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.
Fancy Restaurants in London: The Room Is a Separate Booking
Fancy is about the room, not the cooking, and the room is allocated when you book rather than when you arrive. Which rooms are worth asking for by name, and the two most photographed ones that are not currently serving.
The Best Italian Restaurant in London: Two Different Cuisines
Italian in London is two cuisines wearing one word: the pasta counter and the restaurant. Which is which, what each costs, and why the best of it is in Highbury and Hammersmith rather than Soho.
The Best Burger in London: Which Kind You Actually Want
The best burger in the world and the second best are both in London, and both say so themselves. The two contenders are twenty three doors apart on Old Compton Street, and only one of them takes a booking.
The Best Chinese Restaurants in London Are Not in Chinatown
The most interesting Chinese cooking in London is in Victoria, Mayfair and Soho. Where to go, and the cheaper lunch pricing none of them advertise loudly.
London Restaurants With a View: Height, Water, or Neither
Thirty floors up, low cloud is the whole evening. At the river it is not. The three kinds of London view, which one suits your booking, and what has closed.
Private Dining Rooms in London: The Numbers That Matter
One room seats 24 at a single table, 32 across four, or 45 standing. Real capacities for London's private dining rooms, and why the minimum spend is the price.
Pre Theatre Dinner in London: Work Backwards From the Curtain
West End curtain up is 7pm or 7.30pm, not 8pm. Where to eat before a show, how long you actually have, and the one sentence to say when you book.
Set Menu Restaurants in London: The Same Kitchen for Less
Three courses at Medlar are 57 pounds at lunch and 83 at dinner. Two Michelin stars are 65. Where London's set menus actually are, with current prices.
The Best Restaurants in Shoreditch: Book Around the Hours
Rochelle Canteen serves supper for two hours and clears the room by ten. Where to eat in Shoreditch, and why the hour matters more than the restaurant.
By area
1 neighbourhoodThe neighbourhood guides that cover this, with the number of venues each one checks. Every address, price and opening time in them was taken from the venue's own published information.
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.