Rita’s in London to serve entirely cold menu this August

Rita’s in London’s Soho has announced plans to switch out its normal menu for a predominantly raw and cold offering for the month of August.

Rita’s Raw will welcome a dedicated raw bar and cold kitchen, open for lunch and dinner for the duration of the hottest month of the year.  

The restaurant said the temporary takeover was a “creative response” to rising temperatures and the demand for lighter, fresher food from customers.

The evening menu will serve dishes such as bluefin tuna crudo with mustard, cherries and almonds, peel-and-eat shrimp, ceviche, drunken sardines and a fried fish sandwich, while the lunch menu consists of sandwiches, seafood snacks and a set lunch and raw bar pairing.

This is in place of its usual warm dishes, such as chalk stream trout with confit lemon and fennel and grilled lamb and beef sausage with smoked lamb rib, black-eyed peas and cicoria.

Rita’s co-founder and drinks director Missy Malik-Flynn has also created a seasonal drinks menu focusing on a concise list of wines and ice-cold martinis.

Fin & Flounder and Flourish, collaborators on the Rita’s Raw project, will be supplying the majority of the ingredients.

Gabriel Pryce, co-founder and chef at Rita’s, said: “August is always the month when nobody really wants heavy food. The city is slower, it’s hotter and the things we’re craving are simpler and fresher. At the same time, kitchens become incredibly challenging environments to work in during heatwaves.

“We want to provide a refreshing experience for guests but also look after our team. Rather than fighting against that reality, we wanted to build a menu around it. The result is food that tastes best cold anyway: great seafood, good produce and minimal intervention.”  

The announcement comes after the UK endured a Red Extreme Heat Warning at the end of June, which resulted in several hospitality businesses closing due to “uncomfortably hot” working conditions.

Some restaurants, such as Convene in Stockport, took the opportunity to serve a heatwave menu consisting of cold plates including beetroot hummus, panzanella salad and butter beans drenched in lemon.

Pryce and Malik-Flynn started Rita’s as a pop-up in London’s Hackney in 2012 before expanding it into a bricks and mortar restaurant on Hackney’s Mare Street the following year. In 2021, Rita’s relaunched in Soho.