River Cottage chef to open Native, game and rare-breeds restaurant

Native, a new restaurant specialising in game and rare breeds from a River Cottage-trained chef, is to open in London's Covent Garden, in Neal's Yard.

Set to launch in February, the new site has been co-founded by chef-patron Ivan Tisdall-Downes and business partner Imogen Davis, who met at university and since trained at River Cottage (pictured), the cookery and chefs' school and restaurant brand run by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. The duo then ran supper clubs before creating Native as a permanent venue.

The constantly-changing lunch and dinner menus will focus on game meat, rare-breed meats, wild food and nose-to-tail, root-to-stem eating. Aiming for bold flavours and taking inspiration from street food, the restaurant will aim to make game and wild food more accessible in style and price, and also include foraged and vegetarian options.

Typical dishes will include the "signature" pigeon kebab, and southern fried rabbit, while the wine list will highlight British wines and sparkling wines, plus a regularly-changing seasonal cocktail menu.

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