What's New in London 2013

Fashionistas will be excited to hear that, from January 2013, they can enrol at the Conde Nast College when the Vogue fashion publisher opens its first Arts & Design college at 16-17 Greek Street in Soho. Initially the courses on offer at the college are the ten-week Vogue Fashion Certificate and the year-long Vogue Fashion Foundation Diploma with a House and Garden course at both Certificate and Foundation Diploma level expected in the future. Rather than a college for training budding designers, it's a place where those interested in the wider fashion industry - marketing, PR, editing, publishing, and fashion writing - can learn their trade.

Based on the popular Asellina restaurant attached to the Gansevoort Park Hotel in downtown New York, Cucina Asellina presents Italian home-cooked food in a contemporary setting. Along with STK it is one of two restaurants at the Norman Foster designed ME London Hotel. The restaurant's design, also by Foster Partners, is similar to its New York sister venue with terracotta walls, black metal lighting frames surrounding high-top tables and an earthy polished concrete floor. On the menu, created by Executive Chef Marco Porceddu, are antipasti plates, traditional pizzas and flatbreads from the wood-burning oven - the wild mushroom, fontina and spring onion pizza is a signature dish. Open from 10am until midnight for all day dining, this casual Italian is surprisingly affordable given the 5-star setting. 

Following the reopening of the historic Cafe Royal hotel last December, its famous Grill Room reopens this year, on 21st January 2013, joining the recent launch of the hotel's Ten Room and Bar. Soon to follow are the hotel's cafe (open in February), and The Domino Room, available to hotel guests and private members only, which will open in spring when the hotel's spa is also due to welcome its first guests. Of all the dining options at the hotel, The Grill Room, originally established in 1865, is particularly special. It's where Oscar Wilde fell in love with Lord Alfred Douglas, Aubrey Beardsley debated with Whistler, David Bowie retired Ziggy Stardust and Mick Jagger, and the Beatles and Elizabeth Taylor have partied. The ornate Louis XVI decor has been exquisitely restored and the room recast as a champagne and cocktail lounge with live entertainment. Dress code: "celebrative and sophisticated".

London will look like a city in minature from the viewing platform at the top of the tallest building in western Europe when it opens on 1st February 2013. Lifts will transport members of the public from ground level of The Shard, the hard to miss Renzo Piano designed building, to The View From The Shard, on floors 68 to 72 of the steeple shaped skyscraper which at 309.6 metres (1,015 foot) tall towers over London Bridge station and its neighbouring buildings. Visitors will be able to hear the sounds of the city in the open air and take in exceptional views stretching for 40 miles. That means - on a really good day - you can see the sea at Southend in Essex to the east and as far as Reading in Berkshire if you look west.

The London Centre for Book Arts launches with a free Open Day from 12 noon to 6pm on Sunday 3rd February, introducing visitors to the new arts centre on Fish Island, East London, where everyone, from beginners to professionals, can learn the disappearing artform of book art - the medium practiced by artists like Ed Ruscha, John Cage, Richard Long and William Blake. The centre, set up by book artist Simon Goode offers classes and workshops in everything you need to know to create a book from paper making and using a letterpress to book binding and finishing. The official opening will be followed by a programme of worshops running throughout the year including a Valentine's Day card making workshop on Saturday 9th February from 12 noon to 4pm. The centre's website londoncentreforbookarts.org has all the details.

Billed as the biggest restaurant opening of 2013, Keith McNally returns home with a London branch of Balthazar, the Parisian-style brasserie he set up in New York fifteen years ago. McNally is an English ex-pat who has built an empire of stylish brasseries in New York - Minetta Tavern, Pastis, and Balthazar among them - which appeal to locals, A-list celebrities and tourists alike. Given his huge success in the States, the promised opening of his first London restaurant has the critics salavating in anticipation. If the bones of Balthazar NY are brought to London, the restaurant will serve French classics such as bouillabaisse and cote de boeuf and there will be a bakery serving cakes, quiches and pastries. Interiors will be faded glamour, shabby but chic - right down to the toilets (a notable feature of the Manhattan restaurant), and service will be slick with a high turnover of tables. Come November, we can expect the place to be buzzing. Not bad for the boy who started out as a bellhop at the London Hilton.

Lebanese and Middle Eastern street food specialists Yalla Yalla pop up on Shoreditch High Street from 5th February 2013 for six months or so. This is the third such restaurant currently open - there are sister restaurants in central London, in Winsley Street near Oxford Circus and in Green's Court off Brewer Street in Soho - as word of their fairly priced excellent Beirut street food gets out. The menu includes fresh wraps, light mezze and specials like kibbe lahme (deep-fried lamb and cracked wheat parcels filled with confit onions, minced lamb and roasted pine nuts) and soujoc - charcoal grilled Lebanese sausage served with salad, tomato and pickled cucumber. The Shoreditch pop up essentially follows the same recipe for success as the original Soho restaurant, set up by chef Jad Youssef and partner Aga Ilska in 2009. It's big enough to seat 40, including a canopy with heaters, and there's cushioned low-level seating as well as tables with stools with live entertainment on the weekend in the form of belly dancers and DJs.

Apartment 58, a private members club for the creative industries, sets up a new 8,000 square foot, four-storey club underneath London's iconic Centre Point tower in time for London Fashion Week, aiming to open on 15th February 2013. Combining members-only facilities - a night club, meeting rooms and high-tech services - with a ground floor restaurant which is open to the public, Apartment 58 Centre Point occupies the building's architecturally striking vaults. The design, by Michael Sodeau Partnership in conjunction with Design Junction, references the simple and clean interior design of the original Apartment 58 in Soho's Poland Street, and marries it with Centre Point's Grade II listed 1960s interiors designed by Richard Seifert. With a good track record in running hip projects like this - previous events include a pop up for Lazarides Gallery at The Old Vic Tunnels during last year's Frieze art fair - Apartment 58 Centre Point promises to be a cool place to see and be seen during London Fashion Week.

Claude Bosi, the well known chef behind two Michelin starred Mayfair restaurant Hibiscus, teams up with his brother Cedric to bring top class cuisine to The Malt House, an updated 18th century pub-with-rooms in Fulham. This is their second pub in South West London and high standards are guaranteed with the former Head Chef at Hibiscus, Marcus McGiness, running the kitchen. Modern British pub food is the best way to describe the menu at The Malt House where there's a focus on seasonal ingredients, served in an informal, friendly setting. Choose from bar snacks like Welsh Rarebit, Rhubarb Chutney and starter dishes of crab gratin, white port and Seabuckthorn. Main dishes include meat and fish, examples of which are short ribs of beef, pickled red cabbage and horseradish or pollock, pumpkin, winter savoury and red wine as well as traditional favourites like steak, lamb and Sunday roasts. London based firm Alexander Waterworth Interiors have maintained much of the 18th century pub feel while carrying out some major work to its exterior and adding eight bedrooms upstairs.

Former Ledbury chef Isaac McHale and restaurateurs Daniel Willis and Johnny Smith - aka the Ten Bells boys - bring The Clove Club, the private dining club which started in Dalston, to the grade II listed Shoreditch Town Hall. Promising good food, good conversation and good music, the restaurant is split into two rooms, a dining room and a bar, both areas spacious enough to seat 40 people. Those familiar with the menu at sister restaurant Upstairs at the Ten Bells can sample their favourite snacks like buttermilk chicken and pine salt and choose from mains which vary depending on the seasons. Warming dishes in winter months include Cornish hake served with shrimps and turnip tops, braised shoulder of lamb with purple sprouting broccoli and roast mallard accompanied by Jerusalem artichokes and curly kale.

Following the same recipe for success of the original Sushinho restaurant on the Kings Road in Chelsea, Sushinho City is a restaurant and cocktail bar that takes its cue from the Japanese Brazilian culture thriving in Brazil today. When it opens in February 2013 this second branch, near Liverpool Street in the City, will be overseen by Executive Chef Joni Viscardi, a Brazilian national, who aims to showcase what the Japanese community in Brazil have become known for, creating the kind of delicious fare found in the sushi joints and churrascarias of Rio and Sao Paolo. Given that Brazil is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, the fusion of these two cultures isn't just to be fashionable. On the menu you'll find raw fish, vegetables and pickles, as well as crispy pork belly with refried feijoada bean puree. Wash down with sake-based caipirinha cocktails while enjoying Brazilian background music for the full fusion effect.

Open for 10 months only, Rotary Bar & Diner is a short-term venture from the Rushmore Group who also own Milk & Honey and The Player in Soho and Danger of Death on Brick Lane. Right by Old Street roundabout, the two-floor space includes a Rotary Room, complete with wine room and members club (below Rotary Bar & Diner, members only), and outside Yum Bun is serving slow roasted belly pork and veggie buns from the street. Inside, the '60s designed diner features buttermilk fried chicken rolls, smoked pork belly ribs, and grilled steaks, washed down with craft beer. On Fridays and Saturdays there's a late licence until 4am which will no doubt come as music to the ears of East London party goers looking for a post-club hangout. And they might even get a cure for the morning after - if the opening hours are extended to include Sunday brunch and lunch (a possibility, once they're up and running). Be among the first to try it out at the soft opening from 25th to 28th February, 10am to late, when there's 25 per cent off the food bill.

Following the closure of London Dungeon at Tooley Street (which closes on 31st January 2013 while London Bridge station is being redeveloped) the new London Dungeon opens in the spooky underground vaults of County Hall on 1st March. New features include an up close and personal encounter with Guy Fawkes and the murderous monarch, Henry VIII, played by a high-tech 3D version of the booming voiced actor Brian Blessed. Blessed will be joined by a cast of 20 live actors bringing to life some of the most notorious characters from 1,000 years of London's history including Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper. They're planning one hell of a launch party, register your email on the London Dungeon to enter the draw for free tickets and for the latest launch news.

Adding to the cutting edge creative outlets on Vyner Street in East London is LimeWharf, a futures gallery and artistic laboratory which puts the emphasis on interactive exhibitions which engage local communities. The gallery overlooking Regent's Canal describes itself as "part innovative cultural centre, part collaborative production house". Founded by social entrepreneur Thomas Ermacora, the gallery brings together creative and scientific fields to explore the future, 'the art of tomorrow'. Experimental projects which aim to engage their audience focus on topics like DIY ethics, sustainable practises and cutting edge technologies. Thomas is joined by director and curator Joana Seguro who has previously worked on projects for the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Opera House. A pop-up kitchen at the gallery's spring 2013 launch combines food by Modern Pantry's Anna Hansen with lively debate and special performances while guests are seated at a giant sculptural table.

One of the most hotly anticipated restaurant openings in London in 2013, the team behind top Spanish restaurant, Arzak, brings their award-winning Basque cuisine to the Ametsa restaurant at the Halkin, a beautiful boutique hotel in the heart of Belgravia. A team of five from the acclaimed restaurant in San Sebastian - which holds three Michelin stars and is often described as one of the best restaurants in the world - arrives in London to run Ametsa with Arzak Instruction. They include Juan Mari Arzak, Mikel Sorazu, Igor Zalakain and Elena Arzak, the fourth generation of the Arzak family to head up the restaurant since it opened in 1897, who was voted World's Best Female Chef by Restaurant magazine in 2012.

French born chef Eric Chavot returns to the UK after a three year absence in March 2013 with Brasserie Chavot in Conduit Street, Mayfair. Head chef at The Capital Restaurant for ten years from 1999 to 2009 - where he held two Michelin stars for nine of those years - Chavot returns to London with a 70-seat restaurant with a small bar and a menu which showcases his signature style of contemporary and classic French cooking. The restaurant in Washington House, next to the Westbury hotel, includes a huge six metre seafood bar where you can draw up a stool and feast on oysters. After three years away, the return of one of London's great chefs is an exciting prospect, as is the replacement of Michelin starred starchiness with a far more fun brasserie.

Russian restaurateur Arkady Novikov is set to open his second London venture after taking over the site of the Brompton Quarter Brasserie in Kensington. Following on from the success of Novikov, in Mayfair, which is busy every night of the week, Brompton Asian Brasserie by Novikov brings together the best of European and Asian cuisine - European food at breakfast and Asian cuisine at lunch and dinner. Set over two floors, the ground floor is the main space housing the open kitchen and private dining room while the downstairs area offers a more relaxed and cosy feel, perfect for cocktails. Next door, the deli-style Grocer by Novikov, open from 7.30am to 11pm daily, offers charcuterie and cheeses, sandwiches and ready-made dishes to take away as well as a special dim sum counter.

This informal 80-seat Italian restaurant in Victoria is managed by an all-Italian team headed by Daniele Pampagnin, previously at Cecconi's, and head chef Maurilio Molteni, previously of Shoreditch House where the pair worked together. Promising a 'lively' atmosphere, Tozi (Venetian slang for 'a group of friends') is all about sharing and enjoying food with friends and family. They serve appetitising cicchetti or small plates (of the type served at Cecconi's and made popular at Polpo), charcuterie and cheese platters, wood oven-cooked mains and sharing dishes. Drinks include Prosecco from the Veneto region of Italy, and classic Italian cocktails including barrel-aged Negroni, Bellini and Aperol Spritz - a refreshing mix of Prosecco, Aperol and a splash of soda water. Decor is wood, terracotta and marble, with an open kitchen and charcuterie station offering guests a view of the chefs at work. The restaurant, located just a few minutes' walk from Victoria station, is backed by the PPHE Hotel Group who own the Park Plaza and art'otel hotel brands.

The Sumatran tigers at ZSL London Zoo, arrive at their spacious new £3.6 million home this spring, which at 2,500sqm (27,000sqft) is a massive five times the size of the previous tiger enclosure. Not only do the tigers, a critically-endangered species, get a new space complete with trees and a custom-built pool but the millions of people who visit the zoo will also get the chance to see these incredible animals up close through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. The whole thing has been carefully planned to mimic their natural habitat, replicating the tropical foliage of the island of Sumatra. While giving visitors the chance to see these beautiful creatures, the project also plays an important role in the conservation of the big cats with a breeding programme planned.

Pop up pizza place Homeslice gets a permanent home in Neal's Yard, Covent Garden, as Kiwi chef Ry Jessup teams up with business partner Mark Wogan to create a 50-seat restaurant offering five pizza choices a day. Combinations of artichoke and courgette or bone marrow, fire roasted spring onion and watercress are the more unusual toppings alongside the classic Margarita which is always on the menu. Homeslice pizzas - hand-rolled on a marble work surface and cooked in a wood fired oven - have already built up a loyal following with pop ups, most recently The Filling Station in Kings Cross. Pricing is as simple as the menu: a slice, a pint and a glass of wine are all 4 pounds each, eat in or take away. Like an honesty bar, double magnums of house wine are laid out on the tables along with a measuring stick, so you can help yourself to the house white and only pay for what you drink.

Set within three carefully renovated railway arches on the pedestrianised Geffrye Street in Shoreditch, Beagle is a British restaurant, bar and coffee shop set up by brothers Danny and Kieran Clancy. Danny has also recently enjoyed success with his Bonnie Gull Seafood Shack in Fitzrovia. Beagle specialises in seasonal, produce led British cooking, with James Ferguson (former Head Chef at nearby Rochelle Canteen) changing the menus on a daily basis and using a traditional wood grill for much of his cooking. In the adjoining bar cocktails are served along with British beers and wines by the carafe or bottle. Beagle also boasts a large south facing outdoor seating area for up to 60 covers, on Geffrye Street. For the name they've taken inspiration from the restaurant's location next to Hoxton Station and called it after one of the steam locomotives that used the original East London line

From April 2013, you may notice a distinctive red wooden box outside the National Theatre. The Shed has been designed as a temporary performance space by Haworth Tompkins, the architectural firm behind the National's current and ongoing conservation project. The 225-seat Shed will give new writing an important stage, right at the front of the building during the Cottesloe Theatre's closure. It's a great way of encouraging more adventurous theatre while giving audiences value for money with top-price tickets costing just £20. The programme will feature a mix of emerging and established artists, collaborations and visitors from around the world and begins with Table, a play written by Tanya Ronder and directed by Rufus Norris who is also responsible for the recent Young Vic production of Feast. The pair previously collaborated on the Olivier-nominated 'Vernon God Little'.

Having hosted a hugely successful pop-up, Foreword, in November 2011, the next chapter in Tom Sellers' culinary life is Story, his first permanent restaurant which opens in April 2013. The 25-year-old chef has worked with Michelin-starred chefs including Thomas Keller at The French Laundry and Per Se, Tom Aikens at his Chelsea restaurant, Adam Byatt at Trinity and Rene Redzepi at Noma. With Story on Tooley Street, Tom opens his first full time restaurant offering lunch and dinner and serving modern British dishes like razor clams in cigar oil, beef fat candle, veal tongue served with rapeseed oil aka bread, beef cheek with stout and cauliflower yeast, oysters, and three bears porridge. With with just 42 covers, it's likely that bookings will fill up fast but you can be among the first to sample Story when bookings open at 9am on 9th March for April reservations.

Just around the corner from Midori House, home of Monocle magazine - a publication which covers everything from current affairs to culture in an intelligent way - is The Monocle Cafe where you can enjoy coffee, cake... and intelligent conversation. The Chiltern Street cafe, which is also nearby the Monocle shop just off Marylebone High Street, offers 'simple dishes and hearty drinks' and creamy roll cakes produced by a team of Japanese pastry chefs. Catch up on all the latest with Monocle 24 broadcast live from the cafe and leave time to get absorbed in back issues of Monocle magazine. They also have a meeting and event space available for hire to subscribers - subscribe and you get all the latest global news from over 30 correspondents from Beirut to Milan, Washington to Singapore, delivered to your door 10 times a year. Recommended.

Breaking bread is a social occasion for Jason Atherton, judging by the names of his restaurants. The well known chef, who earned a Michelin star while at Gordon Ramsay's Maze, follows his flagship Pollen Street Social restaurant, which opened in April 2011, with a new place to eat and socialise, The Social Eating House, in April 2013. For this Soho eaterie Atherton goes into partnership with his long standing head chef Paul Hood who he has worked with for over six years. The premises, which is located at 58-59 Poland Street, comprises of a ground-floor restaurant offering mid-priced bistro fare, a basement area with a chef's table and a 15-seat bar, and a top-floor cocktail bar headed by executive barman Gareth Evans who has been managing the bar at Pollen Street Social since May 2011.

On the site of The Ebury, where Pimlico Road meets Ebury Bridge Road, No. 11 Pimlico Road replaces the popular gastropub with a restaurant and bar offering all-day dining, an event space on the first floor and an on-site wine shop. The difficulty they will face is in persuading fans of the former Ebury that their replacement is not only different but better. Describing itself as "a reaction against the formulaic gastro-pub", the pub promises freshly baked pastries for breakfast, grilled steak sandwich and lobster salad for lunch, and main courses ranging from coconut and basil chicken with chilli dressing to tomato, lemon and ricotta tart. It's the first venture from Darwin & Wallace, a company created by former All Bar One brand manager Melanie Marriott who has put general manager Sarah Deakin in charge. She brings with her five years' experience at Geronimo Inns who own a string of gastropubs from The Eagle on Askew Road in west London to The Castle in Islington, north London.

With over 15 years heading the kitchen at one of London's best known restaurants, The Ivy, chef Alan Bird sets up his own restaurant with Bird of Smithfield. Set over five floors of an old Georgian town house, the venue includes a restaurant, lounge bar, basement cocktail bar, a private dining room with a chef's table and a roof terrace overlooking the towers of Smithfield Market. The food is British but with a twist, with dishes exploring the influence of British food. The team behind Bird includes Steve Collins, Georgia Muir and Sian Austin, all of whom have previously worked with the Conran family - the latter two at Tom's Notting Hill eateries. The overall feel is of being in a private members club with Harris Tweed and herringbone fabrics in the dining room, and art and antiques dotted around. Head to The Birdcage basement bar for the inviting cocktails - choose from a menu overseen by London-based bar consultancy Fluid Movement (Purl, Worship St Whistling Shop and Dach & Sons) - and live music on certain nights.

Plum & Spilt Milk is the 90-cover first floor restaurant and 15 cover bar occupying The Great Northern Hotel, one of London's first railway hotels originally designed by Lewis Cubitt and dating back to 1854. In the restaurant, with views of the King's Cross piazza, diners are presented with simple classic dishes created with seasonal British fare and sourced where possible from small independent suppliers on the Great Northern Line, easily accessed from the adjacent King's Cross station. Mark Sargeant, who worked alongside Gordon Ramsay for 13 years, and headed up his Claridge's restaurant for eight years, oversees the hotel's food outlets including the brasserie style menu here which presents a selection of classic dishes, salads and small plates. The relaxed, stay-as-long-as-you-like vibe is felt through thoughtful extras like comfy seating, fast Wi-Fi and plug and USB sockets next to every table. The stylish GNH bar which opens earlier than the restaurant, on Thursday 2nd May, gives visitors a chance to see the grand restoration before The Great Northern Hotel is officially opened a week later, on Thursday 9th May.

High up on the 32nd floor of The Shard, Oblix is a New York-style grill from celebrated chef restaurateur duo Rainer Becker and Arjun Waney, serving charcoal-grilled meats, wood-fired pizzas and spectacular views of London. This will be the fourth London restaurant from the pair responsible for Zuma and Roka, which has branches in Charlotte Street and Canary Wharf, but with Oblix they have, sensibly, taken inspiration from the towering building it occupies. Reminded of the high rises of New York, they have gone for a classic New York grill and given it a twist by using British and European ingredients. The lounge bar, with its live music acts and drinks chilled with chunks of ice chiselled from large, purified blocks, sounds super cool. Interiors have been developed by Italian architect and designer Claudio Silvestrin (whose clients include gallerist Victoria Miro, designer Giorgio Armani and rap star Kanye West) to frame rather than compete with the stunning views. As Becker explains, "You can't compete with the view... it's what being in the Shard is all about."

The £2.2 million Park Theatre, two minutes' walk from Finsbury Park tube station, will be a state of the art theatre with two performance spaces - a two-tier 200 seat and a smaller 90 seat theatre - an education floor and a cafe and bar with a late license. Set up by husband and wife team Jez and Melli Bond with support from high profile actors including Ian McKellen and Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch, the theatre is unique in this part of London. Its focus is on encouraging local arts participation as well as staging theatrical performances to rival the West End. It aims to build an international profile and has already achieved some success in this area by setting up partnerships with established New York theatres. Architect David Hughes, who was involved in the building, described the 1960s office frontage which has been "drastically remodelled" into a "contemporary theatre that challenges the traditions of the West End".

The Five Fields, a small Chelsea restaurant with room for only 40 diners, has big aspirations to create a fine dining room with a sense of fun. The team behind it certainly has strong credentials. Young chef patron Taylor Bonnyman comes from the two Michelin-starred Corton in Tribeca, New York, head chef Marguerite Keogh, was formerly at Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, and pastry chef Chris Underwood is ex Tom Aikens. The restaurant's manager, Matthew Widdowson, comes from Bluebird and general manager Rob Kihlstrom worked at the three Michelin starred Eleven Madison Park. Rather than a starry chef barking orders, this is very much a collaborative team effort, with a modern menu mixed with classic French cooking making good use of seasonal ingredients including rare herbs from their own East Sussex herb and vegetable gardens.

Having closed its doors on 5th January 2013 while the London Bridge Station redevelopment work takes place, Southwark Playhouse relocates to a huge warehouse in the heart of Southwark, re-opening at 77-85 Newington Causeway, SE1 on Wednesday 15th May 2013. The new building, a converted 1960s office space, is situated three minutes from Elephant and Castle tube station and six minutes from Borough. Improvements on their old home (which they'll return to in 2018) include a larger main house, up from 150- to 240-seat capacity, and a 120-seat studio with, for the first time in its almost 20 year history, its own cafe, rehearsal rooms and a dedicated space for education work. The theatre, which won the 2011 Empty Space Peter Brook Award for its "enormous energy", opens a new chapter in 2013.

Opening in May 2013, The Fish & Chip Shop in Islington gives diners an upmarket, quality fish n chippie. Owned by former executive chef of Caprice Holdings, Des McDonald, and former head chef at The Ivy. The Fish & Chip Shop is his first venture since the company was sold. Chips are hand cut and sauces made from scratch at this superior fish and chippie which is overseen by executive chef Lee Bull with head chef Steven Wilson (previously at Scott's and Daphne's) in the kitchen. Though distinctly upmarket, the food varies in price including some surprisingly affordable options. There's a cheap and cheerful 'Butties' menu featuring fish finger sandwiches - with freshly made pea puree and crusty white bloomer bread - from £7. But, if you really want to push the boat out there are plenty of pricier options like the organic sea trout, served with brown shrimp butter.

Charlie Raworth and Emma Hutchinson, the husband and wife team who have been running the beautiful Bush Hall since 2001, are expanding to open the Bush Hall Dining Room in June 2013. The 1,700 square foot, 70-cover restaurant will be next door to Bush Hall live music venue and The Music House for Children, on the site of the old Harp Cafe. Improvements include the installation of a new shop front which continues the colour scheme and style from Bush Hall and The Music House. The addition of two rooflights provides natural light for the extended dining area where Tim Tapper (formerly of Annie's restaurant in Chiswick) has designed the menu which features classic dishes like kedgeree, mussels and rack of lamb - but each is given a twist with the mussels cooked in a Bloody Mary sauce and the lamb given a pistachio crust. We expect the dining room will appeal to music fans attending a gig next door, and to local families who know and love The Music House and who will, no doubt, come in their droves for the Sunday roasts.

The tarted-up Granary Square in King's Cross will be home to The Grain Store, a new bistro from Raymond Blanc's favourite protege, Bruno Loubet who has made a name for himself with his unpretentious French provincial cooking. This is the second London restaurant from Loubet who already runs his own name restaurant at the stylish Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell but the new venture will be a more informal affair than Bistrot Bruno Loubet. The King's Cross area next to the Regent's Canal has been undergoing a complete redevelopment with the arrival of St Martin's College of Art & Design. The Grain Store will be the latest high profile restaurant to open on Granary Square, joining the recently opened Caravan. Designed by Russell Sage - who was also behind Bistro Bruno Loubet and the Zetter Townhouse - the restaurant will seat 80, with 40 seats in the bar and a massive 100 seats available outside overlooking Granary Square.

Restaurateur Will Ricker replaces his Great Eastern Dining Room in Shoreditch with Casa Negra on the same Great Eastern Street spot, as a second incarnation of his Soho Mexican street food restaurant, La Bodega Negra. Like its older sister it has been designed by NYC's Serge Becker but we can expect something quite different in look and feel (so no 'sex shop' signs then?). At Casa Negra the menu is shorter and more affordable, and the interior takes its inspiration from a "traditional English house in which some Mexicans moved in and opened a pop up restaurant." Downstairs there's a separate club, with a stage for live acts and a 2am license on both floors should provide a hip, party atmosphere.

The Happenstance is one of two new ventures launching in 2013 by the Drake and Morgan group, the company which began with The Refinery on the ground floor of the Blue Fin Building in Southwark in 2008 and which has since expanded to include The Parlour in Canary Wharf, The Anthologist and The Folly, both in the City, and The Drift which opened in Heron Tower on Bishopsgate in July 2011. The Happenstance, a large 8,000 square foot space at No 1 St Paul's Churchyard, has enough room for 238 people to eat and drink, an open kitchen, deli, mixology table, florist, bar and private dining room. Just around the corner at Holborn Viaduct will be The Haberdashery at Sixty London, the second and larger of the two Drake and Morgan projects set to open in June 2013.

The Royal Quarter Cafe occupies the ground floor of Wellington House, a striking ten storey mixed use building on a corner site between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. The 70-seat cafe is the fourth premises in London from the Quarter Group which was launched in 2006 by restaurateurs Doron and Valeria Zilkha. It joins the Chelsea Quarter Cafe on the King's Road, the River Quarter Kitchen in Battersea, and the Heal's Quarter Cafe Express in Heal's on Tottenham Court Road. The menu is a mix of seasonal, healthy comfort food including brioche with poached pears, Parma ham with red pesto on foccacia and crispy duck salad. Homemade bread and pastries, all-day breakfast, sandwiches and soups, sharing plates, hearty salads, afternoon tea, and cakes and tarts, are all available to eat in or take-away. A light interior is created by white walls and floor-to-ceiling windows, with green leather chairs and brown banquettes, wood panelled walls and oak tables. Outdoor seating available.

The fourth branch of Bumpkin, following on from the original Notting Hill restaurant, opened in June 2013, occupying an elegant Georgian townhouse on Sydney Street and bringing its distinctive British cuisine and country bumpkin style to this well heeled corner of Chelsea. Executive chef, Raymond Fulton-Corrie, oversees a menu which offers meat, fish or vegetable dishes cooked-to-order an outdoor charcoal oven. As with the menu, the rooms change with the seasons - from the dark woods and autumnal hues of the 75-seat main dining room to the summery light and airy potting shed bar. Tucked away at the back of the restaurant is The Secret Garden designed by double RH Chelsea Flower Show medal winners, Second Nature Gardens, with twinkling fairy lights, scented climbers and antique mirrors. Upstairs, The Botany Club, a private dining room for up to 30, reflects the bright, bold colours of spring.

Restaurateur David Yeo opens the first European branch of his Hong Kong based restaurant Hutong which, like the original (on the 28th Floor of One Peking), occupies a lofty spot high up in the spire of The Shard. One of two Shard restaurants operated by Yeo's Aqua Group, Hutong occupies the 33rd floor while Aqua London is on the 31st level of the skyscraper building. While Aqua serves a modern British menu, Hutong specialises in Chinese food. Established in Hong Kong in 2006, the restaurant is well known for its sophisticated Northern Chinese flavours including dishes of braised beef rib wrapped in lotus leaf, crispy de-boned lamb rib, soft shell crabs in spicy peppers and crispy Peking mutton. If the decor of Hutong in Hong Kong is replicated here, there will be an air of understated glamour with oversized bamboo bird cages and private dining areas sectioned off by antique carved wooden screens or silk curtains.

The third Tom's Kitchen, opening in Canary Wharf in June 2013, offers city workers Tom Aikens's modern British twist on a French brasserie. The original Tom's Kitchen, set up in Chelsea in November 2006 as a less formal alternative to his original Tom Aikens Michelin starred restaurant around the corner. That was followed by a second Tom's Kitchen within Somerset House which was set up in 2010 and will soon be joined by this Canary Wharf venture with more sites planned. In keeping with the 'brand', the restaurant will offer a British brasserie style comfort food menu with Caesar salad and steak tartare, fish pie and macaroni cheese with a grating of truffle typical of the dishes on offer. Highlights include a grilled open steak sandwich with onion relish, tomato, watercress and big chips, and blueberry pancakes with maple syrup.

If you're looking for dinner with a view, Aqua at the Shard occupying the 31st floor of The Shard, should surely come in the top five. One of two David Yeo restaurants at The Shard, Aqua (on level 31) and Hutong (level 33) straddle Oblix, a New York-style grill from celebrated chef restaurateur duo Rainer Becker and Arjun Waney, on the 32nd floor. Both David Yeo restaurants come from the Hong Kong-based Aqua Restaurant Group, which already has two stylish London restaurants, the Japanese Aqua Kyoto and Spanish Aqua Nueva on Regent Street where the Aqua Spirit bar also offers great views from its roof terrace. Aqua at the Shard offers a new type of menu, focussing on inventive contemporary British cuisine. Open for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner the restaurant boasts breathtaking views from its main dining room, private event spaces and a spectacular three-storey high atrium bar. Quite stunning.

Mixing their two main passions in life - family and food - the team behind Paesan bring cucina povera (peasant food, Italian style) to Exmouth Market. The restaurant is the first solo venture from Antony Brown, the man who used to run Pasta Brown in Covent Garden, and features a menu by head chef Mattia Antonioni who has come to Paesan via Polpo and The Ivy. Simple, honest food is made using every part of the animal, smoking, pickling and preserving, and served along with home made charcuterie, fresh pasta, game, pulses, vintage cocktails and Italian wines. The ground floor dining room features an open kitchen and seats 70 around people in a room designed by B3, the designers of Bubbledogs. There's a stripped back look with exposed brick, cracked tiling and reclaimed furniture, and an area outside facing the market for al fresco eating as well as a bar downstairs.

Blending modern Portuguese and Spanish cuisine, award-wining Portuguese chef Luis Baena focuses on the Atlantic facing regions of these two countries at his Notting Hill Kitchen restaurant. Baena hails from Portugal but his grandmother was the daughter of the Spanish ambassador so the food he grew up eating was always something of a hybrid. At Notting Hill Kitchen this translates into shredded crab and lobster with jellied consomme, ginger and yuzu curd, seared pink swordfish with seaweed and dashi creamed rice and Azores cheese, and slow-cooked Iberian milk-fed baby lamb. The 100-cover dining room interior has an authentically Spanish feel to it too, having been designed by Barcelona-based designer Sandra Tarruella.

Soho House's Nick Jones replaces Boheme Kitchen and Bar on Old Compton Street with the Soho Diner, bringing the same menu and style at the newly revamped Electric Diner in Notting Hill to Soho. Like its west London sister restaurant, burgers, shakes and cocktails are served in a sexy, sophisticated American style diner where the menu includes cheeseburger, honeyfried chicken and broiled salmon with lentil salad. Alongside these old favourites are new dishes like honey chicken drumsticks and quinoa, spinach and almond salad. Weekend brunch adds the option of waffles, pancakes or poached eggs with avocado. Cocktails like the classic mojito and cosmopolitan are on tap ensuring fast bar service - something the Soho clientele is sure to appreciate.

Trendy US burger chain Five Guys, which has more than 1,000 restaurants in North America and counts Barack Obama among its fans, opens its flagship UK outlet at 1-3 Long Acre in summer 2013. Five Guys, which takes its name from the founding Murrell family's five brothers, only serves fresh ground beef and will fly ingredients over from the US if they have to. The chain doesn't offer meals but instead sells everything individually so you pick your own sides and toppings. If all goes according to plan, at least four more Five Guys restaurants will open in London in 2013, followed by more within and outside the capital. With rival American burger chain Shake Shack launching its first UK outlet, also in Covent Garden, the day after Five Guys opens, this part of central London is suddenly the place to be for the best US style burgers.

Danny Meyer's Shake Shack burger chain, a huge hit in America, sprouted from a hot dog cart first set up in 2001 in Madison Square Park in Manhattan. Now there are restaurants in six US cities from Massachusetts to Florida. On Friday 5th July 2013 London gets the very first Shake Shack to cross the pond. Located across three venues in the historic Covent Garden Market Building - including outside seating - Shake Shack brings its queue-worthy Angus beef burgers and beloved 'shroom burgers to London. As with each Shack, it's constructed from recycled and sustainable materials, whether that means the tabletops have been sourced from reclaimed bowling alley lanes, or the walls made of reclaimed antique barn wood. If the flagship Shack in Madison Square Park is anything to go by, they'll be queuing up for these burgers. Burger fans are spoilt for choice in Covent Garden with MEATMarket also within the Piazza building in Jubilee Hall and, opening just the day before the Shake Shack launch, another US import Five Guys. Let the battle of the burger commence!

In a small unit in Camden Lock market, just off Camden Lock Place, you'll find Honest Burgers, the third such outlet from Tom Barton and Phil Eles who have already enjoyed huge success with their Soho and Brixton branches. This small no-frills restaurant, seating 30, serves simple but top quality hamburgers and chips made with all British produce and meat supplied by the Ginger Pig. The Honest Burgers menu includes regular specials such as the recent 'Honest American Cheeseburger' and their trademark rosemary fries, washed down with a selection of beers and wines. As well as takeaway there's the option to sit down and enjoy a meal. Seating (made by Tom's dad) is at small tables, at the bar around the open kitchen or at a communal area outside.

Shoryu Ramen opens a second restaurant, Shoryu Soho, replicating the Japanese restaurant on Soho's Denman Street with a similar menu to the Regent Street original. Specialising in the traditional Hakata tonkotsu Ramen, the restaurant's pork-based thick white soup provides Londoners with a new take on Japanese food - the hearty dish is built around a strong stock and also includes meat, egg, noodles and a whole lot of flavour. The restaurant also boasts authenticity with its recipe created by chef Kanji Furukawa, who was born and raised in Hakata, and the menu offers a number of versions of the dish. Diners can choose between Piri Piri, Wasabi, an intriguingly named, Dracula Tonkotsu and many others. Further options include fishcakes, dumplings, sashimi and miso.

After impressing us with PipsDish, a popular pop-up in a former Citroen garage in Islington, chef and journalist Philip Dundas has set up a new home with his restaurant The Lunch Club in Hoxton Square. Ex BBC producer, writer and author of "Cooking Without Recipes" Philip Dundas and his kitchen partner Mary Doherty are collaborating with the kitchen designers Plain English to create a homely dining experience in Hoxton Square. As the name suggests The Lunch Club is a club so you need to book and become a local business member. Become a loyal member and every 5th visit your lunch is free. There's no menu, dishes depend on what's available each day, but to give you an idea of the sort of food to expect, they served tapenade, gazpacho, mackerel with potato salad and homemade elderflower when it first opened.

Free-range chicken and eggs are the two ingredients in just about every dish at Whyte & Brown. From breakfast to dinner chicken and egg are the hero ingredients in every dish, from soups to salads and even in the desserts. Start with a Bangkok-Scotch egg or share polenta encrusted chicken strips. Move onto mains which include choices of pollo-porro pasta - spaghetti tossed with chicken and leek balls - wild mushroom tagliatelle, or brick chicken crisp-skinned three ways: marinated breast roast-grilled under brick, 24-hour slow cooked thigh confit and 12-hour slow-cooked wing served with a jug of house-made gravy. The space itself, a great little spot for al fresco dining in Kingly Court, off Carnaby Street, has floor-to-ceiling windows with the main restaurant upstairs and an after-work drinking den downstairs. There's a communal dining area with long, low-level sharing tables and benches, and a chef's table for a bird's eye view into the kitchen. Whyte & Brown is brought to you by creative director Fiona Gale and head chef Paul Fletcher. Just don't ask them which came first, chicken or egg - they don't know. But what they do know is that free-range is best.

Actors Dar and Alexis are the parents of Drink Me Eat Me who, between jobs, run this pretty cafe near Ravenscourt Park where self-serve frozen yoghurt stations take pride of place. Not only that, they also offers local parents entertainment for the kids - from dance classes to storytelling - while they enjoy tea and cake next door. Divided into three spaces, there's the cafe offering frozen yoghurt topped with a wide choice of sprinkles and sushi as well as children's clothes, toys and original art to buy. In the room next door there's space for dance classes, also available for - and ideally suited to - birthday and hen parties. At the back there's a small seating area, sometimes given over to storytelling for under 2s, and a toilet with baby changing facilities. Beautifully presented in vintage tea parlour style, there's something very appealing (particularly for parents) about the combination of tea parties, frozen yoghurt and children's entertainment laid on.

Benugo, the restaurant group set up by Ben Warner in 1998, adds to its London cafe and restaurants opening Lincoln's Inn Fields Bar & Kitchen in place of The Terrace in Lincoln's Inn Fields in July 2013 in conjunction with the historic Sir John Soane's Museum. Making the most of its parkside location, the restaurant offers al fresco dining for 24 people, as well as seating for 64 inside, and extends its opening hours in the summer until 9pm. The menu includes English breakfast classics such as Eggs Benedict and porridge, flat breads and pizzas cooked in the on-site wood fired oven, burgers and salads. Take away choices include rare roast beef or prawn and crayfish salads and sandwiches filled with generous servings of free range egg mayonnaise, and shredded duck. Cakes are freshly made each morning at Benugo's London bakery and include tried and trusted favourites like lemon drizzle cake, blueberry muffins and pain au raison. Given the success of Benugo's existing park cafe, the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen, we can see this latest venture becoming just as popular.

The centre-point of the London 2012 Games, the £537 million Olympic Stadium, re-opens on Saturday 21st July with the National Lottery Anniversary Run, giving up to 10,000 members of the public the chance to run on the Olympic Stadium track. The Olympic Stadium also plays host to the Sainsbury's Anniversary Games on 26th and 27th July while the Olympic Park, renamed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, re-opens with a summer of high profile music festivals including Hard Rock Calling where Bruce Springsteen, Kasabian and Paul Weller are playing, and Wireless where Justin Timberlake will be joined by Jay Z. On Saturday 6th July Mumford And Sons and Vampire Weekend are among the bands lined up to play at the former Olympic Park while in August there are two cycling events - RideLondon 100 for amateurs and RideLondon Classic for the pros.

The former Olympic Park reopens on Saturday 27th July 2013 as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - a site of over 250 acres of beautifully landscaped open space and 6.5 km of waterways. The first phase includes the opening of the North Park and the multi-use arena, known as the Copper Box during the 2012 Games, which will become the third largest arena in London, used for concerts, sports and community projects as well as cultural and business events. Also in 2013, cyclists will also be able to use parts of the park used in the Olympics including the BMX course, outdoor road circuits and off-road mountain bike trails. And on 4th August 2013, RideLondon, a brand new cycling event for both professionals and amateurs will take place in the park. Two of the four RideLondon events take the park as their starting point, RideLondon 100 gives amateurs the chance to ride on the same day as the professionals in RideLondon Classic.

One of London's most popular museums, the Imperial War Museum, is getting a complete refurbishment and will be closed for the first six months of 2013. It reopens in July with a cracking family exhibition, Horrible Histories: Spies, which looks at the world of spies and spying from the inimitable Horrible Histories team. There will also be exhibitions on the Architecture of War, looking at how war affects the way people live, and regular screenings of Omar Fast's film, 'Five Thousand Feet Is The Best', about drone operators in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The July re-opening is just the first phase of a decade-long £35 million project. The next phase, opening in summer 2014, will launch the new First World War Galleries, timed to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the start of the First World War.

Pizza Pilgrims James and Thom Elliot have made a name for themselves for serving excellent Napoli-style pizzas from the back of Piaggio van. From 1st August 2013, the pizza loving boys open their first restaurant proper, a Soho eaterie just around the corner from Berwick Street market where you can often find them and their van. The pilgrimage began when the brothers travelled to Italy, joined up with a TV crew, bought a van and toured the country with the aim of discovering the art of pizza making. They have certainly succeeded. Returning to the UK, they refused to part with their beloved van and instead converted it into a portable pizza oven. Now, they provide lucky Londoners with tantalising Napoli inspired street food. The varying simple menu consists of only two or three pizzas - including toppings such as nduja sausage, Portobello mushroom and truffle oil - and starts from £5. With a book and possible TV show on the horizon, we're predicting big things for these Pilgrims.

Following the roaring success of the inaugural brilliant Bavarian bratwurst outlet on Villiers Street, Herman Ze German has opened a second shop - this time in Soho's famous Old Compton Street. The brainchild of German-born, Brighton-based friends Florian Frey and Azadeh Falakshahi, Herman Ze German recreates the traditional sausage shacks on the corner of most German streets - and does so to devastating effect. Each wurst is made to an authentic German recipe, using the freshest free-range meat sourced from family-run, quality butchers in Germany's Black Forest. The sizzling sausages are gluten and lactose-free and have a meat content of 95% - earning themselves the nickname 'Tube Steaks'. There are three varieties of 27-centimetre weiners - Bratwurst, Chilli Beef and Brockwurst - all grilled to perfection and served with toppings including sauerkraut, onions and lashings of mustard, as well as fat-free chips cooked without oil. Meatballs also grace the menu, while some say Herman Ze German's famous Currywurst is ze best to be tasted both inside and outside Germany. Wash down with some Fritz-Kola or a cup of Union coffee, and you're all set. Now open in Soho, Herman Ze German is definitely wurst a look if you're in the area and fancy taking down some sausage.

Tommi's Burger Joint has already built up a loyal following with its short lived temporary restaurant on Marylebone Lane. So when the next incarnation of the burger joint by restaurateur Tomas 'Tommi' Tomasson returns to Marylebone's Thayer Street in summer 2013 there will, no doubt, be a line of dedicated fans queuing up. The menu reflects a consciously back-to-basics vibe, with just a few burgers, sodas and shakes available. Patties are made with top quality chunky mince, served in a soft bun with red onion and salad while fries are skinny, crunchy and salty. Fans will also be hoping that the 'Offer Of The Century' (£9.40 for a cheeseburger, fries and a can of pop) returns along with the restaurant.

A legacy of the 2012 London Olympics, the state of the art £1.1m Burgess Park BMX Track opened to the public in August 2013, a year after the Games. The floodlit undulating track at Burgess Park is home to Peckham BMX Club, one of the country's top teams, and is available to members of the public. The minimum age for open use of the track is 8 years but there are sessions catering for all abilities, including introductions for riders as young as two years old. Riders using the BMX track are required to take an accreditation session to make sure they have the skills and confidence required to tackle the course. This one hour session costs £15 (£12 concession price) and includes bike hire and coaching. Another cycling legacy of the Olympics is the Lee Valley VeloPark, the converted Olympics velodrome, which will include a remodelled Olympic BMX circuit alongside new mountain bike trails, and a floodlit road circuit when it opens on 4th March 2014.

The second London opening from chef proprietor Ross Shonhan who brought us the ever-popular ramen restaurant Bone Daddies, Flesh and Buns is a laid back Japanese eaterie offering tasty parcels of folded steamed buns. For this below street-level Covent Garden restaurant he has taken inspiration from Japanese izakayas, informal bars for eating and drinking, specialising in hirata buns - folded steamed buns typically filled with pork - which originated from Taiwan. Buns are served with 'flesh' and salad vegetables, sauces and pickles, and you're encouraged to build your own from a choice of fillings. The kitchen, which is headed by Joe McCafferty, previously of the acclaimed Roka restaurant, also prepares a raw section - sashimi and oysters - and small plates of maki rolls and Japanese bar snacks including chicken yakitori, prawn tempura with lemon ponzu and fried squid karage with shansho salt. Best washed down with frozen yuzu margaritas, infused sakes, Shochu and Japanese whiskeys. A rock soundtrack that fans of Bone Daddies will recognise helps to create the laid back vibe.

Renowned restaurant entrepreneur Richard Caring (who brought us Pizza East and Chicken Shop and who owns Caprice Holdings - parent to exclusive London restaurants such as The Ivy, Le Caprice and Scott's) has teamed up with Mark Askew, formerly of Gordon Ramsay Holdings, to open Grillshack on the Beak Street site where the Alphabet bar has stood since the late 1990s. A casual grill restaurant with counter service, Grillshack is expected to offer quality fast food from breakfasts to burgers, made with fresh ingredients, served 7 days a week. The 3,000 square feet site covers the ground floor and basement allowing space to eat in or take out. With the opening of Grillshack, Mark Askew, Gordon Ramsay's right-hand man and executive chef at Gordon Ramsay Holdings from the mid 1990s to 2012, is set to return to the kitchen.

Named after legendary French chef Marcel Boulestin, this St James' Street restaurant from Joel Kissin takes its inspiration from the original Boulestin which stood on Covent Garden's Southampton Street from 1927 to 1994. Boulestin, a luxury bistro restaurant, and the more casual Cafe Marcel, both pay homage to the pioneering writer, restaurateur and the world's first celebrity television chef. Serving mostly classic French food, the restaurant follows the philosophy outlined by Boulestin in his many cookbooks which include 'Simple French Cooking for English Homes' - a collection of authentic French recipes first published in June 1923. This book did much to popularise French cuisine in the English-speaking world; will the new Boulestin inspire a renewed passion? We'll have to wait until September to find out.

One of the best vegetarian restaurants in London, when the original Hammersmith branch closed for refurbishment in 2012 The Gate opened a new restaurant at 370 St John Street, in Islington - see our separate listing for The Gate Vegetarian Restaurant. But on 9th September 2013 the long wait for the original Hammersmith venue to re-open is over. Adrian and Michael Daniel are reviving this wonderful vegetarian and vegan restaurant hidden behind a superbly romantic courtyard which has put them at the helm of London's most successful vegetarian restaurant since December 1989. The food is sublime, even non-vegetarians agree, and the wine list includes vegan options. Tempting dishes from an ever-changing menu include artichoke gallettes, a potato, celeriac and truffle rosti, butternut tortellini and aubergine teryaki. Even if you are not vegetarian this is an excellent choice, with a welcoming, intimate atmosphere and consistently delicious fare at outrageously affordable prices.

Let the train take you on an exotic night out without actually leaving Islington as you enter Hoxley & Porter, a bar and restaurant which has been designed to look like an opulent train carriage. It's the latest venture from Costa Tofan whose other venues include The Betsy Smith in Kilburn, The Lansdowne in Primrose Hill, and The Winchester in Islington. As with The Betsy Smith, interiors have been created by Michaela Reysenn of Kai Design, combining elements of a Victorian gentlemen's club with "colonial Poirot, Egyptian noir and surrealist jungles". Cocktails created by Michael Pendergast, formerly at Powder Keg Diplomacy in Battersea, can be enjoyed in the train carriage bar. Or head to the Dining Carriage area, where leaded glass lets natural light flood through, for a modern British menu featuring traditional cuts of meat and fresh in-season vegetables. Signature dishes include cider-braised pork belly, pot roasted rabbit, and Saint Clements pie - a creamy dessert infused with tangy lemon and sweet oranges.

Classical North Italian cooking is the fare at the Union Street Cafe, a Borough restaurant owned by Gordon Ramsay (and, for a short time at least, David Beckham). Ramsay's first opening in London since Bread Street Kitchen in 2011, Union Street Cafe is his tenth restaurant in Britain and it's "far from atrocious" writes Matthew Norman in the Telegraph. Interior designer Russell Sage has gone for the industrial chic/New York loft look, with exposed pipes and bare, table cloth-free wooden tables. But don't be fooled by the casual apperance, says David Sexton in the Evening Standard, the Union Street Cafe is "an ambitious ristorante in street disguise". On the menu, which changes daily, are some surprisingly affordable dishes including lasagne tradizionale. The focus on seasonal ingredients from the Mediterranean has an emphasis on Italian artisan producers, complimented with what is available from the neighbouring Borough and Maltby Street markets.

"You go first", "No, you", that's the polite kind of thing we expect at Japanese restaurant Chotto Matte whose name translates as "please wait a moment". Created by Kurt Zdesar (the man who brought Nobu to London and set up the Ping Pong dim sum chain) Chotto Matte is spread across three floors with four distinct areas: a lounge, sushi bar, robata grill and a 180 cover restaurant. Fresh and high quality Japanese food inspired by Nikkei cuisine, a hybrid of Japanese and Peruvian cultures. The menu has been created by executive chef Jordon Sclare and includes an a-la-carte menu filled with sharing with dishes like avocado tempura with smoked purple potato, BBQ pork belly nashi pear salsa and grilled baby chicken with spicy pomegranate salsa as well as BBQ specialties from the Robata grill. There's a selection of fresh, sustainably sourced sushi created by head sushi chef Keita Sato and the menu also features a Nikkei tasting menu of seven courses for 40 pounds. As well as the food guests can also choose from a large collection of fine wines, sakes, shochu and premium Japanese whiskies. Andy Martin's interior design fuses natural materials such as lava stone and burnt cedar with art inspired by Tokyo's contemporary urban culture.

Following on from the success of Honky Tonk Chelsea, the American-inspired restaurant, late night bar, and live performance venue comes to Clapham common bringing cocktails, ribs and a late licence until 2am at weekends with it. Brought about by Mark Cutler, one of the founders of supperclub London, Honky Tonk pairs all-American eating with the type of music - blues, jazz and rockabilly - played at the original honky tonk bars in the States. The 150-cover restaurant includes al fresco seating overlooking the common so, on sunny days, you can enjoy your mac 'n' cheese outside. Inside, the decor is a mix of worn brown leather banquette seats, mismatched wooden tables, vintage rock 'n' roll posters, and old Elvis films projected on a large screen. Quirky design elements include black and white polka dot wallpaper, 1950s concertina lift door, and floating balloon-like lights. Aged-in-the-barrel cocktails, craft beers and an impressive selection of bourbons complete the Americana feel.

The first major exhibitions in the Science Museum's new 4 million pound Media Space when it opens in September 2013 will be Only in England: Photographs by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr and two specially commissioned pieces in Universal Everything & You. Media Space, based on the 2nd floor of the Science Museum, will showcase the National Photography Collection from the National Media Museum. In addition, there will be two major exhibitions and a series of free installations in its studio space each year. A collaboration between the National Media Museum in Bradford, and the Science Museum in London, the purpose-built venue will be a place where the two cultures of art and science coincide.

Artist and curator Elena Shchukina is launching an eponymous space in Mayfair this September that will challenge the trend for galleries to offer a blank canvas or 'white cube' exhibition space. Instead, Gallery Elena Shchukina positions painting, furniture, lighting, objets and wall coverings alongside one another to create an immersive effect. "I want visitors to Gallery Elena Shchukina to feel almost as though they are stepping into a painting when they come here", says Shchukina who was born and raised in Siberia and studied in Moscow and Milan before moving to London in 2009 where she completed a course at Sotheby's Institute of Art. The gallery opens during the 2013 London Design Festival with an exhibition of works by Onyeka Ibe, an internationally recognised artist who grew up during the unrest that followed the end of the Nigerian civil war.

The Serpentine Gallery is making a significant expansion in September 2013, restoring a former gunpowder depot not far from its original gallery in Kensington Gardens. The Magazine, a Palladian style villa built in 1805 to store arms, will be restored to a design by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid into an exciting new 900 metre square gallery space. Preliminary plans reveal a white undulating roof, a striking modern extension to the historic structure which is a short stroll across the Serpentine Boating Lake from the original Serpentine Gallery. The new Serpentine Sackler Gallery, named after Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler, whose Foundation has made the project possible, will be open daily, showing a mix of contemporary art, architecture, dance, design, fashion, film, literature, music, performance and technology. Like the Serpentine this spin-off gallery is free to visit, and will be a significant addition to London's modern art scene.

Open School East is an art school and communal space, commissioned and funded by the Barbican and Create London to help artists, local residents and neighbourhood organisations share knowledge and skills. When it opens in September 2013 in The Rose Lipman Building Open School East will be a year-long studio-based study programme; a shared space for activities devised by and with neighbourhood groups and individuals; and a public events programme. The project is co-founded by French-born curator Anna Colin, Sarah McCrory, Laurence Taylor and Sam Thorne. Open School East's inaugural public event on Thursday 26th September, from 2pm to 5pm, will be a roundtable discussion among invited artists, curators and practitioners who are invested in developing alternative forms of education - artistic and otherwise.

Returning to its former name, The Earl Derby on the site of the Golden Egg on Kilburn High Road gets a refit as a posh pub with a wide range of draught beers, and a breakfast of champions for brunch. Although serving decent food, a lot of time and thought has gone into the drinks list so you get Meantime Yakima Red and Camden Brewery Hells Lager alongside local cask ales, and quality ciders including Addlestones and Aspall. Aside from the traditional pub drinks there's an interesting wine list, great Bloody Marys, artisan spirits and homemade soft drinks. Classic yet creative pub dishes served in the 200-cover Earl Derby include beef brisket and beetroot hash served with fried egg, salt and pepper squid, and cider and tarragon battered cod. There's Saturday brunch and Sunday roasts to be enjoyed in the dining room decked out in navy and grey, with reclaimed timber flooring, exposed brickwork and rustic oak paneling. Chesterfield-style sofas, distressed tables and vintage chandeliers complete the lived-in look.

Autumn 2013 sees the opening of the Guildhall School's new £89 million Milton Court building on Silk Street, providing the school with state-of-theatre performance and teaching facilities. Spaces for public performances includes a 608-seat concert hall, a 227-seat theatre, and a flexible studio theatre. Added to these are three rehearsal rooms, a television studio suite, departments for costume, wigs and make-up, office space, tutorial rooms and light-filled public foyers. The opening season will offer performances across the new venues. The first public performance in the concert hall is on Friday 4th October and there are two Chekhov plays featuring final year actors from the Guildhall School to open Milton Court's theatres.

Three decades after opening her first gallery in Cork Street, Victoria Miro returns to Mayfair to open a third space in October 2013. The gallery, designed by Claudio Silvestrin Architects and executed by Michael Drain Architects, will occupy 19,000 square feet on the ground floor of three buildings, making it one of the largest commercial spaces in London. On a prominent corner site, where St George Street intersects with Maddox Street, the gallery is the third site for Victoria Miro who first opened her gallery in Cork Street, Mayfair in 1985 and relocated to a former furniture factory in Islington in 2000. One of London's top art dealers, the gallery represents 35 artists and has had two winners of the Turner Prize: Chris Ofili, who won the prize in 1998, and the 2003 winner, Grayson Perry, as well as three Turner Prize nominees: Peter Doig, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Isaac Julien.

With a CV that reads like a list of the best French restaurants in France and the UK, Franck Raymond, lattery head chef of Mon Plaisir in Covent Garden is chef patron of Augustine Kitchen, a charming rustic French bistro in Battersea. In his latest venture, Franck showcases authentic French dishes using produce from the Evian region where he was born and where he set up his first restaurant Le Cheval Blanc. This means that some fish comes fresh from Lake Geneva (when available) and the menu includes delicacies like cassolette of snails with garlic and parsley butter, French onion soup glazed with bleu de termignon and Reblochon and green apple fritters. Mains at the 60 cover restaurant include fillet of sea bream bouillabaisse, slow cooked pork shank with flageolets and sage jus and roast duck magret with spicy poached pear and timut pepper sauce. French-style tapas, available in the bar, includes black pudding and apple tartelette, duck rillettes and Reblochon and bacon gougeres. There's a comfortable family feel to Augustine Kitchen which has been designed by the chef himself and is named after his grandmother.

Open from breakfast through to night cap, Hoi Polloi (dictionary definition 'the many') is the trendy all-day restaurant and bar in the uber hip Ace Hotel created by the people who brought us Bistrotheque and Shrimpy's, Pablo Flack and David Waddington. With "a seasonal approach to English produce", the restaurant, accessed through the hotel's flower shop, is billed as a modernist brasserie. The design, by Flack and Waddington along with Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby's Universal Design Studio, was inspired by mid-twentieth century European bistros. From the leather banquette booths and hexagonal timber flooring in the informal bar area you move into the larger 100-seat dining room where fluted timber-paneled walls and ceramic floor tiles contain flecked linoleum tables, lit by polished brass light fixtures and custom pendant lights by Philippe Malouin. The same menu is available at the bar (for walk-ins only) as at the restaurant where you can book up to one calendar month in advance. With a breakfast menu of pineapple, pink grapefruit, chili and mint served from 7am, and dinner served until 1am, Hoi Polloi will be one of London's hippest hangouts any time of day or night.

Vinoteca has been doing a fine job of serving fine wines in an informal setting since the company opened its first premises in Farringdon in September 2005. Eight years later, in September 2013, the company founded by Brett Woonton, Charlie Young and Elena Ares expands to include a fourth branch, adding Chiswick to its existing wine bars in Marylebone and Soho. Taking inspiration from the wine bars of Spain and Italy which also function as wine shops, Vinoteca has a list of 300 wines, with a list of 25 wines available by the glass, updated twice a year. While primarily all about the wine, you can also eat at the 50-seat restaurant on Devonshire Road where bread is baked on the premises. The menu includes cured meats imported from Spain and dishes like bavette steak, roast aubergine, pollock with puy lentils and whole plaice. A welcome addition to this part of Chiswick which already has the excellent La Trompette opposite.

What began as a pop-up, open for eighteen months at a Citroen Garage in Islington, now becomes a permanent restaurant as PipsDish opens in Covent Garden. Set up by Philip Dundas, a BBC producer turned cook, and his kitchen partner Mary Doherty, PipsDish is a small, homely restaurant serving different dishes each day. With communal wooden benches, shelves stacked with books and an open kitchen at the back of the room, the restaurant creates the impression of dining at home. A lack of menus continues this concept, inviting diners to simply turn up and indulge on the surprise that is put before them. Examples include oxtail glazed with rhubarb, venison burgers with tzatziki, chicken served in a creamy leek, pancetta and lemon crème fraîche sauce, and smoked salmon pate with lemony hummus. Give them advance notice if you have any food allergies. A unique feature of the Covent Garden restaurant is Pip's Hut, a cosy mountain hut in the back yard with private dining for up to 8 people. Having built up a loyal following with their homely cooking and supperclub atmosphere as exemplified by their restaurant, The Lunch Club in Hoxton Square, PipsDish Covent Garden is sure to be a popular addition, and its central location mean it's ideal for pre- or post-theatre eating.

Gordon Ramsay's former protege Angela Hartnett has gone into partnership with her boyfriend, Neil Borthwick (who she met at The Connaught), and the co-founders of Canteen, Dom Lake and Patrick Clayton-Malone, to set up Merchants Tavern, a restaurant and bar housed within a Victorian warehouse and former apothecary in the heart of Shoreditch. Hartnett has also brought the head chef from her Michelin-starred Murano restaurant in Mayfair, Diego Cardoso, to help with the new restaurant. The modern European menu is inspired by Italian, French and Spanish cooking, with Gloucester old spot belly, halibut, and monkfish and mussel ragout among the main courses. Food is paired with classic and natural wines, traditional cocktails and British lagers, ales, stouts and perries. It's "the sort of place you can bring your mum or your girlfriend", Hartnett told the London Evening Standard.

The Victoria and Albert Museum moves its important study collections of textiles and fashion to a new home at Blythe House in Kensington Olympia and the new facility, designed by Haworth Tompkins architects, will open on 8th October 2013. The Clothworkers' Centre for Textiles and Fashion Study and Conservation plays an important role in the conservation of European and Asian textile study collections, which are brought together in a single location for the first time. Visitors and groups will be able to make appointments to see, study and enjoy the collections in the spacious new public study room. Blythe House is also home to the Archive of Art and Design, the Victoria and Albert Museum's treasure chest of archival material.

This Bond Street art gallery space for the London branch of Christie's auction house represents something of a first for an auction house. Occupying 11,500 sq ft of space over three floors, it will stage three or four museum-quality curated exhibitions each year. The inaugural exhibition, which opens the gallery to the public on 9th October 2013, features 70 works from artists including David Hockney, Allen Jones, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Blake, and RB Kitaj.

Brothers Will and Ben Thompson are behind this Italian bakery and restaurant on Upper Street in Islington. Vivo is their first venture has been inspired by their love of Italian food and the traditional gastronomia and pasticceria of Italy. The menu encouraging all day dining with choices of freshly baked ciabatta and focaccia, torte rustica (Italian savoury pies), authentic Roman pizza 'al taglio' (rectangular slices), fresh salads, speciality cheese and meat boards. Hot dishes include firm favourites like lasagne and cannelloni. Italian desserts and pastries can be accompanied by coffee - supplied by renowned Neapolitan roaster Kimbo. In look and feel the decor combines modern features with rustic earthy tones while a striking 14 metre granite counter provides the main focal point of the dining room. There's space for up to 50 covers on the ground floor with seating a mix of communal and individual tables, and an open air roof terrace with seating for 35 upstairs - ideal for al fresco dining in the warmer months.

A huge British manufacturing success story, Brompton bikes are a familiar sight on London's city streets. The fold up bikes are not only stylish but portable - you can even take them on the Tube. At Brompton Junction, the bike store on London's Long Acre, you can browse and buy Brompton bikes in a rainbow of colours, see how quickly you can fold the bike, get advice, and stock up on accessories and spare parts. A true London bike, Brompton makes 40,000 cycles a year from its London base in Brentford but this is the first central London store.

Jason Atherton, the man behind the Michelin starred Pollen Street Social and the Social Eating House, is responsible for the restaurant within the London Edition, a stylish Marriot hotel in Fitzrovia designed by legendary hotelier Ian Shrager. Atherton's Berners Tavern, named after the hotel which was built on this Soho site in 1908, serves modern British food using the best of British ingredients which changes with the seasons. Dishes include Orkney scallop Carpaccio, chargrilled quail served with Alsace bacon, and grass fed Baccleuch beef cooked on a charcoal grill. Shrager's dining room design includes chandeliers suspended over the tables which were inspired by NYC's Grand Central Station. Furnished with banquettes in chestnut mohair and taupe leather and round, bleached oak tables, there's a Parisian feeling to the room, a nod to the Edwardian origin of the building and London's adoration of all things French.

One Canada Square, the glamourous restaurant and cocktail bar in the lobby of the towering 800 foot high One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, is the brainchild of Tom and Ed Martin of the award-winning ETM Group, the group who brought us top quality pubs and restaurants like The Botanist in Chelsea and The Gun in the Docklands. With interiors by renowned architects David Collins Studio, One Canada Square is shaping up to be an exciting restaurant serving high quality food and drink within an elegant setting. The 30-cover bar and 100-cover restaurant features a mezzanine floor which is available for private parties and private dining from Monday to Saturday. One Canada Square will be open Monday to Friday for breakfast, business lunches, post-work cocktails and relaxed dinners as well as leisurely Saturday brunches and evening meals.

Grab a bargain at the London Designer Outlet in Wembley, a unique shopping village which gives local residents and the 4 million visitors who come to see a sporting event another reason to visit this area of west London. 85 shops offering up to 70 per cent off the regular retail price, 15 restaurants and a Cineworld cinema occupy 350,000 square feet (roughly the size of four and a half football pitches) next to Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena. The shops - a mix of high street and brand names chosen in response to what local people wanted - all offer discounts of up to 70 per cent off current season and end-of-season lines, drawing shoppers into an area of London best known for its sporting and music venues. Sports shops including the Nike Factory Store, Adidas, Skechers and Asics line the walk up to the sports stadium while fashion brands L.K. Bennett, Superdry, Guess, Gap, Clarks and Marks & Spencer offer affordable bargains.

This autumn, a small man-made islet with three triangular peaks will appear as if floating on the water on the canal near King's Cross. Viewpoint is an award-winning design by Finnish architects Erkko Aarti, Arto Ollila and Mikki Ristola commissioned by the New Architects: Finland_UK Exchange Programme, which brings together new architectural talent from Finland and the UK to explore cities' changing relationship with water. The island structure will act as an additional viewing platform and an invaluable new learning facility for Camley Street Natural Park, a two-acre natural reserve of woodland, water and wild meadow, concealed in the urban heart of King's Cross, one of the most rapidly growing metropolitan areas of London.

Masterchef The Professionals winner, Australian chef Ash Mair, is due to open a restaurant with Spanish pintxo chain Bilbao Berria this year, bringing the brand to its first site outside Spain more than a decade after the original restaurant opened in Barcelona's La plaza de la cathedral (Cathedral square) in 1999. Bilbao Berria London will be set over 2 floors with an open kitchen on each floor. One floor will be a casual dining area offering pintxos and tapas with an open grill area where you can eat as little or as much as you like while enjoying Spanish wines by the glass. The second dining area will be more of a formal sit down setting offering a full a la carte menu of classic and modern Basque and Spanish dishes. On the menu, which will be built around a charcoal oven and plancha, will be daily changing options, depending on the season and the best produce available at the time. With two existing restaurants in Barcelona the Regent Street opening will be the third restaurant in the group with the London restaurant sounding out the possibility of future expansion in Europe.

Two years after winning MasterChef, American-born Tim Anderson opens Nanban on Shoreditch High Street serving southern Japanese food, ramen, beer, chicken, cake, and other lovely things. Specialising in the regional cuisine of Kyushu Island, where Anderson lived for two years, Naban gets its name from the Japanese term once used to describe European settlers - meaning 'southern barbarian'. At a pre-launch pop-up event - showing us what to expect on the menu at Nanban - diners were given choices of Hitomoji guru-guru - blanched spring onions, wrapped into bundles, served with a sweet miso dip; Iwashi Mentai - grilled sardines stuffed with mentaiko (chilli-cured cod roe); Rafute - pork belly braised in soy sauce, brown sugar, and awamori (Okinawan rice whiskey); and noodles in chicken-pork-seafood stock, topped with stir-fried shellfish and vegetables. Dessert was Mojiko roll cake, a combination of black sesame sponge, banana custard, fresh fruit, and green tea whipped cream.

Since opening Ceviche in Soho in 2012 owner Martin Morales has firmly put Peruvian cuisine on the London restaurant map prompting The Times restaurant critic, Giles Coren, to praise the "super-confident, rare and interesting" cooking. This time Morales is headed east to set up Ceviche Shoreditch, an as yet unnamed restaurant on a bigger site than the original Ceviche. Although still specialising in Peruvian cuisine, the new restaurant will offer something different. "It would be easy to open another branch of Ceviche in Shoreditch with the same look and same menu," Morales told Square Meal. Live music and DJs will also still be a feature - Morales used to be a DJ himself and has also set up a record label to publish music played at the restaurant. It remains to be seen whether the Shoredtich restaurant will serve dishes made famous by Ceviche, including the speciality dish - a South American fish carpaccio 'cooked' in a marinade of lime, chilli and salt, you can sip on a Pisco sour while enjoying the spectacle of your fish being prepared and marinated.

Following the success (read queues) of their first restaurant in Fitzrovia, Benito's Hat are bringing their unique brand of Mexican food to Farringdon and the restaurant will include a new feature, Felipe's 'Salsa Bar' where there are 10 homemade salsas to try. As well as serving up the tried and trusted selection of signature freshly made burritos, tacos, salads and soups there will be an unusual selection of salsas including tropical pineapple and habanero, fresh salsa fresca, and dried prawns and chipotle. They've even done something about those queues, in-store screens have been installed to ensure speedy service, or you can get your Mexican feast delivered to your door or desk if you're within a mile of the restaurant. Seems Londoners can't get enough of these spiced up fat wraps by Ben Fordham and head chef and partner Felipe Fuentes Cruz. Best washed down with a range of classics cocktails - margaritas and palomas - beer and wine on offer.

Bobby Chinn, a New Zealand-born chef who already has two successful restaurants in Vietnam - Restaurant Bobby Chinn in Saigon and Hanoi - opens his first London restaurant, The House of Ho in Soho this autumn. Promising "resolutely Vietnamese" cuisine, the menus will offer traditional dishes from Vietnam where Bobby has lived since 1996, but with his own twist developed from his travels around the world. Born in New Zealand to a Chinese father and Egyptian mother, Bobby was educated in England and lived in the States for several years so he certainly has plenty of international experience to draw on when it comes to culinary invention. The atmosphere at this 90-seat restaurant on Old Compton Street will be "fun" and "informal" with moderate prices.

Will Beckett and Huw Gott, the duo behind the Hawksmoor restaurants, have now branched out and opened Foxlow. Located on St. John Street, the split-level restaurant is situated within a Grade II listed former cork warehouse and is the first non-Hawksmoor venture from the pair. Housing two ground floor dining areas and a first floor gallery, the neighbourhood restaurant and bar has a more intimate feel than its Hawksmoor siblings. Steaks do feature on the menu but the main focus is the slow-smoked and charcoal dishes, such as the eight hour bacon rib with maple and chilli, and ten hour beef shortrib with kimchi. Sides include beef dripping potatoes and sausage-stuffed onion, and a salad bar provides side, starter and main options. Guests can also expect the high quality cocktails that the Hawksmoor restaurants are famed for and a selection of reasonably priced wines.

Hidden below the bustling Somers Town Coffee House, Cosy Kettle offers an intimate sanctuary away from the pub crowd. Opened in late 2013, the bar is the latest venture from the award-winning Yummy Pub Co. Headed up by Tim Foster and Anthony Pender, the company now boasts four pubs - two in Kent and two in London - and the Ssshh Supper Club. With exposed brickwork and tiled walls, old kegs used as stalls, and a bar built from drawers, Cosy Kettle combines the industrial and vintage themes that are currently proving popular in the capital. However, further touches such as a beautiful open wine shelf and luxurious toilets, which continue the recycled theme with old gin bottles used as soap dispensers, set the bar apart. Also notable is the bright lighting, a rarity in London's subterranean bars. Bringing cocktails and cakes together, the theme of the bar is indulgence. Cocktails are sectioned off into four categories: Something Sweet, martinis and espressos; Something Fizzy, the cham 69 and bellinis; Something Long, mojitos and gin fizzes; and Something Stiff, the classic old fashioned and margarita on the rocks. The menu may be short but with expert mixologists behind the bar they promise to whip up anything you fancy. Cakes are made fresh daily and provide a delicious and welcome alternative to wasabi peas and Bombay mix.

A unique and innovative restaurant and bar with a terrace overlooking the bustling Borough Market, Rabot 1745 brings to Londoners the hugely popular cuisine of its sibling, the Boucan Restaurant, launched in Saint Lucia in 2011 and adored by New Yorkers just a short-haul flight away. With the personality of a Caribbean plantation house stylishly transported to the heart of London, Rabot 1745 offers a 'cocoa cuisine' menu, designed by Chef John Bentham, featuring light and contemporary dishes influenced by the West Indies and Britain, with cocoa used as a subtle spice.

Russell Norman and Richard Beatty's hugely popular Italian restaurant Polpetto re-opens in a new larger location but still within Soho, at 11 Berwick Street, in January 2014 with Florence Knight in charge of the kitchen once again. The 70-cover dining room is substantially larger than the 23-cover restaurant originally established above the iconic French House pub in Dean Street, and includes an open kitchen and aperitivo bar. The larger premises will be a welcome improvement for those who failed to get into the previous Polpetto restaurant which couldn't cater for groups larger than four. We expect the menu to feature cicheti, small plates of classic Venetian osteria dishes such as Cuttlefish in its ink, anchovy and chickpea crostino, melanzane parmigiana, pizzetta Bianca, pigeon saltimbocca and Venetian-style soft-shell crab in Parmesan batter. The wine list promotes northern Italian wines from small producers, while desserts include pannacotta with blackberries and biscotti and sgroppino, a liquid desert made by blending lemon sorbet and prosecco. Sister restaurants include Polpo restaurants in Covent Garden, Soho and Smithfield as well as Mishkin's and Spuntino.