Restaurants
Where to eat in London at the top end, from the Michelin rooms to the Sunday roast worth crossing the city for. Every price checked against the restaurant’s own menu, with what you actually pay once service is added.
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There are three ways into this section. By cuisine, which runs from Japanese and Italian through to Lebanese and Vietnamese. By neighbourhood, where Mayfair, Shoreditch, Marylebone and Borough Market each behave differently enough to need their own page. And by occasion, which is where pre theatre, private dining, set menus and late night sit.
The part that takes the time is the booking mechanism rather than the food. Some rooms open their diary a fixed number of days before the date, some release in seasonal windows, and some take no bookings at all. Where that is true it is stated on the page, because knowing a restaurant is good is not much use if you cannot work out how to get into it.
Start with the best restaurants in London for the overview, or the Michelin starred rooms if the occasion warrants it.
Pavyllon Has a Michelin Star and Serves Breakfast at 6.30am
It also takes walk-ins, which is close to unheard of at this level. The hours, the counter, and the terms it does not publish.
Carbone London: Corkage Is £75 a Bottle
A £50 per person deposit forfeited after midday on the day, three specific dress-code bans, and no service at all between 2.30 and 5.
Wilton’s Music Hall: The Kitchen Is Open 105 Minutes a Night
Four evenings a week, shutting at 18:45, so eating before a show means being at the table by six. Dogs in the bar but not the auditorium, and the hours change weekly.
The Prospect of Whitby: Built in 1520, and Monday Is Missing
The oldest riverside tavern in the country, whose own published hours list Tuesday to Sunday and skip Monday entirely. Food stops two hours before the pub does.
The Churchill Arms Opens at Eleven, Whatever Google Says
Its own structured data files the kitchen's hours as the pub's, so search panels say midday. The quietest hour of the day, the Thai kitchen, and a free car park in Kensington.
Gordon’s Wine Bar: One Bookable Table Since 1890, and It Is Called the Cage
First come first served everywhere else in London's oldest wine bar. Why 11am is the only realistic time for a cellar table, and how the new terrace removed the queue.
Boxpark Shoreditch: The Shops Have Gone
It still says Eat, Drink, Shop, Play, but the current listings are twenty food traders and a week of events with no shops. Which nights are free, and why the hours are not published.
Coal Drops Yard: Nothing Opens Before Eleven
Shops run 11am to 7pm, and 5pm on Sunday, so it is no use before a morning train. Every restaurant terrace is heated year-round, and there is a stock search before you travel.
Kingly Court: Three Entrances, and Most People Only Know One
Carnaby Street, Beak Street and Kingly Street all open into it. The courtyard is covered through winter, the toilets are for diners only, and Padella has opened on the Kingly Street side.
Mercato Metropolitano: The Bar Shuts Half an Hour Before the Market
Thirty minutes, every day, at all three London sites. Which one opens at eight, which runs to one, and the banner on their homepage nobody has explained.
Elsewhere in the guide
Questions we get asked
How many Michelin starred restaurants does London have?
88 holding one, two or three stars, which is more than any other city in the country and among the highest in Europe. Six hold three stars: Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Core by Clare Smyth, Helene Darroze at The Connaught, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, The Ledbury and Sketch.
Is set lunch really cheaper at London's best restaurants?
Substantially, and it is the single most useful thing to know about eating well in this city. The same kitchen, the same dining room and often the same dishes cost a fraction at midday. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal serves three courses at lunch for 65 pounds, which is two Michelin stars at the price most one star rooms charge for dinner.
How far ahead do you need to book a London restaurant?
The three star rooms book months out. Starred restaurants generally want several weeks, and several open their diaries on a fixed window, such as exactly three months in advance to the day, so the date you ring matters more than how early you try. Neighbourhood restaurants are usually fine a few days out, midweek.
Which London neighbourhood is best for dinner?
They are genuinely different rather than better or worse. Mayfair and Knightsbridge hold the formal rooms and the hotel dining. Soho and Covent Garden are where you eat before or after something else. Marylebone behaves like a village and keeps neighbourhood hours, which means quiet Sundays and closed Mondays.