Where to Eat in September: Darjeeling Express, Caia, All Kaps Pizza, and More

Indisputably one of London’s creative culinary talents, chef Adejoké Bakare of Chishuru is popping up at Quality Wines in Farringdon from 28 September to 8 October. Expect a superb fixed price menu of the dishes that made her Brixton restaurant such an immense hit – grilled bavette with West African yaji spice, perhaps, or soursop ice cream with mango and ehuru crumb – along with a stellar line up of wines by the glass. It’s an exciting chance to catch a London chef on top of her game at one of the city’s very best wine bars, with excitement in the air guaranteed. Catch her there, while you can.

Tucked away in Newington Green, this tiny new wine bar and bistro from wine importers Beattie and Roberts has quickly attracted the local East London crowd for its irresistible combination of warm service, unfussy French fare, and a short but superb list of wines by the glass. Fresh from a residency at P. Franco, ex-St John chef Jamie Smart is on the pans and writes his short menu on the blackboard each day; fine pâté en croûte, chilled cucumber soup, or a delicate tartine of duck hearts and cherry is everything we want to eat. Clear your evening for a visit and soak up the last rays of summer here.

Walk-ins only.

Many of London’s best meals can be experienced at one of the city’s pubs, but The Baring in Islington makes excellence feel particularly effortless. Its founders met at the legendary Bull & Last before going on to work at some of London’s best restaurants, meaning standards are high, from the welcome and service, to the quality of cooking. And what cooking – creative starters like quail shish with garlic yoghurt and chilli play hearty mains that lean into simple but impeccably executed Modern British fare, while a robust drinks offering of cask ales, beers and cocktails will make it difficult to leave.

One of the year’s most anticipated restaurants is making waves, bringing with it slick pan-African cooking, an infectiously upbeat dining room, and a side of conscious dining. Owner Akwasi Brenya-Mensa has Ghanaian roots, but here he showcases the food of the African diaspora and its influence on global Black food traditions, in dishes like ackee croquettes, chichinga buttermilk chicken wings, and a comforting groundnut soup with omo tuo (mashed rice dumpling). A location in the Africa Centre’s sparkling new headquarters near Bankside makes its arrival feel all the more special.

Asma Khan’s beloved Darjeeling Express is back for a couple of months ahead of its next permanent site. The Chef’s Table star and her all-female kitchen team are popping up at the Pembroke Arms on the Old Brompton Road in Fulham from August 24^th until the end of November, with an offering that focuses on hearty rice dishes, Calcuttan snack platters, grilled toasties, and the starters that Darjeeling Express became known for, like puchkas and tangra prawns. It’s a spiritual back-to-basics of sorts (they originally started at the Sun and 13 Cantons pub in Soho), though with a tiny dining room and Khan’s popularity, it’ll be popular. Bookings are open now — plan accordingly.

For reservations, call 020 7373 8337.

This tiny new 10-seat omakase counter in Mayfair comes from a husband-and-wife duo who serve intricate tasting menus to less than two dozen lucky guests a night, with the backing of Saga Japanese Restaurant Group (Chisou, Sushi Atelier). Dishes, as expected, are intricate and sublime, with ingredients sourced from small suppliers and served on beautiful hand-shaped ceramics; delicate chawanmushi with green laver and salmon roe, for example, and sea urchin soba (with an intra-meal nigiri omakase for sushi obsessives, too) form part of one of the city’s finest omakase currently available. There’s also an ultra-premium sake offering, and interacting with the chefs and other guests makes for a memorable experience.

For reservations, email info@ro-ji.co.uk. 

The post-pandemic edition of this tiny Clapton natural wine bar and neighbourhood hang par excellence is outstanding, having secured another singular talent in ex-Burro e Salvia head chef Mitchell Damota for a September residency. Starting on the 10^th, the chef will flex his pasta skills and showcase lesser-seen styles like culurgiones d’ogliastra filled with potato, saffron, and Sardinian pecorino, and 40-yolk tajarin. As a bonus, the bar will be also open on Mondays from 3-8pm. Grab a couple of friends, crack open a magnum, and make room for what promises to be one of the most satisfying sessions this month.

Walk-ins only. 

Originally slated to open in Shoreditch, chef Abby Lee’s labour of love was curtailed by the pandemic and recently arrived at SE15’s Market Peckham complex with a decidedly more Modern Malaysian focus, with a mixture of regional favourites like a tamarind-tart ikan assam pedas (fish) curry or a black pepper chicken curry from Perak; as well as playful riffs on time-honoured classics like a Hainanese chicken rice sandwich drizzled with a chicken fat chilli vinegar and spruced up with crispy fried onions. Drinks-wise, natural wines (via Caves des Pyrenes) are a perfect match for punchy flavours. If you want to see one of London’s most exciting young chefs doing her thing, come here.

A perky bolt of lightning in sleepy Caledonian Road, this bottle shop-cum-wine bar, like other independent spots run by passionate operators, shines through virtue of sheer likeability and the expertise of its team. Led by Noble Rot alum Holly Wilcocks, the wine list spans both the familiar for novices and unconventional for dorks, selected from some of London’s best importers. Meanwhile, scintillating residency Hot 4 U are on the pans Thursday through Saturday, with the odd appearance (and the flakiest pies) from Mystic Börek.

Notting Hill’s restaurant scene continues to grow with Caia, a new casual wine bar and restaurant from the team behind the Michelin-baiting Fiend. Old-world wines, aperitivo and cocktails give it a slightly more grown-up feel (in contrast to the edge at neighbour and fellow newcomer Zephyr) with a long bar and open kitchen adding to the relaxed vibe. There’s a basement bar, and small plates of impeccable produce prepared simply: grilled Vesuvio tomatoes with Sunsweet melon, say, or octopus with burnt pepper and ‘nduja. Don’t skip dessert — the chocolate eclair with creme de cassis cherries is worth saving space for, and audiophiles will get a kick out of a flawless vinyl collection and the dining room’s superior acoustics.

Call 07927 328076 to make a reservation. 

Promising pizza hype not seen since the days of lockdown era ASAP Pizza, this tiny slice shop pops up on Sundays at Papos Bagels in Hackney from 4-8pm, proffering NYC-style traditional and square grandma slices to appreciative slice hounds, who travel from far and wide for their fix. Perfect plain pies (tomato and cheese) can be topped simply with a few classic ingredients or commit to an entire pie of whatever special is on, which range from the conventional (roasted garlic cream and kale) to maniacally delicious (buffalo chicken and ranch; figs, blue cheese, lardo and chimichurri).

Walk-ins only.