Throughout the first few months of this year, we’ve ridden some grand, sweeping waves of restaurant and bar openings. Among the mass, Weezie’s claimed its spot next to sibling Amie Wine, Fenix brought full Greek island chic to Mayfair, and Poolhouse launched the UK’s biggest pool site to date.
But spring has turned up the dial. We’re about to be hit with a riptide of long-awaited openings that do a lot more than serving up delicious plates in picture-perfect settings. From the zesty, high-energy Tigermilk to a Mykonos institution making its first-ever city move, these are the spots we’re booking – and strongly recommend you do too.
Our favourite May restaurant openings
1. Lokal
The team behind Fred Bakery and Faros are opening a new restaurant and this time, it’s a 110-cover Turkish outpost just a stone’s throw from Oxford Circus station. Head chefs Salih Serden and Akacan Agir created a menu that’s all about spotlighting all the glory of regional Turkish food – handmade mezze, fresh salads and reinterpreted classics like Lamb Tandır and Lamb Loin. There’s a solid spread of vegan and vegetarian dishes, too.
There’s a semi-private dining room, counter dining and a dedicated cocktail bar serving Turkey-inspired drinks. Signatures include the Mesopotamia (tequila infused with padrón peppers, rosé wine, Campari and rosehip cordial) and the Galata – named for Istanbul’s iconic tower – which combines Yeni rakı, Tokaji sweet wine, lychee liqueur and elderflower.
Co-founder Burak Demirelli has said the intention is to move beyond what people expect from Turkish food and show its regional depth and diversity. Its about time Turkish cuisine’s vastness and richness gets the full treatment in London.
When: 1st May
Where: 7-8 Market Place, London W1W 8AG
More info: @lokallondon
2. MA/NA
MA/NA is the latest addition to the Thesleff Group – the London hospitality company behind Los Mochis, LUNA Omakase and the recently launched Sale e Pepe. This luxury Japanese restaurant and bar is opening on the 6th of May in Mayfair, with a concept rooted in the Japanese idea of “mana” – a spiritual energy said to exist within all ingredients. Executive Chef Leo Tanyag leads the kitchen with a menu spanning tiger shrimp tempura with wasabi, M5 Wagyu seared on Himalayan salt stone, and truffle and garlic fried rice, while Bar Director Pietro Collina (formerly of Nomad and Eleven Madison Park) heads up a bar programme drawing on rare spirits and 1970s Tokyo bartending traditions.
The space has been designed with the same deliberateness as the menu: dark wood panelling, warm amber lighting by OV&CO, a dragon-shaped banquette coiling through the lounge, and a handblown Magma lighting sculpture by EWE Studio. Founder Markus Thesleff – who has personal ties to Japan through his father and grandfather, the latter a Finnish Ambassador to the country -describes MA/NA as “a celebration of ritual and the quiet mastery behind it.” The venue also includes a private dining room for up to 20 guests, and transitions into a cocktail bar later in the evening with resident DJs.
When: 6th of May
Where: 30 Upper Grosvenor Street, London W1K 7PH
More info: manarestaurants.com
3. Tigermilk
Tigermilk’s Tottenham Court Road debut last summer did well enough that they’re back with something considerably bigger. The Spitalfields site – opening on the 8th of May at the London Fruit Exchange on Brushfield Street – seats 280 and is their 13th opening since Nina and Alexis Melikov founded the group in 2019.
The concept is a Latin American brasserie, with a hacienda-like space that unfolds room by room – courtyard, main dining room, an orangery seating over 80 guests, and a six-metre-high bar at the centre displaying no less than 2,000 bottles. It’s inspired by the grand estates of Cuernavaca, and the design is bold, bright, and vibrant.
On the menu: a Latin American spread of cochinita pibil tacos, ceviches and large-format sharing dishes, with maracuyá tiramisu and dulce de leche cheesecake to finish. The bar has over 250 tequilas and mezcals, with a cocktail list built around fresh, punchy flavours alongside the classics. If Spitalfields is anything like Tottenham Court Road, getting a table on a Friday night is going to require some forward planning.
When: 8th May
Where: London Fruit Exchange, Brushfield St, London E1 6AG
More info: @tigermilkuk
4. KINZ
KINZ takes its name from the Arabic word for treasure, which sets the register pretty clearly: this isn’t another Edgware Road institution or a trendy mezze-and-natural-wine situation. Opening on the 15th of APril in the former Lloyds Bank building on Notting Hill Gate – a 1930s Sir Edward Maufe-designed space, triple-height ceilings, extended arches, the original bank vault now repurposed as a wine room – it’s the first restaurant from Rasha Khouri Bruzzo and brothers Jad and Karim Lahoud, whose parents were both chefs and whose approach here is rooted in the kind of cooking that doesn’t get written down.
The all-day menu runs from breakfast through late dinner: egg dishes and traditional sandwiches in the morning, then mezze, house-made breads and sharing plates through the afternoon and evening. Larger plates include Lamb Kafta, Warak Enab – vine leaves and baby courgettes wrapped around fragrant rice and spiced lamb – and Fattet Aubergine, baked and layered with pine nuts, tomato, yoghurt and crisp pita. Wine leans heavily on Lebanese producers from independent wineries, from £8 a glass, with cocktails reworked with regional ingredients. You enter through a deli stocked with house-made preserves, spice blends and olive oil – lamb and pine nut kibbehs and spinach fatayers to take home if you can’t face leaving empty-handed.
When: 11th of May
Where: 50 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JD
More info: Kinz
5. Arcade Covent Garden
Arcade – the multi-restaurant dining hall with sites at Tottenham Court Road and Battersea Power Station – is opening its third London location on the 15th May, a gigantic space with 385 seats across a single floor.
Familiar Arcade names make up much of the line-up: Manna (London’s original smash burger), Solis (South American chicken and steak from Tata Eatery’s Ana Goncalves and Zijun Meng), Gracey’s (New York and New Haven-inspired pizza), Hero (North Indian street food) and Plaza Khao Gaeng (southern Thai from Luke Farrell’s Chaiyo Restaurants, with a new menu unique to this site).
Joining them is Studio Coffee, a listening bar and coffee concept by day, wine and cocktails by night, with a Black Sesame Latte and Chocolate Orange Negroni among the signatures. A chef-led Greek-Cypriot taverna and a new Mexican taqueria are also in the works. Worth noting too: the building was once a Victorian boot-lacing factory where a young Charles Dickens worked, now reimagined in oxblood tones and lacquered finishes.
When: 15th May
Where: 6 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9HZ
More info: @arcadelondon
6. NAMMOS London
Never have we been so gripped by the arrival of a Greek restaurant in London – not since Fenix landed in March. Founded on Psarou Beach in Mykonos in 2003, Nammos has spent two decades building a reputation across some of the world’s more enviable coastal spots – Mykonos, Cannes, Sardinia, Dubai, Limassol. Berkeley Street in Mayfair is their first city address and a deliberate step away from the beach club format that made them.
Spread across two floors, the menu is Mediterranean with Japanese influence – fish and shellfish, a dedicated raw bar, and wood-fired preparations from the Josper grill. Signatures include an Aubergine Mille-Feuille with feta mousse, a Spicy Crab Tartare with yuzu truffle, and Black Angus beef. On drinks, a global wine list and cocktails like the Nammos Spritz and a Mediterranean Martini – a Greek twist on a British classic. The first floor is given over to private dining and events, with a year-round cultural programme alongside.
London is the first in a planned series of city openings for the group, and Mayfair is an obvious first port of call. Whether it can translate the effortless ease of a Mykonos lunch to a Berkeley Street dinner is the interesting question – but with twenty-odd years of experience, Nammos certainly won’t be coasting.
When: May 2026 (specific date TBC)
Where: Mayfair – Berkeley Street, London
More info: @nammoslondon
7. KIEZ Kebab
Named after the Berlin word for neighbourhood, Kiez Kebab is opening on Golborne Road this May – a 30-cover, no-reservations döner spot bringing Berlin’s take on the kebab to West London. The menu is purposefully tight: three kebabs, served in pide bread, with a choice of veal, chicken or vegan, alongside sharp sauces and classic fries.
Fermentation is central to the kitchen’s approach, with house-fermented vegetables used in all the kebabs to add acidity and depth. Bar with Shapes for a Name – the famed East London bar – has curated the cocktail menu, with German and Austrian beers and wines alongside.
Designed by Red Deer Architects, the space combines concrete, glass and steel with warm walnut accents, a bespoke sound system from Friendly Pressure and a rotating weekend DJ programme. Grab a table inside, sit on the terrace, or order from the streetside hatch on your way home when you’re three pints deep and your judgment is at its best.
When: May (specific date TBC)
Where: 108 Golborne Rd, London W10 5RZ
More info: @kiezkebab