She won MasterChef: The Professionals in 2022 — becoming the first female winner of that title in a decade. She then won Great British Menu's Champion of Champions in 2026. Now Nikita Pathakji opens her debut restaurant, and all the evidence suggests it has been worth the wait.
MAAI opens on Wednesday 20 May at 33–35 Abbeville Road, Clapham — a family enterprise in the most literal sense. The name means 'mum' in Gujarati. Nikita's mother Rima and sister Isha are both part of the team. The founding principle, as articulated by Pathakji, is simple: to cook food that makes people feel completely at home.
That idea — hospitality as an extension of the domestic — runs through everything the restaurant has signalled about its approach. The room on Abbeville Road is relaxed without being deliberately casual, warm without being precious. It is, in Pathakji's own framing, the kind of restaurant she and her family would actually want to spend an evening in.
The Menu
The cooking draws on Pathakji's classical training — she has worked at a Michelin level throughout her career — overlaid with the flavours of her Gujarati heritage and a wider set of references accumulated through her travels. The result sits somewhere between a modern British restaurant and something more openly personal. It is not a fusion menu in the pejorative sense. It is the menu of a chef who has absorbed a great deal and has the confidence not to conceal it.
Smaller plates include a Chaat Tartlet that positions itself as a study in contrasting textures — sweet, sour, crisp — and a Sea Bream with Kalamansi Ponzu that lands sharply on the acidic end of the spring palate. There is also an Octopus Tako Yaki Doughnut that signals what Pathakji does particularly well: taking a street food form she respects and applying fine dining precision without losing its essential pleasure.
Larger plates lean into the season. A BBQ Paneer with Palak Purée gives vegetable cookery the serious treatment it requires rather than the afterthought it receives in many kitchens. The Seared Halibut with Malaysian Fish Head Curry — the dish that earned Pathakji the Champion of Champions title — arrives on the opening menu having already won at the highest level. Spring Lamb Rump with Pea and Coconut is this week's most appetising-sounding main in London.
Why This Opening Matters
The south London dining scene has been quietly building for several years, but Clapham's Abbeville Road has rarely hosted a restaurant at this level. MAAI will put the street on maps it has not previously appeared on, drawing diners from across the city to a neighbourhood that, as regulars know, deserves the attention.
Pathakji is also one of a cohort of young female chefs changing the complexion of British fine dining — not by making noise about it, but by simply doing exceptional work. She is 28 years old. She has won the two most prestigious chef competitions British television has produced. MAAI is her first restaurant.
It would not be surprising if it were not her last.
Booking
MAAI is open for dinner Tuesday to Sunday and lunch Wednesday to Sunday. Reservations are available through the restaurant website. Walk-ins will be considered at the bar where space allows. The opening week — 20–25 May — is already substantially booked, but later May dates remain available.
33–35 Abbeville Road, Clapham, SW4 9LA.