Fayre, the signature restaurant at The Shepherd Mayfair, has unveiled its interiors and opening menu ahead of the boutique hotel’s planned arrival in October 2026.
Located on the ground floor of the new Shepherd Market hotel, the 62-cover restaurant will offer all-day service from breakfast through dinner. Seasonal British ingredients lead the menu, supported by familiar favourites and European classics.
The newly released interiors connect Fayre with the May Fair once held in the surrounding fields. Rich berry colours, dark timber panelling and upholstered banquettes create an intimate dining room, while bespoke wall coverings reinterpret the market’s performers and games of chance.
The Shepherd Mayfair will open at 2 Stanhope Row, although its precise October launch date has yet to be announced. The six-floor hotel will contain 70 rooms and 12 suites, with rates starting from £500.
Fayre’s interiors recall the historic May Fair
Set within the intimate lanes of Shepherd Market, Fayre is designed as a neighbourhood restaurant rather than a formal hotel dining room. The space draws its colours from mulberries and blueberries, using burgundy overhead and warm amber glass to soften the darker timber.
Theatrical wall coverings by urban artist Adam Ellis provide the strongest historical reference. His layered scenes depict the livestock markets and public entertainment associated with the former May Fair, with metallic details and touches of gold bringing movement to the walls.
Shepherd Market developed after Edward Shepherd transformed the area between 1735 and 1746. Before then, the fields had hosted the May Fair that gave the wider district its name. Fayre draws on that history while retaining a contemporary dining room.
The restaurant occupies the site associated with The Cottage, described in the hotel’s materials as Mayfair’s oldest house. Dating to 1618, it was once home to a shepherd who tended his flock across the surrounding land.
British produce shapes the opening menu
Fayre’s menu brings seasonal British produce into polished but recognisable dishes. Early highlights include lobster and prawn brioche rolls, braised beef short rib croquettes, citrus-cured trout and beef Wellington pithivier.
Other dishes announced during the restaurant’s development include crispy duck confit salad and Gloucester Old Spot pork chop. Scallops, dry-aged steaks and changing vegetarian plates will broaden the selection, with the precise menu expected to follow the seasons.
Dessert has been given its own weekly format. The restaurant’s Puddings by the Glass series will serve British-inspired creations in tall glasses, beginning with a strawberry and Champagne trifle. A different pudding is planned each week, linking classic flavours with the spectacle and playfulness of the former fair.
Among the wider opening selection is expected to be Paris-Brest with chocolate chips and pistachio mousseline cream. It will be accompanied by Baked Alaska featuring caramelised pear, hazelnut and honey, alongside a blackberry Bakewell tart.
The combination gives Fayre the breadth expected from an all-day hotel restaurant while keeping its identity connected to British ingredients. Its 62-cover scale should also preserve the more personal atmosphere suggested by its banquettes and low, warm palette.
The Lounge will move from coffee to evening drinks
At street level, The Lounge is a 46-cover café and bar designed to welcome Shepherd Market residents as readily as hotel guests. Forest-green velvet, natural timber and geometric details create a lighter contrast to Fayre’s deep berry tones.
Black-and-white illustrations by British artist John Broadley appear throughout the room. An outdoor terrace and street-facing hatch will extend the café into the surrounding lanes, with pastries and coffee in the morning followed by casual lunches and evening drinks.
A bespoke Moatwood gin trolley will provide tableside service. Made from a fallen tree sourced in Kensington Palace Gardens, the timber was hand-finished by a craftsman in Hackney.
Teddy’s brings a hidden cocktail bar below ground
On the lower-ground floor, Teddy’s will be The Shepherd Mayfair’s late-night cocktail bar. Named after Edward Shepherd, the 72-cover venue will open from Tuesday to Saturday and can be reached through a discreet Market Mews entrance.
Guests will also be able to enter by concealed staircase, lift or an arched passage leading from the lobby. Deep green and blue interiors, commissioned murals and a restrained Parisian influence distinguish the bar from the hotel’s brighter public rooms.
The cocktail list looks back to lesser-known recipes from the 1930s, reworked for a contemporary bar. Five house drinks take their names from phrases coined by Victorian writer and former Mayfair resident Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
Behind the bar, the drinks collection will cover aged Scotch, Japanese whisky, American whiskey, tequila, mezcal, Cognac and Calvados. Its Champagne selection will range from Bollinger to Louis Roederer Cristal.
Rooms are shaped by the building’s mansion layouts
The Shepherd Mayfair’s 82 individually configured rooms and suites take their proportions from the building’s original mansion-style layouts. Warm timber, pale tonal finishes, curved upholstery and red velvet curtains form the core palette, with blue details used throughout.
Timothy Shepherd began designing the hotel while at Buckley Gray Yeoman before continuing the project through his own practice, Shepherd&. He told Hotel Designs that the goal was a property grounded in its location rather than one built around conspicuous branding.
“There wasn’t a formal brief – it was more a conversation,” Shepherd said. “I already knew the owners from previous projects and understood their desire for a boutique hotel that felt rooted in Mayfair rather than overtly branded. The aim was to capture the quiet confidence of the area’s historic mansions through artisanal materials and personal, human details.”
That practical approach appears in furniture tailored to the building’s varied room shapes. Desks convert into dressing areas, while console tables can become chessboards. Marble bathrooms and Floris London amenities in custom bottles continue the British focus, with selected suites also offering bathtubs and separate seating areas.
Photography by Jack English and George McLeod will be displayed in guest rooms, corridors and public spaces. British artist Nettie Wakefield has also created an illustrated London map that doubles as a neighbourhood guide and guest keepsake.
Wellbeing services come to the guest room
Wellbeing at The Shepherd Mayfair centres on partnerships with Italian clinical skincare company Miamo and London EMS training studio E-Pulsive.
Miamo products will be stocked in minibars, with personalised, full-size skincare protocols available through in-room dining. E-Pulsive will offer 20-minute full-body sessions in guest suites, nearby Royal Parks or its Belgravia studio. The concierge can arrange conventional personal training as an alternative.
The Shepherd Mayfair is expected to open in October 2026, with the exact date still to be confirmed. Fayre, The Lounge and Teddy’s are all intended for local visitors as well as hotel guests, extending the property from Stanhope Row into the lanes of Shepherd Market.
