This April, Manu Canales, previously sous chef of Le Gavroche, will launch Kebab Queen in the heart of Covent Garden with partners Stephen Tozer and Ed Brunet.
The new concept will be opening within Maison Bab. Guests will head downstairs and through the prep kitchen to enter Kebab Queen.
Canales has explored modern, European-influenced kebabs with prelude restaurants Le Bab and Maison Bab. Now, after four years of careful development, Canales will lead their most adventurous and ambitious opening.
Canales’s love for the flavours of kebab, cultivated during his trips across Turkey and beyond, combine with his rigorous Michelin training to create a seven-course tasting menu.
Leading guests through the dishes from the open kitchen, Canales and the team will encourage an uninhibited approach to dining. Guests will rip, tear and eat with their hands, in a ritual that pays homage to late-night kebabs.
Behind the illuminated facade of a classic British kebab shop, cooking on a custom wood-fired grill, Manu will plate each dish directly onto a bespoke, heated Dekton countertop.
The menu kicks off with two starters including the Foie Gras Kebabito; a miniature, two-bite kebab of BBQ’d foie gras. Next, the adoptive British doner kebab becomes a Doner Risotto, an intense lamb jus risotto finished with classic garnishes and shavings of lamb tongue.
For the fish course, a chargrilled shish kebab of monkfish, monkfish liver and chicken skin, is plated onto a charred cabbage leaf.
The main course is a rum-aged Spit Roast Fesenjan Duck. Inspired by the iconic Iranian stew, it is served with a crust of crisp persian rice, intended to be pulled apart with the fingers.
To finish, there’s ‘Got Milk?’ - an ode to Manu’s childhood: freshly baked, sticky milk buns filled with caramelised cream and topped with crème fraiche sorbet.
Canales commented, “Kebab Queen is the pinnacle of our project. The piquancy, umami and smokiness of the kebab really lend themselves to reinterpretation.
'We’re creatively pairing Middle Eastern flavours with meticulous and classic technique. But we want you to relax and get stuck in; it’s about combining the intense flavours of high end dining with the communal, elbow-to-elbow fun of the kebab shop.”
Diners will take their place at front row seats around the kitchen, perched on one of ten luxurious, cobalt blue, leather-clad stools. Created by designer Angus Buchanan, Kebab Queen’s stainless steel walls are accentuated by pastel pink curtains and pink tiled concrete floor.