Kricket to open 130-seat Neal's Yard restaurant

Indian restaurant group Kricket is to open a fifth London venue in Covent Garden later this year.

The group has taken on a 4,000 sq ft site in Neal’s Yard which will open as 130-cover all-day café, bar and restaurant.

It will be the third Kricket restaurant to launch in the past year, following openings in Canary Wharf in 2024 and Shoreditch in March.

The modern Indian restaurant group was founded by Rik Campell and Will Bowlby in a Brixton shipping container in 2015 and launched a permanent site in Soho in 2016 after securing funding from White Rabbit Projects.

The pair secured a fresh round of funding from White Rabbit Projects in 2023 to kick-start Kricket’s expansion.

Emma Matus, head of restaurant leasing at Shaftesbury Capital, said: “Covent Garden is already home to the city’s best dining concepts, and the addition of Kricket, with their take on Indian cuisine that blends Indian flavours with London’s culinary creativity, will complement this line-up.

“The signing is among the first of many new dining options set to be introduced to the destination this year, as we get ready to bolster Covent Garden’s high calibre offer with new, unique and diverse concepts.”

Kricket previously ran a restaurant at London’s White City development, which has now permanently closed.