The London restaurant scene, once a gastronomic punchline, has never been more diverse or delicious – and it’s also never been more in need of your help. The impact of the pandemic has been immense, plunging most of our favourite restaurants into financial precarity while sadly seeing off many others. It’s been reported that turnover in the UK hospitality industry fell by over £200 million a day over the course of 2020, and as a result there were almost 30,000 job losses in the sector. But restaurants have returned, and now is the time to appreciate them.

That being said, picking a London restaurant can be an anxiety-inducing, time-consuming task (and that’s before you even get to securing a table). That’s why we pulled together a comprehensive list of the capital's must-try spots, spread across a broad price range (£-£££).

Updated regularly, we want you to treat it like a culinary roadmap of the capital’s best new openings, local favourites and famed institutions. Tick them all off to get a hearty taste of the city at its best.


a large plate of food
Firebird

Firebird

  • Cuisine: Modern Mediterranean
  • Location: Soho (29 Poland St, London W1F 8QR)
  • Price: ££
  • Firebird Reservations

If you happen to find yourself sitting at the kitchen counter at Firebird, the buzzy restaurant founded by Anna Dolgushina and Madina Kazhimova in the northern reaches of Soho, you’ll know exactly what their venture is all about. Here’s where you get the fully multi-sensory experience – the heat and light from the fire over which many of the dishes are cooked; the smell (and sizzle!) of chargrilling meat, fish and vegetables; and then, when your order’s up, the taste. Head chef Giacomo Peretti, who has worked in the past for Michel Roux Jr and Clare Smyth, is making the most of Firebird’s fire-forward ethos, with main dishes including lightly seared scallops with mashed potato and truffle, and dark, sticky roasted pumpkin with truffle butter and chestnut. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few lighter preliminary diversions: the snacks on the menu include Bloody Mary corn ribs (corn, not ribs, though you nibble along the quartered cob like it’s a bone), and a choux bun filled with cep mushroom pâté and black truffle (and yes, if you’re a truffle fan generally you can fill your boots here), while for starters you might try a deconstructed prawn cocktail or the halloumi with pears and truffle (told you!). The curtain-sided dining room is softly lit, the lab-coated staff are charming, and even on a Tuesday night the place is rammed. The heat, it seems is spreading.

firebirdlondon.co.uk


a table with a plate of food and glasses on it
Harriet Langford/Anton Rodriguez

Saltine

  • Cuisine: Modern British
  • Location: Highbury (11 Highbury Park, London N5 1QJ)
  • Price: ££
  • Saltine Reservations

It’s somehow slightly astonishing that Highbury Barn hasn’t yet been home to a swanky restaurant. Sure, the bijou high street at the heart of one of north London’s most charming neighbourhoods has got the original La Fromagerie, and the stalwart Turkish restaurant Iznik, but now, with the arrival of Saltine in October, in can be officially declared to have a scene. The brainchild of Mat Appleton and Jess Blackstone, who also run the popular Fink’s cafes (of which there are now four around north and east London), Saltine sees the pair trying their hand at fine-dining. In doing so, they are more than ably abetted by head chef Phil Wood, whose past gigs have included St John Marylebone and Spring, and has put together a menu that is as unapologetic as it is delicious; we tried melting Gubeen and onion tart, rainbow chard with oozing Stracciatella and anchovies, hearty rabbit and lentils, and Saltine’s already heralded sticky toffee apple cake. We might have had to be rolled home, but with no regrets.

The decor is pared-back and restful, the dining room’s main decorative features being the enormous pot plants that stand sentinel around the room (all the excitement is saved for the toilets, which are covered in vibrant murals by artist Paul Kindersley). And another thing that’s great about Saltine? Thanks to the cunning use of absorbent building materials, you can both hear and be heard, even when the dining room inevitably fills up. Revolutionary! This is a grown-up neighbourhood restaurant for a sophisticated crowd and, happily, the wait has been worth it.

saltine.co.uk


the interiors and food at maene in east london
Rebecca Dickson

Maene

  • Cuisine: Modern British
  • Location: Spitalfields (7-9 Fashion Street, E1 6PX)
  • Price: ££
  • Maene Reservations

It took a couple of goes to work out how to get into Mæne – the entrance is via buzzer at a very unassuming doorway of what looks like an office block, and then up in a lift – but that only adds to the surprise that awaits you on the top floor of the four-storey Victorian restaurant in which the 54-cover restaurant, the second from restaurateur Nick Gilkinson (Townsend) is housed. Huge windows, high ceilings, exposed brick-work and low blue banquettes give Maene an informally elegant, relaxed feel, which is very much reflected in the quietly confident menu from head chef Amber Francis (formerly of Zebra Riding Club and Bermondsey Larder). These are dishes that let the produce do the talking, but not without some sophisticated and resolutely unshowy interventions. From the gnocco fritto with Sussex romesco, La Latteria Stracciatella, chilli and garlic oil to the Cornish pollock with Spitalfield city farn greens and wild garlic oil (it was wild garlic season, so there were dainty little white flowers on everything), these are dishes that are as delightful as they are delicious. With plans to open the large terrace for drinks and dining, Maene is a summer spot to know about.

maenerestaurant.co.uk


best restaurants in london kol
KOL/@charliemckay/HDG

KOL

  • Cuisine: High-end Mexican
  • Location: Marylebone (9 Seymour Street, W1H 7BA)
  • Price: £££
  • KOL Reservations

Was there ever a more cheerful chef than Santiago Lastra? The supremely talented Mexican, just into his thirties, who came up through the ranks at esteemed restaurants such as Mugaritz in San Sebastian and Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen before helping Rene Redzepi launch NOMA Mexico in 2017, seemed destined for greatness when he finally launched his own venture, KOL in May 2020. But then, well, Covid, and his hotly tipped restaurant had to stay closed until October. But Lastra, as anyone who has crossed paths with him will know, is the type to come out smiling, and with KOL easily outstripping the already high expectations he has plenty of reason to feel pleased.

Lastra’s menu, prepared by an industrious team in an open kitchen, contains Mexican staples you might think you know: tostadas, tortillas, tacos; but these are masterful, exalted expressions of familiar dishes, containing things like langoustine, sea buckthorn and smoked chilli, or grilled octopus with bone marrow, potato and seaweed macha. Lastra’s food is experimental without being flashy, and though he brings in a few Mexican ingredients (chillis, corn, chocolate), he also champions British produce (beetroot! Cabbage!) that might not always be granted centre-stage. Also, because – as we have mentioned – Lastra’s a fun guy, he’s opened a Mezcaleria in the basement, but if you want the full Santi vibe, the Chef’s Table Experience is where the party’s at.

kolrestaurant.com


best restaurants london
Galvin Bar & Grill

Galvin Bar & Grill

A contemporary twist on a classic British grill, the latest restaurant from the revered, Michelin-starred Galvin brothers, Chris and Jeff, sits in a room of high-ceilinged splendour within the imposing Kimpton Fitzroy London hotel, overlooking Russell Square. On a recent weekday lunch, Esquire started with Carlingford rock oysters, then a subtle duck liver parfait with peanuts and lemon caramel, and a splendid tomato salad with toasted seeds, shallots, black olives and goat’s cheese. The main event, though, was the meat: two 100 per cent grass-fed British rib eyes, cooked medium rare over charcoal, as good as any we’d tasted in a long time. Non-meat eaters could opt for grilled salmon, or roast Icelandic cod, or wild mushroom risotto. Sides, puddings and cheese are all present and correct, and the wine list is appropriately crammed with classics. Here is masterful cooking in a restaurant that purrs with confidence. Quiet luxury incarnate.

galvinrestaurants.com


best restaurants paradise
Paradise

Paradise

  • Cuisine: Contemporary Sri Lankan
  • Location: Soho (61 Rupert Street, W1D 7PW)
  • Price: ££
  • Paradise Reservations

Dom Fernando’s debut Soho restaurant – which takes over the tiny site that was once Russell Norman’s Spuntino – lets you know in advance that this is food with a “fiery island accent”. Lower down on the menu there’s another polite warning, or possibly an encouragement: “Some of our dishes are very spicy.” True, there’s some serious heat on the menu – the stir-fried devilled prawns, malu-miris chilli capsicum with chilli, murunga and burnt lime, or the slow-braised hogget shoulder roll with fermented chilli – but those with Walter-the-Softy palates should not be dissuaded because what Paradise packs most punchily is flavour.

In fact, there is nothing on the small-plates menu, which changes seasonally, that is not seven shades of delicious, from the grilled Ceylonese spiced prawn skewers with seaweed and kelp butter, papaya, palm heart and mango to the pollock curry with winter tomato, chilli (hi again!), lemongrass, langoustine oil and crispy leeks. Props also to the low intervention wine list and the inventive cocktail list which includes a rambutan daquiri and a ginger arrack sour, and to the interior design by Dan Preston, who has somehow managed to squeeze a new row of booths along the wall for extra buzz. Paradise is small and perfectly formed in every sense.

paradisesoho.com


luca best restaurants in london
Luca

Luca

  • Cuisine: Modern Italian
  • Location: Clerkenwell (88 St John Street, EC1M 4EH)
  • Price: £££
  • Luca Reservations

It often seems that restaurants have two choices when it comes to making a name for themselves: either be the buzziest, hippest, reservations-like-hen’s-teeth joint in town (for a few months at least, before the crowd moves on), or opt for a more subtle, refined sophistication and elegance that will keep you ticking over for the longer haul. Somehow, Luca, set up by Isaac McHale, Johnny Smith and Daniel Willis of The Clove Club, performs that rare feat of combining both: with its airy, expansive dining room, perfectly judged lighting and terracotta-red and olive-green leather banquettes it feels effortlessly grown-up, but still has a youthful energy – and a lively bar area with all-important conspiratorial booths – that make it a place to be, even five years since it opened.

But there is, of course, one fail-safe way to make sure your customers return, and on that front McHale’s team are close to peerless. Let’s start with the parmesan fries – which, if you visit, you should too – which, given that they’re as light as an angel’s vapour trail, have garnered a cult status all to themselves. Then there are the antipasti, for which primarily British ingredients are treated with careful Italian flair, such as tartare of Hereford beef cured in Nebbiolo, or Orkney scallops with Jerusalem artichoke and ‘nduja. There are the primi, made in-house in a dedicated pasta room: the taglierini as light as angel’s tresses, conchiglie as delicate as a cherub’s ear… You get the idea. And we’re not even halfway through the menu. If there’s one piece of advice we can give you before visiting, make sure you come hungry – no matter how much you indulge yourself, you’ll walk out on a cloud.

luca.restaurant


best restaurants in london
Bacchanalia

Bacchanalia

Loud, brash, kitsch, preposterous and, as the name suggests, almost as much fun as you can have in public without being arrested, Bacchanalia, on a hair-flicky corner of Mayfair’s Berkeley Square, is the latest provocation from the plutocratic WAG-magnet Richard Caring. London’s least nuanced, most irreverent restaurateur, Caring is the toothsome, blow-dried rag trade tycoon who turned the capital’s previously semi-polite dining scene on its head in 2005 when he acquired Caprice Holdings from Jeremy King and Chris Corbin: Le Caprice (RIP), the Ivy (now multiplying like measles), J Sheekey, later Scott’s, 34, Sexy Fish, and almost every other see-and-be-seen canteen in the capital. He also owns the Birley Group of opulent 1 per-center nightclubs: Annabel’s, Mark’s Club, Harry’s Bar. For gaudy chutzpah and turbo-charged PR, he has only himself to beat. Hence Bacchanalia, his most OTT opening to date. Where to begin? Not with the food, which is perfectly decent but almost completely beside the point. (For the record, like the décor it's a sort of Greco-Roman fusion of vine leaves and pasta, souvlaki and risotto: bewildering but mostly pretty tasty.) How about the art, then? A clashing admixture of neo-classical Damien Hirst sculptures, Renaissance-style frescoes, and genuine antiquities. Or the toga-clad waitstaff? Or the fact that the Gents is done up like Hades? Doubtless some (humourless) types will protest that the place really is hell on earth: a monstrous bunion on the capital’s most well-heeled locale, a temple to tat and tack, a shiny trough for London’s offshore class to feed at: the oligarchs and kleptocrats and tax dodgers and those supplicants who service them. Here at Esquire we say, what of it? In his own, weird way, Caring is the punk rocker patron, determined to epater les bourgeois, shake up the status quo and give propriety the middle finger. If you’re interested in eating out in London, and you can arrange a bank loan in advance, you have to see Bacchanalia at least once. And die.

bacchanalia.co.uk


maison francois
Maison Francois

Maison François

Any restaurant that has a roving pot of cornichons is worth consideration. It’s the kind of detail that can set a place aside; clearly the proprietors not only recognise the compact power of the pickled cucumber, but they also accept that some guests will want more than the usual three or four to accompany a delicate heap of charcuterie. Considerably more. Maison Francois, new to St James's in Central London – fast evolving into the Capital’s foremost food district – is a French bistro that gets such details right. Beyond the free-flowing cornichons, the bread is good, the butter is soft and proudly salty and the list of sides features just three types of very well cooked potato. Ostensibly, the menu is classically French, with the likes of Oeufs en gelée, moules marinière and Jambon persillé, but it’s pared back, nuanced and not too heavy. The anchovy, ricotta and thyme on grilled bread, for example, is an astonishing feat of creaminess, punchy umami and crunch, and not the kind of thing you’d find on Parisian pavement table. The roving continues, and finishes, with the dessert trolley; a mobile selection of sweet things that range from the barely calorific to the exorbitantly decadent. Just order as much or as many as you like. Finally, a French bistro with wiggle room.

maisonfrancois.london


best restaurants
Courtesy

KOYN

  • Cuisine: Japanese
  • Location: Mayfair (38 Grosvenor St, W1K 4QA)
  • Price: £££
  • KOYN reservations

Strong Succession vibes at Koyn, the super-slick new Mayfair Japanese where the cashmere classes chase their A5 wagyu “hot stone” ishiyake with 25-year-old Suntory from the Hikashu Distillery, and the cost-of-living-crisis is very much noises-off. (We don’t say this is a bad thing: if eating-out is your preferred method of hiding from reality, Koyn supplies a very stylish escape hatch.)

With a grand location on Grosvenor Street, in the former American embassy and Canadian High Commission, Koyn, from the people behind the nearby, Michelin-starred Jamavar, describes itself as a “contemporary izakaya” — the Japanese equivalent of a watering hole with bar snacks — which makes it sound a good deal more casual than it is. Food comes from three separate preparation areas: a robata grill, a sushi bar and a kitchen under the direction of New Zealander Rhys Cattermoul, formerly of Nobu.

At these prices — Koyn is aptly named — you’d expect the food to be exceptional, and it is. Esquire was happy to be guided by a knowledgable and enthusiastic waitress, following the menu through Snacks (crispy squid and spicy edamame, plus rice cracker tacos), Salads, Soups, then Cold dishes (sliced dry aged sea bass), Hot dishes, Tempura (enduring some serious side-eye from a whole red mullet), sizzling Robata (the above mentioned wagyu, as well as some spectacular lamb cutlets) before moving on to the Specials, Sushi and Sashimi. Everything we tasted was world-class.

Local point-one percenters, of which there are many, may well adopt Koyn as their new fuss-free drop-in. For the rest of us, this is a new special-occasion restaurant to compete with the best.

koynrestaurants.com


the barbary nextdoor
The Barbary

The Barbary Next Door

There’s a concept in critical theory that suggests the opinion of the last element of an experience will overshadow the overall opinion of said experience. A good movie with a bad ending will just be viewed as a bad movie, for example. So, implementing that theory, dinner at The Barbary Next Door will always be excellent, so long as you finish with the Hash Pot.

The little pudding, one of only two on the menu, is illustrative of the nature of the restaurant itself. The Barbary Next Door is a lowkey derivation of The Barbary and The Palomar, two of mainest mainstays of the London food scene. The menu at The Barbary focuses on the food and history of the Barbary coast in North Africa, and the vibe is… vibey. One big horseshoe bar surrounding a frenetic open kitchen; a night fuelled by deep house, charred meat and really good hummus. At the Barbary Next Door (which is literally next door), there are just a few seats at the bar in more compact space, and proceedings are more serene. The Hash Pot is a virtuous version of The Barbary’s Hash Cake, a bombastic pistachio tart that has legendary status amongst those in the know. But in trying to economise, the chefs may well have created something better, because the pot is an exercise in elegance, restraint and textural nuance. And moreover, it achieves what all puddings strive for: to be the exact thing you want to eat at the end of a meal.

Before you get to pudding, though, you need to go through the rest of the menu, and being fairly concise, that isn’t hard. You absolutely must try the merguez sausage, which is made in-house, and the chicken pastilla is a confusing, delightful marriage of sweet, crunchy pastry and umami-heavy, shredded chicken. Order a bottle of Chianu Cruci and settle in for the long-haul.

thebarbarynextdoor.co.uk


best restaurants
Instagram/Murano

Murano

  • Cuisine: Modern Italian
  • Location: Mayfair (20 Queen St, W1J 5PP)
  • Price: £££
  • Murano reservations

No bread hits like good focaccia. The pillowy chew; the delicately crispy corners, and the porous mantle, perfect for dragging through a pool of oil, or glazing with pistachio cream. Sourdough could never. At Murano, chef Angela Hartnett’s swish Italian restaurant in the heart of Mayfair, the focaccia is impossibly good, and comes without you even having to ask, dropped off alongside a few delicate slices of prosciutto crudo and some of the fattest, juiciest olives this side of Castelvetrano.

Murano is modern Italian, so no rib-sticking ragus here, but the classics are reimagined, rather than ignored. Highlights include a smoked potato agnolotti, a classic chicken tortelloni with pickled turnip and the venison, which is braised to the point of capitulation and spiked with pickled turnip. The monkfish is especially good, encased in a crisp bread batter and resting on a pool of rich tonnato. And if you leave without trying the plum soufflé then it’s been a wasted journey.

The restaurant, originally founded in 2008, recently underwent a refurbishment, and the space is lovely. Chic, like you want from a spot in W1, but also cosy, like you’re in someone’s sitting room. And despite its Michelin star, you can enjoy a three-course lunch at Murano for less than £100 per person. Molto bene.

murano.co.uk


Dish, Food, Cuisine, Breakfast sausage, Churrasco food, Ingredient, Sausage, Loukaniko, Thuringian sausage, Longaniza,
Mangal 2

Mangal 2

  • Cuisine: Turkish grill
  • Location: Dalston (4 Stoke Newington Rd,N16 8BH)
  • Price: ££
  • Mangal 2 reservations

To much consternation from the locals – and presumably the artists Gilbert & George, who previously dined here every single night of their lives – Mangal 2 has had a makeover. And while there are not many restaurants that can weather the storm of a gentrified overhaul, we’re happy to report that Mangal 2 has pulled a Home Alone: the sequel is arguably better than the original. The same smoky grill that permeates everything within a ten-metre radius remains, but the menu is even more adventurous and delicious. Anything that can be fermented, cured or cultured has been done so with terrific effect; from the Kaymak butter and sourdough pide that you’re definitely going to want to start the meal with, to the red pepper sarma (stuffed vine leaves) and the curdy, house cheese (Çökelek) to follow. The meats, of course, still feature heavily on the menu (recently, a Cull Yaw Loin with smoked lamb fat was exactly as good as that sounds, as was a hefty plate of dairy cow sirloin) but there’s also more of a focus on fish too, such as Poole Bay clams a la mutton lardo, or the pollock and sarma. Stick around for dessert; while originally these were nothing to shout about, they now deserve a place on the grid. from pear sorbet with grilled grapes to the highly pleasing apple and tahini tart paired with a cherry stone cream. If you’re still hankering for the original more traditional ocakbasi, then may we guide you around the corner to Mangal 1? But honestly: your loss.

mangal2.com


best restaurants
Courtesy

Toklas

  • Cuisine: Mediterranean
  • Location: Aldwych (1 Surrey Street, WC2R 2ND)
  • Price: ££
  • Toklas reservations

It’s always difficult for a restaurant to get the balance of cosy and chichi just right, but Toklas, which opened this year around the side of the increasingly culturally pertinent 180 Strand building, has mastered the art. From its comfortable, spacious and perfectly lit dining room (dim, but still cheery) to its menu which is unshowy to look at but a delight to eat, Toklas has rightly earned a reputation as a low-key go-to for those in the know (as a case in point, on Esquire’s visit, one half of a very discerning electro double act was sitting at the next table). Its name, in case you’re wondering, comes from Alice B Toklas, the writer, counterculture icon and partner of Gertrude Stein, and perhaps the world’s most famous advocate of hash fudge (not on the menu, before you get excited). No doubt Alice, as a celebratedly modest art world figure herself, would have enjoyed at table in a quiet corner.

toklaslondon.com


best restaurants london
Mount Street

Mount St. Restaurant

Mayfair’s Mount St. Restaurant is so immediately confident and accomplished you can’t believe it hasn’t been there for decades. In a light-filled room arranged around a central bar, with walls decorated with important modern and contemporary art — we spotted Freud, Matisse and Auerbach, just for starters — smart, experienced staff glide across the beautiful and dramatic mosaic floor (by the artist Rashid Johnson). The menu of modern British classics is appealingly plain-speaking and uncomplicated, but also playful and unexpected: how about mock turtle croquette to start, followed by pigeons in Pimlico? Crucially, it’s full of things you actually want to eat. On a recent visit, Esquire tucked into the restaurant’s much-loved, much-photographed lobster pie. At £96, it’s an investment but it serves two and comes with greens! Plus, that pie: generous chunks of Cornish lobster in a rich bisque, topped with buttery pastry. Also sampled, also greedily dispatched: omelette Arnold Bennett, chicken liver pâté, an inviting selection of cheeses. For British Pie Week, executive chef Jamie Shears has teamed up with Ravneet Gill on a rhubarb and custard pie, but if you can’t make it in for that, a choux alternative is a very good substitute. Plus bloody marys and a very fine Chablis. The wine list is long and comprehensive, but then so is life, if you’re lucky.

mountstrestaurant.com


Meal, Dish, Food, Cuisine, Restaurant, Brunch, Lunch, Breakfast, Room, À la carte food,
Restaurant Story

Restaurant Story

A one-time public toilet at the wrong end of Bermondsey Street, Chef Tom Sellers recognised the potential of a site nobody else had when he opened Restaurant Story in 2013. It won a Michelin star five months after launch and, though it's been controversially overlooked for an upgrade by the inspectors in the subsequent six Guides, you can taste Sellers’s desire for more in every dish he creates. He cooks with imagination, flair and whimsy over six- or 10-course menus that feature mainstays such as his signature beef-dripping candle, which is lit at the table for diners to mop up the meaty molten ‘wax’ with some of the best bread in London.

restaurantstory.co.uk


Food, Meat, Cuisine, Dish, Spare ribs, Rib, Pork ribs, Steak, Rib eye steak, Brisket,
Chophouse

Blacklock

Chops. Big piles of charred and juicy, well-aged chops. There really is no other order here, with cutlets coming in sizes 'Skinny' or 'Large', with an option for having the meat carved off the bone and presented as a grilled lattice of smoking flesh. Gather a group of six pals and order everything, taking two of the outrageously good bacon chops. Double down on each of the house-made sauces, paying extra attention to the chilli-hollandaise. A great range of punchy cocktails sit on the all-day £5 menu, while the truncated wine list has a few good options for popular whites, and a much broader selection of red.

theblacklock.com


manteca
Manteca

Manteca

  • Cuisine: Nose-to-tail Italian
  • Location: Shoreditch (9-51 Curtain Rd, EC2A 3PT)
  • Price: ££
  • Manteca reservations

In a world ever more stricken with moral dilemma, it is quietly thrilling to encounter a new restaurant that proudly puts meat at centre of operations. And not in the decadent, macho-carnivorous way that the barbecue craze did a few years ago, but with a care and respect and artisanship that inevitably transmutes into delicious, nuanced eating. Manteca, a casual new Salumeria and Italian-inspired restaurant, has now established its nose-to-tail premise in a permanent space in Shoreditch after a successful pop-up in Soho a couple of years ago. Esquire had an early table on a Thursday and it was already jammed with people poring over plates of house-cured meats and tearing apart great hunks of just-oily-enough Focaccia. The Puntarelle Alla Romana salad, in its supreme umami-ness, was a revelation, while the fazzoletti with duck ragu and duck fat pangratatto was exactly what pasta should be. Decadent, textural and mollifying. But it’s the details that make Manteca worth dropping into and losing a few hours within; you can start with a bottled Campari soda, which is on alarmingly few menus, and when the pasta’s all gone, the team will offer you more bread to mop up the sauce. Go for a salad and glass of something cold at lunch or go with a gang and work your way through the menu. Just go.

mantecarestaurant.co.uk


Food, Dish, Cuisine, À la carte food, Meal, Cook, Ingredient, Recipe, Cooking, Brunch,
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

The flagship of Gordon Ramsay’s armada, this is widely considered the best fine-dining restaurant in the country. At the absolute pinnacle of luxury, the ingredient list reads like a roll call of finery. Head chef Matt Abe plays fasts and loose with the foie gras, caviar, lobster and langoustine across nine courses, each as elegant as the next. Classic French technique underpins the menu, which features well-timed punches of citrus and pickle, but the real genius lies in the pace of the food: portion sizing and time between the courses is balanced to leave diners always wanting more.

gordonramsayrestaurants.com


Food, Dish, Cuisine, Brunch, Ingredient, Comfort food, À la carte food, Meal, Garnish, Recipe,
Decimo

Decimo

  • Cuisine: Spanish / Mexican
  • Location: Kings Cross (10th floor, 10 Argyle Street, WC1H 8EG)
  • Price: ££
  • Decimo reservations

After conquering Bristol with informal tapas joint Casamia, Peter Sanchez-Iglesias has stepped things up several notches with Decimo, an of-its-time restaurant atop the Standard Hotel. Instagram darlings sit side-by-side with a media crowd, who lap up the ambient DJ, luxe styling and a late-night service that sees artfully arranged plates fly out of the kitchen until 2am. Fusing Spanish and Mexican culinary identities, expect aguachile (Mexican ceviche), suckling pig tacos and Spanish bomba rice. However, the dish gracing the grids of serious eaters and Instagrammers alike is the caviar tortilla: 25g or 50g of Ossetra finery perched on an omelette that, when sliced, oozes criminally runny yolk that’s perfectly cut by the salinity of the roe.

decimo.london


hide
Hide

Above at HIDE

You’ll recognise the staircase. Hide’s spiralling, tree-like centrepiece extended its sinuous branches across every London newspaper and food blog when the restaurant launched back in 2018, and it remains as imposing as ever; a great oak plucked straight from Gaudí’s garden. But walk up those steps to the aptly named ‘Above at Hide’ – the slightly higher-end restaurant to offering below it – and you’ll find even more compelling proof that you’re eating somewhere pretty special. There’s the long floor-to-ceiling window that lets you gaze into Green Park (and, less impressively, a stream of double decker buses) as you dine. Then there’s the sprawling wine list that’s delivered to your table on an iPad – six thousand bottles from the cellars of Mayfair’s Hedonism Wines, with prices ranging from £15 to, err… £276k. All can be delivered within 15 minutes. Finally, there’s the sight and smell of Ollie Dabbous’ eight-course tasting menu circulating around the room Starters include charcuterie speared on (fake) bone and feathers (referred to as ‘Flesh & bone’, served alongside iced gem lettuce and broth). Then there’s the ‘Nest egg’ – a smoky signature dish of egg yolk, butter, toasted mushrooms and cream, poured into a cracked shell upon a bed of hay. The zingy fig leaf granita is another highlight, as is the steamed turbot in a warm nasturtium broth, but the wine pairings will ensure that you can’t quite remember your favourite.

hide.co.uk


Cuisine, Food, Dish, Ingredient, Meat, Meal, Produce, Recipe, Vegetarian food, Southwestern united states food,
Needoo

Needoo

Thought Tayyabs reigned supreme for grilled meats and curries in Whitechapel? Think again. Although it might remain the mecca for many Indian food heads, the more clued-in go a naan's throw away around the corner to Needoo instead. Less rushed-in, rushed-out than its counterpart and without the monstrous queue, Needoo was opened in 2009 by a former manager of Tayyabs, and the whole experience is a little more refined at version 2.0 of the curry house (you still get the pumping Bollywood soundtrack, though). The wafts of smoky mixed grill that hit you on the way in have a Pavlovian impact on your salivary glands, but think beyond the carnivorous options: the chefs also spice up vegetables like okra, aubergine and baby pumpkin. The best bet, though, is to go for the changing daily dish of the day – Monday's Kerahi lamb chop masala and Friday's King Prawn biryani are the standouts.

needoogrill.co.uk


best restaurants london
Paul Winch-Furness

Bébé Bob

The brand-new baby sister restaurant of swish Soho stalwart Bob Bob Ricard, currently celebrating 15 years in business, Bébé Bob is surely among London’s most instantly appealing new openings. The sell is uncomplicated: champagne, caviar, Rotisserie chicken and chips. To coin a slightly irritating phrase: what’s not to like? The caviar arrives in triplicate: Siberean, Oscietra and Amurski, served with blinis and crème fraiche. Starters are straightforward and excellent: prawn cocktail, smoked salmon. Then, as it says on the menu, “any main course the customer wants as long as it is chicken or chicken.” Choose between Vendee or Landes (slightly richer) for your bird, served with jus. Select sides (roast potatoes, truffled cauliflower cheese, winter leaf salad), and a bottle of Burgundy. And save space for the honey cake. The room is glamorous, as you’d expect from the people behind Bob Bob Ricard, but the emphasis is very much on fun.

bebebob.com


Dish, Food, Cuisine, Ingredient, Brunch, Produce, Filo, Recipe, Meal, Baked goods,
Rules

Rules

  • Cuisine: Traditional British
  • Location: Covent Garden (34-35 Maiden Ln, WC2E 7LB)
  • Price: £££
  • Rules reservations

Proudly established as oldest restaurant in London, Rules has been doing things properly since 1798. A bastion of fine British service, nights should begin with a classic martini, taken in the Winter Garden cocktail bar. Crimson velvet runs through the interior, with lacquered ceiling fans and banquettes so deep and comfortable, they encourage a return to the three-bottle lunch. Autumn is the best time to book, when the UK game-focussed menu really hits its straps. Roast grouse with game chips followed by a pick from a selection of rib-sticking sweets – sticky toffee pudding, Golden Syrup sponge, bread and butter pudding – is the pro order.

rules.co.uk


best restaurant akoko
Akoko

Akoko

  • Cuisine: Contemporary West African
  • Location: Fitzrovia (21 Berners St, W1T 3LP)
  • Price: ££
  • Akoko reservations

During an interview earlier this year, British actor Will Poulter took aim at Michelin, the principal arbiter of fine dining around the world, for its dismissive approach to African cuisine. “There’s a massive oversight of food of African origin and Black chefs in general,” he told Times Radio, before making the case for one of his favourite restaurants in the capital. “Akoko deserves a star.”

He’s right. Not just about Akoko (more on that in a bit) but also about that lack of representation, particularly when it comes to West African cooking. There’s the two-Michelin-starred Ikoyi, with its elevated (read: pricey and occasionally controversial) takes on traditional dishes, which continues to delight from its new home on the Strand. But the list ends there. It’s yet to be seen whether Fitzrovia’s Akoko (or the nearby Chishuru, another highly rated take on West African cooking espoused by Poulter) will make the cut next time around, but it deserves to go to the top of your hit list.

First of all, the restaurant itself – with its terracotta walls, warm mood lighting, well-spaced tables and wafting pop playlist – is up there with the most soothing places to eat in the capital, made all the more impressive by the fact that diners are in close proximity to the open kitchen. The staple foods of founder and first-time restaurateur Aji Akokomi’s West African heritage are transformed into finely tuned showstoppers by executive chef Ayo Adeyemi and his nine-course set menu (there is no à la carte menu on offer). The wine list is full of great options, and we recommend taking up the offer of an ‘Akoko pairing’: a mix of cocktails, wines and a glass of Nigerian stout to go along with the beautifully crafted, richly delicious small plates.

akoko.co.uk


a large bag of food on a shelf
Maltby Street Instagram

40 Maltby Street

  • Cuisine: Modern British
  • Location: London Bridge / Bermondsey (40 Maltby Street, SE1 3PA)
  • Price: ££

The year is 2024, you sigh. Surely we’re done with no-reservation restaurants? When the offering is as good as 40 Maltby Street, it’s worth making an exception. Known to many London chefs as the first choice for off-duty dining, this under-the-arches restaurant was born out of the wine warehouse, Gergovie Wines, and with a bijou kitchen installed, they started slinging out small plates.

Over a decade since opening, the restaurant is more popular than ever. On a recent visit early on a Wednesday evening, a 45 minute wait for a table confirmed this; however it meant we could get stuck into their excellent selection of natural wines by the glass (different bottles from their extensive collection are opened daily), and exotic bar snacks that you’re unlikely to find anywhere else in the city: tempura asparagus with mushroom ketchup; whipped salt cod with florets of roast cauliflower.

Pleasingly, there are more substantial plates for the main courses, with the dishes all scrawled up on the weekly-changing blackboard menu (take a photo to peruse back at your table). That it’s all seasonal is a given; the confit duck thigh on a chunky potato rosti with chard was divine, and the pickled rhubarb was a tangy counter to the richness of the meat. The smoked trout with spring greens had a fresh, light touch to it, and for those in need of a heartier dish, the pork schnitzel with celeriac and bacon gravy would set just about anyone up for the night, if not the weekend. Just time for a quick shared dessert – a luscious dark chocolate mousse with coffee cream – then we handed our table to another set of poor souls loitering by the door. “It’s worth the wait!” we assured them.

40maltbystreet.com


best restaurants in london
Instagram

The Harwood Arms

From the outside, the Harwood Arms looks very much like a typical London pub. It sits, high and handsome, on a corner of an otherwise unremarkable back street in Fulham, a short, well-heeled swagger — or stagger, if you’re post-prandial — from Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge. This is because it is a pub, although there’s nothing typical about it. The principal difference is the food. It is the only Michelin-starred pub in the capital and its pedigree is immaculate: Brett Graham, chef-patron of The Ledbury, among London’s most feted restaurants, is the director. Head chef is Jake Leach, formerly of The Ledbury and Simon Rogan’s Fera, at Claridge’s.

We started with feisty Bloody Marys to get in the mood, and the unmissable venison Scotch egg. Next: a cheese tart to convert even the most quiche-averse (I usually count myself among their number; not this time), plus chunky, punchy Isle of Wight tomatoes. Then red ruby beef cheek for my fellow work-dodger, and slow-cooked lamb shoulder for me. We made extensive use of the extensive wine list, and trundled off into sunny southwest London grinning.

harwoodarms.com


best restaurants in london
HUMO

Humo

  • Cuisine: Fusion
  • Location: Mayfair (12 St George's Street, W1S 2FB)
  • Price: ££
  • Humo reservations

If the word “fire” — or the flame emoji that indicates it — is one of the highest compliments that social media can pay, then Humo (“smoke”, in Spanish) deserves those approving little illustrations in multiple. One of the most acclaimed openings of 2023, this modestly sized but hugely ambitious Mayfair restaurant showcases the distinctive cooking of its dynamic young chef, Miller Prada (good name!), former protégé of the Japanese master Enzo Kazutoshi. Humo is a “wood-fired culinary concept”: every dish comes into contact with flame or smoke at some point in its preparation, and if you sit at the bar — which you should — you can watch the pyrotechnics take place, as Miller and his team man the restaurant’s four-metre-long grill. It’s quite the show.

The menu is divided into four: Ignite, Smoke, Flame and Embers. Dishes are beautifully presented, in Japanese style, but Prada’s Colombian background is also much in evidence. The head chef is Italian and the ingredients are British. This is unclassifiable cooking, surprising and innovative. A few highlights (but everything was memorable): yellowtail with citrus sauce and Castillo coffee from Miller’s family farm in Colombia; cauliflower cooked under ash, nori, Rokko Miso foam, Wiltshire black Autumn truffle; Hand-dived Orkney scallop, roe, nectarine, whisky barrel, Speyside sabayon, kinome; and 27-day aged Cornish lamb, beetroot sauce, castelfranco & onion chutney. If it sounds forbiddingly high concept, rest assured: the atmosphere is low key and relaxed. Cocktails also not to be sniffed at.

Humolondon.com


Food, Dish, Cuisine, Meal, Ingredient, Chicken meat, Meat, Recipe, Lunch, Restaurant,
Llewelyn's

Llewelyn’s

Lurking in the shadow of Herne Hill’s railway arches, Llewelyn’s is the kind of neighbourhood joint that you find in far too few neighbourhoods. Set in a light-filled Victorian dining room, pared-back Scandi design provides a backdrop for a mostly local crowd – one that’s been trying to keep it under wraps since its 2017 launch. At the pass is Chef Lasse Petersen, whose tenure at Copenhagen’s Amass and 108 comes through in a menu that leans on the New Nordic canon. Expect a concise list of small plates and sharing mains. Mainstays include cavatelli with pumpkin, hazelnuts and salted ricotta, lamb kleftiko and pickled mackerel with pink fir and horseradish crème fraîche. On sunny days, tables trickle out onto the square: arrive early to snag one.

llewelyns-restaurant.co.uk


Food, Dish, Cuisine, Meal, Ingredient, Fast food, Lunch, Recipe, Brunch, Indian cuisine,
House of Momo


House of MoMo

  • Cuisine: Nepalese
  • Location: Dalston (52 Boleyn Rd, N16 8JP)
  • Price: £

For the uninitiated, MoMo are Nepalese dumplings, and like every national spin on delicious stuff wrapped in dough, they prove yet again that we've never met a dumpling we didn't like. This busy cafe is perched at the edge of Dalston's Gillett Square, so you might find yourself sharing a bench with a guest DJ at the nearby NTS Radio, and the venue pumps out a steady stream of handmade steamed or pan fried dough balls (from £4), served with either a spicy, nutty jhol achar sauce, or a sweet yet slightly sour tomato chilli sauce to drown them in. Their filling set lunch of thali – curry with dal, rice, and paratha (£8) – is always a great shout too, with a spoonful of pickles giving a little kick to carry you through until home time. There'll be plenty of repeat visits once you get the taste for these little guys.

houseofmomo.co.uk


Blue, Yellow, Room, Interior design, Countertop, Kitchen, Tile, Food, Table, Building,
Clove Club

The Clove Club

Chef Isaac McHale’s philosophy is ‘reinventing modern British’ and it is one that has earned him and front-of-house business partner Johnny Smith the highest rank for a UK restaurant in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list 2019. Having trained at Noma, Eleven Madison Park and The Ledbury, tropes from each are evident in his cooking, which centres on UK ingredients treated simply and plated beautifully. The signature Orkney scallop, Périgord truffle, hazelnut and mandarin comes on both the six- and 10-course tasting menu, quickly followed by Parten Bree, a Scottish spider crab hot pot, that is McHale’s modern take on a traditional Scottish soup. The dining room is beautifully bright and breezy; a welcome respite from the greying east London streets outside.

thecloveclub.com


mayha
Mayha

Mayha

  • Cuisine: Japanese
  • Location: Marylebone (43 Chiltern Street, W1U 6LS)
  • Price: ££
  • Mayha reservations

Hiding behind a darkly chic shopfront on Marylebone’s modish Chiltern Street (incidentally home to some of London’s best independent menswear shops, as well as the perennially star-studded Chiltern Fire House), Mayha is an 11-seat ground-floor omasake restaurant, plus a tiny downstairs bar, offering some of the most rarefied and beautifully presented seasonal Japanese food — and cocktails — in the capital. Omasake — rough translation: “over to you” — indicates a changing tasting menu, with all dishes offered at the discretion of the chef, depending on whatever is fresh and available. The tradition is formal, and exquisite, but also generous and surprising, with each dish presented to each diner individually, with a brief explanation and a flourish: omasake combines culinary expertise with subtle showmanship. On the day of Esquire’s lunchtime visit the nigiri, in particular, was superb: innovative combinations of sticky rice and glazed fish that had about as much in common with supermarket sushi as caviar does with fish fingers.

mayhalondon.com


best restaurants
Matt Russell

Rambutan

  • Cuisine: Sri Lankan
  • Location: Borough Market (10 Stoney Street, London, SE1 9AD)
  • Price: ££
  • Rambutan reservations

Much hype attended the opening, in March, of the first restaurant from the highly regarded Cynthia Shanmugalingam, previously a star of London’s street-food scene and the author of a hit cookbook, also called Rambutan. Sometimes the fuss is justified, and this is one of those occasions. Shanmugalingam’s debut, opposite Borough Market on the deliriously lively Stoney Street (also home to Esquire faves El Pastor and BAO), is as confident and accomplished, and fun, as any fan of Sri Lankan food could have wished for — and their number seems to grow by the day. Fresh, fiery, with a cornucopia of culinary influences — Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, Arabian, Portuguese, Dutch and British, the legacy of the island’s complex colonial history — until recently Sri Lankan cuisine was underrepresented in London, especially when compared to those of its noisy neighbours to the north. (You may perhaps have eaten at an Indian restaurant before?) Since 2015, and the opening of Hoppers, from the mighty JKS group — Gymkhana, etc — central London has been treated to a series of Sri Lankan joints (Paradise, Kolamba) that have converted many to this distinctive South Asian cuisine. On a buzzy recent Thursday night, Esquire took a table at the back of the airy room, appealingly decorated in post-colonial style, with rattan chairs, slow-turning ceiling fans and plenty of palm fronds, and was immediately seduced by no less a thing than a banana negroni (amazing!). From there it was fascinating and unexpected flavours all the way: peppered watermelon; buttermilk fried chicken and pol sambol paan; incredible gundu dosas; red pineapple curry with mustard seeds; Cornish mussel curry with coconut and cimi di rapa; Dingley Dell black pork dry curry; sticky chicken pongol rice; coconut, lemongrass and pandan dal. “Diaspora Sri Lankan cooking over an open fire,” is Shanmugalingam’s own description of the food on offer at Rambutan. It’s spectacularly good.

rambutanlondon.com


best restaurants
Caravel

Caravel

  • Cuisine: French/Italian
  • Location: Regent's canal (172 Shepherdess Walk, N1 7JL)
  • Price: ££
  • Caravel reservations

In the age of social media, every new opening needs its billboard, Instagrammable thing. It could be a dish (Octo-Hummus at The Palomar), a work of art (Damien Hirst’s cow at Tramshed) or even a ‘push-for-champagne’ button at every table (Bob Bob Ricard). At Caravel, an impossibly charming little bistro in Islington, the ‘gimmick’ is that the restaurant is a converted barge, moored up in the Regent’s Canal. But to focus on its photogenics would be foolish.

Access is granted via a buzzer on the gate by a footbridge – not unlike how one gets into Rochelle Canteen in Shoreditch, and the similarities don’t stop there – and once onto the private pontoon, the vibe is easy and sun-dappled, an oasis of calm a stone’s throw from the clatter of City Road. Or at least, it was when we visited on a Friday night in mid-May. Inside the barge – double-height, so not at all cramped – there is space for 40 people seated at papered tables, each fitted with a little lamp. A kitchen at one end and a bar at the other; the last of the evening sun pinking the walls. Wes Anderson would swoon.

Sitting proudly in that abridged modern brasserie bracket that’s so prevalent right now (see Café Cecilia, Rochelle Canteen etc.), the menu is concise and confident in its simplicity. We started with miniature potato röstis slicked with caviar-studded sour cream, followed by a duck croquette as crispy without as it was moist (sorry) within. Then a generous portion of asparagus with almost-too-much sauce gribiche and roasted hazelnuts, before turbot and braised chickpeas. The former was delicate and poised, and thanks to a crab broth, in need of an emergency bread order for dipping. A side of spring greens – the most under-appreciated side, perhaps? – came dripping in butter and spiked with chilli and garlic. Simple, joyful stuff.

When you go, and you must, start with a rose negroni (like a regular negroni, but floral) and finish with the banana and pistachio tart. We didn’t, and we wished we had.

thestudiokitchen.co.uk/the-boat


best restaurants in london
Courtesy

Rita's

  • Cuisine: Modern American/seasonal British
  • Location: Soho (49 Lexington St, Carnaby, W1F 9AP)
  • Price: ££
  • Rita’s reservations

Come for the peppy jalapeño gildas, stay for the mini-Martinis and pretty much everything else on the menu. Gabriel Pryce and Missy Flynn’s restaurant has taken on many forms over the years (shout out to the fried-chicken-in-a-bag at Dalston’s Birthdays era!) but the latest incarnation in Soho’s Lexington Street feels like a perfectly fitting forever-home for this roving duo.

Leaning into Pryce’s Americana/Mexicana kitchen history, the dishes now veer into seasonal British territory with thrilling results. Recent favourites included a whole grilled hake, with coco beans and a punchy macha pico, or the vegan-that-you’d-never-guess-was-vegan burnt tomato fregola with saffron, olives and capers, that the pair say was inspired by a recent trip to Sardinia (follow their foodie travels on Instagram for a future glimpse of what could be starring on the menu soon). The mains are always hearty big dishes but there are of course still always small plates for those who prefer to graze. Pryce does amazing things with seafood, such as the memorable clams in creamed celery, mopped up with Idaho scones, and if the peel ‘n’ eats (as they dub their whole prawns) are on the blackboard, you won’t regret ordering a portion for the table.

Flynn continues to make a name for herself as one of the smartest in the UK’s drink game, with bang-on impeccable taste. There's a short but sweet selection of natural wines on the list, but don’t leave without having an eponymous ‘rita. With grapefruit, green chile and celery in the mix, you can almost convince yourself the mescal El Madrina is as healthy as your morning Nutri-bullet offering. Better have a second one, in that case…

ritasdining.com


best restaurants london
instagram

Café Cecilia

Café Cecilia popped up in a nondescript canal-side building round the backend of Broadway Market in the summer of 2021, and has since overshadowed the much-Instagrammed East London street so much, it’s arguably become the real star of the area. That’s very much down to the head chef, ex-River Cafe’s Max Rocha – also son to Irish designer John Rocha – who’s managed the tricky task of creating both a casual neighbourhood restaurant that’s also a firm favourite with the high-fashion, creative set of the area too.

The monochromed design of the cafe (very definitely not a ‘caff’) is pleasingly ‘80s in style, but there’s no doubt that the menu is anchored firmly in the 2020s: modern European small plates that boast seasonal produce. Rocha’s Irish heritage shines through with his signature Guinness bread and butter (get ready to sink it as quick as a pint), while the black stuff rears its welcome head again in the desserts by way of the Guinness bread ice-cream, its evolved form even more delicious than the original. While there’s a strong bent towards veggies at Café Cecilia – delica pumpkin with cavolo nero, butterbeans and labneh being a tasty recent dish – the meat plates are worth a visit in themselves: tender leg of lamb served with rich pommes anna and anchovy, while the classic onglet with peppercorn sauce and chips is a long-stayer on the menu for a very good reason. It’s hearty, homely yet refined, which seems to be the very successful ethos behind Rocha’s entire culinary operation.

cafececilia.com


Food, Pink, Dish, Restaurant, Cuisine, Meal, Brunch, Room, Interior design, Breakfast,
Ducasse

Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester

Helming one of only two Michelin three-star restaurants in the capital, the world’s most decorated chef, Alain Ducasse, considers his only UK outpost one of his best. Designed in emblematic style with neutral earth tones juxtaposed to curtains of crystal which splay light across the dining room, it’s a fine-dining restaurant with a distinctly modern feel. Head chef Jean-Philippe Blondet follows suit with the menu. French classics – pot-au-feu, gougères, confit duck, milk-fed lamb with vegetables – are all treated with a lightness of touch and minimal use of cream and butter that defines the modern French kitchen. Dinners here can run north of three hours, so it’s worth booking flexitime with the babysitter.

alainducasse-dorchester.com


Food, Dish, Cuisine, Room, Brunch, Table, Meal, Restaurant, Breakfast, Café,
Roti King

Roti King

Before The Standard Hotel and Coal Drops Yard arrived in Kings Cross, the area was a bit of a dead spot for dining – except for one tiny restaurant for those in the know. The simple basement cafe of Roti King hasn't changed much over the years, especially its two features: the best authentic roti canai in London and the queue down the street to get hold of one. The dish everybody is clamouring for becomes obvious with one bite – a rich, flaky, Malaysian flatbread to scoop up a punchy chicken, lamb or dhal curry, served at the meal-deal price of £6.50. The roti can be filled with cheese, egg or minced chicken, or can be sweet, like the dreamy caramelised banana roti pisang. If you fancy going off-piste, the traditional nasi goreng (stir fried rice) or kari laksa (spicy coconut noodle soup) are also worth a look in, but the clue's in the name; when you've found the best place in the kingdom for this street-food treasure, stick to what it does best.

rotiking.co.uk


Oyster, Bivalve, Food, Seafood, Clam, Cuisine, Dish, Mussel, Shellfish, Photography,
Bentley's

Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill

With shoulders as broad as Marble Arch and the personality to match, Bentley’s chef-proprietor Richard Corrigan has the uncanny ability to read the London diner like no other. At Bentley’s – a grill restaurant with a 100-year pedigree – he does the simple things well. The best evenings start with Champagne and oysters (of which the restaurant always has a selection of six varieties), followed by some of the finest seafood from the British Isles. Its fish pie is the stuff of legend – packed to the gunnels with prawns, smoked haddock and cod – and is best served with just-arrived seasonal vegetables from Corrigan’s Irish smallholding, Virginia Park Lodge.

bentleys.org


Toconoco

Food, Dish, Brunch, Meal, Cuisine, Breakfast, Ingredient, Room, Lunch, Comfort food,
Toconoco

Sorry estate agents, but as much as you brand this area off Kingsland Road ‘The Haggerston Riviera’, absolutely no one is buying it. Not that it bothers the quiet and unassuming cafe Toconoco. Tucked away just off the Regent’s Canal, this cute Japanese spot is a total hidden gem and serves up simple, tasty and pocket-friendly meals. The home-cooked daily set menu (£8.10) might offer up pork tonkotsu, broccoli salad, rice and miso, or there’s udon or soba dishes for the noodle fans. Must-tries are also the onigiri rice balls or their black sesame cheesecake for dessert. Kick back with a Japanese tea by the waterside and while it might not quite pass for the Riviera, it will transport you away for your lunch hour nicely.

toconoco.com


Roketsu

best restaurants
Instagram @roketsulondon

How authentically Japanese is one of London’s only kaiseki fine-dining experiences? Well, the space itself was carved by craftsmen of Nakamura Sotoji Komuten using 100-year-old hinoki wood, assembled in Kyoto then sent piece by piece to London. Which is to say: incredibly Japanese. Short of jumping on a 12-hour flight, this is the closest you’ll get to a meal that’s considered the absolute finest of Japanese dining. Yes, the bill is likely to be wallet-busting (it’s £190 a head for the set meal) but if you manage to get one of the 10 seats at the bar (or one of six in the private dining room) the flavours, the quality and the theatrics of this banquet are likely to make this one of the most memorable meals of your life.

Chef Daisuke Hayashi, who trained at the three-Michelin-star Kikunoi in Kyoto, prepares the 10-course tasting menu just inches away from your seat. The meal follows a traditional structure designed to be served before a tea ceremony and moves from a Japanese amuse-bouche followed by a sashimi course through meat, fish, rice and then soup, all created with the most delicate, intriguing flavours and combinations. And while the idea of ‘seasonal’ cooking is thrown around everywhere these days, Hayashi goes above and beyond. When we visited, the focus was on the arrival of autumn, and the presentation of the food was as stunning as its taste: cedar-wood wrapped turbot with pickled kumquat on a bed of autumnal maple leaves; a gilded china bowl with lid revealed sea bass awamushi; a glorious wooden jewellery box held a selection of treats: quail, bottarga, monkfish liver, maple walnuts; while the lobster broth will live rent free in my head for the rest of my life. Wine and sake pairings are available at an extra cost, but if you’ve come this far, then you might as well sign up for the whole deal. If Jiro dreams of sushi, I dream of Roketsu.

roketsu.co.uk


colony grill room
Colony Grill Room

The Colony Grill Room

Nothing, but nothing beats a good shrimp cocktail. The chill of the crustacea, the tang of the sauce, the gluttony of the dip and the sheer kitchness of it all make it the king of starters – or, as Americans would say, the king of appetizers. They invented it, of course, and they invented the concept of the ‘GrillRoom’, too. It’s a place for Americans (and whomever else) to get an “excellent dinner, served quickly, in luxurious surroundings” according to Nathaniel Newnham-Davies’ Gourmet Guide To London, 1914. And a century later, travel-tired gourmands will be heartened to know that the tradition is alive and well at London’s Beaumont Hotel. The Colony Grill Room, which has just undergone a subtly lavish refurbishment, is one of the best kept secrets of the London food scene. Perfect steaks, excellent fish, impossibly crispy chips and a droolsome wine list, all served in the hush and mumble of a moody, New York-style brasserie. Chromed fixtures, deep carpets and rum baba scorched at the table; you know the score. Find a booth and settle in. And don’t leave without trying the monkfish wellington. It’s not especially New-Yorky, but we’re in London after all.

colonygrillroom.com


Food, Dish, Cuisine, Ingredient, Meal, Lunch, Recipe, Produce, Brunch, Vegetarian food,
Moro

Moro

  • Cuisine: Spanish / North African
  • Location: Farringdon (4-36 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QE)
  • Price: ££
  • Moro reservations

The restaurant that launched a thousand dinner parties, Moro was the first and last word in bringing the heady world of rich Spanish and Moroccan food to Blighty. Married couple Sam and Sam Clark opened up their Exmouth Market restaurant back in 1997, which promptly won Time Out's best new restaurant, and still remains a super-popular dining choice for Londoners – and visiting out-of-towners – more than two decades later. Like Ottolenghi, there'll always be one ingredient you'll need to ask the patient waiting staff to explain, but the new discovery will no doubt be delicious. Recent revelatory dishes for us have been the orange and green chilli-steamed mussels with mograbieh (see? It's a type of Lebanese semolina pearls, like couscous, FYI) or the chargrilled lamb with sumac and fava bean puree (£27.50). The restaurant pivoted to tapas in 2010 when they opened the Barcelona-inspired Morito next door, and carried on the trend with a second outpost in Hackney in 2016. As the Sams have aptly demonstrated, there's always room for more Moro.

moro.co.uk


Dim sum, Food, Cuisine, Dish, Comfort food, Vegetable, Chinese food, Produce, Ingredient, Recipe,
Min Jiang

Min Jiang

High up on the 14th floor of the Royal Garden Hotel with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over Kensington Gardens, Min Jiang has one of the best restaurant views in central London. Tables at dusk are the plum booking, to watch the sun set over plates of wood-fired Beijing duck served every which way. Dim sum is the ideal way in, made by a chef who’s been practicing the art for half century. Duck follows next, where the crispy skin arrives with a bowl of finely granulated sugar for dipping, before pancakes and a hoisin sauce rich with orange and floral notes. Guests then have a choice of having the duck flesh pulled through hand-rolled noodles or served with rice. Neither disappoint.

minjiang.co.uk


Meal, Dish, Breakfast, Brunch, Food, Room, Cuisine, Lunch, Restaurant, Interior design,
Elystan Street

Elystan Street

Philip Howard is the master of reinvention. Since he left The Square – considered by many the archetypal restaurant of London’s Nineties excess – diners waited to see where he would emerge. Where The Square was all nouvelle cuisine, delicate portions and far-reaching technique, Elystan Street offers a dichotomy in big portions, big flavour and an even bigger welcome. Head chef Toby Burrowes’s cooking follows this mantra perfectly. Truffled chicken soup with a mushroom crumpet is hearty and delicious, best followed by in-season meat, such as loin of roe deer with root vegetables, mustard fruit purée and roasted pear.

elystanstreet.com


Food, Hendl, Dish, Chicken meat, Cuisine, Duck meat, Fried food, Ingredient, Roasting, Meal,
St John

St John

  • Cuisine: Modern British
  • Location: Farringdon (26 St John St, EC1M 4AY)
  • Price: ££
  • St John reservations

Less a culinary hotspot, more a British food institution, St John – through its gregarious founder, chef Fergus Henderson – pioneered the nose-to-tail revolution around the turn of the millennium. Put simply, it chides carnivores to not just enjoy the prime-cuts of animals, but to get stuck into the then less-fashionable other bits: liver, heart, sweetbreads, tripe. This is where the trend for bone-marrow on sourdough toast was born, and the kitchen has birthed a slew of other reinventions that now appear on menu's throughout London. Current favourites on the menu are unsurprisingly not suitable for veggies: robust slices of grilled ox heart with beetroot and green sauce or a delicately crumbed veal cutlet served with chicory and anchovy. Handily set just around the corner from London's Smithfield meat market, and housed in a former smokehouse, the classy and traditional restaurant never feels fussy or pretentious – it just keeps things ever simple by literally going the whole hog and offering high-quality food, excellent wines and outstanding service to every guest.

stjohnrestaurant.com


paro best restaurants
Paro

Paro

  • Cuisine: Indian
  • Location: Covent Garden (21 Wellington St, WC2E 7DN)
  • Price: ££
  • Paro reservations

The previously crusty image of the Indian restaurant was comprehensively overhauled some years ago. The humble high street curry house still exists, of course – and more power to it — but at least in our major cities, the cooking of the Subcontinent has successfully rebranded. No more flock wallpaper (unless it’s “ironic “) or radioactive vindaloos. Now it’s all curated Bollywood playlists, Raj-inspired decor and muntjac biryanis. In London, from the very top end — the magnificent, Michelin-starred Gymkhana, in Mayfair — to the trendy chain Dishoom, by way of Gunpowder, Kricket and countless other gems, the Indian restaurant is self-consciously hip, stylish and youthful.

Very youthful indeed, in the case of the latest entrant to the scene. Pano, in Covent Garden, is the new restaurant from 23-year-old chef Niaz Caan, also of City Spice on Brick Lane, in his native East End. Situated in the same building as the Lyceum theatre (current home of The Lion King, no less) and inspired by the cuisine of Calcutta, Paro occupies a spacious, light-filled room, comfortably furnished, and serving knockout Indian food.

On a recent weeknight Esquire and two colleagues allowed chef Niaz himself to order for the table. That meant crispy cottage cheese roll, honeyed mango chickpeas and fiery tiger prawns to start, followed by dum dum chicken, vegetarian thali, and — best of all — a quite spectacularly flavourful lamb shank, slow roasted, generously spiced and incredibly tender. Plus pilau rice and garlic naan, obviously, and bottles of Kingfisher, also obviously. Because some things change, and some things stay the same — and that’s how it should be, in restaurants and in life.

paroindian.com


london's best restaurants
The Princess Royal

The Princess Royal

The idea of a good food-pub is nothing new, especially in London. But as the overall pub trade has gradually waned, the need to diversify with food has increased, and in turn we have more not-very-good food-pubs than ever. In fact, the number of really good food-pubs in London is low, so we can rejoice at the arrival of the Princess Royal in Notting Hill. Part of a surprisingly large stable of chic boozers (The Orange in Pimlico, the Thomas Cubitt in Belgravia and quite a few more), the Princess Royal serves a Mediterranean-skewed menu, via UK produce, courtesy of chef-director Ben Tish. When we visited, we took advantage of the raw bar (loads of ice, loads of crustacea) and ordered Cornish crab and pangrattato, followed by a brilliant warm chicken salad and perfectly cooked Florentine steak. The chips – oh boy, the chips! – were insane, and came with the kind of spikey aioli that renders all other sauces obsolete. And an honourable mention to the padron peppers, which might just be the best we’ve ever had.

A seasoned restaurateur (and someone fans of Saturday Kitchen will be well aware of), Tish has overseen a menu that confidently covers all the bases but doesn’t overdo it. We’re talking English burrata with blood orange and radicchio; whipped nduja and fennel biscuits, wild bream crudo, Dorset monkfish and Amalfi lemon & olive oil cake, to name but a few highlights. On Sundays there is porchetta – a sure-fire way to win at the roast – but you can order a mixed roast if indecision takes hold. (The pub’s Instagram also alludes to a tallegio and nduja cheeseburger, which looks amazing, but sadly wasn’t on the menu when we visited.) And when it all gets too much, you can decamp to the terrace, or even check in to one of the rooms upstairs.

cubitthouse.co.uk/the-princess-royal


best london restaurants
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Plaza Khao Gaeng

There’s no way of writing this down without sounding insufferably gap yah, but sitting in Plaza Khao Gaeng, with its wooden ceiling, strip lights and photographs of Thai royalty on the walls, does make you feel like you’re in roadside joint in Bangkok. Probably more than the lighting and the décor though, is the food, from chef Luke Farrell, whose knowledge and fascination with the cuisine and produce of southeast Asia is played out in dishes that are punchy and uncompromising in a very good way (a feat he replicates in a more conspicuously trendy setting at his even newer opening, Soho’s Speedboat Bar). From dishes such as Gaeng Massaman Neua (a deep, rich curry of beef shoulder with potatoes and shallots) to Pad Phet Pla (sea bream cooked with chillies, lime leaves and “jungle herbs”), this is a restaurant – and a chef – that knows exactly where it’s going.

plazakhaogaeng.com


Food, Cuisine, Bigoli, Dish, Ingredient, Italian food, Comfort food, Recipe, Taglierini, Noodle,
Padella

Padella

No barbs about carbs here – pasta is well and truly back on the menu, and we've got Padella to thank for a nation binning off any faddy ideas about Keto or Atkins diets. Opening in 2016 on the fringes of Borough Market, it's had a queue outside for just about as long, as fans have no qualms about waiting up to two hours for a plate of its signature thick and cheesy pici cacio e pepe. The petite, two-floor venue – from the same team behind Trullo in Highbury – is an Italian monochrome dream inside, with the best seats being the stools at the marbled bar upstairs, where you can watch the dexterous chefs create the pasta by hand. The quick turnover and cheap prices make it essentially an Italian noodle bar, so this isn't the spot for a long, lazy lunch. Instead to grab plates like ravioli of Westcombe ricotta and sage or the tagliarini with Dorset crab, lemon and chilli; snap your photo for Instagram and dig in. Keep things fresh with a sparky rosemary lemonade and, pronto, it’s time to give up your seat for the next salivating customer in the queue.

padella.co


Food, Dish, Cuisine, Ingredient, Photography, Superfood, Comfort food, Recipe, Produce, Brunch,
Black Axe Mangal

F.K.A.B.A.M. (Formerly Known as Black Axe Mangal)

Kebabs, but make it cool. Chef Lee Tiernan and his wife Kate arrived at the otherwise unremarkable area of the Highbury Corner roundabout in 2015 with a mission statement of banging meats and banging heavy metal beats, and since then, it's more than justified the opening-day hype. Tiernan took the beloved Turkish mangal and combined it with his decade of experience at the helm of St John Bread & Wine, resulting in dishes as punchy and loud as the restaurant's soundtrack. If you manage to bag one of the 20 seats in the smoky venue, the first port of call needs to be the umami-laced squid ink flatbread with whipped cod roe and a just-about-to-burst egg yolk. Next up on the ever-changing menu will be more doughy pillows of bread, perhaps with oxtail and anchovy, or grilled bone-marrow, or fresh and zingy grilled mackerel with XO sauce and salted mooli. Your eardrums might not thank you after a feast here, but your stomach most definitely will. In the words of two other rock enthusiasts: party time, excellent.

blackaxemangal.com


Food, Dish, Cuisine, Restaurant, Meal, Brunch, À la carte food, Thai food, Lunch, Ingredient,
Nopi

Nopi

  • Cuisine: Middle Eastern
  • Location: Soho (21-22 Warwick Street, W1B 5NE)
  • Price: ££
  • Nopi reservations

Ottolenghi: say it softly and it's almost like praying. As a recent Desert Island Discs appearance confirmed, the Israeli-born chef is now at national treasure status in the UK, thanks to his service to making vegetables great again. Back in 2002, he made salads a thing of desire with then mostly unheard-of Middle Eastern ingredients at his small Ottolenghi deli in Notting Hill. He then went on to expand his empire with seven cookbooks and four more restaurants, with our favourite being Nopi, a grown-up brasserie in Soho. The signature sight of beach ball-sized plates piled high with vibrant salads, glossy with dressing and bejewelled with pomegranate seeds greets you on entry, and sets the tone for the rest of the restaurant's offering. A creamy burrata ball is spiked with slices of tart blood orange and studded with crunchy coriander seeds, the baked Valdeon cheesecake with pickled beetroot and honey is the fans favourite, while the restaurant was one of the first to start the trend of polenta chips, here served with a heavenly black truffle aioli. Pull up a pew at one of the marble-topped sharing table and dig in – oh, don't forget to take a trip to the mirrored, trapped-inside-a-crystal bathrooms, which co-incidentally win our unofficial prize for London's best toilets, too.

nopi-restaurant.com


best restaurants
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De Nadas

  • Cuisine: Argentinian
  • Location: Notting Hill (61 Golborne Rd, W10 5NR)
  • Price: £

On a lively stretch of the Golborne Road, a glimpse of an earlier, pre-gentrification Notting Hill. Here, where Portuguese bakeries jostle Moroccan coffee shops, and ancient junk shops compete for space with trendy eyewear boutiques, is De Nadas, a new venture with a simple and single-minded mission: to make the best empanadas outside Buenos Aires. These small, light, filled pastries are a staple of the Argentine diet, but hard to find in London, until now. Judging from the queue at De Nadas on a recent Saturday lunchtime, empanadas could be the new bao buns: cheap, snackable, tasty — and endlessly Instagrammable.

De Nadas offers eight veggie varieties, six meat, one vegan, each hand-shaped into a distinctive mini-pasty. In the interests of research, Esquire’s trio of intrepid gastronauts sampled each one (yes, we had all the pies), and not a duff puff among them. Highlights? Portobello mushroom with leek, mozzarella and oregano; smoked cheddar, caramelised malbec onion; roast chicken, peppers, spring onion and bechamel; minced lamb, peppers, garlic, paprika, aji molidio; chorizo, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella. Washed down with Quilmes lager and a bottle of Argentine Malbec from De Nadas’ excellent selection.

Order at the counter, take a seat at the back, get stuck in.

denadas.co.uk


Food, Cuisine, Dish, Meat, Skewer, Spare ribs, Ingredient, Sausage, Bratwurst, Yakitori,
Kiln

Kiln

  • Cuisine: Thai
  • Location: Soho (69 Brewer Street, W1F 9TL)
  • Price: ££
  • Kiln reservations

One of the greatest things about living in a city with around 40,000 restaurants is chance to experience more than just a sweeping generalisation of a nation's cuisine. For Kiln – the buzzy Soho bar, where the seats are set just inches away from the fragrant food being tossed around on smouldering hot coals – the specialty is regional Thai, specifically where the country borders Burma, Laos and Yunna. Kick off with some snacks-on-skewers starters, chunky spiced bites of aged lamb and cumin skewers, or a complex northern Isaan sausage. Chef Ben Chapman sources the best seafood from Cornwall, so popping up on the menu might be a lively turmeric curry of cod, or curried monkfish , but remaining a constant is the already iconic clay pot, which arrives steaming full of glass noodles, with chunks of Tamworth pork and sweet brown crab meat embedded within. That the smell lingers on your clothes afterwards is only a good thing – you'll be dreaming of the noodle dish for days afterwards anyway.

kilnsoho.com


Food, Dish, Meal, Lunch, Cuisine, Fish, Brunch, Restaurant, À la carte food, Ingredient,
Cornerstone

Cornerstone

Thinking about food and Hackney Wick was only ever likely to throw up the suggestion of beers and pizza by the canal, until 2018, when chef Tom Brown turned up and put the area firmly on the culinary map with his first restaurant, Cornerstone. A protege of Cornwall's Nathan Outlaw, Brown became head chef at his London outpost, Outlaw's at The Capital in 2016, and two years later, Cornerstone opened in an otherwise unremarkable building in the warehouse district. The modern venue is centred around the open kitchen at the heart of the room, and Brown's background in fish and seafood shines through the menu. Always on offer will be a dressed oyster perhaps with a spicy seaweed sauce, or the much-lauded comfort of the crab crumpet rarebit, while the monkfish tail in roast chicken butter is a contender for one of our dishes of the year. The restaurant won AA Restaurant of the Year in 2019, and being catch of the day means Brown can probably expect another haul of awards this year too.

cornerstonehackney.com


Food, Dish, Meal, Cuisine, Comfort food, Brunch, Ingredient, Lunch, Recipe, Steamed rice,
Ganapati

Ganapati

The skill of a small, neighbourhood restaurant truly reveals itself when it manages not only to become a much-loved favourite of locals, but of an entire city as well. Step forward Ganapati, which, over the past 15 years, has established itself through word-of-mouth as the force behind some of the greatest Southern Indian cuisine in the capital. Located off a residential SE15 street, the cafe is a riot of colour, with bright reds, pinks and greens washing the walls and tiled floor, while a giant golden statue of the elephant-headed god Ganesha looks on approvingly. The menu – which changes every eight weeks – is equally vibrant. On a recent visit, a warmly spiced, Attapadi grilled quail with a vivid pink onion chutney put the star into starters, while the fragrant Pondicherry fish curry was enough of a power-punch of flavour to make us start researching flight prices to Chennai. For anyone who suffers from plate envy, the thali is just the ticket, as from just £12.50, it gives a greatest-hits meal of the restaurant, serving up little fiery bowls of dal, pickles, a chilli-infused broth and curry – make sure you order their home-made, lighter-than-clouds Keralan paratha to mop it all up with.

ganapatirestaurant.com


courtesy
Courtesy

Palomar

A Soho favourite for close to a decade, Palomar made the cuisine of contemporary Jerusalem, served with relish in a noisy, bustling, joyful room just south of Shaftesbury Avenue, into one of the undisputed gems of the London dining scene. This brilliant restaurant recently reopened after a smart and subtle refresh, among the benefits being more space at the bar, long the position of choice for regulars, who will be reassured to know that nothing’s changed in terms of the unfailingly hospitable service. The menu, which offers food from the region where the Middle East meets North Africa and Southern Spain (it is both Moorish, and moreish), has also had an upgrade, with new breads and dips, and open fire cooking in a new kitchen: look out for Dover sole with Arak sauce and grilled Turkish peppers.

Since opening Palomar the Paskin family, sister Zoë and brother Layo, have gone on to launch a number of equally excellent places, including The Barbary and The Blue Posts pub, also on Rupert Street, but Palomar remains the original expression of their seductive aesthetic. On a recent drizzly Thursday lunchtime, Esquire took two perches at the bar, started with warming Bumblebees (gin, honey and ginger, lemon), and a selection of Palomar’s bread and dips (kubaneh, labneh, hummus), with tangy za’atah chicken schnitzel, followed by glazed octopus, fiery lamb cutlets, skewered vegetables with a date glaze and a carafe of white from a list distinguished by wine from the land, as they put it themselves, of desert and dune: Morocco, Israel, Lebanon.

And, for an hour and a bit, a grey and grimy London day was transformed into a honeyed afternoon in the holy city.

thepalomar.co.uk/


best restaurants in london
Ormer

Ormer by Sofian

Flemings Mayfair opened its doors in 1851, making it the second-oldest hotel in London. But work your way through the bowels of this stunning Georgian townhouse, around to Manetta’s (one of the capital’s best in-the-know cocktail bars) and then onto Ormer Mayfair, and you’ll instead be transported to the 1930s; the former is opulent and art deco inspired, with Sheraton-style sofas and a glass-fronted, marble-topped bar, while the latter – which opened in 2016 with Michelin-starred chef Shaun Rankin at the helm – is an altogether more classic affair, filled with aged oak panelling and monochrome marble flooring. Last year Sofian Msetfi took over the kitchen, and he quickly introduced five, six and eight-course tasting menus with a focus on locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. Over the past six years Ormer Mayfair has won plaudits for its understatedly inventive approach to fine dining, and Msetfi’s beautiful food carries on in that tradition.

flemings-mayfair.co.uk


Room, Interior design, Ceiling, Leaf, Furniture, Amber, Light fixture, Interior design, Hall, Houseplant,
Core

Core by Clare Smyth

When Clare Smyth cut the apron strings after eight years helming Gordon Ramsay’s three-star Michelin restaurant, the dining world knew her next move would prove something special. Within several weeks, Core became one of the best restaurants in the capital and has accrued a pair of Michelin stars after just two years in operation. Her style is fine-dining British, but defines luxury in a different way. She elevates humble ingredients, imbuing time and love for plates such as potato and roe, where the basic spud takes centre stage among two types of fish roe (neither of which are caviar).

corebyclaresmyth.com


best restaurants london
Evelyn's Table

Evelyn’s Table

Tucked inside the basement of Chinatown’s Blue Posts pub – Esquire’s local, FYI – the clandestine setting of Evelyn’s Table only adds to its if-you-know-you-know appeal. Alas, a well-deserved Michelin star in 2022 has substantially increased the amount of people who, er, ‘know’ – good for them etc. – and considering that the whole restaurant consists of a 12-seat chef’s counter, reservations are much harder to come by. The secret it out and the race is on.

Other things have changed too. At the start of this year the restaurant, which hails from the same group as revered eateries The Palomar and The Barbary, welcomed a new head chef: James Goodyear, formerly of the Michelin-starred Adam’s in Birmingham and Hide Above in London. His ever-changing five-course tasting menu is austere in appearance – a brief list of ingredients adorned with drawings of the cutlery combo you should use – providing ample opportunity for Goodyear and his team of chefs to guide you through the produce and cooking techniques in more detail as the artful dishes are placed on the table.

During a recent visit, every plate, from the barbecued Iberico pork to the pollock steamed in fig leaves, straight through to the caramelised Jerusalem artichoke with vanilla custard, lived up to its presentation. It’s perfectly paced too, and the pairing menu – we chose the mix of wines, sake and non-alcoholic options – is inventive and excellent. A spot to lose several hours inside and emerge into the world again extremely satisfied.

theblueposts.co.uk/evelyns-table



courtesy
Courtesy

Sucre

The first thing that grabs you when you walk into Sucre is the incredibly opulent dining room: this is a place for celebrations, of which there seem to be several happening in the buzzy venue when we visit. Sucre, London, is the sister restaurant to Sucre, Buenos Aires, and is the brainchild of the renowned chef Fernando Trocca and cocktail don Renato “Tato” Giovannoni. While the original is frequently listed in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, it looks like the UK version might just pull off the same accolades on the other side of the Atlantic.

Settle down in a velvet-lined booth, under the antique-mirrored walls and incredible cut-glass decanter chandeliers, and pack your bags for a culinary trip around some of South America’s finest flavours; jumping around countries like a backpacker on a coche cama bus. Elevated snacks are the best way of opening up the meal: the warm, stuffed gordal olives are surprisingly buttery and best mopped up in the pleasingly spiky aji verde, while the stone bass sat atop a Peruvian-style blue-corn tostada is surely the best way to ensure not a single drop of the golden leche de tigre juice from the citrus-chilli ceviche is wasted. For mains, we jumped back over to Argentina, digging into a striploin of steak doused in chimichurri, served with grilled gem lettuce and a big old bowl of chips for the table. We stayed put in Buenos Aires for dessert too; a hot, wickedly sweet dulce de leche fondant. As a sharpener, may we suggest a post-meal tipple in the newly-renovated cocktail bar, Alma? Which, as the name suggests, is below the main dining room; the cosy and intimate space making it the perfect place to continue onward with a night of decadence.

sucrerestaurant.com


nomad
NoMad

The NoMad Restaurant

The arrival of a NoMad hotel in London has brought some excitement to a city in dire need of some fun. The crown jewel of the historic building (within the former Bow Street Magistrates Court) is the glassy box of the atrium where the hotel’s main restaurant sits like an Edwardian greenhouse with dramatic hanging lights overhead. Start with a selection of smaller plates, like the venison tartare or a dish of oozing stracciatella cheese and perfectly ripe tomatoes, and you can’t go wrong. A wood-burning grill is a main feature of the room, lending smoke and flavour to dishes like the suckling pig, which comes in the form of ribbons of juicy meat and a smoked bacon jam. Executive Chef and NoMad stalwart Ashley Abodeely proceeds over the delicious fare, which is a truly notable addition to the London food scene, importing the hotel’s famous menu option of the stuffed chicken dinner for two. Finish the evening with an ice cold negroni while watching the glamorous come and go.

thenomadhotel.com/london/dining