New on Resy: Native, Maison Bab, Burro e Salvia

Newly relocated from Neal’s Yard, Native’s elegant plates of foraged vegetables, herbs, and game—perhaps fallow deer, or wild watercress and sea buckthorn—have been a paradigm of seasonal, ethical cooking for the rest of the city to drawn inspiration from. Headed up by Imogen Davis and head chef Ivan Tisdall-Downes, their new site by London Bridge is a fittingly verdant setting for a flawless menu of dishes available à la carte or as a sublime seven-course tasting menu.

London’s love affair with cosy wine bars proffering small plates and natural bottles is taken for granted, but it’s worth noting that one of the earliest perfectors of the form was Soho’s Ducksoup. An intimate space with a long, wooden counter sets the scene for a menu of loosely Mediterranean dishes, simply prepared: think braised squash with pancetta and parmesan, or charred octopus accompanied by roast San Marzano tomatoes, tropea onion, and marjoram.

One of Shoreditch’s true hidden gems, pasta shop and trattoria Burro e Salvia consistently offers some of the city’s best pasta from a quiet storefront on Redchurch Street. Chef Gaia Enria and her team make egg noodles fresh each morning, serving them in a soothing, cosy dining room—beef and pork agnolotti is finished with butter and sage, and a superb off-menu lasagne arrives beneath a shower of 24-month aged Parmesan.

What happens when you let an ex-Le Gavroche chef run a chic kebab restaurant in Soho? Le Bab, a contemporary homage to Turkey’s temples of fire and meat, provides an answer. Feast on superb small plates and falafel, or Herdwick lamb and free-range pork ensconced in house-made flatbreads and doused in zhoug mayo and chilli. Wash it down with one of the restaurant’s refreshing, boozy cocktails.

The approach at Claw, a sustainable seafood restaurant in Soho, is beautifully straightforward: find the freshest ingredients—often directly from boats—and prep them as simply as possible. There’s a casual vibe and a bumping soundtrack inside, as well as a menu of elevated comfort dishes designed to accentuate the quality of the seafood. While the lobster mac and cheese and kimchi-fried softshell crab are favourites, the lobster roll is a particular highlight.

Tucked away on a side street in Covent Garden, Le Bab’s big sister ups the ante on the contemporary kebab concept with a plush, colourful space that delivers kebabs and mezze prepared with ethically-minded, impeccably sourced ingredients. Along with an expanded menu of dishes like raclette shawarma and döner beignets, there’s also Kebab Queen, a unique 10-seat chef’s counter offering a kebab-based tasting menu—overseen by a Le Gavroche alum, no less.

Bringing a shot of Latin verve to Bethnal Green, Chiringuito is an all-day Catalan beach bar with a full-service restaurant and a stylish roof deck for autumnal nightcaps. Meanwhile, a design-led approach dominates the interior, from tiny, intricate Moorish tiles, to a mural from artist Mallory Dawn. Here, chef Marco Padilla whips up Spanish and South American-inspired dishes like Peruvian-style lomo saltado, seabass ceviche, and a classic Galician-style octopus.