The rush starts here: July's hot new openings

RESTAURANTS From hotel dining to Soho innovators, Ben McCormack has all the newbie hunger thwarters

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THE arrival of tourists in July for Wimbledon, Pride and the Proms can mean only one thing — hotel dining is back for summer. Next month will see hotel restaurant openings from chefs Yannick Alléno from France, Shinji Kanesaka from Japan and our very own Tom Sellers bringing a comet’s trail of Michelin stars.

Also look out for Richard Corrigan’s new restaurant on top of the splendidly re-imagined National Portrait Gallery and the return to the West End of Tomos Parry, whose new Soho restaurant Mountain will evoke the holiday vibe of the hills and coastlines of Wales and Spain. With restaurants of this quality opening in the stickiest of tourist honeypots, the message for hungry Londoners this July is that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Dovetale

This new Mayfair hotel restaurant ticks off pretty much every restaurant trend: a sustainably-driven menu; a raw bar; dishes cooked over the grill; an on-site butcher for ageing steaks; English sparkling wines. The involvement of chef Tom Sellers of two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Story in Bermondsey means that Dovetale should be more than just an exercise in lip service, however, with modern takes on classic luxury including sole Véronique, English olive-fed wagyu carpaccio and Grand Marnier soufflé with tonka bean crème anglaise. All eyes, however, are likely to be on a knickerbocker glory trolley whipping up sundaes tableside.