We’ve all had our dinner plans stalled because one person craves one type of cuisine, while the other wants something entirely different. Here to save the day is the new West London concept Neyba, with a unique multi-kitchen cuisine setup, with a Michelin pedigree.
We headed to the shop’s opening on Wednesday 9th March, located on the bustling Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill. The menu is small but mighty in its offering, ranging from New York-style pizza to Indian curries to Japanese food. There’s also a vegan range, a kids menu and even an ice cream range launching soon, essentially making it a high-end food court.
At the party, which was at capacity and DJ’d by Made in Chelsea’s Alex Mytton, we tried the cheesy, doughy pizza sprinkled with truffle that’s shaved in front of you, along with the dessert-style Nutella pizza. Miguel’s Pizza is behind the Italian arm of the extensive food offering, making their pizza’s fresh and onsite everyday.
Celebrity and Michelin star chefs have created the collaborative menu that’s available to eat in, take away or have delivered in biodegradable packaging straight to your door, through Deliveroo. Other big names include Tony Singh MBE (Indian), Yoko Nakada (Makes Miso Hungry) and sushi master Endo Kazotushi (Japanese).
For drinks, I tried the cocktail-in-a-can brand MOTH, who make a delicious Espresso Martini and beers from Surrey-based Big Smoke Brewery were also on offer.
Neyba is the latest project from Burger & Lobster founder, Misha Zelman and his new business partner, Ben Hedley.
“Everything has been designed in what I call a smart kitchen so everything can come out of the kitchen within five minutes so there’s a lot of prep work that goes on in the morning.
“Take the Indian curries, for example, we’ve worked with Tony Singh for about 12 months on the actual recipe. We designed it so we could make it in big batches and then we do all of the finishing offs in the mornings,” Hedley says.
The neighbourhood-friendly store has been designed to save Londoner’s time, as they can pick up day-to-day staples alongside sustainable seafood and a range of meats, while waiting for their food.
“People are so busy and this plays into the whole convenience side of things – saying right, I just got home from a long day at work and I want a curry but my other housemates, or my partner, want this and my children want that.
“Then you can get all the grocery bits that you need… Such as bread to make with salmon and cream cheese in the morning,” Hedley explains.
Much of the food is sourced locally, with all of the meats, for example, coming from the UK. This translates through to the wine menu as well, as Neyba has partnered with some great English wine brands such as Chapel Down and Ridgeview.
The shop officially opened in February and you could feel a real buzz in the air at the thought of a unique food concept opening in the heart of one of London’s most iconic foodie locations.
“Particularly during lockdown when we became such a close community, we got to know our neighbour that much better. Moaning and groaning to them or seeing them out, so it’s very much wanting to make sure we were in a neighbourhood type of place and Notting Hill just made total sense to us,” Hedley says.
Neyba is open for lunch, dinner and drinks (12:00 pm – 10:00 pm) Monday to Sunday and you can check out their website for more information or follow them on Instagram here.
