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.
London Has No Michelin Starred Korean Restaurant. It Has Three in the Guide, and None Are Central.
The Michelin Guide lists three Korean restaurants in London, in Merton, Stoke Newington and Hackney, and none holds a star. The starred one, Sollip, is Korean run but filed as Creative. And the community is in New Malden, not Soho.
London’s Most Detailed Halal Statement Belongs to a Burger Chain
Bleecker publishes the branches, the butcher, the stunning method and the grill cleaning process, and says plainly that no Bleecker is fully halal. Tayyabs, on every halal list in London, does not use the word at all.
Every Cheap Eats List Skips the Prices. Here They Are.
Padella dates its menu to the day and its cheapest pasta is £9.50. Franco Manca publishes no pizza price at all, Bleecker prints its numbers without a currency symbol, and Roti King's website has stopped resolving.
The Best Greek Restaurants in London Will Give Your Table Away at 15 Minutes
Two of them sit four doors apart on one Notting Hill street under the same owners, and their late arrival rules differ by five minutes. A third stops taking orders 75 minutes before it closes.
The Best French Restaurants in London: One Takes Calls for Two Hours a Day
Bouchon Racine asks you to ring between nine and eleven in the morning. Casse-Croute takes no online bookings at all. Otto's gives you the table for the whole evening. And Le Gavroche closed in January 2024.
The Best Sandwiches in London: One Never Closes, One Shuts on Tuesdays
Beigel Bake has been open around the clock since 1979. Max's shuts two days a week and breaks for three hours every afternoon. Three checked at source, and the clock decides which one you get.
The Best Bakeries in London Close at Four, and One Opens Until Ten
Pophams shut at four at all six doors, Poplar Bakehouse at half three. The exception is a bakery inside a museum that runs to ten at night on Thursdays and Saturdays.
The Best Coffee Shops in London Shut Before You Finish Work
Prufrock stops at half four, Kaffeine at five, and Monmouth's roastery shop at three. Four roasters checked at source, including the one inside a restored Victorian public lavatory.
The Best Tapas in London, and Which Counter Takes Bookings
Every good tapas room in London divides itself up, and the part you sit in decides whether you were allowed to book it. Four checked at source, including three restaurants by one chef on one street.
The Best Fish and Chips in London, and the Rule Only One of Them Publishes
London's oldest chip shop asks for an hour before closing time for a table. Nobody else publishes that rule and everybody works to it. Five checked at source, one domain now serving a gambling site.
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.