It’s tough to open a new London food hall in the ghost of its former self. When Arcade Food Hall, née Theatre, opened in 2019, it brought together a clutch of the city’s hottest restaurants of that year to one glossy, glassy building at Centre Point, near Tottenham Court Road. It should have worked; the food was there. A clunky ordering system — and then the small matter of a COVID-19 pandemic — meant it didn’t.
Tough as it may be, JKS Restaurants — the group behind a suite of the city’s best, (Michelin-starred), and most innovative kitchens — has done it. The new new Arcade Food Hall is less of a collection of kitchens and more of a panoptic restaurant in its own right. A new ordering system, with table service and no queueing, makes dining feel effortless, while the range of food on offer (and the fully fledged southern Thai restaurant upstairs from chef-grower-maven Luke Farrell) makes it as suited to a dinner occasion as to a soaker-upper after a night out in the West End. The music is Now That’s What I Call 90s pop, dance, and hip-hop. The room is busy. The vibe shift? It’s good.
Take a look around, before it opens on 22 April.
Even with its revamped approach to ordering that makes it feel like more of a restaurant than a food hall free-for-all, likely the hardest decision to make at Arcade is going to be what to order. Here’s a handy guide for each ground floor kitchen.
Hero
Hero BBQ Chicken Wings
Grilled, not fried, for increased smokiness, which marries with the heady richness of the makhani sauce that coats them.
Manna
Smashburger
A classic for a reason: caramelised crust; melting cheese; acid and savour from the condiments.
Bebek! Bebek!
Sate marrangi
“Beef rump satay, peanut sauce” doesn’t quite do justice to the quality of this dish, with its oily and moreish umami from the peanuts.
Sushi Kamon
Tempura prawn sando
Yes, it sounds like a hype dish ready to disappoint. But some clever touches — frying not just the prawns, but also the nori in filligree batter; adding pickled kumquat for prickling sweetness — mean it lives up.
Shatta and Toum
Shawarma wrap
One of the cases where the obvious order, is the obvious order: a meticulously engineered version of a classic.
Arcade Provisions
A hot sandwich from the Hendersons
Margot and Hector’s offering is a rotating one, but it’s always going to be the pick: mutton and anchovy an early front-runner.
The Jelladrome
Strawberries and cream trifle
The best of the two “architectural” desserts currently on the menu, it has all the notes of British summer, with the nifty lift of rose.