Brothers Josh and Paul Katz and Mattia Bianchi have announced a second branch of their popular Carmel restaurant will open next month in central London.
The team already operates Berber & Q and Shawarma Bar as well as the original Carmel in Queen’s Park. The site of Carmel in Fitzrovia (just off Market Place) close to Portland Street and Oxford Circus. It will open during the week from lunch through to dinner, with 95 covers. Like its older sibling it will serve ‘Eastern Mediterranean’ inspired dishes.
Co-owner and chef, Josh — together with Eran Tibi — opened Zest at JW3 several years ago and has also worked at Ottolenghi and Galvin Bistrot de Luxe said: “Carmel in Queen’s Park has become such a cherished, local favourite and we wanted to bring the sense of this to central London. The menu will continue to focus on the Eastern Mediterranean cuisine which I love, but with a bigger kitchen and space, we can explore more with our menu.“
The menu has been created together with executive chef Jeremy Borrow — who has been cooking in London since 2018 following 25 years cooking in some of Tel Aviv’s top restaurants. He was originally brought back by Machneyuda’s Assaf Granit to head up the kitchen at The Palomar.
The pair will be offering a similar menu of small plates and sharing dishes as at Queen’s Park, including Carmel’s Insta-friendly huge, puffy filled flatbreads cooked in a tabun oven with toppings like cod’s roe with potato, rosemary, spring onion and bottarga. Main course dishes include whole sea bream with Calabrian hot honey, lemon butter, fennel and Kalamata olives.
Fresh pasta will be a focus with recipes also reflecting the eastern Med. Dishes on the menu include sweet potato gnocchi with burnt aubergine, Greek yoghurt and sage brown butter.
Desserts will include Eastern pavlova with Persian lime meringue, labneh mousse and mixed berries or tahini and honey tart with fir tree honey, and black sesame.
At weekends the bar/restaurant will open earlier for brunch which will include a selection of freshly baked pastries or heartier brunch plates such as ‘Green Eggs & amba'; two fried eggs with wilted greens, amba butter and verjus-pickled shallots and Eggs Levantine with za’atar hollandaise, gravadlax and spinach.
