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$$$ | Soho |
There may only be 28 table seats and nine counter stools at this stripped-back Modern European Soho eatery, but the consistently great and unpretentious food, cheap wine, affable prices, and tremendous service more than make up for it. Once seated, expect deceptively simple starters and punchy Modern European mains like butternut ravioli with sage, slow-braised beef ribs, or slip sole with lemon butter. Flavors are big, bold, and brassy and sway gently with the seasons, while thoughtful desserts are only £9 a pop.
10 Greek St., London, Greater London, W1D 4DH, England
Known For
- Buzzed-up foodie atmosphere in a pared-back dining space
- Speciality slow roasts and gutsy seasonal Modern European mains
- Generous platters of house-cured charcuterie and gravlax
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential, Closed Sun. and Mon.
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$$$ | Covent Garden |
British restaurateur Keith McNally re-creates his famed New York–Parisian–style brasserie at this bustling corner spot off Covent Garden Piazza. The soaring grand café setting creates an enchanting white-tablecloth backdrop to enjoy the classic French brasserie menu, including dishes like duck and beef pie, moules marinière (mussels with cream and white wine), and ox cheek bourguignon (stew). Treat yourself to rock oysters and champagne while perusing the nearly all-French wine list, which carries everything from Chablis to Charmes-Chambertin, before polishing off a pile of profiteroles and chocolate sauce for dessert.
4–7 Russell St., London, Greater London, WC2B 5HZ, England
Known For
- Parisian-style grand café setting
- Handy prix fixe, weekend brunch, children's, and afternoon tea menus
- Vegan and vegetarian options
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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$ | Soho |
Fabulous handmade pasta at affordable prices characterizes this groovy Italian eatery off Soho's Golden Square. Sit at the bustling chef's counter to sample options like bucatini cacio e pepe or pork, fennel, and 'nduja ragù with twirly ribbons of mafalde pasta. Enjoy fine creamy burrata, Sicilian red prawns and samphire, and ample Soho people-watching from the row of raised curbside counter window seats.
8-10 Lower James St., London, Greater London, W1F 9EL, England
Known For
- Instagram-famous "silk handkerchiefs" sheets of pasta with confit egg yolk
- Top-value pasta dishes from 20 Italian regions
- Upbeat atmosphere
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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$$ | Covent Garden |
One of London's favorite Spanish tapas bars, modeled after the famed Cal Pep tapas spot in Barcelona, has only a few raised bar stools within the open-counter kitchen just off Trafalgar Square. Lunchtime lines form from noon daily for a top-quality succession of impeccably sourced small plates, ranging from giant Spanish carabineros red prawns and Iberian pork cheeks to black squid ink risotto with cuttlefish. There's a neat selection of Spanish reds, whites, sherries, and sparkling white Cava, and be sure to leave room for noted desserts like the almond-based Santiago tart.
10 Adelaide St., London, Greater London, WC2N 4HZ, England
Known For
- Long lines starting at noon
- Notable offal dishes like milk-fed lamb kidneys
- Great Cava and Spanish sherry selection
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential, Closed Sun.
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$ | Shoreditch |
Locals are keen to proclaim the virtues of their favorite Brick Lane bagel emporium, but to be perfectly honest, there's not much true competition aside from this spot and its two-doors-down neighbor, the Beigel Shop. Both serve delicious fresh beigels (the traditional European spelling) 24 hours a day, seven days a week (at just 40 pence each); both date back to when Brick Lane was home to a largely Jewish immigrant community, and both are family-owned (two branches of the same family, in fact). When it comes to picking between each establishment's excellent value (£6.50) hot salt beef sandwich (with sweet gherkin and tangy English mustard optional extras), however, always go for Beigel Bake.
155 Brick La., London, Greater London, E1 6SB, England
Known For
- Brusque service
- Classic hot salt beef beigel sandwich
- Lively, often drunk, clientele
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Recommended Fodor’s Video
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$$ | Piccadilly Circus |
Enjoy the great value, prix-fixe menus of classic French dishes at Piccadilly's ever-bustling subterranean Parisian-style brasserie. Dripping with Beaux-Arts gilt mirrors and monumental marble pillars, you can enjoy satisfying French standards like steak haché, choucroute, Niçoise salad, and crème brûleé. Old-school waiters in dapper black uniforms glide across the vast parquet dining room floor, while the attached art deco-style Bar Américain cocktail lounge and late-night live cabaret provide wonderfully suave post-dinner shows.
20 Sherwood St., London, Greater London, W1F 7ED, England
Known For
- London's most spectacular Beaux-Arts brasserie
- Fantastically cheap set-meal deals
- Nightly live music, cabaret, comedy, and burlesque
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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$$$ | Fitzrovia |
Flavorful, inventive dishes elevate this hipster casual joint to the top rank of London's midrange gastro titans. With a focus on in-house curing, pickling, smoked meats, and heritage vegetables, expect a cavalcade of unlikely combinations and classic gastronomy specialties. The food is modern European, but with influences drawn from around the world—their beautifully delicate Cornish plaice with bok choy, trout roe, and Tosazu butter are a prime example.
5 Clipstone St., London, Greater London, W1W 6BB, England
Known For
- Fine dining without the fuss
- Lots of homemade, pickled, fermented, or cured extras
- Good-value set lunches
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon.
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$$$ | City of London |
Zoom up to the 40th floor of 110 Bishopsgate and head straight for the cult signature dish of confit duck leg, Belgium waffle, fried duck egg, and mustard maple syrup for a taste of foodie bliss. Open 24/7, with spectacular panoramas of The City, you might satisfy the munchies with a foie gras breakfast, served all day, alongside streaky bacon and homemade Nutella or an Elvis PB&J waffle with banana brûlée. Look, too, for the bag of spiced pigs ears and the big-as-tennis-balls spicy ox cheek doughnuts dusted with smoked paprika sugar. There's always a party vibe and you'll often find live music in the dining room.
110 Bishopsgate, London, Greater London, EC2N 4AY, England
Known For
- Rare-to-London 24-hour service
- Awe-inspiring panoramas of London's skyline
- Eponymous duck-and-waffle dish
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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$ | Bethnal Green |
It's all Cockney banter and full English breakfasts at this tiny family-run café and onetime gangsters' lair near Brick Lane and Columbia Road markets. The atmosphere may be rowdy, but it's all good-natured, with greasy fry-ups (think eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, toast, tomatoes, fried mushrooms, black pudding, and cabbage and mash) served alongside homemade Italian dishes like lasagna and cannelloni and British classics like pies and roast dinners, all courtesy of matriarch Mama Maria. With the ornate food-paneling (installed in 1946 by local carpenter and regular customer Achille Capocci) as a backdrop, a visit to E. Pellicci feels a little like a wonderful performance of East End life being staged for your benefit.
332 Bethnal Green Rd., London, Greater London, E2 0AG, England
Known For
- Full cast of East End Cockney characters
- Copious full English breakfasts and builder's brew tea
- Cash-only cheap dishes
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. and Aug. No dinner, Reservations not accepted
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$ | Dalston |
This bakery, which supplies bread to many of East London's top eateries, has a friendly café and deli on-site, where you can sample some of the tastiest toasted sandwiches in the city. The shop also stocks a concise range of elegant household items.
Mentmore Terr., London, Greater London, E8 3PH, England
Known For
- House-milled flour
- Secret courtyard garden in back
- Fantastic daylong sourdough-making classes that sell out months in advance
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No dinner
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$$$ | Covent Garden |
Open since 1896, this timelessly elegant seafood haven is a favorite with neighboring Theaterland's top stars and theater moguls. Dripping with vintage black-and-white photos of bygone West End actors and movie legends, J Sheekey charms with a ravishing menu of fresh Atlantic prawns, Arctic herrings, salmon burgers, and the famous Sheekey Fish Pie. Better yet, sip pink Billecart-Salmon champagne and shuck half a dozen Lindisfarne oysters at the chic 1930s mirrored oyster bar for the ultimate in true romance.
28–32 St. Martin's Ct., London, Greater London, WC2N 4AL, England
Known For
- Post-theater celebrity haunt
- Snappingly fresh British fish and shellfish menu
- Impossibly glamorous art deco oyster bar
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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$$ | Covent Garden |
Seemingly everyone involved in the West End theater world hangs out at this legendary subterranean spot for its ever-enchanting blend of New York comfort food, nightly jazz piano, and wall-to-wall signed theaterland memorabilia. Established in 1977, enduring classics include Joe's slow-braised smoked baby back ribs, New York strip steak, a not-so-secret off-menu hamburger, and a classic PB&J ice cream sandwich.
2 Burleigh St., London, Greater London, WC2E 7PX, England
Known For
- West End theaterland luminaries like Dame Judy Dench and Sir Ian McKellen
- Speakeasy cocktail bar vibe
- Nightly resident jazz pianists
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential, No lunch Mon.
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$$$$ | Clerkenwell |
This winning mix of modern Italian classics is made from the very best in British seasonal produce. Add to that the super-chic setting—from the art deco--esque dining salon to the marble-top bar and the stunning glass-walled conservatory—and this popular Clerkenwell haunt is very much a case of both style and substance. Dishes include cappelletti of potato and sage with seasonal mushrooms and cannon of Hebridean lamb with tema artichokes and bagna cauda.
88 St. John St., London, Greater London, EC1M 4EH, England
Known For
- Edgy Italian pastas
- Cool and glamorously designed brasserie
- To-die-for fluffy Parmesan fries
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun.
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$$ | East End |
Globally acclaimed Brit chef and co-owner James Lowe forsakes heavy sauces and sorcery at this stripped-back, informal British dining mecca in Shoreditch. Stark but highly inventive locally sourced dishes may include house-cured cod with radiant nasturtium flowers or 24-hour Cornish Helford Estuary monkfish with wood sorrel and pick-your-own East Sussex greengages. A firm slice of treacle tart comes with a blob of raw double cream. All the sourdough bread, butter, charcuterie, pickles, and preserves are made in-house. Look for the Neal's Yard cheese plates (try Tymsboro and Stichleton). Dinner is served as a six-course set menu, while lunch is an à la carte small plates affair.
56 Shoreditch High St., London, Greater London, E1 6JJ, England
Known For
- Highly modern and airy dining space
- Serious new-wave British neo-bistronomy
- Excellent cheese plates and wines by the glass
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. and Mon. bank holidays, Reservations essential
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$ | Soho |
Once frequented by the likes of Virginia Woolf and Karl Marx, locals still cherish this quirky 1871 French pâtisserie, vintage tea parlor, and occasional pop-up art space, where nothing seems to have changed since the 1920s. Colorful pastries, tarts, croissants, and sweet cakes are well loved and expertly baked on-site. You can choose from the gooey chocolate and fruit éclairs, Saint-Honoré and Black Forest gateaux, marzipan figs, and flaky almond croissants. Still run by Soho legend Michele Wade, Maison Bertaux also hosts a cheery retro afternoon tea service, which comes with savories like Dijon slice or broccoli quiche.
28 Greek St., London, Greater London, W1D 5DQ, England
Known For
- Mesmerizing vintage French pâtisserie window display and interiors
- Retro afternoon Tea
- Old-fashioned collection of creamy French pastries
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations not accepted
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$$ | Soho |
It's all beach coastal cool at this sleek Aussie stunner, tucked away in a modern courtyard enclave off Greek Street. The seafood- and vegetable-forward menu is inspired by the Sydney food scene and has wide-ranging hints of the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia, like a fine raw kingfish crudo bathed in macadamia milk or a crunchy gluten-free grilled aubergine karaage. At night, the lighting's low, the tunes are upbeat, and the fun and friendly service is relaxed but on point.
Manette St., London, Greater London, W1D 4AL, England
Known For
- Raw bar starters like Jersey rock oyster chased down with sake
- Chill, low-key vibes
- Beach-style eating in the outdoor courtyard
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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$$$$ | Covent Garden |
One of London's most spectacular dining rooms is set in a soaring glass-ceilinged conservatory at the chic NoMad London hotel, located opposite Covent Garden's famed Royal Opera House. Don't miss the signature Creedy Carver roast chicken with foie gras and black truffle or the leisurely weekend brunch where you can enjoy eggs Benedict or chili avocado toast.
28 Bow St., London, Greater London, WC2E 7AW, England
Known For
- Historic former Bow Street Magistrates' Court building from 1740
- Glamorous atmosphere
- Exclusive nightlife scene with great cocktails in the Side Hustle bar
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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$ | Westminster |
Located next door to the London Coliseum (home of English National Opera), this hip café serves some of the best sandwiches, salads, and coffee in the neighborhood. In the evening (it’s open until 9 pm, Tuesday through Saturday), there’s more of a wine-bar vibe.
31 St. Martin's La., London, Greater London, WC2N 4ER, England
Known For
- Friendly staff that doesn't rush you
- Industrial chic decor
- Good-quality wines available by the glass
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$$ | Hampstead |
The "oak" in this all-day restaurant is a hand-crafted wooden "tree" that sits under a retractable roof that combines with blonde oak furnishings and pink walls to create a light, airy feel. The menu ranges from comfort food favorites like mac-and-cheese croquettes and mini-slider burgers to Asian-influenced dishes like duck bao buns or lime-glazed salmon with egg noodles, bok choy, and shiitake mushrooms to Mexican-influenced plates like fish tacos with pickled slaw and chipotle mayo or pulled-beef quesadillas. There are also inventive cocktails and indulgent brunch dishes like buttermilk pancakes with berries that have made the place a favorite with locals often accompanied by attendant children and dogs.
48 Rosslyn Hill, London, Greater London, NW3 1NH, England
Known For
- International comfort food dishes
- Creative cocktails
- Family- and dog-friendly despite chic atmosphere
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$$$ | Clerkenwell |
Global foodie fanatics join Clerkenwell locals for the pioneering nose-to-tail cuisine at this high-ceilinged, converted smokehouse near Smithfield Market. Here the chef uses all scraps of a carcass—from tongue and cheeks to tail and trotters—so brace for radically stark signatures like bone-marrow-and-parsley salad. One appetizer is grilled lamb's heart with beetroot and pickled walnuts, while elsewhere on the menu you'll find crispy pig tongue, calf's liver, tripe and onions, and a pig's head and potato pie. Plunder the outstanding wine list (mainly French and Italian) and finish with traditional Eccles cakes with Lancashire cheese or half a dozen golden madeleines.
26 St. John St., London, Greater London, EC1M 4AY, England
Known For
- Ground zero of influential Modern British nose-to-tail dining
- Great wine list
- Buzzy, friendly vibe
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No dinner Sun., Reservations essential
