This neighbourhood Mediterranean finds its home on Notting Hill’s Kensington Park Road. It’s the brainchild of founder Victoria Paltina and Oren King, Haya’s head chef who previously has worked in the kitchens at Roka and Dinner by Heston at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge.
Haya is open all day, serving up cold-pressed juices and coffees to Notting Hill’s well-heeled crowd in the morning. To kick-start your day, you can tuck into light dishes such as porridge topped with mango puree and seasonal fruit or granola lashed with yoghurt and honeycomb, while on the savoury side of things there’s a goat’s cheese and egg white omelette. Come lunchtime, guests can try out the likes of quinoa salad with crumbled feta cheese and pomegranate seeds, or spiced lamb cutlets served with honey yoghurt.
At dinner, the kitchen turns out sharing plates, with options to try including crispy prawns with spiced yoghurt and harissa, and seared tuna with dukkah and homemade labneh. To go alongside your food, you’ll find a wine list made up of Israeli bottles, as well as a small number of organic varieties.
On the weekends, Haya serves a tempting brunch which includes the now staple brunch item of shakshuka, as well as fried polenta cakes with parmesan and fried quail eggs. Brunch isn’t the only thing that draws people in though, as Haya is also a rather pretty space boasting lots of natural light, as well as plants hanging from the ceiling and a ground floor dining room featuring tables wrapped in millennial pink marble.
Haya’s arrival comes at a time when Israeli cuisine is having somewhat of a moment on London’s dining scene, with Haya being just one in a number of Israeli restaurants that have recently opened their in the capital. Often presented under the broader umbrella term of ‘Middle Eastern’, restaurants such as The Palomar, The Barbary, Berber & Q and The Coal Office have all been well received by both critics and diners alike.