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.
The Thing That Makes You Miss the Train Is the Bill, Not the Food
Every guide to restaurants near a London station ranks the rooms by how good they are, which is the wrong question when you have fifty minutes and a seat reservation. Sorted by the clock instead: Victoria, Liverpool Street, Waterloo, Euston, Paddington, King's Cross and London Bridge.
Six London Rooms Advertise Christmas Day Lunch. None Will Say What It Costs.
Google's most asked question about Christmas lunch in London is what it costs at the Ritz. The Ritz does not say, and nor do five more of the rooms that rank first for it. Hawksmoor prints its ordinary set lunch to the penny and prices Christmas at nothing.
Only 5 of 96 London Venues Are Still Serving After 1am
London has a reputation as a late city and its own published hours do not support it. A third stop before eleven, barely a third reach midnight, and the five that pass 2am are a members club, a nightclub, two bars and a karaoke room.
Only 13 of 154 London Venues Hold Tables Back for Walk Ins
Walk ins welcome is not a property of a restaurant, it is a property of a room and an hour. An index of how 154 London venues actually let you in, taken from their own sites.
Dog Friendly Means Four Different Things in London. Ask Which Room.
One wine bar takes dogs everywhere, another only at the bar and terrace, a pub only on the ground floor because the kitchen is open plan. Five more venues widely called dog friendly publish no policy at all.
Camden Market Is a Food Court. The Restaurants Are Five Minutes Away.
The market lists three stalls with Thai in the name and two selling churros, so choosing by name does not work. The Lock shuts at seven, the food halls run to eleven, and the pub goes to one. Here is the timeline that decides your evening.
Six Peckham Kitchens, Not One Sunday Dinner. The Last Food Is at 6.30.
Hausu is shut on Sundays and Mondays both. Levan is finished by three, Artusi by four, 139 Fika by half past five. Forza Wine pours until eight and stops cooking at 6.30. Here is which day to actually come.
Medlar Is £57 for Three Courses. In December the Same Lunch Is £69.
In Chelsea the clock and the calendar move the price more than the dish does. Medlar charges £12 more in December, Josephine waives £35 corkage on Mondays, and Elystan Street serves its set menu between six and half past six only.
The £39 Set Lunch at The Shard Does Not Come With a Window. That Is £90.
Six rooms stacked in one tower, and only the three lowest will tell you what anything costs. Hutong is the one that prices the window: £90 at lunch, £145 at dinner. Above Level 33 you get a dress code instead of a price.
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho.
Soho is the London neighbourhood where the booking rule decides the evening more than the menu does. Some rooms take nothing at all, some charge £25 a head to change your mind, and two courses at Brasserie Zédel are £16.95.
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.