The Hit List: New London Restaurants To Try Right Now - London - The Infatuation (2024)

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

When new restaurants open, we check them out. This means that we subject our stomachs and social lives to the good, the bad, and more often than not, the perfectly fine. And every once in a while, a new spot makes us feel like Paul Hollywood at Mr Kipling's house. When that happens, we add it here, to the Hit List.

The Hit List is where you’ll find all of the best new restaurants in London. As long as it opened within the past several months and we’re still talking about it, it’s on this guide. The latest addition might be a sceney new restaurant with an abundance of Salomons and burrata. Or it might be a takeaway-only spot where you’ll eat life-changing jerk in a supermarket car park.

New to The Hit List (07/02): Kolae, The Dover

THE SPOTS

The Dover in Mayfair is a dimly lit Italian restaurant with big-plate aubergine parmigiana and an if-you-know-you-know feel to it. Walk into the unmarked spot, past the heavy maroon curtains, into what feels like an invite-only members' club. Except at this one, it’s all smiles and "buon appetito" from the friendly servers, and the food is actually great. Everything from the complimentary bread, to rich chocolate paste topped with crunchy hazelnuts, and the citrussy dover sole in between is a hit. Bring a date and flirt on intimate corner tables, or come with a gaggle of friends when feeling fabulous is a priority.

At Kolae, the focus is on southern Thai flavours and marinated things cooked over a very hot coconut—and some of those things are very, very good. A gently steamed mussel skewer is a revelation and instantly one of London’s great molluscs—even if that category isn’t exactly overcrowded. Similar exclamations can be said about the deep-fried prawn heads. The slick, three-floor spot in Borough Market suits all kinds of get-togethers, but the kitchen counter is where the action is and where Kolae feels most alive. Go upstairs and the thrills of the grill dissipate a little. Kolae’s soul is in the food and you want to be as close to it possible.

This tight-knit Malaysian restaurant has gone from street stall, to pop-up, to food hall concession to, now, its own small but superb space in Clapton. Flavours at Mambow dance around Malaysia and Singapore, from five-spice pork and prawn bean curd rolls, to sensational Sarawak black pepper chicken curry, to fiery otak-otak prawn toast. It’s all deeply flavoured, aromatic, and enlivening stuff. The kind of food that will have you scraping the plastic plates clean and doing a little jig. Not that there’s much room for that, mind. But the music is pumping, the wines are juicy, and this is somewhere for Mambow to finally call home.

Plenty of restaurants are inspired by faraway cuisines or concepts, but only certain places do a good job of transporting you there. At Alley Cats Pizza, a walk-in only, NYC-style pizza spot in Marylebone, the exposed brick and checkered tablecloths take you to the streets of Williamsburg. There's a dimly lit lamp on each table, a projector plays The Sopranos, and diners fill the buzzy industrial-looking room, dipping chewy margherita crusts into fiery scotch bonnet sauce, and getting messy with a sweet onion jam-heavy mushroom slice. The pizzas are thin and crisp, covered in a rich tomato sauce, and big enough to share. And they’re up there with some of the best pies in the city.

The upstairs dining room at The Devonshire is the kind of place we’d like to be during a blizzard, perusing a handwritten menu of comforting British classics—lamb hotpot, creamed leeks, sticky toffee pudding—while the wind howls outside. Come for one of London’s best pints of Guinness, some of the city’s best British food, and to mop up leftover gravy with duck fat chips. If you don’t manage to book the Grill Room, the downstairs bar of this Soho spot is a charming, crowded place with the kind of wood panelling and burgundy paint job that feels very Dickens-meets-Mad Men.

There’s something about Tashas that makes us feel like we’re in an alternate reality where the sun is always shining on Battersea and passion fruit granitas are a routine part of our day. Maybe it’s the Pinterest coffee shop feel or the fact that you’re not hurried along and time seems to slow down. Whatever it is, we’re hooked. Plus the food is great too. Excellently creamy chicken pasta comes with chunky slices of woody mushrooms, and is the perfect post-work dinner. Spending time in the virtual queue is worth it (the all-day cafe is walk-in only), to wind down, share a hefty steak sandwich, and scour the menu for something sweet to end on. Only you won’t want it to end.

The Maginhawa Group is building a Filipino empire across north and central London (with Mamasons, Panadera, and Ramo Ramen, among others) but in Donia they have their best restaurant of the lot. An evening around Carnaby Street can make dinner in the bowels of hell seem appealing, but Donia acts like noise-cancelling headphones to the stresses of Kingly Court. The room has a warm modernity to it which is matched by chummy service and elegant Filipino dishes with a sprinkling of Soho pizzazz. When dishes sing here, they belt. Chicken inasal is vibrant with vinegar, the lamb caldereta is one of the best pies in London, and the ube choux will have you coming back to Carnaby Street weekly.

The Tamil Crown, from the same people behind The Tamil Prince, is an excellent neighbourhood pub and Indian restaurant. The Angel spot pulls a great pint of Guinness downstairs and upstairs, heaving platters of button-loosening Sunday roasts hit tables. Perfectly tender lamb shank or moist chicken with charred skin, surrounded by deep-fried cauliflower, green beans cooked in creamy coconut, and shimmering gravy. During the week, there are curries and buttery, flaky roti on the menu. Even if you aren’t lucky enough to be a local, you’ll more than likely find yourself creeping online for a repeat booking.

When we visited Kokum, a waiter who reminded us of our favourite uncle conspiratorially shared what was “delicious, and even more delicious”. That pretty much sums up an evening at this Indian spot in Dulwich. Between bites of tender, sweet and spicy glazed pork ribs and sips of refreshing mango cider, we realised the waiter was right. Everything’s great or even better. Laughter rings around the room, because it’s impossible to be unhappy eating 12-hour slow-cooked lamb and warm naans glistening with ghee. Book a table towards the back, where low ceilings and even lower lighting lend themselves to long meals and sharing/stealing short rib nihari from your friend’s plate.

Back when 11 Highbury Park was Famous Chicken N Pizza, you might trudge in post-match to bemoan Arsenal over a few hot wings and fries. Now, it’s Saltine—a light-filled and gallery-feeling space, where you’re more likely to drink pét nat and eat crab on toast as your friend absent-mindedly rocks their newborn. The front bar-cum-coffee shop is ideal for pop-ins after a wander across Highbury Fields, while the back dining room is best used for lazy lunches and midweek date nights. Yes, the walls are consciously dilapidated, but this airy restaurant feels purposefully unprecious. The food is European-ish and the chef comes from one of London’s favourite finishing schools, St. John. So expect things like an elegant pumpkin or a glimmering slice of sticky toffee apple cake, both of which are downright devourable.

If you’ve ever fantasised about Austin Powers' kaleidoscopic soft furnishings alongside juicy chicken, then a certain London rotisserie restaurant may well have stolen your therapist’s notebook. Bébé Bob comes from the same restaurant group that brought London the ‘Press For Champagne’ button and this shiny spot on Soho Square is similarly extroverted. The carpet, chairs, and walls are all glowing red and we wouldn’t be surprised to learn there was a caviar-fuelled conversation pit in another room. Chicken is the sole main on the menu and the Landes one (French, yellow, fancy) is pushed to the highest scale on the juice-o-meter while wearing an impressively crisp overshirt. Adult playpens aren’t a thing but if they were, they’d more than likely look like Bébé Bob.

Is it a wine bar? Is it a pizza place? Is it a charming little space in Notting Hill where you’re likely to see a dog wearing a £48 COS sweater? Yes, yes, and (if you’re lucky) yes. Ria’s combines excellently fluffy Detroit-style pizza and the energy of a cosy wine bar. Quiet chatter fills the small, baby blue room, as friends lean back on the cushioned oak benches—pét nat in hand, whipped ricotta and tomato slice on the mind. The roasted king prawn topping is the real standout. Prawns, marinated in fiery salsa macha, are placed on top of an airy, light base, and topped with slow-cooked marinara and a creamy parmesan drizzle.