New restaurant Kāio ignites West London this summer, opening at The Whiteley with a dining room built around a circular bar and an open kitchen, plus a terrace running alongside Queensway. The space was designed by Lamp Ldn Studio, working around the tabun oven and charcoal grill rather than screening them off. Every seat in the main room has some sightline to either the fire or the bar.
Why is the bar circular?
A circular bar removes the usual front-and-back split of a straight counter — there's no side that faces the room and no side that faces the wall. Guests sit around the full perimeter, bartenders work the centre, and the room reads as one continuous space rather than a bar at one end and tables at the other. It's a layout that rewards a restaurant confident enough to put its bar in the middle of the action instead of off to one side.
Restaurant Industry, writing about the opening, singled out the circular bar and the terrace as part of what makes the room work as a whole rather than reading as a dining room with a bar attached to it.
What does Lamp Ldn Studio's design actually solve for?
The brief was never just decorative. An open tabun oven and a charcoal grill both throw heat, light and smoke into the room, and a design built around them has to account for airflow, sightlines and noise as much as materials and finish. Lamp Ldn Studio's layout keeps the kitchen visible from most of the dining room without putting every table directly in the heat, which is a harder balance to strike than it sounds — cooking over live fire in full view of guests only works if the room around it is built to handle what that fire actually does.
What's the terrace like?
The terrace sits alongside the main room and looks out over Queensway, giving Kāio an outdoor option that doesn't feel like an add-on to the main dining space. It's built for the stretch of the year when eating outside in London still makes sense — earlier dinners with the evening light still up, or a drink at the bar before or after a table inside.
How does the design connect back to the kitchen?
None of the room's design decisions sit apart from how Kāio cooks. Head Chef Sachin Mistry's kitchen runs on live fire rather than a hidden gas line, so the room had to be built to put that method on display rather than around it. The circular bar, the sightlines to the tabun and grill, and the terrace are all part of the same decision: make the way the food is cooked part of what a guest actually experiences, not just what ends up on the plate.
Kāio is open now during its soft opening at The Whiteley, Bayswater, with dinner service Tuesday to Saturday, 6:00pm to 11:30pm.
