9.0
Amazing

Joe Okpako

Restaurants

Neil Frame 02/02/24


Carousel

Carousel – the restaurant famous for perpetually reinventing itself with a new guest residency in the kitchen every few weeks – has reinvented its entire existence…

…by moving.

Saying goodbye to their trusty old digs in Marylebone and hello to Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, Carousel co-founders Ollie & Ed Templeton have chosen a buzzier location for Carousel’s new HQ – one that takes up a whopping three townhouses worth of space. And nestled inside it is their first ever wine bar, featuring a menu of seasonal snacks and small plates from chef Ollie accompanying a thoughtfully chosen list of lively, minimal intervention wines and cocktails.

carousel wine bar

Joe Okpako

The wine bar’s the first thing that you’ll see as you approach the venue, with giant floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the street and spill light onto the colourful terrazzo stone floor, the wooden furnishings and the long polished concrete bar. Ollie’s menu is a sort of ‘best-of’ Carousel: he’s recreated dishes from the hundreds of different food cultures, inspiring chefs and creative collaborations that he’s seen come and go over the years and somehow – like a really difficult jigsaw – made them all fit together. So you can get everything from a maitake tempura with mushroom broth (inspired by Ollie’s time in the kitchen with Yuji Tani of HOUSE in Tokyo & Brooklyn) as well as grilled mackerel flatbread dish, which draws on a revelatory sandwich he discovered at a Berlin flea market.

Heading deeper inside you’ll find the residency space (directly behind the wine bar) where Carousel’s customary who’s who of cutting-edge international culinary talent will be juggling the pans for a week or two at a time. As for who gets to ride the Carousel in March? Well, Jesús Durón’s preview of Dué has already sold out, but there are still chances to sample Thalía Barrios Garcia’s veg-forward take on ancestral Oaxacan recipes (12th-16th), Colombia’s hyper-local star Sambombi (19th-23rd) and avant-garde Mexican fine dining from Meroma (26th-30th March).

Pablo Lagrange

But the fun doesn’t end there, because upstairs there’s a private dining room and an event & workshop space for up to 150 guests (frequently playing host to offbeat activities like Wild Life Drawing). And next door to the main venue is a smaller incubator-style space designed for hosting more casual, longer-term pop-ups, called No. 23 (currently home to Chuck’s smashed burgers).

But the residents there are always #1.

 

NOTE: Carousel’s wine bar is open Tues-Sat 12-11pm for walk-ins and bookings, with guest chef dinners Tues-Sat at 7pm (which you need to pre-book for). You can see who’s on the pans, and book tickets, HERE.

Carousel | 19-23 Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia, W1T 1RL


Like visiting itinerant eateries? Check out the best pop up restaurants in London this month


Carousel


19-23 Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia, Central London, W1T 1RL

020 7487 5564

9.0 | Amazing