Florence Knight has been away from a permanent kitchen for two years. That changes this September, when Lunette opens on the 11th floor of Nick Jones new St Clement hotel, just off the Strand. The name means half moon, borrowed from the semi-circular windows at the old Aldwych tube station nearby. Knight calls it a deeply personal project. London restaurant watchers are calling it the most anticipated opening of the autumn.
From Polpetto to the Thames
Knight first made her name at Polpetto in Soho, the Venetian small plates restaurant where she became head chef at 25. The late Russell Norman called her baccala mantecato, a whipped salt cod, the holy grail. She went on to launch Sessions Arts Club in Clerkenwell, one of the most striking dining rooms in the city, and stayed for three years before stepping back in 2024 to plan something of her own.
Now she has a 30-cover space with an open kitchen and views stretching from the Palace of Westminster to the Shard. My food is not about being clean or natural. It is about being true to taste and form. It is a statement of intent from a chef who has spent two years working out exactly who she is. This place is about what I want to do. It feels daunting, but I am excited.
The Set Menu
Lunette will serve a four-course lunch and an eight-course evening tasting menu. Early preview dishes include pomme souffle stuffed with smoked eel and finished with nasturtium, milk custard with Cevennes onion sauce topped with caviar and baked petals, and pork loin with fresh fig and anchovy Cinsaut sauce. These are dishes that reward attention without demanding it, which has always been Knight's strength. A kitchen that can make pomme souffle feel like a statement rather than a gimmick is a kitchen that knows what it is doing.
The design leans into the building rather than hiding it. Handblown glassware by Alexander Kirkeby, feather-shaped steak knives, stitched leather chairs and plates by Tetsuya Otani and Michel Francois all sit within 180 The Strand's raw concrete framework. The room is intended to feel homely rather than formal. There is not a concept here. We are trying to do something special, something with longevity.
The St Clement Ecosystem
Lunette is the flagship of a hotel that has been generating buzz since its ground floor restaurant, Cafe Clement, became something of a celebrity magnet earlier this year. St Clement is the first hotel from Nick Jones since he left Soho House in 2022, and he has deliberately stripped away the formalities: no reception desk, no paper bills, contact via WhatsApp before arrival. It is a grand building treated like a home, which is the whole point.
Rooms start at 600 pounds. There is a 25-metre pool, treatment rooms, a bar with a 3am licence and the sort of co-working space that makes you want to rewrite your entire life. The building already houses the two Michelin-starred Ikoyi and the well-loved Toklas. Lunette gives it a fourth reason to take the lift to the top floor.
Mid-September 2026, Level 11, St Clement, 180 The Thames, London WC2R 2NF.