk and cuttlefish. Jazz music is de rigour, and wines err on the side of old-school luxury.
hotelcaferoyal.com/alexdilling
Ce Soir
Singapore
The last thing you might expect to find on the Portsdown Road outside of the city centre of Singapore is an ethereal floral masterpiece of a restaurant. The French, botanical-themed Ce Soir takes interior and menu inspiration from seasonal blooms, with décor and plating including petals, buds and more. Chef Koh Han Jie (of Two-Michelin starred Les Amis stock) has created two menus, the four-course ‘lustre’ menu and the nine-course ‘iridescent’ menu, starring Norwegian hand-dived scallop with sea grapes, Osaka seaweed and seaweed butter, and poached Mozambique langoustine with vin jaune sauce made from Jura wine. Desserts show off the best of the pretty floral plating, with white peach granita, prickly pear, macerated strawberries and almonds.
cesoir.com
Jōji
New York, USA
Hidden below a staircase at the One Vanderbilt skyscraper in the heart of Manhattan is Jōji, an intimate new Omakase speakeasy. Helmed by three ex-Masa chefs and backed by Daniel Boulud, this new Midtown sushi counter’s pedigree is seriously top-notch. The 18-seat restaurant includes its own Roji garden (a Japanese tea garden for quiet reflection), and a menu boasting some of the best fish in the business (the owners reportedly have stellar contacts within the Japanese fish industry). Non-traditional flavours are at home here, with Sturgeon caviar and onion purée included in one of the starter dishes, and an extensive wine and sake list to boot. Plus, seasonally changing cocktails including a shiitake old fashioned and the ’Umami-tini’ (gin, ponzu, mirin and tomato water).
jojiny.com
Momen
Paris, France
Shaking up the quiet Parisian street of Boulevard Haussmann is Momen, a joint venture from two chefs who have cut their teeth in some of the city’s best restaurants. The menu celebrates classic French cooking with a modern twist, and you’ll find dishes like squid ceviche with citrus fruits and ginger, heirloom tomatoes, burrata, lettuce coulis, pickled bell pepper and basil, and monkfish with snow peas and dill. When it comes to wine, it’s decidedly French with bottlings from producers both large and small.
momenparis.com
Noi
Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s latest hotel restaurant opening comes in the form of a contemporary Italian overlooking the city in the Four Seasons. Argentinian chef Paulo Airaudo, who’s known for his Michelin-starred Basque Country restaurant Amelia, is running the show, and has dreamt up a menu inspired by his Italian heritage and Argentinian upbringing. Noi, meaning ‘we’ or ‘us’ in Italian, will serve a seasonal menu including dishes like Hamachi (a tuna-like fish), tomato and turnip, and lobster with pumpkin. The menu also comes with a wine-pairing option, with glasses chosen by the chef himself.
fourseasons.com/noi
Rafi
Sydney, Australia
Sunny terraces and cuisine cooked over charcoal is just what Sydneyites are after in the coming summer months, and Rafi has these elements in spades. The new contemporary Australian restaurant, helmed by Matías Cillóniz, a Peruvian chef formerly at Central (currently ranked second on the World’s 50 Best Rsestaurant list), is offering fun seasonal dishes inspired by the Aussie coast. You’ll find raw South Coast tuna with cucumber, avocado and fresh yuzu, glacier 51 toothfish with chickpea miso, fresh chickpeas and chilli, and crispy potatoes with cultured cream, chives and sea urchin alongside creative cocktails and a wine list leaning heavily on Australian producers. Décor is fun and includes bar stools clothed in fabric by Walmajarri Aboriginal artist Jimmy Pike.
rafisydney.com.au
Terre
County Cork, Ireland
Terre might be inspired by the connection between the land, people and produce of Ireland, but its beginnings are truly international. The new Irish restaurant is spearheaded by French chef Vincent Crepel, who brings his experience at the Three Michelin-starred Arzak in the Basque Country to his first solo venture. Terre finds home in the 17th Century manor house estate Castlemartyr, where diners will be taken on a journey from aperitifs overlooking the rolling green hills of the estate’s gardens to a post-dinner drinks trolley in the drawing room. The 12-course tasting menu will include dishes prepared with traditional French techniques with an Asian flair, like steamed dashi custard, cod topped with caviar and smoked vine peaches.
terre.ie
Willamette Valley Vineyards Vancouver
Portland, USA
From the creators of classic Oregonian bottlings made from cool-climate varietals comes a new restaurant and tasting toom space alongside the Columbia River in Portland. The restaurant will offer views across the waterway, and fare based on local produce, aiming to reflect the flavours of the Pacific Northwest. On the current tasting menu, a 2021 Estate Rosé of Pinot Noir is to be sipped alongside local greens, stone fruit, fennel pollen, hazelnuts and fromage blanc, and 2018 Métis Red Blend pairs with Carmen Ranch New York steak, grilled broccolini, grilled onions, peperonata and hazelnut romesco. The restaurant will also soon offer a personalised blending experience, where guests will be able to craft their own red wine.
wvv.com/vancouver
