FOOD & BOOZE NEWS
NEW FROM NUNO
Two of the country’s leading chefs are behind new London restaurants. First up, Nuno Mendes, the Portuguese star who has been wowing diners and Michelin judges with his multi-course creations at Viajante in Bethnal Green, has opened a more relaxed dining room upstairs in the same building, the Town Hall Hotel. Corner Room is serving a simpler and more affordable version of Mendes’s highly-innovative cooking (the chef is a protégé of El Bulli maestro Ferran Adria), and forget about booking months ahead for a reservation – you can’t book at all. In fact there isn’t even a website – just turn up in good time. Town Hall Hotel, Patriot Square, E2 9NF. 020 7871 0460
L’ENCLUME COMES TO LONDON
Meanwhile Simon Rogan, the chef and farmer whose L’Enclume restaurant in the Lake District has been garlanded in awards and stars over the past decade, is opening a place in the capital. We’re never sure about puns as restaurant names, but “Roganic” does at least set out its stall pretty clearly – organic ingredients, foraged food, menu items like buckthorn curd, sweet ciceley and “heritage potatoes in onion ashes, lovage and wood sorrel”. The Marylebone premises, formerly Michael Moore restaurant on Blandford Street, is due for redevelopment in a couple of years, which will also be the lifespan of the restaurant – so get there while you can. It opens tomorrow. Roganic, 19 Blandford St, W1U 3DH www.roganic.co.uk
LOBSTERS IN SHOREDITCH
If two years seems a short time for a restaurant to run, how about three and a bit days? Rock Lobsta will be popping up in Shoreditch on Thursday evening, serving Maine-style lobster rolls and other lobster, crab and crayfish snacks, until Sunday. It’s next door to fashion boutique Luna & Curious on Calvert Street. 24-26 Calbert St, E2 7JP www.rocklobsta.co.uk