Asma Khan closes Darjeeling Express Covent Garden in July

Writing on Twitter,The chef who moved the Darjeeling Express from its original location in Soho to Covent Garden back in 2020, said the restaurant’s last trading day would be Monday, July 4th.

It comes after Khan appeared on the BBC’s Saturday’s kitchenon weekends and announced that she is ‘in the market’ for a new siteAdding that she is looking for someone with an open kitchen to better allow her kitchen team, which consists exclusively of women, to be more visible.

She said: “[Covent Garden] was brilliant during the pandemic and I have not said this publicly anywhere I want to move [the restaurant] because the real stars of the show are my women in the kitchen.

“Right now we’re in a basement kitchen, which is true of most places in the West End. Anyone who knows anyone who wants to lease a restaurant to me, I’m in the market.”

Khan appeared to confirm in her Twitter post that she has not yet found a new home for Darjeeling Express, but wrote that she hopes to be able to reopen soon.

Darjeeling Express began life as a dinner club for 12 guests before Khan opened it as a restaurant in Soho’s Kingly Court in 2017. During its lifetime the small restaurant received plenty of critical acclaim with a table that was often difficult to get hold of. due to its popularity.

In the summer of 2020, after the first national Coronavirus lockdown, Khan confirmed she would move the restaurant from Soho to Covent Gardenafter taking over the former Carluccio’s place on Garrick Street.

Then she told BigHospitality.The ‘break in lockdown’ had allowed her to reconsider how she could make things easier for her team, adding that she wanted a side with a larger kitchen and dining room to be able to educate more women in all aspects or run a restaurant.