- Written by: Chefluencer Editorial Team
In post-lockdown London, fire became the fashion. Open grills turned into lighting features. Smoke became marketing. From Soho to Shoreditch, the flame-first restaurant morphed into shorthand for mood, not method. At its best, this was Brat: a restaurant that redefined simplicity as structure. At its worst, it became theatre — wood-fired ovens installed for ambience, menus built with obvious choices and dishes singed to be photographed first, then eaten.
According to the Michelin Guide, wood-fired cooking has become “a culinary craze,” with restaurants from Kiln to Acme Fire Cult marketing flame as a headline act. Eater London notes that “it’s practically unthinkable to open a restaurant without one.” In this climate, fire became more ambient than elemental.
It’s in this saturated context that ALTA, opened on September 22nd, 2025, in Kingly Court, introduces itself with a question: Can live-fire cooking become the heart and soul again, not just a theatre? Can precision return to the grill, and restraint carry a menu? These are the stakes implied in the sourcing, structure, and the chef’s own history.
The Chef
Rob Roy Cameron’s CV is rather impressive. Botswana-born, trained in South Africa, with over a decade of experience in Spain. He worked at El Bulli and 41 Degrees, the progressive offshoot of the restaurant Tickets under Albert Adrià, where he became Albert Adrià's right-hand man and the head chef at 26. Then he helped to launch Hoja Santa, where Mexican tradition was filtered through Catalan technique. The restaurant earned a Michelin star. His return to London marked the opening of Gazelle, a beautiful bar-restaurant that was precise yet misaligned with its target audience. It lasted under a year. ALTA is his next chapter.
The Restaurant’s Method
Inspired by the stunning Alta Navarre peninsula, ALTA showcases the region’s culinary heritage with a relaxed menu featuring sharing plates and grilled dishes. The restaurant welcomes guests seven days a week, offering seating for over 100 across two floors, private dining rooms, and an outdoor terrace.
The dishes at ALTA marry the essence of Spanish cooking, honing in on the Basque Country with the best of the British larder. Escabeche techniques (a method of marinating fish, meat or vegetables common in Spain), incorporating British vinegars and oils, are prevalent across the menu and focus on low-carbon ingredients from small-scale producers and farmers. This includes a special breed of Iberico pork, bred in Shropshire by chef Brett Graham, and a dairy cow from the Lake District. Fish and seafood are sourced exclusively from the UK, with a predominant focus on the South West coast. Vegetables are sourced from a range of suppliers in the south of England, including Good Earth Growers, which is currently planting varieties of Spanish peppers exclusively for the restaurant.
The menu is designed for sharing and features a range of small to medium plates. Cornish mussels & grilled bread, Baked beetroot salad, almonds & balsamic dressing, Wood-fired courgette with pumpkin seed Romesco, Razor clams in white escabeche, as well as Homemade Txistorra & Onion Cider Jus.
A Grill section will offer guests the choice of meats and fish, such as 38-day-aged beef sirloin and Turbot Head. Desserts don’t shift register. Chocolate mousse with smoked olive oil meringue, and Basque cheesecake with escabeche strawberries. The drinks offering at ALTA is being curated by Dino Koletsas, most recently head of bars and beverages at Harrods.
The wine list at ALTA primarily features European wines, with a focus on low-intervention and ethically produced bottles from small-scale producers. A continuously changing wall of wines on tap, to include one-offs and fine wines, will be available alongside a list of wines by the bottle.
Influenced by the Basque Country’s prolific cider culture, ALTA will serve a selection of ciders from UK producers who focus on both ancestral and modern techniques, with examples to include Little Pomona from Herefordshire, Naughton Cider from Scotland and Wilding cider from Somerset. A few sherries will sit alongside ALTA’s aperitifs, including a Spanish vermouth on tap, whilst cocktails will depict a predominantly savoury flavour profile and make use of artisan spirits produced in Europe. We haven’t seen the dishes yet. However, the blueprint suggests the right equation of fire, acid, fat, and the right inspiration.
Why This Matters
The team behind ALTA includes MAD Restaurants founder Artem Login, and culinary advisors Andy Cook (formerly of Gordon Ramsay Group) and Giulia Cappuccio (KOL, The Ledbury). Their first project, MOI, is scheduled to open in July 2025. The group offers a combination of operational and fine dining experiences. They state their ambition to build long-term systems around chefs — not short-term concepts.
ALTA is set to open in September 2025 with a chef trained at the highest level, a team focused on long-term infrastructure, and a concept aligned with where dining is headed. It has all the right ingredients for success - now it’s about what they make of it.
ALTA Opening: September 2025
Bookings: August via alta.london
Address: Kingly Court, Soho, London
Hours: Mon–Sun, 12:00–14:30 / 17:00–22:00
Website: www.alta-restaurant.com
Photo: courtesy of Alta. Portrait of Rob Roy Cameron by Eleonora Boscarelli