Belly is being launched on Thursday (May 8) in Kentish Town Road, Kentish Town, by restaurateur Omar Shah.
Belly, named because of Mr Shah’s love of creating good food, moves into the Kentish Town Road premises formerly occupied by his Ramo Ramen noodle house.
The inside has been gutted to provide a 35-seater space where bistro-style tables are dressed with white tablecloths and surrounded with wooden chairs.
Stepping into Belly, Omar Shah will have 11 varied restaurants, cafés, ice-cream parlours and a bakery open by summer (Image: Maginhawa)
Omar’s “simple elevated dishes” use a blend of seasonal ingredients and are all paired with Belly’s growing selection of global wines, available by the glass or bottle.
The menu includes French classics such as steak tartare are given an Asian twist with cured yolk and nori-seasoned crisps.
Diver scallops are cured and warmed through with a malt vinegar and fermented shrimp coconut sauce or pandesal cod tempura slider with ikura tartar.
Main courses include wood fired wagyu picanha with peppercorn and liver sauce, oak-smoked tinola chicken with caper, ginger and coriander salsa verde as well as Filipino inspired beurre blanc as well as wood smoked sticky tamarind lamb ribs.
Desserts include frozen custard profiteroles with fish sauce caramel or coconut pie with chantilly cream.
Omar, owner of Maginhawa Group, is the son of a Muslim Bangladeshi father and Catholic Filipino mother, which informs his cuisine.
He already runs Bintang, Guanabana, and Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream in Kentish Town Road, as well as four other businesses in Soho, Chinatown, Carnaby Street and Westfield Shepherd’s Bush.
The new bistro is the third of four new places to eat he is opening this year.
Last month he opened Hoodwood, a takeaway “spin-off” of his existing Carribbean smokehouse Guanabana on the same stretch of road.
A few days later he opened Cafe Mama & Sons, a Filipino bakery serving Japanese-style sandos, cakes and coffee.
He will soon open Mamasons Bakery Factory, in Hawley Road, which will be an extension of the ice-cream parlour but offering sandwiches, using the firm’s Filipino bread, which will be baked wholesale in the new bakery.
He previously told the Ham&High: “This area has allowed me to try out new concepts and take more risks without the nosebleeds of central London.”
