The January Hit List: Sune, Donia, Mambow, and More

In a year of sequels and offshoots, this fire breathing unicorn of a restaurant opened to wide acclaim at the end of the year, saving one of 2023’s best new openings for last. Here, founders Florence Mae Maglanoc and Omar Shah (of Maginhawa Hospitality, behind the likes of Bintang and Mamasons) present their vision of upscale Filipino cooking – delicate pastry work, luxury ingredients and some of the most luscious sauces around, all overseen by an ex-Ducasse head chef.

Fili-style siomai dumplings arrive topped in a flurry of white crabmeat and sit in a spiced butter sauce that’ll make you want to lick the plate; the chicken inasal and ribeye with calamansi beef jus are justifiably popular, but the coconut and chilli bicol express sauce that a perfectly cooked piece of turbot luxuriates in will live in your head rent-free for weeks. Though non-traditional, none of the food has lots its soul in translation, and a site at the top of Kingly Court – formerly home to Asma Khan’s Darjeeling Express and Imad’s Syrian Kitchen – has a lived-in feel that extends the welcome.

Another contender for the best opening in the second half of 2023 is this brand-new wine bar and restaurant from legendary sommelier Honey Spencer and partner Charlie Spencer, who have opened a dream of a bolthole on Broadway Market. It’s familiar territory for anyone who has ever frequented one of London’s natural wine parlours, but at Sune, it’s executed with such aplomb that it’s hard not to immediately feel at home.

Flurries of small plates – plussed up bar fare, like Jersey oysters or fluffy yoghurt bread with horseradish cream and trout roe – arrive thick and fast, as do heartier mains like strozzapretti with confit yolk and wild mushrooms, smoked eel Caesar salad or a pork chop that’s currently doing the rounds on Instagram. With Spencer, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to the wine list, but equally, trust the team’s recs and they won’t lead you astray.

Malaysian cuisine’s arrival as a favourite with Londoners has been something to savour, and Abby Lee’s latest iteration of her modern (and proudly inauthentic) take on Malaysian fare is as exhilaratingly creative as it is delicious. A new site in Lower Clapton, with a DIY chic interior, house music pulsing on the speakers and a room full of trendy locals is par for the course in the neighbourhood, but Lee’s cooking is the real deal and her food possesses the gravitational pull to draw people from far and wide.

Opening bites likes crispy lor bak (crispy fried tofu stuffed with five-spice pork) or a visually striking otak-otak prawn toast humming with notes of coconut and makrut lime are a fitting way to kick off a meal, and there’s a dedicated section for kerabu (salads) with banana blossom or offal. Lee should be justifiably proud of her Sarawak black pepper curry chicken and skate wing curry, and there’s also a herbal bak kut teh (pork rib soup) that’s perfect for frigid January nights. Don’t miss out.

Hackney’s run of excellent neighbourhood Italian restaurants continues, and Dalla may be its most special yet. The intimate space that formerly housed Peg on Morning Lane has been transformed into a gorgeous, beautifully lit dining room ably run by brothers Gennaro and Gianmarco Leone. The latter’s partner in the kitchen is chef Mitchell Damota, whose homestyle cooking has built a following in East London with stints at Burro e Salvia and the late P. Franco, working together to create a short but sweet menu to order wholesale (expect stellar pastas, antipasti, and comfort fare like guinea fowl cacciatore). Add in personable service, classical Italian wines (with plenty by the magnum) and the kind of room to linger in for long lunches or to illuminate the long winter nights, and it’s clear that the restaurant feels like a future classic in the making.

This sequel to Akoko, the Michelin-baiting West African fine diner, is a more casual affair, but takes a ubiquitous regional staple (akara, the bean fritter popular in Nigeria and beyond) as a jumping off point to explore the area’s flavours and ingredients. The namesake fritters are a touch more luxe than the snack’s origins – here, stuffed with tiger prawn, scallop, or braised ox cheek – while elsewhere on the menu, larger plates offer proteins like ex-dairy beef (grilled and served with suya spice), grilled fish (accompanied by yassa) or BBQ poussin bathed in hot sauce. This being a West African restaurant, rice dishes are excellent, while a soothing, minimal dining room under the arches of Borough Yards is clad in exposed brick, carved timber, and concrete, and is every bit as striking as its older sibling.

A good neighbourhood restaurant is a pillar for any area, and this excellent newcomer is a fine example. Found in a lovely patch of Highbury (a short, scenic schlep through the fields from Highbury and Islington station), there’s a modern bakery and café at the front proffering pastries and bread, while at the back, an airy, design-forward room (this being North London, after all) makes for a perfectly civilised setting for breezy lunches and intimate catchups, whether for a few shared plates or a blowout with lots of wine.

There’s a Hendersonian vibe about the cooking here, which tracks when you clock that the chef comes from St. John – the sticky toffee apple cake is particularly winsome, and soulful mains like a plate of fork-tender braised mutton with carrots and caraway or roast chicken and beet salad will put a smile on anyone’s face.

Completing the symbolic ouroboros of the restaurant hype cycle is a pub so whipped up that it resembles peak Chiltern Firehouse for the pandemonium it’s provoked of late. The hype can be attributed to its birth as the lovechild of three industry veterans (the founder of Flatiron, the former chef of Dinner by Heston, and a popular publican), with cosy pub ambience complemented by a ‘proper’ dining room upstairs proffering everything from posh Lancashire hotpot and pies to langoustines with cheffy touches courtesy of star chef Ashley Palmer-Watts. True to its unspoken billing as a kind of insider’s favourite masquerading as a pub, there’s also a ‘green room’ at the back for those that management deems worthy of ordering a pint sans elbows.

A few tables and an enormous marble counter encircle chef Whyte Rushen’s open kitchen, which gives you an indication of the type of experience you’re in for at this Hackney newcomer. The chef has built a reputation on pop-ups that fuse his background in some of London’s famous kitchens (Kerridge’s, Brat), a playful sense of humour, and a magpie-like propensity for picking out influences from London’s immigrant enclaves, whipping them into creations like a flambe Basque cheesecake, crème fraiche, poached fruit and Crunchies, or [checks notes] a ‘sweet and sour’ prawn toast pork cutlet sando. Perching at the bar with a drink and ordering a la carte offers kitchen theatrics without pretence, and a relaxed air to the proceedings makes for a fun night.

This London Fields newcomer takes up the site of the recently departed Bright (RIP) but has immediately injected a sense of fun into the neighbourhood, and has become a destination for a fun night. Equal parts listening bar and wine bar, there’s an irreverence here that’s reminiscent of the likes of Bambino in Paris, with guests perching at high stools, an open kitchen and bar for theatrics, and shelf upon shelf of vinyl, bookended by state-of-the-art speakers. The food (from chef Henry Freestone) is uncomplicated and delicious, offering chicken parm and marinara sandwiches by day, evolving into a wine and small plates affair at night. Expect dishes like cauliflower cheese arancini, roast squash and ricotta, or whole roast chicken with green sauce and chicken fat focaccia until 10pm, when the floor is cleared for DJs to spin until 1am.

Depending on who you ask, Pockets may well serve the best falafel pitta in London and judging by the oft-hourlong queues at their original stall in Netil Market they are, at the very least, top tier. Owner Itamar Grinberg recently moved around the corner to Mentmore Terrace (on the former Secret Smokehouse site) to a permanent shop – a good thing in itself – and literally nothing has changed about the setup, from the takeaway-only situation to the epic queue itself. Thankfully, that means there’s still no compromise on those fluffy, steamed pittas, that gorgeous hummus, the crisp vegetables, and the perfectly fried falafel in each one. If anything’s worth standing in the cold for, it’s this.

The post-December hangover is real and, paired to the current winter freeze, makes for quite the seasonal combination. However, short of a jog in sub-zero temperatures, the best way to reset is (obviously) a restorative Chinese meal with lots of healing broth, steamed fish, seasonal veg and plenty of steamed rice. Poon’s is hosting a couple of reset dinners this month, with a healing set menu (at £40pp) packed with bold and delicate flavours, with owner Amy Poon herself hosting. Grab a friend or three, level set on goals for the new year and make it a date — tickets here for Jan 22nd and Jan 23rd.