Kricket scraps its planned Covent Garden restaurant
The modern Indian group has dropped a 130-seat site in Neal's Yard and is now looking at expanding abroad instead.
Kricket has scrapped its planned Covent Garden restaurant, abandoning a 130-seat site in Neal's Yard that the modern Indian group announced 18 months ago.
The site was no longer going ahead, according to a report by Restaurant magazine published September 18, 2026. Kricket had planned to open the all-day venue in Neal's Yard this winter, the report said.
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Expanding in the UK is not a viable proposition at the moment.
Shaftesbury Capital, the landlord, had announced the signing in April 2025, with the unit billed as Kricket's largest restaurant to date. The group is now looking at international expansion instead, with Dubai on its radar, according to Restaurant magazine.
Kricket Covent Garden plans dropped for now
Kricket's existing London restaurants remain in Brixton, Soho, Shoreditch and Canary Wharf, the report said. The group gave no public reason tied specifically to the Neal's Yard site when it confirmed the change of plan.
UK restaurateurs have pointed to the high cost of site builds and fit-outs, along with an uncertain economic climate, as barriers to opening new restaurants this year, according to the same report. Chef Simon Rogan has separately said that expanding in the UK is "not a viable proposition at the moment," citing a new overnight-stay levy on top of rising costs.
Why UK groups are looking abroad
Kricket opened its first restaurant in Brixton in 2015 before expanding into central London and the US, where it has a site in New York. The Covent Garden pullback adds to a run of scaled-back expansion plans among independent UK restaurant groups this year, as rents, construction costs and new levies on hospitality businesses weigh on decisions to sign new leases.
Restaurant magazine did not report a new date or location for a fifth Kricket site in the UK. The group has not said how much it had already spent on design or fit-out work for the abandoned Neal's Yard unit before the decision. The group's international search continues, with Dubai named as one of the markets under consideration, the report said.
