London openings surge
London’s restaurant calendar just spiked in March — DesignMyNight curated a fresh list of notable debuts while Food & Wine flags a spring wave of brasseries and live-fire destinations led by F&W Best New Chefs. Expect fast‑filling reservations and a tilt toward live-fire menus and classic brasserie formats this season. (designmynight.com) (foodandwine.com)
Teal by Sally Abé will begin service on 26 March at 52 Wilton Way in Hackney and the menu includes nostalgic British dishes such as lockets savoury and a “penny lick” dessert that donates £1 per sale to Hackney Food Bank. (designmynight.com) Sale E Pepe Mare has opened inside The Langham on Regent Street as a 5,000‑square‑foot, 130‑cover seafood‑focused Italian outpost with theatrical seafood displays, trolley service and a private dining room for up to 22 guests. (designmynight.com) Simpson’s in the Strand has been relaunched by Jeremy King in March 2026 and the restored Grade II‑listed site now contains two dining rooms (the Grand Divan and Romano’s), two bars and a 100‑seat private Assembly Room. (jeremykingrestaurants.com) Food & Wine’s spring roundup highlights U.S. openings driven by its Best New Chefs alumni, naming Rosy in Cleveland — which opened Feb. 26 and centres service around an open live‑fire grill — and Saverne in New York, a wood‑fired modern brasserie that filed a temporary closure after a kitchen duct fire and was scheduled to reopen March 23. (yahoo.com) Bookings have already gone live for several of these launches: Sally Abé’s Teal opened reservations for first seatings on March 26, and Harden’s listings and Jeremy King’s sites show Simpson’s taking bookings for late‑March seatings across its multiple rooms. (broadsheet.com) Industry data show this surge is not isolated — Harden’s tracked 146 new London openings in the prior 12 months, the highest count since 2017, a figure cited by trade coverage as evidence of unusually high new‑venue activity entering 2026. (thecaterer.com)
