Londo

From sink work to the counter

The edit starts before service, when Robert Fairs, owner and chef at Londo in Christchurch, decides what the small kitchen can carry that day. He has worked the long way into that decision: dishwasher at Cassels Brewery restaurant in Christchurch, intern at a restaurant in Copenhagen from 2015, head chef at Roots in Lyttelton from 2017, then owner and chef here since 2021. That sequence matters because Londo asks for control without much room to hide. The room is no more than 30 square metres, with an even smaller kitchen, and the counter gives guests a clear line of sight to the pass. Fairs built the place as a move away from rigid fine dining, toward a restaurant he and his friends would want to use: close, social, ingredient-led, and plain-spoken. In 2026 he received the MICHELIN Guide Young Chef Award, recognition attached to his work at Londo, where ownership and the chef’s station sit together.

Produce first, then the plate

The menu moves with what local producers can supply, so the method has to stay flexible. Fairs describes the food as fresh, local, simple and delicious, and the plates named from the room make that position clear: tangy shaved courgettes with Wairere buffalo stracciatella, barbequed and pickled beetroot with corn custard, barbequed Lumina lamb shoulder. The techniques are direct. Shaving keeps the courgette raw and bright; pickling gives beetroot its edge before smoke and heat deepen it; corn custard brings sweetness and set texture without crowding the plate. Londo works à la carte rather than through a fixed tasting menu, and dishes change often with the season. That puts pressure on the edit. In a kitchen of this scale, an ingredient earns its place by doing work, not by filling a garnish line. The wine program follows the same discipline, leaning into local natural wines and a small drinks offer built for conversation at the counter rather than ceremony at a distant table.

Thirty square metres of room

The room keeps the kitchen close. Most seats run along the bar, facing the work, with three small tables for guests who want a little distance from the pass. Natural wood and pared-back Scandinavian and Japanese cues keep the space quiet without making it severe; the fit-out came through Christchurch hands, with Michael Gilling of Xylo woodcraft and Alex Bowater of Master Studio shaping the material tone. Because the restaurant is small, the service cannot become anonymous. Plates cross a short distance. Glasses land within speaking range. The scale is not a theme here. It is the condition under which the restaurant works.

The discipline of less

Londo’s importance in Christchurch comes from how little it needs to declare. It is a restaurant and natural wine bar at the city end of Papanui Road in Merivale, close to other small-format chef-led rooms, but its own argument is made through restraint: fewer seats, fewer barriers, fewer moving parts. Fairs’s next service will depend on the same practical question as the last one, what the bench can turn into dinner without losing the producer’s hand. If the menu has shifted again, the through-line remains in barbequed Lumina lamb shoulder and Wairere buffalo stracciatella.