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.
Frog by Adam Handling
- Cuisine: Modern British
- Location: Covent Garden (34-35 Southampton Street, WC2E 7HG)
- Price: £££
- Frog by Adam Handling reservations
Walking into Michelin-starred Frog by Adam Handling in Covent Garden, through a flower-festooned entrance that makes appropriate nods to the maximalist traditions of theatreland restaurants, the first thing you might notice is the staff. That’s of course because they’ll greet you at the door, but also because there are a lot of them, standing sentry around the dining room. In another establishment that might be overbearing, but the staff at Frog – or at least the ones Esquire encountered – are quite feasibly among the cheeriest and friendliest, not to mention most attentive, we’ve had. Which is good, because they have a lot to do: the softly hued restaurant serves an expansive tasting menu of teensy dishes of the most exquisite kind, from a crab tart with minuscule pastry crabs dancing on top of crystal jelly cubes (seriously!) right through to a cosmos of dainty chocolate spheres. You’ll lose track of quite how many beautiful things you’ve eaten (especially if you do the wine pairing) but that’s what phones, and, a take-home copy of the menu, are for.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bacchanalia
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
- Location: Mayfair (1-3 Mount St, W1K 3NA)
- Price: £££
- Bacchanalia reservations
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.
Maison François
- Cuisine: French
- Location: St James's (34 Duke Street, SW1Y 6DF)
- Price: £££
- Maison François reservations
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mount St. Restaurant
- Cuisine: Modern British
- Location: Mayfair (41-43 Mount St, W1K 2RX)
- Price: £££
- Mount St. Restaurant reservation
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.
Restaurant Story
- Cuisine: Modern British
- Location: Bermondsey (199 Tooley St, SE1 2JX)
- Price: £££
- Restaurant Story reservations
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.
Blacklock
- Cuisine: Chophouse
- Location: Soho (24 Great Windmill St, W1D 7LG)
- Price: ££
- Blacklock reservations
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.
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.
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay
- Cuisine: French
- Location: Chelsea (68 Royal Hospital Rd, SW3 4HP)
- Price: £££
- Restaurant Gordon Ramsay reservations
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.
Needoo
- Cuisine: Punjabi
- Location: Whitechapel (87 New Rd, E1 1HH)
- Price: £
- Needoo reservations
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Clove Club
- Cuisine: Modern British
- Location: Shoreditch (380 Old Street, EC1V 9LT)
- Price: £££
- The Clove Club reservations
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.
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.
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
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…
Café Cecilia
- Cuisine: Modern European
- Location: Hackney (32 Andrews Rd, E8 4FX)
- Price: ££
- Cafe Cecilia reservations
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.
Roti King
- Cuisine: Malaysian
- Location: Kings Cross (40 Doric Way, NW1 1LH)
- Price: £
- Roti King reservations
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.
Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill
- Cuisine: Traditional British
- Location: Mayfair (11-15 Swallow St, W1B 4DG)
- Price: £££
- Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill reservations
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.
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.
Min Jiang
- Cuisine: Chinese
- Location: Kensington (2-24 Kensington High St, W8 4PT)
- Price: £££
- Min Jiang reservations
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.
Elystan Street
- Cuisine: Modern British
- Location: Chelsea (43 Elystan St, SW3 3NT)
- Price: ££
- Elystan Street reservations
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.
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.
Plaza Khao Gaeng- Cuisine: Thai
- Location: Arcade Food Hall (103-105 New Oxford Street, WC1A 1DB)
- Price: ££
- Plaza Khao Gaeng Reservations
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.
Padella
- Cuisine: Italian
- Location: London Bridge (6 Southwark St, SE1 1TQ)
- Price: £
- Padella reservations
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.
F.K.A.B.A.M. (Formerly Known as Black Axe Mangal)
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Location: Islington (156 Canonbury Road, N1 2UP)
- Price: ££
- F.K.A.B.A.M. reservations
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.
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.
Ganapati
- Cuisine: Regional Indian
- Location: Peckham (38 Holly Grove, SE15 5DF)
- Price: £
- Ganapati reservations
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.
Palomar
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Location: Soho (34 Rupert St, W1D 6DN)
- Price: ££
- Palomar reservations
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.
Core by Clare Smyth
- Cuisine: Modern British
- Location: Notting Hill (92 Kensington Park Rd, W11 2PN)
- Price: £££
- Core by Clare Smyth reservations
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).
Evelyn’s Table
- Cuisine: Modern European
- Location: Soho (28 Rupert St, London W1D 6DJ)
- Price: ££
- Evelyn’s Table reservations
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
