We all know how important it is to allow as much natural light into the home as possible.
Homes with inadequate natural light can pose a threat to both our mental and physical health – sunlight boosts vitamin D production, helps our circadian rhythm function properly, and can even make us feel happier. And the best part? These all-encompassing benefits can be enjoyed even if you’re indoors.
Indeed, natural light’s positive physical and psychological effects are many. Should you be keen to boost your natural light intake, there’s no better way to enjoy some sun than by taking yourself outside. Research published by Cornell University found that even 10 minutes in a natural setting can lessen the effects of both physical and mental stress.
But as we head into the darkest months of the year, with the sun setting before most of us have even left the office, maximising natural light at home becomes all the more important. Here are the best ways to allow more of it into your space.
Install Larger Windows
An abundance of natural light is perhaps the most coveted piece of real estate out there, and people will pay a premium price for it. A 2018 survey suggested that homeowners would pay upwards of £20,000 more than the asking price for a property flooded with the stuff.
To boost both your happiness and the value of your property, the quickest path to natural light is through perhaps the biggest job: installing larger windows.
Not a quick fix, we realise, but the results of such a project are plain to see. Literally; your visibility will be much improved by introducing more natural light, and the bigger your windows, the more will get in through them. It’s not rocket science, but it’s something people overlook.
Of course, having new windows installed, and bigger windows at that, can be expensive. But considering the average double glazed window costs between £500 and £1,250 for supply and installation, doing so could well represent a worthwhile investment.”
Or if you want to keep it simpler and more general, Checkatrade states that for a whole house job you’re looking at around £7,500-£15,000 for a 3-bed – which might be more useful context for anyone thinking about larger windows.
Install A Skylight
Skylights are certainly an option to consider if you’re focused on letting more natural light into the home but the installation of replacement windows isn’t feasible.
In some instances, it may be structurally impossible to get access to more light via the sides of the home, but having natural light pouring in from above can make almost as much of a difference. There are a whole host of skylight solutions out there, including ventilating, fixed, and tubular options. In winter, when the sun sits lower in the sky, a well-positioned skylight can capture light that side-facing windows might miss entirely.
Switch To Lighter Window Treatments
If you’re looking for a more affordable way to brighten up your room, have you considered just how big an impact window dressings can have on the illumination within?
If you use lighter window treatments in your home, you’ll find that you’re able to make more of the natural light coming in through the windows. Even when curtains are not drawn, they’ll block out some of the light at each of the sides. In winter, when daylight hours are precious, every bit counts.
It might be time to revisit the idea of using shutters – they allow you to fully expose the windows when needed by simply folding back the panels, providing maximum natural light whilst still retaining privacy when you want it.
Alternatively, blinds offer similar flexibility; Venetian blinds in particular let you angle the slats to direct light exactly where you need it.
Use Mirrors Strategically
One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to maximise natural light is to use mirrors. Position a large mirror opposite or adjacent to a window and it will bounce light back into the room, effectively doubling the impact of whatever sunshine you’re getting.
This trick works particularly well in winter, when the sun is lower and light enters at a sharper angle. A well-placed mirror can send that light deeper into your home, brightening corners that would otherwise stay gloomy all day.
Use Glass Blocks Instead Of Solid Dividing Walls
If you’re looking to change up the layout in your home and natural light is a priority, consider replacing solid dividing walls with alternatives that let more light through them.
This is something that can be done perfectly with the use of solid glass blocks, which let light flow through the home keenly, preventing it from getting blocked. During the winter months, when you want light to travel as far into your home as possible, removing barriers between rooms can make a noticeable difference.
Don’t Block The Windows
Obstructing any natural source of light from the inside is a bad idea, so make sure that you don’t have anything directly in front of your windows that could obstruct light and make the room feel dingy.
This doesn’t only apply to that stack of books you can’t find a home for, but also to bulkier pieces, such as furniture, desks and computers. Clearing visual room can go a long way to making your room look more spacious. In winter, consider rearranging your furniture to ensure nothing is blocking those precious rays during the limited hours they’re available.
Choose Your Paint Colours Wisely
The colour of your walls plays a bigger role in how light moves around a room than you might think. Dark, moody tones might look lovely on a Pinterest board, but they absorb light rather than reflecting it. In winter, when natural light is already in short supply, this can make a room feel cave-like.
Opt for lighter shades – whites, creams, soft greys, or pale pastels – and you’ll find that light bounces around the room more effectively. If you can’t bear to part with your darker feature wall, at least keep the ceiling and adjacent walls light to help reflect what little winter sun you get.
Tame Your Trees
In some instances, the lack of natural light entering your home may be caused by external forces, namely, the trees and hedges surrounding your home and blocking the flow of light through your windows.
Here’s the silver lining of winter: deciduous trees will have dropped their leaves, so you may find your home naturally brighter between November and March. But evergreen hedges and conifers? They’ll be blocking light year-round. Consider getting some of these trimmed back, or even removed, to let more light through.
Of course, if it’s your neighbour’s trees or hedges blocking the flow of light into your home, you’ll have to consult with them first, prior to any pruning.
The Bottom Line
The flow of natural light in a room doesn’t only illuminate the space and make it feel more capacious, but it can also do wonders for its inhabitants’ outlook. When the days are short and the skies are grey, making the most of whatever light is available becomes essential. We hope you get some sun on your face soon, even if that’s through a window.
We’ve all heard the Ralph Waldo Emerson line about it not being about the destination but the journey, whatever ‘it’ may mean. Sure, we may have even trotted out the quote, in an attempt to convince a friend to join you on a road trip, or your wife to head to the fridge to grab you a beer.
But when we’re talking about walking holidays, where the very purpose is to roam and ramble, the beautiful backdrops setting the perfect scene for conversation and contemplation, then that old saying might be more than just a tedious motivational poster.
Indeed, there is arguably no better way to explore the picturesque sceneries, charming hamlets, and unique cultures of Europe than embarking on a walking holiday. Rambling across the continent’s historic trails not only gives you a chance to commune with nature, but it also offers an opportunity to immerse yourself in the cultural backdrop of these ancient lands. Today, we’re lacing up our walking boots and hitting the trails; here are 10 of Europe’s best walking holidays.
The Amalfi Coast, Italy
The iconic Amalfi Coast needs little in the way of an introduction, but introduce it we shall; a UNESCO World Heritage site, the coastline offers walkers stunning Mediterranean vistas, vibrant coastal villages, terraced vineyards and ancient ruins. The precipitous coastal footpaths might be a challenge, but the spellbinding panoramas over the Tyrrhenian Sea are eminently rewarding.
Perhaps the most iconic of these is along the enticingly named Path of the Gods. Carved into the cliffs and clocking in at roughly 7km, this is a great way to take in some views of the picturesque scenes below, as well as the limestone mountains above and micro-vineyards sculpted into the hillside. Most walkers start in Bomerano, a small village with a few amenities and shops.
No list of Europe’s best walking holidays would be complete without the Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James. This spiritual journey traverses through several routes, all with the goal of ending at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in Spain’s Galicia region.
Some of the most popular routes include:
Camino Frances (French Way): This is the most popular route of the Camino de Santiago. It stretches about 780 kilometres and usually starts in the French town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, crosses the Pyrenees and most of Northern Spain, and ends in Santiago de Compostela.
Camino Portugues (Portuguese Way): The second most popular route starts in Lisbon or Porto in Portugal and goes up to Santiago, covering a distance of about 610 kilometres from Lisbon or 227 kilometres from Porto.
Camino del Norte (Northern Way): This route runs along the northern coast of Spain, starting at the Basque city of Irun and ending in Santiago. It is around 825 kilometres long.
Camino Primitivo (Original Way): Believed to be the first pilgrimage route to Santiago, it starts from the city of Oviedo in Asturias and is approximately 320 kilometres long.
Via de la Plata (Silver Way): Starting in the southern Spanish city of Seville, this is one of the longest routes to Santiago de Compostela, with a typical length of about 1000 kilometres.
Camino Ingles (English Way): This route begins in the northern seaports of Ferrol or A Coruna, the path of English and Irish pilgrims who arrived by boat in the Middle Ages, covering 119 kilometres and 75 kilometres respectively.
Camino Finisterre-Muxia (Way to the End of the World): Although it’s not a traditional route to Santiago, but rather an extension from Santiago, this route has gained popularity. It continues to the ‘End of the Earth’ at Cape Finisterre, and then on to Muxia.
If you’re concerned about the expense of finding places to stay along this most famous of walking holidays (the Camino Frances, for instance, takes over a month to complete), then fear not; many of the places to stay are humble, sure, but owing to their history in accommodating pilgrims, only cost a couple of Euros to bed down in.
Known as ‘albergues’, they are essentially hostels for pilgrims and are either privately owned or run by the local municipality or religious institutions. Albergues offer dormitory-style sleeping arrangements, shared bathrooms, and sometimes a communal kitchen. They operate on a first-come, first-serve basis and pilgrims must present their ‘Camino Passport’ to stay.
Alternatively, there are plenty of ‘pensiones’ and ‘hostals’ on route. These are similar to small hotels and provide private rooms. They are a step up from albergues in terms of privacy and amenities, and often include breakfast. You’ll pay a modest €20 or so for the privilege.
The Pennine Way, UK
Regarded as one of Britain’s most iconic long-distance trails, The Pennine Way stretches from Edale in the Peak District to the Scottish borders. This 268-mile trek incorporates a blend of moorland serenity, steep mountainous terrain and expansive vistas that are quintessentially English.
Though The Pennine Way can take around three weeks to complete, many choose to shorten the walk and just tackle a section of it. Here’s a wonderful walk that focuses only on the beautiful Yorkshire Dales section of the walk, and takes a leisurely few days to complete:
Day 1: Starting point – Hawes
Start at the charming town of Hawes. Take a walk around the town, enjoy the local cheese from the Wensleydale Creamery, and prepare for your walk.
Day 2: Hawes to Horton-in-Ribblesdale, 14 miles
Walk through the Yorkshire Dales National Park, crossing the River Ribble via a historic bridge at Ribblehead, with the impressive Ribblehead Viaduct as a backdrop.
Day 3: Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Malham, 15 miles
Enjoy the views as you walk along the Pennine Way towards Malham. You’ll pass the beautiful Malham Tarn on your way, a unique lake in the middle of moorland.
Day 4: Malham to Gargrave, 6.5 miles
Pass by the natural wonder that is Malham Cove, a curved limestone cliff, and wander through the pastures until you reach Gargrave, where you can finish your condensed Pennine Way adventure.
The Tour du Mont Blanc, France, Italy & Switzerland
The Tour du Mont Blanc is one of the most spectacular multi-country trips in Europe. This 170-kilometre route circumnavigates the Mont Blanc massif, traversing through varying landscapes including towering snow-tipped peaks, verdant valleys and delightful Alpine villages.
When embarking on the Tour du Mont Blanc, spanning France, Italy, and Switzerland, it’s often best to start from the French town of Les Houches, just outside of Chamonix. The full circuit typically takes 10-11 days to complete, with daily walking times ranging from 4 to 9 hours.
In terms of pacing, tackling the route in a counter-clockwise direction affords more gradual ascents and provides stunning views each day. It’s also important to remember to stay hydrated and take regular breaks, especially when traversing strenuous mountain passes. It’s highly recommended to secure refuge or hut accommodations in advance due to their limited capacity. Carrying a map and a compass is essential, as they can aid navigation when trails may be less visible.
Lastly, one should always prepare for varying weather conditions. Sudden storms can appear, even in mid-summer. Despite the physical challenge, the experience of soaking in the breathtaking vistas, spotting wildlife, and crossing the borders of three countries on foot is incredibly rewarding.
The Alta Via 1, Italy
We’ve all heard of La Dolce Vita, but what about The Alta Via?
That’s a terrible segue, we accept, but The Alta Via 1 is so much better than that. In fact, this hike in the Italian Dolomites is a rambling tour de force. Starting from Lake Braies to Belluno, the route runs through the striking terrain of the Dolomites, showcasing the mountain range’s dramatic cliffs, wildflower meadows, and World War I historical sites.
For those who’d rather not commit to the full 10-day expedition, several tour operators now offer itineraries that combine hiking with relaxed walking holidays, blending the most spectacular sections of the trail with nights in valley hotels rather than high-altitude dormitories. These ‘highlights’ packages let you experience the drama of the Dolomites – the jagged peaks, the wildflower meadows, the rifugios serving hearty polenta and local wine – without shouldering a heavy pack for a fortnight. It’s a sensible middle ground for walkers who want altitude without austerity.
Rota Vicentina, Portugal
The Rota Vicentina is a beautiful network of walking trails spanning over 400km along the most unspoilt coastline of Portugal. This captivating long-distance trail combines the Historical Way and the Fishermen’s Trail, and passes through peaceful rural areas, dramatic coastal cliffs, and tiny fishing villages, offering an incredibly diverse and immersive walking experience.
If the two weeks that Rota Vicentina takes to complete feels a little challenging, then consider breaking up the walk into two disparate parts; the Historical Way climbs through hills, offering rural and forested sections, while the Fishermen’s Trail clings to the cliffs by the coast. The latter is more challenging, with sandy trails and no escape from the sun or wind, but it offers stunning sea views.
Either way, do be aware that although the route can be walked year-round, spring (April-June) and autumn (September-October) are ideal seasons to do so, offering the best weather, blooming flora, and fewer crowds. The blazing summer can be too hot for comfort.
Kungsleden, Sweden
Kungsleden or ‘The King’s Trail’ is a dream for lovers of wide-open spaces and tranquil wilderness. This 435-kilometre trail from Abisko to Hemavan in northern Sweden majestically winds through some of Europe’s most remote – and stunning – landscapes.
The ideal time to trek the Kungsleden trail in Sweden is between late June and early September, when weather conditions are milder, days are longer, and facilities are open. However, this period can be crowded, particularly August. For winter activities like skiing, the best months are between February and April when the Northern Lights can often be viewed. Preparation for varying weather is essential for either season.
The Cinque Terre, Italy
A UNESCO World Heritage site on the Ligurian coast, the Cinque Terre comprises five pastel-hued fishing villages stacked dramatically on cliffs above the Mediterranean. The area’s network of trails, walked by farmers and locals for centuries, offers everything from gentle strolls to more demanding coastal hikes, all with the sea sparkling below.
The most popular route is the Sentiero Azzurro (Blue Trail), an 11km path connecting Riomaggiore to Monterosso al Mare. Though the full trail takes around five hours to complete, many walkers tackle it in sections, hopping on the frequent trains that link the villages when legs or enthusiasm begin to flag. The stretch between Vernazza and Monterosso is particularly rewarding, with postcard views of harbours and terraced vineyards clinging to vertiginous hillsides.
A highlight is the recently reopened Via dell’Amore, or Path of Love, a flat, paved section between Riomaggiore and Manarola that spent over a decade closed following a landslide. Now restored at a cost of €23 million, the romantic cliffside walkway has returned with timed entries and limited visitor numbers to protect both the trail and the experience. Beyond the Blue Trail, over 48 official paths wind through the national park, offering quieter routes through chestnut forests and hilltop sanctuaries for those willing to venture higher.
The best times to visit are spring (April to June) and autumn (September to October), when crowds thin and temperatures are kinder. Summer can be sweltering and heaving with visitors, though the reward of a dip in the Mediterranean at the end of your walk might just make the heat worthwhile.
Stretching 96 miles from Milngavie to Fort William, the West Highland Way is Scotland’s premier long distance route. It offers an unparalleled walking experience, encompassing Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor, Glencoe, and the foot of Ben Nevis.
If you prefer to tackle such glorious stretches of scenery on two wheels rather than two feet, then the West Highland Way is also considered one of Scotland’s best cycling holidays.
Samaria Gorge, Greece
A finish on something altogether more manageable; Crete’s Samaria Gorge, which is a haven for nature lovers. The 16-kilometre trail from the Omalos Plateau to Agia Roumeli on the Libyan Sea takes you through cypress and pine forests, abandoned villages and alongside the roaring river that cuts through this enormous gorge.
That said and despite its relative brevity, this trek certainly isn’t easy, with rugged terrain and a long, arduous trail that can prove to be challenging even for seasoned trekkers. You’ll be pleased to hear, then, that the walk ends at the delightful coastal village of Agia Roumeli, where you can take a refreshing dip in the Libyan Sea
The Bottom Line
Each of these trails offers a unique perspective on the European experience – breath-taking views, fascinating history, diverse flora and fauna, and opportunities to connect with local communities. And remember, the best walking holidays are, of course, not solely about the destination but also the journey. Take that with you.
The south coast city of Brighton is many different things to many different people. A place for Pride, pebble skimming, thrift shopping, heavy partying, eccentricity, environmentalism, and a traditional British seaside holiday, all rolled into one, you can be anyone you want to be in this so-called London By Sea.
When it comes to the best restaurants in Brighton and Hove, they are thrilling places full of eclectic tastes, with just about every cuisine, price point and sense of occasion catered for. That said, with cafes and restaurants on just about every corner, separating the good from the great can be tough.
Well, we’ve done the hard work, traversed the lanes and the beaches, and gained several (and lost hundreds of) pounds in the process, to bring you this; our rundown of the best restaurants in Brighton.
Bincho Yakitori, Preston Street
Ideal for some of the best yakitori this side of Okinawa…
A bright and lively Brighton road leading down to a pebble beach isn’t exactly the first place you’d expect to find a properly dark and grungy, backstreet Japanese izakaya. But then, this city never ceases to surprise you.
So, here we are; perched at a bar, sipping warm sake, and taking down plate after plate of grilled skewers. Whether the latter is Bincho’s moreish crispy chicken skins, the restaurant’s delectable cubes of pork belly, their chicken hearts, or a simple half cob of sweetcorn, you can be assured that everything off the yakitori section of the menu will have been kissed by coals.
In fact, the restaurant’s name comes from the type of coals used here and in izakayas all over Japan, binchō-tan, which is famed for its ability to burn long and bright, keep temperatures consistent, and not give off any unwanted smoke or odours.
Should you be keen to get stuck into some bits not off the grill, mind, then the specials board can always be relied upon for some treats; the tempura fried sea bream with a dollop of pert seaweed mayo is particularly good.
And once you’re done, the good news is that just opposite Bincho you’ll find one of Brighton’s best cocktail bars, Gung Ho. Kanpai!
Ideal for inventive takes on the food of the Indian sub-continent…
Not your average neighbourhood curry house, that’s for certain, The Chilli Pickle certainly raises the bar when it comes to British interpretations of street food from the Indian sub-continent.
The cooking here is precise and assertive, with the manipulating of sharp notes (from, amongst others, that namesake pickle) bringing real freshness and vivacity. This is perhaps most apparent in the superb gol gapa from the starters and small plates section, which is lifted to dizzy heights by both tamarind and coriander chutneys.
If you eat meat, you’d be a fool not to order the Nepali Chicken Wings; a cumin and salt rub gives the dish texture, Szechuan pepper creates a lingering, intriguing backnote, and the accompanying chilli sambal is nuanced and complex.
The menu here changes regularly, but if it’s on, a recent addition of beef keema is another must-order; the roasted bone marrow that arrives alongside (scoop, mix and groan) makes it impossibly hard to resist. The tandoori butter chicken, admittedly a safe bet, is, here, pleasingly nimble, with a good dose of lemon juice lightening things up.
We love this place, and judging by the queues, Brighton does too, as do the restaurant inspectors at Michelin, who awarded The Chilli Pickle a Bib Gourmand for several years on the bounce. More importantly, The Chilli Pickle has been part of our best restaurants in Brighton list for just as long.
Please note that Christmas Eve 2024 saw the restaurant’s final service – cue Nick Cave voice – on Jubilee Street. As of the start of 2025, The Chilli Pickle returned to its original home on Meeting House Lane. The menu remains broadly the same, with many of the old favourites making the journey to the new restaurant intact.
Ideal for Spanish-inspired tapas with Michelin-recognised pedigree…
When former Michelin-starred chef Ian Swainson, once of The Samling and Amarillo (RIP), joined forces with Ali and Mo Razavi (the team behind Halisco and Anakuma) to open this intimate 20-cover Spanish restaurant in late 2024, Brighton’s food scene naturally took notice. So, it turns out, did the Big Red Guide. Just nine weeks after opening, Amari had already secured a coveted spot in the 2025 edition – a testament to the kitchen’s exacting standards and Swainson’s adaptability in hitting his stride quite so soon after landing here on Baker Street.
The menu here is a focused affair of Spanish-inspired small plates designed for sharing, executed with the technical precision you’d expect from Swainson’s fine dining background but delivered in a refreshingly unpretentious setting. This is what the team calls (to be honest, we’ve heard this one a little too often recently) “fun dining rather than fine dining” – a tired but still apt description for both food and vibe here.
The croquetas are a masterclass in the form – sublimely creamy with a delicate crisp shell – while the beetroot salad with Seville orange and sherry vinegar dressing showcases a deft balance of sweet, sharp and earthy notes. Don’t miss the Manchego stuffed manzanilla olives with quince purée, a kind of riff on a gilda that we’ll be stealing for our next dinner party. With that first round of dishes, you’ll want to order the house Botivo Spritz – a non-alcoholic aperitivo with elderflower, orange blossom and tonic (though you can add Cazcabel Reposado tequila if you fancy something stronger).
It’s not all tapas and sharing. Selfish diners who hate to see that roving fork approaching ‘their plate’ will find glory in dishes like the slow-braised Ibérico pork loin with truffled celeriac purée and Amontillado sherry sauce, or the red wine braised rib of beef with chickpeas. The fried Jerusalem artichoke hearts with lemon oil are perhaps are favourite thing on the menu, providing a vegetable-forward option that’s no less enjoyable, and a flatulence bordering on the troubling.
With Swainson’s partner Justyna Maria Ciurus, formerly of Hove’s renowned Little Fish Market (appearing a little later on this list, by the way), leading the front-of-house team, the service is pitch perfect, too. Book ahead – with just 20 covers and a rapidly growing reputation, Amari is set to be one of the city’s most sought-after tables for some time to come.
A hugely popular backstreet boozer/chef residency that makes our list of the best restaurants in Brighton is Easy Tiger at the Hampton, a pub that’s, incidentally, just a short hop from the station. Yep, Brightonians are getting seriously spoiled here!
Easy Tiger is a riff on the Great British tradition of the desi pub, where curries and pints combine to beautiful effect. The restaurant is helmed by Chef Sabu Joseph, who brings his extensive experience and passion for authentic Indian cuisine to the table.
Originally from Kerala in southern India, Sabu has had a distinguished cooking career in both Brighton and London, doing time at Brighton’s two most acclaimed Indian restaurants The Chilli Pickle and The Curry Leaf Cafe (now sadly closed, RIP), as well as a stint at the five star Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel in central London. Yep, that’s some serious pedigree, and it shows in Easy Tiger’s enticing, easygoing rundown of Indian streetfood classics, the perfect accompaniment to one of the locally brewed IPA beers on tap at the Hampton, a proper local boozer that has been tastefully updated while retaining its authentic charm.
Do not miss out on the Kerala Fried Chicken, a crispy boneless chicken thigh coated in garlic, ginger, spices and rice flour, before being hard fried ‘till crispy. Could there be a better combination in the world than a basket of these and a pint of Cloak and Dagger Hazy Pale? We certainly haven’t found it.
Nine years after the inaugural Fatto a Mano opened on London Road, the team now boast two more pizzerias in Hove and the North Laines, and a further four in London, in Covent Garden, King’s Cross, Bethnal Green and Tower Bridge. With each branch (yep, we’ve visited them all) seemingly packed every day of the week, world domination seems the only next logical step.
Wood fired within the requisite 90 seconds at the requisite 450°C, Fatto a Mano’s pizzas are pillowy affairs. Give that canotto a prod and watch it bounce back up at you. That response promises a beautifully digestible dough, and so the pizzas here deliver it. Toppings are – on the most part – refined and reverential, with just a handful of the freshest ingredients treated sympathetically. The margherita buffalo is the finest realisation of this humble vision; a light, natural pizza that sings of simplicity.
We say ‘on the most part’ as there are a couple of more divisive pizzas in the lower reaches of Fatto’s menu. The lasagna pizza, it should be said, has split the Brighton crowd since its addition to the menu late last year. Some have cried heresy. Others have stuffed it into their faces with abandon. We fall very much in the latter camp, with the smattering of ragu well judged in its restraint, leading to a pizza that’s nowhere near as heavy as it sounds.
The name translates as ‘handmade’ in Italian, and that’s certainly the vibe here; everything is made from scratch and with love, and it shows. Even if pizza isn’t your thing, Fatto has some excellent starters and sides to keep the picky eaters satisfied; their nduja arancini, in particular, truly hit the spot.
Though all three Brighton and Hove branches are excellent, we’ve chosen the North Laines outpost for our roundup of Brighton’s best restaurants, as it’s close to the station, and super convivial. Of course, the London Road and Hove versions are ace, too.
Consistently named as Brighton’s best restaurant in local and national lists, though actually in Hove, chef and owner Duncan Ray has created a glorious homage to everything seafood in this small but sophisticated 20 cover restaurant. Be warned; it’s purely a dinner affair, Tuesday to Saturday, and you’ll need to book well in advance to secure a coveted seat, but the effort is well worth it.
That’s because it’s only the finest, freshest fish, sourced as locally as possible and cooked with the respect it deserves. It’s a no choice tasting at around the £85 mark, but the price tag is fair; this is a set-menu, several hour affair offering a tour of some of Britain’s very finest seafood. And if you’d like to sample the cooking here at a more approachable price tag, then the LFM has recently announced a three course lunch menu, priced at an eminently reasonable £35 a head. A proud owner of 3 AA rosettes, a Michelin star still eludes them, much to the chagrin of regulars.
And though the restaurant specialises in fish, do keep your eye out for the occasional ‘Little Meat Market’ events, where chef Ray cooks a menu of – you guessed it – meat dishes with his usual elegance and precision.
Ideal for confident, classic French cookery in the heart of Hove…
Wild Flor is one of the most acclaimed (relatively) recent additions to Brighton and Hove’s thriving culinary scene. Settling into an evening with their confident, classic French cookery and superb wine list is one of Brighton’s biggest treats; you’ll always leave squiffy and extremely well-fed.
In a city somewhat in thrall to ‘casual’ dining, it’s so refreshing to settle into a more serious spot, which has recently changed to a straightforward a la carte offering, with starters keenly priced in the early teens, and mains not topping £30.
On our last visit, we were particularly enamoured with a dish of rabbit loin, wrapped in wild garlic and gently pink, which was served with a medley of spring veg that still had plenty of bite, its mustard and hogweed dressing pulling everything together. Even better, golden sweetbreads that pulled off the tricky balancing act of being both crisp and tender within, sat beautifully with a pool of glossy chicken jus and the first of the season’s asparagus (yes, it was a while ago!).
I don’t know about you, but spring has only truly arrived when the toilet smells of sulphur.
For the pescatarians around the table, gorgeously pert salt cod agnolotti with a sharp, lemon-spiked emulsion and sourdough pangrattato hit the high notes, too.
Wild Flor are also currently offering an autumn set menu which is laughably good value at £25 for three courses. Treat yourself to the trio, as it would be criminal to miss out on the restaurant’s pastry work, the section cooking with a breezy conviction and generosity more in tune with a Paris patisserie or the bouchons of Lyon than a Hove thoroughfare. Emblematic of this sensibility and keeping with the seasonality of Wild Flor’s cooking, a spiced pear served with hazelnuts and a stout custard sounds absurdly good as that Brighton chill begins to blow.
Though you can’t walk for more than the length of a fettuccine in London without stumbling into a pasta bar, in Brighton & Hove you’ll be much harder pressed to find a place slinging freshly rolled strands of the good stuff.
In fact, to our mind, Cin Cin are the premier pasta purveyors here, and a more than capable match for any of London’s top pasta restaurants (in 2021, Cin Cin decided to test this theory, and their Fitzrovia branch opened to immediate national acclaim).
Though the restaurant’s original location in Brighton’s North Laines (and the London outpost) has now closed, the newer, the larger branch on Western Road, just seconds before you reach Church Road, is just as delicious.
Here, a horseshoe counter and a handful of barstools overlook Cin Cin’s open kitchen, where seasonal small plates, fresh pasta dishes, and a couple of grilled bits are lovingly prepared in full view of the diners. This is dinner and a show, Hove style, and if your dinner starts with an order of the restaurant’s ever-changing, always-popular arancino (brown crab on our last visit), followed by a pasta dish from the special’s blackboard, you’re sure to be calling for an encore.
Fortunately, Cin Cin’s desserts are respondent to the seasons and always stellar – whether it’s a festive panettone bread and butter pudding with marmalade ice cream or a summery Amalfi lemon tart, there’s no chance you’re leaving disappointed. The restaurant retained their Bib Gourmand award at the 2025 Michelin ceremony, a testament to their continued class and consistency.
Another belter with a blackboard, Plateau is all about pouring up the city’s best and most thoughtful selection of low-intervention wines. They just happen to serve some pretty special sharing plates made with seasonal ingredients from in and around Sussex of a largely French persuasion to complement their natty juice.
Their bread, pâté, rillettes, cheeses and pickles are particularly fine with a glass of the good stuff, but Plateau also have a light touch with fish, which is always welcome so close to the coast. On our last visit, a dish of hake, barbecued until the skin was pockmarked, came served austerely with leeks and hazelnuts; it was beautiful.
For something a little heartier but with a sense of playfulness in its soul, wild venison pierogi with fermented chilli is technically pitch-perfect, the dumplings having the much-sought after bounce, and the iron-rich venison’s flavour shining through. You also can’t go wrong with the unctuous beef tartare which is always on their ever changing seasonal menu for good reason.
All in all, Plateau is an effortlessly stylish and hip place to hang out, and with the recent addition of a few tables spilling out onto the street, is now even closer in style to a classic Parisian wine bar. Last year, it was added to the Good Food Guide, with inspectors reporting that ”for more than a decade, Plateau has been the place in Brighton for natural wines and inventive cocktails. While that still holds true, it’s now firmly established as one of the best places for creative small plates too.”
Ideal for savouring the flavour of the grill in every bite…
Pitched as a ‘a grownup hangout for Brighton’, Burnt Orange is the third restaurant from local restaurateur Razak Helala, who also presides over the Coal Shed and the Salt Room (also on this list).
The Michelin Bib bit indicates ‘good value and good quality’, and in terms of Burnt Orange, these rather prosaic, automated descriptors do the restaurant a disservice. The quality of the output, led by a huge wood fired oven and grill, is fantastic, with the menu taking on a vaguely Middle Eastern bent. Charred flatbreads, grilled prawns with herb Zhug, fire-roasted chermoula monkfish, smoked lamb shoulder cigars…. If there’s a word that indicates the wood-fired grill has been used, it’s on this menu.
The restaurant used to do a fine weekend brunch, too, further extending their welcome to the people of the city. And as everyone knows, the way to a Brightonian’s heart is through brunch. Though the dedicated brunch menu has now gone, Burnt Orange opens at midday and some of the flat bread and dip combos are decidedly brunch-y, if you’re keen to pretend it isn’t lunch.
A restaurant in the Lanes that specialises in wood fire cooking with a vaguely Middle Eastern bent to proceedings (Zhoug? Check. Labneh? Check. Dukhah? Check) and some truly excellent cocktails? With Burnt Orange just around the corner and only a paragraph previous, Brighton’s culinary cognoscenti might be forgiven for wondering whether this was all strictly necessary when Embers opened in 2023.
But scratch the surface just a little and you’ll find a very different proposition here, and one that’s refreshingly unique from its peers in close proximity. The work of two well known faces on the Brighton culinary scene, ex-terre à terre head chef Dave Marrow and former chef-patron of Isaac At, Isaac Bartlett-Copeland, here everything is cooked in a specially designed mutli-rack grill which sits pretty in the centre of the dining room, bringing a touch of theatre to proceedings as its glowing embers crackle and flare up as fat and glaze drip invitingly.
It’s one fiery hell of a statement, the grill’s racks constantly being manipulated by a soot-covered chef, all controlled by a pulley mechanism in the style of Etxebarri. The huge stack of logs under the pass only serve to hammer the point home.
All of this would be a little performative if the food didn’t taste thoroughly seasoned by wood, smoke and fire, but at Embers, there’s a genuinely masterful control of the flame, and this is reflected in some truly stunning dishes, the best of which are big sharers, billed ‘centrepiece dishes’. An apt epiphet, as the smoked spatchcock chicken (there’s grilled brill or mushroom parfait, too) arrives splayed and smouldering, very much making the table its bed whilst the phones come out for a photoshoot. Tear off a leg – properly blistered and burnished from those embers – drag it through the throbbing, fluorescent honey and mustard mayo, and get all caveman about things.
It feels patronising – perverse, even – to spend a paragraph or two introducing the idea of terre à terre, such is the stalwart status of the restaurant in this city. A Brighton institution serving the good stuff since the early 90s, terre à terre is arguably the premier dining spot for vegetarians in Brighton, if not the country, its menu eclectic and its vibe lively.
Though the restaurant name translates as ‘down to earth’, the only thing grounding the menu here is the vegetarian part; inspiration is drawn from all corners of the globe, with plenty of heft and punch to the dishes.
In fact, it sells terre à terre short to give it the ol’ ‘’you don’t even miss meat’’ line. You’ll eat very well here, however you define your dietary choices. Sure, the menu descriptors are pretty verbose, sometimes running into a paragraph of prose, but the flavours boast remarkable clarity and comfort.
Ideal for a taste of the sea in spirited, sophisticated surrounds…
The Salt Room’s website claims it as ‘Brighton’s best seafood restaurant’; a bold claim, indeed, but it’s not far off. Part of a group of four – The Coal Shed in Brighton and one of the same name in London, as well as the aforementioned Burnt Orange – this is a place which ticks all the boxes for great fish cookery; sustainable sourcing and simplicity. The menu resists the urge to globe-trot, and, this time, we think that’s welcome.
It’s a surprisingly cavernous space with a good buzz and young, enthusiastic staff. The restaurant is compartmentalised neatly and cleverly, with lots of different spaces and areas helping the buzz carry through the restaurant without being acoustically intrusive.
Anyway, we’re here to talk about fish, right? The grill is used liberally and it’s all the better for it; good news for the whole fish destined to be blistered and burnished on it. Saying that, perhaps the best thing on the menu is the fish tempura with a tartare sauce flecked with seaweed; as saline and savoury as it sounds. A shared surfboard comes brimming with grilled and steamed prawns, squid, scallops and more, and the aioli alongside, whilst a little loose, is seriously good.
Interestingly, The Salt Room are now doing BYOB Mondays, with corkage just £5. A fine excuse to indulge in some superb seafood cookery, we think!
Ideal for ridiculously good Neapolitan pizza and the warmest of welcomes…
Nanninella has been through many guises in its 5 years on Preston Street. From authentic Neapolitan pizzeria to takeaway-only operation, then a post-COVID pannini peddler all the way to its current iteration, back to where it all started in a full 360 as cyclical as a pizza, to being a traditional trattoria that focused primarily on pizza.
What’s remained true and consistent this whole time is the quality of the food at Nanninella (not to mention the reliably warm welcome from Sergio and family), with premium, imported Italian ingredients shining through in everything they do.
The pizzas are gold-standard; blistered, burnished and traditional, just as it should be. The vibe inside, all brightly coloured tiles and a view into the hot glow of the pizza oven, frames a hospitable, enjoyable place to spend time. What’s more, the staff are lovely. Our favourite pizza here – and in the whole of Brighton, in fact – is the provola e pepe, which uses smoked mozzarella and freshly ground black pepper to great effect. Any pizza featuring their fresh burrata is equally wonderful. Put quite simply, Nanninella is our favourite pizza restaurant in Brighton.
Ideal for a Gallic gastronomic getaway in Brighton…
Unashamedly Gallic, Petit Pois is arguably the number one purveyor of traditional French fare in the city, and one of Brighton’s best restaurants, period.
Expect, then, to be wowed by snails swimming in a pungent pool of garlic and parsley butter, followed by the famous fisherman’s stew bouillabaisse, here replete with fish, shellfish and even sea lettuce from surrounding Sussex waters.
Whilst seafood certainly feels like the right thing to do considering Petit Pois is just a pebble’s skim away from Brighton beach, our favourite dish here comes from the ‘Légumes’ section of the menu, in the form of baked Crottin du Perigord. This mini-wheel of goat’s cheese is baked until gooey and served with a salad of beetroot and candied walnuts high on the sweet notes as a perfect counterpoint to the potent cheese. It’s a smartly judged, confident salad in keeping with the poise of the restaurant as a whole.
With a popular Sunday lunch menu and an extensive wine list, no wonder Petit Pois is one of Brighton’s best-loved neighbourhood French restaurants.
To say that the opening of Palmito felt brave would be something of an understatement. Not content with setting up shop in the tough economic climate of mid-2022, the restaurant opted to do so in a space that estate agents would charitably call ‘cosy’, on a nondescript stretch of Brighton and Hove’s Western Road. They also elected to serve a menu not much tried and tested in this part of town; a kind of fusion between the coastal cuisines of India and Ecuador.
To say the risk paid off would be something of an understatement. That shoebox dining room is packed out from the moment the doors swing open at 5pm on Tuesday until Saturday’s last orders at 11pm.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Palmito has been a roaring success, the chef-owners here have both spent time at revered Brighton restaurants the Chilli Pickle (also on this list, of course) and Easy Tiger, and there’s a similar breezy charm to proceedings here, with the shellfish dishes particularly good.
For such a small restaurant, Palmito is already making big waves on the Brighton shore; the restaurant has already earned a glowing national review in The Times, and an entry in the most recent additions of both the Good Food and Michelin guides.
Interestingly, chef Kanthi, one of the main brains behind Palmito, has recently opened The Spice Circuit Kitchen in Hove, a small chef’s table that features homegrown recipes from South India and Sri Lanka. We can’t wait to check it out!
Ideal forexpertly cooked Italian food from everyone’s favourite Brighton restaurant group…
Tutto, the modern Italian restaurant that’s part of Brighton’s all conquering Black Rock restaurant group (Burnt Orange and the Salt Room from this list are also in that roster) felt like a sho-in for success from the start.
But things didn’t quite go according to plan, with building delays and issues with the overall vision of the restaurant leading to an opening that was more fits-and-starts than firing-on-all-cylinders.
Fortunately for the pasta-loving throngs of Brighton and Hove, things have picked up considerably since those early jitters, with Tutto now cooking a freshly configured menu with confidence and precision. Unsurprisingly for a place in such close proximity to the sea, the restaurant has a wicked way with fish, the woodfired gamberi rossi with paprika the kind of dish that feels so right in late summer, ditto the grilled sardines with fried bread and salsa verde.
The theme continues into the pasta courses; a bowl of pert agnolotti filled with a keenly diced mix of lobster, crab and scallop, served swimming in a rusty bisque, is spectacularly good.
Finish with Tutto’s chocolate and hazelnut torte, served with maraschino cherries and vanilla ice cream, which has become something of a signature dish here, and, in our view, is the ideal end to this – or any – meal.
Taquitos Casa Azul, Brighton Open Market, Marshall’s Row
Ideal for Brighton’s best tacos…
For great independent vibes in a city some fear is losing its soul to chains, a visit to Brighton’s Open Market, tucked away off London Road, is a must.
While you’re here, it’s pretty much obligatory to duck into Taquitos Casa Azul, a family-run joint led by local hero Gabriel Gutierrez, and tuck into some truly superlative tacos, freshly pressed and adorned with delicately spiced, deliciously spicy shredded pork cochinita or chicken tinga. Pull up a pew at their sole table outside the shopfront and get stuck in.
Oh, and before you settle that bill, do not miss out on Gutierrez’s Salsa Chipotle which is sold on the shelves directly to the left of the till. Heady with hibiscus and dried apricot – you’ll be hooked. We add it to everything now; incredible stuff, indeed.
We end our list of Brighton’s best restaurants at Bonsai Plant Kitchen, the work of Dom Sheriff and Amy Bennett, who met while working at Brighton vegetarian institution Food for Friends. With Amy’s background as a head pastry chef and Dom’s experience as head chef, the pair decided to combine their culinary talents and passion for vegan cuisine to create Bonsai Plant Kitchen, an imaginative plant-based restaurant whose menu is broadly South East Asian inspired and always super exciting to eat.
A huge part of the draw here is the cooking-over-coals philosophy that drives things forward, with several of the dishes cooked on a Binchotan grill. Accordingly, there’s a suave smokiness running through proceedings, whether that’s in the sweet potato skewers doused in miso butter, lime juice and wisps of parmesan, or the barbecued napa cabbage that arrives properly, comprehensively blackened. All of this would be overkill in the wrong hands, but here, those campfire flavours are perfectly poised. The restaurant’s excellent selection of pickles help things along and lighten the mood nicely.
The cocktails are fantastic here too, with all syrups and infusions created in house, a veritable celebration of ingredients preserved at their peak. We love it.
And with that, we’re done exploring Brighton and Hove’s best restaurants. It might be time for a sit down after all that! Or, maybe an ice cream, seeing as we’re by the sea. Here’s a guide to the best ice cream in Brighton and Hove. Mine’s a blueberry and ricotta!
The Great British interior design aesthetic represents something of a gift and a curse. Whilst heritage, homeliness and a clear identity are easy to channel, the appearance and aesthetic of so many properties here can feel, well, a little dated. Stuffy at best and, let’s face it, dilapidated at worst.
No harm, then, in wanting to bring things up to date and up to speed, shedding the pitfalls of the past and bringing things very much into the present. Here’s how; our 8 IDEAL ways to upgrade and modernise your home.
Open Things Up
Open plan living automatically lends a more trendy and modern feeling to a space, and is a fantastic way to bring broad minded, inclusive aesthetics indoors. Moreover, an open plan home – usually combining the kitchen and living space – provides homeowners with a social space; an area that can be used for more than just preparing and cooking daily meals.
Indeed, it seems that knocking down walls to combine kitchen and dining spaces also knocks down barriers between people, creating less isolation and more sharing. Perhaps the trend of open plan living reflects the fact that we’re finally saying goodbye to the old British reserve – that stiff upper lip. So, wave goodbye to walls and embrace being open.
Minimalism
The modern design aesthetic of minimalism came into existence in response to all that overly ornate, fully fanciful and somewhat cluttered architecture and design of the late 19th Century. As we’re sure you’ll be familiar, this is particularly prevalent in the UK.
So, if you want to channel a modern look without having to renovate your home, then use the excuse to go minimal. If your home shows a distinct lack of ornament and flair, then you’ve nailed it. Remove unnecessary details and frills and focus on functionality.
Part of this involves undertaking a simple though ruthless re-organising operation. Decluttering your home is an efficient way of making your home look more modern. Clutter can take up plenty of visual real estate within the home and make it feel disorganised and unwelcoming.
On the flip side, clear paths through your hallways and room to swing a cat in your kitchen (don’t actually do that, or the RSPCA will be alerted), create a sense of modern minimalism that can feel fresh, clean and concise.
Add A Contemporary Extension
Adding a contemporary home extension to an old British property is great way to modernise your domestic space. The key is to find an architect that can design a symbiotic arrangement between the two, making the transition from the original build to the new addition seamless.
This blend is achieved through an avoidance of jarring, competing materials, levels of light and even functions of the spaces. When considering such an extension, make sure you do your due diligence on the legality of the investment, seeking planning permission prior to the build; Britain’s bureaucracy surrounding this is notoriously tight.
Smarten Up
Another simple way to modernise your space without needing a full renovation is to deck it out with smart home tech, turning your property into a slick operation that runs to its full potential at all times.
Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple’s Homepod… these smart home hubs that integrate your home and phone together, allowing easy home automation and lifestyle management, make things feel very futuristic indeed.
Here are some smart tech upgrades you should consider:
Smart Thermostats to control home temperatures automatically and responsively. We’ve written another article on reasons you should switch to a smart thermostat here, by the way.
Smart Refrigerators that monitor the freshness of your food.
Smart washing machines and dishwashers which you can operate remotely via your phone.
A smart boiler allows you to have greater control of your energy use, which can save you money along the way.
Don’t stop at those devices. With a new focus on saving energy and reducing environmental impact has come a new wave of technology to meet demands. Energy-efficient tech exists to cover all facets of modern living, from TVs and entertainment devices, to washing machines and dishwashers. Harness the power of as many as you can cope with.
Embrace Industrial-Inspired Interiors
One of the most effective ways to inject a contemporary edge into a traditional British home is to embrace industrial-inspired design elements. This aesthetic – characterised by exposed brickwork, visible piping, concrete surfaces, and metal fixtures – has become synonymous with modern, urban living.
Start by stripping back rather than covering up. If your home has original brickwork hidden beneath layers of plaster or wallpaper, consider exposing it to create an authentic, textured feature wall. Alternatively, concrete-effect paint or polished concrete flooring can achieve a similar industrial feel without major structural work.
When it comes to fixtures and fittings, swap out traditional finishes for metals like brushed steel, matte black, or copper. Industrial-style pendant lighting – think Edison bulbs suspended from exposed cords or metal cage fixtures – can transform a dated dining room or kitchen into something altogether more contemporary. For those redesigning their kitchens, incorporating industrial-style cabinets and design elements can further enhance the raw, modern aesthetic while keeping the space functional and stylish.
The beauty of industrial design is that it sits comfortably alongside period features, creating an eclectic yet cohesive aesthetic. A Victorian terrace with exposed brick, modern metal shelving, and minimalist furniture strikes that perfect balance between honouring architectural heritage and embracing contemporary style. It’s proof that old and new can work in harmony, creating a space that feels both grounded in history and firmly rooted in the now.
Channel A Skyscraper With Larger, Taller Windows
Installing new windows in your home can make your home feel more modern and up-to-date. Not only this, but with winter just around the corner, it is important that you have secure windows, so that none of the heat escapes from your home.
Though it’s certainly an ambitious project, channelling the aesthetic of a sleek, steel framed skyscraper with metal and glass is a wonderful way to modernise your home. The easiest way to do this is by adding floor to ceiling windows which will immediately make your space feel more contemporary.
Moreover, floor to ceiling windows bring in more natural light and solar heat into an interior, subsequently improving your home’s energy performance. Speaking of which…
Go Solar
The results are in: the vast majority covet a more renewable energy. A survey of 26,000 people across 13 countries and three continents found that 83% of people believe creating more renewable energy is a priority.
The fact of the matter is you don’t have to wait to go green and enjoy sustainable energy; you can do it now by producing your energy. While solar panelling might seem like super-advanced, high-profile tech, it is becoming increasingly accessible and anyone can install panels on their property.
While initial costs are high, solar panels not only reduce your environmental impact, but can also save you hundreds on your utility bills. With a lifespan of 25 years or more, they’ll help you save the planet and save on bills for a long time. Or consider switching to a renewable energy supplier. Yes, it will definitely cost more than those burning fossil fuels for your electricity and gas, but the reductions in your carbon footprint will be considerable.
It All Starts & Ends At The Door
If you have been living in the same home for a while, then it is easy to overlook some outdated aspects of your house. A prime example of this is the front and back doors to your home, which can both cover all manner of sins and set a rather poor first impression if they’re looking rundown.
Your front door is the thing that people see first, so perhaps start with replacing your front door and the front door handles if you’re not keen on replacing the whole thing. You can then move to your interior door and invest in some modern doors that will bring your house together.
It is important to also consider the door handles too, so have a look at your options available. Brass door handles are an easy way to upgrade your doors as they are long-lasting and have a unique look.
Any Thai food fanatic worth their fish sauce should already be well versed in the unrestrained beauty of Southern Thailand’s culinary tradition. But for the layperson, here goes; owing to its location with the Gulf of Thailand to the east and Andaman Sea to the west, it’s a cuisine which makes use of the ocean’s bounty at every turn of the rod’s reel.
Expect crab, shrimp and its fermented paste, and both heavy use of fresh chilli and coconut cream, the latter growing abundantly down South. Non-glutinous rice is the staple here, and influences abound from nearby Malaysia and Indonesia.
Anyway, you could’ve just read all that on Wikipedia, right? Should you find yourself in Bangkok, then it won’t take you long to notice just how popular the region’s food has become in the Thai capital. The country’s foodierati just can’t get enough of this lip tingling cuisine, and if you’re keen to join them, then here are the best Southern Thai restaurants in Bangkok.
Sorn
The first Thai restaurant in the world to hold three Michelin stars, and proudly, resolutely Southern to their soul, we had to start here, at Sorn. Now open for seven years, this place has been the talk of the town – no, country – for nearly as long. Sourcing ‘99.9%’ of their ingredients from the south, and supporting countless farmers and fishermen in the process, as well as cooking most of the food in clay pots, you’d be forgiven for thinking this traditional ethos wouldn’t translate into a super-twenty course tasting menu of fine dining.
You’d be wrong; this, quite simply, is some of the finest Thai food in the world, period, Southern or otherwise. The restaurant’s commitment to the techniques and heritage of the region extends beyond recipes and sourcing, all the way to their use of specific cooking vessels and methods – their clay pots are sourced from traditional craftsmen in Nakhon Si Thammarat, while their charcoal grilling uses mangrove wood selected for its particular smoking properties.
Each dish in their tasting menu represents a specific aspect of Southern Thai culinary heritage, from the coastal fishing communities to inland farming traditions. It’s immersive, respectful, celebratory, and utterly delicious.
While the menu of course moves with the south’s seasons somewhat, some killer classics remain (even after the recent revamp of the whole menu that arguably finally sealed the deal with Michelin); the famous ‘gems on crab stick’, the pretty-as-a-picture khao yam (rice salad), and the big, generous sharing spread complete with coconut curries and roti grilled to order are – thank the good lord – ever-presents.
Sure, you’ll have to run over hot coals to get a table, but if you’re lucky enough to do so, it’s worth burning your feet for. And mouth; the food is spicy, and all the better for it. Than hai im, na khrap!
Lovers of spicy Southern soul food in Bangkok have been raving about this hugely popular, increasingly ubiquitous Southern Thai restaurant group for years now. It’s safe to say that Khua Kling Pak Sod has certainly played a major part in the city’s love of the region’s cuisine, with its inclusive vibe, keen pricing, and faithfully rendered classics irresistible to Bangkokians of all stripes.
It all started in one beloved family-run joint in downtown Sukhumvit, using family recipes and a faithful connection to the producers of the south, and the formula worked superbly; it has led to several more in Bangkok, the restaurant’s instantly recognisable yellow logo now a familiar sight in the sois and shopping malls on the city.
That’s not to say Khua Kling Pak Sod doesn’t keep things consistent; in every outpost, these classic Southern Thai dishes are unapologetically spicy. Each morning at Khua Kling Pak Sod begins before dawn with the preparation of curry pastes, following recipes that have been in the owner’s family for generations. A chorus of pok-pok’ing, just as much as the morning suat mon, reminds you exactly where you are.
The chillies here come from specially chosen farms in the south that grow varieties known for their intense heat and fragrance. The restaurant maintains relationships with particular fishing communities in Chumphon, ensuring they receive the freshest seafood daily via overnight transport.
The restaurant’s namesake dish – the khua kling; a minced pork curry, stir fried with red curry paste and served dry – throbs with local prik kee noo chillis to an almost nuclear level, and is all the better for it. Their yellow coconut milk curry of crab meat, served with thin kanom jeen fermented rice noodles is another belter; offering less respite from the heat than the name suggests and, though we may be repeating ourselves, is all the better for it.
Perhaps steer clear if spice isn’t your thing. Even with the South’s reputation for chilli addiction, this restaurant does things hot, hot, hot. But if it is your thing, you’ll find Khua Kling Pak Sod to be one of the best restaurants in Bangkok.
If you’re seeking Southern Thai food at its most democratic, make your way over to the Thonburi side of town, and to Wang Lang street for this no-frills spot that’s been feeding hungry locals, medical students from nearby Siriraj Hospital, and the occasional wandering food obsessive, for decades. This is raan khao gaeng (rice and curry shop) dining at its finest – a row of stainless steel trays brimming with curries, stir-fries and soups that get ladled over rice with admirable efficiency.
The selection varies daily but is always resolutely Southern – expect to find the full firepower of the region represented in staples like gaeng tai pla (fish entrails curry) and the aforementioned khua kling. The gaeng som (sour curry) here deserves special mention, particularly when made with tender young taro stems which soak up the sauce just right.
Indeed, the kitchen isn’t toning down the flavours for farang palates here (it’s not an area with many tourists) – locals queue from dawn onwards for their breakfast hit of spice, and you’d do well to join them, as the best dishes tend to sell out by early afternoon. Don’t miss their excellent stink beans with prawns when in season, and if you spot the salted fried fish topped with crispy shallots and bird’s eye chillies, make the appropriate enthusiastic gesture – it’s a perfect foil to the curries.
The beauty of Ruam Thai is in its accessible price point, with most dishes hovering around the 50 baht mark. It’s the kind of place that reminds you that some of Bangkok’s finest food isn’t found in fancy dining rooms but in shophouses that have been quietly going about their business for generations.
Perhaps best of all, just next door you’ll find Phensri, a traditional Thai dessert shop where jasmine-scented sweets provide the perfect ending to what can be an assertively spicy meal. Now that’s what we call thoughtful neighbourhood planning.
Word of warning – sometimes you’ll find this place closed without warning. Best to have a backup nearby.
Phuket is perhaps Thailand’s premier foodie destination outside of the capital, and in a country of such rich, varied and uniformly delicious food, that’s truly saying something. One of the leading Southern Thai restaurants in the city is Raya.
So popular, in fact, that it’s spawned sister restaurants in Phuket in the form of One Chun and Chomchan, and an outpost in Bangkok, named Prai Raya. We’ll pull up a chair here, then, rather than hopping on a flight to Phuket, ordering their wonderful, black pepper heavy (prominent in the South’s cuisine, and reflective of the historic spice trade through Phuket’s ports) moo hong, a dish of stewed pork which is the restaurant’s signature.
Another intriguing find here is the Phuket-style relish of roasted peanuts served in fresh coconut milk. Served with rice crackers for dipping and dredging, it’s a dish that confirms not all of the south’s food needs to have the spice-levels dialled up to 11.
The nahm phrik gapi (shrimp paste relish) is perhaps even better, here infused with a real sense of the south through a variety of citrus fruits – both zest and juice – native to the region. It sings with vivacity, much like the region, and country, itself.
While the restaurant’s Sino-Portuguese interiors might resemble a simulacrum of the original in Phuket, there’s no denying that the Sukhumvit rendition, complete with a garden ready for the brief Bangkok winters, is an agreeable place to unwind in.
If you weren’t fortunate enough to secure a seat at Sorn, then firstly, join the club. But more importantly, don’t fret; you can still sample superstar chef Supaksorn Jongsiri’s take on the food of his childhood at Baan Ice, a more affordable, less exclusive sibling to Sorn.
This certainly doesn’t mean flavour has been compromised or that faithful sourcing of Southern ingredients sacrificed. Oh no, it’s all very much present and correct here. The restaurant maintains relationships with specific producers, including using budu (fermented fish sauce) from a particular producer in Pattani and dried fish from traditional fishing communities in Songkhla. Their curry pastes are made fresh daily using recipes passed down through Chef Ice’s family.
Their stir fried sator bean and shrimp is pungent and punchy in just the right way, whilst ‘grandpa’s’ khao yam is delicate, delicious and (whisper it) almost as good as the version found at their accolade accumulating sister restaurant. What’s more, the gaeng tai pla is as good – no, honestly – as it sounds, and steadfast to the uncompromising, relentless flavours of the south.
With 5 branches of Baan Ice open all day, from 11am to 10pm, seven days a week, you’ll have no trouble securing a seat here. Savour it.
In a city approaching Southern Thai banger saturation point, Janhom stands apart through a sheer, unwavering dedication to tradition. For over two decades, Chef Poonsri ‘Auntie Baew’ Sarikarn has been serving up some of Bangkok’s most uncompromising Southern fare from this modest but totally perfect restaurant in Wang Thonglang.
The gaeng luang (sour yellow curry) here is as good as it gets (both the dish and life). Somehow resist the temptation to order this one with big chunks of crab (defer that temptation for the yellow crab curry, which is ace) and instead have your gaeng luang with chunks of barramundi, poached in the curry on the bone, and coconut shoots, which have the remarkable ability to soak up all that broth whilst retaining crunch and structural integrity. It’s one of the best curries in the city – assertive but nuanced, and with enough chilli heart to dust off the very worst of Bangkok hangovers.
Indeed, unlike many Bangkok riffs on the region’s food that may sweeten their curries to appease local palates, Auntie Baew’s version remains steadfastly true to its Surat Thani roots – bracingly sour, properly salty, and carrying enough heat to remind you that you’re very much eating Southern Thai cuisine. The curry pastes, hand-pounded fresh daily in-house, provides a depth of flavour and ’roundness’ that simply can’t be replicated with commercial alternatives. Or, indeed, a blender…
Don’t miss the deep fried fish with crispy turmeric and garlic (pla tod kamin), a welcome, neutral, fatty counterpoint to all the chilli-forward dishes on the table. The flesh remains tender while the exterior crackles satisfyingly, the earthy notes of turmeric providing a perfect counterpoint to the delicate meat. If it’s on, the deep-fried frog version is even better.
Another much-needed balancing dish that’s essential for your table is the stir fried melinjo leaves with egg (pak liang pad khai), which soothes the most bracing notes of those dishes orbiting the rice. When all paired together, it’s such a harmonious spread, which grips you and pulls you in, not letting up until the final, gratis chilled watermelon hits the table to cleanse everything that’s just happened.
Janhom is somewhat out in the sticks (relatively speaking) and isn’t reachable by BTS, so take the opportunity for a well-earned snooze in a Grab taxi to wherever you’re going next.
Tucked away beyond Chatuchak in Bangkok’s northern ‘burbs, in an area few farang make it to, Beer Hima Seafood presents a strong case for making the journey with its fish tanks and live crabs on display by the entrance, and the promise of fresh seafood within.
Drawing on family recipes from Nakhon Si Thammarat province, the restaurant specialises in Southern Thai seafood preparations that showcase the region’s bold flavour combinations and love of anything that wears a shell as a jacket or house.
The stir-fried clams with chilli paste and sweet basil are beautifully balanced, a rare thing in a dish that often falls too far on the sweet side. The signature prawns with sator beans demonstrates why this often-misunderstood ingredient is so beloved in Southern Thai cuisine – when treated with respect, as it is here, the bean’s robust stank perfectly balances the sweetness of prawns and the rich undertones of roasted shrimp paste.
Many Bangkokians, however, make the journey for the mantis shrimp with crispy garlic alone. They stay for the restaurant’s creative take on frozen beer – served slushy-style – which provides welcome relief from the heat of the dishes. Sure, this isn’t the kind of place you just stumble across, but it’s certainly one you’ll stumble out of.
If you’re looking for a fine dining take on Southern Thai food but you found Sorn’s prohibitively expensive (or, you know, prohibitively full), then Chinatown’s Phukej will see you right.
Sitting pretty in a renovated shophouse five minutes off Yaowarat Road, Phukej (no [sic] required here; that ‘j’ is simply styled after the island’s historical name) offers a contemporary take on Southern Thai cuisine that pays homage to the port city’s unique culinary heritage, weaving together influences from Thai, Chinese and Malay cooking traditions, reflecting Phuket’s history as a maritime trading hub. At the stoves, chef Thapakorn ‘Korn’ Lertviriyavit, formerly of Michelin-starred Nahm and Aksorn, exerts considerable command over the city’s classic dishes, bringing the finesse of those kitchens to the fore.
All of that naturally leads to some seriously fine seafood dishes, perhaps best enjoyed in the signature 11 course set menu – available only at lunch and priced at an eminently reasonable ฿1990 (around £47) per person. A Hoikaddo scallop in a coconut cup (a kind of kueh pie tee/khanom krok mashup) kicks things off in some style, the whole, caramelised bivalve hiding a nugget of fresh pomelo that lightens and lifts the bite. Another early highlight is the golae style mussels, brought to the table mid-grill over individual tao burners and giving off the most enticing aroma of gently caramelising coconut cream. It’s impossible to resist, and worth burning both your fingers and your mouth for.
From the larger plates, the crab curry with betel leaf delivers all the complexity and heat you’ve come to love from the region’s cuisine, but it’s actually a meat dish that represents the restaurant’s signature. Phukej’s interpretation of moo hong (pork belly stew) is that signature – here, the cubes of pork belly are first stewed until tender, and then deep-fried to create an irresistible contrast of textures. It’s an interesting take on a classic, and this far down our roundup, a welcome change from resolutely authentic takes on the Southern Thai repertoire.
For dessert, don’t miss Phukej’s riff on a local favourite – a granita Aiyu jelly with lychee and rose that offers a refined conclusion to what was already an exceptional meal. There’s even a solid wine list for those seeking a break from Singhas on ice.
In a city blessed with so much excellent Southern Thai food, it can be hard to narrow it down to just a handful of places you should bless with your Baht. But we’ve eaten around the city, and endured (it’s a tough job) the fire, to bring you our favourites. Now, what are yours?
To some, London’s West End is the pulsating heart of the UK’s theatre scene, a hub of kinetic energy that receives 200 million annual visitors. Indeed, 24% of all visitors to London will attend a show here. To the other 76%, it can sometimes be a part of London that feels curiously busy but also barren, a wasteland of subpar steakhouses and American candy stores…
Either way, when alighting hungry in this most bustling of Central London locations, you needn’t settle on a flabby fillet or contribute to money washing with a round of Milk Duds. There are plenty of great places to eat in the West End, both budget and blowout, that will satisfy just about every visitor.
We’ve already written extensively about the best places to eat in Soho, so we’ll most park those recommendations and instead focus on the more central parts of the West End, where the magic (sometimes) happens.
With that in mind, and in no particular order, here are the best restaurants in London’s West End.
J. Sheekey
Ideal for spanking fresh seafood in a prestigious setting with over a century of history…
Serving up spanking, squeaky fresh seafood for over a century, J. Sheekey is one of the most prestigious purveyors of the good stuff in the city. It’s also one of the best restaurants close in the West End.
Established in 1896, J. Sheekey owes its inception to a unique historical event. The then Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, granted permission to a local stallholder named Josef Sheekey to serve oysters in St Martin’s Court. The only condition was that he catered for Salisbury’s post-theatre supper parties. Thus, the beloved Sheekey’s was born.
Today, J. Sheekey continues to uphold its reputation as one of the best restaurants near Leicester Square. Though there is a vegetarian and vegan menu and a couple of cursory meat dishes on the a la carte, Sheekey’s is still all about the seafood, offering the freshest fish, shellfish and oysters in London.
The restaurant’s central crustacean bar is a highlight, and the walls adorned with framed photographs of famous faces add to its timeless charm. And though those celebrity endorsements and general sense of prestige do certainly lend themselves to a hefty bill, the J. Sheekey set menu is great value for Central London – here, it’s three courses for £39, running Sunday to Friday, midday to 4pm.
Ideal for Eastern Mediterranean cuisine served with swagger in a stunning Grade II listed building…
There’s a certain swagger about Claro that only comes with serious capital, the Eastern Mediterranean restaurant standing proud in a handsome Grade II listed building on Waterloo Place in the kind of power stance that The Saj would be proud of.
You feel it as you first put your hands on the high, heavy doors. In fact, you hear it the moment you manage to pry those doors open; the low thud-thud-thud of an Ibiza Chill playlist pitched just a little louder than is necessary, and the reassuring click-clack of expensive stone beneath your heels.
Stride on in; you deserve to be here. Big smiles and handshakes greet you as the room opens up, revealing striking checkerboard flagstone floors below and soaring ceilings above. Thoughtfully preserved wrought iron details nod to the building’s heritage, whilst expensively appointed lighting casts a flattering glow over the marble-topped tables and plush velvet banquettes. Disarmed and dare we say a little dazed, you’re hoping those banquettes will take you in for the evening and cradle you, because suddenly it feels like you might be required to do some networking, for some reason. It’s quite the entrance.
This place once housed both a bank and was part of the legendary Athenaeum Club, where Victorian luminaries like Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens gathered, but the refit is thoroughly modern, banishing the ghosts of the past to the bins out back.
Bringing you back to the here and now, the large, airy open kitchen serves as the beating heart of Claro, the chefs going about their work all jovial and jolly, collaborative in their cooking and plating, which lightens the mood and banishes any fears that this meal might be hard work. The menu is all about seasonal British produce delivered with distinctive Eastern Mediterranean flair, and we’re pleased to report that it does indeed deliver.
Start with the Masterpiece Martini, which is nothing short of spectacular (as you’d hope, for £16). Here, rosemary infused Ketel One Vodka, Tio Pepe sherry and clarified tomato bring a savoury twist on a classic that’s genuinely lip-smacking and utterly moreish. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a round of snacks; the Frena bread, which sighs almost as satisfyingly as you do when pierced. Served with both matbucha and a labneh and harissa number, it’s a punchy introduction to proceedings.
The chilli tasting plate – four different expressions of the ingredient that showcase its versatility beyond mere heat – and the Claro market salad with feta cheese and za’atar spice that tastes like sunshine on a plate, follow, both singing with freshness and the former a heat that starts up warm and round and then builds to something where you can feel your hair follicles starting to perspire.
The cured sardine bruschetta with pickled chilli and sour cream is next, balancing acidity and richness with remarkable precision, and a lamb cigar is pastoral enough to linger just a little funkily until the mains hit the table.
A monkfish shawarma is perhaps the only dud of the evening, a little over-marinated and ungenerous, its dusty turmeric finish calling to mind a Vietnamese cha ca or Coronation Chicken more than a shawarma, strangely. The dish’s tangle of fresh herbs, picked, we’re told, from the restaurant’s rooftop garden, is absolutely remarkable though, invigorating and complex, peppery, astringent and assertive, it’s what all other ‘herb salads’ want to be when they grow up. The waiter tells us no one ever eats it, which is a real shame.
The grilled butterflied seabass with vegetable skewer and charred tomato salsa brings things right back on form, the fish cooked to that perfect point where it’s just firm but still yielding, the skin blistered and burnished from the grill. The skewer is populated by red peppers and fennel, the latter having caramelised beautifully and bringing a suave energy to the plate. A truly great dish.
Everything’s been so light and invigorating that we surrender to our sweet tooth, finding maximum pleasure in the Paris Brest with sour cream chantilly, raspberry coulis and berries – a featherlight concoction that manages to be indulgent without being too heavy. For something more substantial, the chocolate and sesame fondant with chocolate fudge, sesame anglaise and sesame ice cream delivers a sophisticated interplay of sweet and nutty notes, and finishes us off, quite frankly, in every sense of the word.
To go alongside those sweet treats, the Eiswein from Schloss Gobelsburg in Austria’s Burgenland region (£30 a glass) is sublime. Yes, it’s steep, but this 2022 vintage offers a honeyed nectar that forms the perfect full stop to a meal of commendable vision and clarity.
Ideal for an intimate Michelin-starred chef’s table experience hidden beneath a Soho pub…
Though the immediate surrounds of Leicester Square are visibly dominated by the stark white lights of a dozen chain restaurants, tightly nestled beneath street level is one of Soho’s most exciting independent dining destinations; Evelyn’s Table.
This Michelin-starred chef’s table experience is a genuine hidden gem. Tucked away in the basement of The Blue Posts pub on the edge of London’s Chinatown, Evelyn’s table has been through several iterations in its six year life. It was first opened in 2017 by the team behind popular hotspots The Palomar and The Barbary. After a brief closure, it reopened in 2020 with a brand new team, featuring Luke Selby as head chef, with his two brothers Nat and Theo also on the stoves, which, incidentally, are on full display to the 12-person counter seater restaurant.
The intimate, family affair vibes quickly earned plaudits, with the team picking up a Michelin star in 2022. Though the Selby brothers have now moved on, Evelyn’s Table continues to fire on all cylinders, with chef Seamus Sam (formerly of Muse by Tom Aitkens) now heading up the kitchen.
There’s a real elegance to the dishes on show on the 5-dishes plus, £135-a-head tasting menu here, with Sam’s precise, Scandinavian and Japanese inspired technique bringing out the best in hand-dived Orkney scallops, venison at the height of its season and winter’s finest black truffle. It’s a very special place, indeed, and one of the best fine dining experiences in all of the West End.
Ideal for exploring the world through bold, fermented flavours…
When Ramael Scully left his role as head chef at Ottolenghi’s NOPI to open his first solo restaurant in 2018, he brought with him an approach to cooking that reflects his Malaysian-Chinese-Indian-Irish-Balinese background to thrilling effect. Unlike the many restaurants that handle the word ‘fusion’ like a miso-glazed hot potato, Scully’s food actually tastes like it’s come from someone who’s lived between cultures.
The restaurant sits in St James’s Market, and as you walk in, you’re met with shelves heaving with jars of pickles, preserves, oils and ferments in every colour imaginable. This isn’t just decoration; it’s Scully’s working larder, the backbone of dishes that might pair arepa with his mother’s eggplant sambal and bergamot labneh, or Cornish halibut with buttermilk whey koji butter sauce and tempura chicken oyster.
Or, how about steamed sea bass draped in Ethiopian spiced butter alongside brined green tomatoes that had been lightly pickled in apple vinegar and finished with Vadouvan? It’s a mouthful, sure, and the combinations sound wild on paper, but they make total sense, both on the plate and palate. On a visit in the summer, a twice-cooked pork belly with traditional satay sauce read almost pedestrian in comparison, but tasted fucking fantastic.
You’ll pay West End prices for the privilege, but these are generous plates that leave you satisfied. There’s an à la carte option with two courses for £65 or three for £75, alongside snacks and sides, or, for the full experience, the evening tasting menu is £135, with a vegan version at £105. Either way, you’re getting cooking that takes sustainability seriously without making a song and dance about it.
The open kitchen means you can watch the team fermenting, preserving and generally making the most of every ingredient that comes through the door. It’s thoughtful food that tastes brilliant, which is ultimately what matters.
Ideal for Istanbul-inspired cuisine six floors above the West End…
Six floors above the West End’s braying streets, Yasmin offers a sophisticated escape complete with panoramic views of the city. Talk about dinner and a show, hey? This Istanbul-inspired restaurant and bar, housed in the elegant 1 Warwick building member’s club, shares its home with sister restaurant Nessa on the ground floor. but aims to take things up several notches (erm, floors?) in terms of delivery.
The two restaurants share an executive chef too, Tom Cenci, and we amused ourselves over our Grand Bazaar (Yasmin’s Turkish twist on an Old Fashioned), imagining the chef darting between venues, running up the stairs spilling salted pistachios all over the place, and generally cursing the chaos of it all.
Hmmm, maybe we should get out more.
In reality, Yasmin is a supremely soothing spot to sink into, all sage green walls and warm wooden accents, highlighted by a spectacular marble-topped bar lined orbited by velvet stools seating gently boisterous custom. Trailing plants cascade from the ceiling, while banquette seating and rattan chairs create distinct zones for dining and lounging, in true member’s club style. Confusingly, you don’t actually need to be a card-carrying member to dine here, though for the gym and lounges below, you do.
The terrace, furnished with plush seating and draped with cosy throws, provides a sheltered spot for alfresco dining among the rooftops, though you’d be mad to be out there now, with temperatures hovering around zero. One for summer, perhaps…
Anyway, back in the warm, and Cenci has crafted a menu that pays homage to Turkish traditions whilst adding just the right amount of venue-appropriate sheen to proceedings. The sharing plates showcase bold flavours via Instagram-ready presentation – standouts include the whipped sheep’s cheese with hot honey and Isot Biber, piped and pretty, and the Muhammara aubergine, which arrives splayed out into three, panko’d and golden, its centre that lovely side of fudgy that aubergine gets through slow cooking. Alongside, a walnut and red pepper dip boasts chives sliced so finely we’re surprised @ratemychives hasn’t come calling. The flatbreads, made daily and grilled to order, are gold-standard, and show that the kitchen cares about the basics, which is always a good sign.
…All of this feels ready for the warmer months, when the wrap-around terrace seats 64 and offers atmospheric dining under the stars. We can’t wait.
Shoryu is owned by noodz-entrepreneur (and CEO of the Japan Centre) Tak Tokumine, a native of Fukuoka city who is dedicated to promoting his hometown’s cherished local speciality, ramen, across the globe.
We’re so glad that he’s made it his noble mission, as the restaurant’s signature dish – shoryu ganso tonkotsu, a rich and meaty ramen that boasts a 12-hour simmered broth, homemade Cotswold flour hosomen noodles, succulent char siu barbecue pork, Burford Brown nitamago egg, and an army’s arsenal-worth of vegetable toppings, from pickles to freshly shredded stuff – is as good as it gets.
The kotteri hakata tonkotsu, a heavy, fatty, meaty noodle broth, is another popular choice among patrons and, to us, is one of London’s finest hangover cures. The fact that it pairs so beautifully with a super frothy Kirin Nama draft certainly does no harm in dusting off last night’s excesses.
Finally, you don’t have to be vegan or vegetarian to be enamoured with their plant-based spicy goma tan tan. It comes with an umami rich tonyu soy milk, sesame and miso broth, and is topped with soya mince marinated in garlic and chiu chow chilli oil, crunchy beansprouts, pak choi, and extra chilli oil for a decent kick. Woof.
Ideal for centuries-old British cooking, game from the restaurant’s own estate, and a dining room dripping with theatrical history…
Founded in 1798, Rules is London’s oldest restaurant, and it wears that title with considerable pride. Thomas Rule opened it as an oyster bar in Covent Garden, and more than two centuries later, it’s still serving traditional British food from the same Maiden Lane address.
The dining room is all dark wood panelling, red velvet banquettes and walls covered in hundreds of paintings and cartoons. Late Poet Laureate John Betjeman called the ground floor interior “unique and irreplaceable and part of literary and theatrical London,” which feels about right in this corner of the West End.
The restaurant has been owned by just three families across its entire history, and the current proprietor, John Mayhew, took over in 1984. Over the years, Rules has fed Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells, Charlie Chaplin and countless others from London’s literary and theatrical worlds. It’s even appeared in novels by Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh and John le Carré. The proximity to the West End means it still pulls in the theatre crowd, though these days you’re as likely to find tourists ticking it off their London list, as well as critics keen to buck hype-train trends and bang on about it constantly.
The menu focuses heavily on game, much of it sourced from Rules’ own Lartington Estate in the High Pennines. During shooting season (August 12th to December 10th, roughly), whole roast grouse arrives served traditionally, whilst year-round classics like steak and kidney pie, roast rib of beef for two, and slow-cooked ox cheek keep things properly old-school. In such esteemed surroundings, this kind of food feels wholly appropriate, and it’s cooked with precision.
The upstairs cocktail bar is a civilised spot for a pre-dinner drink, with house cocktails like the Rules Bellini and prosaically named Rules Cocktail (Tanqueray gin, Dubonnet and Crémant Blanc de Blanc). Whether you arrive sharpened, loosened or stone cold sober, this is hearty, traditional British cooking (and drinking) done properly, if without much in the way of modern flourishes. You’re paying for more than just the food; you’re paying for two centuries of history and a dining room that genuinely hasn’t changed all that much since Dickens was a regular.
Ideal for traditional Vietnamese pho and bao burgers stamped with lotus flowers…
A Shaftesbury Avenue stalwart that sits equidistant between Chinatown and Soho, one of the best restaurants in the West End is Pho & Bun, which offers a taste of Vietnam in the heart of London, all via the mind of chef Andy Le.
The star of the show at Pho & Bun is undoubtedly their traditional Vietnamese pho, a dish that, at its best, can be both transformative and transportative – quite the blessing after negotiating Leicester Square in the pissing rain.
The pho is light and nourishing, boasting a clear, flavoursome broth that carries the pleasant richness of beef bones. It’s served following traditional Vietnamese etiquette, which dictates that it should be eaten using only chopsticks and a simple metal spoon (not that absurdly sized ladle from a certain highstreet pho slinger).
In addition to the glorious national dish, the restaurant also serves a range of bun dishes, the slimmer, gently fermented noodle that is almost as popular on the streets of Hanoi, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City and beyond as pho. Go for the spicy, funky bun bo Hue, umami rich from shrimp paste and given succour and savour by bone marrow. If that doesn’t lift you out of your sense of Central London-spawned malaised, then you probably can’t be saved.
Finally, a firm favourite on the menu at Pho & Bun is are their signature steamed bao burgers stamped with a lotus flower, Vietnam’s national flower which symbolises purity. ‘Authentic’ these bao/burger hybrids ain’t; authentically delicious they most certainly are. Indeed, they are quite simply addictive and something you’ll come to crave long after trying.
Ideal for fresh pasta that stands apart in a city of uninspiring Italian joints…
Bancone Covent Garden, founded in 2018 by Will Ellner and his business partner David Ramsay (no relation to…), is one of the best fresh pasta joints in this part of town. In fact, in a city where that particular type of restaurant has become increasingly ubiquitous and uninspiring, Bacone stands out as being, well, actually good at pasta.
Here, it’s handmade every day, and that springy, sprightly essence is perhaps best realised in the least adorned pastas, like the insanely comforting silk handkerchiefs with walnut butter and a confit egg yolk, or the spaghetti alla chittara (a slightly squared off version of your usual strands hailing from the Abruzzo region) which is dressed in nothing more than a little chilli, garlic and parsley. It’s fucking fabulous. For something a little more fulsome and equally as comforting, Bancone’s tortellini in brodo never misses the mark.
The restaurant operates on a first-come, first-served basis, welcoming walk-ins with open arms. However, they do not guarantee specific tables or times, adding to the spontaneous/frustrating nature of the dining experience. If you do need to wait a while, then there’s plenty of streetside entertainment and shopping options in Covent Garden to keep you occupied.
Bancone Covent Garden has been recognised in the so-called Little Red Book for its light, fresh food, earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand award in 2023. There are now two more outposts, in Soho’s Golden Square and Borough Yards, just off Borough Market.
Ideal for grand Parisian dining at obscenely reasonable prices…
Sometimes, the question of where to eat in the West End that won’t break the bank is answered with a single word; Zedel.
Brasserie Zedel, located in the heart of Piccadilly, is a grand Parisian brasserie that brings with it authentic Art Deco interiors and obscenely reasonable, humble French fare.
Hidden beneath the laid back Parisian-style ZL Café, providing a sense of discovery and exclusivity to its patrons, the establishment has a rich history, originally serving as the basement of the Regent Palace Hotel, and in the 1980s and 90s, it was known as the Atlantic Bar and Grill. The art deco and beaux arts fittings have been meticulously refurbished, with details recreated according to archived original drawings, preserving the historical charm of the place.
The restaurant serves traditional French food at exceptional value, with an expansive, inclusive space to match, making it a hugely popular choice among locals and tourists alike.
The menu is almost as expansive as the space, but most are here for the prix-fixe option which, at £19.75 for three thoroughly generous courses, has got to be the best value meal in Central London. Currently on, a leek and potato vichyssoise soup, a brasserie-ever-present steak haché with fries and peppercorn sauce, and a chocolate and caramel tart, is a trio of satisfying dishes that simply shouldn’t be giving you change from a 20 pound note. Throw in a large glass of house red for £7 and you really are laughing here.
Ideal for innovative Indian small plates that marry British ingredients with subcontinental flavours…
Kricket was founded in 2015 by university friends Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell, with the duo starting their culinary journey in a basic 20-seater shipping container at Pop Brixton. Today, Kricket has expanded to three permanent locations in Brixton, Soho, and White City, with plans to grow further in London and internationally.
The Soho branch is particularly convenient for those visiting the West End, as it’s just a 200 metre walk away from Leicester Square.
Almost ten years ago, Kricket’s proposition felt kinda unique; a combination of British ingredients with the flavours, aromas and cooking tekkers of India. Now, it’s an idea that permeates the menu of just about every non-European restaurant that is – or could be – on the JKS roster, but back then it felt quite novel.
The restaurant features a theatre kitchen, counter seating, and long sharing tables, making it an ideal spot for group dining in Central London. Bowlby, who once cooked European food for the locals in Mumbai, returned to the UK to cook Indian food for Londoners, and his innovative approach to Indian cuisine, combined with Rik Campbell’s business acumen, has made Kricket a major hit.
We’re addicted to their crispy and salty samphire pakoras, which are topped with a sticky date and tamarind chutney and served with a heady chilli garlic mayonnaise for dunking. Perhaps even better is the cuttlefish and Goan sausage ragu, boasting serious depth and funk, with both dishes exemplifying the kind of East-meets-West stylings that have lent such success to Kricket.
Do not miss out, either, on the predictably dubbed but undeniably delicious KFC (Keralan fried chicken), whose curry leaf mayonnaise and deep fried curry leaf garnish really does take things up several notches. This is beer food, make no mistake, and the Harbour Brewing Co’s Session IPA is always on the taps. Well, it would be rude not to, don’t you think?
Ideal for authentic Taiwanese-style fried chicken with customisable powders in the heart of Chinatown…
Good Friend Chicken is not your typical fried chicken joint. This Chinatown chicken shop prides itself on serving Taiwanese-style fried chicken, with their commitment to authenticity evident in every aspect of its operation. In fact, Good Friend even shipped their oven all the way from Taiwan to ensure the food is prepared as it would be in the night markets of Taipei.
Their menu, though concise, is packed with golden, crispy delights. The chicken breast is skillfully sliced thin and marinated masterfully before being tossed in three different flours to create an unforgettable crispness. Their popcorn chicken, another must-try item on the menu, disappears so fast that it’s wise to order several bags.
But it’s the options for customisation that keeps the customers being reeled in. Once served, you have the option to douse your chicken with any one (or all) of seven different powders, adding the risk of flavour overload, admittedly, but also a real sense of jeopardy that makes every bite all the more exciting. The plum powder, in particular, comes highly recommended.
…Actually, we did think they could top those lofty standards, owing to the relentless boundary pushing of the restless duo, perfectionism seemingly already reached but also just another insanely complex emulsion away.
At the new 180 Strand-housed Ikoyi, the space is larger and more sumptuous, all clean curves and tasteful mustard tones, the vibe gently refined; a little slicker, perhaps. Prices have increased in tandem. The tasting menu now is one of the most enthusiastically priced in London, at £350.
But what a procession of plates it is, of around 14 on our visit, with premium ingredients gracing just about every bite. Yep, that spice-based cuisine built around British hyper-seasonality remains. The iconic jollof rice with crab or lobster custard is still here, but leading up to the big, smoky reveal, luxury and innovation abounds; an aged lobster with one of Chan’s famously vital sauces, this one an agrodolce of sorts, was particularly special. Another course of lobster claw, sweetbreads and pine nut was as opulent and awe-inspiring as it sounds.
Yep, this is a restaurant firing on all cylinders, but we wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ikoyi somehow managed to find another gear; the sense of focus on improvement here feels totally implacable. In the best possible way of course…
Ideal for convivial counter-dining with exceptional Spanish tapas and seafood specials…
Speaking of counter-dining, perhaps London’s most beloved bar seating set-up is found at the various outposts of acclaimed tapas group Barrafina.
Those in the West End and looking for the best dining options in Covent Garden will be pleased to hear that this famous corner of London boasts not one but two Barrafinas. We’re particularly enamoured with the Drury Lane iteration, which is compact, cosy and convivial, and leans a little more into the seafood side of the Spanish repertoire, often to glorious effect.
The specials are usually dictated by what’s fresh from the sea, so keep an keen eye for the miniature, roaming chalkboard for details of what’s good today; on our last visit, an enthusiastically brined piece of hake with punchy aioli and red peppers so caramelised they were collapsing was as good as it sounds.
Ideal for proper Sichuan Chinese cuisine that promises plenty of brow-mopping…
Though the Real Beijing Food House feels like a Chinatown institution, with dusty carpets, dimly lit booths and properly brilliant, spice-centric regional Chinese dishes, the broadly Sichuan (confusingly, when you consider the name) restaurant hasn’t actually been standing proudly on this Gerard Street spot for as long as you’d think. Previously found on Charing Cross Road, Food House moved more into the heart of Chinatown during the area’s recent redevelopment, and has quickly become the must-eat restaurant here and without doubt one of the best places to eat close in the West End. It recently further entered the wider public consciousness after being positively reviewed in the Observer last year.
It was a review that was very much deserved, the restaurant’s chilli oil slicked noodle dishes and whole fish dishes – again, dappled with rust coloured droplets that promise plenty of brow mopping – delivering big on flavour and a sense of satisfaction felt deep in your stomach.
For a quick, efficient lunch, the chilli oil (there it is again) lamb noodles is the type of one-bowl-wonder that knocks your socks off and leaves you regretting every single Sainos meal deal that came before it.
Ideal for honest Italian food cooked with respect and just a touch of refinement…
The younger, more affordable sibling of Angela Hartnett’s brilliant fine dining restaurant Murano, Café Murano offers fresh pasta, seasonal vegetables prepared with precision, immaculate shellfish, and the odd hearty af ragu, just as you’d expect from a chef this devoted to the food of Italy.
True to the soul of the place, the pedigree of the produce is the main draw, with the restaurant’s plates arriving with little frippery or adornment. Instead, Cafe Murano strives for simple, honest food, cooked with respect and just a little refinement. It more than delivers, which is a surprisingly rare find in this part of the West End.
Ideal for rainy afternoons whiled away eating and drinking through a variety of street food stalls…
Brought to Covent Garden by KERB, a group known for nurturing London’s street food scene, Seven Dials is one of the most exciting eating destinations in London.
In the 19th Century, Seven Dials Market, then Thomas Neal’s Warehouse, was used to store cucumbers and bananas. Now transformed into a foodcourt, to honour the past of the structure the market has been divided into two areas: Banana Warehouse and Cucumber Alley.
Banana Warehouse is billed as ‘The Belly of the Beast’ and has plenty of seating and communal tables. Here, you’ll find a number of street food kitchens and counter-top cafes serving an impressive lineup of street food from around the world. There is also a downstairs bar creating creative cocktail concoctions made with spirits from the East London Liquor Co. Banana Warehouse is the ideal place to come and while away a rainy afternoon in central London, eating and drinking your way through to the night.
If you need a pitstop while shopping your way through Covent Garden and are feeling peckish, Cucumber Alley is the place to go. Inside are seven independent food traders, seven days a week selling some of the best snacks and desserts in the Big Smoke.
On our last visit, we had a slice or two from Bad Boy Pizza Society and a gorgeous batata hara from the Syrian street food joint Arnabeet. Lovely stuff.
Ideal for a enormous 20-inch pizzas and inventive toppings…
Not one for the pizza purists, this, but definitely a place for a sharin’, tearin’ good time, the pizzas here are huge 20-inch numbers, perfect for some group fun. Indeed, the name Homeslice in bro parlance means friend, and the buddying up concept lends itself to conviviality and good cheer.
Some of the topping combos are inventive, some downright weird; cauliflower cheese and harissa anyone? But, when they get things right, it’s brilliant.
Cast your mind back to 2011. We were all pretending to understand what planking was, Charlie Sheen was having a very public meltdown, and Margate? Well, Margate was still struggling to shake off decades of seaside decline. Then Turner Contemporary opened its doors, and something rather extraordinary began to happen.
Fast forward to 2025, and this once-fading Victorian resort has transformed into what food critics are calling Britain’s most exciting coastal food destination. London chefs are abandoning eye-watering rents to open ambitious restaurants overlooking golden beaches, day-boat fishermen deliver their catch directly to kitchens, and getting a table at the town’s hottest spots requires a quite tedious level of planning.
Drumming home a point, the inaugural Margate Restaurant Week in February sold out faster than Glastonbury tickets tend to, which tells you everything about the town’s burgeoning culinary credentials. And, indeed, how cursed those bloody spreadsheet syndicates have made getting a ticket to the Big G in recent years…
What makes Margate special isn’t just the quality of cooking (though that’s undeniably brilliant) but the spirit of the place. This is a town where Michelin-recognised sophistication sits comfortably alongside seaside fish and chips, where ageing hipsters and retired party animals serve natural wine next to fourth-generation cockle sellers, and where a meal might cost you £3 or £300 depending on your mood. It’s gloriously unpretentious, fiercely creative, and utterly addictive.
We’ve eaten our way through the Old Town’s narrow streets, queued for tables at harbour-side shacks, had our polystyrene cup of prawns nicked by seagulls, and discovered some true gems in Cliftonville’s Victorian terraces, all in the name of this guide. From sustainable seafood champions to pasta perfectionists, Vietnamese street food to LA-inspired tacos, here are the best restaurants in Margate.
Bottega Caruso
Ideal for dogmatic, delicious pasta perfection…
Grace Dent called Bottega Caruso ‘heroically wondrous’, and whilst we don’t agree with the adverb and adjective combination, we’re in complete agreement with the sentiment. This tiny Campanian osteria on Broad Street is genuinely one of the UK’s best Italian restaurants, so much better than the thousand cacio e pepe purveyors in the bigger cities, with a regional focus that keeps things really interesting rather than restrains them.
Owners Simona Di Dio and Harry Ryder aren’t messing about. Alongside head chef Thom Eagle (whose Substack is ace, by the way), they make fresh pasta every morning using Di Dio’s grandmother’s recipes, import artisanal products from her beloved Sannio region, and maintain standards that are reassuringly dogmatic. The converted pub seats barely 20 people (only 6 or so tables), creating an atmosphere so intimate you’ll know your neighbours’ life stories by dessert. Or, perhaps, your neighbour will be feeding you their dessert…
The menu changes with the seasons and what’s good at the market, but certain dishes are regulars. A mainstay is the polpette di pane al sugo – ‘meatballs’ made using bread instead and served with Simona’s family recipe for slow cooked tomato sauce. It’s absolutely incredible, the polpette boasting the most satisfying bounce, the sugo rich but still tasting vital rather than rusty.
Of course, the fresh pasta dishes are the highlight, and we’ve had a few seafood versions in our time at Bottega Caruso that have made a mark; a version of pasta con le sarde using mackerel, and a spaghetti con la spigola with locally caught wild sea bass and imported Datterini tomatoes both live long in the memory. The latter dish perfectly exemplifies the approach here; use local, seasonal ingredients when they are at their very best, and complement it with imported Italian products that are simply too good to leave behind in Bel Paese.
Here’s the catch: booking opens 60 days in advance and reservations are essential weeks in advance, as tables vanish faster than limoncello at an Italian wedding. Open Wednesday to Saturday only.
Ideal for when sustainability meets sublime seafood…
There’s always a moment at Angela’s when you realise you’re experiencing something rather special, whether it’s your first or your fiftieth time in the intimate, unassuming dining room. Perhaps it’s when chef Rob Cooper emerges from the kitchen to explain why today’s turbot was caught using a specific technique to preserve its texture. Or maybe it’s when you taste that turbot, served simply with white beans and green sauce, and understand why less really can be more.
This compact 26-seat bistro on The Parade has become Margate’s most difficult reservation since earning the town’s first Michelin Green Star for sustainability. Owners Lee Coad and Charlotte Forsdike, who took over in 2017, operate with a philosophy that’s refreshingly straightforward: source the best possible ingredients from local waters, then “don’t mess them up.”
The daily-changing blackboard menu depends entirely on what fishermen land each morning, meaning you might find gurnard one day, john dory the next. What is guaranteed is the restaurant’s commitment to sustainability, which goes beyond sourcing. Everything from the natural wines to the sourdough (from local bakery Oast) reflects an ethos of supporting small producers and minimising waste. Even the simple interior, all white walls and tables made using recycled plastic waste that somehow look like marble, keeps focus firmly on the plate.
Prices reflect the quality of the product – starters average around £10, while mains push £30. But when you’re savouring perfectly cooked brill with samphire that was growing on Thanet’s marshes yesterday morning, a sense of good value still presents itself. Book weeks ahead and pray for calm seas – rough weather means slim pickings on that blackboard. But that’s all part of the fun.
Open Tuesday to Saturday, with lunch from 12pm and dinner from 6pm.
Ideal for casual seafood excellence with a seasoning sea breeze…
If Angela’s is the sophisticated older sibling, Dory’s is the fun-loving younger brother who knows how to party. This seafood bar on the High Street puts you right in the action with counter seating overlooking Margate’s main sands – close enough to hear the waves, far enough to keep your chips dry when pitched up at the handful of tables outside the restaurant.
In 2019, the same team behind Angela’s opened this more casual spot to showcase a different side of their seafood obsession. Here, small plates rule supreme, designed for grazing while working through the wine list. Smoked prawns arrive with a ramekin of daffodil-yellow aioli, a crab tart is as pretty as a petal, prawn cocktail uses smoked prawn oil in the dressing, and the daily crudo features whatever pristine fish caught the chef’s eye that morning. On a recent visit, that was slices of raw bream dressed with gooseberries. Delicious.
What we love about Dory’s is their generous accommodation for walk-ins, particularly on the bar stools. Unlike its reservation-dependent sibling, you can rock up here on a Thursday lunchtime or Saturday evening and snag a counter seat (though weekend evenings do get busy). The kitchen stays open until 10:30pm (last orders 9pm, mind), making it perfect for those long summer evenings when you can’t quite tear yourself away from the beach’s orbit.
The wine selection – chiefly, but not stubbornly, organic – focuses on small producers making interesting bottles that pair brilliantly with seafood. There’s always a couple of intriguing by-the-glass organic numbers scrawled on a wall mirror, for those keen to be told what to do. Staff know their stuff too, happy to guide you toward something crisp and mineral to cut through the richness of those smoked prawns.
Be warned that Dory’s is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays – a common Margate quirk that catches out many visitors.
Ideal for harbour-side dining that lives up to the hype…
When Ed Wilson and Josie Stead of critically-acclaimed Hackney restaurant Brawn announced they were opening a place in Margate, interest was certainly piqued in London’s food scene. When that place turned out to be Sargasso, positioned dramatically on the harbour wall, everyone understood why.
Yes, that William Gleave of P. Franco, Bright and Hill and Szrok fame, one of the UK’s most gifted chefs, with a natural touch that gives you absolute confidence in just about anything listed on the Provençal-leaning menu. If you do need to direct that confidence, start with the Cantabarian anchovies and pickled boquerones on toast – a double-header of the good stuff that’s umami-heavy but beautifully balanced. The squid sandwich is an absolute showstopper, too; a pillowy bun that can barely contain a generous handful of deep-fried tentacles and aioli.
Dip deeper with a plate of boiled asparagus with chunky romesco sauce, or grilled scallops served in their shell and dressed in a particularly assertive green sauce. Yep, as we said, basically anything you order is going to be on point here, such is the inherent skill and good taste that Gleave wields.
The setting provides the perfect seasoning. Housed in a former boat shed, diners watch fishing boats bob past while tucking into some of the finest seafood from the North Sea. Sargasso has attracted rave reviews in several nationals but don’t let that intimidate you – the atmosphere remains refreshingly unstuffy.
The winelist follows that theme, with a bright and breezy approach in keeping with the location and fish-forward menu. Wine on tap – including a Loire Muscadet and Domaine Plaisance rosé – keeps things refreshingly casual (and affordable), while the wider selection leans heavily into natural producers with a particular fondness for volcanic wines from Mount Etna and playful bottlings like Calvez Bobinot’s ‘PIAK!’ rosé, which is an absolute banger of a bottle (at £55, you would hope so).
Summer sees the outdoor seating area come into its own, effectively doubling capacity and offering some of the best views in town. Even on blustery days, there’s something romantic about being this close to the elements – just bring a jacket.
Open seven days a week, Sargasso has become the anchor (sorry) of Margate’s harbour dining scene, spawning several neighbours but remaining the destination that started it all.
Buoy & Oyster, occupying prime real estate on the High Street with gorgeous views of sand and water, could easily coast (ahem) on location alone. Instead, this two AA Rosette winner delivers on every front, from the open theatre kitchen to sunny beachfront pergola, all the way to the excellent food.
Head chef Craig Edgell has created a menu that somehow satisfies both the sustainable seafood crowd and Sunday roast traditionalists, the Bloody Mary nursers and the champagne special occasionalists.
The signature Buoy Bowl – a generous compilation of king prawns, calamari, and battered fish with chips and garlicky aioli – feeds two very happy people for a reasonable sum (right now, £28, but subject to change upon the whims of the tide). There are also whole grilled lobsters, local oysters that get the respect they deserve, bottomless mussels on Wednesdays and, yes, there are even excellent options for vegans.
The interior works perfectly – special-occasion smart yet beach-casual comfortable. Huge windows frame the view (book a window table if you can), while the buzz from the open kitchen adds a gentle bustle of activity without drowning out conversation.
What really impresses us is the consistency. Whether you’re here for a milestone birthday dinner or a casual Tuesday lunch, the standard never drops. Open daily from noon to 9pm, it’s become our go-to recommendation for visitors wanting a ‘restaurant’ experience with that essential Margate personality.
Ideal for keeping it real with cockles and whelks…
You can keep your tweezers and your tasting menus – sometimes what the soul craves is a pot of bracing cockles eaten while watching the tide roll in. Manning’s has been fulfilling this precise need since 1962, making it as much a part of Margate’s DNA as candy floss, questionable tattoos and Carl Barat.
This isn’t a restaurant; it’s barely even a stall. What it is, though, is seaside eating at its most pure. Maldon oysters for £1 each (yes, really), cockles doused in malt vinegar, whelks for the slightly more adventurous, and those glorious pots of hot garlicky mussels that make your breath unsuitable for polite company.
The beauty of Manning’s lies in its complete lack of pretension. No Instagram-baiting décor, no artfully arranged microgreens, just honest seafood served by people who’ve been doing this longer than most of us have been alive. Stand there with your little wooden fork, prodding at shellfish while seagulls eye your pot optimistically, and tell us this isn’t exactly what a seaside holiday should taste like.
Find them on The Parade near the clock tower and just seconds from the Turner Contemporary, though honestly, you could probably just follow your nose. Cash only, no seating, zero glamour – and absolutely essential Margate eating. Bring a few cans or even a bottle of something fizzy and sit on the three picnic tables opposite. Or even better, on the seawall, your legs dangling down and swinging like a kid.
In a town whose tide is rising with natural wine bars and small plates concepts (not that we’re complaining, some are excellent), Peter’s Fish Factory stands as a beacon of deep-fried democracy. This family-run chippy has been serving what locals (and we) consider the best fish and chips in Margate, all for the price of a pint in that there London.
You read that right; a medium cod and chips here (medium is pretty fucking massive, it should be said) costs just £7.50 and is of sparkling, spanking quality.
The secret? Well, there isn’t one really. Just squeaky fresh fish, beef dripping for the chips, and a batter recipe that achieves a gorgeously copper colour when cooked and a pretty impressive shatter on first bite. This is democratic dining at its finest, where everyone from Turner Prize winners to actual turners queue at the same counter, and jostle for a spot on the ragtag collection of garden furniture just outside the restaurant.
What we particularly appreciate is how Peter’s has resisted the urge to gentrify. While restaurants around them add sourdough and sriracha to everything, they’ve stuck to their guns, with the only accoutrements pickled onions, pickled eggs, and, er, pickled gherkins, just as it should be.
Ideal for Vietnamese street food classics in a pretty Margate side street…
Nathalie Nguyen’s Vietnamese café might be tiny – we’re talking eight tables and knocking-elbows-with-strangers tiny – but what it lacks in space it makes up for in sheer deliciousness, serving up the kind of food that makes you close your eyes on the first bite and start planning your return visit. Or, indeed, a flight to Vietnam, depending on your ambition…
The bánh mì are legendary, and at £11 for one stuffed with five-spice pork belly, they represent one of the best value lunches in Margate (yes, we know you can get one for a fraction of the price in Hanoi, but that’s beside the point). That pork has been marinated for hours, the pickled vegetables provide the perfect acidic counterpoint to all that lovely fat, and the baguette (from a secret supplier Nathalie won’t reveal) achieves that distinctive parched-earth crust; essential to a proper banh mi. Yes indeed, there’s no French baguettes subbed in here lazily, thank the lord.
The sweet, fragrant vegetable curry is gorgeous, too; heady from dried spice and luxurious from coconut cream, it’s enough to lift the spirits on one of Margate’s surprisingly frequent dreary days. There is, of course, Vietnamese coffee, served ‘phin’ style for those with the patience to watch it drip through. It’s worth the wait.
Décor is largely utilitarian, just as it should be, because who wants to eat noodles in an armchair anyway? There is some snake-themed artwork (Nathalie was born in the year of the snake), to be fair, and the irresistible aroma of star anise and cinnamon that wafts out of the open door like a come hither finger made of white steam on a cartoon. It’s enough.
Open Thursday to Monday for lunch, with dinner service added on Fridays only. Fair warning: that bijou size means waits are common, but as they say in Vietnam; “Kiên nhẫn là mẹ thành công”. Patience is the mother of success.
High Dive wants you to know it’s not trying too hard, which is exactly how you know it is. Opened December 2023 on the High Street, the restaurant name is taken from ‘high end dive bar’ apparently. Fortunately, the interior by Vacuum Studio doesn’t do things by similarly confusing halves. Instead, it’s full-throttle in here; think Miami Beach meets Memphis Group, with highly pigmented colours that shouldn’t work but absolutely do, and 1980s brass bamboo cutlery that makes every meal feel like a celebration. It’s the kind of space that makes you want to dress up, order cocktails you can’t pronounce, and pretend you’re infinitely more interesting than you actually are.
The Los Angeles-inspired menu brings sophisticated Mexican vitality to Margate’s oft grey skies. You know you’re in good hands when the tortilla chips arrive in various shades of masa harina, just out of the fryer and puffed in all the right places. A delicate dice of pico de gallo is all you need to affirm High Dive is the real deal.
The hits continue apace. Crab tostadas feature a brown crab mousse and picked white crab salad that balances funk with freshness. The tacos here (the tortillas use heirloom corn imported from Mexico which is nixtamalized, milled and baked by Masafina in London) are outstanding. The fish taco might be billed as ‘classic’ but this isn’t your usual Baja California situation. Instead, griddled hake is dressed in red adobo – a marinade that walks the tightrope between smoky and spicy without tumbling into either extreme. Guacasalsa (the portmanteau game is strong here) and pickled citrus onions provide the acidic counterpoint every good taco needs.
The bar seats offer the best people-watching, particularly when Margate’s creative crowd descends for weekend sessions. From that bar, the team keeps things tight with just three cocktails, but what a trio they are, including a Dirty Horchata that tastes like dessert with a tequila kick, and a Spicy Old Fashioned that swaps bourbon for Jameson with chili liqueur.
The whole thing – food, drinks, vibe – feels playful without being cloying, and carefully executed without losing the essential sense of fun that makes Mexican food so life-affirming. Do be warned, opening hours at High Dive are less loose; only Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday midday ‘till late.
Ideal for Parisian cave à manger culture, at the coast…
Natalia Ribbe set out to “take the wank out of wine” (more oenophile than onanist, then) and succeeded so thoroughly that Sète has become our favourite place to drink in Margate. This wine bar-restaurant-bottle shop hybrid in a former sweet shop brings Parisian cave à manger culture to Northdown Road, just with a ferocious sea breeze blowing you through the door, rather than the aroma of freshly baked bread beckoning you in.
The focus on female winemakers isn’t a gimmick but a genuine passion, resulting in a list that surprises even seasoned wine connoisseurs. Can’t decide? The team guides without condescending, finding bottles to match both your palate and pocket. The ‘Apéro Hour’ runs 4-6pm Monday-Saturday with all (yes, all) wines by the glass at £5. We regularly adjust our schedules – and, indeed, our next day’s schedule – accordingly.
The set menu offers genuinely silly value, too: £20 for two courses, £23 for three. That might buy you pâté en croûte that’d make a Lyonnais grandmother proud, Toulouse sausage over braised green lentils, or onion tart with comté mousse that has us still trying to recreate it at home many months later.
The space itself charms without trying too hard – original features retained, simple furniture, walls lined with bottles begging to come home with you. Garden seating expands capacity in summer, though winter has its own appeal when you’re inside with candlelight and something robust in your glass.
Ideal for trying the UK Latte Art Champion’s take on breakfast…
Will Pitts won the 2019 UK Latte Art Championship, which might seem like niche boasting until you taste his coffee. Try it at Forts Café on Cliff Terrace (a steep climb but with gorgeous sea views as your reward), which has become Margate’s caffeine headquarters.
But dismissing it as just a coffee shop would be criminal negligence. The food earns equal billing, in our minds at least. Korean fried chicken is as crispy as you’d hope, with that sweet-spicy glaze that triggers endorphins. Sadly, the plate hasn’t been given the same artistic treatment as the coffee; the accompanying gochujang mayo is just a boring ol’ perfunctory zig zag. Guys, with your talent, you’re missing a trick here!
Nduja fried eggs on sourdough provide the kind of breakfast that sets you up for whatever Margate throws at you, and the sandwiches – oh, the sandwiches. These aren’t sad triangles in plastic boxes, but doorstops stuffed with ingredients that taste fresh and alive.
The space offers a particular kind of Margate magic – unfinished in parts, comfortable in others, with mismatched furniture that, when you zoom out, feels harmonious and whole. Local artists’ work adorns the walls (and yes, it’s for sale), laptops compete for plug sockets, and the coffee machine hisses like an angry dragon.
Open every day until 4pm, Forts provides reliable service in a town where opening hours can be… creative. It’s become our default meeting spot, morning fuel stop, and afternoon refuge.
Yes, we realise we’ve done this all topsy-turvy by ending with two breakfast spots, but we don’t make the rules. Actually, we do make the rules here, but anyway…
We don’t hand out any baking awards either, but we’re calling it all the same: Oast makes the best cinnamon buns in Britain. This Northdown Road bakery is known across town and beyond for these burnished spirals of joy – spiced, generously glazed, with that perfect pull-apart texture that has you reaching for another before finishing the first.
That’s not to say Oast is a one-bake-wonder. The sourdough loaves have that tang and structure that comes from long fermentation and bakers who actually give a damn. Saucisson-gouda croissants shouldn’t necessarily make sense but absolutely do, while seasonal specials keep regulars guessing what delicious madness emerges from the stone ovens next.
But even more than that, what really confirms the quality here is how Oast has become part of Margate’s food ecosystem. Their bread appears on restaurant tables across town (Sète uses theirs exclusively, Angela’s and Dory’s too), creating a web of quality that raises standards everywhere. That’s the thing about Margate’s food scene – it’s collaborative rather than cutthroat, with everyone understanding that better neighbours mean better business. We love it.
Open Thursday through Sunday only, 8:30am-2:30pm, queues form early and items sell out fast.
Pull into Deptford station, and you immediately get the sense that this is a fine place to be fed. You’ll get the smell of fresh fish from the string of fishmongers along the High Street, “second only to Billingsgate” in the words of one local blogger. You’ll see the smoke signals wafting from the jerk pans of Deptford Market Yard. You’ll sense the palpable hunger in your fellow passengers who are pitching up in Deptford today for the same reason you are; to eat.
Once a dockyard of significant importance during the reign of Henry VIII, Deptford has long been a place of comings and goings, its identity continuously shaped by the ebb and flow of people and cultures even before the opening of the Deptford Station on the London and Greenwich Railway in 1836, which heralded a new era of connectivity, making it the oldest railway station in London.
This development paved the way for waves of migration that have enriched the area with a kaleidoscope of cultures and cuisines. Today, Deptford’s food scene is a reflection of its ethnic diversity, with its various communities contributing to the local palate in myriad, delicious ways.
The opening of the overground train line in 2009 marked a new chapter in Deptford’s story. This vital link to the rest of London has not only made the area more accessible but has also played a pivotal role in its growth. Regenerated but fortunately perhaps not quite yet gentrified, this modern connectivity has fostered a burgeoning food scene where the area’s historic comings and goings mingle with contemporary gastronomy and budding entrepreneurism.
Not to be overshadowed by neighbour Peckham’s much hyped dining scene, Deptford has been making some serious statements recently, with the area pushing the envelope with a string of delicious restaurant openings. With all that in mind, here are the best places to eat in Deptford.
Jerk Yard
Ideal for jerk chicken in a convivial, communal space…
If you’re the kind of person who needs a bite where they alight, then you’ll be pleased to hear that just seconds from Deptford Station you’ll find Deptford Market Yard, its 14 arches occupied by independent traders selling plenty of delicious bits, and the adjacent yard a buzzing, sociable space to settle into.
Under those arches, Jerk Yard does a range of takeaway boxes and wraps for under a tenner, mainly centred around their properly smoky, damn delicious chicken legs, all blistered and burnished from the grill and finished with a viscous, piquant jerk sauce. Get it over rice and peas, as a wrap, or in a sandwich. A side of sweet fried plantain soothes those spicier notes.
Though there are only a couple of tables belonging to Jerk Yard out front, there are plenty of communal benches in this lively, thriving space.
Ideal for trying one of the best lamb birria of your life…
Also tucked away in the arches, you can’t miss Taca Tacos, its yellow and purple neon sign illuminating the Market Yard and drawing the punters in. They’re all here for one thing; the signature beef birria.
Here, a quesataco (a folded, grilled taco with melted cheese) is filled with slow-cooked, gently spiced beef, its caramelised edges calling to mind those gorgeous, bubbling parts that your cheese toastie leaves behind in the Breville. Served alongside for dipping is an intensely salty, gelatinous beef broth, spiked with chilli and lime. What a dish this is.
With long communal tables outfront available on a walk-in only basis, you might have to wait a little during peak times, but the food comes out fast, so why not pitch up at one of the adjacent bars and luxuriate in the whole Deptford Market Yard experience?
Tacas Tacos is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, open in the evenings on Wednesdays and Thursdays, open for lunch and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays, and open for lunch only on Sundays.
It might feel perverse to be enjoying a finely tuned, expertly executed izakaya meal whilst basking in the sunshine and glow of Deptford Market Yard’s alfresco conviviality, but Kekaki is not ordinary izakaya.
The restaurant, run by the talented chef Ping, a Vietnam War refugee who has since set up shop in Deptford, offers a light, bright and breezy Japanese culinary concept far removed from the grungy backstreet dive bars of Tokyo traditionally associated with the izakaya dining experience.
And what a joy it is to be catching some rays in anticipation of a procession of gnarly, blistered bits and deep fried delights. Onwards, then, and into some teeth-shatteringly crisp chicken karaage. And how about a plate of yaki sakana alongside – here, bream that’s just the right side of bitterness from the binchotan, and blessed only with a few flakes of sea salt? Don’t mind if we do. Plenty of yakitori skewers and some ethereally light seasonal vegetable tempura are pretty much obligatory too, regardless of whether you decide to bill them as side dishes or the main event.
None of this gets in the least bit cloying. Indeed, there’s plenty of flair on display on the rectangle plates here, with chef Ping’s stints at globally renowned Nobu and the much-maligned Sexy Fish in Miami and London respectively coming through. He brings a few touches of each to Deptford, whether it’s in the Nobu-inspired jalapeno spiked kewpie mayo that appears dotted across several dishes, or the tight, taut tuna maki rolls that are something of a signature on Berkeley Square.
It’s light, glorious stuff that feels just right in the summer sun. A chilled glass of sake or a refreshing highball seals the deal.
Matt Klose and Sam Soan have been feeding South East London through their catering company for years, but since taking over the kitchen at 209 Deptford High Street (formerly Winemakers) in 2019, they’ve given the area’s residents a permanent space to experience their cooking. The restaurant, split between a zinc-topped bar area up front and a dining room painted in deep teal at the back, feels like the kind of place locals come to multiple times a week, and there’s a convivial atmosphere bouncing around the room as a result.
The weekly-changing menu leans Mediterranean, with small plates and larger sharing dishes built around what’s good right now. Their chickpea panisse has become something of a calling card since the Winemakers days – bronzed, crunchy cubes of chickpea paste with a blizzard of grated Grana Padano and fermented chilli sauce that disappears from plates faster than seems physically possible. Cantabrian anchovies come glistening and salty, the kind that need nothing but good bread and a glass of something cold.
Not perhaps; they definitely benefit from something cold, and the largely low-intervention, biodynamic wine list delivers. The Muscadet cuts through the richer dishes beautifully, whilst the Gruner Veltliner brings some Austrian crispness to proceedings (both are available by the glass for under a tenner). The latter paired beautifully with a recent autumn menu addition of burrata with shaved fennel, fragola grapes and crisp, pleasingly bitter raddicchio.
It’s not all dainty and delicate. When it comes to the bigger plates, the onglet with homemade chimichurri, frites and salad (the most expensive single plate on the menu at £26.50) keeps things simple and does it with a breezy confidence that’s endearing. The steak gets a robust char that suits this gnarlier cut so well, and the chimichurri is a well made, not-too-vinegary version of the now ubiquitous, oft-murdered sauce. There’s usually a vegetarian main too – fried polenta with Taleggio, pumpkin, chestnut and sage wowed a plant-leaning dining companion on a recent visit. All in all, it’s all good at this Deptford High Street favourite.
Klose & Soan opens Wednesday through Saturday for dinner, though it’s worth checking their website for any changes or special opening times.
Cafe Mama Pho is a beacon of warmth on a dreary London day. Or, it’s a revitalising place to rehydrate on a bowl of electrolyte-filled soup on a particularly balmy day in the capital. Choose your poison…
…not that we’re saying the pho here is virulent. Anything but; the chicken pho here, in particular, is a vital, restorative bowl that will transport you right to the ngõs of Hanoi, minus the soundtrack of incessant motorbike beeping. All gentle aniseed notes and a graceful silkiness from the poached, skin-on chicken thighs, it’s one of our favourite bowls of pho in London. The pho tai (a version using raw slices of beef that cook gently in the broth) is excellent too. So much so, in fact, that we’ve written all about it here.
Ideal for a flavour of crowdpleasing Vietnamese classics…
Deptford is arguably the epicentre of some of the most downright delicious Vietnamese food in the country, with historic migration from Vietnam to this corner of south east London beginning in the early 1980s and continuing to this day.
Perhaps our favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Deptford is Eat Vietnam, a family run joint with a keen sense of community, a killer menu of crowdpleasers, and a thriving, throbbing atmosphere every night of the week (11:30am to 3pm, and 5pm to 11pm, every day).
Whilst the beef pho here is some of the best we’ve had in the city, the national dish certainly isn’t the only showstopper on this extensive, country-spanning menu. Perhaps even better is the bun bo hue – a spicy rice noodle soup from Vietnam’s imperial city and former capital. Inside that gorgeous chilli-spiked broth, you’ll find various pork and beef bones and bits bobbing about. Raise one to your mouth as elegantly as possible and have a gnaw. As with all the best versions of this cracking dish, the unmistakable thrum of shrimp paste is ever present. It’s fortifying stuff.
For something lighter, Eat Vietnam does a fine selection of banh mi, too. And if you need any further reason to visit, the restaurant donates 10% of its tips to charities in Vietnam.
Another gem on Deptford High Street, Chaconia is just theticket if you’re looking for freshly slapped Trini roti, richly spiced curry goat, and a warm welcome from the owner and chef. It’s a no-frills spot that delivers big on flavour and hospitality.
It’s also a superb place for vegetarians to eat really well in Deptford, with the roti flakey and moreish, and the spinach and pumpkin chana gorgeously spiced. Do not miss out on a side order of the bracing kuchela, a spicy pickle-cum-relish that is a fantastic foil to the heady, rich dry-spicing on that chana.
Again, whilst primarily a takeaway operation, there are three four-tops in the barebones restaurant if you fancy a sitdown.
Buster Mantis is one of Deptford’s most famous hospitality spaces, a bar, restaurant and nightclub that gets busy late with those looking to dine and dance, equally.
Named after Sir Alexander Bustamante, Jamaica’s first prime minister, Buster Mantis is more than just a restaurant; it’s a creative space that reflects McGowan’s own experiences growing up in Mandeville, Jamaica.
Ackee and saltfish, boneless jerk chicken thigh, and fried plantain are among the classic Jamaican staples available, while dishes like red kidney bean and thyme hummus or jerk jackfruit roti wrap cater to those seeking a modern twist on traditional flavours. On that note, the ‘Jamaican Sunday Roast’ here is a real treat. McGowan’s mother, Janet, is credited with the creation of each dish, ensuring that the food served is not only delicious but also steeped in genuine Jamaican culinary tradition.
Buster Mantis is not just about the food; it’s also a place where the drinks menu tells a story. Cocktails inspired by life in Mandeville, such as the Bishop Gibson and the Cecil Charlton, offer patrons a taste of McGowan’s Jamaican childhood in boozy form.
In an ever-evolving Deptford, Buster Mantis bridges the gap between old and new Deptford, attracting a diverse range of customers in love with the place’s faithful approach to Jamaican cuisine and culture.
Ideal for Caribbean takeaway that keeps the locals queuing…
There’s almost always a queue outside Likkle ‘d’ on Deptford High Street, which makes sense once you’ve eaten here. Behind the counter, the open kitchen boxes up orders at speed, turning out jerk chicken, curry goat and fried chicken for a steady stream of regulars who clearly know what they’re coming for.
The jerk chicken doesn’t rely on heavy smoke for flavour. Instead, it’s cooked until beautifully tender whilst staying moist, which is harder to achieve than it sounds. Their fried chicken comes with a thick, well-seasoned crust that suggests care rather than speed. Both are standouts.
Despite the name suggesting otherwise, portions here are generous and the pricing won’t sting. Barbecue chicken, oxtail, curry goat, mac and cheese, and rice and peas are all available, with their house sweet sauce worth adding. Homemade punches – Guinness or Magnum – sits in the fridge alongside the usual Tropical Rhythm and Supermalt – the former pack and punch.
The setup is simple: order at the counter, collect your box, then either head out or grab a seat if you’re staying. Most people seem to be regulars, which speaks to the consistency. Likkle may be in the name, but there’s nothing small about the appeal here.
Likkle ‘d’ is open 11am to 9pm every day except Sunday, when they take a well-earned break.
Ideal for simple, elegant Italian cooking at an affordable pricepoint…
We end our tour of the best places to eat in Deptford at Marcella, an elegant Italian restaurant on the high street whose approach is all about quality seasonal ingredients cooked with a simple, respectful touch.
Named after the matriarch of modern Italian cuisine, Marcella Hazan, the restaurant is the second act from the guys behind the beloved Artusi in Peckham. Here, the proposition is the same, from the clinical, canteen-like dining room all the way to the laughably good value Sunday set menu, which is just £29 for three courses.
That sense of sparsity extends to the ever changing menu, where you’ll find just three starters, a couple of pasta dishes, three mains, and a couple of desserts. That’s not to say that the plates aren’t generous. On a recent visit, a starter of blushing mutton chop and winter tomato salad was a knockout, as was a pumpkin ravioli with sage butter (available in small or large for £9 or £17, respectively). In early summer, there are few plates better in London than Marcella’s spaghetti alle vongole. Not long now!
For many, that would be a more than satisfying spread, but the bigger plates (only available in the evenings) are hard to resist here. Arriving fully formed and roundly conceived, rather than a single protein in need of several supplementary sides, these are hearty, well-balanced mains. A case in point was a recent plate of cod loin, baked until pearlescent and flaking, and served with a nutty Jerusalem artichoke puree and strident salsa verde. Each component brought the best out of its plate-fellow, which made finishing this one much easier than it should have been after the two pasta courses that preceded it!
Bottles from the all-Italian winelist start at £29, though there are several available by the glass too.
Deptford’s dining scene is a testament to London’s and the area’s culinary diversity, offering something for every palate. Whether you’re craving a hearty British classic or a true taste of Jamaica, these spots are sure to satisfy your hunger and leave you planning your next visit.
With its medieval lanes and soaring cathedral spire, Norwich wears its heritage lightly whilst punching well above its weight in the culinary stakes. England’s most complete medieval city has become something of a foodie destination in recent years, with a dining scene that celebrates Norfolk’s exceptional produce whilst embracing international flavours with open arms.
The Fine City benefits from being surrounded by some of Britain’s most fertile farmland, with the North Sea delivering fresh catches to its doorstep. This abundance of local ingredients has attracted chefs who’ve swapped London’s bright lights for Norfolk’s quieter charms, bringing serious cooking credentials to bear on superb raw materials.
Norwich’s dining scene radiates out from the historic Lanes, a warren of medieval streets now home to independent cafés, wine bars and restaurants that wouldn’t look out of place in Shoreditch. Meanwhile, the bohemian stretch of St Benedicts Street has evolved into the city’s restaurant row, where you’ll find everything from Michelin Guide-listed fine dining to classic French bistros.
The city’s food credentials were given a significant boost when Richard Bainbridge won the Great British Menu , putting Norwich on the national culinary map. Since then, a wave of ambitious openings has transformed the local scene, with young chefs choosing Norfolk over London and bringing restaurant-quality cooking to neighbourhood prices.
That’s not to say Norwich has abandoned its traditional roots. You’ll still find excellent fish and chips cooked to perfection, alongside Indian restaurants that bring genuine street food flavours. It’s this mix of serious ambition and local character that makes Norwich such a rewarding place to eat.
Here’s where to eat brilliantly in Norwich right now.
Benedicts, St Benedicts Street
Ideal for experiencing Norwich’s finest cooking in relaxed surroundings…
Richard Bainbridge’s neighbourhood restaurant has become Norwich’s foodie calling card, and for good reason. The Great British Menu winner has created something special here: serious cooking without an ounce of stuffiness, served in a dining room that feels more like an extension of someone’s particularly stylish front room than a formal restaurant.
Bainbridge earned his stripes in some serious kitchens before returning to his native Norfolk, and his experience shows in cooking that’s both technically accomplished and deeply satisfying. The menu changes with the seasons but always showcases the best of local produce. You might find Norfolk quail with pickled grapes and walnut, or Cromer crab dressed simply with cucumber and dill oil, the sweet crab meat singing against the clean, green notes of the garnish.
The famous Nanny Bush’s trifle remains a constant on the menu, and rightly so. This is Bainbridge’s grandmother’s recipe, the very dessert that won him television glory on the Great British Menu. Layers of elderflower jelly, rich custard and light sponge create something that’s both nostalgic and sophisticated, the kind of pudding that makes you understand why British desserts were once the envy of Europe.
Service strikes just the right note, knowledgeable without being pompous, friendly without being overfamiliar. The wine list celebrates both local producers and classic regions, with markup that won’t make you wince. Lunch menus start at £42 for three courses, whilst evening brings tasting menus from £65. Given the quality on offer and the local prices, this represents remarkable value for cooking of this calibre.
The 40-cover restaurant fills fast, particularly at weekends, so booking well in advance is essential. They close for a fortnight each summer whilst Bainbridge sources new ingredients and develops menus, so check before making special journey plans. This is destination dining that happens to be on your doorstep if you live in Norwich.
Ideal for pasta perfectionists seeking Italian soul in Norfolk…
Oliver Boon’s Italian restaurant occupies a lovely spot at the bottom of Timber Hill, and from the moment you walk through the door, you know you’re in for something special. Boon cut his teeth in Gordon Ramsay and Michel Roux Jr’s kitchens before deciding to bring exceptional Italian cooking to Norwich, and the result is a restaurant that feels both polished and personal.
Everything here revolves around the pasta, and watching the chefs rolling out sheets of dough through the open kitchen pass becomes part of the entertainment. This is the real deal: Italian technique at its finest applied to the best ingredients, with results that would make a nonna weep tears of joy. The 24-month aged Parmesan croquettes arrive as golden orbs that give way to molten, intensely savoury centres. They’re just fabulous with a crisp, cold beer.
But it’s the pasta that really sets pulses racing. The cacio e pepe demonstrates how three simple ingredients can create something transcendent when handled with skill and respect. Tonnarelli arrives perfectly al dente, tossed with aged Pecorino Romano and freshly cracked black pepper, the starchy pasta water creating a glossy emulsion that clings to each strand. It’s a dish that shows why humble Italian cooking conquered the world.
Boon’s cooking earned a spot in the Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Local Restaurants within just two years of opening, recognition that reflects both the quality of the food and the warmth of the welcome. The wine list leans heavily Italian, naturally, with some crackling bottles from lesser-known regions that show real knowledge and passion. Staff know their wines and aren’t shy about making recommendations that might expand your horizons.
Pastas and mains courses hover around £25, which isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s not an outrage either in this economy. The atmosphere strikes that perfect balance between smart enough for a special occasion and relaxed enough for a Tuesday night supper. And that’s what it’s all about, don’t you think?
Ideal for fire fanatics and anyone who takes their steak seriously…
Hidden above Gonzo’s Tea Room on London Street, Brix and Bones feels like a brilliant secret that’s just waiting to be discovered. This 30-seater revolves around a custom-built two-metre fire pit where chef George Wood, who honed his skills at London’s Temper, works genuine magic with flame and smoke.
The theatre begins the moment you climb the stairs and catch your first whiff of that distinctive charcoal smoke. The open kitchen dominates the space, with the fire pit as its beating heart, and watching the chefs work over the flames becomes part of the evening’s entertainment. This isn’t style over substance though; the cooking here is serious business, with every element carefully considered and expertly executed.
The dry-aged beef comes from Norfolk farms and gets the full treatment here. The 85-day aged steaks are things of beauty, developing the kind of deep, complex flavours that make you understand why people get obsessive about beef. Arriving perfectly charred on the outside and blushingly pink within, the smoke adds another layer of complexity to meat that’s already singing with flavour.
But this isn’t just a temple to meat worship. The Brancaster mussels with ‘nduja show equal finesse, the sweet molluscs playing beautifully against the spicy Calabrian sausage, while foraged mushrooms reveal the kind of umami depth that only comes from careful sourcing and skillful cooking. Even vegetables get the star treatment here, emerging from the flames with appealing char marks and concentrated flavours.
Save room for the bone marrow fudge doughnuts, which sound completely bonkers but turn out to be utterly delicious. The rich, savoury marrow works surprisingly well in a sweet context, creating something that’s both playful and deeply satisfying. It’s exactly the kind of creative thinking that makes Brix and Bones such a thrilling place to eat.
Grab one of the bar seats if you can; watching the kitchen theatre unfold adds immeasurably to the experience. Smaller plates start from around £8, making it possible to graze your way through the menu without breaking the bank.
Ideal for Francophiles seeking bistro classics cooked with genuine conviction…
Thomas Aubrit’s intimate French bistro occupies a charming spot in the Norwich Lanes, and stepping inside feels like being in a neighbourhood joint in provincial France. Aubrit cooks the food of his French childhood here, and his obvious passion for the classics shines through in every dish.
This is bistro cooking at its most forthright and satisfying, free from modern reinterpretations or unnecessary embellishments. The French onion soup arrives under a blanket of molten Gruyère, the rich beef stock beneath speaking of hours of patient simmering. The steak frites comes with a pitch perfect béarnaise, the sauce glossy and perfectly emulsified, with just enough acid to cut through the richness of the meat. It tastes and feels like it’s been made to order, which is impressive stuff, even if it’s been held at just the right heat for service.
Save room for the crème brûlée, which seems to be hitting every table, and rightly so. The custard beneath the caramelised sugar is silk-smooth and intensely vanilla-scented, whilst the sugar top cracks with satisfying precision. It’s the kind of dessert that reminds you why French patisserie conquered the world, executed with the kind of care that comes from a deepheld respect for tradition.
The steak tartare provides another highlight, mixed tableside with appropriate ceremony. Aubrit knows his way around raw beef, seasoning it with just the right balance of capers, shallots and egg yolk to enhance rather than mask the quality of the meat. Served with golden frites and a small salad, it makes for a transportive lunch.
The French-only wine list reflects Aubrit’s personal passion, with bottles chosen for their character and story rather than their fame. Staff are happy to guide you through the selections, and you’ll often discover something new and exciting. Lunch can be as simple as a croque monsieur for around £10, whilst evening brings heartier options like bavette and duck confit. The upstairs tables offer a more intimate setting if you’re planning something romantic.
Built in 1754, this Grade I listed Georgian mansion brings a touch of Jane Austen to Norwich dining. The glittering chandeliers, ornate ceiling roses and period furnishings create an atmosphere of faded grandeur that makes afternoon tea here feel like a special event rather than just another meal.
Following the recent passing of beloved Chef Director Richard Hughes, The Assembly House continues under the careful stewardship of his family, maintaining the same high standards that made it a Norwich institution. The themed afternoon teas change regularly, offering everything from literary inspirations to seasonal celebrations, but the standards remain consistently high. Finger sandwiches arrive with carefully trimmed crusts and generous fillings, whilst the scones emerge warm from the oven with the kind of light, fluffy texture that shows real skill in the baking.
The selection of delicate cakes demonstrates genuine patisserie technique, each one a small work of art that tastes as good as it looks. The ‘Beforenoon Tea’ flips the traditional concept for early risers, serving the full works between 8 and 11am for those who prefer their indulgence with their morning coffee. Meanwhile, the Afternoon Cheese option provides a savoury alternative for those who find traditional afternoon tea a bit too sweet for their tastes.
At £32.50 for the full afternoon tea experience, it’s not exactly cheap, but you’re paying for the setting as much as the food. The Music Room, with its soaring ceiling and period details, provides the most theatrical backdrop, whilst the smaller rooms offer more intimate settings for special occasions.
The breakfast menu offers everything from full English to lighter continental options in surroundings that make even a simple bowl of porridge feel special. It’s the kind of place that makes you want to dress up a bit, if only to match the elegance of your surroundings. Booking is essential, particularly for weekend afternoon teas when the Assembly House fills with birthday celebrations and hen parties.
This family-run restaurant brings Indian street food to Norwich, focusing on the kind of vibrant, spicy food you’d find on the streets of Mumbai or Delhi. The vibrance (oh, the vibrance) is apparent from the moment you walk through the door, with bright lighting and Indian street photography creating a curated backdrop for dhaba-style cooking.
The masala fries alone justify the journey here, taking the humble chip and transforming it into something genuinely exciting with a blend of spices that builds heat gradually whilst adding layers of complexity. Meanwhile, the gol guppa provide a masterclass in textural contrast, the crispy puffed shells giving way to an explosion of spiced filling that hits every taste bud simultaneously.
The Kashmiri lamb shank showcases the kitchen’s skill with slow-cooked dishes, the meat falling off the bone after hours of gentle braising with mild red chillies and aromatic spices. It’s the kind of dish that demonstrates how good Indian cooking can be when it’s not dumbed down for Western palates, complex and deeply satisfying without relying on excessive heat.
The restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol due to the owners’ religious beliefs, but the food more than compensates for any disappointment. The fresh chutneys and pickles provide palate-cleansing acidity, whilst the various breads, from fluffy naan to crispy papadums, offer perfect vehicles for sopping up the various sauces.
Most main courses clock in at under £15, making this some of the best-value dining in Norwich. The generous portions mean you’ll leave feeling satisfied, whilst the assertive, complex flavours ensure you’ll be planning your return visit before you’ve even finished your meal. The family service adds to the atmosphere, with staff happy to guide you through the menu and adjust spice levels according to your tolerance.
Ideal for Ritz-trained fine dining in a Victorian shoe factory…
Sebastian Taylor’s return to Norwich after a decade at The Ritz has given The Last a new lease of life. This 30-year-old institution occupies a former Victorian shoe factory, and whilst the preserved shoe lasts throughout the space remind you of its industrial past, the stripped brick and vaulted ceilings now frame white tablecloths and silver service rather than factory machinery.
Taylor works alongside Head Chef Mortimer Fraser to deliver what they call ‘relaxed fine dining’, which turns out to be an accurate description. The Menu du Jour offers three courses for £32-38, bringing restaurant-quality cooking to prices that won’t require a second mortgage. The seasonal menus change frequently, showcasing Norfolk’s agricultural abundance with the kind of technical skill that comes from serious training.
The venue divides into three distinct areas: Taylors at The Last handles afternoon tea and formal dining, the Bar & Bistro offers a more casual atmosphere, whilst the Jazz Cellar provides live music on ‘First Thursdays’. Despite these separate spaces, the same menu runs throughout, meaning you can enjoy the same cooking whether you’re perched at the bar or settled into the white-tablecloth dining room.
The wine list lives up to Taylor’s promise of ‘probably the widest selection of carefully picked wines in the city’, with an extensive by-the-glass selection that makes exploring different bottles far less financially ruinous. The cocktails earned wins at Norwich Cocktail Week in both 2024 and 2025, whilst the craft beer selection will satisfy those who pack Gaviscon for every sip of SB.
The restaurant earned its 2 AA Rosettes in August 2024, recognition that reflects the consistent quality emerging from Fraser’s kitchen. The afternoon tea draws on Taylor’s Ritz experience, offering finger sandwiches, warm scones and delicate patisserie in surroundings that feel more London hotel than Norfolk city centre.
Sunday roasts draw particular praise, with reviewers getting evangelical about the crispy potatoes. The Jazz Cellar events bring live music to accompany your meal, creating an atmosphere that feels celebratory without tipping into formal stuffiness. Dogs are welcome in the bar area, making this a rare fine dining option where your four-legged friend can join you.
The location in Norwich’s creative quarter, near the University of the Arts and Norwich Playhouse, means you’re well-placed for a pre-theatre dinner or post-gallery lunch. Opening hours run Wednesday to Saturday noon to 11:30pm, with shorter Sunday hours of noon to 6pm. They’re closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Ideal for Asian fusion adventurers and vinyl enthusiasts…
Part restaurant, part vinyl bar, Blue Joanna occupies its own unique niche in Norwich’s dining scene. This Unthank Road favourite mashes up Asian and Latin American flavours with gleeful abandon, creating a menu that reads like a stoner’s fever dream but somehow makes perfect sense when you start eating. Even Alan Partridge might find himself won over by the Korean tofu tacos, though he’d probably still ask if they serve mini Kievs.
Korean tofu tacos share menu space with crispy banana blossom ‘fish’ tacos and pork belly with sriracha slaw, each dish bringing different influences together in ways that shouldn’t work but absolutely do. The whole approach is designed for sharing, encouraging diners to order multiple small plates and graze their way through the evening whilst discovering new flavour combinations.
The fact that the entire menu happens to be gluten-free comes as a pleasant surprise, though you’d never guess from the way the food tastes. The kitchen clearly knows how to coax maximum flavour from every ingredient, whether that’s achieving the perfect texture on the banana blossom or nailing the heat level on the sriracha slaw.
The vinyl collection provides the soundtrack to your meal, with everything from classic soul to contemporary electronic setting the mood. Live music and DJ sets keep things lively at weekends, creating an atmosphere that’s part restaurant, part neighbourhood hangout. The blue piano isn’t just for show either; expect impromptu performances when the mood takes hold.
With no dish tipping the tenner point, and drinks following a similar pricing structure, bills remain reasonable even after multiple rounds of ordering. It’s the kind of place where you can easily spend an entire evening, starting with early drinks and light snacks before progressing to more substantial dishes as the night develops. The laid back vibes attract a diverse crowd, from students stretching their budgets to young professionals who’ve recently moved to the area – estate agents in Norwich often mention Blue Joanna as one of Unthank Road’s draws.
Ideal for fish and chips with nearly a century of perfection…
This isn’t your average chippy. Operating for nearly a century, the Grosvenor hides a remarkable secret beneath its traditional shopfront: a basement dining area that seats 70 in what feels like a cross between an Anderson shelter and a seafood speakeasy. The downstairs space creates quite the atmosphere when busy, with the acoustics adding to the sense of being part of something special.
The fish and chips live up to the theatrical setting, with the Grosvenor Special arriving skinless and boneless for those who prefer their cod without any fuss. The batter achieves that perfect balance between crispy exterior and light, fluffy interior, whilst the chips demonstrate the kind of fluffy-centred perfection that comes from quality potatoes and experienced hands.
Beyond the traditional offerings, the menu ventures into more adventurous territory with softshell crab po’boys and Maine lobster rolls making summer appearances. It’s an unusual combination of chippy classics and American seafood, but it works brilliantly in this unique setting.
The basement location means you’ll want to dress warmly in winter, but the atmosphere more than compensates for any temperature concerns. There’s something wonderfully convivial about sharing this subterranean space with fellow fish and chips enthusiasts, creating connections with strangers over shared plates of perfectly cooked seafood.
This tiny pizzeria near the market proves that you don’t need fancy surroundings to produce world-class food. The wood-fired oven hits blistering temperatures, allowing the pizzaiolos to produce authentic Neapolitan pizza in just 90 seconds, with the kind of charred, pillowy bases that have made it the world’s favourite food.
The toppings stay resolutely traditional, with San Marzano tomatoes providing the sweet, acidic base for bufala mozzarella that melts into creamy pools across the surface. Fresh basil adds its distinctive perfume, whilst a drizzle of good olive oil brings everything together. At £8 for a margherita, it represents exceptional value for pizza of this quality.
The limited seating means takeaway is often the easier option, though watching the pizzaiolos work their magic over the flames adds considerably to the experience. Norfolk vegetables get their moment to shine on seasonal specials, with local producers providing ingredients that show off the county’s agricultural abundance. Whether that’s asparagus in spring or squash in autumn, the seasonal touches demonstrate a commitment to local sourcing that elevates already excellent pizza.
The Market Place location makes it perfect for a quick lunch whilst exploring Norwich’s shopping areas, though the quality means it’s worth seeking out even if you’re coming from further afield. The 90-second cooking time means you won’t be waiting long, even when they’re busy.
Website: Find them on social media for current hours
Ideal for pudding fanatics and anyone who believes life’s too short for boring desserts…
Norwich’s first dedicated dessert bar proves there’s life beyond sticky toffee pudding, with executive pastry chef Jaime Garbutt bringing serious fine dining skills to bear on the sweet side of the menu. Garbutt earned his stripes at Pétrus and under Marcus Wareing, and his technical ability shows in every beautifully plated creation.
The Jaffa cake reimagining provides a perfect example of the kitchen’s approach, taking a beloved British classic and elevating it to restaurant standard. Layers of orange sponge mingle with bitter chocolate ganache and candied peel, creating something that’s both nostalgic and sophisticated. It’s the kind of dessert that makes you reassess what British puddings can achieve when treated with real respect.
The banoffee receives similar fine dining treatment, with maple candied pecans adding textural interest and excellent toffee sauce providing the kind of deep, complex sweetness that only comes from careful caramelisation. Even the banana element shows thought and technique, whether that’s in the form of a perfectly ripe garnish or a more complex preparation that concentrates the flavours.
At £10 per plate, you’re getting restaurant-quality desserts without the commitment of a full three-course meal. Although, if you do want to commit to a full, very sweet meal, then there’s a dessert tasting menu for £30. Wine and champagne pairings are available for those who want to push the boat out, with selections that show real understanding of how sweet wines can complement rather than compete with dessert flavours.
The intimate 14-seat space creates a genuine sense of occasion, whilst the Thursday to Saturday opening hours add to the exclusive feel. Given that last part, booking is absolutely essential.
Shepherd’s Bush… Does that sound obscene? Silly? Just a name? Who knows…
What we do know is that Shepherd’s Bush occupies a curious position in West London neighbourhood hierarchy. Not as polished as neighbouring Notting Hill, as musical as Maida Vale, nor as determinedly bohemian as Ladbroke Grove, it exists in a state of perpetual transition that somehow suits it perfectly. The area’s character comes from this very refusal to be pinned down – one street offers Lebanese bakeries that have served the same families for forty years, the next harbours a Michelin-starred sushi counter floating eight floors above the former BBC Television Centre.
This slow and steady transformation arguably began in earnest when Westfield opened in 2008, bringing international chains and food courts that threatened to homogenise the area’s dining scene. Instead, something more interesting happened. The influx of new money and footfall created space for ambitious restaurants to thrive alongside the kebab shops and corner cafés that give Shepherd’s Bush its soul. Wood Lane now hosts world-class omakase, whilst family-run Persian restaurants continue serving the stews their grandmothers taught them.
Indeed, the Shepherd’s Bush dining scene reflects the neighbourhood itself – unpretentious but not unambitious, international by default rather than design, shaped more by immigration patterns than Instagram trends.
We’ve spent months eating our way through W12 (it’s a hard life, etc., etc.), from the market stalls to the mall restaurants, the hidden Syrian gems to the headline-grabbing openings to bring you these; our eight favourite restaurants in Shepherd’s Bush, the ones that capture what makes the neighbourhood one of London’s most exciting places to eat right now.
Giulia, Askew Road
Ideal for neighbourhood Italian that punches well above its weight…
Albanian-Italian chef Endris Kerbizi met Roman partner Giulia Quaglia whilst both worked at the Bvlgari Hotel, and the residents of Shepherd’s Bush must be so grateful love was in the air in the hallowed halls of that prestigious establishment…
Fast forward a few years, and their 30-cover trattoria on Askew Road is accumulating serious accolades (The Good Food Guide’s Best 100 Local Restaurants earlier this year, two AA Rosettes awarded July 2025, a Michelin Guide listing) through focused menus where morning-baked focaccia and fresh pasta emerge from a compact kitchen with a verve and vivacity that speaks of the handmade.
The seasonal monthly menu showcases Italy’s rhythms – come colder months, the traditional Ossobuco alla Milanese arrives slow-cooked to perfection alongside saffron-infused risotto. Perhaps a pumpkin risotto with veal ragu might appear, too. The fried Veal Cotoletta alla Milanese, more than 300 grams of hefty, golden, crispy joy, has become something of a signature for good reason. Spring brings artichokes aplenty, when dishes like charred artichoke with mint and baked ricotta or Carciofi alla Romana with pecorino and saffron land on nearly every table. And don’t get us started on porcini season, where mushrooms bring earthy grandeur to the restaurant. That season is just around the corner by the way.
The wine list favours Italian producers without defaulting to obvious choices, several interesting orange wines sitting alongside classics from, primarily, Tuscany. Don’t know how to play it, plonk wise? Giulia herself provides Roman warmth front-of-house, conversing in rapid Italian with regulars whilst ensuring newcomers feel equally welcomed, all the while dropping wine recommendations. Exposed brick and simple wooden tables keep focus on the food rather than décor.
Booking ahead is generally recommended, though we’ve had success rocking up and walking in before.
Ideal for dim sum and duck that rivals Chinatown’s finest…
Inside the Dorsett Hotel overlooking Shepherd’s Bush Green, Shikumen was once a Michelin Bib Gourmand holder, and for good reason; there’s quality, intricate dumpling preparation at work here, the loss of that recognition inexplicable, in our eyes at least.
Indeed, the kitchen’s ability with xiao long bao, where thin skins contain scalding soup that burns the impatient, or scallop siu mai topped with bright orange tobiko that pops against sweet shellfish, continues to impress diners, even if the inspectors have gone cold on the restaurant.
Perhaps they missed out on the two-stage Peking duck service the last time they dropped in. Here, it’s all about the traditional technique – air-dried for hours, lacquered with maltose, its crispy skin wrapped in paper-thin pancakes and its meat stir-fried alongside seasonal vegetables. God it’s good, and for £88 a duck, you’d hope so. You do get a beautiful duck bone soup thrown in for good measure, too. Not ‘thrown in’, come to think of it; that would scald and scar. Perhaps ‘placed down gently’ for good measure might be more appropriate…
On the more affordable side of the spectrum, dim sum service runs until 5pm daily, and averages around £10 for a four piece tǐ, making lunch surprisingly accessible for high-end hotel dining. Hand-pleated har gau and wok-fired ho fun with house-made XO sauce demonstrate the kitchen’s commitment to traditional preparation, and are certain highlights.
Mahogany accents and red lanterns create a familiar, opulent Cantonese atmosphere and service maintains a certain hotel polish without stuffiness. Perhaps most importantly, friends from Hong Kong regularly praise the accuracy of flavours and techniques, which perhaps speaks louder than any Michelin award does.
Ideal for Thai-American fusion that actually makes sense…
Legendary LA chef Kris Yenbamroong’s first venture into London occupies The Hoxton’s ground floor, its pink ceilings and caramel booths channeling retro California diner aesthetics. Open from 7am to midnight, it’s pitched as an all-day, all-things-to-all-people kind of place, as long as you’re the kind of person who likes their tuna melt stuffed with larb, or your fried chicken waffles dressed with tom yum sauce.
If that all sounds like overkill, fear not; the James Beard-nominated chef behind LA’s NIGHT + MARKET maintains a kind of skewed, chaotic rock’n’roll logic here, the whole thing tied together by flavour, whether it’s avocado toast and pert nahm jim seafood in the morning, or the signature Tingling Onion (a Thai-spiced blooming onion) just before close as you see off your final Lychee Martini.
The predominantly natural wine list and playful cocktails that don’t top £15 suit the dialled-up-to-eleven menu. Fittingly, Chet’s is massively popular with pre-gig crowds heading to Shepherd’s Bush Empire. This is spicy stuff, so mano cornutas at the ready, even if you’re not in town for a show!
Ideal for Persian home cooking at neighbourhood prices…
Since 2007, this family-run Persian restaurant’s clay tandoor has produced fresh seeded naan for every table, the embers always glowing, the smoke always rising. It’s there in traditional recipes like kashk-e bademjan (smoky aubergine with fermented yogurt and fried onions) too, and mixed grills where marinated meats char over open flames.
That said, it’s the stews at Sufi that are the headliners, to our mind at least. Give us a bowl of the khoresh gheimeh (lamb and split pea stew) any day of the week and we’ll be happy, as long as there’s a pile of that naan for dredging.
The intimate space resembles dining in someone’s home, which essentially you are. The BYOB policy helps keep costs down for regulars who return weekly (count us among them). Those devoted patrons know to order the house-churned saffron ice cream regardless of season – it’s such an indulgent yet impossibly light finish.
The visible tandoor and wafts of aromatic spices set the scene, flickers of candlelit and effortless service ensures that scene is carried through to its natural conclusion. As in, paying the bill and bidding Sufi a cheery goodbye and see you next time.
This bustling Syrian restaurant near the north end of Shepherd’s Bush Market has become a neighbourhood institution through sheer consistency, quality and value. Sometimes, that’s all you want from your local restaurant. And if you don’t want that, then what exactly are you looking for?
Back inside, and tiled interiors evoke Damascus souks whilst the kitchen delivers faithfully rendered Levantine cooking that attracts a diverse, enthusiastic crowd.
The mezze selection showcases dogmatic, devoted technique – baba ganoush with deeply charred aubergine creating genuine smoky depth, fresh-fried falafel that maintains its crunch whilst revealing vivid green herbs within, and muhammara where walnuts and red peppers balance perfectly. Mixed platters encourage exploration, though the lamb kofta with spicy tomato sauce and lamb kibbeh deserve individual attention – you won’t want to share either.
Famously massive mains don’t top £15, and the comically generous mixed grill for two is just £30 – this would be good value even if the food itself was several notches less delicious. The fact it’s so fresh, so vital, so clearly made with devotion, makes the prices even more astonishingly reasonable.
The strict no-alcohol policy (no BYOB allowed) puts the focus on fresh juices that deserve it: pomegranate, tamarind, and jallab (date and rose) that complement the food better than wine might. Sahha to that!
Since 1914, Shepherd’s Bush Market has sat between Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road, a covered stretch of stalls selling fabric, fresh produce, household goods and some genuinely excellent street food. The market runs Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm, accessible from both Shepherd’s Bush Market and Goldhawk Road tube stations. The market operates on cash, speed and value.
Sam Sandwiches (Shop 9) has become something of a cult favourite since setting up here. This Algerian street food kitchen serves six types of meat sandwiches – lamb’s liver, merguez, marinated chicken, fish fillet, minced meat, and a special two meat version – all fried to order and stuffed into thick grilled pita with chips, a fried egg, harissa, mayo, and salad. The merguez is the move here, though regulars swear by the minced meat version. Everything costs between £7 except the double-meat number which is £8, portions are hefty, and Sam (the owner) runs the whole operation himself with genuine warmth. Open 11:45am to 6:45pm Monday to Saturday. Cash only.
Falafel Hut (Shop 49) has been slinging aubergine-packed falafel wraps for years, building a loyal following among locals and even earning a recommendation from chef Avinash Shashidhara of Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai. The wraps (£4-6) come loaded with still-warm falafels, tahini, chilli sauce, garlic sauce, salad and crucially, gooey slices of aubergine that melt into everything else. The structural integrity is questionable – these pittas are messy affairs – but that’s part of the appeal. Their fried fish falafel wrap offers an unusual but successful twist on the standard formula. The chilli sauce packs proper heat, so approach with caution. Open 11:30am to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday.
For those building a proper market day, Brothers & Cousins (Shop 53B) supplies fresh wild fish to locals and chefs alike, whilst The Hawk’s Nest in one of the converted railway arches serves Birdhouse Brewery beers and what chef Shashidhara calls “phenomenal” pizzas under skylights that brighten the whole space.
Endo at the Rotunda, White City *currently closed*
Ideal for Michelin-starred sushi with views across West London…
*Sadly, in September a fire in the building means Endo is closed until further notice. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties. As of the start of November, the restaurant remains closed.*
Eight floors above the former BBC Television Centre, third-generation Yokohama sushi master Endo Kazutoshi presides over just 16 counter seats where an 18-or-so-course omakase journey costs £290. The space earned its Michelin star within six months of opening and has maintained it through 2025, combining premium British ingredients with those that simply cannot be replicated without importing from Japan. So, that’s Cornish tuna, Orkney scallops and Irish oysters with rice from Yamagata and water flown in from Fukuoka.
The signature ‘business card’ consists of multiple varieties of tuna layered with seaweed, each piece pressed, seasoned and garnished at the 200-year-old Hinoki wood counter. West London spreads out through floor-to-ceiling windows, adding drama to what already feels like theatre. Though you’ll pay just shy of £300 for the privilege (and that’s before you consider your sake splurge), the sky high prices don’t put off the punters; securing any reservation means joining monthly online scrambles where tables disappear within 30 minutes.
Blonde wood and clean lines channel Tokyo’s high-end sushi-yas whilst maintaining those eighth-floor views. Service operates at the precision level you’d expect, each course timed for the necessary appreciation without feeling either rushed or stagnant. Fortunately, the much-feared hushed tones and reverence of the traditional high-end sushi experience are punctuated by chef Endo’s flamboyant, playful delivery, which provides a welcome juxtaposition to the intricacy on the plate.
Once upon a time, Ealing Broadway was where you went to catch the Central line into town, perhaps grabbing a jamon beurre from Pret on your way through. How times have changed.
The opening of Crossrail has transformed this corner of West London into an actual, bonafide dining destination, with the gleaming, somewhat soulless Dickens Yard development acting as a magnet for ambitious restaurateurs who’ve spotted an opportunity to bring Central London sensibilities to Zone 3 prices.
The area’s culinary revolution has been swift and decisive. Here, you’ll discover Spanish fine dining that had Giles Coren purring (ewww), Japanese izakayas run by sake dynasties, and family-run Vietnamese joints that put Shoreditch in its place. Even better, you can actually book a table without planning three months ahead. Sometimes…
The local demographic helps too. Ealing’s mix of media types who’ve decamped from Notting Hill, young professionals priced out of Clapham, and long-established international communities creates the perfect conditions for culinary diversity.
Transport links remain excellent – the Elizabeth line whisks you to Bond Street in 11 minutes, while the District and Central lines provide backup options. But increasingly, Londoners are making the reverse journey, heading west for dinner. Join us as we do just that; here are the best restaurants in Ealing Broadway.
Rayuela, Dickens Yard
Ideal for superb Ibero-American cuisine at Zone 3 prices…
In January 2024, The Times restaurant critic Giles Coren ventured to Ealing Broadway (basically like flying halfway around the world, for him) and found something rather special; Ealing Broadway’s restaurant scene is alive and kicking. His review of Rayuela had him reaching for superlatives rarely deployed in the suburbs, and for good reason.
This Ibero-American restaurant occupies prime real estate in Dickens Yard, bringing serious Iberian and South American credentials to W5. The kitchen understands the crucial difference between jamón serrano and jamón ibérico de bellota, and isn’t afraid to charge accordingly for the latter.
Start with their selection of ceviches – the mackerel version with cucumber tiger’s milk and corn could easily hold its own against London’s best Peruvian restaurants. The Iberian pork presa arrives grilled to the kind of blushing perfection that might have some sending it back to the kitchen, served with chimichurri that packs genuine punch rather than the bruised green sauce often passed off under that name.
Their lunch set menu offers excellent value at £30 for six courses. The wine list leans heavily Spanish, with some exceptional finds from lesser-known regions. The real draw is their partnership with Lustau for sherries – the only winery producing across all three cities in the sherry triangle. Six different sherries are available by the glass, served chilled in correct copitas rather than tiny thimbles.
The dining room itself avoids the tired exposed brick and Edison bulb clichés, instead striking an appealing balance with its warm terracotta banquettes, contemporary artwork, and clean lines. It’s sophisticated enough for special occasions yet relaxed enough for a random Wednesday 4pm booze up. What’s not to love?
Ideal for izakaya dining with prestigious sake credentials…
Hidden in a shopping centre basement, HAKU has connections to one of Japan’s most prestigious sake breweries, which explains their exceptional drinks list. By day it’s a straightforward café serving competent bento boxes, chicken teriyaki paninis and our favourite; pork katsu sandos. Come evening, the lights dim and you’re suddenly in a convincing take on an izakaya.
The transformation shows most clearly in the food. That daytime chicken karaage becomes something special when ordered as an evening small plate, the coating crunchier, the meat more yielding. Perhaps it’s just the dimmed lights deceiving us, but the nasu dengaku (miso-glazed aubergine) arrives even more glossy and lacquered, while the agedashi dofu manages to be both comforting and sophisticated without veering into contradiction.
Details matter here. The yakitori, grilled over actual binchotan charcoal, arrives with just the right amount of char. The sashimi glistens under low lighting, sliced with precision that speaks of real training. Even their grilled corn, dressed with nothing more than good salt, becomes memorable.
The sake selection, curated by Hakutsuru brewery, ranges from crisp, light junmai to rich, warming junmai daiginjo. Staff will guide you through it without condescension, though their house recommendation flight is a safe bet for newcomers, in terms of both taste and price.
The cafe is open for lunch Tuesday through Sunday, the izakaya lighting up at 6pm each evening except Monday. Book ahead – word has spread.
Ideal for generous Syrian family feasts and warm hospitality…
Squeezed between a dry cleaner and a mobile phone shop on Uxbridge Road, Abu Zaad is the kind of place you’d walk past without noticing, were it not for the smell of freshly baking saj wafting out every time the door opens. Step inside and you’re in a Damascus family home, complete with traditional artwork and, unexpectedly, a dedicated children’s play area with its own projector.
This represents wonderful Syrian hospitality in full effect – three-year-olds are as welcome as their grandparents, and nobody minds when your toddler reorganises the cushions. Or, indeed, gets on first-name terms with those same cushions…
The mixed grill is the move here, available for two (£32.50) or four people (£62.50). The generous spread includes lamb fillet, lamb kofta, shish taouk, jawaneh (chicken wings), and shawarma, all charred just so and served with chips and rice – it’s a carnivore’s fantasy that easily defeats most appetites.
The kibbeh shamieh, those football-shaped bulgur parcels stuffed with spiced meat and pine nuts, reveal filling so perfectly seasoned you begin to understand why the correct way to salt and spice these guys is being debated on several tables around you.
Their set meals offer excellent value for groups. The set for two (£43.99) includes houmous, fattoush, a Damascene hot appetizer, and the mixed grill for two. Scale up to the family set for four (£84.99) and you add moutabal, an extra hot appetizer, and the family mixed grill – it’s a feast that draws families from across West London. Arrive hungry and pace yourself – this is marathon eating.
The Syrian tea, served in istikan glasses, as it should be, and sweetened to dental-threatening levels, again as it should be, costs less than a Costa coffee and provides infinitely more comfort.
Ideal for an immersive nautical adventure with the freshest seafood in West London…
If Poseidon opened a restaurant in Ealing, it would look exactly like Bronek’s. This isn’t subtle theming – fishing nets drape from every inch of ceiling, ship wheels and boat propellers dot the walls, and the whole pla(i)ce feels less like a restaurant and more like a sarpa salpa-induced hallucination. It’s wonderfully bonkers, and the seafood is genuinely exceptional.
The genius behind this maritime madness is Bronek himself, an Ealing celebrity who runs the place with the enthusiasm of someone who genuinely loves fish. The venue functions as a fishmonger until noon, which means the seafood on your plate that evening was probably swimming (or, at least, reclining on ice) that morning. This is as fresh as it gets without chartering a trawler and doing the whole reeling in yourself.
Forget the menu – it’s merely a suggestion. Bronek prefers to have a proper chat about what’s good that day, then creates bespoke seafood platters based on the catch and your preferences. Expect lobster thermidor, octopus cooked Greek-style, Madagascar prawns, and whatever excellent bream or grouper came in on the morning delivery. The platters arrive on multiple tiers, almost comically abundant, leaving diners stumbling out in a happy seafood stupor. Alongside a recent special of chargrilled tuna steak came perfectly spherical scoops of mashed potato – clearly formed with an ice cream scoop – which added a whimsical touch to proceedings.
Speaking of stupors, the BYOB policy makes this already reasonable spot even better value, and also create a vibe of chaotic conviviality. Premium seafood without London wine markups? Bring your own bottle and save the extra for a second round of oysters. Don’t expect to swan in without a booking, though – this 40-cover spot fills up fast, especially at weekends when West Londoners descend for their seafood fix.
Overlooking The Green with Walpole Park beyond, Park’s Kitchen somehow remains under the radar, known mainly to homesick Korean students and those lucky enough to stumble upon it. Park’s Kitchen occupies a bright, jolly space with exposed brick walls and pendant lighting. It might sound uncharitable to deem it ‘functional’, but it kinda is. Not to worry; when your bibimbap arrives in a heated stone bowl, still sizzling and popping, your eyes aren’t on the interiors.
The kitchen excels at fermentation, of course, the cornerstone of Korean cuisine. The house kimchi has a lovely fizz and funk, the kind that makes you wrinkle your nose before complete addiction sets in. You can curate your own selection of banchan – those small dishes that appear at every meal’s start, orbiting a bowl of freshly steamed rice. The seasoned spinach, sweet-salty dried fish, and bean sprouts with enough chilli to wake the dead should all be on your table.
Order the kanpoongi for a different angle on the now ubiquitous Korean fried chicken. This isn’t the gloopy, over-sauced stuff from American chains taking a stab at diversifying their demographic. Park’s version arrives crisp as autumn leaves, the coating so shattering you can hear it across the room, the meat beneath still juicy. The sweet chilli and garlic sauce is applied with restraint – enough to flavour, not enough to compromise that crunch.
Vegetarians will feel well catered for here. The kimchi pancake, crisp outside and molten within, studded with fermented cabbage and spring onions, is a spicy savoury treat. The soft tofu stew (sundubu-jjigae) arrives bubbling like a small volcano.
There is Korean lager, soju and plum wine, as well as a few bottles of wine hovering around the £30 mark. You can feast here quite happily, and totter out tipsy, for around £75 for two people.
Ideal for pizza that takes its DOC status seriously…
Santa Maria doesn’t mess about. This is Neapolitan pizza as the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana intended: 48-hour fermented dough, San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte mozzarella, and a wood-fired oven hot enough to reduce most things to ash in seconds.
Pizzas emerge in 90 seconds flat, the crust puffed and charred in all the right places (those leopard spots pizza obsessives love), the centre just yielding enough to require the traditional fold-and-dangle technique.
The margherita serves as any serious pizzeria’s litmus test, and Santa Maria’s passes easily. The tomato sauce tastes like concentrated sunshine. The mozzarella, shipped twice weekly from Campania, melts just a little into creamy pools. The basil, added post-cook, wilts just enough to release its oils. This is pure poetry on the plate, and we want a pizza now.
The nduja pizza brings Calabrian heat, the spicy spreadable sausage melting into cheese to create addictive orange oil you’ll mop up with any leftover crust. The white pizzas showcase cheese quality, particularly the quattro formaggi which deploys gorgonzola with admirable restraint.
The room buzzes with genuine excitement about food. Families with bambini, couples on dates, solo diners at the bar – everyone united in appreciation of real pizza. Italian staff help, their animated, infatuated discussions about Scott McTominay adding the requisite authenticity to Ealing’s answer to Naples.
The wine list sensibly sticks to crowd-pleasing southern Italian table wines that won’t break the bank, though honestly, nothing beats a cold Peroni with a sloppy pizza.
Ideal for railway-themed Indian dining and spectacular sharing platters…
The name means ‘track’ in Hindi, and Patri runs with railway themes through bench seating, beaten metal and enough industrial chic to satisfy Londoners with a very myopic vision of cool. But this isn’t style over substance – the cooking here would impress regardless of how made up the room is.
Puneet Wadhwani spent his childhood at New Delhi railway station where his family ran a business. Those memories – vendors shouting wares, meals grabbed between platforms, the organised chaos of Indian rail travel – inform every aspect of this restaurant.
The Railway Mix Grill (for two, it’s £24.95, for three, £34.95) arrives on cast iron platters still sizzling from the kitchen. The lamb seekh kebabs have perfect char-to-juice ratios, the malai tikka (chicken marinated in cream and cheese) is indecently rich, the tandoori prawns sweet and smoky. It’s the kind of sharing plate that tests friendships – you’ll eye that last lamb piece like a circling vulture.
Their butter chicken receives the respect this much-maligned curry house staple deserves. The chicken, marinated three times before meeting the tandoor, arrives tender enough to cut with spoons. The sauce, rich with butter and cream but balanced with complex spicing, keeps you interested bite after bite. Mop it up with exemplary naan, charred and bubbled from the tandoor.
The street food section best captures Patri’s spirit. Old Delhi Pani Puri arrives as DIY projects – crispy wheat balls filled with spiced chickpeas and potatoes, waiting for tangy mint water, chutneys and mango. First-timer faces when that sweet-sour-spicy-cold explosion hits? Priceless.
The Grand Thali represents the full Patri experience – described as “The UK’s Largest, Never Seen Never Done Selection” it serves up to five people. At £128 for vegetarian or £138-148 for mixed versions, it’s a satiate-until-surrender affair, with new dishes appearing just as you think you’re done. Book it for special occasions and arrive really hungry.
Daily 5-7pm cocktail happy hour with 2-for-1 deals makes it dangerously easy to extend dinner into an increasingly louche evening. The craft gin selection reads like a connoisseur’s wishlist – Monkey 47, Gin Mare, Silent Pool – while traditional touches like proper masala chai and mango lassi keep things grounded. Cheers to that.
Ideal for Vietnamese family recipes and 24-hour pho…
Named after their late grandfather, TânVân channels the cooking of sisters Erika, Elysia and Eva’s mother, who ran her own Vietnamese restaurant for 24 years before passing the torch. The pho alone – 24 hours in the making, the broth a masterclass in clarity and depth – would justify the W5 journey. But stopping there misses so much.
Summer rolls arrive tight and architecturally perfect, ingredients visible through translucent rice paper wrappers like flowers in ice. The accompanying peanut hoisin sauce has real depth, sweet and savoury with enough chilli heat to maintain interest.
The bánh xèo – a turmeric-tinted crepe stuffed with prawns, pork and bean sprouts – arrives crisp as old banknotes, ready to be torn into pieces, wrapped in lettuce with herbs, and dipped. It’s interactive eating at its best, tables comparing wrapping techniques and arguing over optimal herb ratios. Dipping sauce runs down forearms and into T-shirt sleeves.
The room is gorgeous, too. Heritage murals nod to Vietnamese culture without flirting with theme restaurant territory, while the soundtrack – Vietnamese soul and jazz during lunch, something housier come evening – is transportive, sure, to Hanoi in the daytime and the wild streets of Saigon at night.
There’s a Vietnamese coffee ‘Cà Phê Martini’ that is so good we won’t even bother mentioning the other drinks here. We will mention that happy hour runs from 4pm to 6pm daily, and offers two-for-one.
The film, the carnival, the market not the mushroom, The Clash, Stella McCartney, Damon Albarn and Robbie Williams. Yep, Notting Hill is many things to many people, but a foodie destination it has not traditionally been.
All that has changed in recent years, with a slew of recent exciting openings and not one but two 3 Michelin-starred restaurants (fuck me, that’s an ugly bout of counting) drawing the plaudits and punters just west of centre, all searching for a good feed and a silly little snap of those rainbow coloured facades.
If you’ve landed in Notting Hill packing an appetite and a thick wallet, then you’re in luck; there are plenty of restaurants to see off that hunger in style. These are those; here are the best restaurants in Notting Hill.
Dove, Kensington Park Road
Ideal for comfort food with genuine substance and a burger worth booking ahead for…
When Jackson Boxer closed Orasay at the end of 2024, Notting Hill’s denizens went into what turned out to be a mercifully short period of mourning. Because, just seven days later he reopened as Dove with the same team and the same handsome room. The reason for the closure? Expensive seafood had become economically unviable. The solution? A menu of what he calls “the things I want to cook and eat right now”.
Same, Jackson. Same…
So, that’s deep fried taleggio and Wiltshire truffle lasagne (£7 for two), which are two carby cubes that crunch when you bite into them, releasing a molten, funky core of cheese and truffle. Or, a grilled bavette steak with smoked bone marrow and morels that’s a lesson in sauce-building first and foremost, those wobbly cubes of marrow studded throughout making you feel all giddy as you chase them around the plate.
What makes Dove work is Boxer’s refusal to overcomplicate things. This is a chef who capably runs Henri and Brunswick House, and ran that there Orasay, and he knows his way around a plate. But here, he’s stripped things back to focus even more than ever on what tastes great. The lemon and ricotta dumplings with lobster cream are a case in point – rich, indulgent, comforting, and completely devoid of unnecessary garnishes or faffing about. Their lime leaf oil makes sense in the context, lightening and brightening.
Then there’s the burger. Only ten are made each night, they’re not on the menu, and if you’re not there by 6pm, they’re gone. Made with 50-day dry-aged beef, gorgonzola and onions cooked in Champagne, it’s one of the most considered burgers in London. And also one of the best…
The wine list comes courtesy of Noble Rot. There’s a keg red Primitivo at £5.50 a glass that drinks beautifully with the richer dishes. At around £150 for two including drinks and service, Dove sits in that sweet spot where you’re paying for quality but not feeling fleeced.
Ideal for Thai food that doesn’t hold back on the heat or the funk…
The Electric Diner’s closure left that odd tunnel-like space on Portobello Road sitting empty. Speedboat Bar took it over, bringing the same energy that made their Soho original such a hit. The team had already proven they know how to do Bangkok-style Thai that actually tastes like Bangkok, so expectations were high.
Walking in, you’re hit by neon signs, a thumping soundtrack, and the smell of wok hei. The old Electric’s red leather booths have been kept, but everything else has been cranked up several notches, much like the stuff on the plate.
The seriously spicy chicken salad with green mango kerabu is the kind of dish that makes you reach for your beer after every bite, then go straight back in for more. You do end up a little light-headed, pissed from all the beer and tripping from all the chilli. You’ll find a different kind of heat in the crispy pork with black pepper curry, the pork shattering before you hit that silky but rasping sauce. And so it goes on; a new dish of whole sea bream in makrut lime sauce comes out bronzed and crisp-skinned, big enough to share and crying out to be flaked over freshly steamed rice.
The kitchen here doesn’t mess about with authenticity theatre or trying to educate you about regional Thai cuisine. They just cook the food properly, with the kind of jet-powered wok heat and deft technique that’s impossible to replicate at home. Those tom yam mama noodles – the signature, not only due to their photogenic nature – have the depth of flavour that only comes from a kitchen that knows how to build a proper broth, layering funk and heat and sour notes until you’re scraping the bowl clean playfully.
As with Soho, there are beer towers on the tables, and this isn’t the place for quiet conversation; it’s loud, fun, and the energy stays high throughout service. It’s good value, too. Most mains hover around £15-18, which in Notting Hill feels almost charitable.
What Speedboat Bar does well is refuse to tone things down. The food is unapologetically bold, with the kind of intensity you’d find in a good Bangkok shophouse. When the ol’ £690 Eva Air to Suvarnabhumi just feels too hard on the wallet, this is the next best thing.
Ideal for refined Palestinian cooking that tells a story…
Just a minute’s walk from Notting Hill Gate tube station to Uxbridge Street, and suddenly everything gets ever so residential, with a row of cute houses in shades of Trio’politan, The Uxbridge Arms as a decent local boozer, and one of the best neighbourhood restaurants you could hope for in Akub.
The hunter green frontage – a muted contrast to its pastel-hued neighbours – gives few hints about the riot of flavours found inside this modern Palestinian restaurant, the brainchild of Franco-Palestinian restaurateur Fadi Kattan, who also owns Fawda in Bethlehem.
Fadi’s mission is to bring the diverse, sophisticated culinary traditions of Palestine to London’s food scene, and, all in all, we think it’s mission complete. Because Akub, despite only having been open for 18 months, has already received rave reviews in several national newspapers; ‘near-perfect’, ‘absolutely ravishing’ and ‘cumulative harmony’ have all been thrown at the place in the past year. More importantly, it’s full pretty much every day of the week, except Mondays, when it’s shut.
At the stoves is head chef Mathilde Papazian, who has spent considerable time in Bethlehem mastering the intricacies of traditional Palestinian cuisine. She brings a certain flair to dishes that celebrate the country’s rich culinary heritage and British seasonal produce. It’s a marriage made in heaven, all poised piquancy, heady spicing and loads and loads of imported Palestinian olive oil, which is some of the world’s best.
It’s all grounded by some excellent bread. Hitting the table warm, the zaatar manakeesh is made texturally intriguing by a shower of toasted sesame seeds. Perfect for sharing and tearing, and dragging through Akub’s trio of dips.
There’s a sense of dexterity and balance to the cooking here, apparent in dishes like a gorgeously rich short rib fatteh, the beef’s inherent unctuousness levelled out with garlic yoghurt and pomegranate. Or, the grilled Nabulsi cheese. Arriving with a uniform golden crust, its assertive briny notes are tempered by an allium-adjacent, off-bitter nigella seed oil.
Best of all, a slow cooked lamb neck – the humble cut elevated with fenugreek, cumin, and allspice, and served with red shatta (a Middle Eastern hot sauce made with red chillies and peppers) mayo. It looks faintly obscene, but boy does it taste good.
Alongside, there’s a selection of Palestinian and Jordanian wines, as well as imported Taybeh beer – an elite level local lager if ever there was one – and the obligatory arak, the world’s oldest spirit and one whose aniseed assertiveness is a wonderfully refreshing way to reset after the meal.
The intimate and stylish setting of Akub is adorned with nods to Palestinian culture, such as a beautiful Tatreez tapestry and an olive tree, symbolising the ‘right of return’ for the Palestinian people. Indeed, Akub not only serves as one of Notting Hill’s culinary highlights, but also as a place that honours the heritage and resilience of the Palestinian community.
Without doubt, this is our favourite restaurant in Notting Hill, and one more than ever deserving of patronage and support.
Ideal for vibrant Barbary Coast cooking in a room that’s pure jaw-dropping theatre…
Eight years after opening their tiny, counter-only original in Neal’s Yard, Zoë and Layo Paskin have brought The Barbary to Notting Hill in considerably grander style.
And what style it is – this Grade II-listed corner spot, designed by Archer Humphryes, is an absolute stunner. Flooded with natural light from wraparound windows, the 75-seat space features a crack-glazed volcanic stone bar, a distinctive woven wicker panelled ceiling, and Paavo Tynell straw pendants that cast a warm glow over proceedings (if the sun wasn’t already making fine work of that).
With its midnight blue horseshoe booths and burnt orange upholstery, the whole place has a rich, 1970s lounge vibe that strikes a fine balancing act between nostalgic and contemporary. As do the cocktails, it should be said, with the smoked pineapple paloma clearly made with skilled hands. Ditto the saffron negroni, a beautifully perfumed take on a classic.
This is a room you want to drink and dine in during the day, when the flowing, unstoppable light seasons the food with a golden-hour vitality. The cooking here continues The Barbary’s love affair with the vast culinary landscape from Southern Europe to Northern Africa, all tied together by the theatre of open-fire cooking.
The artichoke alla giudia arrives as a bronzed, crisp flower, each petal shattering to reveal tender heart beneath. Alongside, a spiced labneh isn’t strictly required, but it’s a welcome jolt of piquancy nonetheless. It’s a looker, and the kind of dish that has tables craning their necks when it passes by. The ‘Spicy Plate’ sounds somewhat prosaic, but is a colourful mix of different chillis, some pickled, some grilled and blistered, and with a mound of salsa verde in the middle for totally unnecessary, totally delicious dredging.
From the wood-fired oven comes their tropea onion and anchovy butter flatbread, the sweet alliums and salty fish creating that perfect sweet-saline balance that makes you immediately order another, the bread itself so light and digestible you don’t ruin the rest of your meal doing so. Anyway, next up is a stone bass tartare so dainty there’s no danger of getting full. In the cloying summer heat, it’s just the ticket.
After all that excitement, some of the larger plates threaten to underwhelm – packing a little less vivacity than those that preceded them – but are satisfying all the same. A bronzed thigh of chicken boasts smoky, bitter char from a judiciously applied coffee crust. Underneath, a pine nut puree (in this economy!) brings a suave balance to the dish.
This is the kind of place to bring someone you’re keen to impress. The room oozes style and combined with the vibrant cooking and the energy that comes from watching the chefs work their magic around that horseshoe counter, The Barbary Notting Hill proves that sometimes bigger really can be better.
Ideal for when only the finest haute cuisine in the country will do…
Considered by much of the country’s culinary cognoscenti to be England’s finest realisation of haute cuisine, The Ledbury has had one hell of a year, even by the lofty standards the restaurant has set in its twenty decades at the top.
2024 has seen The Ledbury finally achieve a well-deserved third Michelin star – the highest accolade in the game – 14 years after it received its second. It only took a COVID-enforced, potentially permanent closure, an incredible comeback, a change of head chef and a fancy new mushroom cabinet to make that happen, but my does it feel warranted.
Indeed, there’s been a palpable sense that things had been taken up a notch in the last year or so, with already close to immaculate dishes revised and refined, perfected and polished until there were the most precise expression of time and space, of seasonality and technique, that you’ll likely find anywhere in the country.
This milestone not only underscores The Ledbury’s culinary excellence but also denotes it as one of the rare elite, making it one of only 137 restaurants worldwide to hold the prestigious three star ranking. But that’s not all; June also saw The Ledbury named as the best in the UK at the National Restaurant Awards, a full 12 years since it last held the title. Bravo.
A meal here centres around a £225 tasting menu that pitches each course as headlined by its hero ingredient in sometimes delicate, sometimes robust pairings, ensuring a dining journey that surprises and satisfies in equal measure. Under Chef Graham’s vigilant eye and the adept execution of head chef Tom Spenceley, dishes like line caught red mullet with Wye Valley asparagus, black Perigord truffle and sudachi, a type of Japanese citrus, are perfectly balanced and boasting an unmatchable clarity of flavour.
Graham’s acute understanding of animal husbandry is perhaps the defining feature of The Ledbury, with the restaurant’s game cookery second to none pretty much anywhere on the planet. His pairing of black olive and liquorice with a blushing loin of venison is an inspired, genius touch. To finish, just pray that the iconic brown sugar tart and stem ginger ice cream is on the menu.
Sure, this isn’t your normal neighbourhood restaurant – despite what Graham will claim – but for a special occasion, The Ledbury is arguably the best in the UK at this type of precision fine dining.
Ideal for when France and Italy collide in tasteful harmony…
At the intersection of Westbourne Park and Ledbury Road, Caractère stands at its own kind of crossroads – where tradition meets innovation, and where the grand culinary powers of France and Italy converge.
Testament to the experience of its owners, Emily Roux and Diego Ferrari, this contemporary restaurant harmoniously weaves together their respective experiences while boldly charting its own course forward, managing to celebrate the heritage and expertise of its backers while placing one eye – or, you know, both – firmly on the future.
Emily Roux, daughter of the renowned Michel Roux Jr., has carved her own path in the culinary world, choosing not to take over her father’s famed Le Gavroche but instead to create something uniquely hers with Caractère. Together with her husband Diego Ferrari, they have crafted a menu that aims to straddle comfort and innovation. It confidently succeeds in that aim.
Perhaps the showstopper here – and certainly embodying that approach – is the celeriac cacio e pepe, on the menu from day dot and never likely to leave it. Composed of long strands of celeriac (resembling tagliatelle) coated in a rich and velvety sauce of Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano Reggiano, topped with a few drops of 25 years of age balsamic vinegar and crushed black peppercorns, Emily’s grandfather, the late, great Albert Roux, was said to be besotted with the dish – which is perhaps the highest praise one could bestow here.
The name of the restaurant means ‘character’ in French, and there’s certainly plenty of that in the way the menu is uniquely structured around 5 personality traits – ‘Curious’, ‘Subtle’, ‘Delicate’, ‘Robust’ and ‘Greedy’ – each section showcasing different aspects of their French-Italian fusion cuisine. You can either build your own tasting menu, choosing one dish from each trait, for £125, or go a la carte, with a starter, main and dessert for £95.
That celeriac number is subtle, by the way, whilst of a more robust disposition, a dish of squab pigeon, roasted on the crown and its particularly plump breast a perfect pink, is served with Scottish girolles, halves of cherry and a silky smooth beetroot puree. Its leg is served on the side, foot still attached in an enticing come hither gesture. You know what? We don’t mind if we do…
In lesser hands, that rather idiosyncratic menu might be a little confusing, but the cooking at Caractère boasts such clarity of flavour that any worries are washed away as soon as you’re served.
Not that our anxiety was particularly high before the first course; the interior of Caractère exudes a casual yet sophisticated charm, with terracotta walls contrasting against white-washed ceiling beams to pleasingly soothing effect.
The dining room features plush velvet seating in deep green and charcoal tones. Glass globe chandeliers cast a warm glow throughout. A dramatic feature wall showcases a moody skyline, and the bar area displays an impressive array of glassware on illuminated shelving. It’s all very evocative, suggestive of a large bill on the horizon, but one you’ll be more than happy to foot.
The winelist is an absolute tour-de-force, too, a 26 page tome that exemplifies the restaurant’s Franco-Italian philosophy, exclusively featuring wines from these two nations. Under the careful curation of sommelier Marco Nardi, the collection emphasises sustainable and traditional winemaking practices, with particular attention to organic, biodynamic, and natural wines.
The list pays homage to tradition, sure, with plenty of Burgundys and Barolos, but there are welcome nods to innovation, too, most notably through its inclusion of PIWI varieties – fungus-resistant grapes representing sustainable viticulture’s future. For those seeking something beyond wine, Caractère offers a carefully curated selection of craft cocktails, with several creative variations on the classic Negroni paying tribute to Ferrari’s roots.
Let’s just say that the vision here is fully realised, and the locals of Notting Hill seem to agree; it’s constantly packed out, and now earned a star in the Michelin Guide earlier this year, a testament to Emily and Diego’s vision of sophisticated yet approachable dining. The restaurant’s recent appearance on Apple TV’s Knife Edge has likely made snagging a table significantly more difficult, so do book well in advance for this one!
Ideal for charcoal-grilled excellence with a side of scene…
Dorian has quickly made a pretty massive name for itself on the London food scene since its opening in October 2022. Founded by Chris D’Sylva, who also owns the Notting Hill Fish Shop and the adjacent meat operation, Dorian was conceived with the aim of creating a bistro that embodies both high-quality technique and an unpretentious charm. It succeeded in both those aims.
In fact, that description sums up the dining experience at Dorian so astutely that we won’t bother expanding…
…only joking. This vision has been realised and recognised, earning the restaurant a Michelin star in the 2024 Michelin Guide for UK and Ireland a few months back. Offering even more motivation for the team at Dorian, it has become the place for chefs to have a celebratory meal; pretty much every famous face from the culinary world – both in London and further afield – has been there in recent months, if our Instagram feed is to be believed. Which, it is; there’s photographic evidence of it happening.
Indeed, it’s a place that boasts the buzz of a neighbourhood brasserie, but also one that excels in celebrating a single, premium ingredient via the singular technique of charcoal grilling.
Now, grilling over flames has become so ubiquitous across London in recent years that the smoke in our eyes has rather blinded us to the fact that quite a lot of chefs in the city aren’t actually very good at it. We’ve had enough overcooked whole turbot and ice cold but acridly smoked steak to say that with some confidence.
Not so at Dorian, where head chef Max Coen – who has previous at London heavyweight Ikoyi and three-Michelin-starred Frantzén in Stockholm – is a master of the binchotan.
The menu, stylistically speaking, follows a form very much popularised by Brat, of an A4 longlist of brusque menu descriptors focusing on just one or two ingredients and a hefty price tag that should perhaps be diverted to a copywriter. See; caviar rosti (£35), green asparagus, nettle and yolk (£21), pork chop £44 all the way up to bone in rib-eye (£165, for 2 or 3 people to share).
That rib-eye (a cross breed of Holstein Dairy cow x Japanese Black Beef cow, reared in North Yorkshire), to be fair, is a masterful piece of work, 50mm thick and arriving with a pronounced crust, an inch layer of buttery yellow, grassy fat, and flesh that is wall-to-wall blushing pink (those chefs on the neighbouring table will be saying “cuisson” and “soigne” with irritating, increasing regularity). A T-bone big enough to wave around Flinstone-style is included for gnawing.
Though not nominally a steak restaurant, Dorian recently ranked as the 27th best in the world in the World’s Best Steak Restaurants list for 2024 (fuck me; when will this end?), and it feels richly, warmly deserved. This is one fine steak worthy of a blowout.
Ignore the tagline on the restaurant’s website that Dorian is ‘a bistro for locals’ – this ain’t Royston Vasey, fellas – and grab a seat at the counter to get a view of the chefs (the ones working here) in action. The enormous wall of wine behind you is a reassuring, tempting presence. Be warned; the wines here start at £50 a bottle. As in, that’s the very cheapest you’ll find. There are some that clock in at over £6000. Perhaps Hugo off Succession is ordering some of these off the Waystar company dime (we keep seeing the affable Fisher Stevens in here, having a right old time).
Anyway, it’s a classy, monochrome room that you’re tempted to play human chess in if you’re not seated at that bar. Even the snacks arrive on some Toon Army striped greaseproof, a bite of creamy uni draped over a bang-in season Jersey Royal nailing that luxury/humble thing that’s everywhere right now.
Which is to say, although Dorian posits itself as idiosyncratic – those all caps on Insta do a lot of the hard work – you’ll find boujee London food trends in various guises are all over the menu here. It’s just that the team here has seemingly perfected them.
Ideal for proper Turkish grill without the faff (and wallet-crushing prices)…
Standing proud and prettily tiled on Ladbroke Grove, a mere kebab’s throw (don’t waste the damn thing doing that!) from the tube station, Fez Mangal has earned its stripes as one of London’s most straightforwardly delicious practitioners of the ancient art of the grill, long before the tatted folks on GBM came along and claimed to have invented cooking meat over fire. T
he first clue that you’re in for something genuinely enjoyable comes from the strings of dried chillis hanging in the window – a touch of theatre, sure, but also a statement of intent. Also; almost impossible to resist using as a spicy hanging punch bag.
The second clue? A crushing aroma of charcoal smoke that’ll catch your throat quite shockingly if you breathe in wrong. Don’t let that – or the queues – put you off; the well-oiled machine that is Fez’s service means you’ll be seated before you can say ‘one portion of ezme salata, please’. Admittedly, that would be a fucking weird thing to say before you’d even sat down, but anyway…
The menu is refreshingly straightforward – none of that ‘carefully curated’ or those ‘refined takes’ here – but that doesn’t mean it lacks finesse. The adana kebab is a masterclass in spicing and fatty, bouncy texture, the minced lamb singing with garlic and chilli, whilst remaining distinctly pastoral-tasting. It’s a delicate balance that many get wrong; Fez gets it spot on.
The lamb beyti is another triumph, the meat wrapped in lavash bread and drowned (in a good way) in tomato sauce and yoghurt. It’s comfort food of the highest order, the kind of thing you crave at both 3pm and 3am. The chicken shish proves that the kitchen knows its way around a bird (ewww) as well as it does its lamb, the chunks of breast meat somehow remaining juicy despite their time over the coals. All are priced at £18.50, and are bloody massive.
But it’s not just about the meat. The supporting cast is equally impressive – proper Turkish bread, pillowy and charred in all the right places, red cabbage that’s actually had some thought put into it (how many times have you had the sad, flavourless variety?), and a garlic sauce that’ll have you breathing fire for days. Worth it, though, as long as you’re not snogging after.
Watch as the pides (Turkish flatbreads) emerge from the clay ovens, their toppings bubbling and edges perfectly charred, and order one of those, too.
Best of all? It’s BYO with no corkage charge. Well, not best of all, but in a city where a glass of house white can set you back a tenner, this is something to be celebrated. Bring a bottle of something nice – these kebabs deserve better than corner shop plonk – and settle in for one of the best value meals in West London.
Not so much a hidden gem anymore – those days are long gone – but rather an institution that reminds us that sometimes the best things in life are the simplest.
Ideal for hearty, honest cooking in a pub that remembers what pubs are for…
The Pelican is the ideal boozer in Notting Hill for those who love a big, hearty feed to go with their John Smith’s. Hey, who doesn’t?
Standing proud on All Saints Road, The Pelican has evolved from your typical local into a modern gastropub under the stewardship of restaurateurs James Gummer and Phil Winser, who took over in 2022, all without losing any of its charm.
This transformation included a revamp of the decor – it’s now all butcher shop tones, leather banquettes, the sound of heels on a sanded wood floor and a menu of meats by weight scrawled on a mirror with chalk – and the installation of Owen Kenworthy as head chef, the kind of solid chef grounded in both the French and British classics. Though Kenworthy has now moved on, his influence over a humble, hearty menu remains.
Menu descriptors are even terser than Dorian’s from a few paragraphs previous. The Pelican’s is basically a shopping list, let’s be honest. Whilst ‘tomatoes, capers’, ‘leek, egg’, ‘hake, parsley’ (would it kill them to chuck an adjective in there so we know how things have been prepared?) all sound a little austere – spiritless, even – there’s fortunately more going on when the plates hit the table. St John-inspired minimalism rather than stinginess, we’d say. A dish of crimson, thinly sliced ox heart with a tangle of celeriac remoulade certainly wouldn’t feel out of place on the stark white tables of Smithfield, with all the top quality that implies.
The Pelican has featured on the increasingly influential Top 50 Gastropubs list, a testament to its quality, but the best part is that it remains a true pub at heart, welcoming patrons for drinks alone without any pretence or need for a feed. Cheers to that.
Ideal for homestyle Malaysian comfort far from home…
We’ve eaten a hell of a lot of grumpily described steaks in this article, and we’re sick of it, quite honestly. Thank the good, syncretistic lord for Med Salleh Kopitam, then, which brings sweet, spicy relief from our meat coma, and a good jolt of vitality in the process.
Visible from the exit of Bayswater underground, Med Salleh Kopitiam is run by Med Pang and Koi Lee, whose passion for authentic Malaysian food shines through in every complex, thoroughly spiced dish.
Much has been written about the restaurant’s absurd, impossibly sweet Devil’s tower of shaved ice, but it wasn’t on when we visited, so we’ll pontificate, instead, on the signature Med’s Grandma Hainanese Chicken Rice, which arrives presented prettily on branded greaseproof and in various shades of turmeric, with three sauces – all pleasingly pungent and powerful – for diners to mix and match to their tastes and tolerances.
The chicken itself (thigh) is poached to silky perfection, its fatty, flabby skin thankfully left on (much to the chagrin of Torode and Wallace – pricks). It’s the second best bit, dredged through those sauces, the highlight and headliner of course being the rice itself, satin-like in the mouth from a good dose of chicken fat and just wonderfully, insanely comforting. Lay me nude in a bath and cover me in the stuff, please. It’s how I’d like to go out. Yours for just £13.90.
Though the chicken rice is a meal in itself, the roti canai, beef rendang, and chicken satay have also been praised by others who have actually eaten them. For us, it’s all about the signature dish though. We can’t imagine ordering anything else here.
Just as is so brilliant in the hawker centres of Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Med Salleh Kopitiam has an extensive selection of interesting, invigorating fruit juices and homemade teas. The lime iced tea is particularly good.
One of Notting Hill’s best restaurants, SUMI is the informal, laid back sister restaurant to sushi master Endo Kazutoshi’s Endo at the Rotunda, which is a fifteen minute Uber ride (if you can bloody get one) west in White City.
Something we’ve found a lot in London in recent years; big, heavy hitting fine dining restaurants often phone it in when it comes to their more ‘casual’, bottom-line-fixated siblings. But at SUMI, it’s immediately clear that just as much care and attention has gone into the place as its kin up the road.
‘Sumi’ is chef Endo’s mother’s name, and this sense of reverence goes far beyond that nod to maternal affection. There’s love and respect in every morsel found on this clear, precise menu, primarily composed of nigiri, sashimi and temaki, the latter a technique developed by the family of Endo Kazutoshi.
There’s also comfort food of sorts here, done the Endo way in the form of A4 Wagyu sirloin grilled over coals (the chefs have several compact Konro grills lined up on the counter). It’s served with charred broccoli and a meat jus (‘SUMI meat sauce’) which has dextrously been lifted by the merest splash of rice vinegar. The effect is akin to the lightest yet most luxurious Sunday lunch you could dream of.
Comfort is a theme that runs through much of the operation at SUMI. The Beef Gohan, a Japanese rice dish that’s baked in a cast iron pots and designed to share, is a wonderfully homely thing. The graceful, studied hospitality only helps you relax into the place more deeply.
Don’t come to SUMI expecting the hushed tones of reverence that some sushi joints have. Instead, come for a nourishing, nurturing, familial vibe in keeping with the restaurant’s namesake.
Ideal for French rotisserie that’s a cut above your supermarket bird…
Something straightforward to finish our list of the best restaurants in Notting Hill with, where the decision making has largely been made once you’ve settled on the venue. Because Cocotte is all about one thing; chicken.
Specifically, free range, ‘farm to table’ rotisserie chicken, available in quarter, half or full bird portions, at £8, £12 and £22 respectively. The birds, sourced from the premium poultry producing region Pays de la Loire in Western France, are marinated overnight in a secret spice blend before being slowly grilled on the spit, the skin gradually blistering under the heat. Fabulous.
Throw in a few homemade sauces (the Cocotte’s gravy is basically a jug of umami), a couple of well thought out, healthy-feeling salads, and you’re good to go.
Come to think of it, ‘good to go’ is an apt phrase; although they have tables, Cocotte is perhaps best enjoyed as a takeaway; their boxes are ideal for a nourishing picnic lunch in nearby Powis Square park.
If you are staying in, consider coming for brunch. Cocotte’s chicken and waffles, which sees a sweet chili basted chicken thigh, a fried egg and a waffle croissant (or croffle), hits all the right notes.
At the start of January 2023, the popular Instagram account Footy Scran revealed their top 5 football grounds in England for food. And, perhaps unsurprisingly since you know we’re scratching around for an introduction before we get to the meat and bones of the piece, Tottenham were included in that top five.
Alongside such culinary trailblazers as the North West Counties Premier Division’s Avro FC and their esteemed breakfast wrap, the page celebrated a certain fried chicken with a bag of chips served by none other than the Spurs.
Yours for £8.95 and arriving in a brown recyclable Kraft bowl more synonymous with London’s zeitgeist-baiting food festivals than the footy, it looks genuinely excellent, the golden wings slathered in a couple of buffalo-adjacent sauces and topped with rondelles of jalapeno. Glory glory Tottenham Hotspur, indeed.
All that said, if you’re looking for a truly fantastic feed in this part of town, then you’re probably not going to find it on the site formerly known as White Hart Lane. Fortunately, you don’t have to go much further afield to find great food in the North London neighbourhood. As long as you’ve got this guide in your hand, that is; our roundup of the best restaurants and food in Tottenham, London, and the best restaurants near the Spurs stadium.
Chuku’s, High Road
Ideal for Nigerian tapas galore…
Chuku’s is, in the restaurant’s own words, ‘’the world’s first Nigerian tapas restaurant’’. In reality, it’s so much more than that, a restaurant ran by two siblings with all the frisson, friction, harmony and laughter that entails. The fact that the food here is incredible is – almost – something of an afterthought, the warm, rambunctious welcome the real draw here.
We say almost because Chuku’s is a genuinely brilliant place to dine, and probably our favourite restaurant in Tottenham. From the adalu honey beans to the caramel kuli kuli wings, every dish is a chart-topper, with the beef meatballs seasoned with a rich, complex suya spice rub an obvious headliner and highlight.
The egusi bowl is a picture perfect piece of work, too, and one that’s mighty fun to eat with it. Scooping up the cassava dumplings and dunking them in the three colourful stews, one made from red peppers and tomatoes, another spinach, coriander and fennel, and the third egusi (blitzed up bitter melon seeds), is a joyful indulgence indeed.
Due to its compact nature and gushing national reviews, booking ahead is essential. Chuku’s is closed on Mondays.
For over two decades, Durak Tantuni has been serving a single dish on West Green Road, just off the main Green Lanes strip. Tantuni – a speciality from the southern Turkish city of Mersin – is made with beef that’s been boiled, chopped, then fried in cotton oil with sumac, cumin and parsley before being loaded into thin lavash bread. Your only decision is whether you want it in a dürüm wrap (£4) or thicker bread (£8), and how many you’re ordering.
You’ll want to order a few of the wraps, basically. The beef comes intensely seasoned and soaked in its own juices, the mince soft and spicy, but with enough texture to feel substantial. A squeeze of lemon is mandatory, as are the piquant green pickled peppers that sit on every table. Some pack serious heat, others less so – it’s a lucky dip situation.
The space is bright and functional, with canteen seating and a cash-only policy. It’s the kind of place where you know exactly what you’re getting, which is part of the appeal. Two regular wraps will sort most appetites, though the larger bread version makes sense if you’re particularly ravenous or haven’t eaten all day.
Open until 2am, Durak Tantuni occupies that essential late-night niche where food quality and convenience converge. It’s been doing this longer than most of the competition, and shows no signs of stopping.
Chick King has been ruling the roost in this part of London for over 40 years, and just one bite of their expertly fried, confidently spiced chicken will tell you exactly why. You’ll have understood the esteem this place is held in long before that bite, actually, by just looking at the line snaking around the block, especially on matchday.
Expect a queue, a friendly grin from the owner, and fried chicken that’s the stuff of legend. Minimal grease, maximum flavour, and cheap-as-chips prices that bely its regal status, Chick King is Tottenham’s crispy crown jewel, make no mistake.
This most unassuming of Somali restaurants serves up fragrant, spiced bariis iskukaris dishes of grilled meats over perfumed rice that are generous enough to satisfy even the heartiest of appetites.
Post-football (Brothers is a ten minute walk down the road from the Spurs stadium) and post-pints, there are fewer more welcome platefuls, with the lamb shank version particularly good. Don’t forget to add some basbaas (Somali chilli sauce) for an extra kick!
This gem on West Green Road dishes out sourdough pizzas that, whilst not at the level of London’s very best pizzas, are certainly satisfying, and represent a fine, affordable feed in Tottenham. Their sweet balsamic pepper and mascarpone pizza is the highlight, and when paired with one of True Craft’s speciality beers – the aptly named Tottenham lager is a crisp and clean brew – you really can’t go wrong.
Ideal for Turkish kebab connoisseurs and late-night munchies…
When the craving for a kebab strikes, there’s no better place in Tottenham (towards Edmonton, admittedly) than Pembe Sultan Kebab. This local favourite is renowned for its succulent, charcoal grilled skewers, lavishly laden doner plates, and a brief selection of Turkish vegetable specialities that are bursting with freshness and vitality.
From the latter section of the menu, the ezme salad is an exemplary version, all precision cut onions, tomatoes and peppers that have been generously dressed in pomegranate molasses and good quality olive oil.
For the larger groups, the Pasha Special is the move. Stacked high on a massive serving plate, you’ll find both lamb and chicken shish, an Adana lamb skewer, wings, ribs, and lamb and chicken doner meat. Served alongside is rice, flatbreads, couscous and garlic and chilli sauces. Though the team here insists this one serves just two or three people, you could probably feed a couple more happily. Afiyet olsun!
Proving that you can be all things to all people, Pasero is a versatile joint that caters to just about any Tottenham crowd you could think of – from morning coffee seekers to evening diners looking for a date night spot that has the feel of a Parisien natural wine bar, all the way to the burnt orange-tiled bar, which sets the perfect backdrop for a romantic date.
Open from 8am to 11pm (with the kitchen closing at 9:30pm) Wednesday to Saturday and 9am to 4pm Sundays to Tuesdays, Pasero takes each of its mealtimes seriously. By day, it’s bustling with people enjoying almond croissants and coffees. By night, it transforms into something nearing a bistro, perfect for small plate enthusiasts. The smoked cod’s roe choux bites and roasted squash with whipped gorgonzola have been standout dishes in the past, but the menu changes regularly, so don’t hold us to that.
Pasero also hosts regular pop-ups, with Keshia Sakarah from the outstanding Caribe’ taking to the stoves this week. We can’t wait!
This Ghanaian bakery, a husband and wife operation that’s been at the same Tottenham location since 1995, is famous for its sweet bread, Ghanaian doughnuts known as bofrot, their chin chin biscuits, and glossy meat pies, all of which are now sold in Morrisons, a testament to the quality – and ambition – of the baking here. Don’t forget to grab some for the road!
Ideal for unhurried Congolese cuisine with a side of beats…
When you walk through the doors of this Congolese spot in Tottenham Hale, an uplifting blast of afrobeats immediately sets the mood for a feast.
And feast you shall; it’s all about the platters here, with the Manna platter a delightful mix of grilled fish, smoked lamb (ntaba), jollof rice, and kwanga (a soft cassava dumpling). Serving four, it’s just £52. This is a place where you won’t be rushed, ensuring you savour every bite.
Jerk Munchies is the kind of place where the food is so good, you’ll rip open the takeaway bag before you’ve even left the shop. The jerk bagel is a masterpiece of charred dough and succulent meat, slathered in a piquant, undulating sauce that’s the perfect balance of sweet and spicy. And if bagels aren’t your thing, the jerk chicken rice box is a worthy contender.
Perhaps even better is the large oxtail, rice and peas, the meat falling off the bone and the rice blessed with plenty of melted bone marrow. It’s laughably good value at £8.
The Antwerp Arms, affectionately known as ‘The Annie’, stands proudly as one of Tottenham’s oldest pubs. This community-run watering hole, North London’s first, is not just about pints; it’s about bringing people together. With a fine selection of real ales and craft beers, it’s the perfect place to unwind and connect with locals. The pub also hosts regular events, from quiz nights to live music, adding to its charm and appeal as a community hub.
Anyway, you’ve come here to find some of the best places to eat in Tottenham, and the menu at The Annie is pleasingly prosaic in its delivery. There’s no unfettered, unnecessary pub menu globetrotting here. Instead, a simple rundown of five Middle Eastern-leaning mains – grilled chicken, stuffed aubergine, lamb meatballs, fishcake or falafel – all served with fries and salad.
The starters boast similarly refreshing focus, with the spicy beef sucuk sausage full of flavour and funk. A short selection of shawarma wraps seals the deal.
Ideal for an Italian trattoria experience in Tottenham…
Sitting just south of Tottenham in Bruce Grove is San Marco, a charming trattoria that offers a slice of Italy in North London, now in its 52nd year of trading.
All gingham tablecloths, candles melting wax into their wine bottle holders and pizza boxes stacked high on the counter, San Marco gives off a seriously timeless energy, a feeling of timelessness only furthered by the warmhearted greeting from owner Graziano.
On the menu, wood-fired pizzas, pleasingly blistered and leopard-spotted, and no-frills pasta dishes are the orders of the day. Incredibly, a margherita and a spaghetti carbonara clock in at £8.90 and £6.90 respectively. That is absurd value for pretty much anywhere in the UK, let alone London.
There are even rumours Guns N’ Roses are fans, ordering their pre-gig meal from San Marco before their recent show at the Spurs stadium. We’re glad Axl Rose’s appetite extended beyond simple destruction.
Wedged between the gleaming, steaming towers of the City and the ever-evolving cliches of Shoreditch like some kind of glorious refuge from bullshit, Whitechapel occupies a unique position on the London landscape. This hard-to-define (we will now attempt to) East End enclave has long been an area shaped by generations of cultural exchange and preservation, with the Bengali community in particular leaving an indelible, edible mark on the area’s culinary scene.
While parts of East London may have succumbed to the relentless march of what might euphemistically be termed ‘urban renewal’, Whitechapel moves at its own pace, its curry houses, family-run takeaways and centuries old bakeries seemingly untroubled by what’s going on up the road.
It’s a confidence earned and honed over the last 50 years, and Whitechapel’s culinary identity is inseparable from its immigrant history. Brick Lane earned its nickname ‘Banglatown’ in the 1970s as Bengali immigrants, particularly from the Sylhet region, arrived following Bangladesh’s independence and established restaurants and businesses that transformed the street. Before this, the area welcomed successive waves of Huguenots, Irish, and Jewish communities. The establishment of the East London Mosque in 1985 (now one of Europe’s largest) further anchored the community.
Though it’s a little hard to define where Whitechapel definitively begins, it’s easy to know where it ends; with a bowl of gajar ka halwa and a cup of cardamom chai. It’s a sweet conclusion that tells you something essential about the neighbourhood— a story of diversity, distinct regional specialities, and family recipes passed – sometimes lovingly, sometimes reluctantly – through generations until they reach your plate.
With all that in mind and still no closer to defining the place, here’s our rundown of the best restaurants in Whitechapel.
Tayyabs
Ideal for legendary lamb chops with a half-century history….
On an unassuming Whitechapel backstreet, the electric blue neon sign and heady miasma of burnt cumin seeds and grill smoke has been a clarion call for hungry Londoners long before Eating With Tod, Top Jaw and the rest first unearthed this ‘hidden gem’. Several times.
Tayyabs, established in 1972, is perhaps the most famous Punjabi restaurant in the capital, and for good reason. The décor is a heady mix of opulent and wipe-able, the service cheery but efficient, and the food simple and satisfying in a way that allows the kitchen to churn, churn, churn relentlessly.
The sizzling lamb chops are the undisputed stars, arriving at your table still spitting and crackling, marinated in a proprietary blend of spices that’s remained unchanged (and still, somehow, a secret) for decades. The chops’ protruding, crudely French-trimmed rib handle presents the perfect opportunity to ditch the cutlery and go full Flinstone. Indeed, any tedious chuntering about ‘fall off the bone’ flesh should be avoided here; a bit of chew and resistance brings out the flavour, we think.
Don’t stop at the chops though, as it would be mental to come here, order one dish and leave. Tayyabs’ signature karahi chicken tikka masala delivers a complexity and nuance far beyond the usual assumptions about the national dish, and the peshwari naan is a Grade A version of a sometimes divisive side. Boasting the kind of proof that exhales when pierced, it comes anointed with butter that pools pleasingly across its surface.
Long-time patrons will remember the infamous queues that once snaked around the block (no bookings were taken for decades), but these days you can book ahead. Remarkably, despite its capacity for 500 diners spread across several floors, Tayyabs still boasts those queues. It should be said that the reservation system feels chaotic at best – we’ve occasionally waited longer for our reserved table than it took for the queue to be seen to in its entirety.
Open every day from noon until late evening, Tayyabs is BYOB. There’s a Tesco Express on the same street with a decent selection of cold beers. Back in the restaurant, non-boozers are well catered for with a good selection of yoghurt based refreshment.
Whether you’re on the lager or the lassi, Tayyabs is reliably raucous, and certainly isn’t the place for an intimate tête-à-tête. But, for a full-on feast with friends, it’s unbeatable. Whitechapel’s finest? We certainly think so.
Ideal for no-frills Pakistani feasting that won’t break the bank…
In the unofficial battle of the Whitechapel lamb chop, Lahore Kebab House has long been Tayyabs’ greatest rival. This canteen-style Pakistani restaurant five minutes south along Pargett and around the corner onto Umberston Street offers a decidedly more laid back atmosphere than its famous counterpart.
Established in 1972 (coincidentally the same year as Tayyabs – something in the Whitechapel water that year, clearly), this Pakistani powerhouse has maintained its no-nonsense approach for over five decades. The interior could generously be described as ‘functional’ – brown utilitarian furniture against plain white walls that wouldn’t look out of place in a school canteen – but you’re not here for the décor. The cricket matches and Bollywood epics playing on massive screens provide more than enough visual stimulation anyway, as does the bustling semi-open kitchen (there’s two panels of glass and what looks to be a mattress obscuring one of the panes that separates dining room and chefs) where you can witness pan dexterity on a whole different level.
The mixed grill is why you’re here and is exactly what you’d hope for, featuring those skinny lamb chops, expertly spiced and grilled to pink but gnarly perfection. While the lamb chops rightfully get top billing – using higher quality meat than many competitors and spiced with such liberal enthusiasm they practically vibrate on the plate – the menu rewards even the vaguely curious.
The chicken tikka brings unexpected heat dimensions that will recalibrate your understanding of the national dish, but you’d do better with the house specials, particularly the nihari and dry lamb curry, served in karahi bowls that always seem to add another dimension to a dish, even if it’s the taste of brass seasoning. Do save room for dessert – their selection of traditional sweets, including kulfis, ras malai and gajar ka halwa, provides the perfect sweet send-off.
For a restaurant that can host a staggering 350 diners across two floors, the service is remarkably acute – waiters performing gravity-defying feats as they carry multiple dishes at once, uncorking your BYO bottles with practiced ease (and no corkage fee). City workers rub shoulders with East End locals here, united in their appreciation for unfussy, delicious food served in generous portions. What more could you want?
Ideal for hearty Punjabi cuisine with Bollywood tunes as your soundtrack…
Opened in 2009 by a former Tayyabs manager, Needoo might not luxuriate (or, suffer from, depending how you want to look at it) queues of its more famous neighbour, but the food is every bit as good.
Inside, the vibe is bright, garish even. Those bold crimson walls, matching leather chairs and blue LED lighting call to mind somewhere that’s part curry house, part nightclub – the sort of place where every meal feels like a celebration, all accompanied by a Bollywood playlist that adds to the general sense of convivial cheer.
Their house speciality, karahi lamb chops masala, features lamb chops marinated in Needoo’s signature karahi masala and then grilled to its natural conclusion – a dish that rivals any in Whitechapel for its fragrant complexity. Beyond the celebrated lamb chops, the menu offers other stunners, including the karahi butter chicken masala which delivers that ideal balance of richness and spice, and could cure (and cause, quite frankly) many an ill.
The palak-paneer is top notch too, the cottage cheese simmered in a smooth and creamy spinach gravy without it disintegrating, all executed with careful, cautious finesse. The palak chicken applies the same luscious spinach treatment to tender chicken pieces – proper comfort food, this.
Sunday visitors should not miss the nihari, a popular Pakistani dish of slow-cooked lamb shank with a kind of throbbing pastoral undertone – a weekend speciality worth planning your life around. For those in search of something more simple, the half chicken with chips, marinated with rich masala and grilled, offers a perfect East-meets-West option that feels like the sort of dish you’d request for a final meal.
Service is swift and friendly, and the BYO policy makes this a highly affordable night out. Needoo might live somewhat in the shadow of its more famous New Road neighbours, but those in the know recognise it as a worthy contender for Whitechapel’s curry crown.
Ideal for inventive, plant-based Middle Eastern cuisine…
For something different at the tail end of Whitechapel, Bubala has rapidly gained a reputation as one of East London’s most exciting dining destinations for Middle Eastern food.
The moment you slip inside, the carnage of the busy road behind melts away. It’s a mellow, nourishing space that is very Blank Street in its aesthetic but ultimately, probably, designed not to distract you from what really matters: the food.
Bubala delivers dishes of remarkable depth and flavour. The menu features small plates designed for sharing and tearing, with standouts including their fried aubergine with zhoug and date syrup – crispy at the edges but meltingly soft inside, topped with that vibrant green coriander-spiked sauce that gives vibrancy and value to everything it touches. Don’t miss the halloumi with black seed honey – a slab of milky cheese fried to golden-brown perfection and drizzled with a sweet, spiced syrup that’ll have you fighting over the last piece.
Other must-orders include their silky-smooth hummus arriving with burnt butter, pine nuts and a generous dribble of olive oil, the oyster mushroom skewers delivering that perfect umami hit. The confit potato latkes come with toum (Lebanese garlic sauce), which is a sentence that sounds really weird if you read it too fast and get your consonants mixed up. It tastes damn good though.
The place has a good buzz but is laid back, and the staff are genuinely passionate about the food they’re serving. Speaking of sweet spots, the tahini, date and tangerine ice cream is as good as it sounds and then some; a really intriguing mix of savoury and sharp, sparkling flavours, and the perfect end to a meal for all those who say they’re not into dessert, but actually are.
With most plates between £5-£11, and the option to feast for about £30 a head, Bubala represents excellent value. While reservations can be hard to come by (book well in advance), it’s worth the effort. Oh, and did we mention it’s all vegetarian? We tried not to, as this is gorgeous food, meat-free or otherwise.
Ideal for a taste of history at London’s oldest Indian restaurant…
Among Whitechapel’s dining institutions, few can claim the longevity or, indeed, the naming prescience of Halal Restaurant. The name is SEO genius, though it’d be even better if they added ‘near me’ to the end. Though, since this place was established in 1939, they might have had other things on their mind than Google dark arts.
Indeed, Halal Restaurant stakes a claim as East London’s oldest Indian establishment. Originally founded to serve South Asian sailors working the docks, this venerable institution has been in the same family for four generations and maintains a loyal following that spans just as long.
Unlike the more casual curry houses nearby, Halal Restaurant offers a slightly more formal dining experience, with white tablecloths (daredevil stuff with this much turmeric in the curries) and food served in lidded pots – the big reveal is pure theatre, especially on the nose. The menu features classic Indian dishes executed with time-honoured precision – the rogan josh, shish kebabs and mutton mince biryani are particular highlights.
After over 80 years in business, Halal Restaurant offers something increasingly rare in London’s ever-changing dining landscape – a genuine taste of history.
Ideal for faithfully rendered regional Thai cuisine that doesn’t hold back…
We can’t be arsed with the pedants, so we’ll say this again; we’re not sure where Whitechapel begins and ends. Commercial Street might be part of it.
We’re more confident that some of London’s best Thai food is still served at Som Saa, a relative old warhorse of the city’s restaurant scene as it approaches its second decade here in Whitechapel/Shoreditch/Spitalfields/let’s not worry too much about pin drops.
Here, dishes showcase the complex, multi-layered, high wire balancing act of the very best Thai cooking. Their nahm dtok pla thort – a whole deep-fried sea bass with North Eastern herbs and roasted rice powder – is the headliner, no doubt, and never off the menu for good reason; it demonstrates the kitchen’s love of the country’s Isaan region and its reliably bold palette.
This is reflected too in the daily changing som tam salad, that reliably delivers the perfect balance of sweet, sour, salty and spicy notes (a bit of a tired summary by now, admittedly) that defines Thai cooking. Just to cast your eyes up to the blackboard to see what’s in store for the day.
There are coconut curries from further south in Thailand, too. The restaurant is one of the only places in the capital to freshly squeeze their coconut milk every single day, a process and dedication reflected in the suave finish to their curries and unparalleled, superior flavour compared to the canned stuff. Ditto the hand-pounded curry pastes; you really can taste the difference here.
Be sure to save room for their exquisite salted palm sugar ice cream served with grilled turmeric banana and sesame seeds – on since day dot and as good as ever.
After eight successful years, the team has expanded with a sibling restaurant, Kolae, in Borough Market, but the original location remains a must-visit for anyone who loves the food of The Kingdom as much as we do.
*Following a fire at the restaurant in early May, Som Saa is now up and running once again. Rejoice!*
A sister restaurant to Xi’an Impression up in Highbury, and taking its name from the Shaanxi provincial capital and the onomatopoeic ‘biang biang’ (supposedly mimicking the sound of dough slapping against the countertop), this stark, brightly-lit space may look more corporate canteen than place of crosstown culinary pilgrimage, but appearances can be deliciously deceiving. Actually, we’re not sure that’s quite true; if this place looked fancy, you’d rightly suspect it might be a bit shit. Hmmm, we’ve tied ourselves in knots here…
…not like the noodles, which are perfectly separate strands, but also boast the requisite level of homogeneity. Their hand-pulled BiangBiang noodles in ‘special sauce’ are the ideal showcase for the eponymous speciality, with a perfect chew and rich sauce clinging to every strand. Variations on a theme include the glorious hand-pulled Belt noodles with cumin lamb, the fragrant, dusty, musty spice cutting through the richness of the lamb and anchoring the whole thing in something that hums and undulates rather than slaps and tickles.
Beyond the signature wide belt noodles, the boneless chicken in special sauce delivers a genuine surprise – thin slices of tender poultry soaking up a house special concoction that’s vinegary, sweet and gently spiced. It’s a perfect counterpoint to the more robust flavours elsewhere on the menu.
The handmade traditional pork burger (‘rou jia mo’ – one of the world’s oldest sandwich-type foods) represents another regional speciality from the streets of Xi’an – succulent, slow-cooked pork belly with aromatic spices, chopped and stuffed into a distinctive wheat flatbread pocket. It’s street food with thousands of years of history behind it, and light years away from the Western concept of a burger.
The restaurant’s no-reservation policy and wipe-clean utilitarian aesthetic speak to its roots – this is a place where solo diners feel comfortable tucking in with a book and a beer, where eating with your fingers is not just accepted but encouraged, and where the nine-napkin approach to dining (you’ll need them for the splashes of chilli oil) is considered perfectly sensible. Or, you could just buy a T-shirt from the nearby charity shop and wear it as a massive bib.
Anyway, at these remarkably reasonable prices, with most dishes between £7-£11, you’ll hardly mind the extra cost.
Ideal for succulent Somali lamb at absurdly good value…
Al Kahf means ‘the cave’ in Arabic – fitting for this Somali restaurant tucked away off Whitechapel Road. Since opening in 2010, it has built a devoted following among those in the know. A recent renovation has transformed the once-hidden entrance into a proper street-level dining space, though the restaurant still thankfully maintains its understated charm.
The menu showcases the distinctive cuisine of the Horn of Africa, where geographic position and history have created a fascinating culinary crossroads. Their celebrated lamb shank (the xaniid) steals the show – slow-cooked to such tenderness that just a spoon is required to eat it, with undulating layers of aromatics and meltingly soft fat helping that gorgeous spicing last long in the mouth. Each main arrives on a generous platter of aromatic bariis iskukaris, a beautifully spiced rice adorned with sweet raisins and topped with caramelised onions and peppers.
Al Kahf really know how to guide your hand in seasoning your bowl, as each meal also comes with the essential companions: basbaas, a vibrant green chili sauce that brings a powerful kick of heat and fresh coriander, and sabaayad, a buttery Somali flatbread perfect for scooping up every morsel. You will genuinely want to do so.
The service is refreshingly unfussy and reassuringly unhurried, a place where it would be criminal not to take your time. At around £14 for a lamb dish substantial enough to satisfy two hungry diners, Al Kahf offers remarkable value, too.
No alcohol is served here, so round off your meal with a bottle of Shani, an intensely sweet Arabic soft drink that Jimi Famurewa rightly observed was pretty reminiscent of Vimto, and discover why this modest establishment has earned its reputation for serving some of the most memorable East African food in London.
Ideal for traditional village-style Bangladeshi cooking that showcases the flavours of Sylhet…
Among Brick Lane’s curry houses, Graam Bangla offers something genuinely different. First opened in 1997 (then spelled ‘Gram Bangla’), it closed in 2016 before reopening under new ownership in 2019, bringing its distinctive Sylheti cooking back to East London.
Unlike the anglicised curry houses that dominate the area, Graam Bangla focuses on regional specialties from Sylhet in Bangladesh’s northeast—the ancestral home of many British Bangladeshis. The restaurant gained unexpected royal recognition in February 2023 when King Charles III and Queen Camilla visited during a tour highlighting the cultural contributions of the Bangladeshi community to the East End.
The food here diverges sharply from standard British curry house fare that you’ll find elsewhere on Brick Lane. Fish plays a central role in the menu, reflecting the cuisine of river-rich Sylhet. You might encounter keski (tiny sprats from the Ganges), elish (a buttery river fish requiring patient deboning), or for the less adventurous, perfectly seasoned catfish curry. The restaurant is also known for its selection of bhortha—intensely flavoured mashed preparations of vegetables, lentils, or fish that add vibrant accent notes to the meal.
There’s no paper menu here—instead, staff guide you through the dishes displayed in glass counters, explaining unfamiliar ingredients with patience. Once primarily a gathering spot for Bangladeshi men to engage in adda (a form of politically-tinged socialisation), the restaurant now welcomes a diverse crowd of diners who aren’t required to share their views on Sheikh Hasina or Sir Starmer before ordering.
Ideal for perhaps the best chicken tikka in Whitechapel…
While the big-name curry houses get all the glory, this modest Pakistani eatery on the corner of New Road delivers food that deserves far more recognition. Shalamar operates with quiet confidence just minutes from its more TikTok’d neighbours, offering a bright, fuss-free dining space where the focus is squarely on the food. And which, come to think of it, is the perfect lighting for those reels…
The menu here doesn’t try to please all parties with its length (matron) but rather with its execution. The chicken tikka here is worth crossing town for – plump cubes of breast meat marinated in yoghurt, garam masala and turmeric that remain wonderfully juicy while developing a distinctive rusty-orange exterior. At just £5.50 for a tikka roll, it represents one of Whitechapel’s – no, London’s – best food bargains.
Don’t overlook their meat biryani either – a generous heap of aromatic rice tumbled with quite-tender strings of braised beef. The whole dish carries gentle notes of cardamom and green chilli that perfume each forkful and linger until nighttime. You’ll get change from a tenner ordering it, which is wild in this economy.
What makes Shalamar special is its everyday dependability. This is restorative food served without ceremony – the kind of place locals return to weekly for a reliable, satisfying meal that brightens the day without emptying the wallet.
Ideal for fiery, numbing Sichuan cuisine with plenty of theatre…
Just a few streets away from the confusion of Brick Lane sits Sichuan Folk, a compact restaurant that’s become a destination for those seeking the cocaine-like face numbing quality of southwestern Chinese cuisine. And the high, too…
That would be the liberal use of chillies and the distinctive numbing sensation from Sichuan peppercorns. Sichuan Folk’s signature dumplings exemplify this perfectly – delicate parcels bathed in a sauce that begins with warmth before developing into that characteristic ma la tingling sensation on the lips and tongue.
Beyond the dumplings, standout dishes include the whole sea bass, which arrives dramatically curled and crispy, yet remains surprisingly tender – flaky, even – beneath its coating. Don’t miss the fire-exploded kidney flowers, either – a dish where thinly sliced pork kidneys are delicately cross-hatched, marinated briefly, then flash-fried in scalding oil. The rapid cooking makes each piece curl and bloom open (hence the name), creating crisp, remarkably elegant and addictive little bites.
Photos by Sichuan Folk
The tightly packed tables are actually an asset here, where excited diners often point to neighbours’ dishes with an envious curiosity that’s quickly satisfied with an order of the same.
Ideal for London’s best Lebanese and Palestinian food not on Edgware Road…
Established circa 2008, Bon Appetit maintains its identity as a family-owned restaurant. It proudly declares on the menu that it uses mum’s homemade recipes – and the food here does taste homemade and, for lack of a better word, authentic. What strikes you first is how friendly the owners are. Sometimes they give you tea while you wait, sometimes a big hug. Never both, for some reason…
The ambiance is decidedly casual – a place you feel immediately comfortable in. A Palestinian flag casually drapes over a room divider and above a wooden counter there’s a huge menu board displaying all their dishes—making it nearly impossible to decide what to order because everything looks delicious. Everything looks a little dated, too, stone wall accents and hanging plastic plants, worn black leather dining chairs and the overall sense of a place well dined in.
Of course, Palestinian and Lebanese cuisines share many similarities due to their shared Levantine heritage and geographical proximity. Bon Appetit serves a mix of beloved Lebanese and Palestinian classics (though more firmly anchored in the former), including hummus, tabbouleh, and of course, grilled chicken.
Let’s talk about that grilled chicken. It arrives charcoal-burnished with a golden, fire-freckled crust and stays beautifully juicy, despite its time on the grill. It’s served with rice or chips, pickles, and plenty of garlic sauce.
A must-order is the lentil soup, which seems to be one of the most popular dishes on the menu. Glossy red lentils laced with cumin and olive oil, this delicious, wholesome Lebanese lentil soup wins us over every time – it’s comforting and nutritious, and a real sin-settler.
Both Palestinian and Lebanese traditions emphasise small shared plates as appetizers or as part of a larger meal, so come back another time with people who love to share. You could make a whole meal of their precisely rendered mezze options and you should, but fill it out with the generously sized grill platter which arrives exactly as you’d imagine: grilled, charred, and irresistible.
Wash it al down with a bottle of Mezza – a pomegranate flavoured nonalcoholic malt beverage and finish with some syrup-soaked knafeh. You could say we ‘we can’t get knafeh of it.’
Ideal for bagels and pastries from century East End institution…
Like many great East London establishments, Rinkoff’s is steeped in history and tradition. This Jewish bakery first opened its doors in 1911 and has been making exceptional challah, pastries, and of course bagels, ever since. The century-old business is still in the family, passed down through generations, and remains a treasured Whitechapel favourite.
Their smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel is a masterclass in the form – the kind of food that transcends trends and fashions. The sweet offerings are equally impressive, with the signature ‘crodough’ (their take on the cronut) developing something of a cult following among East London’s diabetes-baiting denizens. The lotus biscoff and white chocolate crodough was the flavour of the month last time we dropped by – a creation that has earned its place on many Instagram feeds but still delivers on actually tasting good.
What makes Rinkoff’s special is not just its longevity but its appetite to evolve. While still honouring traditional Jewish bakery items like cheesecake (sold by weight and made to Hyman’s original recipe) and challah bread, the fourth generation of the family, including Ray and his daughters Jen and Debs, have expanded the selection to include vegan options and contemporary treats like the recent viral Dubai cookie.
The bakery has adapted remarkably to Whitechapel’s changing population. While it began serving the area’s Jewish residents (even keeping ovens warm on Fridays for families to cook their Shabbat meals), Rinkoff’s now proudly serves a customer base that’s mostly from the local Muslim community (80% of the base, according to Vittles).
This transition extends to their kitchen too, where many staff members have been part of the team for years, creating their own chapter in the bakery’s continuing story.
Here at IDEAL, we’re huge fans of the seasonal decor that defines the transition from summer to autumn, when the onset of cooler, darker months of the year beckons us indoors.
Since that special time is fast approaching, today, we’re going to take a look at some of the different ways that you can bring some autumn spirit to your home this month and make the most of the most beautiful time of the year. So, if you’re cosying up your home for autumn, here are 11 simple home decor tricks to help you do just that.
Autumnal Dried Flowers Arrangements
Dried flowers have been one of the biggest interior design trends of the past year and it’s easy to see why. This sustainable and oh-so-stylish interior trend has a lot to offer; not only do they look great and last, well, forever, but dried flowers are better for our planet, too.
Indeed, as the Independent explains, “Unlike fresh blooms you won’t need to keep topping them up with water or have to throw them out once they’re past their peak, meaning dried is a better choice for the planet, too”.
And as long as you look after them, you can enjoy your dried flower arrangements for many years to come. Sustainable kings and queens, step up!
When it comes to autumn, the rustic quality of dried flowers makes for a lovely accent for your autumnal inspired interiors. While you can buy pre-arranged autumnal bouquets, creating our own arrangements can be more personal and tailored to your home’s overall aesthetic. Or, you could even dry your own flowers.
If you’re not sure where to start, Zoella suggests creating a “dramatic arrangement by pairing simple eucalyptus with bright colours and cascading amaranthus or everyone’s favourite pom pom flower: hydrangeas.’’
The site also recommend smoke bush, which they say is ‘’another particularly beautiful shrub during Autumn – its fluffy plumes turn a beautiful scarlet hue in Autumn”
Indeed, this arrangement is ideal for inside your home and they bring with them a connection to nature and the outside world which is synonymous with the autumn season.
Make Your Own Wreath
One of the most stunning seasonal features just perfectly suited to autumn is a wreath that welcomes people into your home.
Hanging a wreath on the front door isn’t just for Christmas, after all, and often autumn wreaths look even more impressive than their festive companions. You can make your own wreath with some fake leaves and berries, a wreath ring, some fairy lights, pumpkins, and pine cones.
There are plenty of ways for you to customise your own wreath and this can be a fun weekend project on a blustery autumn day, able to instantly lift your home decor and make it feel more warm and welcoming for anyone who comes to visit you during the season.
Layer Your Flooring
If you have mostly wooden flooring throughout your home, consider introducing some warm rugs to your living room and dining areas. Layering up your wooden flooring with a stylish rug is a great way to add some extra texture and colour to your interior design this autumn and will also be practical and keep in the warmth to make your home feel cosier.
That said, a good quality rug can be expensive. While many rug dealers offer year-round special deals, from May through to July, many rugs are on clearance. It’s the same as stocking up on jumpers or a new winter coat in July when they are on sale…with a little foresight, you can snag yourself a bargain.
We absolutely love the rugs from Rugette, a company that’s revolutionising how we think about rugs in the home. Their machine washable rugs are a game-changer for busy households, combining practicality with style in a way that’s hard to beat, with styles ranging from contemporary geometric patterns to classic traditional designs. The company’s stellar Trustpilot reviews speak volumes about their quality and service, and having dealt with their support team personally, we can genuinely vouch for just how helpful they are – they go above and beyond to help customers find the perfect rug for their space.
Choosing a seasonally appropriate rug can be tricky, but consider autumnal tones such as browns, oranges, and reds to really bring the autumn season into the home in a big way. We’re not talking about rugs with clunky, in-your-face pictures of trees on them, rather rugs that are inspired by, and use, the colours of nature. Think a rug with warm brown and copper tones, using abstract patterns to represent autumnal leaves. Speaking of abstract patterns and art…
Artwork is something most of us have all over the house, and throughout the year, one way to get your home ready for hibernation season is to change and adapt your artwork for the season.
In autumn, you can swap out some of the pictures in your frames to ones with autumn leaves and other aesthetic flourishes that warm up the home and show off this season. There are some stunning autumn art prints available online and by changing your artwork, you’ll mark the changing of the seasons and the natural, unstoppable march of life’s journey in an accessible, artistic way.
Orange and red tones are most associated with the autumn and now is the time for you to start bringing some of these colours into your home for the new season. There are so many ways to introduce warmer tones to your home such as an autumn bunch of flowers on the coffee table, a new vase in mustard, or a throw rendered in a rich rust colour that will hang over your sofa.
Choose warm and autumnal colours for your accessories and breathe some life and energy into every single room of your home. You can even take this a step further if you love the colours of autumn and swap out your living room feature wall for a stunning orange or copper tone that will add an air of cosiness and warmth to the room.
Pumpkins, both real and ornamental, are a super simple way to bring the autumn spirit to your house.
A display of squashes and pumpkins on your doorstep or windowsill is also great for autumn; they are also handy to have around the house if you’re in need of a quick lunch.
Take the chance to gather a few pumpkin ornaments and real pumpkins and place them on shelves, on your doorstep, and throughout the house in different areas. This bright orange feature will breathe life and energy into the home and it will really keep the synergy of that seasonal spirit consistent. You can even use pumpkins as a vase.
Also, consider some pumpkin scented candles, too. Speaking of which…
Candles are one of those features that are synonymous with autumn and winter, so now that the cooler seasons have arrived, it’s high time that you break out your candle jars and tealights.
Autumnal flavours and scents – think spiced apple or blackcurrant, nutmeg, cinnamon or even bonfire – are so nostalgic, and can be found on the high street easily. But if you’re after an autumn activity, why not try your hand at making your own candles?
Indeed, with the right know-how, it’s easy to melt down some wax, add some essential oils, and luxuriate in your autumnal creations for the rest of the season. There are some great Youtube videos on candle making to help you get started.
Use Throws & Cushions Liberally
Where summer is all about making the house feel fresh and spacious; autumn and winter are more concerned with layering up and creating a cosy space that provides warmth and comfort.
If you are looking for an easy way to bring autumn into your home this season, get yourself a throw and put it over your sofa or bed and add that essential layering which seems to define the season. You can find throws in playful shades of tartan, a bright teal or mustard, or you can choose a muted tone such as nude or beige.
If you have cushions in your living room and bedrooms, one of the easiest and most affordable ways to welcome autumn to your home is to buy some new cushion covers in autumnal styles. This could be anything from a cushion with a pumpkin (cliche, we know, but it works!) or a knitted material with a mustard tone, perfect for warming things up.
Layering up a few different colours on your sofa or bed can be an amazing way to make the most of your soft furnishings.
If you are looking to refresh your whole home this season, consider a lick of paint. If you want to bring warmth and autumnal spirit to your home this year, shades such as plum, teal, and rust are very much in vogue and in keeping with the season.
Bringing a beautiful teal into your kitchen, a calming plum in the bedroom, and a warming mustard or green in the living room can instantly change the dynamic of your home design and make it feel like a whole new home for the season. Natural tones are crucial for autumn, and by using these for your design you will add a calming effect throughout the house.
Hang Leafy Garlands
Leaves and berries are very much associated with autumn. A simple way for you to add leaves into the home is with a leafy garland, and you can hang these either over your fireplace, on your mantelpiece or consider weaving it through the stairs to add an air of magic and fun to the house.
Warm It Up With Lighting
Lighting is an important part of maintaining the atmosphere of your home, and during the autumn, it’s essential you introduce some task lighting and softly lit lamps that can replace the harsh main light as evening falls. Which, incidentally, is happening right now…we’re clocking off!
