Monday Bulletin: Kung Fu Mama | Sally Abé | Updown

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KUNG FU MAMA

CODE EXCLUSIVE: Ottolenghi co-founder Noam Bar-Chang and Chris Hsu are to open a second London location of their Taiwanese noodle bar Kung Fu Mama. The new branch will launch at Jubilee Place, Canary Wharf, in Q1 2026. Bar-Chang and Hsu debuted the brand in Covent Garden in April last year, with a menu centred on their signature sun-dried noodles and filled bao sandwiches. Bar-Chang, speaking exclusively to CODE, comments: “We’re very, very excited about the next shop in Canary Wharf. It’s obviously a very busy place, a very demanding place, lots of competition there from the best operators in the market but hopefully we can stand out with something that is unique and innovative.” Kung Fu Mama’s offering, with dishes including Grandma’s beef and tomato noodles, soft-shell crab bao, and wood ear mushroom salad, all priced between £6.95 and £11.95, feels attuned not only to the current economic climate but to a growing interest in Taiwanese food. “Chris and I set out to create food that is high-quality, nutrient-dense, joyful and full of character – dishes we’d happily serve to our own families – and we’re proud to see this vision resonating with Londoners.”

AKTAR ISLAM

Aktar Islam, the chef behind two Michelin star restaurant Opheem in Birmingham, is to make his London debut. His restaurant Oudh 1722, specialising in Awadhi cuisine from Lucknow, will launch in a listed Victorian building in Borough this spring.

RESTAURANT MONTH

The Good Food Guide’s Restaurant Month, designed to support restaurants in the slower months, starts this week. Explore amazing value set menus at participating restaurants here. Lunch at The River Cafe for £65? Don’t mind if we do.

TAMILA

The team behind Indian pubs The Tamil Prince and The Tamil Crown are opening in Soho. The third branch of their curry house spin-off brand Tamila will take over the old Obicà site on Poland Street next month. Gunpowder margaritas all round.

• Brick Lane Hong Kong diner HOKO is heading for central London with a new concept; HOKO Wonton Noodles arrives at Seven Dials Market on 30 January.
  
  
• Ruth Leigh and Oli Brown have opened Bar Vita, an homage to the classic bars of Rome, in a former stable block at Updown, their restaurant-with-rooms near Deal.
  
  
• Supper club Big Plates will be popping up at The Pocket, N1 every Saturday in March, dishing up pork schnitzel, mince on focaccia, and chocolate and stout steamed pud.
    
• Who remembers Automat? The popular Mayfair American brasserie is back, with new owners and new address, at the back of Tanner Krolle’s chic Mount Street boutique.
  
  
• Philippa Guy, formerly of The American Bar at The Savoy, and her partner Sebastiano Fileccia open their debut bar, Same Again, on Bristol waterside this month.
  
  
• East London’s Suba Bakery has a new Spitalfields flagship – its third site after Walthamstow and Clapton.
  
  
• Sally Abé has left The Bull, Charlbury after a year. In an announcement on Instagram, she teased: ‘Something new and exciting is coming’. More soon.
  
  
• Spirits educators Hannah Lanfear and Rose Brookman have launched a new creative consultancy, The Mixing Class Studios, offering consultancy, innovation and content.
  
  
  

WHAT WE’RE READING

Editor’s pick: new openings to get excited about in 2026: The Good Food Guide

Notes from a Small Island – Kiki’s, Isle of Man: CODE

Ozempic users actually spend more dining out. Smart restaurants are adapting: Bloomberg

Barang, London: ‘I know trust this restaurant with my life’: The Observer

The UK risks slipping from buzzing to bland as hospitality bills bite: The Times

THE DUMBWAITER

Jeremy King has had designs on Simpson’s in the Strand since 2000. The opening has been delayed and delayed again. But it looks like it will finally open in late February, just in time to clash with King’s daughter’s wedding in New York. Timing!

If you happen to be in New York this month, do pay a visit to said daughter Margot Hauer-King’s Greenwich Village bar, People’s. In a nice tribute to her father’s restaurant Arlington, she has bang bang chicken and Scandinavian berries on the menu all month.

Being lampooned by comedian Josh Baulf is a sure sign TopJaw have officially made it: “We’re here with a chef you’ve never heard of…” Ouch.

Mon Plaisir, London’s oldest French restaurant, auctioned off a selection of its interior decor ahead of a refurbishment (only partial – the original 1943 dining room remains). A signed etching of Dirty Dogs of Paris went for £4,800. Angela Hartnett hosted 30 of her family at Murano for Christmas. Scarred by last year, she had the wine glass station clingfilmed so her family didn’t get through all the wine glasses again. A hosting strategy we could all adopt.