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.
Seven Dials Market: The Terrace Closes an Hour Before the Market
Uncovered, unbookable and cleared at 10pm. Why a table for four can be reserved and a table for three cannot, and the two-hour gap between Monday and midweek.
Dishoom Shoreditch: The Only One That Takes Dogs
Dogs on the verandah, ten more guests bookable online than King's Cross, and the two dishes you can only get on Boundary Street.
Dishoom King’s Cross: Two of You Cannot Book After Six
After 6pm Dishoom only takes bookings for six or more, which is why everyone else queues. Breakfast is the loophole, and this branch takes 16 online where Shoreditch takes 26.
Flat Iron: £15 Steak, and the Chips Are Not Vegetarian
Steak and chips for £19.50. But the chips and the free popcorn are both cooked in beef dripping.
Honest Burgers: A Different Burger at Every Branch
Every branch has its own local special and a beer from a nearby brewery. The burgers come pink by default.
Ole & Steen: The App Bonus, and Why Deliveroo Earns You Nothing
A free hot drink and 100 points on signup, which is a quarter of the first reward. But third-party orders earn no points at all.
Dishoom Covent Garden: The 5.45pm Trick and Two Branch-Only Dishes
Book 5.45pm and you get a table; 6.15pm and you wait up to an hour. Open to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Pizza Pilgrims: £10 Margheritas, £7.50 for Students, and Where
Two cheap lunches run at once, and the £7.50 student price only exists at two London branches.
Maltby Street Market: Opening Times, and Why Sources Disagree
Southwark Council says Saturday 9am to 4pm. Visit London says 10am to 5pm. The safe window is 10am to 4pm.
Sketch London: Five Rooms, Five Timetables and Two Afternoon Teas
The flagship Lecture Room serves lunch for three hours a week. There are two separate afternoon teas, and three of the five rooms shut on Mondays.
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.