The story
Above the bustle of Borough Market, in a thoughtfully restored space on Bedale Street, OMA offers something quietly different. The restaurant draws inspiration from the serenity and simplicity of the Greek isles, layering in the bold flavours of the Levant and beyond. It is a vision that earned a Michelin star for high quality cooking, and one rooted in genuine discovery.
The story of OMA begins with a chance trip to Crete in the late summer of 2022. The team was struck not just by the island’s staggering landscapes—wild coastlines, mountain ranges, charming villages—but by the depth of its flavours and the sincerity of its hospitality. One place, in particular, left a lasting impression: Ntounias, a working farm and restaurant near Chania where traditional Cretan recipes are cooked in clay pots over wood ovens. That warmth and generosity of spirit became the template for OMA.
In the kitchen, that ethos translates into dishes built around the seasons. The menu features a giouvetsi—a clay-pot braised orzo—that shifts throughout the year. The oxtail version, enriched with bone marrow and topped with beef fat pangrattato, has become a constant, a direct line back to those Cretan tavernas. Another signature is the açma verde, a soft, twisted Turkish bread made green with wild garlic and parsley butter, developed over months by baker Eyal Schwartz and now baked fresh each morning by head baker Gizem.
The food is complemented by a wine list of over 400 bins, chosen for the minerality and salinity of sun-washed coastlines. The space itself—with a covered, heated terrace and a dining room above the team’s downstairs counterpart, AGORA—is designed for unhurried meals.
Here, the Greek cuisine is not about replication but about translation. OMA takes the traditions, ingredients, and spirit of the Mediterranean and makes them feel at home in London.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
High quality cooking
David Carter (of Smokestak and Manteca fame) is a dab hand at opening dynamic contemporary restaurants that know how to put on a show where it matters – on the plate. He’s gone all out with his latest opening. Part of a two-tiered operation in Borough Market, Oma sits above its more casual, non-bookable sister Agora, and echoes of the rawness and cacophony of the action at street level add to the vibrancy of the perfectly pitched dining room and covered terrace. Jorge Paredes (ex-Sabor) heads the open-plan ‘live fire’ kitchen, delivering dishes that are Greek in spirit but also draw inspiration from the southern sweep of the Mediterranean basin. He achieves striking results, attracting hordes of punters intent on grazing on some seriously inventive dishes (booking is a must). The breads are a highlight – believe your server’s enthusiasm, they really are delicious. We teamed some Wildfarmed laffa (hot, fluffy flatbread) and açma verde (a green-flecked bagel-shaped bun) with a creamy mound of labneh topped with salt cod XO, while a serving of smooth houmous came topped with whole, crispy chickpeas, green zhoug and plenty of sumac. Gilthead bream ceviche in a spiky green tomato and apple aguachile was another knockout dish – likewise squid-ink giouvetsi (squid ragù and orzo pasta), impressively rendered in a prawn-bisque stock to a state of almost criminal lusciousness. But the standout, by a whisker, proved to be spanakopita gratin – a bowl of melted sheep’s and goat’s cheese with spinach, accompanied by malawach (a flaky, Yemeni flatbread). To conclude, a beguiling combination of olive-oil gelato and fennel pollen with extra olive oil made the perfect finale. The well-considered, 450-bin wine list has treasures in abundance to match the kitchen’s cavalcade of flavours, although there is precious little under £40 a bottle. Still, £5.50 will buy you a 125ml pour from the house selection.
Housed upstairs from AGORA, the Greek taverna concept that serves as a casual counterpoint to OMA’s more premium sensibility, David Carter’s newly-starred restaurant juxtaposes a crudo bar (the name coming from the Greek word for raw) with a live fire kitchen that delivers a host of truly knockout dishes. Though billed as being inspired by the serenity and simplicity of the Greek isles, OMA explores a far broader dining spectrum, which encompasses the vivid flavours of the Levant and further afield. The menu is tight, but expansive. Sections dedicated to breads and dips begin the meal before moving onto small and large sharing plates that demonstrate a fresh and punchy vitality that shows the breadth of Carter’s ambition. While much of food changes with the seasons, some dishes have marked themselves out as long-term signatures including the spanakopita gratin with malawach; and the oxtail giouvetsi with bone marrow that’s topped with beef fat pangrattato. With a 450-bin plus list, OMA is billed as a wine-led restaurant. Around 60% of the restaurant’s wine is sourced from Greece and, interestingly, is largely arranged by proximity to the sea with sections including ‘surrounded by the sea’ (island wines); ‘influence of the sea’ (coastal); and ‘further inland’ (encompassing mountain, valley and rolling hill vineyards). The restaurant’s look, meanwhile, takes its cues from the rugged landscapes of Greece, employing colour schemes of eucalyptus, stone and dark wood, and finishes utilising natural materials throughout.
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