Dariush Tamadon Nejad

After moving to London in 1999, Dariush started working with Jonathan Downey and Dick Bradsell at Match and ran the EC1 site, before setting up their Margaret St and Soho sites.

In 2000 Dariush joined the bar team at J. Sheekey and held the position of assistant bar manager for the next two years. The next four years were spent working for Will Ricker, firstly managing E&O in Notting Hill, then moving east to run Cicada. After returning from a soul-searching surf trip in south west Spain, Dariush was approached to open a 4-floor restaurant in Notting Hill called Bumpkin, serving seasonal British food to people who hated the name of the restaurant, but loved the food, the style of service and his endless wardrobe of checked cowboy shirts.

From Notting Hillbillies to French bankers and old money, they opened up another restaurant in South Kensington. When Dariush got itchy feet and felt that he wanted something different, more seasonal and with more focus on regionality, he bumped into Mark Hix who offered him the position of General Manager of a new site he was about to open called HIX in Brewer Street......and the rest is history. 

Dariush is now Group General Manager, overseeing all restaurant managers and ensuring that consistency in our front of house is adhered to. “Our front of house staff have got to be passionate, knowledgeable, smart and sassy. They can only work for us if they really want to be here, if they love food and wine, and enjoy hosting a dinner party every night of the week. My personal mantra as to what makes a restaurant great?....it’s the spirit of the people that work there. When you have that greatness of spirit then everything else should fall into place, because with the team that we have we can be certain that the food will be wonderful, and the drinks will be special.”