The best restaurants in London you should be booking

What’s the deal? Restaurants specialising in modern West African food aren’t exactly ten a penny in London. Neither are restaurants as good as Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare’s Chishuru. The Nigerian-born chef-owner won the Brixton Kitchen competition in 2019 and opened her first restaurant in 2020. Chishuru is a stunning introduction to the richly complex cuisine of Bakare’s West African heritage. Dishes like mimri oku (spicy broth) and kekefia (hake) with plantain fondant transport your tastebuds to exciting new places. You’ll think about the textures and flavours long after you’ve finished eating. The set-menu format (£28 per person for lunch and £45 for dinner) means you get a tour of the ingredients and spices of Bakare’s native country, while her sheer talent and charismatic service will steal your heart. Right now, there’s no other restaurant in London quite like Chishuru. It deserves our top spot and your attention.

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Order this Chishuru offers a changing set menu but the bavette steak – cooked pink, flecked with pickled mushrooms and dusted with yaji, the suya spice blend of chilli, ginger, garlic and onion – is a thing of beauty.

What’s the deal? David Carter and Chris Leach’s long-underrated, itinerant Anglo-Italian went permanent in Shoreditch at the end of 2021. The excellent menu skews both refined and rugged: what fool wouldn’t want to follow brown crab cacio e pepe with a stuffed pig’s snout?

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Order this The pig skin ragù – devised to reduce waste in the kitchen, buried under a blizzard of parmesan and crowned with cloud-light pork crackling.

What’s the deal? You can’t order badly at Singburi, the excellent, cash-only Thai place in Leytonstone. Over the years, chef Sirichai Kularbwong has, rightfully, developed a loyal following. The standard menu of noodles and curries is hot, but the blackboard specials are where the real treasures lie.

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Order this The moo krob special: twice-fried, crispy pork belly with garlic and chilli.

What’s the deal? Sure, The Quality Chop House is great, but it’s usurped by its upstart sibling next door. Chef Nick Bramham knocks out a concise list of Italo-Spanish gems from a couple of hot plates. Cram in a pork-fat cannolo to finish.

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Order this Kick off with the gildas: teeny skewers of anchovy, olive and pickled chilli, doused in decent oil. God’s own pintxos.

What’s the deal? Nearly three decades in, Fergus Henderson’s stripped-back, Anglo-Gallic, nose-to-tail classic doesn’t falter. The clattery dining room is ace, but the real St John heads make for the bar to knock back welsh rarebit and egg mayonnaise sandwiches with glasses of claret. 

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Order this The roast bone marrow salad: nuggets of oily gold scraped from the bone, splatted on sourdough and offset with a flutter of dressed parsley. Culinary bliss.

What’s the deal? A wine-centric members’ club in a couple of railway arches, with a public restaurant – headed up by P Franco alumnus Seb Myers, no less – slinging wildly delicious French-leaning bits like calf’s brains on toast and tranches of monkfish with camomile and leeks. Ace plonk too, obviously. 

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Order this The menu is ever-changing but if the lobster tartine – a blissfully thick seafood sauce on toast, topped with piquant allium caviar orbs – is up for grabs, bag it.

What’s the deal? A swooning modern Indian, wrangling British produce into high-concept takes on subcontinental classics. Chef Chet Sharma is both a wicked cook and a trained physicist: disciplines he combines in niftily presented dishes like the outrageous house riff on a yoghurty Lahore chicken. 

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Order this Nashpati bhel: a forensic reimagining of the humble chaat, its puffed grains zhuzhed with pear granita and a masala mix of 15 different spices.

What’s the deal? This fancy ex-courthouse turned cod-Palladian villa is one of London’s most attractive restaurants. But there are trousers as well as (artfully distressed) shirts here. Florence Knight’s simple, ingredient-led menu eats as poetically as it reads: mammole artichoke and lemon, say, or a single crab croquette.

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Order this The eel-and-potato dish: a kind of pressed, confit chip layered with smoked eel, and dotted with pearls of roe and edible flowers. 

What’s the deal? Malaysian chef-owner Mandy Yin’s Sambal Shiok was the winner of our Love Local award for north London’s ‘most loved restaurant’. Quite worthily, given the brilliance of the scalp-sweating, ‘campur’-style (mixed) broths at this kick-ass Islington laksa bar.

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Order this The special signature curry laksa – choose tofu, chicken, prawn or veg and prepare to perspire. 

What’s the deal? The progressive, all-female kitchen at Asma Khan’s lauded Garrick Street pile is no gimmick – this is some of the city’s best Indian chow. The ‘royal’ thali is a multi-dish riot, while the biryani supperclubs – hosted by Asma herself – are scalding hot tickets.

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Order this The supperclub’s lamb dum biryani: meat, rice and spice layered and baked in a trad dough pot, which billows headily with saffron as it’s opened.

What’s the deal? This town might heave with steamed buns, but Bao’s hyper-chic Lexington Street site remains the benchmark for Taiwanese street eats. It’s a sublime vision of pale wood, plump filled buns and ridiculous titbits like trotter nuggets and aged beef rump cap.

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Order this The ‘classic’ bao – braised pork, coriander, fermented greens and peanut powder – is so named for damn good reason.

What’s the deal? A bustling, smoky Isaan (north-eastern Thai) place where the vibe is huge and the flavours even bigger. The raw beef laap with castelfranco and the sour mussel curry cut a heady line through the region’s cuisine. 

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Order this Clay-pot-baked glass noodles with Tamworth pork belly and brown crab meat – one head-razing flavour after another.

What’s the deal? The dingy locale might not be so auspicious, but it’s worth brushing off for the papery roti at this Malaysian classic. They’re served either stuffed (murtabak) or as is (canai), and always with a bowl of monstrously flavourful dhal or kari. 

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Order this Roti canai: two perfect, flaky breads and a pot of steaming stew to shove them in. The plant-based should opt for dhal, mutton for the rest of you.

What’s the deal? Chef-owner and fashion dynasty heir Max Rocha leads the new-wave café charge (see also: Towpath, Lighthaus, Deco) in dreamy Modern House-style surrounds. Tables are like gold dust; the food – sage and anchovy fritters, skate with capers, deep-fried bread and butter pudding – is just gold. 

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Order this Onglet steak with peppercorn sauce – a stripped-back bistro classic done perfectly.

What’s the deal? Sat in the garden of a former school off Arnold Circus in Shoreditch, Melanie Arnold and Margot Henderson’s idyllic bolthole is a vision of simplicity and good sourcing. Think St John (Fergus Henderson is Mr Margot) without the wine-sloshing brouhaha – and with less offal.

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Order this Radishes and smoked cod’s roe – an uncomplicated construction that perfectly sums up the place’s ethos.

What’s the deal? A flame-licked British restaurant, inspired by the cooking of the Basque region, from hotshot Welsh chef Tomos Parry. The menu is almost satirically simple – spider crab toast, aged duck, smoked potatoes et al – but there’s not a single dud. 

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Order this Grilled turbot, super-slow-cooked on a low heat, made sticky by the rendering collagen. More delicious than that sounds.

What’s the deal? The onus is on the booze – it was born of a hip wine mag, and the Old World-leaning bottle list is pretty endless – but the Franglaise food at this grape-hued Bloomsbury townhouse is really bloody good. The three-course, £22 set lunch menu is ridiculous value. 

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Order this The slipsole with smoked butter, a dish that came from exec chef Stephen Harris’s celebrated pub The Sportsman, near Whitstable.

What’s the deal? You’ll easily tell this Netil Market Mexican from the queues snaking out along London Fields every Friday and Saturday. Believe the hype: these might be London’s most totemic tacos – messy little marvels that are more than worth the wait.

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Order this The barbacoa taco with lager-braised beef, grilled cheese, onion, lime and cilantro. All wedged on to a flour tortilla that provides more structural integrity than the average corn number.

What’s the deal? Gilbert & George’s fave Turkish ocakbasi emerged from the fug of lockdown as a genuinely inventive pan-Anatolian joint. It was good before, but it’s a blinder now: the menu is dotted with ‘cull yaw’ mutton, sourdough pides and crab dolma with langoustine emulsion.

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Order this The cull yaw kofte takes dowdy old sheep meat – albeit from a hip Cornish farm – and applies it to the classic kebab lexicon, with honking success.

What’s the deal? Inspired by the elite clubs of India, Gymkhana is a contemporary Indian that’s as visually resplendent as it is absolutely wallet-dusting. Everything, though – from the £8 poppadom selection to the guinea fowl fry and muntjac biryani – is worth the splurge. 

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Order this Kid goat methi keema: a minced curry, served with pao bread rolls and, for a teeny surcharge, the essential addition of bheja (that’s fried kid brains, fyi).

What’s the deal? Lazy-susan-topped tables, garish lighting and legendary recipes, like its lobster noodles, have given this decades-old Chinese haunt legit institution status. And rightly so: even away from the snippy crustacean, the classics are well represented and executed.

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Order this The lobster egg noodles, duh. The version with ginger and spring onion is the signature.

What’s the deal? This family-run spot in Camberwell serves up some of the best Kurdish food in the city. Run by chef Pary Baban and her sons Rang and Raman, it’s a nourishing whirl of smoke, sumac and sweet, sweet baklava. 

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Order this The house fries: picture-perfect chips flecked with tamarind-and-pink-yoghurt sauce, spices, sesame and herbs.

What’s the deal? Even without the sensational smoked meats, the immigrant-empowering social impact work behind this Afghan-British barbecue brand makes it a hospitality hero. But the food – available at its  Chiswick Pavilion residency – is brilliant, melding Texan, Guyanese, Brazilian, Argentinian and Afghan flavours in singular style. 

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Order this The ‘nacos’: half taco, half Afghan-style naan, laden with super-slow-cooked beef brisket. Maniacally good.

What’s the deal? The hyper-seasonal fare drifting out of the tiny kitchen of this bar-with-food, located in the warehouse of wine importer Gergovie, is startling: from takeaway sarnies (toasted cheese, elevated schnitzels) to larger (but still small) plates of painterly execution.

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Order this The menu changes daily, but there’s usually a decent fritter on: cauliflower with coronation mayo, say, or pumpkin with wild garlic aioli.

What’s the deal? Hankering for an Anglo-Gallic-Japanese feed, whipped up by three comely brothers in what might be Soho’s prettiest (and, likely, smallest) basement? You’re in luck: Luke, Theo and Nat Selby’s recently starred bunker ticks all those boxes. 

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Order this It’s a set menu so you get what you’re given, but the boys’ take on kombujime (seaweed-aged) white fish is historic.

What’s the deal? This Hackney gastropub offers an atmospheric boozer downstairs and a classy dining room upstairs, presided over by chef-owners Tom Harris and Jon Rotheram. Go for offerings that stray far from the typical gastropub script, including braised cuttlefish and a delectably light brown butter and honey tart. 

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Order this Kick off with the moreish curried lamb bun with salt lime yoghurt.

What’s the deal? With its no-choice menu, stunning Shoreditch setting, affable service and affordable prices, Lyle’s was an overnight hit when it launched in 2014. Happily, little has changed, even with the Michelin and World’s Best Restaurant accolades: it serves up superb modern British plates with flair, not frivolity.

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Order this It has a daily-changing menu, but look out for the grilled razor clams, calçots and cured mangalitsa in a pig’s head broth.

What’s the deal? Chef Wei Guirong’s functional Bloomsbury dining room may not look especially swish, but that’s not the point. The food is the star here. The terrific, keenly priced and generously portioned menu focuses on dishes from the Shaanxi province of China, like thick biang biang noodles that sing with fire, garlic and oil.

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Order this Get more biang for your buck with the Qi Shan hand-pulled noodles with pork in a spicy and sour sauce.

What’s the deal? With its rustic fittings, billowy drapes and stunning private terrace, this Clerkenwell Italian from the bods behind The Clove Club is a handsome spot. Its menu is full of upscale offerings like lip-smacking agnolotti and tartare of Hereford beef. It’s not your nonna’s Italian, but for slick cooking in design-mag surroundings, it ticks all the boxes.

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Order this The signature parmesan fries: fluffy, crispy and highly addictive. 

What’s the deal? This two-floored contemporary trattoria is a Highbury institution. It’s built a serious reputation for its fresh pasta, charcoal grilling and wicked fruit tarts. Pici cacio e pepe has been a staple since Trullo’s early days and remains a substantial delight. 

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Order this The silky smooth slow-cooked beef shin ragù with melt-in-the-mouth pappardelle is the stuff of legend.

What’s the deal? In hippest Shoreditch, The Clove Club (recently awarded a second Michelin stars) serves up a no-choice, daily-changing menu of intentionally avant garde modern British food. From the location to the ravishing presentation, everything about it screams ‘look at me’: but these dishes are also delicious enough to stand on their own two feet when it comes to flavour.

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Order this The lightly spiced devilled crab tartlets are guaranteed to excite your tastebuds.

What’s the deal? This Neal’s Yard restaurant boasts a delectable modern-day Jerusalem menu served up at a 24-seat horseshoe-shaped counter bar. The atmosphere is electric, the air filled with charcoal smoke, music and laughter. It’s a place to fall joyously, head over heels, lightning-bolts-R-us in love with.

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Order this The octopus masabacha: charred, tender tentacle served in a swirl of chickpeas and mango-pickle-spiked yoghurt.

What’s the deal? This two Michelin-star modern Chinese restaurant dispenses with gilded dragons and book-length menus in favour of pared-back reinterpretations of Chinese cooking using the finest ingredients. Pop by during the day for inspired dim sum, or splash out on one of the innovative evening tasting menus. 

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Order this The rabbit and carrot glutinous puff that’s shaped like a carrot delivers rich, clean flavours and extreme skill.

What’s the deal? This unassuming and reasonably priced little restaurant at the foot of the Emirates Stadium is best known for Xi’an (home of the Terracotta Army) street-food dishes and hand-pulled noodles. Sample juicy ru jian mo (pork burgers) and the crimson-red fiery big-plate chicken.

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Order this Doused in hot oil, chopped garlic, spring onions and ground chilli, the signature slippery and bouncy Xi’an biang biang noodles are pure bliss. 

What’s the deal? The River Café is a sleb in its own right. Opened in 1987 by Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray (who died in 2010), it has built its reputation by serving unfussy yet stunning Italian food. Oh, and training the likes of Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall along the way. Prices are excruciating, but portions are generous. Order a plate of pasta and live like the A-listers do.

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Order this Taglierini al pomodoro: basically pasta and tomato sauce, but it’s the toothiest pasta and most complex tomato sauce ever.

What’s the deal? Chef Ed Wilson’s Brawn is nicely pitched to appeal to a hip east London crowd without alienating other diners. Its Italian-inspired menu takes in delights like rabbit ragù and a standout panna cotta, while its drinks list is packed with a modish collection of natural wines from small, committed growers.

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Order this When in doubt, always order the handmade pasta. The borage and ricotta ravioli with marjoram and hazelnuts is a delight.

What’s the deal? This wonderfully bluntly titled restaurant serves up a carb-heavy menu of Sichuan delights from a spot tucked away behind the hustle and bustle of Spitalfields Market. You’ll struggle to choose your fighter from a list that includes, yes, noodles, but also crinkle-cut chips, dumplings, deep-fried pork loin and many more reasonably priced delights.

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Order this Clear your sinuses with the fiery, numbing and comforting za-jiang mian: wheat noodles stir fried with minced pork, peas, cabbage, spring onions, pickled greens, chilli sauce and peanuts.

What’s the deal? Evoking the traditional feel of a Japanese udon-ya, this Soho restaurant wouldn’t be out of place in Tokyo. With just 25 stools, Koya may not be big, but it still feels spacious and airy. Innovative bowls of udon and rice porridge are the major draw. 

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Order this Koya’s take on the full english breakfast: a steaming bowl of thick, handmade udon noodles topped with a fried egg, smoky bacon and shiitake mushrooms. 

What’s the deal? The Grand Daddy of upmarket steakhouses, Hawksmoor’s original Spitalfields branch stands gloriously unravaged by the passing of time. Set on industrial-chic Commercial Street, its devoted-to-the-point-of-evangelical following goes for hefty steaks and a famously extensive selection of sides. 

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Order this Steak, obviously. Try the rib-eye with stilton hollandaise and dripping chips. 

What’s the deal? The hype machine has definitely worked its magic on this teeny-tiny, perpetually packed Cantonese restaurant in King’s Cross. But its popularity is justified by exceptional xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), glistening cheung fun, and seriously good roast duck.

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Order this The trio of prawn-and-chive dumplings is so beautiful it belongs in the Tate – and tastes just as good.  

What’s the deal? This tucked-away family-run restaurant in Korean culinary destination New Malden is well worth making the trip to Zone 4 for. In understated and cramped surrounds, it serves up reasonably priced and stone-cold killer Korean comfort food classics like kimchi-jjigae stew, beef bulgogi and stir-fried udon noodles.

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Order this The signature saengseon jjim braised whiting in an addictive sweet and spicy sauce with vegetables. A portion of boiled white rice to soak up all the juices is a must.

What’s the deal? This sister to popular small-plates restaurant Primeur offers a menu that’s lighter and brighter than its sibling’s. Scrawled on a blackboard, the modern European line-up changes daily, and offers a lively blend of fish, meat and unusual veg, served up on a mix of communal tables and cosy banquettes. 

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Order this The menu changes daily, but it usually features some form of croquette – these never disappoint.

What’s the deal? Caravel is a floating restaurant on a converted barge and the stellar cooking coming from this place will seriously float your boat. Run by brothers Fin and Lorcan Spiteri (sons of two of London’s most renowned restaurateurs mum Melanie Arnold is the co-founder of Rochelle Canteen and dad Jon Spiteri is the co-founder of Session Arts Club). Together, they bring playful takes on modern European and classic British dishes. Think: crunchy potato rostis topped with refreshing sour cream and salty caviar, guinea fowl skewers and artichoke and ricotta ravioli.

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Order this It’s a changing seasonal small-plates menu, but the turbot, crab broth, borlotti, beans and tomato will make your heart flutter.

What’s the deal? Ikoyi is a big deal. Having just scooped up a second Michelin star, this hip little joint does things differently from the rest of the pack. Chef Jeremy Chan experiments with West African ingredients and pushes boundaries with his uncategorisable food. From smoked jollof rice to ike jime trout, every dish is thrillingly unfamiliar and exciting. 

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Order this It’s a changing tasting menu, but the plantain dipped in hot-pink raspberry salt with a slick of smoked scotch-bonnet mayo regularly makes an appearance and pulls no punches on the spicy umami front.

What’s the deal? This shabby-chic, casual Persian joint on Soho’s Romilly Street is mightier than it looks. Iranian-born chef Kian Samyani presides over an open kitchen that serves up sharing plates and kebabs, including a deliciously juicy charred poussin, alongside a chic line-up of cocktails and a buzzy atmosphere.

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Order this The mirza ghasemi: smoky, coal-cooked aubergine topped with a heap of garlic, tomato and egg.

What’s the deal? A self-proclaimed ‘café-restaurant in the grand European tradition’, The Wolseley combines London heritage and Viennese grandeur. The kitchen is much-celebrated for its breakfasts, and the scope of the main menu is admirable. From oysters to apple strudel, there’s something for everyone.

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Order this The decadent Wolseley fishcake with a poached egg and hollandaise is a house speciality.

What’s the deal? Chef Santiago Lastra’s hotly anticipated Mexican restaurant has quickly become a foodie destination. He uses humble British ingredients and transforms them into high-end set menus, in chic surroundings that also include an on-site tortilla factory and a mezcal bar downstairs. 

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Order this The pulpo: a whole grilled octopus with bone marrow, potato and seaweed macha.

What’s the deal? This buzzy Spanish spot is the first solo venture from Nieves Barragán Mohacho, who spent the best part of last decade as the exec chef at Barrafina. Sit at the counter for tapas and you’ll be regaled with delights including lamb sweetbreads and little gem. Or head upstairs for communal tables and a heftier menu, including the sharing suckling pig. 

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Order this The signature camarones fritos (fried shrimp) topped with a paprika fried egg offer Spain on a plate.

What’s the deal? Chef Luke Farrell brings the heat with his hotly anticipated Thai restaurant housed within the buzzy JKS-backed Arcade Hall. It’s an uncomprimising menu that doesn’t hold back on the flavour and heat. 

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Order this: The gaeng gati gai (chicken-and-coconut curry with betel leaves) is a brown bowl of comforting goodness. Don’t be fooled by its simple appearance because this is searingly good and addictive stuff.

What’s the deal? Chef Mitshel Ibrahim aims to bring Italian good vibes and food to Bethnal Green at his restaurant in a former art gallery on the corner of Mare Street. It offers a simple menu of seasonal Italian classics – such as burrata, cacio e pepe and gnocchi cooked to perfection – in an attractive canalside setting.

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Order this The smoked ricotta and anchovy ravioli deserves special attention for its expertly balanced flavours.

What’s the deal? St Petersburg restaurateurs Madina Kazhimova and Anna Dolgushina make their mark on Soho. Recently, they’ve opened a 46-seater modern Mediterranean spot ready to knock your socks off. 

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Order this: Say hello to the scallops with mashed potato and truffle, your new desert island dish. The shellfish is caramelised on the outside and fleshy on the inside, which sits on a mound of butter-laden mashed potato.

What’s the deal? This Clapton bottle shop is a hidden gem. As you’d expect, it offers a formidable array of wines, but it also serves up a short, lively menu of seasonal dishes and regularly invites an exciting roster of guest chefs to take over the kitchen. You might have to queue to get in, but you’ll be rewarded with inventive Modern European dishes at impressively keen prices.

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Order this The menu never stays the same for long but the vegetable dishes are always more than the sum of their parts.

What’s the deal? Artusi can be credited with being the place that made pasta trendy again. In a minimalist dining room, it serves a daily-changing blackboard menu of artisanal pasta, plus an array of seasonal Italian-inspired dishes. But don’t get distracted: you’re here for the carbs, and Artusi serves them up in style. 

Price ££

Order this Pasta, of course. Special shout out to the simple but absolutely banging spaghetti with leek, bottarga and pistachio.