London Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in London - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in London - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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.
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.
At this cult favorite Persian kebab hole-in-the-wall, it's best to sit at the raised counter overlooking the tandoor grill and clay oven and indulge in the expansive meze spreads, hot sesame breads, and richly flavored coal-cooked marinated lamb, chicken, and poussin kebabs. With exposed brick walls and a delightfully edgy atmosphere, you can sip non-alcoholic cocktails and sharbat cordials in cozy side booths or hide out in the green foliage backroom snug.
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.
Ask for a table in the dreamy, white blossom–filled conservatory at this warm, cozy, and seriously romantic Provençal country-style inn off Covent Garden. Once inside, you'll be won over by the old-fashioned but refined French cuisine. Options include Loire Valley rabbit ballotine, poached wild turbot, and Charolais beef cheeks with fine French beans. Lunch specials and pre-and post-theater prix fixe menus are an affordable way to experience the cuisine and celebratory atmosphere. With its warren of candlelit, oak-paneled rooms and open fires, Clos Maggiore never fails to enchant.
British comfort food like ham-and-cheese toasties, bubble 'n' squeak, and even the mighty potato chip are elevated into gastro showstoppers at this classy Covent Garden town house, just off the Piazza. Triple-cooked chips are squeezed, sliced, buttered, and deep-fried to perfection, while the famous crustless toasties are all succulent ham hock, Montgomery cheddar, and tangy house pickle. Understated jazz and blues music plays amid the elegant decor, from the antique table glasses and French-linen napkins to the tarnished mirrors and green-velvet banquettes.
Currently the only British female chef with three Michelin stars, Clare Smyth fuses her classical French culinary training with a devotion to quality British produce. Must-try plates include her to-die-for signature dish of a baked potato delicately filled with dulse beurre blanc, herring, and trout roe. Watch the kitchen at work through a floor-to-ceiling glass partition as they conjure up their magic.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Opened by Thomas Rule in 1798, London's oldest restaurant is still perhaps its most beautiful. The epitome of High Victorian design, overflowing with antique portraits, prints, cartoons, busts, and taxidermy, here you can indulge in traditional British fare like jugged hare, steak and kidney pie, or roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. For a taste of the 18th century, choose game from the restaurant's High Pennines estate, including roast grouse, mallard, or pheasant. Snag a table in one of the skylit rooms or the spot where the Victorian-era Prince of Wales had trysts with the famed beauty and actress Lillie Langtry.
The ultimate neighborhood restaurant in west London's wealthy Holland Park section draws diners with its brilliant-but-understated French and Mediterranean classics, relaxed service, and interesting, mainly French wines. Treat yourself to bouillabaisse Provençale or ox cheek bourguignon with button mushrooms and pearl onions. With only 36 seats and a teeny bar, this is an intimate affair, which is highlighted by the white paper tablecloths and bentwood chairs. Service is friendly but not overly familiar, while wines are grower, boutique, or biodynamic. Traditional roasts served on Sundays.
Trailblazing Australian chef Skye Gyngell worships the seasons at her pastel-hued dining destination in majestic Somerset House off the Strand. Housed in the building's 1865 neoclassical New Wing, Spring offers exquisite root-to-stem, produce-driven Italian dishes in an airy light-drenched dining salon. Expect everything from a tousled heap of biodynamic Fern Verrow Farm salad leaves to egg yolk–rich crab tagliolini. Free of single-use plastic, you'll find all the bread, butter, ice cream, cordials, vermouth, and tonics are made on-site. Also look for Spring's brilliant zero waste £30 "Scratch" menus, available in the early evening Tuesday through Saturday.
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.
It's all fin de siècle Vienna at this evocative art deco–style grand café on Aldwych near Covent Garden. Dishes on the majestic Middle European menu would do the Austro-Hungarian Empire proud—think Wiener schnitzel, Hungarian goulash, beef Stroganoff, and wonderful würstchen (frankfurters and hot dogs) served with sauerkraut and onions. Savor other goodies like borscht, kedgeree and lamb shank sauerbraten, while desserts include a sinfully indulgent Sacher torte.
London's onetime most famous celebrity haunt and West End landmark is still so popular it receives more than a thousand calls a day. Established as an Italian café in 1917, today it's still a top destination to dine on deep-fried haddock and chips, Thai baked sea bass, and evergreen English classics like shepherd's pie and baked Alaska. Madonna famously once ate sticky toffee pudding with Hollywood actor Tom Cruise and British playwright Harold Pinter here back in the day. Perch at the coral onyx dining bar in pink mohair-backed seats, kick back with an Old Fashioned, and enjoy some of the best free theater and people-watching in town.
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