The Best Restaurants in Islington

Islington is not a restaurant district. It is a residential neighbourhood with a very good set of restaurants in it, and almost everything that confuses people about eating here follows from that distinction.

Islington restaurants keep residential hours. They open for a local lunch and they stop early, because their trade lives here rather than travelling in. They are also spread out, from Barnsbury to Highbury, rather than clustered the way Soho or Borough is.

And the strip everybody walks, Upper Street, is the least interesting part. The cooking is on the roads either side of it.

The one that breaks London’s Sunday rule

Worth leading with, because it contradicts the single most useful fact about eating in this city.

Most London Sunday roasts stop around five and many kitchens will not guarantee one after it. The Pig and Butcher serves its roast menu until nine.

The Pig and Butcher

Address

80 Liverpool Road, Islington, N1 0QD

Nearest

Angel or Highbury and Islington

Hours

Bar Monday to Friday midday to 11pm, Saturday 9am to 11pm, Sunday 11.30am to 10pm. Kitchen Monday to Friday midday to 3pm and 6pm to 9.30pm, Saturday 9am to 11.30am then midday to 9.30pm, Sunday 11.30am to 9pm

Booking

Reservations through their booking system, or reservations@thepigandbutcher.co.uk, or 020 7226 8304

Price

Roasts from 21 pounds for the vegetarian barbecued courgette to 95 for the 60 day aged côte de boeuf, which serves two

Standing

Their own line: the Sunday roast menu is served until 9pm

How to get in

Their roast runs until nine, which almost nothing else in London does, and it makes this the answer for anyone who wants a proper Sunday dinner rather than a Sunday lunch. Every roast comes with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, greens, red cabbage and honey roasted carrots and parsnips. The gap between 21 pounds and 90 is the cut, not the trimmings.

The serious Islington restaurants

Trullo, St Paul’s Road

Hand rolled pasta and charcoal grilling in a plain room on a busy road, and the best restaurant in the postcode by most reckonings.

Trullo

Address

300 to 302 St Paul’s Road, N1 2LH

Nearest

Highbury and Islington

Hours

Lunch every day 12.30pm to 3pm. Dinner Monday to Thursday 6pm to 10.30pm, Friday and Saturday 5.30pm to 10.30pm, Sunday 5.30pm to 9.30pm

Booking

Reservations through their booking system

Standing

Hand rolled pasta and charcoal grilling

How to get in

Lunch is a narrow window, half twelve to three, every day of the week. Sunday dinner finishes an hour earlier than the rest of the week. The bar opens with dinner rather than with lunch, so an early drink here is not a thing.

Westerns Laundry, Drayton Park

Fish, wine and an open kitchen in a converted laundry off Drayton Park, from the same people as Trullo.

Westerns Laundry

Address

34 Drayton Park, Highbury East, N5 1PB

Nearest

Drayton Park or Highbury and Islington

Booking

020 7700 3700, or online

Standing

Fish and wine in a converted laundry, with an open kitchen

How to get in

The menu changes daily and the kitchen is open to the room, which they flag themselves as a reason to ring ahead about allergens rather than raising it at the table. It is a genuine walk from the tube, further north than people expect, and that is why you can usually get in.

The all day rooms

Bellanger, Islington Green

The Wolseley group’s Alsatian brasserie on Islington Green, open from nine at the weekend and the most reliable booking in the neighbourhood.

Bellanger

Address

9 Islington Green, The Angel, N1 2XH

Nearest

Angel

Hours

Last orders Monday to Wednesday 8.45pm, Thursday and Friday 9.45pm, Saturday 9.45pm, Sunday 8.45pm. Opens 11.45am on weekdays and 9am at weekends

Booking

reservations@bellanger.co.uk, or online

Standing

An Alsatian brasserie from the Wolseley group

How to get in

They publish last orders rather than a closing time, which is the honest number and the one to plan around: on a Monday the kitchen stops taking orders at a quarter to nine. Weekend breakfast from nine is the underused part of this room.

The Drapers Arms, Barnsbury Street

The Drapers Arms

Address

44 Barnsbury Street, Islington, N1 1ER

Nearest

Highbury and Islington or Angel

Standing

A Georgian corner pub on a Barnsbury back street

How to get in

Deep in the Barnsbury back streets, five minutes off Upper Street and a world away from it. They publish neither hours nor a booking policy on their own site, so ring. The garden at the back is the reason to come in summer and is not visible from the road.

Practical notes

Get off Upper Street. The strip from Angel to Highbury Corner is the busiest and the weakest. Barnsbury Street, St Paul’s Road and Drayton Park are five to fifteen minutes off it and hold everything on this page.

Two stations, and they are a mile apart. Angel serves Bellanger and the southern end. Highbury and Islington serves Trullo and the north. Picking the wrong one adds twenty minutes on foot up a hill.

Read last orders, not closing time. Bellanger publishes last orders and they are as early as a quarter to nine. Trullo’s Sunday dinner ends at half past nine. This is a neighbourhood that eats early.

The theatres change the timing. The Almeida is a minute off Upper Street and Sadler’s Wells is at Angel, so the hour before curtain is the busiest of the evening in both those pockets and the hour after is the second busiest.

Everything here was taken from each venue’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Two of these publish very little, which is noted where it applies. Confirm before you travel.

Where to go next

The Sunday roast guide explains the timing problem that the Pig and Butcher is the exception to. The best pubs in London covers the drinking.

Comparing neighbourhoods: King’s Cross is two stops south, Shoreditch is the nearest of the east London lists, and Borough Market, Marylebone and Covent Garden are the rest.

Questions we get asked

What are the best restaurants in Islington?

Trullo on St Paul’s Road for hand rolled pasta and charcoal grilling, and Westerns Laundry on Drayton Park for fish and wine, which is from the same people. The Pig and Butcher on Liverpool Road is the pub worth crossing London for, because its Sunday roast runs until nine when almost every other roast in the city stops around five.

Where should you eat on Upper Street?

One street off it, mostly. Upper Street is the strip everyone walks between Angel and Highbury Corner and it is the busiest and least interesting part of the neighbourhood to eat in. Barnsbury Street, St Paul’s Road and Drayton Park are all within fifteen minutes and hold the cooking.

Where can you get a late Sunday roast in London?

The Pig and Butcher in Islington, which serves its roast menu until nine in the evening. That is unusual to the point of being the reason to travel: most London kitchens stop around five and a good many will not guarantee a roast after it, whatever time your table is booked for.

What station is best for Islington restaurants?

It depends which end. Angel serves the southern half and Bellanger on Islington Green. Highbury and Islington serves the north, including Trullo and Westerns Laundry. The two are about a mile apart along Upper Street, so choosing the wrong one adds twenty minutes on foot, some of it uphill.

Do Islington restaurants close early?

Earlier than central London, yes, because the trade is residential rather than passing. Bellanger publishes last orders at a quarter to nine on Monday to Wednesday. Trullo stops dinner at half past nine on a Sunday. Read the last orders time rather than the closing time, because they are not the same number.

Is Islington good for restaurants?

Very, but it is a residential neighbourhood with restaurants rather than a restaurant district, and that changes how you use it. The kitchens are spread from Barnsbury to Highbury instead of clustered, they keep local hours, and the best of them are on side streets rather than on the strip.