One of 2024’s most talked-about restaurants is to return to London for the first time in a year after a 30-city global tour, the Standard can reveal.
Whyte’s was founded by the chef Whyte Rushen and restaurateur Liv Akers in late 2023, launching on Mare Street in Hackney and earning rave reviews.
It closed in February last year and the duo took the restaurant overseas, most recently hosting a three-week residency and tour in Tokyo after stints in Bangkok, Chengdu, New York, Mexico, Amsterdam, Dublin and beyond.
Whyte and Akers collaborated with the DJ Fat Boy Slim last year to open a short-term restaurant at Butlin’s in Minehead.
Newly called the Rotten Octopus, the restaurant, taking the form of a Japanese izakaya, will host a four-day pop-up at Clara’s bistro in Shoreditch.
Akers told the Standard that it will be the first of many residencies in London, with more on the way around the world.
She said: “We’re gassed to bring some of that late night energy of Tokyo to Shoreditch. Get the eel.”
As well as eel, the menu will include dishes such as a shiso-wrapped scallop, baked in the shell with flying fish roe and ginger butter; caramelised onion chawanmushi with baby octopus and seaweed; a slow-cooked pig ear roll with egg mayo and cabbage; and a mixed grill plate of beef tendons, chicken hearts, veal livers and radish.
Rushen, who made his name on Instagram, said he wants to bring the “spirit, flavours and late-night energy of Japan to East London,” inspired by Tokyo’s back streets.
Alongside a 14-dish a la carte menu will be a list of sake cocktails, wines and Japanese spirits.
The pop-up will run from January 17-20 before moving to a new location. Bookings can be made here.
