Marylebone has always been an odd contradiction. It sits right in the middle of London, a few minutes’ walk from the roar of Oxford Street and the waxing and waning queues at Madame Tussauds, yet it behaves as though none of that exists.
Marylebone has pushed the village branding hard in recent years – and against all odds in a glossy central London postcode, it actually sticks. There is a Sunday farmers’ market where regulars turn up with their St John totes and their detailed opinions about sourdough, a bookshop that people travel across the country to visit, and a pub where the piano singalongs have been ringing out for decades. Walk ten minutes in any direction from Marylebone High Street and you hit a major London landmark, but the High Street itself has a rhythm that belongs to a much smaller place.
No wonder it has many a famous son and daughter; Byron, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Virginia Woolf have all called Marylebone home, along with literature’s most famous detective at a certain address on Baker Street. But the neighbourhood wears its pedigree lightly: the free art collection at the Wallace Collection rivals anything on the South Bank, the best coffee costs the same as it does anywhere else in London, and the markets have a pleasing cut and thrust.
So, what to do with a weekend here? This is a start; our guide to 48 hours in Marylebone.
Day 1: High Art, High Street & High Flavour
Morning: The Wallace Collection, Daunt Books & Marylebone High Street
Start at the Wallace Collection on Manchester Square, and start early. The museum opens at 10am and the first hour, before the crowds find it, belongs to you.
This is one of London’s great free museums, housed in Hertford House, a grand Georgian townhouse that still feels more like a private home than a public gallery. The collection was assembled across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Marquesses of Hertford and bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace in 1897, and it has remained in these rooms ever since, paintings hung salon-style against silk-covered walls, porcelain and furniture arranged as though someone might return to sit among them at any moment.
Titian, Rembrandt, Velazquez and Hals share wall space with a world-class armoury and some of the finest decorative arts in Europe, while Fragonard’s The Swing and Frans Hals’ The Laughing Cavalier (neither laughing nor a cavalier, but never mind) are both here. Through 2026, the museum is also hosting Winston Churchill: The Painter, a major retrospective running from May to November. There’s a £20 admission charge for this one.
From Manchester Square, walk south to Marylebone High Street and turn right. The High Street is the neighbourhood’s spine, and even at this hour it is worth a slow wander past the Conran Shop, the Ginger Pig butchers and Rococo Chocolates. Halfway along, stop at Daunt Books at number 83, the original branch, opened by James Daunt in 1990 in a building that has been a bookshop since 1912 and is thought to be the first purpose-built bookshop in the world. The rear gallery, with its long oak balconies, graceful skylights and stained-glass window, is one of the most beautiful rooms in London, and the system of arranging books by country rather than genre means you could lose an hour here without trying. Or, indeed, trying to find what the hell you’re looking for…
Take whatever you’ve bought and walk south to Marylebone Lane, where Paul Rothe & Son at number 35 has been feeding the neighbourhood since 1900. The sandwiches are the main event – made to order behind a counter piled with fillings, from egg mayo with anchovies to pastrami with Swiss cheese and gherkin – but at this hour, to keep you going until lunch, a sausage roll or a slice of gala pie with a cup of their scotch broth is the move. It is open weekdays from 8.30am and Saturdays from 11.30am.
Now you’re not starving, before lunch it’s worth a short detour down to Chiltern Street, a quieter, slightly more curated version of the High Street a block to the west, to stop at Shreeji Newsagents at number 6. On Chiltern Street since 1982, Shreeji has long since outgrown its description as a newsagent: redesigned by Gabriel Chipperfield in 2020, it now bills itself as London’s first culture concept store, with a reading room, a café, and a magazine selection that runs to over 500 titles spanning art, architecture, fashion and food. The Times once called it one of the coolest newsagents in the city, which is probably understating it. Pick up something to read over lunch and keep walking south.
Lunch: The Golden Hind
You must be hungry again after all that fussing over what to read. The Golden Hind on Marylebone Lane has been frying fish (not the same fish, but you get the picture) since 1914. It is a tiny, tiled chippie with formica tables and zero interest in reinvention, and that’s what makes is so special; the fish is fresh and the batter crisp, the chips are just the right shade of marigold yellow, and you can bring your own wine from the off-licence next door. It is exactly the sort of place that shouldn’t still exist in a neighbourhood this polished, and yet here it is. And, indeed, here you are.
Contrary to all this bluster, you can actually book online.
Afternoon: Baker Street, Blue Plaques & the Golden Eagle
After lunch, head north to Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B, a four-storey Georgian townhouse recreated in meticulous detail from Conan Doyle’s descriptions, right down to Holmes’ chemistry set and Watson’s writing desk. It is a tourist attraction, and there will be a queue, but it is also a genuinely charming piece of Victorian immersion that takes around 45 minutes to walk through (adults £16, tickets from the gift shop next door). If you are visiting between May and June 2026, the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, a ten-minute walk north, is staging a world premiere of Sherlock Holmes by Joel Horwood, so you could make a double bill of the detective across an afternoon and evening.
Back out and blinking into the sunlight, Marylebone is one of the best neighbourhoods in London for spotting blue plaques, and an afternoon spent wandering the back streets with your eyes up will turn up plenty. John Lennon’s is at 34 Montagu Square, a short walk west of Baker Street, where he lived with Yoko Ono in 1968 and where the Two Virgins cover photograph was taken. Wilkie Collins, author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White, is commemorated at 65 Gloucester Place, one block further west, while Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain, is at 20 Upper Berkeley Street. Charles Babbage, the father of computing, lived for over forty years at 1 Dorset Street – his plaque, for reasons nobody seems entirely sure about, is green.
Head back east and south through the pretty Paddington Street Gardens towards Marylebone Lane, which curves and narrows in a way that feels almost medieval. This is where you will find the Golden Eagle, a tiny pub that is worth a pint at any hour, and if you happen to be around on a Tuesday, Thursday or Friday evening, Tony ‘Fingers’ Pearson leads the piano singalongs from 8.30pm, as he has done since 1988. A little further along the lane, St John Marylebone (where you will eat tomorrow) has its ground-floor bar open for a glass of wine and a few things on toast, which is a civilised way to bridge the gap before dinner.
Evening: AngloThai & Drinks at The Parlour
Hopefully you ignored our foolhardy advice to fill up on bread just there, because dinner tonight is at AngloThai, the Michelin-starred Thai restaurant on Seymour Place that earned its star just three months after opening in late 2024.
Chef John Chantarasak, half-Thai and half-British, trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok and worked at Nahm under David Thompson before years of acclaimed pop-ups and supper clubs with his wife Desiree, who runs front of house and curates a wine list with a strong Central European focus, particularly Austria, because the acidity of cooler-climate wines is exactly what Thai food demands.
The cooking is tasting menu only, at £65 for lunch and £125 for dinner, built entirely around British ingredients standing in for Thai imports, from Suffolk-grown holy casil to seabuckthorn berries replacing tamarind and sunflower seeds in place of peanuts. AngloThai manages its own reservations through its website, and the popular evening slots fill up fast, so plan accordingly. The lunch tasting menu is easier to get and, frankly, a steal.
Anglo ThaiThe Parlour
After dinner, walk the few minutes to The Parlour at The Zetter on Seymour Street for a nightcap. The crimson-walled cocktail bar is gorgeous, all grandfather clocks, bound books and deep sofas, and in the colder months a fireplace that makes you want to cancel every plan you have ever made. The house cocktails, like the Apiary built around Woodford Reserve bourbon and black bee honey, are the kind where one drink becomes three without anyone meaning it to. If you are staying here, which you should be, you can roll upstairs to bed afterwards
Day 2: Parkland, Nose-to-Tail & Chamber Music
Morning: Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill
Regent’s Park is a ten-minute walk from most parts of Marylebone, and on a clear morning there is no better way to start a day in London. Enter from the south via Park Square East and you are in 395 acres of green space designed by John Nash for the Prince Regent in the early nineteenth century, with formal gardens, a boating lake, London Zoo along its northern edge, and Queen Mary’s Gardens at its centre, home to around 12,000 roses in summer. For the more ambitious, the walk up to Primrose Hill and back is around four miles and rewards you with one of the better views of the London skyline from 63 metres above sea level.
Walk back for lunch at St John on Marylebone Lane, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver’s Marylebone outpost of their nose-to-tail empire, which opened in 2022 as a wine-led, all-day space with an open-plan dining room downstairs and a more casual walk-in section upstairs. The blackboard menu changes daily, though certain dishes recur like old friends: deep-fried Welsh rarebit, bone marrow and parsley salad, Eccles cake and Lancashire cheese. The wine list is all French, much of it under the restaurant’s own label, and Henderson’s food has always had a wonderful knack of making the unfamiliar feel inevitable. A glass of house red and the rarebit for under £25 is one of the better quick lunches in this part of town.
Afternoon: Wigmore Hall
A five-minute walk brings you to Wigmore Hall on Wigmore Street, one of the finest chamber music venues in the world. Built in 1901 as a recital hall for the German piano company Bechstein, seized as enemy property in the First World War and sold at auction, the hall seats just 552 and has acoustics that musicians routinely describe as perfect. The art nouveau cupola above the stage, designed by Gerald Moira, depicts the Soul of Music and is as striking now as it was when the hall first opened.
Check the programme before your visit, as there are over 400 concerts a year and many tickets are priced under £18, including the Sunday morning coffee concerts that have been running since 1979. This is a building that has hosted Prokofiev, Britten, Segovia and, pre-fame, a young David Bowie, and catching even a lunchtime recital here is worth rearranging your afternoon for.
Evening: Fischer’s & The Marlborough
For your final evening, if you want to go all out, Kol on Seymour Street is Santiago Lastra’s Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant, one of the few London restaurants on the World’s 50 Best list, with a tasting menu at £145.
But there are other ways to eat extremely well around here without the ceremony. Fischer’s on Marylebone High Street is a Viennese brasserie that feels like it has been here for a century, all tiled walls, gold-framed portraits and the kind of room where almost anything could plausibly happen. The Wiener schnitzel (£33.75, or add the Holstein garnish of anchovy, capers and egg for a few quid more) is flat, crisp and enormous, and the Franz Joseph Kaiserschmarrn, chopped fluffy pancake with cherry compote, is the way to finish. A schnitzel, a side, a glass of Gruner Veltliner and dessert will leave you comfortably full and somewhere around £55 to £60 a head.
Alternatively, consider the excellent Lurra on Seymour Place, who specialise in Basque charcoal-grilled steaks, whole turbot and txakoli wines. Or, for something more laid back, Hoppers on Wigmore Street does some of the best Sri Lankan food in London.
After dinner, a ten-minute walk south brings you to The Marlborough on North Audley Street, just over the border into Mayfair. First licensed in 1758 and reopened in late 2025 by Carl McCluskey of big pizza hype fame with backing from the team behind The Devonshire (Oisin Rogers, Charlie Carroll, Ashley Palmer-Watts), this is a pub done very well indeed: hand-built mahogany fittings, Victorian detailing, two handpumps for cask ale and a Guinness installation modelled on The Devonshire’s, which is widely regarded as one of the best pints of stout in London.
Downstairs, Crisp serves the same New York-style thin-crust pizza that built a cult following and a permanent queue at McCluskey’s original Hammersmith pub, now in a 52-cover basement with its own terrace. If you have skipped Fischer’s and want to eat here instead, that is a perfectly defensible decision. Eight pies on the menu, all one-person, all excellent, and a nutella calzone to finish if the evening is heading that way. The pub takes no reservations and has no dress code, so just turn up and find a spot. Be prepared to wait.
If you want to continue the night beyond that, the superlative cocktail bar Kwant is a short walk away in Mayfair and stays open late.
Where To Stay
Probably our favourite of all the Marylebone hotels is The Zetter, a 24-room Georgian townhouse on Seymour Street where designer Russell Sage spent three years sourcing 10,000 objects to fill the building, taking his cue from Sir John Soane’s Museum. The rooms are dense with antiques, dark leather and oriental rugs, and the Lear’s Loft suite occupies the entire top floor with a claw-footed bath on the roof terrace.
Downstairs, The Parlour is a beautifully curated cocktail bar and all-day dining room that, come winter when the fire is roaring, is one of the best rooms in London. The Cornish crab crumpet and the fish finger sandwich are both worth ordering.
The Bottom Line
Marylebone is the part of central London that behaves like it has nothing to prove, which is precisely why it is worth two days of your time. It is walkable, unhurried and genuinely varied, moving from world-class museums to backstreet pubs to a 110-year-old chippie without ever breaking stride. Marylebone’s food scene alone would justify a weekend, but what makes the neighbourhood special is that eating well here never feels like the main event – it is just what happens between everything else.
Picture this: Your pop-up restaurant is buzzing. The tables are full, Instagram is lighting up with photos of your signature dishes, and food critics (or, at least, a slew of vloggers) are taking notice. But here’s the million-dollar question: Can you transform this temporary triumph into a lasting success story that investors want to be part of? If you can’t, this is all a fumbled crumb on the story of your life, rather than a perfectly proven loaf rising in the oven…
The harsh reality is that even the most innovative pop-ups often struggle to make the leap from hot ticket to serious investment opportunity. While your grandmother’s secret recipe might have customers lining up around the block, investors are looking beyond the plate. They’re searching for pop-ups that combine culinary creativity with business savvy—operations that can scale from one-off sensation to sustainable success.
We’ve analysed dozens of pop-up-to-permanent success stories and chatted to investors who’ve backed them. The pattern is clear: The winners aren’t just serving great food -they’re building sophisticated operations disguised as simple restaurants. Whether you’re testing waters in a borrowed kitchen or running a six-month residency, these are the 7 critical elements that turn investor heads and open wallets.
Show Numbers That Actually Matter
We had to start with the boring bit, but money talks. First-week sales are exciting, but they don’t tell the full story. Smart pop-ups track metrics that actually matter: customer retention rate, average spend per head, peak vs off-peak performance, and social media engagement that translates to bookings, not just likes. These are the numbers that make investors’ eyes light up.
But it’s not just about collecting data – it’s about using it. Are you tracking which dishes get reordered most often? Do you know your busiest days and times down to the hour? How about your average table turnover time? These insights help you optimise everything from staffing levels to menu engineering.
The most successful pop-ups use data to predict trends before they happen. If you can show investors how you’ve adjusted your business based on real customer behaviour, you’re speaking their language.
Your Space Should Tell A Story
Walk into any successful pop-up and you’ll feel it immediately – that perfect match between concept and space. It’s not just about cramming in as many tables as possible – it’s about the innate feel of the room, a fine balance between spaciousness and bustle, intimacy and energy.
Working with experienced hospitality interior design firms, you can create a space that flows naturally, adapts to service needs, and makes everyone feel like they’re part of something special.
The secret lies in understanding how diners move through your space. The best pop-ups create natural pathways that guide guests from entrance to table to bar without awkward bottlenecks. Think about sightlines too – can your guests see the kitchen action? Is there a focal point that draws the eye? These details matter to investors because they show you understand how space impacts both operations and atmosphere.
Your furniture choices speak volumes about your brand. From the height of your bar stools to the finish on your tables, every detail contributes to the story. But remember – comfort drives revenue. Uncomfortable guests don’t linger for that extra dessert or cocktail.
Design A Menu That Makes Money
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – your stunning signature dish might be losing you money. Each plate needs to earn its place on your menu through smart costing, efficient prep, and price points that your target market will actually pay. It’s about finding that sweet spot between culinary ambition and commercial sense.
Menu psychology matters too. Consider your menu layout – where do eyes naturally fall on the page? Are your high-margin dishes positioned prominently? Smart pop-ups use menu design to guide ordering behaviour subtly. They also understand the power of limited choice – a carefully curated menu often outperforms a sprawling one.
Consider your prep times too. Can your kitchen handle a full house ordering your most complex dishes simultaneously? The best menus balance showstoppers with quick-fire crowd-pleasers.
Build A Dream Team
In the pop-up world, your team needs to be doubly impressive. They’re not just serving food – they’re selling your vision. When everyone from your head chef to your commis to your part-time server can naturally explain your concept and make genuine connections with guests, investors notice.
Training is crucial, but culture is key. How do you maintain team energy when service is slow? What systems do you have for sharing feedback and ideas? The strongest pop-ups create environments where staff feel invested in the concept’s success.
Think about roles differently too. Could your bartender double as a social media manager (whilst you respect their agreed hours and roles, of course)? Could your servers help with prep during quiet periods (again, whilst ensuring this doesn’t amount to a blurring of defined, contracted responsibilities)?
All that dispensed with, versatility and a sense of nimble fluidity impresses investors.
Create Systems That Scale
Here’s the brutal truth – if your pop-up only works because you’re there every second of every service, and everyone is frazzled trying to deliver the quality and consistency you aspire to, investors will walk away. You need robust systems that anyone can follow, from opening checks to closing procedures. Think of it as writing the manual for your future empire.
Documentation is your friend here. Every process, from how to plate each dish to how to handle complaints, should be recorded. But keep it practical – the best systems are the ones people actually use.
Consider technology too. The right point-of-sale system, inventory management tools, and reservation platforms can make scaling much smoother. Just make sure they talk to each other.
Marketing Beyond The Buzz
Instagram buzz is great, but sustainable success needs more. What’s your plan for quiet Tuesdays? How are you building a loyal customer base? The most successful pop-ups combine social media savvy with old-school hospitality values to create genuine word-of-mouth excitement.
Email marketing remains incredibly powerful in hospitality. Are you collecting customer data? How are you using it to drive repeat visits? Smart pop-ups create targeted campaigns based on dining habits and preferences.
Local partnerships can be game-changers too. Think about complementary businesses in your area – could you create mutual value through collaborations?
Partner With The Right Suppliers
Your suppliers aren’t just vendors – they’re your growth partners. When you work with established, esteemed names, you’re showing investors you understand the importance of reliability and scalability. The right suppliers don’t just deliver goods; they deliver peace of mind.
Build relationships with multiple suppliers for crucial ingredients – this redundancy impresses investors. And don’t forget to negotiate terms that can scale with you. The best suppliers will want to grow alongside your business.
Remember, investors aren’t just backing your food – they’re backing a food business. Show them you’ve thought beyond the pop-up phase, and you’ll find they’re much more willing to come along for the ride.
Know Your Numbers For The Long Game
Tracking daily covers is one thing; modelling a three-year financial runway is quite another. Investors want to see that you’ve thought about unit economics beyond the pop-up phase: what does a permanent site actually cost to open, what’s your realistic break-even timeline, and how does your margin structure hold up when rent, rates and full-time salaries enter the picture?
The founders who secure backing arrive with a clear view of how much capital they need, what it buys, and when investors might reasonably expect a return. That means understanding the difference between fit-out costs and working capital, knowing your projected food and labour cost percentages, and being honest about the months where cashflow will be tight. Vague optimism gets politely declined; specific, stress-tested projections get second meetings.
It also pays to think about funding structure before you’re sitting across from someone with a chequebook. Are you offering equity, debt, or a revenue-share arrangement? If you’re going the equity route, it’s worth looking into the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, which offers tax relief to investors backing early-stage UK companies and can materially sweeten the deal when you’re trying to close a round. Pop-ups that move into permanent sites successfully have almost always done this thinking well in advance, treating the temporary run as a proof of concept rather than an end in itself.
The Bottom Line
Most importantly, let your passion show through in everything you do. Yes, investors care about numbers and systems, but they also invest in people who combine ambition with smart business sense. Get these elements right, and you’ll be well on your way to turning your pop-up dream into a permanent reality.
Here’s a terminally online debate that shows no signs of abating; what is the best type of pint known to a person?
Is it the post-work Madri in the closest pub to the office, straight after shutting up shop for Christmas? Is it the lukewarm, halftime Creamflow, triumphantly chugged from a plastic pint when your team is winning? Or, is it the first Brothers cider in the Wednesday morning sunshine at Glastonbury, your tent safely erected and your spirits soaring?
Whilst all of those are plainly spectacular, for us it’s the 7am airport lounge beer as you wait for your flight – pre-holiday, of course. It’s one that feels crisper and colder than any other, chugged with wanton abandon and a tangible sense of possibility. Magic.
What perhaps isn’t so magic is the accompanying airport lounge meal, which promises only indigestion and a rather dehydrated, flatulent flight.
But not anymore. In recent years, the standard of airport food feels like it’s improved immeasurably, with some genuinely decent feeds to be found in the UK’s bigger airports.
Today, we’re kicking back in the country’s busiest. Whilst you could rely on luxury airport transfers getting you to the gate just in time for check-in, there’s something rather relaxing about giving yourself a bit of time at Heathrow, to savour that first pint and a slap-up meal in style before your onward flight. We think we’ll do just that; care to join us?
With all this in mind, here’s our guide on where to eat in London Heathrow.
Gordon Ramsay Plane Food – Terminal 5 (in departures, after security)
Recently named the UK’s busiest airport terminal by some distance, Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is home to one of the airport’s longest-standing dining destinations. Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food first opened here back in 2008, and in December 2025 it was relaunched as Plane Food Market, a vibrant, market-style concept that brings together several brands from the Ramsay empire under one roof.
The format is a far cry from the original sit-down restaurant. There’s a Lucky Cat counter serving Asian-inspired dishes like ramen, nigiri, spicy tuna rolls and bonito fried duck leg bao; a Street Burger stand doing smash burgers; a Street Pizza section turning out sourdough pies; a Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips for the classic golden cod and chips; and Hotter Than Hell Wings for those who fancy testing their capsaicin tolerance before a long-haul flight. Plane Food classics remain on the menu too, including the Full English Breakfast, butter chicken curry and the so-called Idiot Sandwich, stuffed with braised short rib, melted cheddar and confit mushrooms.
It’s designed to work for everyone, whether you’ve got ten minutes before boarding or a couple of hours to kill. There’s a lively bar serving cocktails, a grab-and-go counter, and plenty of seating for those who’d rather settle in.
Open from 5am, it covers breakfast through to evening service, and won a 2024 OpenTable Diners’ Choice award in its previous incarnation. For sheer range of options in a single space, it’s hard to beat at Heathrow.
Big Smoke Taphouse & Kitchen – Terminal 2 (in departures, after security)
If you’re after genuine craft beer (and a load of subsequent toilet breaks) with your pre-flight feed, Big Smoke’s Terminal 2 outpost brings a slice of Surrey brewing excellence to the airport. The Surbiton-based brewery has created something that feels distinctly un-airport-like (as long as you’re staring forlornly into your pint glass), despite the ever-present departure boards looming overhead.
The main event here is their range of craft beers, brewed just down the road at their Esher brewery. Their Cold Spark lager and Electric Eye Pale Ale are reliable companions to that ‘holiday’s officially started’ moment, whilst their rotating guest taps keep things interesting for regular travellers. They’ve even managed to squeeze in some traditional cask ales – a rarity in airport bars where kegs usually reign supreme.
Image via bigsmoke-taphousekitchen.co.uk
The food menu sticks to what works: hearty beer-friendly fare. The burgers are a cut above standard airport offerings, made with dry-aged beef and served with crispy, golden chips (none of that anaemic airport fries business). Their chicken wings, glazed in house-made beer BBQ sauce, have earned a reputation among Terminal 2 regulars as the ideal pre-flight sharing plate – though sharing is entirely optional, we won’t judge.
For breakfast, they serve up a generous full English that comes with their own beer-braised beans, and their eggs Benedict makes a convincing case for starting the day with brunch even at 6am. Because let’s face it – time becomes rather meaningless once you’re airside, doesn’t it?
Spuntino – Terminal 3(in departures, after security)
Over in Terminal 3, the satellite version of the acclaimed but now sadly closed Soho institution Spuntino (which means snack in Italian) is getting flyers well and truly lubricated with their fine selection of bourbon and a crackling, transportive blues soundtrack.
True to form for a place conceived by the already hugely missed Russel Norman, the snacks are where it’s at here – the stuffed, deep-fried olives would feel like a treat anywhere in London, whilst the chips with chicken salt and aioli are as more-ish as that old joke about heroin.
That said, Spuntino’s most iconic dish is undeniably the truffle egg toast, where fontina & gruyère cheese meet a poached egg and a good dousing of truffle oil. Their crab mac and cheese is a comforting dish to delve into, too, and larger plates further hone in on the idea of Italian/American comfort food, with thin crust sourdough pizzas, spaghetti and meatballs, and house hamburgers all several notches above what you’d usually find at an airport.
Look out for the restaurant’s original mural by famed Soho artist Neal Fox, which adds to the place’s eclectic charm, and don’t forget to end on a Spuntino donut, freshly fried and paired indulgently with a blueberry sundae.
Sure, they might need to wheel you out of Spuntino and take you to the boarding gate in one of those beeping electric cart thingys, but you’ll feel pretty satisfied and smug as you cruise through Heathrow, semi-comatose.
La Belle Époque at the Sofitel Hotel, Terminal 5 (landside, connectedto Heathrow via covered walkway)
For those with a penchant for French cuisine and a desire for a proper sitdown meal away from the check-in queues and boarding gate chaos, La Belle Époque at the Sofitel London Heathrow offers the airport’s most outwardly sophisticated dining experience.
As Heathrow’s only restaurant with serious designs on fine dining (not many airport restaurants boast 2 AA Rosettes, that’s for sure), La Belle is a unique proposition. There’s certainly nowhere else at Heathrow could you feast on a smoked duck liver parfait with grilled brioche, or on a thick portion of expertly roasted Cornish hake, served with pommes puree and a red wine ‘Matelote’ reduction. And for that, La Belle Époque has to be applauded.
The dim lights and royal purple hues, alongside impeccable service and that precisely-cooked food, make it an excellent choice for a business meeting, or for a farewell meal with someone special before your flights. Cheers!
Fortnum & Mason Bar – Terminal 5 (in departures, after security)
For a quintessentially British experience (enthusiastically drinking in an airport), the Fortnum & Mason Bar in Terminal 5 is the place to be.
Known for their luxury picnic hampers, Fortnum & Mason have brought their grazing expertise indoors, and to Heathrow, offering a selection of teas, wines, and light bites at their central bar. You’ll find a range of elegant finger foods here, from smoked salmon to Welsh rarebit and beyond, making it the perfect spot for a relaxing drink before you board and a meal that won’t weigh too heavy around the plane seatbelt.
Caviar House & Prunier Seafood Bar – Multiple Terminals (departures, after security)
If you have a penchant for (risking it all by having pre-flight) seafood, the Caviar House & Prunier Seafood Bar is something of a Heathrow haven.
Located airside in four of the airport’s terminals (Terminal 1 is missing out, hey?), this ubiquitous stand specialises in Prunier caviar and Balik smoked salmon. The menu also features a variety of seafood options, including oysters and seafood platters, all paired with a selection of fine wines and champagnes. It’s the ideal spot for luxurious pre-flight indulgence in less than luxurious surrounds.
Shan Shui, Terminal 2 (departures, after security)
Few people enjoy flying after a massive roast dinner or something similarly substantial. And those that do, you certainly don’t want to be sitting next to…
For a feed that will liven you up rather than put you down pre-flight, Shan Shui in Heathrow Terminal 2 is probably your best bet. The all-halal menu at this Old Shanghai-inspired eatery features a continent-spanning roll call of spirited pan-Asian dishes, including Cantonese roast duck rice, chicken satay, beef rendang, and even a cheeky katsu sando. You can even enjoy a dim sum lunch if you so desire, with three pieces of har gau or vegetarian teochew clocking in at just £7.50.
Sure, this perhaps isn’t the spread for you if you’re flying to Beijing, Penang or Phuket, but if you’ve spent the last week eating fry-ups and steak and ale pies, the serviceable, spicy food at Shan Shui will be a welcome change.
The Bottom Line
Who said airport food had to be boring? The restaurants at London Heathrow may not be winning a star anytime soon, but as an accompaniment to that first glorious holiday pint, the options for a decent meal have vastly improved in recent years. Cheers!
As recently as 2017, Eater declared that an up-to-then omnipresent New York influence on London’s dining scene was ‘waning’.
But after a slew of recent NYC-inspired openings and a hype train picking up more pace than Amtrak’s flagship Acela, it’s transpired that the opposite is in fact true: New York is very much the Big Apple of our eye right now. Where food is concerned, at least…
Though it might suddenly feel as though London is heaving with New York-inspired restaurants, this is a bond that’s been cherished long before everyone started saying ‘red sauce’ and quoting the Sopranos whenever they fancied some spaghetti and meatballs.
You’ll be glad to hear, then, that if you’re up for New York-inspired food in London in 2026, you haven’t come in at the end. The best is not over. This is a love affair still very much alive. Here are the best New York style restaurants in London.
Grasso, Soho
Ideal for a warm Italian-American welcome and plates that are even more generous…
“You, Uh… Gonna Eat That?”
Italian-American cuisine is having a moment right now and Grasso – after a somewhat shaky start, admittedly – is where the stuff truly shines in Soho. A family-owned restaurant, the folk on the door are a big-hearted bunch, and make you feel like you’re friends coming home from a holiday every time you career into the restaurant a little unsteady off a few jars on Dean Street. For us – that’s been a lot of times lately.
The menu is reassuringly short, letting you be fully present with your expertly poured Soho Manhattan and the fine company you’re keeping, rather than having to endure the unseemly business of reading a menu for more than a few cursory glances.
Once a couple of those Manhattans have been dispensed with, order the endlessly stretchy mozzarella sticks with nduja and honey – they belong on every table. As do the meatballs which, made to a third-generation family recipe, have become one of Soho’s most cherished dishes – the neighbourhood’s denizens may well revolt if they’re ever taken off the menu. The chicken parm here is truly great, too; generously portioned and faithfully executed.
A plate of silky smooth penne alla vodka, a cornerstone of the Italian-American red-sauce repertoire, is a serious dish and is as comforting as it is elegant. If anyone ever tells you that this dish is kitsch, they are wrong. It’s a stone cold classic, though certainly shouldn’t be eaten stone cold, we should add; this guy congeals something rotten when it’s cooled down.
That vodka sauce rears its beautiful head again as part of the lobster linguine, which is a real showstopper with claws included for cracking and gnawing. You’d hope so too for £39 a plate. Flanking the pastas and the parm are a commendable lineup of American pizzas, though we’d suggest pies aren’t perhaps Grasso’s strongest suit. Not to worry.
Desserts are made every day by the owner’s mother, and it would be rude not to leave without sampling at least one. If there’s a cheesecake on the menu, that should be your order. Phew; you might have to wheel us out of here, you know…
Ideal for a classy, confident ode to 1970s New York glamour…
Wheel us to Dover Street, if you don’t mind, and to The Dover, another recently (relatively speaking, we know) opened, hugely hyped ode to American-Italian food in London. This time, a distinctive touch of 1970’s glamour and sophistication is brought to the starched white table.
Very outwardly channeling a time when people still made a kinda stuffy sartorial effort for a night out, The Dover aims to challenge the notion that there isn’t a future for old-fashioned fine dining. It largely succeeds in that aim.
At the helm is Martin Kuczmarski, former Soho House head honcho. He told the Standard that an iconic Seventies scene of Sophia Loren eating meatballs with Al Pacino in Brooklyn was the inspiration for the restaurant. And so The Dover harks back to New York classic restaurants that provided the mise en scene for such stuff, all dark wood, flickering candles, pressed linen tablecloths and chess board flooring.
The food is as you’d expect to find in New York-style Italian restaurants and on the pages of Cucina con Amore. It’s not fancy, just delicious. If the white tablecloths aren’t splattered with red sauce from your spaghetti meatballs (or the blood of your enemies as Don’t Stop Believin’ plays) by the end, then you haven’t done things right.
Whilst the restaurant is currently (still?!) one of the hottest tickets in town and the best in the state far as I’m concerned, you can usually nab a seat at the bar if you haven’t made a reservation. Just watch out for the fella in the Members Only jacket.
Kuczmarski has been busy building on its success. In late 2025, he opened two siblings in quick succession: Martino’s, an all-day Italian trattoria on Sloane Square, and Dover Street Counter, a few doors down from The Dover itself. The Counter is a more playful, late-night affair inspired by 1950s Los Angeles counter dining, with disco fries, buttermilk fried chicken and margaritas on the menu, all set to a 90s R&B soundtrack and open until 1am at weekends. If The Dover is your smart first date, the Counter is your third.
Every time we find ourselves hungry in Marylebone, we find ourselves at Alley Cats Pizza. And every time we find ourselves in Alley Cats Pizza, we just can’t help but burst into that Dean Martin song. And with this pizza pie, it’s definitely amore.
Alleycats is one of the new-wave of New York / New Haven pizzerias that have hit London in the last couple of years, and, with good reason, it’s also perhaps the most popular. So popular, in fact, that the original Marylebone site has since spawned siblings on the King’s Road in Chelsea, on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill, and most recently on Portobello Road, where a new ‘slice hatch’ on the ground floor serves enormous 18-inch slices to go. That’s four locations in a little over two years; not bad for a walk-in-only pizza joint.
It’s easy to see why; if you picked up an Alley Cats Pizzeria and plonked it down in the middle of New York, it would fit right in, seamlessly so; all wipe-clean gingham table cloths, exposed brick walls and Rega tomato tins holding your cutlery. The pizzas wouldn’t be out of place either, and would stand up to an Arturo’s (surely an inspiration here) or a Lucali’s quite capably.
Pizza geeks will be pleased to hear that the 72 hour proven dough is supremely digestible; slow-fermented and made with Canadian wheat and a thirty-year-old starter, these cats are operating on another level to many other doughs in the city. The resulting chewy yet crisp crust is made for dipping in Alleycat’s homemade scotch bonnet sauce.
The menu is short and concise; there isn’t much more on it than a handful of thoughtfully conceived pies. The pepperoni pizza with jalapenos and hot honey is everything you could want from a New York style pizza – smoky and tangy with those all important curled cups of spicy sausage. Sure, bright orange grease might drip down your chin with every bite, but you’ll be having the time of your life while you ruin your shirt.
If you’re in the mood for something without sauce (who ARE you?), then try the carbonara pizza. Either way, you’ll want to start with some candied bacon and some meatballs, just to settle in. On the other side of the meal, the Alley Cats vanilla soft serve makes for the ideal finish.
The restaurant is open everyday from midday to 11pm daily, and takes bookings. Should securing a table be tough, check out our thoughts on where to eat the best New York style pizza in London. We’ve got all your back-up needs covered in there.
Locations: Marylebone (the original) as well as locations in Chelsea (King’s Road), Westbourne Grove, Portobello Road
Papo’s Bagels, Dalston
Ideal for London’s best NYC-style bagels…
London’s bagel scene is small when compared New York’s, but it’s seriously good all the same. Of course, you could head to Brick Lane to get some mighty fine bagels, but it’s worth making the trip to Papo’s Bagels in Dalston if you’re after the very best gear.
This NYC-style takeaway bagel joint only started during the pandemic, when two homesick New Yorkers started baking and experimenting with bagels at home. The results were – and still are – bloody marvellous.
Chewy, golden and glossy, Papo’s brings true NYC bagels to London. The classic cream cheese and smoked salmon, topped with onions and capers, is the signature here, and for good reason; it’s generously (but not overly) proportioned, and the oak smoked salmon is prepared exclusively for Pap’s Bagels by the Isle of Bute Smokehouse.
Thankfully, they don’t operate a puritanical ‘no toasting’ policy here (New York bagels aren’t meant to be), as the tuna melt topped with popping pink pickled onions is always a good choice. Even better, the simple scallion schmear is a winner, letting those perfectly proved bagels do the talking. Whatever you order, bring home a bag of Papo’s famous bagel chips – crispy, crunchy, and salty – and you’ll be thanking your foresight long into an admittedly thirsty evening.
If you didn’t possess that kind of forward planning, you’ll be happy to hear that they deliver all over London, too.
Ideal for oysters, Guinness and slinky, swanky jazz…
A really good American restaurant near the American embassy; a simple stroke of genius, make no mistake. But Darby’s is so more than just a strategic location. Irish chef-owner Robin Gill’s father played the trumpet, living in and touring New York in the 50’s and 60’s, and this Manhattan-chic restaurant is in part an ode to those glitzy bars his father used to entertain in.
The restaurant combines the best of those American and Irish influences, sourcing the finest produce from across the UK and delivering it via an all-round classy and satisfying experience.
You’ll find us sitting at the central NYC-inspired oyster bar, slurping back freshly shucked oysters with a pint of Guinness in hand. Here, oyster happy hours (Tuesday to Friday, from 5pm to 7pm, and Saturdays from 3pm to 6pm and again from 9pm to 11pm) start at just £2 a slurp, and are an excellent way to kick off your evening here.
Once their briny liquid is bubbling up and out of you ‘till you can’t take no more (ew), sashay over to your table and order the Aberdeen Angus sirloin. Served on the bone with a side of gem lettuce that’s been positively doused in Caesar dressing and topped with pangrattato, it’s heaven. A shout out (you may well be shouting – it gets noisy in here) also to their beef shin and bone marrow pie – a true signature that’s been on the Darby’s menu since day dot and is one of our favourite dishes in London during the cold, comfort-food months.
In keeping with the whole Americana thing, there’s an onsite bakery, too, serving bagels until 3pm – a lifeline to those working at the nearby American embassy in need of a fix, no doubt.
Classy, delicious and fast when it needs to be, the atmosphere, food and service at Darby’s is pretty much flawless. We love this place.
Ideal for London’s, scratch that, the world’s best burger…
London is home to many great burgers. If we had to choose just one to spend the rest of our lives with, though, it would be Bleecker – it’s about as good as a burger can get.
We’re not the only ones who think so. These patties have developed a cult following across London in recent years, with a whole host of publications naming it as the city’s best. Most recently, the Bleecker Cheeseburger was named No. 2 on the World’s 25 Best Burgers list and the best in the UK, with judges praising the “outstanding quality of the meat” and calling it “probably the best burger patty we have tried in the last 12 months.” That kind of recognition, from a list that’s increasingly getting shared around, is serious stuff.
So how did London come to get this fine specimen of a burger? We have Zan Kaufman to thank for that. After trying the “best burger” she’d ever eaten at Zaitzeff in New York (now sadly closed), she decided to set up a food stall that paid homage to this bun and beef experience. A bricks n’ mortar restaurant shortly followed, and fast forward to today, Bleecker is flipping patties in seven locations across London.
The quality of those patties (always go for the double) really does come through. The beef comes from rare breed, grass-fed cattle from small farms in the UK, and it’s a meaty, flavourful affair. The rest of the thing is pleasingly prosaic – a yielding but supportive bun, plastic American cheese, and a simple house sauce (a mix of ketchup, mayo, mustard, pickles and secret spices) is all this one needs to send it on its way. When all these elements combine, it’s pure poetry.
Order a side of the beautifully piquant ‘angry’ fries, and a vanilla milkshake, because that’s what they do in the States, the latter of which is made with real deal Nielsen Massey vanilla, and you’ve got yourself one of London’s finest all-American meals.
The whole Bleecker Burger experience is indeed simple – just burger, fries and a shake. But just like Zaitzeff was the best burger Kaufman ate in New York, her Bleecker burger will likely be the best you eat in London. Or, if the judges are to be believed, just about anywhere else in the world.
In the mid 19th century, steakhouses arrived in New York City. Back then, they were men-only restaurants where gluttonous acts were on the menu – think pitchers of beer, plenty of manly chanting, and round upon round of meat, all to be eaten with the hands. When women got the vote, things changed and no longer were New York’s steakhouses just a place for men. At some point, cutlery was introduced too…
Today, from Midtown to Williamsburg, steakhouses are everywhere. It’s undeniably the city’s archetypal dining experience, which makes the UK’s very own Hawksmoor conquering New York all the more impressive.
Sure, Hawksmoor is great, but it’s proudly British, and we’re here for the best New York style restaurants in London today. To that end, and if you’re after that luxurious steak dining experience, head to CUT at 45 Park Lane. This Wolfgang Puck-led (Austrian, we know, but something of an honorary New York resident) establishment ticks all the boxes of a classic steak house – low lighting, dark wooden panels and booths…you know, steak. It also holds 10th position in the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants, as if we needed another list like it.
Anyway, CUT’s menu reads as close to a classic New York steakhouse as one possibly could in London, offering lobster rolls, oysters and, of course, prime cuts of steak. The New York sirloin (also known as the New York strip), with its inherently rich marbling, is one of the most tender cuts on the menu, boasting an intense flavour that’s often sacrificed in favour of superior texture in American steakhouses. To get both here is a double-win.
If you’re wondering, the origin of this particular cut’s moniker is indeed thanks to those aforementioned New York restaurants that popularised the cut. It was a restaurant called Delmonico’s in New York City, founded in 1827, that first offered the New York strip steak as its signature dish. Whatever cut you choose, CUT at 45 Park Lane is a standout choice for a special all-American/Austrian steak night out in London. Oh, and their martinis are killer, too.
Ideal for an unpretentious, affordable steak dining experience…
We all know that a steak dinner brings with it a certain premium price tag, and is usually reserved for special occasions. But what if you’re after a midweek steak that won’t break the bank? Enter Flat Iron, cherished London heroes who believe in the democratisation of steak, with the chief billing being that they offer ‘great steak for everyone’. Though we’re commies at heart, we believe in great steak too…
Confusingly, perhaps, this place has nothing to do with the Flatiron building in New York, but rather, the name is to do with a cut of steak – both of which resemble an old-fashioned metal flat iron. Kinda. If you’re wondering, they do use old-fashioned flat irons as weights for cooking their steaks, too, branding both their steaks and re-emphasising the brand. Nice touch guys.
Anyway, back to the cut. The flat iron is a well marbled thing, with a robust beefiness and, when cooked just right, as they do here, remarkably juicy and tender. If you’re in London looking for a medium rare steak, a side of creamed spinach and a glass of red (just like in New York) then you can’t do much better than Flat Iron. Oh, and the bit you’ve been waiting for; the signature steak is just £15.
In New York, brunch is a religion. They’ve perfected the concept of it. Its essential features and the city’s best purveyors are keenly debated over, erm, brunch. It brings people together and it divides them. Yep, brunch is a serious business in the business capital of the world.
Of course, this frivolous portmanteau and proud New York tradition traverses the world, from the city’s takes on dim sum and tacos to its waffles, pancakes and everything in between.
Unsurprisingly, brunch has also found a home in the Big Smoke. But where to eat a gold-standard version? Some may suggest Balthazar in Covent Garden for brunch if you’re in a New York State of mind. Mimicking the original French brasserie in Manhattan, we’ve found it a little hit and miss.
Instead, if you’re looking for a true American-style brunch that not only promises but also delivers on a menu of classic transatlantic favourites, then head to the Double Standard in Kings Cross, whose ‘Another Bloody Brunch’ menu nods to the brand’s New York roots.
Every Sunday from midday to 4pm you can enjoy classic brunch dishes like buttermilk chicken waffles topped with crispy bacon and maple syrup, eggs benedict and eggs royale. They even serve short rib mac ‘n’ cheese and baby back ribs for the carnivores/gluttons in the squad.
On the sweeter side of the menu, there are waffles with your choice of toppings and Knickerbocker glory – a dessert which is believed to have originated in New York in the early 1900s, named after The Knickerbocker Hotel in Manhattan. There’s us thinking the name meant something vaguely saucy…
Okay, we admit from the off that this one isn’t a New York-inspired restaurant, per se. In fact, the website makes a point that it was born in the Netherlands, nurtured in California and made in the UK.
But we have many a fond memory of being in the Big Apple eating pancakes at Clinton Street Baking Company & Restaurant, a New York institution known for its pancakes whose brunch pulls in massive queues each and every week.
At Clinton Street, they griddle between 200 and 300 orders a day and the top seller is their blueberry pancakes. We’ve done the hard work and eaten our weight in pancakes in London to find something similar. Our research led us to the ‘American’ option from Where The Pancakes Are in, confusingly, London Bridge’s Flat Iron Square. It was meant to be…
With this order, you get a stack of three buttermilk pancakes topped with bacon, blueberries and real-deal maple syrup. While not the same as Clinton Street Bakery – the blueberries are served on the side rather than in the batter – this is everything you could want from an American pancake stack, fluffy and indulgent in all the right crevices.
If you’re a New Yorker (or Londoner) craving a comforting stack of fluffy pancakes at any time of day, even after dark, here’s your new go-to place. You can thank us later.
Pastrami sarnies, Matzo Ball soup, big ol’ pickles… Jewish deli food and New York go hand in hand. Have you even been to New York if you haven’t had a Bagel with lox and cream cheese at Russ & Daughters? Or, a Pastrami on rye at Katz’s Deli?
Our go-to place for a New York Style deli experience was Monty’s Delicatessen. Beloved by many, it was renowned for it’s reubens and Jewish comfort food. Unfortunately, it shut its doors at the tail end of 2021, leaving many with a bagel-sized hole in their heart.
Since then, many have posited (and we agree) that Panzer’s is the closest thing in London to a gourmet New York Jewish deli. This institution has been selling salt beef sandwiches, chicken soup with matzo balls, and bagels with schmear for the good part of eighty years, and over that time they’ve somewhat perfected their craft.
Don’t stop there. Wander down the deli’s aisles and you’ll find American store cupboard staples like jiffy corn muffin mix and goldfish crackers (no goldfish were harmed in the making of these crackers, etc…).
For many, the New York dining scene is synonymous with Chinese food. It’s been part of the Big Píngguǒ’s diverse cultural fabric since forever and an integral one at that.
Sadly, back across the pond in London, you won’t find the Americanised General Tso’s chicken; a beloved dish that originated in New York.
However, we have found some pretty darn special soup dumplings here. While they aren’t the same as those iconic soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai, you can have something similar(ish) at RedFarm, an offshoot of New York’s cult dim sum joint that set up shop in Covent Garden back in 2017. Dim sum master chef Joe Ng and Brooklyn-born Ed Schoenfeld are the brains behind the restaurant, and their London opening is the first venture outside Manhattan.
RedFarm is known for its contemporary, playful approach to dim sum, exemplified by the bulging, bulbous xiao long bao, which are served with a straw.
Images via @redfarmldn
Your old school dim sum place this ain’t – there are more intriguing anomalies on the menu and in the delivery. See also the multi-coloured Pac Man shrimp dumplings, each decorated with sesame seed eyes, and the pastrami egg roll (whose meat was once supplied by aforementioned Monty’s Deli). This isn’t simply gimmicky food for the craic – both are delicious.
Speaking of gimmicky deliciousness, it’s impossible to order only one round of their cheeseburger spring rolls, which have – unsurprisingly – the comforting familiarity of a cheeseburger and the crunchiness of a spring roll. What’s not to love?
Maybe you’ve dropped in for tea with the King, and Chas’ sandwich selection didn’t quite hit the spot. Perhaps your early morning swim in the Serpentine has triggered its usual hunger response. Or you prepared for your visit to Poet’s Corner by reading ‘The Lotos-Eaters’ and it’s got you craving lunch?
That’ll do for an introduction, we’ve lost our way here…
Not to be overshadowed by its famous neighbours in Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and Westminster Abbey, the sophisticated squares, boutique shops and chic, stucco townhouses of Belgravia, London have so much to offer both the hungry tourist and world-weary Londoner.
One of London’s most exclusive and affluent districts, the options for a quick breakfast, a late and languid lunch or a fancy dinner are seemingly endless here. But with such choice comes a certain paradox; just where to eat in Belgravia that will actually live up to the hype and be worth the money? We’re here to help with that; here are Belgravia’s best restaurants.
Wildflowers
Ideal for sophisticated seasonal cooking with Mediterranean flair…
Wildflowers brings a breath of fresh air to Belgravia’s occasionally (okay, quite regularly) dusty dining scene with its sun-drenched approach to modern European cuisine. The restaurant takes its name seriously, with a menu that feels like a myopic celebration of the UK’s warmer seasons and a dining room adorned with fresh blooms that change weekly – though thankfully the quality of the cooking remains consistently excellent.
Interior stylist Laura Hart, in collaboration with Studio Found, has created quite the space here; a liminal, shapeshifting room that’s elegant, bright and breezy, with natural textures and soft lighting that complement chef Aaron Potter’s ingredient-led plates.
Not that the lighting needed to be engaged the last time we dined here. On one of the UK’s many recent record-breaking, mercury-baiting days, the dining room at Wildflowers felt like the perfect refuge; sun-soaked, sure, but appropriately dappled with shade too, with pink-trousered diners spilling out onto courtyard tables and everything feeling decidedly continental.
The stage was set synergistically to showcase Potter’s deft touch with Mediterranean influences in its very best light. And so it came to pass. Dishes like Vesuvius tomatoes with sun sweet melon gazpacho, basil and mojama captured the essence of impeccable British produce through the sepia-tinged lens of a Sevillian summer, all sweet-saline interplay and a suave brightness. Running with a similar theme, a carpaccio of red prawn came with an ajo blanco-adjacent almond puree and cherries was a pinpoint balancing act of gentle counterpoints and complements.
Mains continue in this vein of sophisticated simplicity. The grilled sugar pit Iberico pork presa arrived perfectly (for your grandma, alarmingly) pink, the meat’s natural richness offset by the freshness of almond, white peach and a vibrant mojo verde that adds just the right amount of punch. These are dishes that read so confidently, so beautifully, and deliver on that promise on the plate, too.
Equally impressive was the sea bass with lardo, girolles, Amalfi lemon and a soft herb pil pil – the fish cooked with precision, sure, but also the kind of intuitive feeling that the grill brings, its skin blistered rather than uniformly bronzed, and all the better for it. Ask maître d’ Alex for his wine recommendations here (what an affable fella he is), his encyclopaedic knowledge of the list meaning you’re in safe hands whether you’re after a crisp Albariño, a buttery oak-aged white Rioja or something altogether more adventurous.
This is a restaurant where vegetables are king – the room and weather demands it – and the Grezzina courgettes with honey and pecorino showcase Potter’s restraint, letting quality ingredients sing with minimal intervention. The holiday potatoes (apt in the 30 degree heat, in such a gorgeous room) have already achieved cult status amongst regulars, national restaurant reviewers, and now with us, too. Should you have any left over, take them home and, on Alex’s recommendation, fry them up with an egg for breakfast.
Dessert keeps things refreshingly simple with a flamboyantly towering fior di latte gelato that’s elevated higher still by good olive oil, sea salt and grape balsamico, and a selection of sorbets that feel obligatory given the environment. They offer proof that sometimes the best desserts are those that trust in the quality of their components and deliver on the mood of the dining room, rather than the vision of the chef.
With its thoughtful cooking and warm service, Wildflowers feels like the kind of neighbourhood restaurant you’d be lucky to have as your local – assuming your neighbourhood happens to be one of London’s most exclusive postcodes, naturally. This is definitely one of London’s best openings in recent times, and we can’t wait to visit in the cooler, darker months to see the restaurant in a whole different light.
The restaurant’s stock continues to rise. In January, Wildflowers was named SquareMeal’s London Restaurant of the Year for 2026, reaching the peak their Top 100 list barely a year after opening. It’s the kind of rapid, broad-based recognition that confirms what anyone who’s eaten here already knows: Potter and Hart have built something special in Newson’s Yard, and the rest of the capital is catching on fast.
Ideal for refined French technique meets seasonal British ingredients…
Tucked away in Eccleston Yards’ Ice Factory building (the clue’s in the name – it really was one), Cornus is the sophomore venture from the team behind Chelsea’s acclaimed Medlar. This fourth-floor sanctuary feels removed from Victoria’s bustle – its airy, cloud-like dining room dressed in crisp whites, designer wooden furniture, and gauzy curtains that flutter in the breeze firmly places the restaurant in Belgraiva territory instead.
Executive Chef Gary Foulkes (formerly of Michelin-starred Angler) delivers precision-driven plates that showcase the best of British and European produce. The hand-rolled spaghetti with native lobster and N25 oscietra caviar is already becoming a signature, while the Landes chicken with truffled sweetcorn (priced somewhat enthusiastically at £54) shows the kitchen’s commitment to sourcing exceptional ingredients and charging for them.
With prices that might make your eyes water (yes, that really is £54 for chicken, albeit an exceptionally good one), those looking for a more gentle entry point should go for the set lunch menu at £60 for three courses, which might include heritage tomatoes with Ribblesdale soft curd, or roast red mullet with salsa verde. The wine list, curated by celebrated sommelier Melania Battiston, starts at £45 for a Muscadet, though you can certainly scale the heights if your wallet permits.
Pastry chef Kelly Cullen, one of British gastronomy’s rising stars, creates desserts that walk the line between comfort and innovation – the rice pudding with plums and an almond milk ice cream (£16.50) was a real highlight when we visited.
The restaurant has recently introduced a tasting menu at £185 per person for those seeking the full experience, though the à la carte feels to us like the main event. While the prices firmly plant Cornus in special occasion territory (somewhat justified by their Michelin star), it’s the kind of place where the cooking and service aim to let the ingredients speak for themselves rather than dazzle with unnecessary theatrics. This straightforward, ingredient-led approach has become something of a hallmark for O’Connor and Mercer Nairne’s restaurants, even if the bill at the end might require a deep breath. Don’t waste a single egg of that oscietra when you exhale.
Ideal for deceptively simple, beautifully composed plates of regional Italian food…
Just beyond Belgravia, across Hyde Park Corner and into Mayfair, Theo Randall at the Intercontinental has been doing deceptively simple, beautifully composed plates of Italian precision for two decades now, and the cherished chef shows no signs of slowing down.
Few folk in London have such a stirling pedigree where the capital’s own take on Italian cuisine is concerned; Randall cooked at the River Café for 16 years, earning the restaurant its first Michelin star as head chef in 1997.
In 2006, Randall decided it was time to strike out on his own, and opened his eponymous restaurant at the prestigious No. 1 Park Lane address, within the InterContinental Hotel. This is a man who bleeds sugo di pomodoro, and the daily changing menu at his restaurant is reflective of his love of regional Italian cuisine, nurtured by regular team trips to Bel Paese.
The heart of the experience is Randall’s monthly-changing regional tasting menu, which dedicates each month to a different corner of Italy — from Tuscany to Sicily, Lazio to Le Marche — with a bespoke menu and wine pairing to match. At £85 per person, including wine, it’s a considered tour of the peninsula’s edible diversity, and one that rewards repeat visits.
On the menu for a recent exploration of underrated Le Marche was poached octopus with fennel and potatoes makes way for a ravioli of ricotta that’s been dressed in a rich, robust beef ragù. A slow cooked rabbit with autumn truffle completes the savoury dishes, and a fig and almond cake with dark chocolate gelato seals the deal. Woof.
There’s also a fantastic lunch deal, one of the best in Mayfair, which sees two hearty, generous courses clocking in at £28. Add dessert for an extra fiver.
Beyond his restaurant, Randall has published three successful recipe books and regularly appears on national television, including BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen. Despite his fame, he remains true to his culinary roots and can often be found at the restaurant during service hours most days.
Ideal for seasonal produce cooked with a diverse range of culinary influences…
Wild by Tart is a unique dining experience that – for better or for worse – pushes the boundaries of traditional restaurant concepts. Founded by Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison, the dynamic duo behind the successful catering company Tart London (the former is now married to Ben Goldsmith, Jay Electronia’s nemesis, incidentally), Wild by Tart is a testament to their innovative approach to dining.
Housed in a former power station and coal store, this multifaceted venue combines a restaurant, bar, retail store, events space, and even a photography studio, though it’s the restaurant that we’re here for today, so we might skip the photoshoot after!
The menu at Wild by Tart reflects the founders’ passion for seasonal produce and broad-ranging culinary influences. From piquant, perfectly cured citrus trout with sesame furikake and wasabi, to tamworth pork chop with salsa verde, sashaying through an aubergine satay along the way, the dishes are as diverse as they are decent.
Their unconventional approach to running a restaurant, which includes juggling multiple business aspects under one roof, has proven to be transformative and successful. Their commitment to sustainability is evident in their sourcing practices. Where possible, ingredients are sourced from their respective family farms in Somerset and Northumberland, ensuring the freshest produce for their dishes. Wild by Tart is not just a restaurant; it’s an experience that showcases the creativity and passion of its founders. Buy into it, and you’ll be richly rewarded with an invigorating feed.
Open from 8am to 7pm, iconic chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s outpost places its focus on breakfast and lunch. You can dine in here, but the restaurant/bakery doesn’t have onsite toilets or take reservations, so it’s largely a grab and go type of place. What better excuse, then, to enjoy a picnic in the grounds of Hyde Park, which is just a two minute walk away?
The cooking here is classic Ottolenghi; chargrilled vegetables, vibrant, piquant salads, expert spicing and a wide variety of freshly baked breads and pastries, and prices are very reasonable for the quality. Bliss.
The iconic Belgravia restaurant Zafferano, meaning ‘saffron’, has stood on Lowndes Street for three decades now, and has held its reputation for upscale, expertly cooked Italian food pretty much since the kitchen’s first mantecatura of their now famous risotto Milanese.
Opened by renowned chef Giorgio Locatelli in 1995, the restaurant won a Michelin star four years later. Though it has since lost that accolade and Locatelli has moved on, standards at this stalwart remain high, with regional Italian cooking with little fuss or frippery still the restaurant’s MO. Prices are in keeping with Belgravia’s rather exclusive reputation.
Interestingly, the restaurant used to present guests with bill covers custom made using saffron woven into its fibres, but the practice was deemed far too expensive, even for this part of town!
Ideal for trying one of London’s oldest, most glorious Pakistani restaurants…
One of London’s most longstanding Pakistani restaurants, Salloos has been doing its thing in Belgravia since the 70s. That thing is upmarket, refined takes on the food of North India and Pakistan all housed in one of the mews townhouses that define Belgravia’s architecture.
Before Belgravia, the owners ran a restaurant of the same name in Lahore between 1966 and 1976, and that pedigree shows in the delicate spicing of Salloos’ signature lamb chops. Stay for the homemade kulfi, which is excellent.
Once again, the high prices here reflect the restaurant’s exclusive location.
Ideal for groundbreaking, contemporary Indian food…
Widely regarded as being London’s most influential fine dining Indian restaurant, Amaya isn’t your average korma and Kingfisher curry house. Instead, you can expect some seriously sophisticated cooking at this Michelin-starred hotspot, with the restaurant’s three grills – a tandoor, tawa and sigri – used to particularly thrilling effect.
Expect to leave with the aroma of smoke in your hair and turmeric stains on your white shirt, sure, but also, expect to be wowed; there’s a whole lot of theatre – and even more flavour – going on inside this revered restaurant.
In 2026, Amaya celebrates a remarkable 20 years of continuous Michelin star recognition, having first received the accolade in 2006. It’s a run that very few Indian restaurants anywhere in the world can match, and speaks to the consistency of the kitchen and the enduring appeal of the tawa-tandoor-sigri format that Amaya pioneered long before open-fire cooking became every London restaurant’s defining feature.
If you’re looking for Belgravia’s best restaurant, this might well be it. Muse by Tom Aikens has previously named ‘London’s Top Gastronomic Experience’ by hospitality experts Hardens, with the intimate, 23 cover restaurant praised for its ‘bijou and cosy’ setting.
That setting is a small corner house in one of Belgravia’s distinctive mews (muse, mews…geddit?). Here, the cute, compact surroundings play host to one of the capital’s most celebrated restaurant openings in recent years.
Having opened in January 2020, just a couple of months before everything changed, it’s impressive that Muse is so firmly ensconced in this corner of Belgravia, its coveted Michelin star plaque like a beacon at the door. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s a tasting menu only affair at Muse, costing £195 for ten courses, though you can enjoy lunch at the relative steal of £105 for six course, Thursday to Saturday.
Considering Aikens is one of the most exciting chefs in the country when he’s on form, we can’t wait to see where Muse goes next.
In early 2026, Muse launched its ‘Culinary Creators’ series, a programme of one-off collaborative tasting menus where Aikens cooks alongside a rotating cast of guest chefs at the counter. Names on the roster include Phil Howard, Ben Marks, Ruth Hansom and, tantalisingly, Merlin Labron-Johnson from the superb Osip. It’s a smart move for a restaurant of this size, injecting fresh energy into an already compelling format and giving regulars a reason to keep coming back.
Abd El Wahab has already flourished in the Middle East, with outposts in Beirut, Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Belgravia rendition of the restaurant, the first in Europe, is perfectly placed to serve the district’s large Lebanese community, as well as hungry tourists and anyone else who loves the food of the Lebanon.
For us, Abd El Wahab is a perfect mid afternoon spot. The Sambousek – deep fried dough stuffed with minced meat, yoghurt and pine nuts – is superb here and it wouldn’t be a Lebanese meal without ordering a selection of fatteh, the country’s famous grilled pita adorned with gently spiced, comforting toppings. Order a glass of Lebanese white wine from the Bekaa Valley, and you’ve got yourself the ideal grazing lunch.
A Belgravia institution since 1964, La Poule Au Pot wouldn’t look out of place on Paris’ Rue des Martyrs. This charming, old school bistro is all about the French classics; expect snails with garlic butter, frogs legs, grilled calves liver, terrine of foie gras with Sauternes jelly, rabbit with mustard sauce…you get the picture, and it’s a very pretty one to paint.
With nooks and crannies, trinkets and even, whisper it, tablecloths, this is a spot best enjoyed in winter, when the candles are flickering, there’s a carafe of drinkable red breathing on the table, and the food is at its most hearty and comforting. That said, it’s pretty blissful on a summer’s day, too…
Ideal for a no choice, small plate experience with unique Chinese dishes that have a Taiwanese influence….
Just a short walk from Victoria Station and lauded by London food critics for some time now, Hunan offers a slightly different proposition to other Chinese joints in the capital offering. There’s no menu, just a selection of (very) small plates sent from the kitchen, tailored to your needs only in the sense you specify allergies and the level of spice you can handle.
With the usual paradox of choice so common in Chinese restaurants not present here, all you need to do is sit back, occasionally open your mouth, and enjoy the ride.
‘Goodge Street’. There’s something faintly obscene-sounding about the word that we can’t quite put our finger on – not that we’d want to put our finger on it – but what’s even more obscene here, on this strip connecting Fitzrovia and Marylebone, are the options for a damn fine feed.
From Portuguese comfort food given the fine dining treatment to Peruvian plates full of verve and vitality, there’s something to satisfy just about `anyone in this part of town. If your pockets are sufficiently bulging, that is; this part of town gets pretty pricey. With that in mind, here’s where to eat near Goodge Street.
The Ninth, Charlotte Street
Ideal for laid-back, Michelin-starred, Mediterranean-inspired plates of breezy perfection…
There can’t be many more likeable London restaurants than The Ninth, whose Michelin star doesn’t get in the way of a laid back, generous dining experience that leaves you satisfied, satiated and not too skint, either.
Here, chef Jun Tanaka’s Mediterranean-inspired cooking is pleasingly unfussy, with dishes designed for sharing built around one or two expertly-sourced central characters. Don’t miss the crisp artichoke, its leaves all splayed out and pickable, and served with a verdant, pungent three-cornered leek aioli for dipping. Better still is the striking, oddly-photogenic turbot head, which arrives sitting on a rusty langoustine bisque that’s got proper, briny depth from a long roasting of the shells and heads. Roll up your sleeves, turn your spoon on its head, and burrow and furrow with the handle at all the delicious, gelatinous best bits of the fish. Gorgeous.
End, as just about everyone does here, with Tanaka’s signature pain perdu with tonka bean ice cream. A hefty block of custard-soaked brioche is fried in foaming butter until almost over-caramelised, its middle gooey and its edges crisp. It’s served with an ice cream so smooth it’s clearly had several rounds in the pacojet, the two plate-fellows both rich and indulgent but somehow light enough that the massive portion is gone in seconds. It’s got to be one of London’s most iconic sweet treats, and one we’ve wolfed down more times than we’re happy admitting (seven, if you’re asking).
This one needn’t be too damaging to your bank balance, either. The set lunch menu at the Ninth, running from Monday to Saturday and costing just £43 for three courses, is one of the best priced Michelin-starred meals in the capital. With several wines available by the glass for under a tenner (the Alvarinho, at £10 a glass, pairs beautifully with the turbot head from two paragraphs previous), you really can’t go wrong.
And new for 2026, executive chef Filippo Alessandri has launched the Single Ingredient Series, a succession of tasting menus that place one seasonal star front and centre. First up is asparagus (23rd April–21st May), with dishes like glazed Portwood asparagus with house ricotta, Iberico pork pluma with grilled Wye Valley purple asparagus and wild garlic, and even a dessert involving poached white asparagus in Champagne with green apple sorbet. Tomatoes take over from 15th June to 11th July, then shellfish from 15th September to 10th October. Each menu is £98, with an optional £70 wine pairing.
Ideal for sophisticated French bistro classics in a refined, intimate setting…
This small bistro deluxe in the heart of Fitzrovia delivers what every food-obsessed Londoner these days openly craves: unapologetic French cuisine with all the trimmings, minus the stuffiness. Since opening in August 2023, 64 Goodge Street has been knocking the fluff off berets across town, culminating in a well-deserved Michelin star in February last year.
In a dining room that feels like it’s been here forever (though it was once a humble travel agents), the Woodhead Restaurant Group (Portland, Quality Chop…) has created yet another hit. There’s no bar or waiting area – just a gloriously quiet, music-free space where British Racing Green walls and polished wood set the scene for refined, sometimes rarefied indulgence.
Head chef Stuart Andrew, who’s been with the group since Portland’s launch, executes “French cooking from an outsider’s perspective” with aplomb. The kitchen sends out sauces with that kind of reduced, lip-smacking quality that they do so well across the pond. There are also snail, bacon and garlic ‘bon bons’ that reimagine escargot as aristocratic Scotch eggs; Kintyre smoked salmon with housemade blinis (something seen all too rarely these days); and a lobster vol-au-vent with sauce américaine that’s more generous with the crustacean than the pastry or price (at lunch, three courses are £59) deserves.
For dessert, the Crêpes Suzette with brandy and vanilla ice cream is positively hedonistic in its booze content, and just glorious. The Paris-Brest, meanwhile, is more textbook perfection.
Wine lovers will feel right at home with a thoughtfully curated list that begins with a handy explainer of their approach. From assiduously sourced house pours (starting at a palatable £8 a glass) to special bottles from the world’s best winemakers, there’s something for every budget. Burgundy, naturally, gets star billing, with entire pages devoted to the region’s beguiling bottles.
Yet another confirmation that French fine dining is back, baby. Just, in this case, the chefs are British.
Ideal for some of the finest regional Indian plates in London…
When you step into Pahli Hill’s warm wood, leather clad space just a moment from the throngs of Oxford Street, it’s only natural to breathe a sigh of relief. There’s a transportative quality to proceedings at this modern Indian restaurant, whether it’s in the tastefully done colourscape or the aroma of dried spices toasting in the kitchen that have wafted invitingly into the dining room.
Based around Bombay’s sociable ‘building societies’, there’s certainly a conviviality in the air, and on the plate there’s much to lift your mood further. We’re big fans of the set lunch menu, served from midday until 2:45pm, Tuesdays to Fridays, and seemingly designed to give weary shoppers a much needed blast of respite and rejuvenation. For just £32, you get yourself a three courses which is, really, so much more than that; each ‘course’ is a spread of complementary bites and bigger dishes.
The papadi chaat to start feels like a meal in itself, a riot of spicy, sweet and sour notes, and contrasting textures and temperatures. Each bite offers something different, from pomegranate seed pops of sharpness to herbal piquancy brought by coriander chutney, all anchored by soothing chickpeas and the papdi (crisp shards of wafer) itself. No wonder this dish earned head chef and owner Avinash Shashidhara a place at the 2023 Great British Menu banquet.
Follow this with a canteen-style thali of chicken, fish or vegetables with all the trimmings, and a spiced vanilla rice pudding, and sit and contemplate for a while if you do truly want to return to another Uniqlo this afternoon.
Ideal for Spanish-Italian hybrid tapas in a smartly informal setting with a great sherry list…
The forefather of a pioneering group famous for its hybrid Spanish and Italian tapas, this smartly informal Fitzrovia favourite seamlessly combines two culinary cultures under one roof. The buzziest vibe is undoubtedly in the bustling low-lit bar rather than the basement dining room, where the atmosphere can swing from void-like when empty to merely noisy when full.
Food-wise, there’s plenty to enjoy, especially if you stick to the classics. The blistered padrón peppers deliver that sunny booze food that works all year round, while the cylindrical croquetas of jamón, leek and manchego (£9) is the Iberian peninsula’s food in microcosm. At £8.50 each, the Salt Yard signature of goats cheese stuffed tempura battered courgette flowers deliver exquisite mouthfeel, with a pleasing, lingering base note of florality from a drizzle of blossom honey. This one’s a classic for a reason.
Under Head Chef Panajot Prifti, the dishes range from the intricate to the beautifully simple, constantly evolving whilst staying close to their roots. The charcuterie is impressively curated, the pistachio salami a winner, the San Daniele prosciutto lifted higher when drizzled with walnut oil – an inspired touch.
Open daily from noon until 11pm and a short walk from both Goodge Street and Oxford Circus, Salt Yard has weathered two decades in the capital’s brutal restaurant scene. While newer Iberian behemoths like Barrafina, Sabor and José may have raised the tapas bar, this Fitzrovia stalwart still offers a reliable slice of Spanish-Italian sunshine, especially when you’re armed with a glass of cold sherry.
Ideal for sushi, sashimi and robatayaki, served in a high-end setting…
For contemporary Japanese cuisine that sits somewhere between the bling of Dubai’s sushi restaurants and the raucousness of Tokyo’s backstreet izakayas joints, ROKA is the place to head if hunger strikes when you’re on Oxford Street and you’re willing to part with a pretty penny.
Specialising in robatayaki (charcoal-grilled) dishes and featuring a central robata grill, ROKA Charlotte Street has been open since 2004, with three subsequent branches following in the two decades since.
Still, it’s to the mothership (incidentally the closest to Oxford Circus of the four outposts) that we head for premium Japanese and British ingredients grilled with precision, so the smoke and char complements rather than overpowers.
You wouldn’t, after all, want to fork out £100 on a portion of tokujou wagyu only for it to arrive decimated by the flame. Fear not; this one hits the table barked but blushing, glazed with a piquant wasabi ponzu and finished with whispers of finely sliced spring onion. The black cod, marinated in yuzu before getting kissed by the coals, is even better, with a properly caramelised crust given way to flakes of pearlescent flesh.
The chefs here don’t spend all their time wrestling with errant bricks of bincho-tan, however. There’s also an extensive menu of sushi and sashimi, and a tasting menu that combines the raw menu with the grilled. Yours for £105 per person.
Though ROKA doesn’t feature in London’s Michelin Guide, it does boast 3 AA Rosettes, considered to be roughly equivalent to a star.
Ideal for colourful, contemporary Peruvian plates…
After a major refurb, Lima Fitzrovia has returned as a refreshed and revitalised version of its former Michelin-starred self. In celebration of its 10th birthday in 2022, the pioneering Peruvian restaurant recently welcomed its second decade with a new menu of bold, contemporary takes on Peru’s culinary culture and Lima’s modern influences.
Now led by newly-appointed head chef Diego Recarte, the menu masterfully blends Peruvian ingredients and cooking traditions with elements of Japanese (Nikkei) and Chinese (Chifa) cuisine.
The results are truly delightful, exemplified in dishes like the tuna Nikkei tartare whose shisho tempura brings added texture, and the grilled secreto Iberico resting atop purple potatoes, its run-off of juices softening those sometimes stubborn tubers into something rich and giving.
There’s also a vibrancy to the main room that was perhaps lacking in Lima’s previous incarnation, with an uncluttered sense of space and harmony now defining the dining here. The multicoloured woven lampshades flown in from Lima (the city) and the expansive skylight just add to that sense of air and elevation. For a country so famed for its altitudes, this feels an apt touch.
Ideal for contemporary Portuguese cooking with a focus on the Iberian Atlantic coast…
The site at 30 Charlotte Street has been Portuguese for a while now. Previously Lisboeta, Nuno Mendes’s much-loved homage to Lisbon, it reopened in September 2025 as Luso under the same ownership (MJMK, who also have Kol, Casa do Frango and AngloThai) but with a different chef and a noticeably different mood.
Where Lisboeta could feel like a special occasion, Luso pitches itself somewhere more relaxed. The ground floor bar has gone, replaced by extra tables on a new limestone floor, and the cooking leans less on one chef’s personal vision and more on a broader sweep of Portuguese regional food. The name itself, from Lusitania, the Roman word for what became Portugal, signals that wider scope.
In the kitchen, head chef Kimberly Hernandez (ex-Luca, ex-Dosa) works with consultant Leo Carreira, whose CV takes in the Basque Country’s Mugaritz and London’s The Sea, The Sea. Between them, the menu covers a lot of coastline. Clams à Bulhão Pato, steamed with garlic, coriander and lemon, are a fixture. Salt-baked wild sea bass, brought to the table whole and cracked open in front of you, is the kind of dish that makes neighbouring tables pay attention, not only because of the theatre of the sound of that cracking, but because of the enveloping aroma of the steam that billows out.
There’s oven-roasted suckling pig with that vaunted Bairrada-style crackling, and at lunch, pregos (steak sliders with brown butter, Savora mustard and garlic) are available until they sell out.
The wine list is almost entirely Portuguese and goes deep on lesser-known regions. The oddest and most talked-about bottles come from Herdade do Cebolal in the Alentejo, where the wine is aged in lobster cages on the seabed. It sounds like a gimmick; by all accounts, the salinity comes through in the glass.
Upstairs, the first-floor dining room in its Georgian townhouse setting is the prettier of the two spaces, its walls hung with black-and-white ethnographic photographs of the Portuguese coast by Artur Pastor. Downstairs is busier, noisier, and arguably more fun.
Luso is closed on Sundays. Monday is dinner only, from 5:30pm. Tuesday to Saturday, they serve lunch from noon and dinner from 5:30pm.
Ideal for upmarket Modern British fare, served insophisticated surrounds…
Housed within the London EDITION Hotel, Berners Tavern isn’t – as the name suggests – really a pub at all, but rather, an opulent dining room that’s all high ceilings, twinkling chandeliers and booths designed for striking deals in.
Another Central London spot that falls under the watchful eye of restaurateur Jason Atherton and headed up by experienced chef Andrei Poptelecan, the all-day a la carte menu at Berners Tavern showcases contemporary British cuisine via some of the best ingredients you’ll find in Albion.
So, that’s Orkney scallop, served raw in crudo form and allowed to do all the talking, Cumbrian Herdwick lamb that’s braised for 8 hours until it collapses under a mere click of the fingers, and the restaurant’s pride and joy, its selection of steaks sourced from Scotland’s revered Buccleuch Estate and char-grilled in a specialist Mibrasa oven and served with skin-on fries.
The winelist at Berners is a hefty, 40-odd page tome or largely Italian and French wines, though you’ll find some intrigue in the lower reaches; the Macedonian 2018 Ktima Ligas is particularly special, and at £95 a bottle (as opposed to its bottle shop price of around £45), it’s also an eminently reasonable mark-up – 100% is relatively unheard of in Central London.
When the sun is shining, the temperature clement and the country’s mood buoyant, there’s nothing better than taking your dog for a saunter. You answer every ‘how old is she?’ with unbridled enthusiasm, you relish those tangles with the other canines (and their owners), and you even take a weird sort of pleasure in the warm, freshly laid feeling of picking up their poop.
But sometimes, even with longer days and lighter evenings on your side, the whole thing starts to feel like a chore. The same route, the same sniffing spots, the same tug-of-war at the gate. If the magic has faded and you’re needing a little push, then read on; here are 7 tips for falling back in love with dog walking, IDEAL for the disillusioned dog walker.
It’s A Shared Experience
Don’t think of it as you, the human, taking them, the dog, for a walk. As The Conversation points out, dogs are sentient beings with their own personalities, and we need to listen to and negotiate with them about how the walk is experienced. The walk is a shared experience, after all.
As such, try adapting the timing, length and location of your walks depending on what your dog seems to enjoy most. Don’t do this thing out of a sense of obligation or duty; rather, relish in this shared time together.
Just as your dog needs the exercise, so too remember that this is a healthy activity for you, too. According to Harvard Health, dog owners walk an average of 20 more minutes a day and take about 2,700 additional steps compared with people who don’t have a dog at home. So, embrace the chance that dog walking brings for you to get your step count up and get some fresh air in your lungs.
Be The Dog
Paws for thought and put yourself in your dog’s shoes for a moment. Not that they wear shoes, but anyway.
Your dog is stuck at home for most of the day, doing nothing (sound familiar?) and those walkies are one of the only times they get out there, socialise with other dogs and enjoy themselves.
It’s not only a time to relieve themselves, but a time to stretch those four legs and be mentally stimulated. It’s the one time of day they get to go out and explore. As such, let your dog sniff and investigate, don’t rush their bathroom breaks or temper their curiosity. Your dog deserves some ‘me time’ away from the domestic space; so let them run wild and savour those moments of tranquillity for yourself, too.
Get Your Dog Trained
Sure, it’s vital that you give your dog some space and freedom on your walks, but if those strolls are consistently leaving you both annoyed and frustrated, and you’re consistently coming home with an aching shoulder from pulling and a sore throat from calling for your dog, then an intervention might be required.
At this stage, you might want to consider dog training classes. Speak to an appropriate dog trainer about issues of your pup pulling on the lead and hesitating at every tree, lamp post and shrub on your walk (if that’s what they do, of course) and any of your concerns about their development.
The trainer will have professional, certified tips and tricks to recommend to make the whole thing more manageable; and that’s why you’re here, right?
Just like a baby needs ‘stuff’, so does a dog. First things first, finding the right collar and leash combo to suit both you and your dog is essential. You can also opt to use a dog harness instead of, or in addition to, a collar. A harness can give you better control, especially if your dog pulls on the leash a lot or squirms out of a collar easily.
Beyond the lead, think about what else might make your walks more comfortable for both of you. A portable water bowl is a must in warmer months, and a decent treat pouch keeps rewards close at hand for reinforcing good behaviour on the go. For short-haired and elderly dogs, a lightweight fleece jacket is still worth having for those chillier mornings. This is a case of one-size-certainly-doesn’t-fit-all, here.
In case your dog isn’t able to walk on its own, due to age or medical conditions, there are options to help get around more easily. Dog strollers and prams are a practical investment, not only because they give your dog that sense of freedom and stimulation it so craves, but also because all their accessories can be easily stored.
Keep An Eye On Their Joints
If your dog’s enthusiasm for walkies has dropped off noticeably, or they seem stiff after a longer outing, it’s worth considering whether there might be something physical going on. Arthritis is surprisingly common in dogs of all ages, not just older ones, and the signs can be subtle: reluctance to jump, slowing down on hills, or simply not wanting to go as far as they used to.
You can assess your dog’s joint health in minutes with a quick online check, and if something doesn’t feel right, a trip to the vet can make a real difference. Addressing joint issues early means more comfortable walks for them and more enjoyable ones for you.
Switch Up Your Route
One of the quickest ways to reignite your enthusiasm is to stop walking the same loop every day. Your dog will thank you for it, too; new smells, new terrain and new dogs to greet are all hugely stimulating for them.
Try heading to a different park, exploring a footpath you’ve driven past a hundred times, or even just reversing your usual route. If you’re stuck for ideas, the Ordnance Survey has a wealth of mapped walking routes across the UK, many of which are dog-friendly.
Find A Walking Buddy
Other than your dog, we mean. Pairing up with another dog walker allows both pets to wander around, sniff, and explore, while you can enjoy the company of a fellow human. There are dog walking groups out there that you can join to make your daily outing more social, or, consider setting one up yourself.
Having someone to chat with transforms even the most uninspiring Tuesday afternoon lap of the local rec ground into something you might actually look forward to.
The Bottom Line
The benefits of dog walking for you and your furry, four-legged companion are huge, from increasing your bond with each other all the way to giving your physical health a boost. That said, even with the best weather and the best intentions, it can sometimes be hard to find the motivation to get out there together every day.
We hope the tips above give you the push you need to lace up, clip on, and get going. We’ll see you out there.
They say that the kitchen is the heart of the home, but when that heart is so compact that its arteries are getting clogged, then it’s safe to say that the most important room in the house won’t be functioning to its full potential.
A small kitchen can leave homeowners frustrated as it feels cramped and cluttered, making it difficult to cook and entertain guests. However, with some smart design tricks and organisation tips, including using lighter colours and clever storage solutions, you can make your small kitchen look and feel more spacious.
Before you settle on the most suitable kitchen design for your small space you will want to consider elements such as functionality, layout, storage, aesthetics, budget, and lighting.
Make the most out of the space you have by keeping designs practical and efficient, with essential features that match your cooking needs. Ensure the space is adequate to keep your small kitchen organised, while lighting will also play a crucial role in making the space feel brighter and more spacious.
Whatever design you opt for, you will want it to reflect your own personal style as well as complement the rest of your home. Be sure to consider your budget and look for affordable solutions, such as ready-to-assemble cabinets and cost-effective materials.
Anyway, enough bluster; the walls are closing in. Here are some fantastic tips for making your small kitchen look bigger…
Use A Light Colour Scheme For Small Kitchens
Choose small kitchen cabinet colours and wall paints that are light, such as white, pale neutrals, or pastels. These colours will all help to make a kitchen look bigger as they reflect lighter and create an open, airy feel. Dark colours can absorb light, overwhelming your kitchen space and making it feel smaller.
Maximise Natural Light
Create the illusion of space by allowing as much natural light as possible to enter your kitchen by installing larger windows or skylights. If installing large windows would mean you lack privacy, use window vinyl to distort the view without impacting the light .
Install Open Shelves
Replace upper cabinets with open shelves to make your kitchen feel more spacious. Open shelves also allow you to display your favourite dishes and accessories, adding a personal touch to the space. Consider using matching containers or baskets to keep things organised and visually appealing.
Use Glass Cabinet Doors
If you need upper cabinets, or don’t like the idea of open shelving, use glass doors to make your kitchen appear larger. Glass reflects light and adds depth to your space. You can also consider using frosted or tinted glass for a more unique look.
Use Reflective Surfaces
Mirrors, a glossy backsplash, and stainless-steel appliances reflect light, making your kitchen look brighter and more spacious. If you have some free wall space, consider adding a mirror on one wall to create a visual illusion of more space. If you have a dark kitchen and you want to make it brighter to open up the room, reflective surfaces are a great tool.
Choose The Right Kitchen Wall Tiles
The kitchen wall tiles you choose can have a surprising impact on how spacious your kitchen feels. Larger format tiles work well in smaller kitchens because fewer grout lines create a cleaner, more continuous surface that tricks the eye into seeing more space.
Stick to lighter shades and consider tiles with a slight gloss or sheen to bounce light around the room. If you’re set on patterned tiles, keep things subtle and consistent rather than busy, as bold patterns can make a compact kitchen feel chaotic.
Remove Clutter
Keep your countertops clean and clutter-free. Use vertical storage solutions, such as magnetic knife strips and pegboards, to save counter space. Installing a kitchen island can also help to maximise the availability of storage to you.
Choose compact and multi-functional appliances that can be stored easily when not in use to help free up counter space and make your kitchen look less cluttered. Consider appliances such as a combination microwave and oven or a compact dishwasher.
When it comes to how to display kitchen appliances, many of these items can be built into the kitchen units now which also keeps everything neater and more uniform.
Create A Focal Point
Add a focal point, such as a colourful backsplash or a piece of artwork, to draw the eye away from the small space. This creates a visually interesting element and takes attention away from the size of the kitchen.
Opt For A Minimalist Design
Simplify the design of your small kitchen by avoiding unnecessary decorative elements and sticking to clean lines and simple shapes. Using minimalist designs, such as a monochromatic colour scheme, can help to create a brighter, more open space.
What Should You Avoid When Trying To Make A Small Kitchen Bigger?
When trying to make a small kitchen look bigger, there are certain things you should avoid to prevent the space from feeling cramped or cluttered, these include:
Dark colours – keep clear of darker colours on your walls or cabinets, as they absorb light and make the space feel smaller.
Too much clutter –avoid overcrowding your kitchen with too many accessories, appliances, or decorative items, as they can make the space feel cluttered and cramped.
Bulky furniture –bulky furniture, such as oversized kitchen islands or tables, can take up too much space and make the kitchen feel smaller.
Lack of storage – insufficient storage solutions can overwhelm small spaces, avoid cluttered worktops and consider creative storage solutions.
Poor lighting – using inadequate lighting can make the space feel dark and confined. Consider installing bright and energy-efficient lighting, such as LED lights, to make your small kitchen look brighter and more spacious.
The Bottom Line
By implementing these design tricks and organisation tips, you can relieve your frustrations of having a small kitchen by making the room feel more spacious. Remember to use light colours, maximise natural light, install open shelves, or glass cabinet doors, use reflective surfaces, remove clutter, use smaller, more ergonomically-friendly kitchen appliances, and create a focal point to make your small kitchen look bigger.
And with that, we can’t wait to be invited over for your next dinner party!
We all know the drill by now; there’s much, much more to Thai food than fluorescent green curries, teeth-achingly sweet phad Thai, and heaps of chilli.
It’s become something of a tired old refrain to repeat and reframe this fact, usually followed by a riff on the diverse regionality of the country’s cuisine, the breadth of its flavour profile beyond that much-trotted ‘spicy, sour, sweet, salty’ metric, and something about David Thompson’s influence on Thai restaurants and British chefs in the city.
Instead, let’s just get into it, and take a look at our favourite Thai food in the city, whether you’re looking for faithfully recreated, note-perfect food from the Kingdom or British takes on Thai cuisine using seasonal ingredients. Either way, it’s here, in our guide on where to find the best Thai food in London, and the best Thai restaurants in the city.
Singburi, Shoreditch
Ideal for London’s most sought-after booking and the purest Thai flavours in the capital…
So much has been written about the original Singburi in recent weeks that it feels almost trite at this stage to head on over to Leytonstone once again to relive the moo krob.
It’s clear that Singburi 2.0 is a different beast with different intentions. Only the original signage and a couple of prints from the old days remain. What you’ll find instead, in this seemingly tacked-on, glass-fronted space in Montacute Yards, is something that feels both fresh and familiar – the same brilliant mind behind the stoves, a more focused menu, perhaps, and occasional hints at the experimentation to come once everyone has bedded in here and got settled.
Chef Sirichai Kularbwong has joined forces with Nick Molyviatis (formerly of Kiln) and Alexander Gkikas (Catalyst Cafe), and, unsurprisingly for a trio of that calibre, the results are steady, satisfying and sometimes scintillating.
The custom-built live fire grill dominates the open kitchen, and a busy team of five or so all work around it, shimmying past chef Sirichai, who is in his own zone, smoking, charring and coaxing flavours that, at their best, feel charged with electricity.
The menu changes daily, sometimes twice, but riffs on themes remain. The aubergine pad phet has become something of a signature already – double-fried so the flesh is fudgy, then tossed with wild ginger and chilli until it becomes vital. It’s impossible to imagine anything so humble could taste so extraordinary.
The lamb riblets, though not perhaps so traditional, showcase the kitchen’s ability to apply Thai techniques to British ingredients with enjoyable results. The meat arrives fatty and funky, its tamarind glaze pitched perfectly somewhere between sweet and sour. A sprinkle of khao khua gives everything a pleasing nuttiness.
Indeed, it’s the dishes that are less dogmatic, less faithful to their original recipes, that are the most successful. A slab of grilled seabream fillet sits swimming in a soup of nahm jim seafood, the beloved Thai green dipping sauce here served in generous quantities rather than the usual dinky bowls you constantly need to re-up.
The khua kling – the fiery Southern Thai dry curry most commonly made with pork – was, on our visit, made with coarsely minced haddock. It arrived as an intensely spicy, wonderfully fragrant homogeneous mass, as close to a Thai relish in make-up as it was a dry curry. It was superb with plenty of soothing jasmine rice.
The monkfish cheek green curry, meanwhile, demonstrated a more delicate touch, the delicate orbs of just-poached fish swimming in a sweet, coconut-forward curry sauce that vibrated with energy.
The transformation from cash-only BYOB chaos to this slick operation is of course noteworthy. There’s now a proper wine list (natural, low-intervention bottles that rub along nicely with the spicing), and cocktails that wouldn’t look out of place in Shoreditch’s hipper cocktail bars. You can, in theory, book online, though the sheer demand for seats means that’s proving difficult.
The space itself is industrial chic delivered aptly: terrazzo floors, clay-pink tiles, and towering windows that flood everything with light. The counter seats around the open kitchen are the place to be, lent on your elbows ordering another round of whiskey sodas in lieu of dessert, and admiring Kularbwong’s myopic focus on flavour.
Yes, the new Singburi is pricier than the Leytonstone days, but dishes start at £6.50 and don’t top £20, meaning it’s still good value for this city. The Michelin Guide agrees. Earlier this year, Singburi was awarded a Bib Gourmand, a deserved nod to the quality and value on offer at this still-young Shoreditch incarnation.
It’s been pretty impossible to miss the buzz surrounding the JKS-backed Arcade Food Hall since it opened in April of 2022.
Housed in the Centre Point building on New Oxford Street, and just a few second’s stroll from Tottenham Court Road station, Arcade Food Hall offers a veritable feast of global cuisines, with 8 restaurant concepts currently operating here, and a fully-fledged Southern Thai joint on the mezzanine above the communal dining area.
That Southern Thai restaurant is Plaza Khao Gaeng, which does some of the most faithfully composed, fiery food from The Kingdom anywhere in London.
Though much has been written about the fearsome chilli levels on display here, it’s the vivacity of the ingredients that really shine through. The coconut cream in the massaman and chicken curries tastes freshly pressed (a labour intensive process that’s rare to find in the capital), the sour curry sparkles with garcinia fruit as opposed to just lime and tamarind, the khua kling’s green peppercorns bring rasping heat alongside the undulating presence of various fresh and dried chillies. It’s magic.
Our only complaint? More elbow room on the tables, please; because it’s impossible not to order every dish on the menu.
Speaking of finding room, if you’ve somehow managed to save stomach space for seconds, then on the floor below there’s sushi, smash burgers, shawarma and more.
Plaza Khao Gaeng opened a second site at Borough Yards at the tail end of last year, and early reviews are strong. Set beneath the Victorian railway arches on Stoney Street, the 80-seater brings an expanded menu focusing on lesser-known southern Thai provinces, with new dishes including kha muu paloh (slow-cooked pork hock), gaeng gati puu bai cha plu (whole Dorset hen crab in coconut curry with wild betel leaves), and pad phet pla tord (whole sea bass in red jungle curry). Much of the produce continues to come from Luke Farrell’s Ryewater Nursery in Dorset.
Ideal for a taste of Phuket without the 14 hour flight…
Thai cooking in the capital doesn’t always have to be enjoyed through the prism of ‘nu’ or ‘hip’. It needn’t always be Tik-Tok touting small plates and interiors designed more for the stories of Instagram than for the comfort of the diner. And so we find ourselves in Kings Cross, at Supawan, an elegant, understated spot whose flavours are very much not (the latter).
Here, chef and owner Wichet Khongphoon brings the food of his native Phuket to the table in a space so florally-appointed that it might have you sneezing even before the chilli and white pepper does. Not to worry; it looks beautiful and seems to chime with the fruity, flowery cocktail descriptions of which you’ll soon be sipping (mine’s a hibiscus infused, guava spiked number called Love Don’t Be Shy, I’m Super Shy, naturally).
Start with the miang Phuket, the definitive Thai hor d’oeuvre. Bringing the whole sweet-salty-spicy-sour thing together into a single bite, Supawan’s version sees grilled prawns, a galangal caramel and intricate dice of ginger, lime, peanuts and more, all perched atop a wild piper leaf. Wrap, fold, scrunch… Whatever you want to do, this guy goes down in one. The intricacies develop on the tongue long after it’s gone.
Though chef Khongboon has called London home for more than two decades, we’re so glad that the food memories of his southern Thai upbringing still linger with such clarity. It’s an absolute joy that you can order pla thu yud sai here. A Phuket seafood dish rarely found in the rest of Thailand let alone in the UK, this one is a complex preparation of deboned, hollowed out mackerel that’s then stuffed with a mixture of its minced flesh and red curry paste before being grilled. The kids might praise the ‘tekkers’ – we’ll just call it bloody delicious. Similarly, the stuffed chicken wings show off the same dexterity.
If it’s on the menu, do not miss out on the signature ‘Dad’s beef curry’, which has thankfully been conceived by Khongboon’s father, not by yours or ours. A thick and fragrant, coconut-defined red curry, it’s a soulful bowl that reveals the flavours of fresh galangal and toasted coconut in the curry paste once it’s cooled to Phuket room temperature. Best enjoyed with a side of stir fried morning glory that feels like it could cure whatever ails you and plenty of rice, this is one to luxuriate over. So, sit back, order another Singha, and give the chef his flowers. You won’t have to go far to find some.
Ideal for a poetic meeting of British soil and Thai soul…
There’s something rather poetic about AngloThai’s location on a quiet Marylebone backstreet, where Georgian townhouses whisper of British heritage while the restaurant’s frontage, rendered in Royal Thai purple, hints at something more glamorous within. After years of pop-ups that had London’s food cognoscenti practically vibrating with anticipation, John and Desiree Chantarasak have finally given their vision a permanent home.
And just over a year in, it’s safe to say that AngloThai is a roaring success, with positive reviews and a Michelin star announced in February of last year. That makes it the only Thai restaurant in the capital (and one of just a handful in Europe) to hold a star.
Inside, Thai-American designer May Redding has created something that seems to pay lipservice to both heritage and modernity – think whitewashed pannelling that could be either colonial Bangkok or contemporary Notting Hill, handcrafted Chamchuri wood tables that tell stories of Thai craftsmanship, and lighting that makes everyone look like they’ve been kissed by the Andaman sunshine. The open kitchen ricochets with the whoosh of proper turbo wok burners and the pok-pok of the pestle and mortar; a soundtrack that also speaks to the kitchen’s commitment to doing things right.
The mission statement here is to to take Thai cooking and reimagine it through a purely British lens – pearled naked oats stand in for jasmine rice, Suffolk-grown holy basil replaces its Thai cousin, and native-breed meats and line-caught fish take centre stage. There’s not a single imported tiger prawn in sight. Highlights from a recent tasting menu, priced keenly at £125, included a snack of tempura banana pepper that’s been filled with a riff on Thai sai ua sausage, and a perfectly balanced massaman curry of Launceston hogget and quince that boasts the warming complexity of the finest versions in Bangkok.
The drinks offering is equally considered, with the sea-buckthorn margarita a real showstopper – bracing, puckering and knock-your-block-off potent. The wine list, curated by Desiree, leans heavily on Austrian and European biodynamic producers, including their own label made in partnership with Nibiru – wines chosen specifically to dance with rather than dominate the complex spicing.
What’s most impressive about AngloThai is how it creates something genuinely new without feeling forced. Yes, the prices reflect the prime Marylebone location and premium British ingredients, but there’s serious skill and thought behind every dish. This isn’t fusion for fusion’s sake – it’s a carefully considered exploration of what happens when Thai cuisine is viewed through a purely British lens.
Chef John has been everywhere in spring 2026, appearing on both Great British Menu and MasterChef in the same week, wowing the judges with his bold but refined palate. If you thought getting a weekend table here was hard before, good luck now.
Ideal for hip, wholesome Thai food close to London Bridge…
Meaning ‘eat and drink’ in Thai, the restaurant’s name is a gentle, straightforward invitation that seems to translate to the wholesome plates, plant tonics and general easy-going vibe at Kin + Deum.
It’s a family-run affair. Led by three stylish Thai siblings from the Inngern family, there’s a real focus on nutrition and balance here; the restaurant doesn’t use refined sugars or MSG (for better or worse) and it’s a 100% gluten-free affair to boot. The paired back but gorgeous interiors of the restaurant further reflect this.
The recipes here are nominally based on dishes heralding from Bangkok, though really the menu spans the whole country, with laap salad from the North East, khao soi curry noodle soup from the North, and panang from the deep south of Thailand. Hey, there’s even a katsu curry, Kin + Deum style, if you’re hankering for it.
Regardless of origin, the cooking here is fantastic; though there’s a lightness of touch in the dishes, that isn’t in the name of sacrificing chilli heat or punchy acidity. Nope, it’s all here, and it’s all very delicious, indeed.
The opening of Kolae in Borough Market was one of the most hyped in recent years, with every other reel on the ‘gram seemingly a walkthrough of a room in various shades of cameo and a breathy description of a pickled mango dirty martini. Flame and chili emojis naturally followed.
Even if you have been sheltering under a half coconut husk for the last year, we’ll spare you the usual spiel about Kolae being from the same team as critically acclaimed Som Saa. We’ll only briefly mention this time the cooking method that gives the restaurant its name – that is, a style of grilling popular in Southern Thailand that sees skewers marinated in a thick coconut cream curry before meeting the coals. At Kolae, this is most often used on mussels, chicken and squash, that marinade catching and caramelising to a gorgeous, irregular rust. Squeeze on some calamansi and get messy.
But really, it’s not just the eponymous, headlining dish you should be focusing your order on. More than anything, Kolae is a celebration of coconut milk. Not the UHT, uncrackable stuff, mind. Rather, the freshly pressed variety, which Kolae do each and every day, its luscious sweetness unmatched. Luxuriate in that coconut cream in a fragrant, turmeric heavy curry of prawns and cumin leaf, pungent from shrimp paste and fruity-sharp from heaps of pounded mouse shit chillies in the paste.
Of course, a complete Thai table is also a balanced one, so temper those richer notes with something piquant and perky, the sour curry of grey mullet being just the guy for the job. It’s acidic not only in its use of both lime and tamarind as souring agents, but also in that it’s spicy to the point of hallucinations, just as it should be. Freshly steamed jasmine rice should be flowing by now.
You’ll want to be doing all this tripping with a view of the action; Kolae’s open kitchen throbs with activity, with pestles pounding and wok flames licking the ceiling. Pull up a pew on stools that look so much like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Buttons (you might want to see a doctor about that) that it’s distracting, and relish the onslaught of deeply nuanced, deeply delicious flavour that’s to come.
It’s a well-trodden path to restaurant success – earn fans through supper clubs and pop-ups before crowd-funding your way into permanent premises, but Som Saa did this well-trodden path in some style. £700’000 was pledged by friends, fans and financers and a place on a busy, East London street secured, all on the back of some superbly grilled chicken, pounded-to-order som tam salads, vibrant laap and other assertive dishes largely (but not exclusively) from Thailand’s north.
It’s no wonder this place is so confident in their delivery; the two chef/founders were schooled by Thai food deity David Thompson, and it shows. Flavours are bold but balanced, ingredients well-sourced, and spice levels prevalent and assertive.
Arrive early and enjoy a drink at the bar with some of Som Saa’s excellent snacks; we’re absolute suckers for their naem (grilled fermented pork served with ginger and peanuts) and would happily come here only for a few plates of it.
That said, to do so would be to miss out on the restaurant’s iconic deep fried seabass with herbs and roasted rice powder, which has never left the menu due to its enduring popularity. It’s easy to see why; it’s delicious.
To mark Som Saa’s 10th anniversary in Spitalfields, the team are serving that seabass at its original 2015 Climpson’s Arch price of £14 from 20th to 26th April, alongside revived favourites from the residency that started it all. We can’t wait!
We’ve been huge fans of Smoking Goat since its raucous, ramshackle days on Brewer Street, Soho. Rest assured; since the Thai barbeque restaurant’s move to Shoreditch, the vibe remains rowdy, the chill levels still Scoville baiting, and the aroma of smoke even more pervasive, in the best possible way of course.
This is food designed to reinvigorate. Though the fish sauce chicken wings have gained deserved cult status, and their Tamworth pork chop with spicy jaew dipping sauce is a real crowd pleaser, it’s the restaurant’s work with the offal which keeps us coming back.
With liver, heart and kidney featuring heavily in various laap, you could go to the Goat and dine very well on these intoxicating Laotian/Thai salads alone. With several rounds of sticky rice, a som tam salad and a couple of cold ones, it’s the ideal meal, any time of day in the city.
The food here is ultimately excellent Thai drinking food. As such, the drinks and cocktail list at Smoking Goat is thoughtfully curated to complement. Order a ‘Tray of Joy’ which features globetrotting, esoteric liquors including a a Coco Leaf Liqueur from Amsterdam, a watermelon Liqueur from Serra Di Conti and, of course, Mekhong from Bangkok.
Ideal for a celebration of the best of British ingredients, told through a Thai lens…
The second restaurant from the aforementioned Ben Chapman, Kiln is quite the spectacle, with bar seating overlooking flames, coals and clay pots. The vibe transports you right out of central London and to somewhere altogether hotter and more rustic.
The restaurant works proudly with a close clutch of suppliers, with fish sourced directly, daily, from fishing boats in Cornwall and heritage vegetables earning equal billing on the menu to protein. During game season, that menu comes alive with jungle curries of wood pigeon or wild mallard and minced laab salads of raw venison (whose season begins in April through October, incidentally).
But even better, and on more consistently throughout the year, is cull yaw, a type of mutton from retired female ewes that has been fattened with high degrees of welfare in mind. The meat has an incredible depth of flavour, and has been making appearances on the menu of several acclaimed London restaurants in recent years. At Kiln, it’s often served as a collar chop accompanied by a spicy dipping sauce, or in grilled skewers with a little sprinkle of cumin. Just so damn delicious.
Ideal for a taste of one of Bangkok’s most iconic dishes…
This neon-lit gem, which opened its doors in September 2022, is the brainchild of talented, Thai-food obsessed British chef Luke Farrell, who has been exploring the cuisine of the Kingdom for years while bouncing between Dorset, London and Thailand.
His first restaurant, Plaza Khao Gaeng (you’ll recognise that one from a few paragraphs prior) which opened in collaboration with the increasingly omnipresent JKS, was an instant smash, garnering rave reviews from basically all the national newspaper critics soon after its opening in spring of 2022.
Farrell’s second, Speedboat Bar, followed later in the year, and it’s safe to say that his ode to Bangkok’s Chinatown has hit the ground running. Or, rather, hit the river speeding…
Speedboat Bar takes its inspiration from the flashing lights of Bangkok’s Chinatown and the thrilling sport of speedboat racing along the canals (klongs) of the city. The two-story restaurant’s main dining areas features a utilitarian, stainless steel design reminiscent of a Thai-Chinese shophouse, while the upstairs clubhouse bar is adorned with signed portraits of speed boat racers and blasts of Thai pop, turbo folk, and molam music through the speakers. It’s almost impossible not to neck a few jelly bias while you’re up there – be warned.
With many of the native Thai ingredients and herbs used in the dishes cultivated and grown at Farrell’s Dorset nursery, Ryewater, there’s an veracity to the flavours here, whether that’s in the chicken matchsticks (essentially chicken wings halved lengthways) with a pert tangle of shredded green mango salad, or the clams stir fried in nahm prik pao, a staple dish of Bangkok Chinatown institutions like the imitable TK Seafood.
The signature here is a tribute to the iconic Jeh O Chula, which sits on the outskirts of Yarowat, and, more specifically, her legendary Tom Yam Mama Noodles. Having eaten the original more times than we’d care to confess in print, we can honestly say that Speedboat’s version is up there, on a par.
Save space for the pineapple filled pie which is a nod to the Ezy Bake pies that you can get from 7/11s across Thailand. Be warned; these flaky babies sell out, so get your order in at the beginning of the meal if you’ve got a sweeth tooth.
Basically, if you don’t have the time to take a plane to Thailand in the coming months, Speedboat Bar is arguably the next best thing this side of the Chao Phraya.
Following the success of the Soho original, Speedboat Bar opened a second location in late 2025 at The Electric on Portobello Road. The Notting Hill outpost brings the same neon-lit, Bangkok Chinatown energy to West London, with the signature Tom Yam Mama Noodles and pineapple pies present and correct.
Sitting pretty behind a vivid pink façade in Hammersmith, 101 Thai Kitchen stands out as one of London’s most faithful purveyors of regional Thai cuisine. Specialising in dishes from Isaan, the northeastern region known for its bold use of spice and fermentation, and Southern Thailand, famed for its coconut cream and seafood numbers, this King Street stalwart offers an experience that’s notably different from the capital’s more mainstream Thai establishments.
The dining room, though modest, creates an immersive atmosphere with portraits of Thai nobility adorning the walls, a small television quietly broadcasting Thai cookery programmes, and Thai aunties gossiping on the table closest to the kitchen every time we’ve visited. It’s lovely, and a setting that puts the focus squarely where it belongs: on the food.
The menu is extensive and uncompromising in its authenticity. Their Isaan sausage (£8), fermented onsite so the chefs can monitor when the pork reaches a perfect tang, delivers a a lip smacking sour-saltiness that exemplifies the region’s distinctive flavour profile.
The tom sab, a hot and sour tamarind-based broth with pork ribs (£12), demonstrates the kitchen’s masterful handling of bruising but somehow still balanced spicing. It’s a dish we’ve eaten many times in actual Isaan, and is a great version of a classic here. Sending diners to the other end of the country, 101’s interpretation of Hat Yai fried chicken (playfully dubbed ‘HFC’) comes garnished with crispy fried shallots and plenty of crunch, and is excellent with a few bottles of imported Chang.
The som tum (papaya salad) section alone offers seven variations, including the traditional som tum Thai with dried shrimp and peanuts, and the more pungent – and infinitely more delicious! – tum pu plaa raa with salted crab (all £12). Some more esoteric Southern Thai specialities are also present and most welcome on the dinner table spread – the gaeng tai plaa, a spicy, herbacious curry made with fermented fish guts, is a highlight.
101’s drinks menu is thoughtfully curated, featuring a solid wine list with bottles ranging from £22 to £40, including options like the Shucker’s Shack Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (£9 for 175ml, £35 bottle). Traditional Thai refreshments include iced tea, pink milk, and various herbal drinks. The restaurant also sports an impressive gin selection, and there’s Chang beer too, for those seeking something more casual. Which, in this spot, you probably should be.
Beyond the à la carte offerings, a blackboard of daily specials; though not at the Singburi level of intrigue, it rewards return visits. Despite its relatively peripheral location, 101 Thai Kitchen has established itself as an essential destination for anyone serious about exploring the true breadth and depth of Thai cuisine in London.
Ideal for comforting, invigorating Thai food in North London…
Thai food in the capital is now so popular that the usual explanatory diatribe seems unnecessary; you probably know farang means foreigner, dishes are designed to be shared, everything revolves around rice, the food of the country is hugely different from region to region……
But just because we’re all now so well versed in the vernacular, it shouldn’t overshadow just how splendid the cooking is at Farang. Their gai prik – deep fried chicken wings with a sweet fish sauce glaze – are simply divine, and the larger, sharing curries, cooked low and slow, consistently pack a huge punch of depth and verve, whilst remaining resolutely comforting.
Just make sure you order a side of turmeric and roasted garlic butter roti to mop up all the sauce! Bliss.
Located on Peckham’s foodie strip Bellenden Road, the Begging Bowl uses Thai street food to form gorgeous small plates of zest and fire. The building is beautiful and airy, adding to the buzz this place generates even on a weeknight.
On the menu, dishes boast real clarity and punch, with excellent sourcing evident in the precision of flavour. The jasmine rice, so fragrant and nourishing, is limitless. A real treat.
Bristol’s food scene, it should bear repeating, has a lot going for it. Named as only the UK’s second gold sustainable food city back in 2021 and as the world’s number one vegan city a year earlier, this south west culinary powerhouse also boasts a healthy, stacked Michelin Guide and plenty more acclaimed eateries besides.
Narrowing those restaurants down into a singular, definitive list, then, is something of a thankless task. But we’ve taken on that task, begrudgingly eating the finest food from across Bristol, from Korean grilled chicken to bowls of pasta that reached triple figures, to bring you this; our guide on where to eat in Bristol. Here are the best restaurants in Bristol.
Wilson’s, Redland
Ideal for thoughtful, produce-driven tasting menus from the restaurant’s own market garden…
It’s probably appropriate here to start at Bristol’s best restaurant, and this is it; Wilson’s. The intimate 24-cover restaurant in Redland, run by chef-patron Jan Ostle and his partner Mary Wilson, offers a hugely compelling farm-to-table experience that ranks as one of the south west’s best.
The menu here changes not just with the seasons but with each harvest, each trug, given transformative magic daily based on what’s been pulled from the soil. The restaurant cultivates its own two-acre market garden in nearby Barrow Gurney, where the vast majority of vegetables, herbs and flowers that grace your plate are grown using regenerative farming techniques.
A seven-course tasting menu (£78) channels this bounty with remarkable finesse. A superb lunch in early April showcased the season’s best produce in genuinely exciting ways: asparagus with oyster, buttermilk and sorrel; dry aged trout that had been cooked in beef tallow and maitake; and a showstopping headliner of hogget with wild garlic, ewe’s curd and radish, the vegetables tasting like they had just been plucked out of the ground, the meat funky and fresh, somehow simultaneously.
Desserts continued straddling that whole inventive and grounded thing to an increasingly joyous crescendo; green herbs as a perky sorbet with a torched, smoky meringue, then Jerusalem artichoke with milk chocolate and black vinegar, a combination that shouldn’t work but absolutely did; salty, savoury and roundly sweet all at once. There’s something so charming about the cooking at Wilson’s; it feels light and frivolous, but is clearly nourished by the changing seasons too, making things wholesome yet carefree; an impressive balancing act to pull off quite so dextrously.
Ostle’s background – stints at The Square and The Hand & Flowers – goes some way to explaining the precision on every plate, but Wilson’s has never felt like a restaurant trading on its chef’s CV. It has its own, idiosyncratic identity, and it’s one we hope never bends to anyone.
The wine pairings (£55) are thoughtfully selected, too, and there’s now a non-alcoholic flight for £35. Alongside that tasting menu, the whole offering represents remarkably, laughably good value for all the quality that’s on show. It came as no surprise that the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in the 2025 Guide, retained for 2026.
That might have you making assumptions about the style of the place, but what’s particularly refreshing about Wilsons is how it manages to deliver fine dining without any of the overbearing weight – the understated dining room, all whitewashed walls, warm wood and simple furnishings, keeps things grounded, and the service is fresh-spirited and knowledgeable. And for those seeking a more accessible entry point, their three-course lunch menu (£39) offered Wednesday to Friday is another display of the excellent value here.
In 2021, the team expanded their operation by opening The Bread Shop just a few doors down, where you can buy their excellent sourdough and house-cured bacon milk buns. It’s also home to their fermentation and preserving projects, ensuring nothing from the market garden goes to waste.
This commitment to sustainability hasn’t gone unnoticed – Wilsons holds a Green Star too, recognition of their exceptional commitment to sustainable gastronomy. Yet perhaps more telling than any accolade is how beloved this place is by Bristol’s other chefs — always a good sign.
Booking in advance has been essential since the Michelin star, but it could be pretty much obligatory following the restaurant’s appearance on Apple TV’s Knife Edge. And the momentum hasn’t slowed; in January 2026, Wilson’s was named SquareMeal’s UK Restaurant of the Year, topping their annual Top 100 list. It’s recognition that feels entirely deserved for a restaurant whose prices remain, frankly, astonishing for cooking of this calibre.
There’s something rather fitting about Caper & Cure occupying a former ‘cash chemists’ on Stokes Croft – after all, their negroni sbagliato might just be the remedy you need after a particularly trying Tuesday.
The 1920s mosaic tiling at the entrance still proudly proclaims its pharmaceutical past, a charming reminder of when Bristolians could pop in for their ‘remedies and cures’ without prescription. The modern version is probably just round the corner on Hepburn Road, but that’s closed now, too…
Anyway, enough of the tenuous introductions, let’s stride into Caper and Cure and get across it. Here, owner Giles Coram has created a bijou shabby-chic success story, transforming what was most recently an arts café into one of Bristol’s most cherished neighbourhood bistros. The space has seen more incarnations than a method actor – from that original chemist to electrical supplier, internet café, and music venue. But it’s the basement that holds the real intrigue, having apparently hosted ‘shenanigans, japes and capers’ throughout its entire history. Some things, it seems, never change – though these days it houses a rather smart private dining room next to the kitchen that can still get pretty boisterous.
The transformation of Stokes Croft from its grittier past to artisan food destination makes Caper & Cure feel particularly symbolic of the area’s evolution. The restaurant has featured in The Good Food Guide as one of Britain’s 100 Best Local Restaurants twice in the last three years, a testament to how this compact corner spot has captured hearts well beyond BS1.
Start with spanking fresh Maldon oysters, taking pride of place at £3.75 a pop (or a very civilised six for £18), each one to be dressed simply with a classic mignonette that lets their briny sweetness sing. Continue on a theme with the cured wild sea bass. Slices are laid gently in a crystal-clear tomato and olive consommé that’s savoury and delicate, the inherent richness of the fish allowed to shine through. This kind of dish is often butchered by an overt acidity that crudo simply can’t take, but here, the consommé is expertly judged, a pleasing backnote rather than the main event.
Whilst not nominally a fish restaurant, we continued with a more robust plate of monkfish that really shows off the kitchen’s chops at the stoves, the meaty fish given heft and smoke from its sobrasada sauce (that spreadable Balearic sausage that makes everything better). Confit Jersey Royals provided the perfect creamy counterpoint.
To ensure the wrong impression wasn’t given, a meaty plate next. From the specials board, if the rabbit with Coco de Paimpol beans is there, don’t sleep on it. Served as a whole saddle on the bone, it was superb, and the accompanying French heirloom beans from Brittany were as creamy as butter, viscous and earthy, those latter notes only amplified further by a few carefully placed girolles. What a gorgeous dish this was.
That negroni sbagliato we mentioned? It’s a beauty – all bitter-sweet sophistication with a playful prosecco fizz that somehow makes day drinking feel entirely acceptable. Given the basement’s history of capers and japes, we suspect the team here wouldn’t judge you for settling in for the long haul and ordering several. With the sun streaming in on a warm Bristol early evening, it all felt so right.
Ideal for some of Bristol’s most celebrated Jamaican food…
You can’t come to Bristol and not have some Jamaican food, the city having a large Jamaican population stemming from the UK’s efforts to rebuild after World War II. The British Nationality Act of 1948 gave citizens of the Commonwealth the right to settle in the UK, leading to the arrival of the Windrush generation, many of whom were Jamaican and made Bristol their home.
As more Jamaicans settled in Bristol, they formed communities and support networks which, in turn, attracted further migration from Jamaica. Over time, the Jamaican community in Bristol has made significant cultural contributions to the city, particularly in music, food, and festivals like the annual St Pauls Carnival, which celebrates African-Caribbean culture.
Images via @GullusKitchen
And so we wind up at Gullu’s Kitchen in Bristol’s Fishponds suburb, getting thoroughly seasoned with jerk smoke as we await arguably the city’s finest dose of grilled chicken, Caribbean or otherwise. A takeaway only joint (pedants, look away from the ‘best restaurants’part of the title), you’ll see the jerk pan – an oil drum that’s blackened from years of expert barbecuing – standing proudly outside Gullu’s, with several blistered legs being thoroughly doted on by a be-gloved, sometimes be-goggled cook.
God this is good chicken – nicely piquant from the house jerk sauce and charred beautifully. But don’t stop there; the brown stew chicken is phenomenal and arguably the most popular dish here. We’re also fans of the tender oxtail stew with butter beans. Loaded with big, bold Caribbean flavours, this rich, aromatic stew is meltingly tender and heady in its spicing. Have it over both chips and rice, and take your haul over to Coombe Brook Nature Reserve (a five minute walk) for a seriously elite picnic.
Ideal for Korean grilling and fermentation with serious culinary pedigree…
On Chandos Road (an absurdly stacked strip for restaurants, increasingly), Duncan and Kyu – their CVs boasting a shared stint at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon – have created a follow-up to Bokman that continues a lineage but is still very much its own thing. Where the rotisserie chicken takes centre stage a mile down the road, here it’s a custom charcoal grill doing the heavy lifting.
The room is clean, minimalist and cold-white, with windows that always feel misted with condensation – inviting from the outside, comforting once you’re in. It lets the food take centre stage.
Start with some compelling Kkochi (skewers) which set the tone. Octopus, given heft from lamb fat, comes gently smoked and yielding, with an earthy, cumin-spiked warmth, a drift of finely sliced chives a contender for a keen mark on that bloody Instagram account. All they need is a lick of lime to send them on their way.
From the raw section, Jinju style beef is a standout. Reminding us of a rubber band ball in appearance only, it’s spun through with house gochujang to give the tangle of flesh some life and dignity. Served alongside are sheets of nori and julienned Korean pear for DIY assembly. The interplay of rich, spiced beef against the crisp sweetness of the fruit is inspired. Everything is served at just the right temperature: the beef and pear ice cold by design, not accident.
Glazed Korean fried wings glazed arrive limbs intertwined in post-coital sleep. They shatter, they give, they’re gone in seconds.
The BBQ quail was the main event on our visit, and arrived as several birds portioned on a rack, burnished from the coals, their skin blistered and salty. Alongside comes the full banchan spread – rice, lettuce cups for wrapping, house kimchi and pickles – turning lunch into something participatory and gloriously hands-on. It demands you put your phone down, apologies to your shirt for the mess you’re about to make, and get stuck in.
The space itself is compact, split across two former shop fronts with counter seating not so much overlooking the open kitchen as being slightly under it. Watching the brigade work the grill – even if you can only see their faces and shoulders – is half the entertainment. The wine list, much like Bokman’s, leans natural, with Bristol importer Vine Trail supplying plenty of interesting bottles.
The Michelin Guide has already come calling. But awards aside, Dongnae is simply one of those restaurants that makes you want to return before you’ve even finished eating. It is one of the most downright enjoyable openings Bristol has seen lately.
Ideal for compelling French bistro cooking from a shipping container with serious soul…
Bristol’s Wapping Wharf is home to a frankly absurd concentration of great independent restaurants, several of which you’ll find later in this list. Lapin is among the best of them. A French bistro opened in April of last year by restaurateur Dan O’Regan and chef Jack Briggs-Horan, the pair behind BANK in Totterdown, it’s picked up an enthusiastic Guardian review, a Good Food Guide listing, and a reputation as one of the most compelling new openings Bristol has seen in years.
The room is tiny, sage green, and saturated with the smell of garlic butter. Vintage French advertising posters line the walls, and each wooden table is engraved with the restaurant’s motif: a rabbit clutching a baguette. This kind of myopic vision of Gallic vibes shouldn’t work in a Bristol shipping container, but it does, and then some.
Orkney scallop with agretti, celeriac and garlic butterSole meunière with blood orange and capersQuince sorbet and three-year Somerset cider brandyEclair du jour
The cooking is rich, seasonal and generous. Warm gougères of Old Winchester and blue cheese set the tone (as every self-respecting Somerset kitchen knows), and a hand-dived Orkney scallop with agretti, celeriac and garlic butter was a standout starter on our visit.
From the mains, sole meunière arrived in a wonderfully perfumed butter sauce lifted by blood orange and capers, with duck fat frites on the side that were every bit as good as their billing. To finish, the eclair du jour, here rhubarb and custard with stem ginger and torched Italian meringue, proved the kitchen is no slave to bistro dogma. Though it all sounds on the heavy side, and the natural assumption is you leave a place like this confit’d in butter, we’re pleased to report that Lapin leaves you feeling surprisingly light; the team here balance generosity and finesse with an admirable swagger.
Wine is all French and listed by character rather than region, with every bottle available by the glass. There’s also a prix fixe at £29 for three courses, available every service, with a £25 wine pairing on top. For cooking of this standard, in a room with this much personality, that’s remarkable value.
Now things are warming up, the terrace is the place to be; it catches the sun beautifully and is effervescent from its 5:30pm opening all the way to close.
Ideal forItalian small plates and interesting wines…
This wine bar and kitchen, part of the esteemed Bianchis Group whose growing presence in the city can only be a good thing, only emerged in early 2022 but has found its feet fast in Bristol’s Old City.
Transforming from its previous incarnations as La Sorella, a deli and aperitivo bar, and then Bar Ripiena, the pandemic thwarted plans to reimagine the space as a lasagne bar (how good does that sound?), leading to the birth of Cotto, a cosy bolthole known for its chilled out vibe and homestyle Italian cooking.
During the day, the tight room exudes a serene atmosphere with its muted, tactile terracotta walls and framed cartoons, while in the evenings, it transforms into a lively space with a convivial glow that you notice from the road. Trust us; it beckons you in.
Patrons can choose to sit up at the bar, overlooking St Stephen’s Street, enjoying a glass of wine and a small plate, though the enticing menu might make settling for just that feel like a missed opportunity. From that menu, the beef shin lasagne is superb; cakey and upright, just as it should be, and positively humming from its rich, pastoral ragu and aged parmesan-spiked bechamel. For good measure, it sits atop a little pool of tomato compote, which brings a welcome jolt of acidity.
Before that (because it will finish you off), make sure you order the artichoke fritti, a beautiful big pile of the bastards that have been drizzled with hot honey and showered with a few cooling leaves of mint. Popping in for just a plate of these and a glass of something cloudy and funky is very much the vibe of the place.
Or, go larger from the ever changing lineup of pasta; a bowl of fregola with clams and datterini or bucatini alla nerano, if you like.
With a generous selection of wines (many biodynamic) available by the glass, Cotto is a thoroughly agreeable place to spend an evening, or even an hour.
Not all of Bristol’s very best dining goes down in the centre of town. Indeed, venture just a little further afield, and you’ll be rewarded with some truly excellent options for your supper.
Perhaps our favourite slightly out-of-town spot sits in the peaceful residential suburb of Henbury, around a half hour’s drive from the city centre. It’s the kind of mission you need to make to enjoy a truly ‘country pub’ experience so close to a major urban centre. And the Blaise Inn offers just that, with a side of order of culinary excellence thrown in for good measure.
This Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded gastropub has quickly become a beloved fixture in the local dining scene since its opening in 2021, the work of Louise McCrimmon, a celebrated chef with previous as executive chef at Harvey Nichols back in central Bristol. Alongside her husband Ian and their neighbours Nicola and Peter Gilbert, McCrimmon has crafted a dining experience that feels like a glorious break from the hustle and bustle of the UK’s sixth largest city, even if it’s just for an afternoon.
That perception of escape certainly isn’t harmed by the Blaise Inn’s enviable vantage point just a mere stone’s throw from the picturesque Blaise Castle Estate, a sprawling 650-acre park owned by Bristol City Council. This proximity not only provides diners with a scenic backdrop but also imbues the inn with a sense of historical significance, as the estate itself was laid out by the renowned landscape designer Humphry Repton in the early 19th century.
The scene is well and truly set for a proper pub lunch, then, and the Blaise Inn duly delivers, with chef McCrimmon drawing on her classic French training and a steadfast commitment to seasonality to breathe new life into traditional pub dishes. So, that’s a half pint of gorgeously sweet, juicy prawns, served with a bracing but beautifully judged lemon aioli. Or, a perfect puck of ham hock terrine given lift off with a celeriac remoulade which was fresh and nutty, rather than cloying. A main course of slow cooked pork belly with radicchio and a nectarine and fennel dressing recently felt so succinct for a season just about to turn colder, and an on-point creme caramel with honey roast figs sealed the deal.
It pretty much goes without saying that the Sunday roast here is one of Bristol’s most celebrated. In the kegs, local favourite Fortitude, beautifully amber and supremely drinkable, flows with gusto. What’s not to love about the Blaise Inn?
Ideal for Middle Eastern sharing plates with the most singular of dinner views…
Lido is one of Bristol’s most unique venues for a meal, combining the charm of a restored Victorian swimming pool with the culinary delights of a top-tier restaurant. It’s a match made in heaven.
Sitting pretty in the heart of Clifton, one of Bristol’s most picturesque quarters, Lido offers more than just a place to swim; it’s an urban oasis where you can indulge in a spa treatment, relax in the sauna or hot tub, and then treat your taste buds to an exquisite meal. Or, do it the other way round, of course, leaving a little time for your food to go down before diving in.
Indigestion be damned; Lido’s history dates back to 1850 when it first opened its doors as a public swimming bath. After changing hands several times and even facing the threat of redevelopment into flats, it was finally purchased by Arne Ringer in 2004. Since then, it has been transformed into a place for Bristolians to relax and to gorge, equally.
The poolside menu at Lido takes on a Middle Eastern inflection – light, fresh and lively, and kinda perfect if you’re taking a dip after – with wood-fired flatbreads forming the anchor around which the seasonal small plates revolve.
Though not strictly vegetarian by any means, this is without doubt one of the best restaurants in the city for veggies, with some truly superlative vegetable-led cooking on show. Don’t pass over the beetroot and ajo blanco dish, the root vegetable ember roasted until close to collapse, propped up by a rich, tart emulsion of almonds and garlic. Just incredible. Some of that superb flatbread for dredging seals the deal.
All that said, when protein hits the grill here, magic happens. On a visit in the summer, charcoal-grilled onglet dressed in an anchovy, garlic-and chilli butter was gnarly in all the right places and as tender as you like in others, proving once again that this type of cut is so much more satisfying than a clinical fillet. Sea ass, given a similar rough and ready treatment on the grill, ends up being just as good as that onglet.
Appropriate for dining next to a shimmering, summery body of water, Lido’s selection of ice creams and sorbets always hit the spot, too. The Pedro Ximenez and raisin affair is particularly indulgent, and moody enough to feel suitable even in the depths of winter.
Lido offers a range of packages that include swimming, eating and massages, the most popular being the ‘Swim and Lunch’ package that includes use of the pool and spa, followed by a two-course lunch. What a lovely way to spend a rest day.
Ideal for indulgent escapism in butter, garlic and cream…
Bristol’s Westbury Park is the very definition of leafy, laid back suburb, all Victorian terraces, premium prams, and the chatter of folk who don’t have much place to be. If there’s not a GAIL’s somewhere, there should be.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Westbury Park boasts one of the most celebrated neighbourhood bistros in the city. Scrap that; the country. At chef Freddy Bird’s Littlefrench, the vibe is all about unpretentious, flavour-packed French country cooking and quality bottles of quaffable wine whose prices are similarly easy to swallow. Some are even sub £30, which, in today’s economy, is becoming increasingly unheard of.
Indeed, slipping into the banquette seating for a cosy, candlelit evening is one of our guiltiest midweek treats; escapism in its purest form. Lose yourself in the roast queen scallops, five of them served in the shell, anointed with an opulent sauternes butter sauce. A supplement of Sturia Oscietra caviar is an indulgence, sure, but that’s why you’re here, right?
From the mains, an indulgent and elegant bowl of hake, clams and monks beard, with a rich emulsion of cider and crème fraîche sauce swirling around them, pulls together a happy collection of briny ingredients. On a more recent visit (yep, we’ve been here a few times), the whole roast partridge with bone marrow bread sauce is all tied together with a mouth-coating, caramel-like armagnac jus. Yep, your cardiologist isn’t going to thank Freddy Bird, but who gives a fuck when the food is this good.
As you reel from the fat in every form and the casual swearing, don’t forget to save room for dessert. For another dependable dose of fat, Littlefrench’s extraordinarily elegant creme brulee is a sensuous, light and lovely dream. The chocolate mousse is dark and properly rich, sure, but it’s also almost cleansing in its simplicity. The fact it’s served in a puddle of cream does no harm. You might need stretching out at the end of all this, but as you stare at the chilly night sky from your prone position, you’ll feel very satisfied indeed.
Interestingly, in 2024 the team behind Little French opened a new restaurant; the enthusiastically reviewed second act 1 York Place, a restaurant that places a keener focus on pan-European dishes and seafood.
Ideal for beautifully big-hearted plates in the most intimate of dining spaces…
Nabbing a booking in this compact, 14-cover shipping container restaurant in Wapping Wharf certainly isn’t easy. But spare a thought for the man behind the stoves; there’s even less room out back. How he manages to coax such flavour and finesse from such a small space is a wonder.
That man is Elliott Lidstone, a former head chef of L’Ortolan and The Empress pub in Hackney, BOX-E exudes a quiet ambition that feels quintessentially Bristolian – the minimalist, utilitarian interiors and sparse menu descriptors belying the complexity found on the plate. Sure, a dish of hake, butter beans and cauliflower may sound simple – beige, even – but really, was anything but. Decadent and lively, and with the fillet of hake cooked just under, as it should be, this was a sublime bit of fish cookery, bolstered by a caramelised cauliflower puree that brought depth to the plate.
Images via @Box-E
Desserts at BOX-E are simple yet satisfying, with chef Lidstone’s panna cotta always a winner. So much so, in fact, that there are often two on the menu – recently, one was centred around vanilla, the other black treacle. Order one each and you’ve got yourself some ying and yang vibes right there. Indeed, while the restaurant may not have the capacity for intricate pastry work, the desserts are still crafted with care and attention, ensuring a delightful end to your meal.
BOX-E is more than just a restaurant; it’s a testament to the spirit of Bristol – innovative, ambitious, and unafraid to do things differently.
Ideal for superb vegetable-led – rather than solely vegetarian – cooking in a shipping container…
We’re sticking around in Wapping Wharf for a feast of vegetable-centric dishes next, at Root, one of the South West’s most celebrated restaurants. Root’s ethos revolves around promoting sustainable food and fostering direct trade between local producers, suppliers, and chefs. This commitment to sustainability and local sourcing is not just a marketing gimmick but a core principle that shapes the menu and wider operations, particularly their celebration of seasonal vegetables.
Here, prettily presented plates which vibrate with the colour of fresh produce and don’t sacrifice anything on flavour that just keep coming. We particularly love their wicked way with barbecued leaves and greens; currently, a charred hispi cabbage arrives dressed in a punchy Russian dressing, showered with shards of Lyburn cheese and croutons. It’s a salad with swagger.
Perhaps even better is the hake and trout kiev, an inspired riff on that retro classic, the fish encasing a core of herbed butter that floods the plate when you cut in. Pickled fennel on the side brings the necessary crunch and acidity. From the vegetable plates, Jerusalem artichokes with quince, radicchio and hazelnut feel pitch-perfect for January – earthy, bitter and sweet in equal measure.
If the weather’s looking good (yep, we realise we’re feasting on late autumnal bits here), try to nab a seat out on the small terrace area; it boasts fantastic views of the harbourside.
Idealfor shelling, sucking and slurping your way through Spanish prawns in a variety of preparations…
Please; just one more meal in a shipping container before we leave this shimmering corner of Bristol. And so it is to Gambas, another of Wapping Wharf’s heavy-hitters.
A tapas bar (well, shipping container) that puts all things prawn on a pedestal, there are a few better ways to spend an evening than here, with your sleeves rolled up and your inhibitions down, sucking the head juice out of some salty, blistered wild red prawns.
Keep that blistered, off-bitter vibe going with stunning Cornish sardines that are tossed on the plancha and served with a simple dressing of garlic, parsley and lemon.
For those not in thrall to the rusty flavours of the sea, there’s still plenty to enjoy from Gambas’ De La Tierra (‘of the earth’) section of the menu, which despite its rather lofty subheader, is essentially a catalogue of tapas bar classics. The fried aubergine with molasses is exceptional.
It’s also great to see Idiazabal – the smoky, gamey Basque soft cheese – on the menu here. It represents a fine way to finish a meal that’s been all about luxuriating in shellfish.
Ideal for trying Bristol’s most enduring Michelin-star…
Weirdly for a city which, until recently, was decorated with several, Bristol now only boasts two Michelin stars. One of those (and certainly of of Bristol’s best restaurants) is here, at Bulrush.
The brainchild of chef George Livesey, whose natural talent and innovative approach to cooking have earned him widespread acclaim, it’s a joyous affair. His classical training with the Roux brothers and stints at L’Enclume and St John is evident in the elegant nine-course menu here (clocking in at an eminently reasonable £80, incidentally), which showcases his mastery of precision technique and refined, defined flavour.
The restaurant’s name, Bulrush, is intriguingly derived from a type of marsh plant, Scirpus lacustris, traditionally used for making mats and chair seats. This reflects the restaurant’s ethos of simplicity, authenticity, and a reverence for nature, an outlook highlighted further still in the whitewashed brick dining room.
There’s no bells and whistles here, that’s for certain, with all eyes falling on the plate and its celebration of just one or two bang-in-season ingredients. That’s not to say that flavour combinations here aren’t innovative and, occasionally, thought-provoking; an amuse bouche of crab paired with chamomile-adjacent pineappleweed is a wonderful case in point. Ditto the current headliner course of duck breast cooked to a perfect blushing pink cuisson and sitting beside a fermented peach, giving the most beautiful balance is umami richness and complex acidity.
The drinks pairing is just as carefully composed, and well worth the £60 for a raft of interesting, intricate primarily new world offerings. For us, Bulrush is the best straightforwardly ‘fine’ dining experience in Bristol, and one we keep going back to time and time again.
Ideal for some of the country’s best fish and chips, enjoyed next to a shimmering body of water…
This new-ish, family-run establishment, sitting by the Cumberland Basin and enjoying fantastic views of the water, is the brainchild (not their actual child – he’s the eponymous Noah) of dynamic husband-and-wife duo Dan and Joie Rosser. Their passion for showcasing the best of British seafood is palpable in every dish they serve, whether it’s the exemplary fish and chips that is Noah’s signature or the Cornish lemon sole, grilled whole on the bone.
Either way, rest assured that this is as fresh as fish comes, sourced from day boats from Devon and Cornwall and cooked sympathetically and with maximum respect. All you need now is a bowl of fluffy, thick cut chips and a beer or two. Aaaah; I think we might just stay here awhile.
Ideal for an expertly conceived ‘Britalian’ dining experience…
Another family-run operation named after the co-owners’ son; Sonny Stores.
Here, River Cafe alumnus Pegs Quinn and his wife Mary Glynn run one of the city’s most cherished restaurants, with a broadly ‘Britalian’ menu showcasing fantastic local produce cooked with reverence in a tightly-packed, always busy dining room.
Though the building itself may be intimate, it houses a genuinely excellent dining experience. Not perhaps as pasta heavy as some of the other great Italian restaurants in Bristol, here the vibe is fresh, light and largely vegetable-led. All that said, perhaps our favourite dish in recent memory was an offal-based pasta dish; the superlative chicken liver ragu served over freshly made, perfectly al dente pappardelle and sitting under wafts of 24 month aged parmesan. What a gently funky, immensely satisfying dish.
Vegetarians will eat very well here, though, with the farinata (chickpea pancake) and charred friggitelli peppers particularly good, and the perfect accompaniment to a cold one, just as it’s done in Bel Paese.
The pizzettas are quite rightly the stuff of legend, too. If the taleggio with burnt onion, sage and hot honey, and a cheeky chilli bedded into the cheese, is on the menu, order it.
End with an affogato, just as we’re going to do (here the espresso is poured over creamy stracciatella ice cream), and you’ve got yourself one of the most gratifying meals in Bristol. So gratifying, in fact, that we might just need a minute…
Authenticity is the name of the game at this Redland institution, where the owners cite regular staff trips to Spain as the inspiration for their steadfast takes on classic tapas dishes.
If you’re hoping to simply swan in off the street like you were on a merry bar crawl in Seville, be warned; Bravas is reliably packed like Ortiz sardines pretty much every evening, except on Sundays, when it’s closed to recover from the week’s hangover. Fortunately, the place opens at midday and runs until midnight without pause for the remaining six days, so there’s always room if you arrive at a traditionally ‘off peak’ hour (4:47pm, if you’re asking). You can, of course, book ahead, but that rather kills the romance, don’t you think?
Anyway, the wait is richly rewarded, with highlights like cod bronzed from the plancha and served with a properly bracing mojo verde, or a really lovely little cazuela of chorizo braised in cider, the juices, as always, the best part. The patatas bravas from which the restaurant takes its names are a faithful rendition of a classic, too. A signature sherry negroni or two seals the deal, and has us still propping up the bar at close (sorry guys!).
Vietnamese food feels criminally underrepresented in Bristol, with many lovers of pho, banh mi and the rest often heading out of town and to the acclaimed Noya’s Kitchen in Bath for their fix of the good stuff.
The Saigon Kitchen is changing all that. Chef Trung, originally from a small fishing village close to Halong Bay in Vietnam’s north, is the man at the stoves here, delivering time-honoured, broadly Northern Vietnamese recipes to the Redland faithful.
Indeed, despite the restaurant’s name, it’s Hanoi’s streetfood that is most well represented here, with a very welcome, very delicious appearance of the iconic cha ca la vong a menu highlight. Here, chunks of white fish are marinated in galangal and turmeric before being fried in a tangle of spring onions and dill, the marinade turning the oil a delicious shade of brass. Enjoy with fresh rice noodles and heaps of herbs for one of Hanoi’s most lauded bites. The version here is superb.
Of course, there’s pho too, here the savoury, sparse Northern version that has the miraculous ability of dusting off even the most brutal of Walking Whirlwind hangovers. Even better is the bun cha, the essential Hanoi lunch dish of beautifully sweet and caramelised barbecued pork patties and slices of belly, fresh rice noodles and herbs, all brought together with a sweet and sour fish sauce dressing. Banging.
If it’s a hair of the dog kind of situation (not sure why we’re suddenly assuming it is), then the Saigon Kitchen is open from midday on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with bottles of Saigon and Hanoi beer (the former trumps the latter) available for £6.
Ideal for Italian small plates and interesting wines (hang on, haven’t we already said that? Bristol is that kind of place)…
Back in the older part of the city, close to the Hippodrome Theatre, Marmo is a hip (do hip people say ‘hip’?) osteria-cum-wine-bar that has quickly become a favourite among locals and national restaurant reviewers alike.
The kitchen, led by Cosmo Sterck, focuses on a concise seasonal menu of Italian dishes that are both flavourful and beautifully presented. The wine selection, curated by Lily Sterck, has some interesting, sometimes exclusive drops, with several available by the glass.
Whilst Jay Rayner was certainly right to call Marmo ‘an absolute corker’ (not a comment on their inept opening of those interesting drops, we hope), you might need a second opinion. Find it in our roundup of Bristol’s best Italian restaurants, if the mood takes you.
Ideal for serious Jamaican cooking and a rum list that’ll make your head spin…
Sitting pretty at the livelier end of Stokes Croft, Caribbean Croft has been doing things its own way since 2017. Every dish here comes from Ms Cat’s recipe book – family secrets passed down through generations that you won’t find anywhere else in Bristol. And yes, we have been coming here so much lately that we’re now on first name terms with the owner…
The curry goat is exceptional – tender meat that’s had hours on the stove, in a sauce that’s more about warmth and depth than raw heat. Still, that chilli heat does undulate, bringing about a gentle sweat on the brow rather than making your actual hair follicles hurt. A plate of peppered Appleton coconut steak shows similar patience in the kitchen, the meat given time to properly take on the rum and coconut milk it’s cooked in. The gravy alone is worth the admission fee (there’s isn’t one, and we don’t know why we said that).
For smaller appetites, the saltfish fritters are spot on – crisp, light, and lifted by red onion and scotch bonnet. Follow those with ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish done proper here with seasoned callaloo and green banana on the side.
What sets Caribbean Croft apart, though, is that rum collection. We’re talking over 100 bottles, ranging from easy-sipping standards to serious aged stuff that climbs past £40 a shot. The bar team knows their stuff – let them guide you through it. Their signature Caribbean Croft cocktail blends three different rums with grapefruit and cranberry, while the Guinness punch is a proper taste of Jamaica.
They’re open late (11pm most nights), but the kitchen closes at 9:30pm except Sundays when everything winds down at 7pm. Book ahead for dinner – this place fills up fast, especially on weekends when they open from noon.
Ideal for attentive service and plates of Mediterraneanlove and lightness…
We’re massive fans of Bristol’s premier prawn purveyors over at Gambas in Wapping Wharf, as we’ve made clear in this article already. So, when we heard that Mark Chapman, a man with a significant tenure as Gambas executive chef under his belt, and wife Karen had opened COR in Bemmy in late 2022, our interest wasn’t just piqued; it was aroused.
To say that COR found its feet fast would be an understatement. It was recognised by the Michelin Guide with a Bib Gourmand only a few months after opening, the red book rightly remarking on the restaurant’s ‘contagious positivity’. This bright, breezy outlook is found both in the room and on the plate, with tender, perceptive service a hallmark here, and dishes that represent something of a love letter to the Mediterranean, seen through a British lens and delivered with flair and creativity.
The seasonal canelé is a signature, and a lovely, anchoring way of checking in with where Bristol produce is currently at. Right now, that burnished, striated pastry cylinder has been filled with whipped goat’s cheese and wild thyme. It sits in a pool of vivid magenta-hued beetroot, and it’s one perfectly poised mouthful.
You could order one of these, a plate of Wye Valley asparagus with lemon butter sauce, and some Roman-style artichokes, and be very happy indeed, luxuriating in just how perfectly Spring-like and seasonal your order is, but that would be to miss out on the show stopping larger plates.
The Iberico pork presa blushes pink in a way that would scare your ma but eats beautifully, with its accompanying panzanella salad of Isle of Wight tomatoes and marinated anchovies. A little quince jam sends everything on its way and into the arms of the waiting sourdough, no doubt smeared with COR’s amazing black garlic butter if you’ve got any sense.
Another firm favourite on a recent visit was the Hereford beef onglet with burnt shallot, hazelnut beurre noisette, gorgonzola and jus, the enjoyably chewy steak revealing its rich, brooding flavour more with every bite.
Pasta is done superbly here too, unsurprisingly. A dish of tagliolini with Dorset clams, bottarga with calabrian chilli had my dining partner positively cooing, its drifts of cured fish liver adding umami and funk in all the right places.
Yep, COR is a place where the finer details have been taken care of, where the cooking is truly out of the top drawer, but the vibe remains refreshingly laid back and casual, which is exactly what you want from a neighbourhood restaurant, don’t you think? Not just one of the 23 here, COR is perhaps our very favourite restaurant in Bristol.
Ideal for exceptional Italian regional cooking in the most intimate of settings…
Mark and Karen Chapman’s second Bristol venture (their first being that there COR from just above) has fast become one of the city’s most celebrated restaurants since opening in April 2025. Operating from a single shipping container at Wapping Wharf (just. one. more. please.), RAGU represents a love letter to Italian cooking that’s earned national praise from the likes of Grace Dent, who declared it her “new favourite restaurant of 2025”.
The compact space features just six tables plus bar seating with direct views of the open kitchen, where executive chef Vyck Colsell works her magic. The container setting might sound restrictive, but the energy is palpable, the buzz intimate and exciting.
Start with the Roman artichoke fritti, a glorious heap of golden globes that arrive glistening from the fryer, each one concealing tender hearts within their crisp shells. A dollop of silky aioli provides the perfect piquant counterpoint, and it’s the kind of dish that makes you realise how rarely artichokes are treated with proper respect in this country. That’s a shame, ’cause they’re fucking delicious.
The shoulder of lamb with pea ragu, salsa verde and pecorino is comforting thing. The meat, slow-braised until fork-nudge-tender, sits atop a mixture of sweet peas (braised until browning and all the better for it) and pancetta that tastes distinctly of spring even in the depths of winter. The salsa verde cuts through the richness with its bright acidity, whilst shavings of aged pecorino add that essential sharp, salty note. We wish they were open Sundays, as it carries the same comfort as the very best roast dinner.
For something altogether more delicate, the cipollotti onion with caprino fresco from Piedmont is sublime. The sweet baby onions are charred enthusiastically over coals until just-bitter and caramelised, and paired with creamy goat’s cheese that’s been finished with grape must, creating a dish that manages to be both rustic and refined. It’s the sort of plate that reminds you why Italian cooking is so revered – seemingly simple combinations that reveal layers of satisfying flavour with each bite.
But perhaps the star of the show is the fennel sausage from Tuscany, broken up and nestled with fregola, and finished with an assertive potato crumb and gremolata. The sausage, lightly fermented and funky, sits up nicely against the nutty fregola. That potato crumb might sound like an affectation, but it adds a textural element that lifts the whole dish, whilst the bright gremolata prevents things from becoming too heavy. It’s an absolute triumph, and soup enough that all you need is a spoon to eat it.
Don’t skip dessert. The tiramisu with orange and nutmeg has already achieved a certain following amongst Bristol’s food-obsessed, and rightly so. It’s the kind of dessert that makes you close your eyes and sigh with satisfaction.
The wine list focuses on natural and biodynamic producers from across Italy, with several interesting bottles available by the glass. What’s not to like here? And with most dishes under £20, RAGU offers exceptional value for cooking of this quality. Bookings are recommended but walk-ins are actively encouraged – it’s the kind of place that welcomes everyone from solo diners seeking an aperitif to families wanting a full Italian feast.
Souk Kitchen has established itself as a standout destination in Bristol’s dining scene, offering a menu that thoughtfully combines Middle Eastern and North African culinary traditions with high-quality local ingredients. It’s a match made in heaven.
Sitting pretty opposite the always-rammed Tobacco Factory Theatres in ever-buzzier Southville (Sonny Stores, also part of our list of Bristol’s best restaurants, is just two minutes down the road if you’re up for a tasty one-two punch), SOUK Kitchen is perhaps a restaurant best enjoyed in the daytime. During the lunch hours, the room feels light and bright, a vibe that feels in synergy with what’s on the plate.
The restaurant is renowned for its freshly flavoured, punchy but comforting dishes, such as the Anatolian lamb yahni and the chicken tagine with ginger and prune, which showcase the depth and diversity of the regions’ flavours. The ever-changing seasonal menu ensures a fresh and dynamic dining experience, with the mezze selection always a treat.
The popular weekend brunch features robust options like the Tunisian shakshuka, alongside a well-executed bloody Mary. SOUK Kitchen’s dedication to local sourcing is evident, with meats and breads procured from nearby suppliers, reflecting a commitment to community and quality.
Following its success, SOUK Kitchen expanded with a café and deli in Clifton, mirroring the original location’s menu and offering the added convenience of a retail space for their unique spice blends. The mothership is still the one we’re drawn to, however.
The drinks, including a wonderfully floral quince martini and very grown-up tasting blood orange margarita, complement the vivid, vibrant food with a similarly creative touch. What a lovely restaurant SOUK Kitchen is, and certainly of Bristol’s best.
As much as we’d love to keep eating around Bristol’s best restaurants until we actually die, we’re pretty stuffed, sleepy and ready to phone in this last entry to our rundown.
All you need to know about Spiny Lobster on Whiteladies Road is that it’s both a fishmongers and grill, with all the freshness and smoke that suggests. Indeed, the fish and shellfish here is sourced daily from Brixham in Devon, and the charcoal grill is always burning. It is, quite simply, a glorious place to dine for those who live all things seafood.
Bokman, Cotham *as of March 2026, currently closed*
Ideal for a reviving, exciting Korean spread centred around grilled chicken…
Tucked away at the end of a steep cul-de-sac off Bristol’s loose and lively Stokes Croft neighbourhood, you’ll find Bokman, a small Korean restaurant with a big reputation.
The work of Duncan Robertson and Kyu Jeon, who met at Paris’s L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon and have since got married, this is a unique dining experience that is both intimate and exhilarating, the tightly spaced dining room on the ground floor a buzzing, belying centrepiece to the grill work going on out back.
On that upright, rotating charcoal spit you’ll find the star of Bokman’s blistered show; the Tongdak. Featuring crisp-skinned rotisserie chicken stuffed with sticky rice and slow-cooked until tender, it’s served with ssam style, with lettuce leaves for wrapping and a selection of dipping sauces and pickles. A bowl of the house kimchi is, of course, obligatory. It’s got to be the most celebratory, all-in sharing plate in the city.
Bokman’s menu doesn’t stop at the Tongdak, though. Seasonal vegetable bibimbap makes the ideal dinner for one, the famous stone bowl rice dish given lift-off with gratings of cured pollock roe and an oozing egg yolk, whilst the seolleongtang – a wibbly, wobbly beef stew topped with spring onions and spicy dadaegi condiment – is one winter warmer and a half, and could be peddled as a health food were it not so damn indulgent tasting. Whole bream bathing happily under a rusty gochujang-heavy sauce is yet another knockout. Yep, you’ll want to bring friends for this one.
All you need alongside is a bottle of room temperature soju and consider your cockles thoroughly warmed (can you tell we’re writing this on a particularly chilly day?).
Cool things right back down with Bokman’s signature soft-serve, perfect even in winter, and you’ve got yourself one of the most peerless, joyful dining experiences in Bristol.
*Editor’s note (March 2026): Bokman is currently closed following a kitchen fire in December 2025. The timing of the fire was particularly cruel. Just weeks earlier, in October 2025, TimeOut London had named Bokman the country’s No.2 Best Restaurant. The team are assessing damage and will provide updates on reopening. In the meantime, they encourage guests to visit their sister restaurant Dongnae on Chandos Road.*
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 a little over 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.
Jerk Yard is open daily from 10am to 10pm, with slightly shortened hours on Sundays.
Ideal for trying one of the best beef 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, open in the evenings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, open for lunch and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays, and open for lunch only on Sundays.
Such is the demand for Taca’s birria that founder Thorne Addyman opened a second, larger site on Peckham’s Rye Lane in 2023, complete with a full bar and beer garden. The Deptford original remains the one to visit, though – smaller, scrappier, and still turning out some of the best birria in south London.
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 an 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 barberry and pistachio stuffed lamb belly (the most expensive single plate on the menu at £27) keeps things simple and does it with a breezy confidence that’s endearing. The lamb gets a robust char that suits this gnarlier cut so well, and its accompanying harissa 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 late 2025 visit. All in all, it’s all good at this Deptford High Street favourite.
In early 2026, the restaurant introduced a weekly Thursday steak night – the signature onglet with frites and a glass of wine for £25 – alongside a Wednesday wine club in collaboration with local importers Wines Under The Bonnet and Table Wines UK. It’s a sign of a kitchen and team settling deeper into Deptford’s fabric.
Klose & Soan opens Thursday 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 10:30pm, 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.
The restaurant’s popularity has long since outgrown its modest dining room. Eat Vietnam 2, a walk-in sister venue at 244 Evelyn Street (just a few doors down) now handles the overflow, serving an identical menu to the same exacting standard.
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.
Marcella is open every day, though Sundays are just lunch and Mondays just dinner.
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.
Those of a certain vintage may well recall the white elephant on the Thames. A hulking reminder of the unfulfilled promises and empty excesses of champagne socialism. The flimsy structure catching Daniel Craig’s fall but failing to capture the public’s attention. An inexplicable diamond heist…
…But to many, this spiky silhouette on the Greenwich skyline is better remembered as being the scene of some of London’s biggest gigs over the past decade or so, with everyone from Bey to Bublé, Bieber and Burna gracing its stage. And those are just the B’s…
Though much maligned (and bloody freezing inside!), The O2 has become arguably the city’s main focus for major world tours, high-octane sporting events and more, playing a pivotal role in the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula along the way.
With 2.5 million tickets sold by The O2 annually, you’d think the options for eating in the vicinity would be as vast as they are delicious. The former is certainly true; there are close to 50 restaurants and food vendors onsite. The latter, however, is a little harder to say with conviction.
In all honesty, if you’re looking for a truly fantastic feed before heading to The O2 Arena, you might be better off first pitching up in Deptford or Peckham, where there are plenty of great meals to be had. Simply take the 188 bus from Deptford, or catch the overground to Canada Water before taking the Jubilee line to the venue from Peckham – neither should take much longer than half an hour.
But that’s not why you’re here, right? You’re here to find a great restaurant within a big yellow pillar’s throw of The O2 Arena. We’re here to help with that; here’s our guide on where to eat near The O2 Arena, Greenwich.
The Best Food At The Actual O2 Arena
For those in a hurry…
Marugame Udon, The O2
Ideal fora bargain bowl of noodles served swiftly…
The dining options at The O2 Arena may be vast, but they’re not desperately exciting – you’ve got your Nando’s, your Pizza Express, your Las Iguanas, and, well, that’s about it.
Arguably the best option for a nourishing, desperately decisive bite here is Marugame Udon. Specialising in Sanuki udon, a type of udon noodle from the Kagawa prefecture in Japan that’s famous for its firm, chewy texture and its simple adornments, this is a no-fuss bowl of goodness that will see you right before the show if you’re tight on time.
The chicken katsu udon is arguably the star of the show at Marugame, a best-selling dish that combines breadcrumbed, deep-fried chicken breast with a rich curry sauce and those chewy noodz. Costing £9.95, it’s a relative steal, too, though not as cheap as a bowl of the BK or kake noodles, both in a fish dashi broth at disparate ends of the rich to light spectrum, and both clocking in at just £4.95. That’s some seriously impressive value.
Marugame Udon has over 1000 stores worldwide, with 9 in London alone, so you’re guaranteed consistency and efficiency here, which is ideal if you can hear the band limbering up on stage.
Idealfor the only sophisticated-ish sit-down dinner in the O2…
One of around 20 of the Gaucho brand nationwide, this Argentinian-inspired steakhouse is perhaps the best (the only?) option for a fairly sophisticated sit-down meal within the grounds of The O2 Arena.
Spread over three floors, it’s an expansive spectacle that’s billed as ‘the finest steak restaurant in Greenwich’. Think big, guys.
To be fair, they’re probably right; the thoroughly marbled, hefty ancho rib eye, served blushing but not too rare, is a fine piece of beef indeed. Pair it with some chargrilled veg adorned with a well-made Caesar dressing, and you’ve got yourself a complete meal. Hold the sauce – the chimichurri is seasoned with caustic intent and brings nothing to the party.
If you’ve got time before the show starts, finish things off with the vibratingly sweet salted dulce de leche cheesecake, which hits the right spot if you’re in the mood for a certain sort of sugar rush.
Update for spring 2026: Gaucho has just launched a new spring menu, with head dishes and sides inspired by a recent trip to Argentina by Culinary Director Anthony Ekizian. The set lunch remains strong value for this part of town at two courses for £17.95 or three for £19.95, available Monday to Friday between 12pm and 4pm. There’s also a pre-theatre thing going on (again, two courses for £17.95, three for £19.95). Finally, on O2 show dates, cocktails are available at reduced prices, which is worth knowing if you’re watching the pennies before splashing out on merch.
Idealfor familiar fast food when you’re in danger of missing the first song…
Listen; we don’t make the rules. When time is of the essence and you need a quick, satisfying, salty meal, Five Guys still does a job. Sure, you’ll need one of those silly 2 pint cups of beer to rehydrate afterwards, but that’s half the fun isn’t it?
Venture a little further afield and into Greenwich proper, and you’ll find your world of options for dinner expands greatly.
A short walk or even shorter bus ride from The O2…
Wandercrust Pizza at The Pelton Arms
Ideal for Greenwich’s best pizza by some distance…
Though Crisp Pizza seems to have annexed allof London’s pizza-in-a-pub hype recently, Wandercrust Pizza’s residency at the Pelton Arms in Greenwich is still worthy of a little slice of the action.
Long proved, wood-fired, Neapolitan-adjacent pizzas are the name of the game here, which arrived splayed over brown paper, all irregularly shaped, inflated and leopard-crusted, and glistening with a drizzle of good olive oil.
The provola e pepe is the connoisseur’s choice, the smoked pasta filata bringing just the right amount of intrigue whilst letting the carefully sourced San Marzanos and the pizza’s oven pronounced breath shine. Freshly cracked black pepper seals the deal. This is a seriously good pizza, make no mistake, and quite possibly South East London’s best.
Pizzas start being slung at 6pm weekdays and from 1pm at the weekends, giving you plenty of time for a meal before the show – that’s if you give the support act a swerve, of course.
And on Mondays, it’s buy one pizza and get another free. Who can argue with that?
Ideal for decent pub grub just a short stroll from the O2…
Just a 10 minute stroll from The O2, The Pilot is one of the oldest pubs in the area, oozing charm and history despite its takeover by Fuller’s a decade ago.
Sure, it may be a centrally-run, generally-managed affair, but the food at The Pilot is genuinely decent. We’re partial to their ham hock and Cornish cider terrine, whilst the seared trout with braised lentils and crispy capers feels like it’s been cooked to order rather than warmed through in a bag. High praise indeed.
It’s also one of the closest places for a proper pint close to the venue. This is something you might want to savour pre-show, as the pints inside The O2 are flat as fuck. In summer, pitch up at some of the wooden bench seating in the courtyard opposite the pub and have a few – it’s a pleasant spot.
The Pilot’s Sunday roasts are particularly renowned (vague promises of provenance appear, such as ‘South Coast pork’, ‘Yorkshire’ puddings…), making it the perfect place for a long and leisurely afternoon meal before a Sunday night show. If you’ve got seated tickets, that is…
Though K Kitchen – a Korean joint that does a mean fried chicken – is takeaway only, it’s only a couple of minute’s walk from the attractive East Greenwich Pleasaunce Park.
Glazed in your choice of three house sauces (or simply ‘savoury, without sauce’), here boneless thigh fillets are double battered and double fried for maximum crunch. Though the plum and garlic certainly hits the spot, we’re all about the sweet chilli sauce glaze here, which boasts that sharp piquancy of the finest Korean fried chicken.
Order a tub of 5 thighs for an eminently reasonable £8.95 and head for that park for the ultimate pre-show, alfresco feast. Bring extra napkins – this one gets messy!
Ideal fora quintessential pie and mash experience…
Standing proud since 1890 in the heart of Greenwich, and a mere hop, skip, and a jump (or, more sensibly, a 15 minute bus ride on the 188) from The O2 Arena, Goddards at Greenwich offers a quintessentially traditional pie and mash experience.
The pies are hand-made with flaky pastry (also available gluten-free), the fillings are generous with just the right level of sauce-saturation, and the liquor is just as bracing as God intended it. Delicious.
And for the sweet-toothed, the dessert menu features another British staple – steamed puddings smothered in syrup. Whether you’re a local or a visitor, a meal at Goddards at Greenwich is an authentic taste of London’s culinary heritage that should not be missed.
This Greenwich outpost of the popular Peckham institution started life as a hole in the wall in the car park of Smyths Toys Superstores, but has since moved to a proper shopfront on Woolwich Road with a few seats. It still operates primarily as a takeaway, serving some of the best northern Nigerian food in the capital.
Just look for the lines of Uber Eats drivers, as Alhaji does a roaring trade in delivery to the hungry punters of South East London and beyond. The suya has a pronounced hum of smoke and a bark that’s achieved through a process of double-grilling, and the chilli heat manages to be both assertive and nuanced.
Kilishi – a robust dried beef number similar to jerky – is also sold here by the 60g for £5.95. You’d be foolish not to add a 5 gram baggy of extra yaji spice to your order, too. Sneak a Minigrip of the stuff, rusty red and thrumming with heat, into The O2 in your sock for a chilli-inspired endorphin-rush mid-gig. Ah, that’s the stuff.
Open daily from 10am until 10pm, and 11:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
Martin Heap has been making sausages for longer than most London restaurants have existed. He started Simply Sausages at Smithfield Market in 1991, where queues formed around the block for his 24 varieties of banger – the same recipes that now fill Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference range. His Greenwich café and deli, run with partner Vincenzo Carbonara (can’t help thinking he’s missing a trick being confined to the sausage game), is where you’ll find the originals: handmade on-site, visible through the glass at the back of the shop.
The flagship No.1 sausage – 88% pork with nutmeg, mace and a whisper of white pepper – hasn’t changed since Heap first perfected it. But the menu runs broader than that: sausage and mash with onion gravy, the Lethal Lucifer hot dog for those who like heat, lamb merguez with tzatziki, and a Big Heap’s Bap that stacks sausages, bacon and egg into something approaching structural engineering. There’s a small heated courtyard out back, local wines and Fourpure beers, and a deli counter selling cheeses, charcuterie and store cupboard bits if you want to take something home.
A word of warning: this is a daytime operation only, closing at 4pm daily, so it’s lunch before a matinee rather than dinner before an evening show. It’s also a good 45-minute walk to The O2 from here, so allow time or hop on the Thames Clipper from Greenwich Pier to North Greenwich, but it’s well worth the detour if you like your sausages made by someone who’s been at it for over three decades. Who doesn’t, quite honestly?
Open Monday to Friday 7:30am to 4pm, whilst on Saturdays and Sundays things start a little later, at 8am and 9am, respectively.
Ideal for a fickle squad who need plenty of choice…
A bit further afield but worth the journey, Greenwich Market is a treasure trove of street food stalls serving cuisines from around the world. From Thai curries to Italian arancini, the world’s your oyster here (they do those, too). It’s a great place to explore if you have a few hours to spare before your event at The O2.
Among our favourite stalls here are the prosaically named but poetically seasoned Ethiopian Vegetarian Food, whose Yetsom Beyaynetu platter (well, polystyrene box in this case) is superb. Just down the way, another Ethiopian joint, Addi’s Taste, does a damn fine lentil sambusa (a samosa of sorts).
For dessert, it’s got to be Doreen’s Jamaican Homemade Rum Cake, the name of the stall and the indulgently soaked sweet treat that is the headlining act. We have to admit gorging on so many of these in a single sitting once that we genuinely felt pissed…
Do be aware that the market closes at 5:30pm, with many stalls winding down earlier than that, so make sure you’re planning on an early dinner/late lunch if you’re eating here before heading to the venue. Don’t worry about that yawning gap between finishing eating and your gig beginning; the walk from Greenwich Market from the O2 can be an incredibly pretty one, and takes around an hour. Simply head for the Cutty Sark from the market, and follow the curve of the Thames north. Beautiful.
Don’t be fooled by the starched white table clothes in Greenwich’s premier Nepalese restaurant, Mountain View; the vibe here is laid back and unpretentious, and the food fresh and invigorating.
Start with the fulsome, subtly spiced lamb momos, steamed and pleasingly gelatinous. Served alongside is a nuanced tomato achar, spicy and smokey but in a measured way. It’s an excellent way to kick things off here. Or anywhere, for that matter. It’s also laughably good value at just £5.95 for a plateful.
From the larger dishes, the murgh tikka lababdar is a rich and soothing affair, its generous finishing of cream and butter smoothing out the rougher edges of smoked chilli. Smooth out your own rough edges with a pint of Cobra – on tap here – and it’s show time.
Ideal for Neapolitan-style pizzaopposite Cutty Sark station…
Step out of Cutty Sark DLR Station and you’ll see the glowing pull of Bianco43 pretty much straight away, the warm, flickering smoulder from the pizza oven an enticement if ever there was one.
From that oven, it’s Neapolitan-style pizzas all the way, the Napulé a particularly salty, satisfying business. There’s also a short selection of homemade pasta dishes. Keep it light with spinach and ricotta ravioli or go to town on the lasagna, before walking it all off, riverside. The O2 is less than hour away on foot, and it’s a pleasant walk.
Just across the Thames in Canary Wharf, you’ll find a broader selection of restaurants to dine in before you head to the O2. Check out our guide on the best restaurants in Canary Wharf before you make that call.
The Alpe di Siusi is Europe’s largest high-altitude alpine meadow, a vast expanse of rolling pasture spreading beneath the jagged limestone towers of the Sciliar massif and the Sassolungo group. It sits within the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the South Tyrolean corner of northern Italy, and the villages at its base (Seis am Schlern, Kastelruth and Völs am Schlern) have been hosting visitors for generations. In recent years, a new kind of property has emerged here: the adults-only wellness hotel, designed specifically for guests who want the mountains without the noise, the spa without the splashing, and the dining without the high chairs.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. There has been a marked shift, post-pandemic, in what a certain kind of traveller is looking for: less stimulation, more stillness, and a stay that feels purposeful rather than merely pleasant. Adults-only wellness hotels have benefited from this more than almost any other category, and they are no longer the preserve of the dedicated spa obsessive. Solo travellers, older couples, professionals who simply need somewhere to decompress are all finding their way here.
Connection to landscape, in the case of the Alpe di Siusi, is more than incidental. Immersion in natural environments – mountains, forests, open meadows – has become one of the primary reasons people cite for seeking out wellness travel, and a means of addressing mental health that a city spa, however well-appointed, simply cannot replicate. South Tyrol, with its altitude, its air quality and its deep tradition of Alpine spa culture, is among the places best equipped to meet that need.
It is no surprise, then, that South Tyrol has a deeper bench of adults-only wellness hotels than almost anywhere else in the Alps, with a particularly strong concentration around the Alpe di Siusi. The properties on this list range from a four-star superior boutique that opened in 2022 to a five-star retreat built into a mountainside at 1,800 metres, but they share a common philosophy: wellness here is not a department, it is the entire point. Each has built its programme around the landscape, the local materials and the particular quality of stillness that the Dolomites provide when the lifts stop running and the day trippers go home. With that in mind, here are five of the best adults-only wellness hotels near the Alpe di Siusi.
Sensoria Dolomites, Seis Am Schlern
Ideal for Japanese sensibility, South Tyrolean spruce and a sauna with views of the massif…
Sensoria Dolomites is the project of Lea Oberhofer and her husband Simon Leitner. The name came from Lea’s vision of a stay holistic enough to calm all the senses – restorative in the fullest sense rather than merely comfortable. She calls the hotel “luxury for the soul”, and it’s easy to see why.
There’s a family story behind this hotel too: Lea grew up in the building (it was previously her parents’ Hotel Ritterhof) and after a decade abroad (including four years at Louis Vuitton and a stint at Lufthansa Consulting for Simon), the couple returned to Seis am Schlern, gutted the property and reopened it in June 2022 as something entirely different.
The architects, Senoner Tammerle from nearby Kastelruth, drew on Japanese influences that Lea had absorbed during her travels, and the result is a hotel built almost entirely from local spruce, with clean lines, lattice screens, light-filled interiors and a deliberate absence of clutter. The gold that runs through the branding draws on the Japanese art of kintsugi, the practice of repairing broken pottery with gold, on the basis that the fractures are part of the object’s history rather than a flaw to be hidden. The idea being, presumably, that you check in broken and leave feeling put back together. For the kind of person who books a wellness holiday in the first place, that’s less a metaphor than a mission statement.
The 45 rooms and two suites (the suites come with a private Finnish sauna, free-standing bathtub and outdoor whirlpool on the terrace) are designed for guests aged 14 and over. The Bath House is the centrepiece of the spa: a timber-framed structure with heated indoor and outdoor pools at 32°C, a panoramic Finnish event sauna overlooking the Sciliar massif, a bio sauna with infrared, a steam sauna, and three relaxation zones.
Few hotels at this level include everything Sensoria does. Breakfast is served at the Indulgence Market, a grazing affair of regional products, homemade dishes and freshly prepared specialities, followed by an afternoon snack, then a six-course dinner at the Anima restaurant blending South Tyrolean, Mediterranean and international influences. South Tyrolean wines, spirits, beers, the hotel’s own aperitifs and gin, spring water and soft drinks are all included, as is the minibar.
The zero-waste dining concept, where guests pre-select their evening menu each morning, is a characteristic touch. There’s a broader logic to all of this: when nothing is an extra, the low-level anxiety of a holiday (what’s this costing, should we have another drink, is dinner included?) simply dissolves. Which is, when you think about it, its own form of wellness.
The location is ideal year round. The Alpe di Siusi cable car is at the foot of the property, connecting directly to the high meadow and the Seiser Alm ski slopes in winter. In summer, the hotel runs daily guided excursions to what it calls its Insider’s Secrets: hidden churches, mountain lakes and places of natural power that Lea and her team have known since childhood.
Ideal for Plose spring water in a stone pool at 1,800 metres where the Habsburgs planned a sanatorium…
The evidence for forest bathing has been accumulating for decades – reduced cortisol, lower blood pressure, improved sleep, a measurable lift in mood. At Forestis, the clue is in the name. The spa is built around the four elements and four therapeutic trees – mountain pine, spruce, larch and Swiss stone pine – with saunas of natural wood that release essential oils under heat, Silence Rooms designed for absolute stillness, and a Wyda Room for Celtic-inspired movement practice, an Alpine tradition with roots going back millennia. The indoor-outdoor pool is carved from Dolomite stone and filled with Plose spring water, connected through a glazed wall to the mountain range beyond.
At 1,800 metres, Forestis sits higher than any other property on this list. On days when cloud settles below the treeline, the hotel floats above it. From the valley floor it looks less like somewhere you check in and more like somewhere you end up if you’ve been particularly well behaved. That altitude also brings a microclimate milder than it has any right to be, where Adriatic and northern air currents converge, and Plose spring water filters through dolomite rock to emerge with unusual purity. It’s a special site, and it was identified as such long before the hotel existed.
In 1912, doctors commissioned by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy selected a clearing on the southern slope of the Plose mountain, above the city of Brixen, as an ideal site for a pulmonary sanatorium. The First World War intervened before the building was completed. The structure sat abandoned until 2000, when hotelier Alois Hinteregger discovered it – drawn by the quality of light falling across the clearing and the unobstructed views to the Dolomites. The hotel opened in 2009, was rebuilt from the ground up in 2020, and today operates as a five-star adults-only inspired by the same natural features that were once decisive in establishing a sanatorium – excellent water, air, sun and climate.
The same mountain that shapes the treatments shapes the kitchen, too. Executive Chef Roland Lamprecht has spent his career working back towards this landscape – through award-winning kitchens across Central Europe, and finally home to South Tyrol, where he builds his menus from ingredients foraged from the surrounding woodland and meadows, supplemented by produce from regional farms he visits in person. At the bar, cocktails are infused with spruce, larch or pine.
In summer 2025, Forestis opened YERA alongside the main restaurant: a subterranean dining space carved from the red earth of the Peitlerkofel mountain, accessed by a path through the trees, where Lamprecht serves his forest cuisine around a central fire pit, using wild mushrooms, spruce needles, birch sap and ingredients preserved through the seasons using traditional techniques. It is, by any measure, an unusual place to have dinner.
The 62 rooms and suites are all south-facing, finished in stone, untreated wood and natural fabrics, with a 200m² penthouse adding a private pool, sauna and open fireplace. The Plose ski and hiking area begins at the hotel’s door; the Puez-Odle Nature Park is a short walk through the trees.
Ideal for Ayurvedic treatments, a golden panoramic sauna and a hotelier who built his hotel as a living work of art…
Markus Hofer’s description of the Alpin Garden is unambiguous: he set out to create a living work of art, inside and out, that appeals to all the senses. The 2020 renovation – a wholesale reinvention of the property – is where that ambition took full shape. The exterior is striking by alpine standards: black charred wood and a gilded frame that reads less like a mountain hotel and more like a considered architectural statement.
Inside, the art thread runs through everything. The 1,000-square-metre ART Spa takes its name literally, with artworks displayed alongside the facilities – a reproduction of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon inside the sauna area being the kind of detail that signals this is a deliberate programme rather than decoration. The Artists’ Lounge, the Golden Bar, the kitchen framing of cuisine as artistry – it all points in the same direction.
The spa itself is built around a golden panoramic sauna with a large glazed facade that looks out over the pool and straight to the Sassolungo. There’s also a Turkish bath, hot tubs, a 24-hour indoor pool and a heated outdoor pool set in the flower garden that earns particular notice in winter, when the snow-covered peaks rise behind it. The treatment menu goes further than most Alpine properties, with a full Ayurveda programme – Shirodhara forehead oil treatments, warm-oil shoulder and neck work – sitting alongside the more standard massage and body treatment offering. For a hotel of this size and setting, it’s an unexpected breadth.
The 30 rooms and suites split between modern alpine and traditional South Tyrolean styles, the latter with canopy beds, tiled stoves and old cottage wood. The Sky Loft suites push the panoramic windows to 3.5 metres, with balcony views of Ortisei and the Alpe di Siusi. The Maison Restaurant handles gourmet South Tyrolean and Italian cooking, and a shuttle connects the hotel to the village centre and the lifts throughout the day in both summer and winter.
Ideal for a blood test on Monday and a deep-tissue massage on Tuesday…
The Adler Spa Resort Balance takes a different approach to wellness than any other property on this list. The hotel sits squarely within one of the more compelling currents in wellness travel: the growing interest in longevity and preventative health as a driver of how people spend their time away. Where previous generations might have booked a holiday to recover from work, a growing cohort is now booking specifically to understand their own health, and to act on what they find.
Opened in 2008, this adults-only, 30-suite property in the centre of Ortisei functions as a medical health resort, with an in-house laboratory, a team of medical professionals and structured programmes covering diagnostics and prevention, nutrition, performance and aesthetics. The concept is holistic in the clinical sense: a collaboration between the kitchen, the medical department and the spa team ensures that guests on health programmes receive a coordinated, personalised experience.
The property is connected via an underground tunnel to its sister hotel, the five-star Adler Spa Resort Dolomiti (a family-friendly property that has operated since 1810), and Balance guests have full access to the Dolomiti’s extensive spa and pool facilities, including three outdoor pools, multiple saunas, and the Dolasilla spa with its own line of ADLER Spa Active Cosmetics. The Balance building itself is solar-powered and built entirely from natural materials: slate, stone, and untreated wood including arven, larch, walnut, oak and elm, which emit a soothing scent throughout the interior.
The suites are light-filled and south-facing, with balconies overlooking the Dolomites, and the decor throughout is calm and minimal. The Sanoner family, who have owned the Adler since 1810 (now in their sixth generation), position Balance as a place where relaxation is not an end in itself but a component of measurable health improvement. For guests who want their wellness stay to produce tangible results – better sleep metrics, adjusted nutrition plans, baseline diagnostics – this is the most focused option in the area.
Ideal for a hay bath and a private rooftop whirlpool in a village that time mostly forgot…
Völs am Schlern is one of the smallest and least-visited of the villages at the base of the Alpe di Siusi, set within the Schlern-Rosengarten Nature Park and overlooked by the full face of the Sciliar massif. The Gartenhotel Völserhof is a four-star adults-only property in the village centre, and its appeal lies precisely in its scale. This is not a mega-spa with a branded wellness method; it is a family-run garden hotel with 30 rooms, where the owners know their guests by name and the pace is set by the mountains rather than a programme.
The wellness area includes a Finnish sauna, an indoor pool, a heated outdoor pool, an outdoor whirlpool and a relaxation zone. The Wellness Spa Suites are the stand-out feature: each comes with a private sauna and a private whirlpool on the rooftop terrace, with unobstructed views of the Sciliar and the Rosengarten.
Treatments include the traditional South Tyrolean hay bath, a practice with over a century of history in this region, where locally harvested meadow hay containing thyme, arnica and gentian is applied to the body, releasing its active ingredients through heat and moisture.
The restaurant serves regional and international cooking, and the garden, filled with mature trees and sun loungers, provides a setting that feels more private residence than hotel. Public transport to the Alpe di Siusi cable car is 250 metres from the door, and Bolzano is a 15-minute drive. For guests who want the adults-only wellness experience without the five-star price tag or the corporate scale, the Völserhof is the most intimate option on this list.
There’s something in that which speaks to a broader truth about why wellness travel has taken hold. It isn’t always about the programme or the diagnostic. For many people it comes down to something simpler: a break from the pace and noise of ordinary life, in a place that has decided, deliberately, to keep things still.
The area around the Alpe di Siusi has developed one of the strongest concentrations of adults-only wellness hotels anywhere in the Alps. The Dolomites provide the setting: the light, the rock, the altitude, the air, and the South Tyrolean tradition of hospitality provides the substance.
We should mention that the journey itself has become easier than it once was. SkyAlps launched its Bolzano service from London Stansted in December 2023 before moving to Gatwick the following spring in response to demand. This means a two-hour hop from the UK that lands you right in this wellness region. Unlike some destinations, getting here and back doesn’t undo the point of going.
Whether you’re travelling for a business conference, going on a research trip or visiting a remote office, travelling for work still represents the dream for so many, even in 2026. You’re not stuck in the office, you get to visit and experience new cities, countries and cultures, and you get a little bit of ‘me’ time…in an ideal world, that is!
Indeed, with bleisure travel on the rise and companies increasingly open to employees extending work trips for personal time, more professionals than ever are spending time on the road. But the toll that frequent travel can take on physical and mental health is real, and it’s finally getting the attention it deserves.
Research from World Travel Protection found that a third of business travellers report feelings of anxiety and stress linked to work travel, with over half saying they’re packing more meetings into each trip than ever before. Sitting in airports, being away from loved ones, and dealing with jetlag, all while juggling work demands and deadlines, can grind you down if you’re not careful.
Whether you work in the events industry, the travel industry, or any industry where you have to travel for work, here are 9 ways to watch your wellbeing while on the road.
Keep A Gratitude Journal
There’s something about the disorientation of travel, the unfamiliar beds, the 6am alarms, the sense that you’re always slightly out of sync with everyone at home, that can make the whole thing feel like a slog rather than the privilege it often is. A self-guided journal focused on gratitude, as simple as it sounds, is a genuinely useful counterweight.
The practice is straightforward enough. At the end of each day on the road, jot down three things you’re grateful for. It might be a decent coffee in an airport that wasn’t trying to fleece you, a kind word from a taxi driver, or simply the fact that your flight wasn’t delayed. Research from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley has found that regular gratitude practice can reduce stress, improve sleep quality & even help with the kind of low-level anxiety that often creeps in when you’re away from home.
Keep a small notebook in your hand luggage, or use the notes app on your phone if you’d rather. The method matters less than the habit. Over time, you’ll find it shifts your perspective on work travel in small but meaningful ways, turning those endless departure lounges into something a little easier to bear.
Move Your Body, Even A Little
The sedentary nature of business travel is one of its less glamorous realities. Long flights, back-to-back meetings, conference chairs that seem designed to punish the lower back, dinners that stretch into the night. By day three of any trip, your body tends to let you know it’s unhappy.
You don’t need to find a fancy hotel gym or sign up for a hotel yoga class to counter this, though both are welcome if available. Even ten minutes of stretching in your room before bed, a brisk walk around the block between meetings, or taking the stairs instead of the lift can make a tangible difference. The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, & while hitting that target on a packed work trip can feel ambitious, breaking it into small, manageable chunks makes it realistic.
If you’re somewhere new & have an hour to spare, walking is the easiest win of all. You get your steps in, you see a bit of the city, & you arrive at your next meeting with a clearer head than you would have done staring at your laptop in the hotel lobby.
Pack Healthy Snacks
When you’re on the road and have a busy schedule of events, you never know when you’re going to eat. Sure, if you’re on a long haul flight you’ll probably eat on the plane, but for the most part, inflight food options are pretty unappetising. And the food at the airport isn’t much better. Burger King, KFC or Starbucks, anyone?
A little treat is fine, but a long run of unhealthy eating can take its toll on your wellbeing. Pre-empt the necessity to eat the nearest food to hand and take snacks in your hand luggage, keeping some in your bag for when those hunger pangs strike.
Pretty much all solid foods are allowed in your hand luggage, even live lobsters if in clear, sealed, spill-proof containers with ice (yes, really), so consider cooking an extra portion of dinner the night before travel and taking leftovers on your flight. Trail mix is always a good idea too; if it’s good enough for sustaining mountaineers and trekkers, we reckon it’ll do the job for any long-haul flight, business meeting or conference.
IDEAL Tip: When you are finally home, take a little time to batch cook some meals that you can freeze and take with you on your next trip. This little trick also means you’ll have something tasty waiting for you when you get back next time.
Travelling for business forces you to spend time away from your home, family and friends, and because of this, it can be a pretty lonely affair. Video calls help, but they’re not the same as having someone there in the flesh. Consistent travel can cause strained relationships with those left at home, too. They have the burden of taking care of all things domestic while you’re away, and resentment can build.
Why not ask your work if you can bring a friend or spouse along on the trip? Businesses are increasingly open to this, and with 43% of corporate travel programmes now operating formal bleisure policies, it’s a far easier conversation to have than it used to be. Some employers will even help with your partner’s travel expenses if it means a happier, more productive employee on the ground. Everybody wins.
Work In Transit
If you have some downtime on that long train ride or long haul flight, and if you’re not too exhausted, try and get ahead of work while in transit. Making the most of travel time is one of the simplest ways to reduce stress at your destination, freeing you up to switch off properly once the work is done. Whether it’s prepping for that meeting or presentation or catching up on your emails, at least you’ll be putting all that largely liminal time to good use.
It can also mean you can take advantage of the free time at your destination, hopefully giving you the chance to unplug, recharge, and explore.
Prioritise Sleep
This one sounds obvious, but it’s remarkable how many business travellers treat sleep as the thing that gets squeezed when the schedule tightens. Late dinners with clients, early flights, and the temptation to catch up on emails from your hotel bed at midnight all conspire against a decent night’s rest.
Where you can, book a room away from the lifts and ice machines, pack earplugs and an eye mask, and resist the pull of your phone in the hour before bed. Some hotels now offer sleep optimisation programmes with circadian lighting and blackout blinds, and they’re worth seeking out if you travel frequently. A well-rested version of you will perform immeasurably better in that 9am meeting than the one running on four hours and three espressos.
Don’t feel bad if all you want to do is order room service, turn on the hotel telly and do nothing. We know you may think that you should be out experiencing the city you’re in, but sometimes it’s okay to just switch off. In fact, sometimes it’s actively better for you to embrace a little R&R.
As the Scientific American reports in their fascinating article Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime, downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to achieving our highest levels of performance. So that guilt-free evening in your hotel room isn’t laziness. It’s strategy.
Keep A Sense Of Routine
We’ve all been there when travelling: having a pint for breakfast at the airport, catching up on sleep during daylight hours, and enjoying a croissant for dinner before logging into our emails…
We said we’d all been there, right? Right?
Anyway, there’s often a temptation on the road to throw your usual routine out the window in favour of something more freeform, but this can be detrimental not only to your productivity, but also to your wellbeing.
Routine and structure are, according to most experts, incredibly good for you, giving your day a sense of organisation, purpose and focus. Do try to observe a few of the same key moments during the day that you would back home, whether that’s your 11am run, your evening phone call to your folks, or your beloved breakfast of muesli. Your body and brain will thank you for the familiarity, even if everything else around you is new.
Beat Jet Lag
Hectic airports, delayed flights and lost luggage. Travelling on a plane can be stressful at the best of times. Unfortunately, if you are crossing multiple time zones, you can also expect symptoms of jet lag. From headaches and irritation to fatigue and a pounding heart, jet lag hits without warning and it can turn you into a zombie.
The good news? It’s more manageable than you think if you plan ahead. Start adjusting your sleep schedule a few days before departure, stay hydrated on the flight (water, not wine, sadly), and try to get some natural daylight at your destination as soon as possible. After that dire warning, let us end on a positive note and direct you to our top tips on beating jet lag naturally. We hope your next trip is a fruitful and happy one.
The Bottom Line
Business travel isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s ramping up. But the conversation around how we look after ourselves while doing it has changed for the better. Companies are finally recognising that a burnt-out employee is nobody’s asset, and travellers themselves are getting smarter about protecting their energy, their routines, and their relationships on the road. A little planning goes a long way. Safe travels.
Without wishing to sound too dismissive of an industry that’s clearly on its valedictory meal, reviews of post-COVID restaurant openings in the UK have been remarkably concentrated in recent times, with critics alighting at Farringdon Station with impressively predictable regularity.
Bouchon Racine, Brutto, Morchella and Cloth have all graced the pages (‘touched the cloth’?) of virtually every national newspaper in recent times — a convergence that has only served to prove what London’s culinary cognoscenti already knew: that Farringdon is now the epicentre of the capital’s food scene.
As you emerge blinking from the bowels of the station, you might wonder why. Farringdon, on first inspection, isn’t up to much, more well known for its transport links and office blocks than its restaurants. But scratch the surface just a little and you’ll find a series of places that are casually, quietly, of the highest quality. Admittedly, they’re all singing from the same chalkboard, so to speak, but the tone remains harmonious.
Whether you’re after a leisurely business lunch, a pre-train pit stop, or a destination dinner worthy of advance booking (that’s if you can get a reservation at all), the patchwork of Farringdon, Clerkenwell and Smithfield is where it’s at for a good feed. With that in mind, here are the best restaurants near Farringdon.
Quality Wines, Farringdon Road
Ideal for small plates and stellar wines in an intimate setting…
What began as a wine shop attached to Quality Chop House (more of those guys in a bit) has evolved into one of Farringdon’s most cherished places to eat; an intimate restaurant with a weekly-changing blackboard menu that defies easy categorisation.
Sure, the wine merchant aspect still remains, but punters are now more likely to be pitching up for a taste of chef Nick Bramham’s absurdly satisfying cooking than they are a bespoke bottle to go. Indeed, from a tiny open kitchen, the chef defies the conventional restaurant approach to the most gratifying ends.
His Mediterranean-inspired plates, increasingly leaning Greek rather than French, Spanish or Italian – appear deceptively simple but reveal a profound understanding of flavour and produce – think white asparagus vinaigrette that sings with seasonal freshness, or braised pork belly with cime de rapa and salsa verde that’s so much more than the sum of its parts. Occasionally, a whole crispy pig’s head will appear on the menu, a result of that pork dish having, you know, a body beyond the belly. If so, order it.
There’s an intelligence to the cooking that feels liberated from kitchen dogma, producing food that’s both deeply considered and utterly approachable. No unnecessary flourishes, no cheffy ego – just perfectly judged dishes. Their famous gildas are alone worth a visit, but it would be madness to stop there.
For lunchtime value, the Express Lunch is hard to beat. The current iteration is a PLT (pancetta, lettuce and tomato in a milk bun) with a bottle of Peroni. Before that, a mortadella and butter panino; a butter-fried milk bun sandwiching layer upon layer of cured pork and salted butter, with a glass of Lambrusco for £15. It’s stunning.
The offering rotates, though, and has previously featured veal and pork meatballs done in the Italian American style, red sauce piled on top of spaghetti, accompanied by a glass of wine, beer or soft drink. Whichever version you catch, it might just be the best deal in central London. Or, come to think of it, the country. It’s served from midday through to 2:15. There’s also a broader set lunch menu, priced at £27 for three courses, that changes weekly and is well worth a look.
Don’t sleep on the other sandwiches, either. Bramham is a connoisseur of the well-judged sarnie, and at Quality Wines they appear seasonally and sell out fast, giving them a real air of exclusivity which is partly genius marketing, but partly borne of the necessity of a truly small kitchen space.
The lobster roll, in which steamed lobster meat is served pleasingly chunky, bound together by a piquant champagne mayonnaise and served in a milk roll, is legendary (at least among the folk I follow on Insta). Only 20 are served a night, with that number diminishing fast as diners order a second after a single bite of their first. They’re that good.
The wine selection, curated by Marcos Spyrou and Darragh Monnin, balances established producers with exciting newcomers, focusing on smaller, sustainable vineyards. Bottles line the walls from floor to ceiling, candles flicker and cast shadows on intimate corners, all creating an atmosphere that feels both special and casual simultaneously. Staff share their knowledge with genuine enthusiasm rather than snobbery, happy to guide you to something new or pour a taste if you’re unsure.
That theme continues if you’re perched at the counter looking over the open kitchen. We’ve come away from several meals here with photos and screenshots of the restaurant’s recipe folder (caponata, portokalopita, their pastis butter) provided by Bramham. Needless to say, we’ve never quite done them justice at home.
Despite its growing reputation among those in the know, Quality Wines maintains a disarming lack of pretension, feeling more like a friend’s living room than a hotspot restaurant. It’s one of Farringdon’s – and London’s – very best restaurants.
Ideal for nose-to-tail British cuisine and the famous bone marrow salad…
The stark white dining room of St. John, housed in a former smokehouse near Smithfield Market, speaks volumes about its philosophy even if you didn’t know the history and ethos of this storied restaurant – here, it’s all about the food.
Their emblematic bone marrow and parsley salad – a hunk of roasted marrow with sourdough toast, a parsley salad and, that’s about it – remains a pilgrimage-worthy dish, but from a crowd pleasing menu, it’s certainly not the only highlight. The daily-changing menu features everything from devilled kidneys to seasonal game, with each dish showcasing Henderson’s uncanny ability to coax extraordinary flavour from seemingly ordinary, often forgotten ingredients.
One of the best dishes we’ve had here in recent times was also, perhaps, the most simple; slices of pig tongue that had been brined then braised, served sliced thick with a spiced chutney of Bramley apple, the fruit chosen for its assertive tartness. A wise choice, indeed. Perhaps even better was the deep-fried tripe, arriving like little sheets of honeycomb that had been taken a touch too far, all bronzed and crunchy, bitter and funky. Apparently, they come from the only offal stall left at nearby Smithfield Market – long may that stall remain open.
Anyway, if you don’t end with the madeleines served warmed from the oven – allow for 15 minutes – then you should hang your head in shame as you exit. Or, were you just bowing gently as a sign of respect for a gastronomic institution?
Come back inside and have a drink before you go. The exclusively French wine list includes their own label wines by the glass (£8.75), poured by staff who know their stuff. Just prepare yourself for the notoriously challenging acoustics – this might be one of the loudest fine dining experiences in town, but that seems a small price to pay for what many consider the world’s most influential restaurant of the past three decades.
Ideal for unpretentious, hearty French cuisine that transports you to Lyon…
Chef Henry Harris knows a thing or two about gutsy, hearty, balls-to-the-rose-blush-wall French bistros, having earned his reputation at Knightsbridge’s Bibendum and later at his own acclaimed Racine in South Kensington.
After several years away from the London restaurant scene, his return with Bouchon Racine in 2022 was greeted with enthusiasm by those who had missed showing off their exquisite, unpretentious taste via his perfectly judged Gallic cooking.
To be fair, it showed up fully formed in Farringdon, perched above The Three Compasses pub, with Harris recreating a slice of Lyon with an air of authenticity that comes from decades of myopic dedication to French culinary traditions.
The daily-changing blackboard menu showcases Harris’s talents to the full in a boisterous room that encourages lingering and, frankly, more boozing – perhaps over cured ham from heritage breed black pigs, a perfectly executed grilled veal chop with roquefort butter, or rabbit in mustard sauce. Whichever way you play it, you’ll find a celebration of French bouchon classics without unnecessary ‘elevation’ or ‘refinement’, focusing instead on quality ingredients and precise technique.
Like many restaurants in the area sharing proximity to Smithfield, nose-to-tail is alive and well at Bouchon Racine. You’ll sometimes find suckling pig on the menu, or Rognonde veau sauce Madère – a simple dish of veal kidney, Madeira cream sauce and pomme puree. Don’t miss their country pork pâté either, a technically precise but simultaneously rugged piece of work. Ground pigs liver and belly are dotted with little cubes of fat, giving way to a gorgeous juicy texture and a rough mosaic pattern in each slice.
Wines here are exclusively French, thoughtfully selected to match the food, with plenty available by the glass for under a tenner. In a dining landscape increasingly dominated by restaurant groups and corporations, Bouchon Racine feels refreshingly independent – a passion project from a chef who understands that sometimes, the old ways are the best ways.
Ideal for sophisticated ‘Britalian’ cuisine in one of London’s most beautiful dining rooms…
Luca’s elegant green-fronted exterior on St John Street sets the tone for what awaits inside – a world of understated luxury with copper-topped bars, bottle-green banquettes and a stunning courtyard that transports you straight to the rarefied climes of Lombardy.
This Michelin-starred restaurant from the team behind The Clove Club (Daniel Willis, Johnny Smith, and chef Isaac McHale) has mastered what they – and, to be fair, lots of other folk, increasingly – call ‘Britalian’ cooking. That is, British produce prepared with Italian techniques. At Luca, under the day-to-day guidance of head chef Robert Chambers, the kitchen turns out consistently refined yet approachable dishes that have earned the restaurant its stellar reputation.
Their legendary Parmesan fries – crisp, salty morsels that have developed a cult following – are the perfect way to start your meal. Follow with another mainstay dish and menu stand-out; Roast orkney scallops with Jerusalem artichoke and ‘nduja, before getting into the exemplary, oh-so satisfying pasta. Both Cornish crab linguine and agnolotti with rich game ragu have hit the spot recently.
Whichever way you play it, you’ll find a menu that’s highly seasonal, shifting with the calendar to showcase the finest ingredients at their peak. Come autumn, the kitchen goes truffle crazy with a dedicated white truffle menu featuring creative dishes like steamed white alba truffle and honey sponge pudding with mascarpone custard. Late winter into spring brings delicate plates of cured brill with radishes, blood orange, wild garlic and cedro, and as spring fully arrives, you’ll find Hebridean lamb accompanied by spiky artichoke, bagna cauda, pine nuts and puntarelle. The latter dish is just around the corner, we hope.
The primarily Italian wine list offers interesting diversions for the adventurous, with staff eager to guide you through the selections (I guess they would be, when the cheapest bottle is £65, a 2024 Lugana Ca’Lojera, no less). Luca’s not cheap, it’s fair to say. At £200 or so per person for the full experience, Luca is positively, prohibitively expensive, but the cooking’s unwavering commitment to quality somewhat justifies the price tag.
And if you can’t quite justify it, there is a cheaper set ‘bar express menu’, which sees two courses priced at £32, three at £38. Indeed, the different pockets of space within the restaurant offer a diversity of atmosphere – from that more casual bar area at the front to the intimate dining room at the back – making Luca suitable for numerous occasions, from important client dinners to romantic celebrations.
Ideal for an intimate omakase experience that rivals Tokyo’s finest…
Securing a seat at Sushi Tetsu requires military-grade planning and lightning-fast reflexes – bookings are released only at specific times and vanish within minutes, giving the Glasto T-dayers F5-related PTSD. Fuck that’s an ugly participle clause…
Anyway, this seven-seat sushi counter, deep down a tight Clerkenwell alley that feels so appropriate for the relative size of the operation, rewards the persistent with an omakase experience that rivals Tokyo’s finest. Or, that level just below Tokyo’s finest; ‘Tokyo’s second finest-tier’? Nah…
Chef Toru Takahashi crafts each piece moments before it reaches your plate, applying a precise amount of wasabi or soy to perfectly aged fish atop warm, seasoned rice. There’s no menu as such – just a progression of nigiri and sashimi, each more exquisite than the last, served directly across the counter by the chef himself.
The tiny space means you get to watch Takahashi-san’s masterful knife skills up close, as well as counting the eyelashes of your neighbouring diner (don’t do that, that’d be weird). His wife Harumi oversees the dining room with graceful efficiency, ensuring water glasses are never empty and sake cups are always full.
At around £190 for the full omakase and three hours of your time, this is special occasion territory (though not the kind of special occasion where you wear your best perfume, we should caution), but the craftsmanship, quality of ingredients and personal attention make it worth every penny. Saturday lunchtimes offer a slightly reduced price of £167, if that helps soften the blow.
Ideal for an otherworldly atmosphere and creative seasonal cooking…
Sessions Arts Club feels like stumbling upon a secret you can’t wait to share. That is, if the restaurant hadn’t been reviewed extensively just as COVID restrictions were lifting and people were absolutely delirious on the idea of escapism.
To be fair, it is a gorgeous dining room. Entering through a curtained doorway and ascending in a rickety brass lift, you emerge into a vast, soaring space with distressed walls, moody lighting and an undeniable sense of faded grandeur. No wonder it was so intoxicating as an antidote to months of being locked down.
Things have changed a little since then, with chef Florence Knight – the heart and soul of the operation – moving on and former sous chef Abigail Hill stepping up. A spare, seasonal sensibility remains, with uncomplicated but thoughtful plates taking influence from British, French and Italian traditions. Asparagus with a pool of re-emulsified brown butter might share a table with a butterflied red mullet and a sauce of its liver, each dish showing restraint and a deep understanding of flavour. Indeed, the kitchen has a natural affinity with seafood – the fish dishes are always worth exploring, though it’s a damn shame the squid, tomato and calamarata dish is no longer on the menu. Desserts, too, are fabulous.
Red mullet, violino & crabAsparagus and brown butter Mussel, potato & saffron
A glass of champagne on the delightful rooftop terrace is the perfect prelude to dinner on warmer days. The wine list leans towards low-intervention bottles, while the cocktail menu offers creative mixes that complement the food beautifully. Ours is a melon martini, if you’re asking.
Despite its rapid ascent to ‘hot ticket’ status, Sessions Arts Club maintains an uncomplicated approach to hospitality – service is relaxed and graceful, and the overall vibe is one of effortless cool rather than studied trendiness. It’s not cheap, but the combination of breath-taking setting and accomplished cooking will give you a meal that lingers longer in the memory than the time it takes to pay off your credit card.
Ideal for quintessentially British cooking and those legendary confit potatoes…
The original Grade II-listed dining room of Quality Chop House, with its uncomfortable-looking wooden pews (not just ‘looking’, come to think of it), has been serving Londoners since 1869. The current iteration, under the stewardship of Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau’s Woodhead Restaurant Group since 2012, brilliantly balances heritage with modernity, creating a restaurant that feels both timeless and contemporary. Head chef Shaun Searley has been at the stoves here for almost as long – an unusual longevity in the restaurant world that shows in the kitchen’s consistent excellence.
Let’s talk about the legendary confit potatoes first – thinly sliced layers, compressed, confit, then deep-fried to create something simultaneously crisp, tender and utterly addictive. These alone have achieved a kind of cut-through cult status among London’s food lovers – not only on TikTok and Insta, but also in the broadsheets – in a way few other dishes have.
Beyond the potatoes, expect – unsurprisingly – impeccably sourced meat from ‘butcher to chef to plate’ (they have their own in-house butcher), whether that’s an Aberdeen Angus bone-in ribeye or a Barnsley chop, the latter a perennially under-rated but prime cut of lamb and a go-to tip from the waiters.
The menu changes daily based on what’s been delivered that morning, reflecting a genuine commitment to seasonality rather than lip service to the concept. And, reassuringly, it’s not only about the meat here – these guys have a wicked way with fish, too. A recent dish of skate wing was served, rather unconventionally, with a chicken and tarragon peppercorn sauce that was wonderful. The weekday set lunch menu remains an absolute steal, with three courses clocking in at £29.
It’s in the snack section where things get inventive. The Brixham turbot head has steadily become a house favourite, and for good reason; the varying textures reveal themselves as you explore: supple flesh around the jaw gives way to substantial meat in the cheeks. That would be reward enough, but the liberal dousing of house-made Szechuan sauce – a thoughtful blend of reduced jus, fresh ginger, garlic, and aromatic Sichuan peppercorns – makes things truly compelling.
QCH exemplifies how traditional British dining can be given a gently contemporary touch without losing its soul – comforting, expertly executed dishes that know, first and foremost, that you’re here to be fed. You might want to bring your own blow-up cushion in your hand bag, though…
Ideal for creative small plates and an atmospheric historic setting…
Down an alleyway in a row of houses that survived the Great Fire of London sits Cloth, a wine-led restaurant that has quickly become a local favourite since opening in the spring of 2024. The space – previously Betjeman’s Wine Bar, named for the poet who lived upstairs – combines historical charm with contemporary comfort.
Wine specialists Joe Haynes and Benedict Butterworth have teamed up with former Lasdun head chef Tom Hurst to create a dining experience that feels laid back enough for a long, languid and liquid-y lunch with a pal, and intimate enough for a dinner with a lover. The acoustics suit both – raucous and hushed sound equally good here.
Seasonal small plates form the core of the menu – pig’s head croquettes with apricot ketchup, delicate cappelletti with ricotta and pecorino, or Cornish pollack with Tokyo turnips. The cooking demonstrates precision without preciousness, allowing the quality of ingredients to shine through. We think we might have said that about every place on this list so far, bar Sushi Tetsu – and who said London’s dining scene was homogenising into one, tedious Britalian wine bar?
Speaking of wine, the list at Cloth reflects the owners’ background, focusing on small producers with a whole separate menu dedicated to by-the-glass options. The 40 page list proper is impressively broad, with carefully chosen bottles from across Europe – from crisp Grüner Veltliners from Austria’s Wagram to aged Barbarescos from Piedmont, and everything in between. Their Champagne selection leans toward smaller grower-producers rather than big houses, while the lengthy Burgundy section reveals the owners’ particular passion.
Those looking to splurge can find rare treasures like 1991 DRC Romanée-St-Vivant, while more modest budgets are well-served with interesting options under £60 (yes, we realise that’s still a lot).
Ideal for the legendary steak sandwich and pioneering gastropub vibes…
When The Eagle opened in its current form in 1991, it changed the London food scene forever, pioneering the modern gastropub concept that aimed to ‘elevate’ pub dining while maintaining an authentic pub atmosphere. Three decades later, this high-ceilinged corner room with its open kitchen, mismatched furniture and relaxed vibe continues to demonstrate why the original is often the best.
It’s a humble steak sandwich that made The Eagle famous. And for good reason – flash-fried onglet steak soaks into a ciabatta roll with a little layer of lettuce, onions and hot sauce, and it’s perfectly executed time after time. The daily-changing menu, chalked on the blackboard above the bar, might include Spanish and Portuguese-influenced dishes alongside British classics, all prepared in the open kitchen in full view of the punters and pint-ers.
Napoli sausages also make a frequent appearance on the menu – whether served with with spiced tomato and lentils, or sprawled over butter beans. The kitchen has a tidy hand at grilling fish, too, often served whole and a simple salsa or salad; it’s got to be one of the most wholesome lunches you can find in the city.
Drinks keep things straightforward with good beers on tap and a concise wine list that complements the robust food. Don’t expect reservations – The Eagle operates a first-come, first-served policy that creates a democratic, egalitarian atmosphere where local office workers rub shoulders with visiting food tourists. Come early or be prepared to wait, especially at lunchtime when the queue can stretch out the door.
Ideal for live jazz and timeless French bistro classics…
A few staggers and stumbles down a cobbled mews off Charterhouse Square, Le Café du Marché has been transporting diners to southern France for over four decades. And then spitting them back out, disappointed to find they’re still in London, it should be added.
This fiercely independent, family-run restaurant defies the capital’s ever-shifting landscape with its unwavering commitment to tradition. The restaurant unfolds across two levels, where exposed brick walls and wooden beams frame white-clothed tables bathed in soft light. As evening descends, live jazz drifts through the space, seasoning everything with a sense of wistful escapism.
The kitchen celebrates provincial French cuisine with reverence rather than reinvention. Soupe de poissons arrives with all the expected accompaniments and absolutely no surprises, coq au vin delivers its deep, comforting complexity and nothing more, and the tarte tatin is just as burnished as it’s meant to be. Each dish speaks to the restaurant’s philosophy: respect the classics, source quality ingredients, and execute them with precision.
There is, of course, French wine, the house 2023 Cuvee Garrigue Languedoc available by the glass for £7 (or bottle for £36) eminently neckable. If your enthusiastic eating of that fish soup doesn’t run the white tablecloth, your increasingly brazen pouring of that house wine will. It’s that kind of convivial place.
Ideal for Mediterranean flair in a grand Victorian setting…
Admittedly, this one doesn’t quite qualify as one of the best restaurants really close to Farringdon, seeing as it’s a 10 minute walk away from the station, but Morchella is too good to miss off this list.
The sophomore venture from the team behind Newington Green’s acclaimed Perilla, this restaurant opened in early 2024 in an imposing former Victorian bank just off Exmouth Market and hit its stride-immediately. Two years later it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Rather than pledging allegiance to a single Mediterranean nation, the kitchen draws inspiration from the entire sun-drenched coastline. Executive Chef Ben Marks and head chef Daniel Fletcher craft dishes like their celebrated salt cod churros with romesco, delicate spanakopita parcels and mussel pil pil – all must-orders here.
A recent dish of Greek salad with black olive dressing was the true showstopper, though, showcasing the inventiveness of a confident kitchen hitting its stride. Here, your usual Greek salad components are stuffed into a tomato which has been blanched and then blowtorched. A visually striking black olive dressing is then poured over, bringing theatre to the humble salad. Most importantly, it tasted bloody good.
The space impressively retains its architectural heritage, with soaring ceilings and original features now complemented by natural wood finishes and thoughtful design touches like hidden cutlery drawers in each table. A central horseshoe bar embraces the open kitchen, offering counter dining for those who enjoy watching chefs at work. Hey, when they’re this nifty, who doesn’t?
Wine enthusiasts will appreciate co-owner Matthew Emmerson’s exclusively European list, organised helpfully by flavour profile (‘coastal’, ‘classic’ or ‘funky’). A separate walk-in wine bar makes Morchella accessible even without a booking, serving the full snack menu alongside an impressive selection of bottles.
With a ‘chef’s choice’ menu of the restaurant’s signature dishes priced at just £60 per head, the restaurant is great value, particularly in this affluent part of town.
Russell Norman’s final project before his untimely passing stands as perhaps his most complete expression of his deep understanding of what makes a restaurant tick. In the case of Brutto, that alchemy is the ability to create spaces that feel simultaneously brand new and timeless. Now lovingly stewarded by his widow Jules and son Ollie, Trattoria Brutto continues to channel both Norman’s and the Florentine spirit with faithful devotion.
The now-legendary £5 Negronis (a minor miracle in modern London) might initially draw you in, but it’s the immersive environment that compels you to stay. Red gingham tablecloths, sepia-toned photographs, and honey-coloured lighting conspire to transport you directly to Tuscany. The illusion is so complete that you half-expect to see Italian silver screen icons holding court in the corner.
The menu champions Tuscan rusticity with confident simplicity (and, like many of the team’s favourite trattorias, no fish). Coccoli — those pillowy, deep-fried dough clouds served with creamy cheese and paper-thin prosciutto— are just the right bedfellows for that Negroni, the penne alla vodka the version that all others should be judged by.
Next up, and because it’d be rude not to, the bistecca alla Fiorentina arrives with intimidating heft, a perfectly charred exterior that gives way to a perfectly pink (close to blue, quite honestly) interior that showcases the kitchen’s understanding that premium ingredients require restraint. There’s only a handful served each day, chalked off as service progresses, so it’s recommended you order the bistecca when you arrive if that’s the main reason you came. It’s got that pleasingly chewy texture that reveals the faintest of blue cheese notes, a note that’s washed away with another slug of Negroni. Yep, we’re drinking Negroni through this whole meal; the cheapest bottle of red here is £36.
For a taste of Brutto’s beef without the commitment to a whole T-bone, consider the rosbif con patate. On the menu since day one. here slices of beef loin are served rare and beautiful, accompanied by nothing more than some very, very good roast potatoes.
Bistecca alla Fiorentina Rosbif con patateTortellini in brodo
Securing a table requires similar planning and persistence—bookings disappear fortnightly with alarming speed—but the bar’s walk-in policy offers some hope for spontaneous diners. These counter seats might actually be the most coveted in the house, to be fair, offering prime views of the controlled chaos and gorgeous dining room at odds with the name of the restaurant (don’t bother searching on Google – it means ‘ugly’).
This isn’t an approximation of Italy; it’s a corner of Florence somehow transported to EC1. Or, a corner of 50100 transported to Farringdon. Or, a corner of Florence in Farringdon. Or, Farringdon’s own little corner of Florence. Hmm, not sure why we’re suddenly malfunctioning here…
There’s something satisfying about knowing precisely where your food has come from. Not in that vague ‘local and seasonal’ way that’s become standard restaurant PR speak, but actually being able to pinpoint a specific patch of Scottish soil and say, “That’s where my steak was raised.”
At Origin City, a recent addition to Farringdon’s increasingly impressive (and meaty) dining scene, they’ve taken this concept to its logical extreme by owning the bloody farms themselves.
This handsome establishment opposite Smithfield Rotunda Garden is a succinct expression of the Landsberg family’s obsession with provenance – their own heritage breeds (Black Aberdeen Angus, Tamworth pigs, and Texel lamb) are reared on their 600-acre organic farm on the shores of Loch Striven in Argyll, and a dedication to GMO-free, sustainable farming forms the bedrock of the restaurant’s pasture-to-plate philosophy. Talk about vertical integration.
One might be tempted to say all this hard husbandry work is a bit much when you’ve got one of the country’s most famous meat markets just a couple of minutes walk away, but the proof is in the white pudding, and the one at Origin City is excellent.
The dining room has been accused by some of lacking vibes, but on a recent warm Friday evening when we visited there was a good hum about the place. It’s all about Scottish ingredients cooked with French techniques, and there’s something of the Auld Aulliuance about the decor too, with tweed banquettes, burgundy chairs, and flourishes of gold and bronze hinting at a royale elegance. White tablecloths, as is the Smithfield way, feel unapologetic in an era where many have abandoned them.
The walls, some covered in handsome wool (one can only assume shawn from the family’s sheep), help improve acoustics – a thoughtful detail for comfortable conversation. Artwork depicting the family’s Provençal vineyard, Château De La Cômbe, adds a personal touch.
Executive Chef Graham Chatham, with 35 years of experience at esteemed restaurants like Rules and The Langham, has created a menu that celebrates nose-to-tail eating with serious flair. His mantra of ‘great taste, no waste’ is evident throughout the menu, where all meat is butchered in-house, and they make almost everything themselves, from charcuterie to sausages and beyond.
The Black Angus steak tartare with bitter leaves is impeccably prepared – hand chopped and enthusiastically seasoned, just as it should be – while the cold roast hogget with anchovy dressing comes across like a funkier, more farmyardy cousin of the classic Piedmotese vitello tonnato. It’s inspired.
Don’t miss the grilled Scottish langoustines with garlic and herb butter – a signature that alone justifies the journey (theirs and yours). They arrive halved and in a pleasingly chaotic pile, melted butter pooling at the sides and with an old-school half lemon wrapped in muslin, for those who can’t stand to see a pip hit the plate.
Mains are fully formed and gutsy, usually featuring a couple of different cuts from the same beast, one blushing pink and premium, the other turned into a sausage, braise or mini-pie. Sauces boast real clarity of flavour, and are protein-specific rather than something generic and overly reduced. It’s this kind of attention to detail that sets the restaurant apart.
The Sunday roast is a good shout if all your roasting trays need washing up and your mum’s version requires a train ride that you’re not willing to take hungover. The highlight is three gorgeous blushing slabs of Black Angus topside, a Yorkie so flamboyant you’ll want to wear it as a hat, and a handful of spuds roasted in dripping until golden. True to form, there’s a tangle of sticky braised short rib buried under that Yorkie. It’s great value for just £32.
From the family’s own organic vineyard in Provence, Château De La Cômbe features prominently on the wine list and keeps prices relatively low, in this economy and city. Their ‘grape-to-glass’ approach means you’re getting proper French wines at prices that won’t make your credit card spontaneously combust, with bottles starting from £24 and rarely exceeding £58. Interestingly, all of the signature cocktails use Origin’s own vermouth, a byproduct of the wine from their vineyard.
The service staff performs a delicate dance between formality and friendliness. They’re knowledgeable enough to explain the precise Scottish hillside where your dinner grazed but won’t make you feel like an idiot for asking what hogget actually is. On Sundays, a charming complimentary non-alcoholic Bloody Mary cart sometimes makes the rounds, adding a special touch to the start of your meal but not perhaps dusting off that hangover as much as a boozy one would.
Having earned 2 AA Rosettes last year, Origin City has the makings of a London institution. It’s refreshing to find a restaurant that delivers on the farm-to-table promise without relying on the phrase as a marketing crutch.
Ideal for underground wine discoveries in atmospheric Victorian arches…
…Christ, let’s close with a stiff drink. Descend beneath Holborn Viaduct and discover one of London’s most atmospheric vinous sanctuaries. The Winemakers Club inhabits a labyrinth of 150-year-old arches that feel more cinematic than commercial—raw brick vaults illuminated by flickering candlelight, with bottles commanding every available surface.
While many places attempt to be all things to all people, The Winemakers Club embraces a singular focus: exceptional wines at honest prices in surroundings that could not exist anywhere else in London. The carefully curated selection celebrates vignerons and regions that prioritise quality and integrity over marketing, with staff who share their knowledge with evangelical enthusiasm rather than sommelier pretension.
The food follows this philosophy of deliberate restraint—exceptional cheese and charcuterie boards showcase carefully selected artisanal producers. Provisions supplies the cheese, Cobble Lane Cured provides the charcuterie, and the bread comes from St. John’s Bakery, completing a thoughtful offering that complements rather than competes with the wine. When it’s on the menu don’t miss the raclette toastie, which achieves the perfect complementary balance to a glass of bracing minerality. The emphasis of course remains resolutely on what’s in your glass, allowing the meticulously selected bottles to command centre stage.
Visit during quieter moments and you’ll find no better spot in the area for a date, with the architectural quirks of the space creating natural alcoves for private exchange. When the arches fill with the energy of a busy evening, communal tables foster spontaneous connections between neighbouring wine enthusiasts. Just don’t let the covetous bastards take too big a bite of that toastie. We’ve been there, and the conclusion was unseemly.
