Best restaurants in London: Our editors' favourites right now
Some of the best restaurants in London can be found outside of central London and in its thriving neighbourhoods – but if you're looking for delicious eateries for dinner, it can be hard to know where to begin. A couple of London restaurants made the 2022 iteration of The World's 50 Best Restaurants (read our reviews of winners Ikoyi and The Clove Club below). Here, we share our editors' personal London restaurant recommendations, sorted into central, north, east, south and west London restaurants. For even more, check out our favourite restaurants with gardens, pub beer gardens and London rooftop bars.
What are the best new restaurants in London?
We've always got one eye on the latest openings on the London restaurant scene. In December 2022, we're pointing our friends and family in the direction of a few distinct recent hangouts. Things are heating up this week with all eyes on an open-fire Scandanavian opening in Whitehall.
Ekstedt At The Yard, Whitehall
As an elevator pitch for a restaurant concept, it’s possible that Ekstedt at The Yard might raise a few eyebrows: Famous Swedish open-fire chef Niklas Ekstedt opens his first UK restaurant in Whitehall’s Great Scotland Yard Hotel, a place that while not quite prison-themed, certainly doesn’t underplay its storied past as the former headquarters of the Metropolitan police. If there’s something that rings true for both the restaurant and the hotel, though, it’s a certain tension between the primal and the refined: in the hotel, which I found surprisingly charming, walls of darkly comedic paintings and Grayson Perry-ish ceramics by British prisoners; in the low-lit restaurant, an open kitchen that looks like a mediaeval blacksmith’s forge, but turns out dishes of subtlety and deceptive playfulness.
While so many London open-fire restaurants, from Temper to Smokestak, tend to lean into a certain straightforward smoky masculinity, there’s surprise and whimsy to Ekstedt’s creations here, which use some of the best ideas from his pioneering Stockholm restaurant. Think rich oysters cooked with beurre blanc, juniper and smoked apple, cooked in a flambadou iron cone with beef fat heated to 600 degrees; or a trout baked on birch embers, with charcoal cream and the roe of vendace, a white freshwater fish. Like the Swedishness, the fire-ness of the food is played lightly. While a gutted, google-eyed halibut hangs above the kitchen open fire in proper caveman style, the actual dish is a lovely gentle thing, charred just a touch round the edges. The tender hay-smoked goose feels pure Michelin, as does a Baked Alaska flambeed with aquavit at the table, while a long wine list leads to thoughtful pairings, including complex dessert wines from Hungary’s Tokaj region. On the day we visited, the kitchen was overseen by talented Swedish sous chef and recent MasterChef contestant Therese Andersson, who has followed her new boss for more than a decade. She’s clearly excited about the alchemy she’s performing with all that fire and heat – and rightly so. Toby Skinner
Price: £££
Address: Great Scotland Yard Hotel, 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HN
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J W HowardStudio Frantzén, Knightsbridge
Harrods is undergoing a revolution. After years in the wilderness of mediocre department store dining, devotees are being treated to a foodie transformation. First came fish and chips from Tom Kerridge, burgers from Gordon Ramsey and a restaurant from Jason Atherton. A glossy, glassy Moet Champagne bar opened in the summer of 2022, quickly followed by a patisserie overseen by Angelo Musa, former head of pastry at Plaza Athènée. Now, Stockholm-born Björn Frantzén is the latest splashy chef to arrive on Brompton Road.
Frantzén opened his eponymous restaurant in his hometown in 2008, and in the two years following picked up two Michelin stars. Its third followed almost a decade later, in 2017 – in the meantime, he opened a clutch of restaurants and bars across the world, including Michelin-starred Zen in Singapore. Studio Frantzén, which unspools across the blushing fifth and sixth floor of Harrods, is his first London opening. Here, Frantzén plucks ideas from both of his most-starry restaurants, mixing Nordic ingredients with Asian influences. Diners wedge into intimate, curvy booths carved into the walls or scoot up to the open kitchen for a glimpse of how their supper is cooked.
It's a gleaming scene; coiffed shoppers lounge below perfectly dimmed lights in the bar or pull up a pew on the sprawling terrace. So gleaming that the food, somehow, is almost an afterthought. All the hallmarks of a smart restaurant are present and correct on the menu: Rockefeller Oysters, caviar. Veal tartare is tossed with punchy truffle aioli and toasted almonds, and cold poached lobster is pretty-as-a-picture in sweet tomato water, cut through with pink peppercorns and lemon verbena. Order from a curated menu of mains or a longer list of dishes from the fireplace: rosy Lake District lamb comes with wasabi and mint for dolloping; salmon tataki is served with daikon, cabbage salad, and ponzu. The stars of the show, really, are the bread – warm, croissant-like laminated milk bread with an almost liquidy blond miso butter; and the sides – I'd go back for the Hasselback potato, deep fried and doused in whipped browned butter and cream cheese alone. Finally, Harrods is a dining destination worth knowing about. Sarah JamesPrice: £££
Address: 87-135 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge Fifth Floor, Harrods, London SW1X 7XL
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Rebecca DicksonCycene, Shoreditch
Cycene – meaning kitchen in Old English – is James and Christie Brown’s newest Blue Mountain School venture. The 15-cover restaurant is the cherry on top of an already culturally invigorating space, spanning two floors of a thoughtfully restored townhouse; previously home to Michelin Starred Mãos and including exhibition spaces, a ceramics archive and a library exploring the practice and process of artists.
As you enter, drinks and the first course are taken on the ground floor before being taken upstairs to the kitchen and main dining room. This transitional space, with its low light, wood-panelled walls, handmade ceramics and elegant sound system, is contemplative and peaceful, allowing you to shift from a busy city street and build anticipation for the experience ahead.
Head-chef Theo Clench (ex- Akoko and Portland) seamlessly takes you through 10 courses. The menu successfully extracts the optimum flavour from the simplest of ingredients, making for a familiar yet funky supper. Oysters (enjoyed in the kitchen) are slow-cooked for an hour and seared with hot charcoal; Meaty, hand-dived Isle of Skye scallops paired with sea truffle and schrenkii, and perfectly cooked turbot accompanied with bouncy Japanese milk bread to soak up the sauce. The main event is the succulent duck that is sourced and prepared with the utmost passion and consideration. We chose to accompany the meal with the half-and-half drinks pairing (half wine, half alcohol-free pairings) which adds a wonderful complexity to each dish without tipping over into needlessly boozy territory – we particularly liked the kombuchas. It's a thoughtful touch that sums up what the team at Cycene are doing – creating a space and experience that puts food centre stage, leaving you feeling utterly inspired. Amber Port
Price: £££
Address: Cycene, 9 Chance St, London E2 7JB
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David LoftusStraker’s, Notting Hill
This little gem of a restaurant, tucked into the heart of Notting Hill, exudes the personality of its head chef, TikTok-famous cook Thomas Straker (you know him from the butter board trend that went viral this summer). There was a welcoming familiarity upon walking in and we were immediately overcome with the feeling that we were dining at a friend's place, only – of course – with much better food.
Every ingredient has a story at Straker’s, honouring the team’s love of seasonality and sustainability. The courses and cocktails are a journey that provides a peek into Straker’s Herefordshire roots and passion for the flavours of Italy and the Mediterranean, which he weaves seamlessly throughout the menu. Flavours are brought to life with complex dishes that make each ingredient the star of its own show. Light springy flatbreads are paired with burnt chilli mussel butter; crisp pumpkin fritti drips with maple syrup; zesty taglioni is paired with black trumpet mushrooms, and tender skate wing is topped with chewy brown shrimp and tangy capers. We finished with fresh doughnuts dusted with cinnamon sugar and balanced with crème fraiche and savoury fig and thyme jam. There’s no doubt that Straker achieved what he set out to do, creating a restaurant that serves up food both he and we want and love to eat. This is undoubtedly an opening with lots of fanfare – but Straker's is worth the hype. Amber Port
Price: £££
Address: Straker's, 91 Golborne Rd, London W10 5NL
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Ochre, Trafalgar Square
Most Londoners prefer to avoid Trafalgar Square’s confusing communion of landmarks, traffic and chain restaurants. Yet this is also home to a number of London’s most iconic museums – including the National Gallery. Housing European art as far back as the 13th century, it’s certainly impressive, but you might think it an unlikely destination for food. You would be wrong.
Nestled inside its walls is Ochre, titled after the elusive shade of brownish-yellow. A hue favoured by painters for centuries. it’s only right that this should be a place of beauty. The space is a play on colour; yellow, gold and earthy tones sit together in harmony. Step inside what feels like a contemporary take on a 1920’s high-society drawing room, where velvet cushioned seating brings a relaxed glamour to the imposing panelled walls and ceiling-high windows.
But style does not precede substance here. Small plates, designed for sharing, are as artful in flavour as they are in presentation. The accessibility of their menu was very welcome too, offering refined takes on popular favourites such as steak, chips, tacos and buttermilk chicken. The scallops, served with chorizo, preserved, lemon and cime de rapa were soft and meaty mouthfuls of the fresh open sea. Meanwhile, the puddings popped with unexpected flavours we didn’t know we craved; balsamic in the Eton mess brings a savoury tartness to the dish, and the caramelised crunch in the apple tarte cut through its sweetness. Paired with delicious wine and inventive cocktails, we soon found ourselves the last people left. A telltale sign of a great supper. Lily Bonesso
Price: £££
Address: Ochre, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN
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PATRICIA TOBINCORD by Le Cordon Bleu, St Paul’s
Anyone well-versed in the food world knows that the place to learn traditional cooking techniques is Le Cordon Bleu. It’s where some of the greats were trained: Julia Child, Yotam Ottolenghi, Gastòn Acurio. So when you bring together 125 years of experience to an all-in-one concept fitted with a café, restaurant and training outpost for the institute, expect nothing short of a spectacular dining experience. Enter CORD – in the heart of St Paul’s – ‘bleu’ velvet chairs, gold accents and statement light fixtures fill the space, while the open kitchen allows guests to marvel at the well-choreographed chefs doing what they do best. Begin with the handpicked Dorset crab, crunchy cucumber and radish served with a delicate brown crab dressing. It makes for a refreshing palate cleanser to accompany the duck foie gras and dried fruit chutney, which can only be described as unctuous and silky in the best possible way. Follow up with brill cooked on the bone and baby potatoes, aubergine purée, and finished with the big umami flavours of the miso beurre blanc. But it’s the wild rocket risotto paired with baby artichokes, mushroom pickles and hazelnut pralines that has us wanting to come back for a second helping. It’s tangy, nutty, and faintly sweet all at once – easily making it one of the tastiest vegetarian dishes we’ve had in London. The vegan panna cotta infused with candied ginger, rose poached rhubarb and topped with a generous dollop of sorbet was worth the food coma. Amid the elegant, innovative menus at CORD, what really hits home is the technique and attention to detail that is true to Le Cordon Bleu fashion. From the perfectly turned artichokes to de-crumbing in between courses, this might just be one of the best spots to have recently landed in London’s restaurant scene. Zahra Surya Darma
Price: £££
Condé Nast Traveller's definitive list of the best restaurants in London
This is the best of the best – our edit of the 50 restaurants in London we keep going back to (in no particular order). Some are relatively recent openings – hot-ticket, queue-worthy spots that instantly made waves, and earned a place on this list just months after firing up their hobs. Others are classics for a reason. All of them are pioneers when it comes to what it means to eat well in London – from bombastic Indian flavours to kitchens pushing the boundaries of sustainability, and from blowout tasting menus to cheap eats you'll want to keep to yourself. All have been reviewed by our team to make this list of London's best.
John Carey1. Ikoyi, St James's
Ikoyi (named after a neighbourhood in Nigeria’s capital, Lagos) is the delicious brainchild of school friends Iré Hassan-Odukale, who was born in Ikoyi, and Jeremy Chan, who heads up the kitchen. The pair are bringing West African flavour and flair to newly-foodie St James’s Market, where amber-coloured banquettes, rich velvet cushions, elmwood fittings, hanging plants and a gorgeous collection of custom-made ceramic tableware capture the vibrancy. In 2022, it placed on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list for the first time, ranking at number 49. Be warned, the fiery menu is all about the spice, but with varying degrees of blow-your-mouth-off heat. Brothers Max and Noel Venning, co-owners of East London bar Three Sheets, have designed a colourful cocktail menu full of flavour and spice. Try a floral and fruity non-alcoholic Ikoyi Chapman with blood orange, cucumber and rose or a French Bonnet with brandy, Martini Rosso and scotch bonnet chilli. Our top tip – go for lunch, when the menu is a reasonable £75. Alice Riley-Smith
Price range: ££££
Address: Ikoyi, 1 St James’s Market, London SW1Y 4AH
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Yuki Sugiura2. The Clove Club, Shoreditch
Scotsman Isaac McHale opened this big-ticket restaurant in Shoreditch Town Hall back in 2013. Since then, it’s made regular appearances on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list (ranking at number 35 in the most recent awards in 2022). Cult snacks, brilliant cocktails, their own bread and charcuterie, and generous yet refined plates of heritage pork or lobster or trout make this a sensational destination with bags of charm. This ambitious 95-seater restaurant and bar is beloved of the cool crowd and the critics for good reason – and it’s not overhyped one bit. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: ££££
Address: The Clove Club, Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London EC2
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3. Chishuru, Brixton
Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare’s sell-out supper club was one of many (such as Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen and Lola Oduba-Vine’s Club Naija) that nudged West African cooking into London’s lexicon of late. Joké’s Nigerian heritage is at the forefront of her home-style cooking, and it’s hugely exciting – if not long overdue – to see a business run by a Black woman flourishing in Brixton’s competitive restaurant scene. The menu changes frequently (snacks every week, larger plates depending on what ingredients look good) with a rotation of fiery, no-frills dishes such as bavette steak rubbed with yaji dressing (served with the requisite quarter-tomato as is custom, Rafal explains), and ekuru with pumpkin-seed pestou and Scotch bonnet sauce. There’s no elegant way to eat the grilled prawn ‘soup’ (a peppery seafood broth) or the latke-inspired cassava fritters, but that’s what the stack of napkins is for. The Dubonnet Negroni comes with a succinct history lesson, and is a touch more syrupy than its aperitif original, but it was the Naturally Fresh that we’d ask for again, even if it comes off the menu. Anna Prendergast
Price range: ££
Address: Chishuru, Unit 9 Market Row, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8LB
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Clare Lewington4. Silo, Hackney Wick
When chef Douglas McMaster opened Silo in Brighton in 2014, most people’s response to ‘zero waste’ would have been ‘zero what?!’ McMaster was well and truly ahead of the green curve with his innovative approach to cooking based on the simple but quite out-there idea of not having a bin. One glance at the concise menu projected onto the back wall (they don’t print the food menus as they change so often) and diners will spot McMaster’s unusual ingredient pairings. The menu romps on, a succession of flavours that jar, but work, until the puddings, which are just as creative and wild: a sunshine-rich pumpkin ice cream, tart sea buckthorn snow and silky crème fraîche. Get the daily tasting menu to try as many dishes as possible: every single one – all of it – is bold, daring and delicious. This is progressive food in both approach and taste, and it will leave you awestruck. Yes, it’s good for the planet – but it’s also just damn good. Sonya Barber
Price range: £££
Address: Silo, The White Building, Unit 7 Queens Yard, Hackney Wick, London E9 5EN
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5. Rochelle Canteen, Shoreditch
One-time school bike shed has been around for a while. Owners Melanie Arnold and Margot Henderson have run this spot since 2004, and been business partners for more than 25 years. At Rochelle Canteen, they serve a daily changing menu – perhaps grilled onglet with cavolo nero or smoked with fish. It’s unfussy and honest cooking, served in a setting that feels more country house than East End. The wine list is a delight – order by the glass as you graze your way through the menu of sure-fire hits, whatever the season, and leave feeling smug that you even found this unassuming spot at all. Katharine Sohn
Price range: £££
Address: Rochelle Canteen, 16 Playground Gardens, Shoreditch, London E2 7FA
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6. Jikoni, Marylebone
Sunshiny chef Ravinder Bhogal cut her teeth at Michelin-starred Trishna before opening up her own place – a ‘no borders’ kitchen that draws on Indian, African and European cooking to curate its menu. ‘We call ourselves a no borders kitchen because we feel that food is such a powerful language – a language that everyone understands,’ Bhogal told us. Interiors play with pastels and pops of candy colour pattern, Order the Prawn toast Scotch egg with banana ketchup and pickled cucumbers, the cheery fish pie with golden saffron, the hand-dived scallops with congee – really, it’s all good. The short cocktail list leans into eastern spices, or, if you’re not drinking, order one of the cleverly curated selection of teas. This is a beautiful place to eat serving food that will make you smile. Sarah James
Price range: £££
Address: Jikoni, 19-21 Blandford Street, London W1U 3DH
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7. Bibi, Mayfair
Behind an unassuming red-brick Georgian front, inside, the wood-panelled ceilings, chequerboard flooring, and a smooth, dark wooden countertop set BiBi apart from the traditional, slightly tedious Mayfair stalwarts. Melding the neighbourhood’s extravagant propensity with a dash of heady Indian design laced with charming family influences, BiBi’s nails the brief: a restaurant that slots naturally into its surroundings, yet abounds with personality and a contemporary feel. Chet Sharma’s career has taken him through some of Europe’s biggest restaurants – from Lancashire’s Moor Hall and Cumbria‘s L’Enclume to Mugaritz in Spain’s Basque Country – but at BiBi, his training and experience converge with passion and family influence. Order the cheese papads for a light, crunchy take on prawn crackers, and the oyster pachadi to start. The khatti meethi cod was also perfectly flakey with a tamarind sweet-and-sour style sauce, and the goat chapli kebab is another exciting dish to add to your list. Merging high-end food, glamorous interiors and a hard-to-impress postcode, with authentic familial influences and traditional Indian cuisine, BiBi was well worth the wait. Olivia Morelli
Price range: £££
Address: BiBi, 42 N Audley Street, London W1K 6ZP
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Xavier Girard Lachaine8. Lyle’s, Shoreditch
Chef James Lowe has a CV that includes shifts at Noma in Copenhagen and London's seminal St John Bread and Wine. For this solo venture it's instantly clear that he's pulled inspiration from his previous stints. It occupies what was once a Lipton tea factory, opposite the Shoreditch BoxPark – the space is very white, and light, thanks to original warehouse windows. Lowe dishes up four cleverly matched courses every evening with a couple of treats thrown in. The menu varies but could include perfect asparagus, grilled and sprinkled with walnuts and Spenwood cheese; fresh sashimi from seafood caught that day, or game from Yorkshire. Start with a delicate pink Eric Pfifferling from the Rhône and move on to the dry white Folle Blanche from the Loire which goes particularly well with fish. A tasting-menu in a prime Shoreditch spot that's actually worth the hype. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: ££££
Address: Lyle's, Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ
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John Neate9. Paradise, Soho
‘They didn’t hold back on chilli and acidity!’ says first-time restaurateur Dom Fernando of his childhood trips to visit family in Sri Lanka. His grandmother’s recipes are inspiration for the menu headed up by Charith Priyadarshana, who moved here from Colombo 10 years ago. Everything at Paradise packs a complex flavour profile, and most dishes have some sort of a kick – it’s nice to feel as if you’re getting the real deal. Fried aubergine comes with jaggery moju, a traditional Sri Lankan pickle, and slow-roasted pork cheek with tamarind and Sri Lankan stout. The Laverstoke Park buffalo ice cream tops most of London’s gelaterias’, crowned with a butterscotch and cashew brittle; and the chilli chocolate tart is more like a sophisticated Terry’s chocolate orange. And the wine list spotlights growers who focus on low-intervention winemaking. What’s not to like? Tabitha Joyce
Price range: ££
Address: Paradise, 61 Rupert Street, Soho, London W1D 7PW
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10. Petersham Nurseries, Covent Garden
Petersham Nurseries Café is not really a café, but one of London’s most beloved restaurants. This, their second opening under the same name is filled with wrought-iron tables and chairs (both inside and out), huge vintage chandeliers, Murano glassware and simple posies of freshly cut flowers. Start with technicolour heritage radishes dipped in spicy crab, or buffalo mozzarella with shelled broad beans, mint and chilli. Next up: perfect green pasta parcels of ricotta and nettle and marjoram – all in a sauce so deliciously creamy you could eat it by the spoonful; or saffron gnocci with Cornish mussels and a sprinkle of spring flowers. Head to the bar next door, La Goccia, for its Garden gin and tonic, zingy with fresh pea flavour and a basil tonic. Many have heard about Petersham Nurseries’ phenomenal food, but much fewer have made the trip – this Covent Garden location is set to change that. If you can get a table outside in the summer, go. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: ££££
Address: Petersham Nurseries, Floral Court, London, WC2E 9FB
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John Carey11. Akoko, Fitzrovia
London is riding a slowly breaking wave of West African flavours right now. And all the while bubbling away in the background was Akoko. Its founders, British Nigerian Aji Akokomi and MasterChef: The Professionals finalist JM Chilila (ex Marylebone’s Orrery), are adding to that buzz. Their elevated yet rooted spin is immediately apparent when walking into the Berners Street space, where walls are covered in earthy terracotta clay, glassware on the wooden tables is a fine as a leaf and work by Niyi Olagunju, a Nigerian artist who creates pieces using the pods of ekpiri seeds, is a textural pop of black and gold. The five-course menu, developed by Akokomi and Chilila over many months (Akoko is the Yoruba word for ‘time’), is a reimagining of the traditional dishes found in Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana in particular. A standout is the creamy Nigerian pumpkin soup with chunks of lobster, nutmeg, puffed wild rice, moringa oil and crispy shallots served with chewy Guinness bread and yassa butter, based on the scotch-bonnet-spiked Senegalese recipe usually made with chicken. This is a spot that's deservedly at the vanguard of bringing a whole new experience of West African food to London. Gráinne McBride
Price range: ££££
Adress: Akoko, 21 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP
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12. Hide, Mayfair
Londoners were eager to hear what Ollie Dabbous’ next move would be when his booked-solid restaurant Dabbous closed in 2017 with the promise of better things. Better things arrived in 2018 in the form of HIDE – a three-storey, industrial-chic behemoth. On street level is GROUND, where the team serves British-sourced dishes, and an in-house bakery that supplies the goods for breakfast (it's one of the best brunches in London). Downstairs, in BELOW, is a dark cocktail bar and hidden wine cellar. But if you’re a true Dabbous fan and can handle a nine-course tasting menu, then head up the sweeping staircase to ABOVE. The steamed ikejime turbot is cooked to glistening perfection, served in a sauce made from bones; tail-to-gill cooking at its best. Other highlights include the roasted king crab with camomile honey, slow-roasted goose with birch sap and barbecued Herdwick lamb. As HIDE shouts about having the largest wine list in London, you can expect to be well looked after by one of its 15 sommeliers. This is cooking that focusses on big-hitting flavours – whether you’re after an easy supper or something smarter. Sarah James
Price range: ££££
Address: Hide, 85 Piccadilly, London, W1J 7NB
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13. Bao, Soho
It’s been years since London’s favourite Taiwanese bun house launched in Soho, and queues still snake outside the tiny space on Lexington Street. After that smash-hit opening, BAO outposts followed in Borough, Fitzrovia and King’s Cross. The fluffy buns are a crowd favourite for a reason. First-timers should order the classic, with juicy pork and peanuts packed inside a fluffy pocket, or the indulgent fried chicken. If you have room for pudding, the fried Horlicks ice-cream bun is another go-to; the fried bun tastes a little like brioche while the ice cream is made from the creamy malted drink. A classic Negroni is made with sake, while an Old Fashioned makes use of Japanese favourite milk tea. This diminutive Soho spot is still our favourite in the Bao family – and well worth the queue. Sophie Knight
Price range: ££
Address: Bao, 53 Lexington Street, Carnaby, London W1F 9AS
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Milo Brown14. Maru, Mayfair
You could walk past Maru several times and not realise it’s there, set as it is behind low-key frontage on the little Dickensian passageway in Shepherd Market that leads to Ye Grapes pub. The space has been reborn as Taiji’s personal project, an omakase joint serving up to 10 guests – omakase being a surprise meal in which the chef chooses each piece for you. Sitting at the counter, the world outside, while sushi-grade tuna is sliced a few inches away, feels like just the kind of experience we want right now. We think each and every of the 20 courses should be a surprise – just go along, take an open mind (there’s nothing particularly challenging though) and an empty stomach. There are three drinks pairings to choose from, each gracefully poured and explained by the sommelier. Close-up magic of the foodie kind – if there’s a four-letter word for fall-off-your-seat-brilliant Japanese flavours, Maru is it. Rick Jordan
Price range: ££££
Address: Maru, 18 Shepherd Market, London W1J 7QH
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Carol Sachs15. The Barbary, Covent Garden
The owners of The Barbary (two former nightclub owners and two Israeli chefs) have created something rare – a set of London restaurants (The Palomar, The Barbary, The Barbary Next door) where a table is as coveted now as it was on opening night. While you wait for a seat at this Covent Garden outpost, order some flaky pastry cigars stuffed with fish and a round of pita pouches of lamb as comforting as mittens in winter. It's difficult to separate stand-out dishes but the charred octopus tentacle and neck of pata negra pork are both contenders. A talking point round the bar, the pistachio-filled 'hashcake' comes with the satisfyingly smoky aftertaste of a joint. East London Liquor Company gin and tonics are served with a slice of grapefruit and the Zweigelt goes with pretty much everything on the menu. This is still one of our favourite spots in London. Hazel Lubbock
Price range: £££
Address: The Barbary, 16 Neal's Yard, Covent Garden, London WC2
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16. Evelyn's Table, Soho
You may walk by the blue exterior of The Blue Posts, set alongside Middle Eastern hit The Palomar and smart Taiwanese Xu’s Teahouse. But inside this wood-panelled space lie three storeys worth stopping for. Start with a drink at The Blue Posts pub before heading down a pine-green staircase to Evelyn’s Table. Helmed by Luke Selby, formerly head chef at Hide, and his two younger brothers, Nat and Theo (also ex-Hide), the 10-seater restaurant combines British produce with Japanese techniques and classic French methods. Here, diners sit at the marble-topped chef’s table to be presented with five courses that might include freshly caught Cornish mackerel, cured and served in a bowl with sweet sake or crunchy shiso tempura in the shape of tacos that cradle wild mussels. Dishes can be paired with an exemplary wine list for an extra £60 per person. The drinks are as innovative as the food, and there’s also an intriguing selection of beer, cocktails and sake. This close-knit team works flawlessly together, with tangible passion and a real family atmosphere, to ensure an evening of delightful food and drink. Olivia Morelli
Price range: ££££
Address: Evelyn's Table, The Blue Posts, Cellar, 28 Rupert St, London W1D 6DJ
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@lateef.photography17. 1251, Islington
James Cochran’s name is a well known one, after being on the London restaurant scene for a few years (plus a high-profile stint on the BBC’s Great British Menu) – and this spot proves why. On boujie Upper Street, 1251 has a cosy, warmly-lit window scene to attract discerning Londoners. One long room is stacked on top of another, with closely packed tables that a scruffily dressed waiter nips nimbly between. 1251 is firmly in the camp of sharing plates, and sends dishes out when they’re ready. Don’t expect a robust main course that’ll leave you needing to loosen your jeans: these are elegant dishes that feature dehydrated seaweed and foams and jus. Go in with an open mind if that’s not usually your thing: the Orkney scallops, served with creamed pumpkin, are plump and tender, while the lamb, served delicately pink with artichoke and olive, has a mix of flavours you’d never put together on your own – but will want to when you leave. This is a refined restaurant that serves up brilliantly cooked food without being stuffy. The soundtrack is cool, the staff are laid-back, and on our visit, Cochran himself was swaying to Nineties hip hop while chatting to his maître d' near the bar. Sarah James
Price range: ££
Address: 1251, 107 Upper Street, London N1 1QN
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18. Sessions Arts Club, Farringdon
A £15 million renovation of the Old Sessions House – a discreet, gorgeous 18th-century Grade II listed landmark – is partly to thank for Clerkenwell’s recently elevated foodie reputation. We ascended four floors to what used to be a vast judges' dining room, where a mezzanine of leather banquettes and a Gabriele Beveridge sculpture suspended mid-air bears witness to the buzz below. Polpetto alumni Florence Knight is running the kitchen – and the dishes are masterful. Chef Knight has always preferred to work with just a few ingredients. A simple platter of coppa di parma with pickled fennel got a disproportionate amount of airtime at our table, and the meat-eater in our group declared the purple sprouting broccoli with a creamy cannellini dip his favourite. It might be the sort of place where you’re earnestly recommended a £300 bottle, but sommelier Sophie Liverman will be just as excited to serve you a £42 bottle of biodynamic Verdicchio. In a courthouse that once had a reputation for issuing harsh sentences, the verdict for this place is unanimously positive. Anna Prendergast
Price range: £££
Address: Sessions Arts Club, Old Sessions House, 24 Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0NA
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19. Roti King, Euston
The original Roti King is in a basement joint in Euston, a part of town most of us try to avoid at supper time unless we’re forced into catching a post-work train. But most Londoners in the know will make an exception for the buttery roti this spot is famous for – perfect for scooping up mouthfuls of curry (lamb, fish, chicken) or daal. The dining room is nothing fancy, but the omnipresent queue outside says it all – this is some of the most delicious, authentic Malaysian food in the city. Order a traditional lemon iced tea, and a roti with mutton khari, and you’ll only be set back just over a tenner. Brilliant value, and utterly deserving of a spot on our edit. Sarah James
Price range: £
Address: Roti King, 40 Doric Way, London NW1 1LH
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20. Cornerstone, Hackney Wick
Tom Brown learnt his trade in the stable of Nathan Outlaw, whose eponymous London and Cornish restaurants both hold Michelin stars. A few years ago Brown has opened a place of his own – just two minutes from Hackney Wick, the space is light and bright, with a handful of terracotta-potted succulents and pendant lights above the open kitchen. Somewhat more surprising though, that kitchen is right in the middle of the restaurant, so there’s not a bad seat in the house. Start with a Cornerstone G&T, made with own-brand gin that’s been distilled with cloudy apple juice from Polgoon Orchard in Cornwall rather than water and served with apple, samphire and a herbal tonic. As for food, you can’t avoid the fishiness – but then again, that’s what you’re here for. Crispy hake kiev comes with mussel butter and parsely emulsion, crab thermidor piled onto a warm (and well-buttered) crumpet. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: £££
Address: Cornerstone, 3 Prince Edward Road, Hackney Wick, London E9 5LX
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CHARLIE MCKAY21. Peckham Cellars, Peckham
Name a better foodie spot in London than Peckham, and I’ll show you to its many unique eateries. But this might be our favourite – footsteps from Queen’s Road Peckham station, the wine bar, shop and restaurant has been open since 2020 and won a Michelin Bib Gourmand in the 2021 awards. The menu comes from head chef Pablo Urain Alfonso and is a regularly changing delight of seasonal small plates. Great ingredients sing – the winter tomatoes in olive oil and salt and burrata served with pickled pear and walnut were highlights when we visited, and the ice cream sando deserves an honourable mention. When it comes to booze, the clue is in the name; wine is seriously good here. More than 150 bottles are available, and Ben McVeigh, former head sommelier at 28-50 Fetter Lane, knows everything about the stock. If you can tear yourself away from the wine menu, the chilli margarita is highly recommended. This is a local hangout that’s the perfect place to spend a Friday winding down. Abigail Malbon
Price range: ££
Address: Peckham Cellars, 125 Queen's Road, London SE15 2ND
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22. Casa Fofo, Dalston
This is a small but smart spot on an unassuming residential street a short stroll from colourful Ridley Road Market. There’s an open kitchen so you can watch the chefs at work, and different members of the team take turns to bring dishes to the table, allowing you to meet them all. The interiors are dominated by clean white walls, but exposed-brick features and wooden tables add warmth. There’s one option if you want a full meal – the six-course set tasting menu. It changes regularly to suit what’s in season but is grounded in modern, inventive cooking. There are precisely 10 options on the wine list, each one carefully selected, all natural and low intervention. It’s worth taking the team’s suggestions by the glass to match the food. The spot achieved one Michelin-star a couple of years ago, and has continued to go from strength to strength – worth travelling to if you don’t live nearby and visiting repeatedly if you do. Oliva Holborrow
Price range: ££
Address: Casa Fofó, 158 Sandringham Road, London E8 2HS
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23. Native at Browns, Mayfair
Foraging can be an over-hyped word. For Imogen Davis and Ivan Tisdall-Downes, however, it forms part of an inventive approach to cooking that’s based on zero waste. Their story has taken them from Covent Garden to Borough Market, then to an outpost on Osea Island in Essex. Now the pair have opened a restaurant in the unlikely surroundings of the Browns fashion store in a Mayfair townhouse. What is now on the menu as the Native Fish Fillet (they called it Filet-O-Fish but McDonald’s had a word) is a plump brioche holding breadcrumbed cod cheeks, draped with ‘cheese’ – actually brown-crab rarebit – on a splodge of seaweed tartar. If they served just this, I’d be happy. Native’s classic Marrowmel makes a reappearance – white chocolate and bone-marrow caramel to scrape with your spoon and wonder how something so meaty can be quite so puddingy. The drinks list showcases beers from Earth Ale – a North London microbrewery that incorporates foraged dandelion root and hogweed – and uses a wonky-fruit apple brandy from Essex. This is rooted food with a real sense of adventure despite the genteel surroundings. Rick Jordan
Price range: £££
Address: Native at Browns, 39 Brook Street, London W1K 4JE
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John Carey24. Hoppers, Soho
Despite this Sri Lankan specialist having been around since 2015, walking into a branch of Hoppers still feels a little like you’re discovering a buzzy new hotspot. Perhaps it’s because there are still relatively few Sri Lankan restaurants in London, unless you’re prepared to journey quite a way out – which is fairly mysterious considering how delicious the food can be. The namesake hoppers (thin, crispy, bowl-shaped pancakes made with rice flour) are the must-order – topped with an egg, perhaps, or chilli cheese, although the creamy dhal was a delight, as was the fiery sambar. A couple of tasting menus (vegetarian and decidedly meaty) are a brilliant option for first-time visitors, and reasonably priced at £40 per person. Wash everything down with one (or a few) of the team’s collaboration beers with Camden Town Brewery – a citrusy, fresh lager that’ll transport you straight to Sri Lanka’s tropical shores. Rick Jordan
Price range: ££
Address: Hoppers, 49 Frith Street, London W1D 4SG
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Brian Dandridge25. Fallow St James, Mayfair
The ceiling drips in dried kelp. A central open kitchen fizzes with activity where tattooed arms slam trays into ovens one second then daintily arrange the garnish on juicy oysters. Jack Croft and Will Murray met while they were cooking at Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, but it didn’t take long for them to peel off so they could riff in their nose-to-tail way. James Robson completes the triumvirate behind the sustainability-celebrating restaurant. Interiors are a winner at repurposing existing fixtures to throw out a fresh look, but I’m too excited to not go straight into urging you to try the headline main course: cod’s head, with sriracha butter. Book one of the seven seats at the chef’s counter – relax and ease yourself into the sommelier’s every ebullient recommendation. The folks of Fallow are in cahoots with Renegade Urban Winery in Bethnal Green. If you’re smart, you’ll end with a cocktail – Fallow Martini No. 3 hits the right note with Sapling vodka, vermouth, rapeseed oil and buckwheat. When it comes to robust flavours with best-quality ingredients, Fallow is no slouch. Juliet Kinsman
Price range: ££££
Address: Fallow 2 St James’s Market, London SW1Y 4RP
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26. Kudu, Peckham
The couple behind one of Peckham’s most talked-about restaurant come from a solid pedigree. South African chef Patrick Williams has made his way to this particular South London neighbourhood via The Manor in Clapham and Paradise Garage in Bethnal Green; his partner, Amy Corbin, is the daughter of Chris Corbin (half of restaurant dynasty Corbin & King, who are responsible for some of London’s best restaurants). The space has a grand, old-fashioned charm alongside contemporary touches of pale-pink concrete. You can judge most restaurants straight off on their bread and butter. And in this department, Kudu comes up trumps. A cumin-brioche, based on South African mosbolletjies, is served in a cast-iron pot; it’s light and fluffy and should be dunked straight into the skillet of lardon-laced molten-butter. More South African flavours follow in the mussel potjie, a creamy fish velouté dotted with home-rolled nettle gnocchi; and delicate deep-fried artichokes, served with a miso mayonnaise. This is surely London’s best South African restaurant? Tabitha Joyce
Price range: £££
Address: Kudu, 119 Queens Road, London SE15 2EZ
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Patricia Niven27. Jolene, Stoke Newington
First came Primeur, which set up shop in a former motor garage in Canonbury. Then came Westerns Laundry, in an obscure corner of Highbury, which did the same thing, albeit in a former launderette and with more fish. Co-founders Jeremie Comotto-Lingenheim and chef David Gingell then opened an all-day bakery-restaurant on Newington Green. Despite the name there’s no rhinestone here but bare walls etched with tiny bits of graffiti, more pencil-case than Banksy. The idea behind the bakery was to encourage the use of chemical-free grains – working with an ethically minded farmer in France – which are milled daily to make a beautifully rounded harvest line-up of raisin bread, sausage rolls, financiers and cinnamon buns. Two highlights: the gnudi with pumpkin and sage – gnocchi-like balls so good they’ll have you talking about them in your sleep; and the lamb shoulder with tomatoes and olives, wallowingly rich with perfectly crunchy-soft roast potatoes for dipping. A place that takes its food seriously but has fun with it – and with its twinkly candle lights at night this is a lovely place to graze on autumnal flavours. Rick Jordan
Price range: ££
Address: Jolene, 21 Newington Green, London N16 9PU
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28. Imad's Syrian Kitchen, Soho
Syrian restaurateur Imad Alarnab fled his homeland in 2015 following the bombing of his three restaurants. Making his way through Europe, Imad shared his skills, cooking for other refugees and after finding refuge in the UK, it wasn’t long before he held his first supper club. It was an instant hit, and so spawned various pop-up kitchens across London. Now, at this first permanent Syrian Kitchen – £50,000 was crowdsourced to fund its opening – Alarnab has taken over Asma Khan’s spot at the top of Kingly Court. Order the falafel, obviously. The unique loops make for a great crispy surface-area-to-volume ratio. One standout is the halloumi noodles – cheese strings if you will – served on a rocket and watermelon salad. If you order one meat dish, make it the fattet macdous – a pile-up of minced lamb and aubergines on crispy flatbread triangles. A Mediterranean wine list and an interesting edit of beers – from Hoxton Hill Fin Lager to an alcohol-free pale ale from Pine Trail – does everything it should. You might go to support Alarnab, but you’ll keep going back for the (very reasonably priced) sensational small plates. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: £
Address: Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, Top Floor, Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London W1B 5PW
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Adam Scott29. Chuku's, Tottenham
Nigerians in London have enjoyed their country’s varied cooking for decades, staying faithful to its roots and generally steering clear of the global fusion game. However, Emeka and Ifeyinwa Frederick have changed that by opening the world’s first Nigerian tapas joint. The sibling duo made a name for themselves with a popular pop-up, stirring up tastes of Lagos at venues across London. Then in February 2020, following a crowdfunding campaign, they opened Chuku’s, a Tottenham restaurant serving Nigerian dishes with a contemporary twist. Chuku’s repackages traditional Nigerian fare as vegetarian friendly – quite a conceptual coup considering how meat-obsessed Nigeria can be (waiters in the motherland have pressed me many a time for my ‘protein’ option). One meatless option is the pounded yam balls in egusi (ground melon seed) and spinach soup, presented in a playful tricolour of green, red and yellow. My favourite was the sinasir and miyan taushe – rice pancakes for dunking in a pumpkin and peanut sauce. But incorrigible carnivores can take comfort in the chicken wings coated in caramel infused with kuli kuli (spicy peanut) – a nod to dishes from northern Nigeria. Africa meets Europe in a delicious and innovative new take on Nigerian cuisine. Noo Saro-Wiwa
Price range: £
Address: Chuku's, 274 High Road, London N15 4AJ
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30. Brawn, Columbia Road
London does neighbourhood restaurants really well. East London does neighbourhood restaurants exceptionally well. And this Columbia Road spot – on the far end of the flower market – is still one of our favourites. It opened in 2010 as a wine bar, before adding a kitchen a few years later. It’s got a heavy focus on natural wines and seasonal small plates – so far, so Hackney. But the quality here is so good the team has received a nod from the Michelin Guide with a Bib Gourmand. Starters of crumbly rabbit and pistachio terrine or grilled mackerel with blood orange give way to steaming plates of pappardelle with duck ragu or braised ox cheek. This is hearty, feel good cooking that you actually want to eat, in one of East London’s most charming settings. Sarah James
Price range: £££
Address: Brawn, 49 Columbia Road, London E2 7RG
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31. Manteca, Shoreditch
When fresh-pasta spot 10 Heddon Street closed after spending a few months at the top of everyone’s social-media feeds in summer 2019, the central London restaurant scene felt the loss. The collaboration between Smokestak’s David Carter and Chris Leach, previously of Kitty Fisher’s and Petersham Nurseries, quickly made most of the city’s best-restaurants lists. A follow-up opened near Oxford Circus a little while later, and in 2021 they opened in a permanent home in Shoreditch. The team here aims to offer nose-to-tail cooking. The main event is the pasta: order as many dishes as you think you can finish between your party. Silky pappardelle is served with rich ox-cheek ragu while tonnarelli is tossed in simple cacio e pepe sauce, elevated with the addition of brown crab. Embrace the Italian way of life and go for a full-on aperitivo – most cocktails are made with amaro, an Italian bitter. The pop-up is back for good, and every hungry soul in London is better off for it. Sarah James
Price range: ££
Address: Manteca, 58-59 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7JY
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Jérôme Galland32. Circolo Popolare, Fitzrovia
When Circolo, the Big Mamma Group’s second Italian trattoria outside of France, opened in Fitrzovia in 2019, it became an instant hit – queues for a table started to hit the two-hour mark, even in the middle of the week. Double-height walls are covered top to bottom in liquor bottles of every feasible variety (they’re all full – we checked), six deep and covering the entire restaurant. It takes a minute to assimilate to the bombastic madness of it all. Big Mamma has made excess their thing, and Circolo’s extravagant menu looks to Sicily. The show-stopper comes in the form of some of the best pizza in London, available to order as a giant one-metre stretch to split. The standout topping is the Orlando Blue: rich with gorgonzola, salty speck cuts through the cheese while sweet peach and honey add another level of flavour. The cocktail list is packed with fairly classic Italian staples, but the limoncello spritz is a great, southern Italian take on the better known Aperol. Circolo doesn’t shy away from its larger-than-life reputation, and it’s a refreshing departure from the capital’s sometimes rather serious restaurant scene. Sarah James
Price range: £££
Address: Circolo Popolare, 40-41 Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, London W1T 1HX
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33. The Waterhouse Project, Bethnal Green
What started out as a supper club in chef Gabriel Waterhouse's one-bedroom flat six years ago is now a permanent restaurant. Waterhouse honed his skills at Michelin-star Galvin La Chapelle, but at his own self-funded place he offers a fine-dining-meets-dinner-party experience. So dishes are plated up at a giant kitchen island, and coffee is poured from shared cafetieres. Unlike at other similar set-ups such as Mãos in Shoreditch, there are also individual tables so you can be as sociable, or not, as you like. The nine-course set menu changes every month so that every ingredient is at its seasonal best. On our visit we tried pork-belly doughnuts with a sugary dusting, bright-green parcels of squid ink and mackerel, crab croquettes with garlic aioli... Each plate was licked so clean that it was a challenge to finish the miso chocolate cookie. The all-in price includes six glasses of wine plus an aperitif on arrival – in keeping with the ethos, the bottles are from small, low-intervention producers (a Cabernet Franc from Beatrice et Pascal Lambert in the Loire was the standout). All in, this is a very unassuming yet brilliantly executed dining experience. Grainne McBride
Price range: ££££
Address: The Waterhouse Project, 1 Corbridge Crescent, East London, E2 9DT
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34. Trullo, Islington
It’s hard to get a table at Islington’s favourite neighbourhood restaurant. The set-up is based on a simple Italian trattoria, with net curtains that track halfway up the window, black-painted wooden chairs and white-paper tablecloths that crinkle (and quickly get doused in drips of the best olive oil). On the menu there might creamy ‘nduja on toast, burrata served with peach and basil or breakfast radishes with aioli. Everything is fresh and seasonal, and completely delicious. Go big on the pasta, which is all made in house: thick noodles of pici oozing with cacio e pepe and skinny tagliarini with crab, courgette and a chilli kick. And while there are main courses from the grill (black Hampshire pork chops with capers and rosemary borlotti beans; whole Brixham mackerel with Castelluccio lentils and salsa rossa) it’s the beef-shin ragu with pappardelle that keeps the locals coming back, and back again. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: ££–£££
Read more about the best Italian restaurants in London
Address: Trullo, 300-302 St Paul's Rd, Highbury East, London N1 2LH
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35. Kitty Fisher's, Mayfair
When Kitty Fisher’s opened in 2014, originally with Tomos Parry in the kitchen (he has since launched the fantastic Brat in Shoreditch), it was a sure-fire hit, and one of the hardest tables in the city to book. So we snuck back in to see how they were getting on with chef Karl Goward. The restaurant’s namesake is an 18th-century courtesan known for her self-indulgence, once rumoured to have eaten a 1,000-guinea banknote on a slice of bread and butter. But the extravagance at Kitty Fisher’s isn’t immediate – enter the cosy, dim-lit space on a damp corner of the Mayfair market behind Green Park to find cute wooden tables with simple wildflowers in jars and a couple of bar stalls in the window. The real extravagance arrives (by the bucketload) on the plate. Thankfully, starters and mains aren’t made to share – order grilled lamb rump with garlic toast or comforting minced beef and onion pie. Let’s be honest, you’ll probably want to pilfer from your companion’s plate, too. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: ££££
Address: Kitty Fisher’s, 10 Shepherd Market, Mayfair, London W1J 7QF
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36. Brat, Shoreditch
Walking up the stairs, past rows of wine bottles, to be greeted by the soft, camp-fire wumpf of wood smoke, bright chatter across long tables… you’d be forgiven for wondering why you’d never stumbled across this place before. Tomos Parry is famously the chef behind Kitty Fisher’s, the celebrity hangout in Mayfair. While Fisher’s can seem too much like a private member’s club at times, the wood-panelled Brat is more open, with all the atmosphere of an upstairs Spanish asador at 11pm. Brat is named not after tantrums but after an old English name for turbot, which here weighs in around £55, can feed three and is incredible – it ain’t no oil painting but is golden and tender and worth jettisoning the fork for your fingers. Noble Rot’s Dan Keeling gave a helping hand with the wine list here, with a changing monthly focus on small producers. As you’d expect, there are crisp, sappy Vinho Verdes and Albarinos, but also much to be loved from elsewhere in Europe. But you’d be advised to order a bottle of sherry – the fino en rama, perhaps – which goes well with everything on the menu. Rick Jordan
Price range: ££££
Address: Brat, 4 Redchurch St, London E1 6JL
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Charlie McKay37. Kol, Marylebone
This place was a long time coming. We first heard rumours that Santiago Lastra, the dashing chef who was handpicked by René Redzepi to lead the sell-out Noma pop-up in Tulum, was coming to London in 2018. Since then Lastra spent time foraging for the best ingredients, from the woodlands of Kent to the Scottish coastline. His moody, terracotta-toned bistro has finally launched in 2020. Things are split into a couple of tasting menus, but it doesn’t feel stiff and lots of the courses are designed to be pieced together at the table. Tender langoustine is paired with an intriguing smoked chilli and sea buckthorn which guests pile into corn tacos themselves, and seared lamb is chopped and served with a subtle guajillo mayonnaise. Mains are made for sharing – short rib with a quince mole and roasted carrots or bone-marrow-roasted octopus with a seaweed salsa macha. The house wine has been created specifically for KOL by Slovakian winemakers Slobodné Vinárstvo. As with any good Mexican, there’s a carefully curated list of mezcal which also feature at the end of the wine flight. Lastra’s dedication to the best of British ingredients makes for an inspiring tour of Mexico. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: ££££
Address: KOL, 9 Seymour Street, Marylebone, London W1H
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38. Smoking Goat, Shoreditch
Ben Chapman's Thai-spiced hotspots are some of London’s best-loved – bringing authentic flavours from northern Thailand to well-sourced ingredients in Soho (at Kiln) and Shoreditch (where Smoking Goat sits right on the high street). Chapman isn't afraid of spice. A delicious duck laab has a searing heat that might make your cheeks sweat (a side order of the rich, lardo-fried rice helps cool things a little). The mains are pretty super-sized. An enormous goat shoulder spiced with massaman paste could easily keep a table of four busy, as would the plate of drunken noodles with charred beef brisket. The moral of the story is to go with a big group so you can try the lot. And order lots of water. The nice thing about Smoking Goat is you can just stop by for a drink. Plus, if you're waiting for a table, there are dedicated counters to perch at and peruse the menu over a pint of One Mile End Brewery's Juicy 4pm ale. A fun, tasty and nicely priced Shoreditch joint. Order a magnum or two of craft beer and a couple of the large sharing plates, and settle in. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: ££
Address: Smoking Goat, 64 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ
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Katharine Sohn39. Café Cecilia, Hackney
This is the first bricks-and-mortar restaurant from Max Rocha – a canalside spot in Hackney. The son of fashion designer John Rocha has a résumé that includes some of the city’s best joints – the River Café and St John Bread and Wine among them. Café Cecilia is a simple affair: pristine white walls, a scribbled blackboard menu and an open kitchen. The aim of the game is to share – kick off with a jammy terrine so smooth it almost melts onto the crispy toast. The airy pizzetta topped with gooey Taleggio and the crisp fennel salad with green-goddess dressing are must-orders too. Stick to two or three mains – the handmade pasta with rabbit ragù is perfectly al dente, while the stuffed tomato comes with a side of British graceburn, a creamier version of feta. Cleanse the palate with a refreshing white port and tonic before opting for something funky from the short wine list – we’d order a Chardonnay from the Languedo or a zingy Vinho Verde from Portugal’s Minho region. It’s easy to see why Max Rocha is quickly becoming known as one of the top chefs in the city. Katharine Sohn
Price range: ££
Address: Café Cecilia, 32 Andrews Road, London E8 4RL
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Chris Terry40. Sabor, Mayfair
There's a whole lotta love on the restaurant scene for Nieves Barragán, the tousle-haired chef from Bilbao who made Soho's Barrafina such a sensation. A few years ago, she opened her own restaurant in little Heddon Street. Sabor takes its DNA straight from the home country, adding Andalucian tiles to original wooden flooring: on the ground-floor level is the open kitchen, long restaurant counter and standalone bar, with a sweeping, iron-railed staircase leading to the asador upstairs, which has long communal tables and Hades-like grill. Nieves has gathered recipes from all around Spain, Castile to Galicia, and downstairs plates include popcorn-like baby squid and prawns with fried quail egg, rabbit dumplings, meltingly soft Iberican ham, and a just-set tortilla of Jerusalem artichoke and jamon.Upstairs in the asador is Nieves' pride-and-joy grill and larger plates for expansive evenings or Sunday lunch. José Pizarro reckons you can now eat better Spanish food in London than in Spain – and here's a place that really proves he's right. Rick Jordan
Price range: £££
Address: Sabor, 35 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BR
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41. Cinnamon Bazaar, Covent Garden
Cinnamon Bazaar – the little sister of Cinnamon Club, Vivek Singh’s stylish restaurant that championed Indian fine dining – ignores the straitlaced, gentlemen's club ambience of Singh’s first venture for something altogether more eclectic. The menu saunters through South Asia following ancient trade routes that stretch from the Middle East and Afghanistan down to India's central heartland. Start with the Kolkata crab bonda, cloud-light croquettes stuffed with flaky crabmeat and beetroot, before crossing the subcontinent for Iranian chicken haleem on masala sourdough toast.The fragrant shrimp fried rice is garnished with bok choy, slow-cooked pork belly zings with coriander and fenugreek, and the tender vindaloo of ox cheek recalls the days of the Raj with its decadently rich, meaty flavour. Skip the wine list in favour of the quirky, jewel-coloured cocktails designed by Ryan Chetiyawardana. Traditionalists should stick to the Bazaar Old Fashioned - a combination of smoky scotch, coconut sugar and burnt cinnamon so smooth you could almost justify a liquid lunch. Radhika Seth
Price range: ££
Address: Cinnamon Bazaar, 28 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2
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42. Som Saa, Spitalfields
Som Saa started life as a pop-up in the arches of a coffee shop in Hackney - although you'd never guess this wasn't an import from the streets of Bangkok. Now Som Saa has a permanent place in an old fabric warehouse near Petticoat Lane Market; it's still pretty industrial inside, with whitewashed brick walls, bare bulbs and steel girders. Thai food is about balance - spicy, sweet, sour and salty. Soups are protein-rich and simple, and salads punchy with fermented pork and dried shrimp. The jungle curry with fish and baby aubergines is knock-out in every sense. The Muay Thai Kik is a cooling gin cocktail with a jolt of kaffir lime leaf, Thai basil and a showering of seeds. They've worked hard on the wine list, too, finding bottles which pair with the food almost as well as the 'live' unpasteurised, unfiltered Camden Tank Beer, stored in the restaurant's rafters. Hazel Lubbock
Price range: £££
Address: Som Saa, 43 Commercial Street, Spitalfields, London E1
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43. Sachi, Belgravia
On the lower-ground floor of Pantechnicon, a Nordic-meets-Japanese emporium housed in a 200-year-old former warehouse, is a brilliant foodie venture. At Pantechnicon, the aim is to explore the two cultures and bring them into one space with a Nordic restaurant and rooftop bar, Café Kitsuné coffee shop, a bottle shop and a Japanese restaurant downstairs. The spotlight shines bright on textures and flavours from Hokkaido, Osaka and Fukuoka, with some dishes featuring a touch of Nordic influence. The first round begins with sushi – razor-thin sea-bream sashimi, juicy scallop nigiri and fatty tuna maki. Chefs Golding and Hudson have purposefully avoided putting salmon on the menu, to push people to order fish they might not have tried before. We suggest ordering the crispy fried monkfish that comes with a lickable creamy yuzu sauce. Start with cocktail at the eight-seat sushi bar while watching the chefs show off their master fish-carving skills. Sachi is also creating a vibey late-night scene – if a night of Japanese cocktails is what you crave, there’s always the hidden den inspired by Tokyo’s secret speakeasies.With London’s sushi scene only just reaching its peak, this is one of the best in the city. Katharine Sohn
Price range: ££££
Address: Sachi at Pantechnicon, 19 Motcomb Street, London SW1X 8LB
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Matt Russell44. Levan, Peckham
Nicholas Balfe’s second restaurant is in a converted warehouse behind Peckham Rye station. Balfe is an alumni of the city’s Young Turk supper-club collective (other members went on to open Lyle’s, The Clove Club, Dabbous and Story) and his first proper restaurant was Salon, in Brixton's Market Row. The menu here is dedicated to being as sustainable as possible – with 90 per cent of waste and trimmings reused or repurposed. Starters include a soft slice of Boudin Noir (from Wales) with a tamari-cured egg yolk and sharp endive, and a bowl of creamy stracciatella paired with salted plums and crispy buckwheat. Bigger plates, made to share, include a beautiful half pie layered with dauphinoise potatoes, black trompette mushrooms and a layer of vacherin. For pudding, the puffed half-moon tarte tatin or the doughnut choux filled with espresso cream and topped with caramelised hazelnuts are excellent. All wines on the list are low-intervention, organic and mostly biodynamic. If Salon is one of the best restaurants in south London, then Levan is its slightly greedy big brother, and we love it. Tabitha Joyce
Price range: £££
Address: Levan, 12-16 Blenheim Grove, London SE15 4QL
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Steven Joyce45. Bibendum, South Kensington
Chef Claude Bosi came to London from his home town of Lyon via Ludlow in Shropshire. Claude Bosi at Bibendum which occupies the landmark Michelin tyre headquarters, and has been awarded two stars to boot. The menu is unashamedly French in spirit. An olive pissaladière amuse-bouche pops in the mouth, salty green. Foie gras is handed round in mini waffle cones, sweetened with mango sauce, crisps of chicken skin disappear fast. Want to go really French? Order the tripe and cuttlefish gratin, made to Claude's mum's recipe and paired with a cake of pig's ear and ham. Classic cocktails can be made on request but really it's all about the wine. This is a starry restaurant from a French top chef. Rick Jordan
Price range: ££££
Address: Bibendum, Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, South Kensington, London SW3 6RD
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46. Leroy, Shoreditch
Leroy is a word play on Ellory, its previous incarnation in London Fields’ Netil House. Ellory was set up by Jack Lewens and Ed Thaw, two sommeliers with River Café, Spring and Sagar + Wilde on their CVs, along with chef Matthew Young, and quickly won a Michelin star for its deft, European-style dishes. In 2018, they opened on a Shoreditch backstreet, a scrawl of red neon on the brickwork outside; bistro chairs, framed line drawing and marble counter inside. It’s modelled on a Parisian cave à manger, the sort of place to head to after work for a glass of something interesting with a plate of something else. As Leroy is run by two sommeliers you can expect the unexpected from the 80 or so bins – many of which are low-intervention or natural – but they wear their knowledge lightly. Long-time favourites include an excellent Arneis from Utah, and a Pinot Noir from Xavier Goodridge in the Yarra Valley. As you’re in the East End, order a bowl of whelks and garlic mayonnaise, along with whipped cod’s roe and crisps and a quail skewer or two, or simply a few rounds of chorizo. This will inevitably lead you to the main menu, but that’s another story. Rick Jordan
Price range: £££
Address: Leroy, 18 Phipp Street, London EC2A 4NU
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47. Tatale, Southwark
It seems the African food gods answered many prayers when Akwasi Brenya-Mensa announced the opening of his restaurant, Tatale. His popular supper club once teased eaters with intermittent pop-ups serving futuristic twists on Pan-African dishes, but now the upgrade to a bona-fide eatery means fans can enjoy regular encores.
Tatale (meaning ‘plantain pancake’ in Ghana) has taken up residence on the ground floor of London’s Africa Centre, a 1960s cultural space in the newly developed Union Yard Arches in Southwark. The wooden tables, recycled cork stools and contemporary African wall art may channel the unbuttoned vibes of a traditional Ghanaian chophouse, but the three-course menu is all about heritage flavours drawn from around the continent and the diaspora.
To start, we had omo tuo, a parcel of compacted white rice sprinkled with nutty, black sesame seeds and resting on a pool of mellow nkatenkwan peanut sauce (imagine red Thai peanut curry without the lemongrass). Following it was a spicy ‘red red black eyed bean’ and tomato stew, dolloped with avocado purée to douse the mild fire, and garnished with pickled red onions, their crunchiness contrasting beautifully with cushiony beans and boiled plantain. The intensity of flavour had us greedily mopping up the remnant stew with the plantain. But the standout dish – recommended to us by fellow diner Andrea Oliver – was the chichinga chicken and yellow rice. Accompanied by palm wine pickles, red stew, kewpie mayo and black shito (a Ghanaian hot-chilli condiment), the tender legs were cooked to perfection, their skins stroked with spices that seeped deep into the flesh and even deeper into the memory. With Brenya-Mensa single-handedly manning the kitchen, he’ll have his work cut out feeding all those repeat customers. I encourage you to add to his workload. Noo Saro-Wiwa
Price: ££
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Instagram.com/westernslaundry48. Westerns Laundry, Highbury
This is an unreconstructed spot in Highbury, and the area's most famous address is a little place called the Emirates Stadium; but North London flavour-snufflers and fellow chefs have long been getting excited about Westerns Laundry, the second fixture for the team behind Primeur. The restaurant is a gallery-like space in a Fifties industrial block, opened up with steel-framed windows, cobbles and Jeremie-crafted benches outside; the long and vociferous communal tables inside illuminated by Dan Flavin-style neon dashes. Unlike Primeur, the inspiration at Westerns Laundry are the day boats that heave to around the Cornish coast, with occasional forays to Catalunya and Asia for spicing. The chalkboard has a dynamic roll call of biodynamic wines by the glass, from pockets of Italy, France, Austria and Greece, ripe with Carignan, Zweigelt and Cinsault grapes – but nothing too weird. A convivial neighbourhood restaurant that opened up a neglected part of London. Rick Jordan
Price range: ££
Address: Westerns Laundry, 34 Drayton Park, Highbury, London N5 1PB
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Benjamin McMahon49. P. Franco, Clapton
The team behind P. Franco have a history of opening brilliant places to eat in unassuming places. This is the original – a wine bar in a one-time Chinese takeaway in Clapton that was so successful it spawned sister restaurants in Broadway Market (Bright) and outlet-central Morning Lane in Hackney (Peg). At the beginning of the week, swing by for a glass of something clever and bar snacks – but we’d swing by on a Thursday–Sunday, when resident cook Meedu Saad (head chef at Kiln) is firing up the kitchen until Sunday 27 March 2022. Other recent guest chefs have included Two Lights alum Chase Lovecky and Smoking Goat’s Ben Chapman, so the level of cooking here is worth seeking out whoever happens to be at the helm. Go for the wine, stay for the food. Sarah James
Price range: £££
Address: P Franco, 107 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0NP
Book online50. F.K.A.B.A.M, Highbury Corner
Loud music. Loud decor. Loud food. This tiny restaurant on Highbury Corner has a big personality. After closing for an extended period over the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, what was once Black Axe Mangal opened as F.K.A.B.A.M (Formerly Known as Black Axe Mangal) in autumn 2021. Despite the name change, Lee Tiernan is still at the helm, overseeing a £45 menu that changes weekly based on what’s good. That might be flame-grilled lamb, crispy rabbit, squid ink flatbreads or melty short ribs cooked over the fire, all served in a sharing style. A vegetarian or vegan menu is available for plant-based diners, but you’re really here for the smokey chunks of meat – and that’s okay. Sarah James
Price range: ££
Address: F.K.A.B.A.M, 156 Canonbury Road, London N1 2UP
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Steve Joyce50. Padella
Padella and fresh pasta are practically synonymous in the capital these days. But it wasn’t always this way. When the team behind Trullo opened this no-reservations restaurant in foodie’s paradise Borough Market, it quickly started attracting queues. Don't let that put you off: tables turn fast and there's space to sit downstairs. Is there anything more comforting than pasta and cheese? Everyone goes crazy for the pici cacio e pepe: wiggly worms of pure joy swimming in a pool of molten cheese. It's the ultimate comfort food. It wouldn't be a proper Italian without Negronis on the menu. There are two tarts for dessert (almond-and-rhubarb or chocolate) – order both. Hazel Lubbock
Price range: £
Address: Padella, 6 Southwark Street, Southwark, London SE1
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