Sally Abé, one of the UK’s most decorated chefs, will open her first standalone restaurant in London’s Hackney next month. Teal by Sally Abé launches on 26 March at 52 Wilton Way – a site with considerable culinary pedigree, having previously housed both Pidgin, which held a Michelin star, and its successor Sesta.
The opening marks a defining career moment for a chef who has spent more than 15 years building her reputation through some of London’s most celebrated kitchens, but has never before owned a restaurant outright. “It’s the first restaurant I’ve built entirely on my own, on my own two feet, and I’m hugely proud of that,” Abé said. “After years of working in other peoples’ businesses and kitchens, this is me putting my name, my values and my voice into a space that’s truly mine.”
The announcement comes barely six weeks after Abé departed The Bull in Charlbury, the Cotswolds gastropub where she served as head of food from April 2025. Her exit, confirmed on 7 January, ended a nine-month tenure during which The Bull was named best pub in the UK by Pub and Bar Magazine and the only Oxfordshire entry in Time Out’s top 20 UK restaurants.
Teal takes its name from Abé’s favourite game bird and will serve classic British dishes with what the chef describes as a nostalgic twist. The menu includes Dorset crab royale with English peas and lovage, haunch of deer with pickled walnuts and cavolo nero, raspberry marshmallow teacake and marmalade ice-cream sandwich – dishes that reflect the hearty, flavour-driven approach to British seasonal cooking that has defined Abé’s career.
The restaurant is co-owned with Abe Drewry, who worked alongside Abé at The Bull. Drewry will oversee a wine list centred on Champagne, oaky Chardonnays and Bordeaux reds. Head chef Abbie Hendren joins from Sam’s Waterside in Brentford, where she led the kitchen across multiple sites for the Genuine Restaurant Group. Hendren previously held positions at The Glasshouse in Kew and La Trompette in Chiswick.
The appointment of Hendren as head chef signals Abé’s continued commitment to building female-led kitchen teams – a principle that has been central to her professional identity. At The Pem, the restaurant she launched within the Conrad London St James hotel in 2021, Abé assembled a predominantly female brigade and named the establishment after Emily Wilding Davison, the suffragette whose family nickname was Pem. That thread runs through Teal’s design, which Abé created with her sister. The dining room features vintage Winchester stools, pendant lighting and antique brass table lamps alongside posters of historic women’s rights marches.
Abé’s trajectory through London’s restaurant scene reads as a masterclass in building authority within high-pressure kitchens. Originally from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, she trained at Sheffield Hallam University before landing a placement at The Savoy and subsequently working at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s. A five-year stint under Brett Graham at the two-Michelin-starred Ledbury in Notting Hill proved formative, followed by a role on the opening team at Phil Howard’s Elystan Street.
In 2017, Graham invited Abé to take over as head chef at The Harwood Arms in Fulham – London’s only Michelin-starred pub – where she retained the star and secured the number one position in the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs. Her four-year consultancy at the Conrad London St James followed, overseeing The Pem, the Blue Boar Pub, a cocktail bar and an afternoon tea lounge. The Pem was named One to Watch at the 2021 National Restaurant Awards and later featured in the UK Top 100 Restaurants.
Her public profile rose further in 2025 when she reached the banquet of the BBC’s Great British Menu for the first time at her third attempt, scoring a perfect 40 for her roasted onion consommé and earning the starter course at Blenheim Palace.
“Teal by Sally Abé is about celebrating the best of British food, its history, its flavours and its stories, while championing women, supporting good causes and building a restaurant that feels rooted in its community,” Abé said. The opening adds to a notable trend of established chefs launching independent ventures in 2026, with London’s restaurant scene showing continued appetite for chef-led concepts rooted in quality ingredients and clear culinary identity, even as the wider sector contracts.
