Top restaurants moving out of West End to London's 'frontiers'

 
Tenth place: Michel Roux Jr's Le Gavroche
7 November 2013

The West End is rapidly losing its status as London’s culinary epicentre with increasing numbers of top chefs choosing to open their restaurants beyond the W1 postcode.

Only one of the year’s top ten “most significant” openings listed in a leading London restaurant guide today is based in the capital’s traditional fine dining heartland - down from seven last year.

The others are scattered across central London in quarters such as Kings Cross, Bayswater and London Bridge once regarded as wastelands by serious foodies.

Richard Harden, co-editor of the Harden’s London Restaurants, said the trend was driven by multi-billion regeneration schemes bringing new economic life to previously run down areas that would previously struggle to support top restaurants.

He said: ”As large developments spring up all around London’s historical centre, and the city develops many economic centres, in the manner of Tokyo or Shanghai – the quality restaurant scene is becoming much more geographically extensive and diffuse than ever before.

“Last year, no fewer than seven of the top ten were in W1. This year, there was only one W1 representative, with top openings identified at all points of the compass. This is emblematic of a future in which exciting developments can come from any direction – geographical or stylistic.”

Mark Sainsbury, co-owner of Grain Store on Granary Square in the new Kings Cross development - one of the top ten - said the lower rents in “frontier” locations outside Soho, Mayfair and St James’s were partly responsible for the trend.

This allowed chefs - such as Grain Store’s Bruno Loubet -to take greater risks with their food without worrying “about the banks breathing down their necks.”

He added: ”I love the unexpectedness of these locations, that “ruby in the dust” factor, and you also get this incredible mix of clientelle coming through the door. There’s a younger average in these areas and they are much more likely to be going out.”

The guide lists 125 openings in the past 12 months slightly down on the previous year. There were only 56 closures, the lowest level since 2000, making net openings of 69, just below the all-time high of 75 recorded in 2006. But Mr Harden said the quality of openings was as high as it has ever been.

Michel Roux Jr’s Le Gavroche in Mayfair was nominated for “Best Meal of the Year” more times than any other restaurant by the survey’s 9000 contributors, the first time it has won the accolade. Gordon Ramsay’s flagship fell out of the top ten for the first time since 1997.

Chez Bruce in Wandsworth was named “London’s Favourite Restaurant” for the ninth year in succession.

The Oxo Tower Restaurant was nominated most for “most disappointing” cooking.

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