The shortlist for our BMW Best New Restaurant award shows what’s so great about London’s restaurant scene. Some of the names have been sources of innovation throughout Square Meal’s 26-year history; others are recent arrivals.
Pictured: Square Meal editor Ben McCormack, BMW's Byron Dudding, Chutney Mary's Namita Panjabi and Ranjit Mathrani
Alan Yau’s The Duck and Rice (below) came close. This visionary restaurateur’s return to Chinese food is a failsafe venue to impress guests, whether drinking or eating, not least because you can eat on a modest budget or go for a blow-out.
We love everything Jason Atherton does and the fact that his latest,
Social Wine & Tapas, comes with a much smaller bill made us love it even more. Could Robin Gill be shaping up to be a neighbourhood Atherton? His two Clapham restaurants,
The Manor and
The Dairy, have won plaudits and his third,
Paradise Garage (above) in east London, brings a Nordic approach to homegrown ingredients. It’s challenging cooking at the cutting edge.
And then there’s
Lurra (above), from the team behind
Donostia. Might this Basque grill persuade Londoners there’s more to Spanish cooking than tapas? One bite of the signature Galician rib-eye (below) will leave you wanting more.
But for our winner, we turned to the team we’ve known the longest. For a restaurant to reach the 25-year mark is unusual; for it to mark that anniversary by moving to a totally different part of the city is unheard of. But the all-new Chutney Mary – from co-owners Namita and Camellia Panjabi and Ranjit Mathrani – has been worth the upheaval.
The spacious Pukka Bar (above) ticks many boxes: as a breakfast venue, for a light meal, or evening drinks. And the dining room (below) hums with class, from the refined food to the slick service and wines chosen to match spice levels. With two private rooms, it offers the complete restaurant package this award seeks to celebrate.
“Moving Chutney Mary to St James’s has been a complex undertaking,” said chairman and co-owner Ranjit Mathrani. “We have created a new restaurant, but one which assimilates and builds on Chutney Mary’s core brand values: bringing together interesting food from the many regions of India with quality ingredients and cutting-edge presentation. It is very gratifying to receive this highly prized accolade.”
Chutney Mary joins illustrious company in our BMW Square Meal Hall of Fame. Check out our past winners here.
This article was published 6 October 2015
Award presentation and Chutney Mary food images by Laurie Fletcher