The new restaurant will open on Hawley Road in Kentish Town this September.
It has been announced that Omar Shah and the team behind Belly will launch a brand new restaurant in Kentish Town.
This new all-day restaurant rooted in Shah’s Filipino heritage, will have two very different sides to it: by day Bunso will operate as a neighbourhood bakery, serving freshly baked laminated pastries, savoury bakes and coffee. As evening approaches, the space will shift into a relaxed pizzeria, centred around freshly made pizzas alongside a concise menu of crudo, kinilaw, salads and pasta, with a soundtrack of vinyl and CDs played through a purpose-built hi-fi system.
The name Bunso means ‘youngest child’ in Filipino, and is a fitting name for the newest addition from the team behind the highly acclaimed Belly. As with Belly before it, Filipino flavours will find their way naturally onto Bunso’s menu; rather than defining the restaurant, they’ll appear through ingredients, techniques and dishes that nod to the Filipino kitchen.
Omar Shah says: ‘Bunso is probably the most personal restaurant I’ve opened because the combination doesn’t come from us sitting down and deciding to put different cuisines together – it’s the food I grew up around. We’re taking the food seriously, but giving ourselves the freedom to have fun with it. I want Bunso to be somewhere you can come in the morning for a really good pastry and coffee, drop in for lunch, or come back at night for pizza, pasta and a bottle of wine. Ultimately, I want it to feel like it belongs to the neighbourhood.’
Further details including menus and opening date have yet to be announced.