London’s October dining calendar is looking particularly busy, with new restaurants opening everywhere from Canary Wharf to Shoreditch. Some familiar names are expanding, while others are making their London debut, bringing everything from Japanese-Peruvian cooking to Persian breakfasts and British roasts. Whether you’re after somewhere new for a midweek dinner or planning your next big night out, there’s plenty to look forward to this month.
Bamboo Mat – Canary Wharf
Nikkei restaurant Bamboo Mat is doubling up with a third site in Canary Wharf this September, after Denis Gobjila and Victor Rosca — who met working together at Chotto Matte before striking out on their own — built a following first in Leyton, then a bigger follow-up in Stratford’s East Village. Grace Dent reviewed the original for the Guardian and landed on a comparison to “a smaller, cheaper and better Chotto Matte”, which gives a decent sense of the pitch: a Japanese-Peruvian menu built around ceviche deluxe with sea bass, scallop and tiger’s milk, ox cheek with yuzu potato puree and teriyaki sauce, a strong sushi selection, and a tonka bean crème brûlée to close. Cocktails lean the same way, pisco sour included.
Each site has scaled up on the last – Leyton to Stratford’s 68 covers and a terrace, and now Canary Wharf goes bigger again, spread across two floors with a raw bar and cocktail bar on the ground level, and a robata grill and main kitchen upstairs.
Where: 1 North Street, Canary Wharf E14 3AD
When: Opens 1 October 2026
More info: bamboo-mat.co.uk
Torino – Paddington
Paddington gets a second rooftop bar almost a year after Ce La Vi opened outside the station, though Torino has more to offer than a view. This independent Italian “social house” fills three floors of 1 Paddington Square, beginning with a bakery and deli that opens for breakfast coffee and keeps going into the evening with small plates. Above it sits a 68-cover restaurant, where the menu includes octopus with tomato XO, cured egg yolk and confit garlic, and the top floor is given over to spritzes, wine and sharing plates with views across London. Fettle, the studio behind La Brasseria in Notting Hill and several San Carlo branches, designed the interiors, so the Italian glamour is in experienced hands.
Behind it is restaurateur Claudio Obertelli, whose past venues include Ménage à Trois in Knightsbridge, San Frediano and Sticky Fingers in Kensington, and Torino marks his return to restaurant ownership. He has teamed up with his long-time friend Peter Fulton, with Henry Lay running front of house and Stefan Negura overseeing the kitchen and menu. Prices are part of the pitch, as Obertelli wants the food to be affordable enough that guests can come for lunch twice a week instead of saving it for a monthly treat.
Where: 1 Paddington Square, London W2 1GL
When: Opens 1 October 2026
More info: torino.london / @torino.london
Bubala – Covent Garden
Marc Summers’ Middle Eastern restaurant Bubala, which opened in Spitalfields in 2019, takes its bow in the theatre district this October, joining its Spitalfields, Soho and King’s Cross sites as the fourth in the family. It is also the biggest yet, set in a Grade II-listed 1860 building on the corner of Garrick Street and Floral Street, with 60 covers on the ground floor, a 32-cover dining room downstairs and 30 alfresco seats overlooking Floral Street.
The vegetable-led cooking comes with it, from halloumi with chamomile and fennel honey to crispy confit latkes with toum, alongside dishes from his debut cookbook, BUBALA, published last year. The ‘Bubala Knows Best’ set menu, now cut by almost 20% to £39 across all sites, remains the easiest way to settle in with a Gazoz and let the kitchen take charge. Seasonal specials rotate through the year, with wild garlic and asparagus börek in spring and slow-roasted Badger Flame beetroot and feta pastilla in winter, and there is a bigger wine list with bottles from Europe and the Middle East, plus a new cocktail list that borrows its ingredients from the kitchen.
Where: 14 Garrick Street, London WC2E 9BJ
When: Opens October 2026 (exact date TBC)
More info: bubala.co.uk / @bubala_london
Dishoom – Borough
Dishoom brings its homage to Bombay south of the river this October, settling into the West Wing of the Grade II-listed Hop Exchange, the 1867 building that once served as the trading floor for London’s hop and brewing industry. The 8,060 sq ft café spans two floors, with all-day dining and a covered verandah, and long-time collaborators Macaulay Sinclair have drawn on Bombay’s Crawford Market, Fort Market and the spice merchant Umrigar Stores, with forged metal arches framing the stairs and overhead gantries carrying the lights.
The menu runs from breakfast until late, with a sharing menu of Bombay comfort food from Executive Chef Arun Tilak and late plates from 9:30pm, Sunday to Thursday. Exclusive to Borough is the Keralan pepper chicken, butterflied, layered with spice and slow-roasted until smoky and tender, served with a coconut-mellowed pepper and curry-leaf sauce, flaky Malabar paratha and a crisp onion salad. The matching drink is the Black and Thunder Flip, which pairs Johnnie Walker Black Label with Thums Up cola and cinnamon, then froths the mix with whole egg, cream and nutmeg. A Diwali gathering will mark the opening, and a soft launch offers 50% off food for the first guests.
Where: The Hop Exchange (West Wing), Borough, London (street address to confirm)
When: Opens 12 October 2026; soft launch 12–20 October with 50% off food
More info: dishoom.com/borough
Juno – Olympia
Incipio Group, already behind Wolves of Tokyo and Lillie’s at Olympia, adds Juno to the estate on 16 October and has the numbers to back its billing as the UK’s largest Italian restaurant. The 11,500 sq ft space sits in the Grade II-listed National Hall, seating 265 for dinner and holding up to 500 guests in total beneath five-metre-high ceilings, with a stage and DJ booth for live music at weekends.
The menu follows the order of an Italian meal, moving from aperitivo and small plates through antipasti to pasta and larger main courses. Highlights include tomato and mozzarella paccheri and crab linguine with hand-picked crab, chilli and vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, while the osso buco alla Milanese arrives with saffron risotto and gremolata. Tiramisu is on the menu, of course, and so is the Gelato Tower, a pile of pistachio soft-serve topped with chopped nuts and finished with extra virgin olive oil. A Pizza Napoletana counter seats ten guests who want to watch three pizza chefs at work, turning out up to 300 pizzas an hour from one of only two ovens of its size in the UK.
Where: National Hall, Olympia, 50 Hammersmith Road, London W14 8UD
When: Opens 16 October 2026
More info: junolondon.co.uk / @junoldn
Roast – Shoreditch
Roast has spent more than 20 years perched above the market floor at Borough, and now it is opening a second restaurant on Curtain Road, inside Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch. The 135-cover space has previously housed Red Rooster and then Bibo, and it now swaps American and Spanish cooking for British. 3Stories has given the room a Victorian-inspired urban conservatory look, with decorative ironwork, layered planting, timber, marble and brass, plus an orangery and a chef’s table, as a nod to the nearby Columbia Road Flower Market.
The menu roams the British Isles, from a haggis and pork Scotch egg to Cornish scallop crudo and braised lamb scrumpets. The star is a 42-day-aged roast beef with all the trimmings, while a beef Wellington and steaks from the grill sit alongside a nut roast and veggie burgers for those skipping meat. Daily specials include a steak, ale and bone marrow pie on Mondays and roast suckling pig on Thursdays, and there is a separate halal menu for both the à la carte and the Sunday roast. Breakfast has long been a Roast strength, and the extensive menu here runs from the Full Borough and bacon butties to tattie scones and smoked kippers, with plenty of benedicts along the way.
Where: Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch, 45 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3PT
When: Opens 21 October 2026
More info: roast-restaurant.com / @roast_restaurant
Altar – Leytonstone
Altar opens on 23 October in the former Luna site on Church Lane, combining a bar, a record shop and a basement gig venue across two floors. The ground floor bar is styled with 70s-leaning decor, a high-gloss tiled bar and rust-orange lighting, with a drinks list from the team behind Chop Shop Tavern, including a Caprese Gimlet made with gin, tomato, basil and black pepper, and a Sgroppino topped with lemon gelato from Leytonstone’s Chunks Provisions. Food runs to an elevated hot dog menu, from a classic Ballpark to a Banh Mi dog with pâté, kachumber and pickled carrot.
Tucked beside the bar is what may be London’s smallest record shop, run with Dreamhouse Records, with a retro landline connecting browsers straight to the shop for requests. Downstairs, a 100-capacity basement built around a serious sound system hosts gigs, club nights and screenings, programmed by Dreamhouse’s Jon Clifford, Shake the High Road’s Simon Singleton and Toby L of Transgressive.
Where: 7 Church Lane, Leytonstone E11 1HG
When: Opens 23 October 2026
More info: @altar_east
Soraya – Marylebone
The Pachamama Group opens Soraya at the Loxton Walk development on Baker Street this September – their largest London site to date, with room for close to 200 diners. The Persian restaurant originally launched in Abu Dhabi, and joins the group’s existing portfolio, which includes Zephyr, Lagana and Nina. Despite the scale, the space is split into interconnected areas, including an open kitchen, bar and two private dining rooms.
Breakfast includes Persian omelettes, eggs Benedict with saffron hollandaise and warm khachapuri pide. The main menu features flatbreads, smoked aubergine kashk bademjan and short rib khoresh with sour grape, alongside kebabs — lamb koobideh, chicken joujeh — and larger dishes like butterflied sea bass finished with herbs and lemon. Dessert runs on a rotating series of cheesecakes.
When: Pushed to October 2026
Where: 96 George Street, London W1U 8AF
More info: @sorayamarylebone
Five Feet – Bermondsey Street
Five Feet opens in October where Dobson’s Bakery used to sit, from a trio behind Legare, Luna and WatchHouse: restaurateur Jay Patel, WatchHouse founder Roland Horne, and chef Jack Ellingham, who cut his teeth at Spring and Dusty Knuckle. At the centre of the 55-cover room is a glass-panelled dough room housing a stone mill brought over from Montpellier, the first of its kind in the UK, which Ellingham uses to mill his own heritage-grain flour blends on site.
The pan pizzas run on an aerated, centimetre-thick dough baked in black iron pans, topped with British produce from small suppliers including Bermondsey Butchery and Westcombe Dairy. Expect a hot sausage pie with fennel sausage and Calabrian chilli honey, and a white potato pie built on caramelised onions and three cheeses, with vegan versions available. Sides include wings, polenta fritta and a stracchino-filled focaccia di Recco, and dessert runs to a Pump Street double chocolate cake and a cinnamon bomboloni with Jersey milk gelato. The drinks list keeps to low-intervention wines, vermouths and Sabadi sodas from southern Italy.
Where: No. 4 Tanner Street, Bermondsey, London SE1 3LE
When: Opens October 2026 (exact date TBC); evenings Tuesday to Saturday
More info: @fivefeet.london