My Top 50 London Restaurants (26 Jan-9 Feb 2025)
Explore London's vibrant culinary scene with this curated list of 50 top restaurants, featuring everything from classic British pubs and refined Indian dining to authentic Italian pasta and bustling Asian eateries. Whether you're seeking a traditional breakfast, innovative fusion, or hearty comfort food, this collection offers a delicious journey through the diverse flavors of the UK's capital.
Regency Cafe
A cafe visited frequently by the author since childhood, known for its high-quality food and strong tea.
Assa
A serviceable Korean restaurant in Soho, particularly noted for its spicy beef bulgogi.
Noble Rot
A restaurant in Soho with an extensive wine list, known for its roast chicken with morels in vin jaune.
ECCo Pizza
A pizza place in Westminster, popular for its gritty pizzas with a chewy base and orange cheese.
40 Maltby Street
An unassuming restaurant in Bermondsey, located in a railway arch near London Bridge station, offering a modest menu and relaxing atmosphere.
Tollington’s
A Spanish pintxos bar in Finsbury Park, converted from a chippy, known for its casual atmosphere and dishes like chips bravas fried in beef dripping.
Sabor
Considered by some to be the only good Spanish restaurant in London.
The Harwood Arms
A Michelin-starred pub in Fulham, known for its restaurant-quality food, including the venison scotch egg.
River Café
A British-Italian caff opposite Putney Bridge station, distinguished from the more famous River Cafe.
Planque
A restaurant in Haggerston supporting the return of traditional French food to London, while also offering modern French cooking.
Koya
A Japanese restaurant in Soho, popular for its breakfast udon with eggs and spring onion.
Gogo Pocha
A restaurant on Lower Marsh in Waterloo, known for its sizzling stone bibimbap with spicy kimchi.
Real Beijing Food House
An enormous restaurant in Chinatown, suitable for great group dinners and using a lazy Susan.
Oyster Shack and Seafood Bar
A seafood spot in Epping Forest, recommended for its unadorned seafood and bacon, scallop and black pudding sandwich.
The Cow
A pub in Westbourne Grove, known for its Guinness, Irish native oysters, smoked eel, ox cheek pie, and fish stew. It's known as a good spot for a bank holiday Monday afternoon.
The Westbourne’s
A pub across the road from The Cow with a humongous smoking area.
Ognisko
A restaurant in South Kensington with a beautiful dining room, known for its blinis, smalec, and vodka.
Cafe TPT
A reliable Chinatown option, known for its beef flank curry.
The Wolseley
A restaurant in St James’s, recommended for breakfast, especially the eggs royale and coffee.
Quo Vadis
A restaurant in Soho, known for Jeremy Lee’s cooking and the smoked eel sandwich.
Peterborough Café
A caff in Parsons Green, run by one person, with a terrible action film from the 1980s always playing.
Galata Pera
A kitsch Turkish restaurant in Brentford, known for its iskender kebab.
Briciole
An Italian restaurant in Marylebone, near Edgware Road and the Westway. Known for mozzarella with tomatoes, ricotta and lemon ravioli, white chocolate crème brûlée.
Elliot’s
A restaurant in Borough Market with a brilliant menu, especially for offal and pizza.
Italia Uno
A restaurant in Fitzrovia, popular in the summer when Serie A is on TV, known for its mortadella and artichoke paninis.
Josephine Bouchon
A restaurant in Chelsea, known for its cheese soufflé and veal sweetbread with morels in a mushroom sauce.
Max’s Sandwich Shop
A sandwich shop on Crouch Hill, known for its ham, egg n’ chips sandwich.
Normah’s
A restaurant in Queensway Market, known for its roti.
Manteca
A restaurant in Shoreditch, known for starting a meal with a fried olive and ending it with beef fat fudge.
The Waterman’s Arms
A pub in Barnes overlooking Barnes Bridge, with a challenging and original menu, and rotisserie chicken in an onion broth.
Scotti’s Snack Bar
A snack bar in Clerkenwell, known for its chicken escalope ciabatta.
Sam Sandwiches
A restaurant in Shepherds Bush Market, known for its Algerian sandwiches.
Trullo
A restaurant in Islington, known for its pappardelle with beef shin ragu and roasted monkfish with brown crab and wilted spinach.
Maggie Jones’s
A restaurant in High Street Kensington, known for its pork belly, currently closed due to a fire.
Lanzhou Lamian Noodle Bar
A noodle bar in Leicester Square, recommended for tomato and egg lamian with chilli oil, open until 4 a.m.
Crisp Pizza
A pizza restaurant in Hammersmith, known for its 'Crisp special'.
L’Éscargot
A restaurant in Soho, known for its Tournedos Rossini.
Bocca di Lupo
A restaurant in Soho, known for its Trippa alla Romana.
Berenjak
A Persian restaurant in Soho, known for its jujeh kabab.
Andrew Edmunds
A delightful restaurant in Soho, recommended for its soup and pork chop with aioli.
Wong Kei
A restaurant in Soho, known for its cold roast belly pork on hot rice.
FKABAM (Black Axe Mangal )
A small restaurant by Highbury and Islington station, known for its original food and dishes like jellied tête de cochon and lamb offal flatbread with testicles.
Oslo Court
A restaurant in St John’s Wood that has remained unchanged since the 1970s, known for its vegetable crudités, melba toast, and attentive service.
Mangal 2
A restaurant in Dalston, known for its cull yaw koftes and sourdough pides, and grilled mackerel with bulgur, white peaches and pistachio.
The Eagle
The first gastropub in Britain, located in Farringdon, known for its chalked-up menu and pork or fish dishes.
Mountain
A restaurant in Soho, known for its beef sweetbreads.
Quality Wines
A restaurant in Farringdon, known for its Mediterranean cooking, gildas, focaccia, and lobster roll.
The French House
A dining room in Soho known for its menu, especially steak at lunch.
Master Wei
A restaurant in Hammersmith, known for its northern Chinese cooking, gelatinous pig’s ears, wontons in chilli sauce, and cold-skin liangpi noodles.
Master Wei
A restaurant in Bloomsbury, known for its northern Chinese cooking, gelatinous pig’s ears, wontons in chilli sauce, and cold-skin liangpi noodles.
Noodle and Snack
A small northern Chinese restaurant in Fitzrovia, known for its sweet and sour pork and Chongqing street noodles.
Gymkhana
An Indian restaurant in Mayfair, known for its butter chicken masala.
St John
A restaurant in Smithfield, known for its decor, menu, cocktails, bread, egg mayo sandwich, madeleines, bacon, and merch.
Bouchon Racine
A restaurant in Farringdon, known for its offal dishes and produce, particularly the Bayonne ham with celeriac remoulade, tête de veau, and crème caramel.