Smoking Goat has been, for the better part of a decade, one of those London restaurants that operates at a level of daily demand that most operators would have long since resolved by opening more sites. The Shoreditch original — a low-lit, loud, coal-smoke-scented room serving Thai-inflected barbecue to a mix of walk-ins who have waited outside — runs full every service, turns tables at pace and maintains an atmosphere that is, for its regulars, essentially irreplaceable.
The decision to open a second site has therefore been slow and deliberate. Ben Chapman and his team have been publicly circumspect about expansion for years, wary of the dilution that a second site — particularly one poorly chosen or poorly executed — could introduce into a brand that is, at its core, about a specific experience in a specific room.
Islington's Upper Street is the answer they have arrived at. The site, a ground-floor space with basement kitchen capacity, will be fitted out in a format that Chapman has described as "the same restaurant, not a version of it." The coal-fired grill is the centrepiece. The menu — larb, fish sauce wings, aged beef and pork cuts, the chargrilled oyster mushroom dish that has become one of the most talked-about vegetable preparations in London — travels intact. There will be no reservations.
Why Now, Why Islington
Islington was chosen after a search that Chapman says considered twenty or more sites over three years. The Upper Street location offers footfall patterns that suit a no-reservations model — a high volume of self-selecting food-interested walkers rather than destination diners who expect a table to be waiting — alongside the kitchen infrastructure to run a coal-fire-based operation in a way that not every central London building can accommodate.
"The no-reservations model only works if the street does some of the work for you," Chapman has said previously about the format. "Shoreditch works because the people walking past at eight on a Thursday evening are already out and looking for somewhere. Upper Street has a similar energy. People are in restaurant mode."
The Islington site will seat approximately 60 covers — larger than Shoreditch's 45 — a decision that Chapman describes as pragmatic rather than expansionist. The coal grill requires a specific throughput to operate at the right temperature and condition, and a slightly larger room allows the kitchen to use the grill at its full capacity without over-producing for the room size.
Smoking Goat Islington is targeting a September 2026 opening. No further sites are planned, Chapman confirmed.