Almost a year after the acclaimed Brixton restaurant shut its doors, Chishuru has announced its reopening date – get September 18 in your diaries now.
The restaurant voted Time Out’s Best of 2022 will be relocating from south London to Fitzrovia, with chef-owner Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare offering up a brand-new menu of West African food. Only dinner will be available for the first two days of service, with lunch seatings from September 20.
Chishuru will offer a set menu, which is £65 at dinner for three starters, a main and dessert per person, and £35 at lunch for two starters, a main and dessert.
Sample menus include the likes of eko beef shin broth with kale and corn tofu, lamb belly asun with pepper relish, mbongo tchoni cod fillet with spiced black sauce, and egusi grilled cabbage stuffed with caramelised shallots, utzai leaf and wild watermelon seed sauce. All mains will be served with rice, plantain and house pickles.
Nigerian-born Bakare opened the original Chishuru in September 2020, after winning the amateur category in the Brixton Kitchen competition in 2019, where judges included Claire Ptak of Violet Cakes, Jackson Boxer of Brunswick House and James Cochran of 12:51.
Chishuru quickly became a local favourite, but closed in October 2022. Speaking about being Time Out’s Best Restaurant of 2022, Bakare said: ‘The recognition makes us feel so special. We opened at a time of great uncertainty, thus we’ve never known “normal”. This makes it worthwhile.’
She added: ‘My restaurant is a very personal thing. This is the food that I grew up eating. The people that come to us are really adventurous. They want to be pushed out of their comfort zone.’
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