The Abu Dhabi restaurant collective behind Zephyr and Lagana brings their boldest concept yet to Mayfair with an all-day Persian menu.
The team that built a reputation in Abu Dhabi’s most talked-about dining room is finally making their London move, and they’re doing it with Soraya. Walking into the new Mayfair space feels less like entering a restaurant and more like stepping into a calculated statement about what Persian cuisine can be when given serious money, serious space, and serious culinary conviction. The dining room hits that particular London sweet spot right now: warm lighting that doesn’t feel clinical, careful material choices that announce taste without shouting about it, and enough breathing room between tables that conversation stays private.
The all-day menu is the real flex here. This isn’t the typical London Persian spot built around lunch and dinner service with awkward quiet hours between. Soraya operates as a proper destination, built for the kind of guests who want to take their time over kebab and herb-forward plates at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday or roll in at 11 p.m. for late supper. The roster behind this venture comes from Zephyr and Lagana, both concepts that built their followings on understanding how to balance accessibility with genuine culinary craft, and how to make hospitality feel like an actual conversation rather than service theater.
For London’s ongoing conversation about which cuisines get center-stage treatment and which get relegated to neighborhood tucked-away status, Soraya’s Mayfair location and commitment to all-day service reads as a meaningful shift. The restaurant arrives in August 2026 into a city that’s only begun to move past the tired assumption that Persian cooking belongs in certain zip codes or certain time slots. Here, it’s simply the main event.
