Oxeye, the debut restaurant from Sven-Hanson Britt will open its doors this October at its new home in Embassy Gardens.
Sven’s new venture will bring food, drink and art together in a space that combines a fine-dining restaurant, bar, shop, private dining room and gallery which will showcase artwork from up and coming London artists.
The restaurant will host six sittings - three lunches and three dinners - a week, serving a full tasting menu created by Sven, his partner Kae Shibata and their team of chefs.
Adjacent to Oxeye will sit Bar Rex, an informal bar and shop space offering the widest selection of English, Irish and Welsh wine in the country.
Atop the building will be Oxeye’s private event space and art gallery complete with outdoor terrace area.
The restaurant
The tasting menu-only restaurant will open with snacks such as salted walnut oil cracker and marinated walnut and cornish yarg churros with fresh nettles and sea beet, with starters including Irish coast sea urchin, potato dumpling, smoked butter and raw razor clams, apple marigold, Egremont Russet and Tokyo turnip.
Sven and team hope to bring flavours that create a different way of looking at British food.
Mains will be centred around well-sourced meat, fish and vegetables such as Hen of the Woods glazed in jus gras with wild onion, braised smoked eel, kampot pepper scented sauce chivry, Derbyshire Longhorn flat rib, black mustard, preserved seeds and ‘sauce Rouennaise;’ braised wild Cornish turbot, sea kale and ‘sauce Tillington’.
Desserts will end the meal on a high with unusual flavour combinations such as Arhuaco Businchari cocoa, Scottish sea salt, birch syrup, caraway and sesame praline.
Guests will also be able to enjoy handmade chocolates by Cartografie, the brand led by Sven’s partner Kae, at the end of the meal. The menu will be priced at £99 per head, or £139 for those wanting to make the most of the supplemented items in between courses.
For the wine pairing, either a British or a ‘World Class’ can be added to the menu for £99 or £250, respectively.
The interiors at Oxeye will be occupied by the beautiful pieces collected by Sven and Kae over the years, including Japanese ceramics produced in Ibaraki made by Kae’s uncle, who is a monk and ceramicist; wool and skins from their own animals throughout the restaurant as well as charcoal made from bones and plant matter from the farm.
Oxeye will use leather from distributors Billy Tannery and glass, steel and porcelain from traditional British brands like antique Royal Crown Derby.
Bar Rex at Oxeye
Bar Rex at Oxeye will operate as a wine bar and shop, with sharing plates to graze on. The bar will feature an extensive selection of over 300 British wines chosen by Sven to complement dishes on offer, championing the incredible wines produced in the UK, including well-known names like Nyetimber and Hambledon through to smaller wineries like London-based Blackbook and Harrow & Hope.
The wine menu will also include the team’s picks of the best wines from around the world, that constantly updates based on the best available.
Dishes at Bar Rex have been designed to snack and share, still paying homage to the Oxeye philosophy of respecting the producer and using seasonal ingredients throughout.
The menu will be full of simple, delicious plates such showcasing the best of UK shellfish and day boat fish, Oxeye charcuterie, seasonal, simple vegetable dishes and British cheese and chocolate.
Prices will range from £2 - £20 and tables will be available for walk-ins only.
The wine offering at Bar Rex has been curated by future Master of Wine Katrina Smith, her knowledge has shaped the entire offering and she will have a hand in the direction of Bar Rex as it grows.
In addition to enjoying a glass within the bar, a large selection of wine will be available to purchase and takeaway.
Gallery Space
In tandem with the launch of Oxeye, the team are opening an exhibition space upstairs which will showcase a series of street artists from London and the surrounding areas.
The gallery will kick off with a joint exhibition from ‘Murvellous’, ‘Opake’ and ‘Paul Lock’ from October.
Adjacent to this will be Oxeye’s private dining space, open for hire for corporate events and special parties as well as a series of wine dinners, details to be announced.
The restaurant will open three days a week to start with - Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings - with Bar Rex open 4 days a week for drinks and snacks.
Sven says ”Oxeye has been the best part of 10 years in the making; from formulating our ideas in the fields of Park Farm in Derbyshire, to finding the perfect site in Embassy Gardens.
"The concept remains the same as it did all those years ago, a true celebration of the incredible bounty of produce found on the British Isles, from Hampshire wasabi and Cheshire saffron to British truffles and English sugar and birch sap for sweetening.
"The restaurant has its own smallholding in Derbyshire where we grow some fruit, vegetables and hedgerow crops to supplement produce from a number of tiny growers and producers across the country.
"These artisans, farmers and true heroes of British food are what inspire us and push us every day to create more and more delicious food.”
