What will we be eating in 2023?

10 key restaurant trends at a glance

1. Shorter opening hours, tighter menus, fewer staff, more technology, higher prices.
2. Interest in West African food growing and deepening.
3. Music, art and culture playing a bigger role in dining spaces.
4. Fave ingredients and wines going missing from menus, temporarily.
5. From takeaway to retail, bars and restaurants doing a bit of everything.
6. The unstoppable rise of natural wine.
7. The return of pop-ups.
8. Wine bars serving high-end snacks and small plates, challenging the pub.
9. Cheffing talent exodus from big cities continues, in search of work-life balance.
10. Fewer but bigger blow-out meals to banish gloomy headlines – caviar bumps optional.

What will we be eating in 2023?

Jules Pearson, global vice-president of food and beverage development at hotelier Ennismore

“Escapism is going to be big. People might eat out less, and they’ll want to be transported to another place when they do. Expect extravagant interiors and OTT presentations, such as seafood towers. Britain loves to splurge on affordable luxuries and, in that vein, caviar is back.”

She references the £10 so-called caviar ‘bumps’, served connoisseur-style on the back of your hand at The Savoy’s Beaufort Bar, or Mayfair’s Miro, whose riff on fish ’n’ chips comprises fatty tuna on potato topped with caviar.

In contrast, Jules has also been eating squirrel kebabs and Japanese knotweed at Silo chef Douglas McMaster’s invasive species dinners: “The Wild Meat Company will deliver squirrel to your door and I’m expecting to see it on menus alongside pigeon, frogs, jellyfish – in the name of saving the planet.”

Getting lost in music is also escapism and a new wave of venues that combine food, live music and DJs is emerging in Haggerston’s Mu and Notting Hill’s Caia. “Even our local butcher, Stella’s N1 by Hill & Szrok, turns into a ‘listening bar’ with DJs every Thursday and Friday,” says Jules. Neighbourhood wine bars are multiplying equally quickly (Hector’s, Dalston; Finley’s, Hoxton; Newington’s Green’s Cadet), becoming social hubs to rival the pub. And, finally, “pop-ups are back: Retan and Dinner By Ben”.

Good cheer for 2023

Jules is looking forward to Bossa, acclaimed Brazilian chef Alberto Landgraf’s incoming London venue, and drinking high-quality low-intervention wine. ennismore.com

Lorraine Copes, founder of Be Inclusive Hospitality

Lorraine has held senior roles at Gordon Ramsay Restaurants and Corbin & King, and, in 2020, founded Be Inclusive Hospitality, which advances racial equity in hospitality. She has spent 20 years buying everything from ingredients to IT for restaurants, and views winter 2023 as “almost the perfect storm of rocketing costs, fragile consumer spending and huge supply chain volatility. Eating out will cost more this year as restaurants cannot afford to absorb these increases – they have to pass them on to diners”. So we may find certain products are dropped as prices yo-yo wildly, as happened with salmon last year; and, given the slim margins restaurants operate on, she thinks we will see a huge amount of closures.

Staff shortages and energy costs mean restaurants will open for fewer services, and at guaranteed busy times only. Teams are stretched, says Lorraine: “As a result of Brexit, there’s been a mass exodus of labour. Training replacement staff takes time. I’ve been to restaurants classed as fine dining and it’s apparent their teams are new. There’s going to be variability in service.”

More positively, post-pandemic there is a greater focus on employee welfare, with “inclusivity, equity, diversity” key in that. Lorraine has been heartened by the industry’s response to Be Inclusive’s practical initiatives to elevate people of colour: “We’ve grown at pace because there are individuals and businesses that care about driving change.”

There is much to do. Greater visibility will require proactive training and support in areas where black experts have been rare. For example, says Lorraine: “There are definitely not enough black chefs on television. From a black community perspective, we lag behind every cuisine in representation but I’m confident change is afoot. When I think of West African restaurants opening in London – Isibani, 805, Tatale – what’s happening in the diaspora food scene is exciting”

Good cheer for 2023

Lorraine will be eating at Adejoké Bakare’s phenomenal Chishuru and drinking “delicious” Ghanaian rum, Reign; bihospitality.co.uk

Sunny Hodge, owner of wine bar, café and grocer Diogenes the Dog and natural wine bar Aspen & Meursault

It is purely accidental that producing Aspen & Meursault’s clever menu of toasties, cured meats, baked camembert and hot brunch dishes does not require professional chefs (all staff are trained in its assembly and simple cooking). But, due to the chef shortage, ingredient, wage and energy costs, expect more venues to introduce similarly limited, high-quality, minimal-waste menus. “If you’re struggling to get chefs, you adapt,” says Sunny.

The pandemic inspired Diogenes the Dog to morph from a bar into a combined bar, bottle shop, grocer and café. Seeking extra revenue, bars and restaurants will increasingly diversify in that way. “Small, nimble indies should find that change easier. These measures cannot be rolled out on the high street.”

Sunny is very excited about Eastern European wines, particularly from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “During communism, wine was mass produced. They weren’t allowed to do organic, biodynamic and boutiquey things,” says Sunny. Now winemakers are innovating or reviving historic local techniques in compelling ways. Side note: Portugal continues to offer insanely good value.

Grape-wise, look out for hardier modern hybrids, such as rondo, regent or seyval blanc, which, vigorous in colder climates and largely resistant to pests and diseases, suit natural wine-making in countries including England.

Good cheer for 2023

Sunny will be dining at pan-African restaurant Tatale, and, wine aside, drinking sour beers; diogenesthedog.co.uk

Robbie Bargh, founder of hospitality consultancy Gorgeous Group

For more than 20 years Robbie’s consultancy has helped brands as diverse as Dishoom and Harrods create unique hospitality spaces.

Robbie says lavish restaurants will thrive but – be it pubs doubling up as co-working spaces or restaurants moving into deli-style retail (what some dub the ‘grocerant’) – 2023 will be all about diversification and tightly controlling costs. Expect many new venues to open with fewer staff, smaller kitchens, upcycled interiors and shortened menus using tech, such as app ordering or touchscreens, to facilitate that shift.

“Venues, often wine bars, that were designed around serving awesome food with limited space or equipment, like Manchester’s Flawd, are now in a strong position. John Dory, a bottle shop and bar in Folkestone, doesn’t have any kitchen but is serving exceptional Sea Sisters tinned fish, great French Brets crisps and doing gravadlax with sushi-quality salmon.”

Robbie is excited about the Middle East, Africa and South Korea, and how, with all three, restaurateurs can bring in art, music, design and culture to create vibrant spaces: “It becomes bigger than just the cuisine. It takes you to another place.”

Good cheer for 2023

Robbie will be nostalgically revisiting old faves, such as Rules and Oslo Court, and drinking mezcal, Turkish wine and new twists on the negroni; gorgeousgroup.com