Ollie Dabbous seeks second London site

Ollie Dabbous, whose eponymous Fitzrovia restaurant Dabbous won its first Michelin star eight months after opening last year, is seeking a second site.

Dabbous head chef Ross Gibbens will be at the helm of the new venture once a site is found.

The chef, who previously worked at Michelin-starred restaurant Texture, opened Dabbous with mixologist Oskar Kinberg last January and quickly received widespread critical acclaim.

Both the London Evening Standard's Fay Maschler and Time Out's Guy Dimond gave the restaurant full marks in their reviews published within a month of its launch.

The popularity of the 35-seat restaurant has resulted in lengthy waiting lists for a table, with diners forced to book many months in advance.

The Kuwait-born chef is understood to be in talks with a number of potential landlords.

"We have hundreds of people on our waiting list, so if we don't have space at Dabbous, it would be nice to be able to offer them an alternative," he told the London Evening Standard.
"Any future ventures we undertake will be based on the talent of the key individuals involved, discussing what they want to do in the foreseeable future, and offering them equity, so ensuring long-term operational consistency.

"Together we then forge a business plan that creates the identity of somewhere we see as exciting and missing from the largely saturated London restaurant landscape."

The 31-year-old chef previously spent four years working with his mentor Raymond Blanc in the kitchens of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons near Oxford before doing stints at Hibiscus and Mugaritz in Spain.

He then spent two years at Texture, run by fellow Le Manoir alumni Aggi Sverrisson and Xavier Rousset.

He describes his cooking as "restrained, product-driven, organic and clean", a mixture of influences from all the restaurants at which he has worked.

http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.co.uk/Articles/01/03/2012/342576/Dabbous-continues-to-impress-the-food-critics.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Dabbous gets perfect marks from Evening Standard and Time Out >>](http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.co.uk/Articles/06/02/2012/342212/dabbous-gets-perfect-marks-from-evening-standard-and-time-out.htm)

[Dabbous continues to impress the food critics >>