A traditional restaurant tends to have a particular style that it sticks to. The menu might change now and then, and so might the chef, but broadly speaking the offering stays the same. It was a pretty novel concept therefore, when Carousel first opened in 2014 as a space where week on week, different chefs from all over the world would come to do short residencies in the kitchen. Now based in Fitzrovia, Carousel has added another string to its bow alongside its residencies, having launched a ground floor wine bar that serves a more permanent menu of small plates, overseen by head chef and co-founder Ollie Templeton.

As you might expect from a concept so multi-faceted (it also has an upstairs events room for events), Carousel stretches over a large space across two floors on the ever-fashionable Charlotte Street. The ground floor is predominantly taken up by the stripped-back wine bar, overlooked by a compact open kitchen; painted white walls stacked with bottles add to the spacious feel of the place. Hidden away at the back is a larger kitchen and then also a high-ceilinged room where the chef residencies take space. Upstairs, meanwhile is reserved for events.

While chef residencies ensure there’s always something different on at Carousel, the food offering at the wine bar is a constant. A crowd-pleasing menu of small plates features seasonal, Mediterranean-inspired dishes such as tempura trombetta courgette with lemon aioli and fried chicken with fermented honey and chilli mayonnaise, all coming in under the twenty-pound mark. The food menu is, of course, accompanied by an impressive selection of minimal intervention wines, with a variety of cocktails also on offer. Open from lunch all the way through to dinner, it’s a spot made for everything from an afternoon snack to a lazy dinner.

Over the years Carousel has become known as London’s go-to place for chef residencies but the food menu at the wine bar has fast developed a reputation of its own. Together these two different elements of Carousel make it restaurant like no other in London.