New on Resy: Wander, Elystan Street, Rogues, and More

A good news story! Wander, Australian chef Alexis Noble’s beloved Stoke Newington restaurant, is back. Noble closed Wander for good – or so she thought – in November 2022 but Noble and her creative cooking has returned, and the Aussie pet nat is flowing once again. Find us a better value set menu than Wander’s which, at £29, might include the likes of handmade amatriciana cappelletti in tomato and bacon dashi and the prettiest pale green pandan pavlova. Her ANZAC affogato has our attention.

Poised, elegant, Elystan Street is what comes about when two industry veterans – chef Phil Howard and restaurateur Rebecca Mascarenhas – collaborate on a neighbourhood restaurant in Chelsea. This kitchen’s brand of modern British is voluptuous and profoundly seasonal. For example, spring vegetable salad with deep-fried quail’s egg, hazelnuts and truffle cream; Cornish cod with lardo, new season’s peas and braised lettuce; and milk ‘many ways’ with Yorkshire Rhubarb. Extraordinary wine list too. Set lunch, £39.50 (not bad for Michelin star tucker).

Dara Klein’s mad good Italian is the latest to enter the Compton Arms’ kitchen (Belly you can now find over at the Hawke Pub in Hackney). She’s got off to a storming start with a great review from the Evening Standard’s Jimi Famurewa for her “punk rock Pugliese” which translates to semolina tagliatelle from Salento with braised chickpeas and fried pasta and meatball buns with a ton of scamorza. Good to know: the tables in the beer garden are bookable.

Maene is the new restaurant and bar on the top floor of Mission, Europe’s newest and largest new yoga space in Spitalfields. It’s the work of Townsend’s Nick Gilkinson who has signed a future star in young Ritz-trained chef Amber Francis (you may have seen here on this year’s Great British Menu). Francis is a local produce obsessive whose first menus at Maene include sure-fire hits like gnocco fritto with London stracciatella, chilli and garlic oil and Cornish mussels with smoked cider and butter sauce. The roof terrace is an incredible addition to London’s open air dining establishments.

You’ll feel simultaneously at home and on holiday at Tsiakkos and Charcoal, a cosy and widely adored family-run Greek Cypriot taverna in Maida Vale. The cooking is done over the titular coals in the open kitchen at the front of the restaurant which, if the weather’s behaving, you’ll pass through en route to the fairylit back garden. Order a selection of mezze such as hummus, fried halloumi, and taramasalata with piles of warm pita, followed by whole sea bream, chicken souvlaki or hearty kleftiko made to a family recipe.

There’s nowhere else in Kensington – strike that, in London – quite like the Abingdon. A local institution, it’s been in the Staples family since 1998, and has morphed in the decades since from pub to eclectically styled restaurant, cocktail and wine bar of serious ambition. Sit inside to delight in the Art Deco style interiors, bold prints and bright colours; sit outside to enjoy the street life and take in the trompe l’oeil paintings over the windows upstairs. The kitchen cooks with a ‘British gastropub’ sensibility which embraces everything from burrata, radicchio and blood orange salad, to lamb navarin and mint sauce, and double baked cheese soufflé suissesse.

For east London’s Renegade Urban Winery, this railway arch and graffitied alleyway in Bethnal Green was where it all started. Production of the actual wines (made from grapes whizzed to London from France, Italy, Essex…) has since moved to Walthamstow, but drinking, eating and carousing is still done at the original wine bar. Pop the cork on a bottle of Bethnal Bubbles or taste your way through a selection of white, rosé, orange, and red wines from £30 a bottle (no eye-watering mark-ups here) with snacks of cheese and charcuterie.

To be a good cook, it helps to have an Italian grandmother. To be an excellent cook, it’s worth acquiring an Austrian one too. Polentina’s Sophie Massarella is an excellent cook. Her eccentric café on an industrial estate somewhere in Bow is open for lunch during the week, a night or two at the weekend. You won’t find anything as conventional as an online menu so follow Polentina on Instagram to get the rough idea. Some of the dishes we’ve loved: lasagne in brodo, polenta with a hot sausage, and ricotta and chard crostata.

A neighbourhood bistro in leafy Wanstead that speaks with a pronounced French accent. Locals check in regularly for the good value three-course prix fixe (£19, available at lunchtimes Tuesday to Saturday, and from Tuesday to Thursday evening too); and the menu of French bistro classics at prices that won’t elicit an oh là là. It’s a rare treat to find such old-fashioned favourites as celeriac remoulade, escargots, French onion soup, cod with mouclade and poires Belle Hélène. Enjoy with Orangina or a glass of Saint Emilion if you’re the sophisticated type.

The Rose and Crown is a beautifully preserved Victorian boozer in the heart of Clapham Old Town. It’s a pub that will please every pub-going type. The traditionalists – the beer drinkers – can enjoy the walnut-panelled lounge, the carefully poured pints, and fancy bar nibbles; the foodies the mix of roasts, pub grub and restaurant adjacent-dishes like courgette and summer herb fritters and Cornish plaice with dulse and buttermilk beurre blanc; and the scenesters the weekend brunch for pancakes and Palomas. Absolutely everybody loves the sun-drenched beer garden. Great location, minutes from the Common.

Crudo Cevichería is London’s first dedicated ceviche restaurant. The small restaurant group, founded by Venezuelan owners Maria Yanez and Carlos Socorro, has already had great success with its colourful tiraditos and customisable ceviche bowls at its Old Street, Fitzrovia and Hackney sites but this new one in Covent Garden is its biggest yet. Exclusives to Seven Dials include beef empanadas, scallop aguachile and vegan beetroot ceviche. To drink, make yours a pisco sour.

You are invited to ‘build your board’ at Willows in Clapham, a new all-day snack and wine bar inspired by Scandinavian smorgasbords. During the day, you compose your board from a checklist of baked goods, breakfast bowls and hot brekkie dishes; in the evening, it’s all about cheese, charcuterie, and small plates. The Willows day progresses from coffee, pressed juices, kombucha and iced tea to natural wines and cocktails. A fun new spot for SW4.

All My Friends, overlooking the River Lea in Hackney Wick, is the concept you didn’t know you needed in your life. Dedicated to music and records, food and drink, it serves okonomiyaki and Japanese-inspired small plates from Sho Foo Doh, alongside cocktails, craft brews and natural wines. There’s a record shop too so you can crate dig while you dine.

A permanent home in Tottenham for supper club Pasero. The definition of the modern London neighbourhood spot, it moves from coffee and pastries to sandwiches at lunch, then small plates and low intervention pours come the evening. Currently in residence is former Belly chef Dan Chambers whose ever-changing menu includes silky fresh pasta and seasonal delights like clams with agretti and trout roe and lamb chop with salsa verde and tahini yoghurt.

The rogues in the title are Freddie Sheen and Zak Whittle, two former Galvin La Chapelle chefs who, having hustled their way through the pandemic, finally opened this natural wine bar and restaurant, their first permanent site, on Hackney Road in March 2022. There’s no menu online but it’s all assuredly excellent — expect dishes like lamb shoulder croquette with oyster emulsion; cod collar, escaveche and basil; and Yorkshire rhubarb trifle with magnolia. There’s a casual fine dining feel to the proceedings, with spot-on service and if you’re around for last service, the odd impromptu piano singalong, too.

This modern British bar and restaurant has been keeping East Dulwich fed and watered since 1999. That’s over two decades’ worth of daily changing menus and such life-enhancing classics as prawn cocktail, steak and kidney pie, and strawberries, mascarpone and shortbread. As well as the day’s bill of fare, Franklins does a great value set lunch at £19.95 for three courses plus Saturday brunches and Sunday roasts too.