Martinis, mac and cheese and mafia vibes: The UK’s American food boom

We wouldn’t vote for them. We wouldn’t live there. We complain about their guns, their politics, their Supreme Court rulings. And yet we’ll queue 45 minutes in the rain for a smashburger with neon cheese and pay £100 a head for mafia-coded rigatoni. We’ll pretend Nashville is a vibe and not a state of mind when we’re line-dancing in Chiswick. America might be unravelling, but to Brits, it’s never looked so good on a plate.

London – and much of Britain – is in the grip of an Americana boom. From packed honky-tonk diners in west London to heaving Tex Mex joints in Manchester and Blackpool, it’s clear that American food is having a moment. Never mind our obsession with gut health or disdain for Trump – we’ll take the brisket, the burgers, the mac and cheese and all the martinis, thank you very much.

Perhaps the most telling sign of this appetite is the impending arrival of Carbone – the celebrity-fuelled, old-school Italian-American dining room that’s been a Manhattan status symbol since it opened in 2013. Soon to open at the glittering Chancery Rosewood hotel in Grosvenor Square – the redeveloped site of the former American Embassy – the London outpost will join the brand’s glossier Miami and Las Vegas siblings.

The New York original has hosted everyone from Rihanna and Leonardo DiCaprio to Barack Obama, serving a menu heavy on lobster ravioli, veal marsala and thick-cut grilled steaks in a dark-panelled, martini-soaked setting. It’s hard to imagine a bolder symbol of Americana’s grip on the capital than one of its most exclusive US dining rooms setting up shop here.

Martin Kuczmarski, founder of The Dover in Mayfair, another New York-Italian restaurant that opened in late 2023, says it’s not about chasing trends. “Through my travels, and from living in London, I noticed that old-school hospitality was slowly disappearing. So my mission was to bring it back,” he says.

In a city where restaurants often worship at the altar of reinvention, Kuczmarski’s inspiration is almost rebellious: look backwards, not forwards. “Being half-Italian, and having spent lots of time in New York, I always loved Brooklyn-Italian food specifically, because it was executed with slightly more punchy flavours, and a bit more attitude, rather than pure, classic Italian food.”

It’s an approach that, intentionally or not, mirrors a wider cultural mood. In America, the political clock feels like it’s ticking in reverse – Supreme Court rulings overturned, nostalgia for “simpler” times that were anything but. Here, the revival is culinary rather than ideological, but the instinct is the same: dust off the past and serve it up with a modern garnish.

open image in gallery

It’s a worldview that also challenges London’s idea of what Mayfair dining should be. “I have not followed any trend; I simply felt that this kind of food mixed with beautiful design, warm atmosphere and kind, professional and efficient service, would work in London,” he says. “I never wanted to be over-priced, like many other restaurants. I wanted to provide fair pricing for what you get, and I like to think The Dover has achieved this.”

The Dover landed just ahead of a now-unstoppable Italian-American boom in London, its success helping to set the tone for the surge. Step inside and you’re met with softly lit banquettes upholstered in plush brown fabric, checkerboard floors, wood-panelled walls and a hum that suggests deals might be struck over martinis in the corner. The room feels equal parts cinematic and conspiratorial – all the glamour of mid-century Italy with a wink of Godfather-style drama.

And yet, it isn’t only the glossy, reservation-only restaurants muscling in. At street level, American fast food is in expansion mode: Popeyes, Wingstop, Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Chipotle all have plans to grow their UK footprint. American-style sandwich shops and pizzerias are springing up in cities across the country, offering diners a taste of New York or New Orleans without the airfare. In a cost of living crisis, this taps neatly into the “small luxuries” trend – fried chicken, burgers and pizza as affordable indulgences – with the added allure of massive portions. More bang for your buck.

But how “authentic” is this wave? Kate Krader, food editor at Bloomberg and an American who spends half the year living in London, thinks it’s often more of a curated fantasy than a straight import. “It’s definitely not a full-on authentic exchange,” she says. “People copying Levain-style cookies [a NYC bakery famous for its giant chocolate chip cookies] are generally using different chips… and at Lenny’s Apizza in Finsbury Park the owner can’t get the right clams for a clam pizza, which is a hallmark.” Presumably, they also can’t get the E-numbers.

open image in gallery

Still, Krader admits some places get the atmosphere spot-on. “One Club Row [which opened in Shoreditch in April] feels a lot like a buzzy New York City place,” she says. “You wouldn’t dip your burger in sauce in NYC” – a staple at One Club Row – “but it’s more the vibe and the energy.” It quickly became one of the most hyped restaurants of the year; you’ll be lucky to grab a seat before 9pm if you haven’t booked months in advance. For the opportunists, a small light by the door illuminates if there are walk-in seats available – a nod to the New York model of dining, where the thrill is in squeezing into a buzzy room at short notice.

This kind of dining is less about culinary fireworks and more about curated comfort. It’s buzzy, brash and very easy to love. In these tough financial times, American-style dining hits that sweet spot: fun, without pretension. The dishes are familiar but turbocharged – red sauce pasta, fried chicken, pickles, crinkle fries, peanut butter milkshakes.

Social media only amplifies the hype. Smashburgers practically exist to be filmed; cheese pulls, fried chicken ASMR and martini fountains are digital crack. American food lends itself perfectly to the theatre of TikTok and Instagram.

And perhaps, deeper down, it speaks to something more complex. Our relationship with America has always been a tangle of admiration, imitation, resistance and condescension. “It’s tricky to talk about rejecting US politics while embracing their food,” says Krader slyly, “but the tourism numbers say a lot.”

Home Office data, meanwhile, shows more than 6,600 Americans applied for British citizenship or residency in the 12 months to March – a 26 per cent jump on the year before and the highest since records began in 2004. Almost a third of those applications landed between January and March this year, in the opening months of Donald Trump’s second term. That’s not to mention the almost 5 million Americans who visited the UK as tourists last year, up 9 per cent compared to 2023.

open image in gallery

You might be forgiven for thinking that Britain’s restaurants already take their cues from every corner of the globe – Chinese and Indian are woven into our country’s fabric, French has never really left, Thai and Filipino are currently having their moment in the sun, and increasingly it’s more unfamiliar regional cooking from familiar places that’s making waves. There’s even matcha in Pret.

Have we tired of all that? Hardly. But post-Brexit, with ties to Europe severed, British culture has started to look westward for inspiration. We speak the language of their menus. We know what a Reuben is, how to order our steak, what kind of Old Fashioned we like. It’s fluency as belonging. These restaurants aren’t about authenticity. They’re about atmosphere, identity, fantasy.

“London and New York are actually competitive siblings,” says Kuczmarski. “They love each other, are inspired by each other, but at the same time are in constant competition with each other. I have to say, New York may be a bit edgier than London currently.”

Krader’s take? “A for effort to London but they have a little ways to go before they catch New York. New York is in the midst of a very good food moment. But if what you care about is drinking martinis, you’re in better shape in London… at least until you’re not!”

Perhaps that’s the point – we’re not trying to beat New York at its own game. Britain has always been a magpie nation when it comes to food, cherry-picking the best bits from everywhere else and calling them our own. America just happens to be the current muse. Give it a few years and the same questions could be asked about why X restaurant from X country is setting up shop here.

For now, the politics might still be hard to swallow – but the burgers, rigatoni and line-dancing aren’t.

Pass the ranch.