The one restaurant you need to know about this week

Opening Monday March 6 on the foodie super-strip of Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, Mere is the first restaurant from Monica Galetti. Y’know, her off ‘MasterChef’ (and late of Le Gavroche, for high-end restaurant boffins among you). The name’s a mishmash of the French word for ‘mum’ and the Samoan word for Mary, after Mama Galetti (pronunciation could go either way).

Set up with her sommelier husband David, it’s split across two floors – a basement restaurant and ground-floor cocktail/snack bar – and promises a smallish, seasonal contemporary European menu with six choices per course. Think curried scallops, North African riffs on roast squab, zingy citrus mousse/confit combos – that sort of thing.

Bookings are open now, but slots are mostly OAP-early or night-owl-late for the foreseeable. As fellow ‘MasterChef’ presenter Gregg Wallace would (might) say: ‘Getting a table doesn’t get tougher than this.’

Having a mare getting a table at Mere and hungry now? Check our list of forthcoming restaurant openings.