Thirteen of the 154 London venues in this index publish that they hold tables back for people who just turn up. Thirteen out of 154.
That is the number worth knowing, because it is the one that gets you a table at eight on a Friday without a diary entry made three weeks ago. The rest of London is split between places that want you to book, places that take nothing at all and want you to queue, and a large middle that changes the answer depending which room you want and what time it is.
“Walk ins welcome” is not a property of a restaurant. It is a property of a room, a floor and an hour. Dishoom takes bookings of any size before six and walk ins only after it. Swift in Soho runs reservations downstairs and walk ins upstairs. Noble Rot books the restaurant and leaves the wine bar and terrace to whoever turns up. Scott’s guarantees you an indoor table and allocates the terrace oldest request first.
So this is an index of what each venue actually publishes about getting in, taken from its own website, grouped by the mechanism rather than by the marketing.
How London actually lets you in
| How you get in | Venues | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Booking first, by phone, email or online | 63 | 41% |
| Depends which room or hour | 38 | 25% |
| No bookings at all, queue or counter | 14 | 9% |
| Holds tables back for walk ins | 13 | 8% |
| Book or walk in, both fine | 11 | 7% |
| Guestlist, membership or door | 8 | 5% |
| Publishes no policy at all | 7 | 5% |
The held back list is the useful one and it is the shortest. Gold on Portobello Road, Randall and Aubin in Soho, Bar Americain, Blacklock at Canary Wharf, Gloria, Suzi Tros, Fischer’s, Pergola on the Wharf, Lyaness, Bar Levan in Peckham, Vagabond Wines, Franco Manca and Pizza Pilgrims. Between them they cover most of a week and most of London, and every one of them says so in writing rather than leaving it to the host on the night.
The second largest group is the one that causes the arguments. Thirty eight venues run different rules by room, floor, party size or hour, which is why asking “do they take walk ins” produces a misleading yes or a misleading no. Ask which room.
And seven publish nothing at all. No hours, no booking page, no policy. Gordon’s Wine Bar publishes no opening hours at all, and takes no reservations except for one bookable table called the Cage. For that group, turning up is not a choice you made, it is the only mechanism available.
The index
Filter by how you get in. Every line is what the venue publishes on its own site, not a review and not a recommendation.
| Venue | How you get in | What they publish |
|---|---|---|
| Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester Mayfair | Booking first | 020 7629 8866. The Table Lumière, a private table inside a curtain of fibre optic light, is the thing this room is known for and it is booked separately and a long way ahead. |
| Albert’s Schloss Soho | Booking first | A 20 pound per person deposit is required at booking and it is non-refundable. The most expensive on this page and the only one that tells you when the clock starts: ninety minutes from reservation time, which means lateness comes out of your drinking and not theirs. |
| All Bar One The City | Booking first | Online, by venue. The most predictable of the three and the easiest to book at short notice, because there are sites everywhere. |
| American Bar at The Savoy Covent Garden | Booking first | Reservations through the hotel booking system. It opens at midday, which nobody expects of a bar like this and which is the best hour to see the room. |
| Andrew Edmunds | Room or hour | They run a pre theatre menu specifically, which is the clearest signal a kitchen understands the clock. |
| Annabel’s Mayfair | Door | Private members’ club. |
| Artesian Marylebone | Booking first | Reservations through the hotel booking system A hotel bar, which means the room is open to anyone and you do not need to be staying. |
| Artusi Peckham | Room or hour | Open on a Monday when Levan is not, but for dinner only, so a Monday lunch here does not exist. |
| BAM Karaoke Box Victoria | Booking first | Online. |
| Bar Américain Soho | Holds tables | A limited number of tables can be reserved, and they always keep room for walk ins. Their own wording is that they always reserve room for walk ins, which in Soho at nine o’clock is worth a great deal. |
| Bar Elba Waterloo | Not published | Closed. The same Waterloo roof now trades as Circe’s, which takes bookings and seats about a third of a group, the rest standing. |
| Bar Levan Peckham | Holds tables | Their own line is that walk ins are always welcome, and they keep space for them A wine bar with a kitchen and a shop attached, open to midnight midweek when the restaurant next door has stopped at ten. |
| Bar Termini Soho | Room or hour | One hour slots, maximum five people, from 4pm Monday to Thursday and 3pm Friday to Sunday. A late table is held for ten minutes, and booking two tables to get a group of more than six in is explicitly not allowed. |
| Barrafina Covent Garden | Either | Reservations and walk ins both taken. |
| Barrafina Coal Drops Yard Kings Cross | Either | Takes reservations and walk ins. |
| Barrafina Drury Lane Covent Garden | Either | Takes reservations and walk ins. |
| Bellanger Islington | Booking first | reservations@bellanger.co.uk |
| Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill Piccadilly | Booking first | 020 7734 4756 or reservations@bentleys.org |
| Big Easy Canary Wharf | Room or hour | Online, maximum table size twelve. The one to read the small print on, because they publish more of it than anyone. |
| Blacklock Canary Wharf Canary Wharf | Holds tables | Twenty eight pounds a head for the All In, which is chops over coals with the trimmings and is more food than most people finish. |
| Blacklock Covent Garden Covent Garden | Booking first | Chops and steaks Monday to Saturday and the roast on Sundays only, and the two are different propositions: the Sunday one books out first. |
| Bleecker Burger | No bookings | No bookings mentioned anywhere on their site: it is counter service, eat in, click and collect or delivery. |
| Bluebird Chelsea Chelsea | Booking first | 020 7559 1000. Online booking covers groups up to twelve. |
| Bocca di Lupo | Booking first | Book it. |
| Bouchon Racine Clerkenwell | Room or hour | 020 7253 3368, and they ask you to ring between 9am and 11am. |
| Brasserie Zédel | Room or hour | The most impressive room in London for the money, by an unreasonable margin. |
| Brat | Booking first | Online, or bookings@bratrestaurant.com |
| Brindisa Borough Market Borough | No bookings | The tapas counter is the one Brindisa site that does not appear in its booking system at all, so it is walk in only. It keeps market hours: closed Monday, 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Friday, from 9am on Saturday and to 4pm on Sunday. That makes it the answer when Padella has an hour on the door. |
| Brindisa Tapas Soho | Room or hour | Online for the five bars and restaurants, with parties of more than ten sent down a separate group bookings route. Walk ins are always welcome and some terraces are walk in only. Each site is labelled on their own pages as a tapas bar, a tapas restaurant or a tapas counter, and that single word tells you whether to expect a stool or a table. |
| Brother Marcus Borough Yards Borough | Room or hour | Online for up to 22 guests. |
| Burger and Beyond | Either | The one on this page that takes bookings, which is the practical reason to choose it. |
| Bōkan | Booking first | Three floors, three different propositions, three different sets of hours. |
| Café Cecilia Hackney | Booking first | 020 3478 6726 Two things from their own booking terms. |
| Callooh Callay Shoreditch | Booking first | Reservations taken. The JubJub Bar at the back is behind what looks like a wardrobe, and you have to ask. |
| Casse-Croûte Bermondsey | Either | Walk in, or telephone 020 7407 2140. |
| Cirque le Soir Soho | Door | Apply to the guestlist. |
| Clos Maggiore Covent Garden | Booking first | 020 4580 1174 Ask for the conservatory when you book or you will not get it. |
| Coal Office Kings Cross | Room or hour | 020 3848 6086 Read those hours twice. |
| Connaught Bar Mayfair | No bookings | No reservations taken. No reservations, so the only lever you have is the hour you arrive. |
| Coopers Arms Chelsea | Booking first | 020 7376 3120 or coopersarms@youngs.co.uk |
| Coq d’Argent The City | Booking first | Book. The lift is inside an office building and the entrance is not obvious from Poultry, so allow a minute to find it. |
| Cora Pearl Covent Garden | Booking first | Reservations through their booking system. The kitchen shuts at nine while the room stays open until eleven, so a late booking gets you a drink and not a dinner. |
| Core by Clare Smyth Notting Hill | Booking first | One of only six three star restaurants in the country’s capital and the first run by a British woman to hold them. |
| Coupette Bethnal Green | Not published | Their own Book Now link goes to an OpenTable listing marked permanently closed, while the bar is advertising live music every Thursday and a New Year party. They publish no hours and no working booking route, so use the contact form. |
| Dinings Marylebone | Booking first | 020 7723 0666 or reservations@dinings.co.uk |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Knightsbridge | Booking first | Online, three months to the day in advance. Book lunch, not dinner. |
| Dishoom Canary Wharf Canary Wharf | Room or hour | Groups of any size may book during the day. |
| Dishoom Covent Garden Covent Garden | Room or hour | Bookings any size before 6pm. |
| Dishoom King’s Cross Kings Cross | Room or hour | Bookings any size before 6pm. |
| Donostia Marylebone | Booking first | 020 3620 1845, or online Check the address on the day. |
| Duck & Waffle | Booking first | The only one on this page open at four in the morning, and the sunrise reservation is the one worth making. |
| Dukes Bar St James | No bookings | Walk in basis, no reservations. Walk in only, and their own note is that there may be a short wait for a table at busy times. |
| Elystan Street Chelsea | Booking first | The set menu at dinner is available between six and half past six and at no other time in the evening, which is the tightest window of any restaurant in this guide. |
| Endo Chelsea | Booking first | Website only, in released blocks. They take no bookings by Instagram or email. |
| Evans and Peel Detective Agency Earls Court | Door | Appointment only You book an appointment rather than a table, go down to the office and present your case to the detective before the bookcase opens. |
| fabric Clerkenwell | Door | Tickets through the usual listings sites rather than the door Buy the ticket before you go: this is a line up venue and the door is not where you get in. |
| Farang Islington | Booking first | reservations@faranglondon.co.uk |
| Fischer’s Marylebone | Holds tables | Two things from their own terms that are worth knowing. |
| Four Seasons Chinatown Soho | Not published | Order the duck. |
| Franco Manca Brixton | Holds tables | They take bookings, and state that their pizzerias leave lots of space for walk ins and always will do. The 12. |
| Frank’s Café Peckham | No bookings | No reservations at all, and card only Check the dates before you travel: the 2026 season ran 15 May to 12 September, so it is shut now and reopens next May. |
| Gauthier Soho Soho | Booking first | 020 7494 3111. The menu you can order depends on the hour, and this catches people out badly. |
| German Gymnasium Kings Cross | Booking first | Through OpenTable or on 020 7287 8000. |
| Gloria Shoreditch | Holds tables | Reservations taken for lunch and dinner, with some tables held for walk ins. |
| Gold Notting Hill | Holds tables | Reserving is recommended, but tables are always held back for walk ins. Their own wording is that as a locally focused restaurant they always hold tables back for walk ins, which on Portobello Road is close to unheard of. |
| Golden Union Soho | Booking first | 020 7458 4411 or info@goldenunion.co.uk |
| Gordon’s Wine Bar Charing Cross | No bookings | No reservations, except the Cage, a private table for up to twelve booked online with a 250 pound minimum spend. |
| Granger and Co Notting Hill | Room or hour | Bookings from 5pm only, and walk ins at any hour. It is the restaurant that taught London to queue for breakfast. |
| Happiness Forgets Hoxton | Booking first | Reservations through their website Open from five every day, which is the single most useful thing about it: the first two hours are the only ones where a room this small is comfortable. |
| Hawksmoor Wood Wharf Canary Wharf | Room or hour | The roast is guaranteed only until 5pm, which is the single most useful fact on this page: a Sunday booking at seven may not get you the thing you came for. |
| Hoppers | Either | Reservations and walk ins Sri Lankan and south Indian, and the clearest example on this page of the split service that defines eating here: it shuts for two and a half hours in the middle of. |
| Hélène Darroze at The Connaught Mayfair | Booking first | 020 7499 7070 In the hotel, which means you do not have to be staying and nobody will ask. |
| Islington Town House Islington | Booking first | 07471 330 395 or bookings@islington-townhouse.com |
| José Pizarro Bermondsey | No bookings | José at 104 takes no reservations at all. |
| Kanada-Ya Covent Garden | Not published | 020 7240 0232. |
| Kiln Soho | Either | No online system. The only route they publish is an email enquiry to bookings@kilnsoho.com, and they keep counter space for walk ins. |
| Kitty Fisher’s Mayfair | Booking first | Reservations through their booking system. The kitchen stops at half past nine, which is early for Mayfair and is the most common way to lose this booking. |
| KOL Marylebone | Booking first | Through their own reservations system. Their own line is Mexican soul, British ingredients: mole, corn masa and ceviche rebuilt out of what grows here. |
| Koya Soho Soho | No bookings | Walk ins only. |
| Leman Street Tavern The City | Booking first | 020 3437 0001 or lemanstreettavern@youngs.co.uk |
| Lucky Voice Soho | Booking first | Online, or by telephone and email per venue. |
| Lyaness Southwark | Holds tables | Bookings recommended, walk ins welcome subject to availability. Their own wording is that walk ins are always welcome, subject to availability, which on a weeknight means yes and on a Friday. |
| Madison The City | Room or hour | Book for dining groups of up to 12. Drinks parties of fewer than 10 are taken as walk ins, which is not true of the other City rooftops. |
| Mangal II Hackney | Booking first | Bookings@mangal2.com |
| Max’s Sandwich Shop Crouch End | No bookings | None taken. |
| Mazi Notting Hill | Booking first | 020 7229 3794 or info@mazi.co.uk |
| Mildreds Camden Camden | Booking first | Their own listed features answer most of the reasons a Camden booking goes wrong: dog friendly, outdoor seating, step free access and large group dining. |
| Milk Beach Soho Soho | Room or hour | Reservations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. |
| Mr Fogg’s Residence Mayfair | Booking first | 020 7036 0608 Two things worth timing. |
| Netil360 London Fields | Booking first | Book a table. It used to be walk in, and it is now shut Monday to Wednesday: Thursday 6pm to 11pm, Friday 6pm to midnight, Saturday 3pm to midnight. |
| Nightjar Shoreditch | Either | Walk ins taken, booking recommended. Walk ins are accepted and booking is recommended, which in practice means the queue is real on music nights and music is every night. |
| Noble Rot Lamb’s Conduit Bloomsbury | Room or hour | The restaurant takes bookings on 020 7242 8963 or lambsconduit@noblerot.co.uk |
| Oblix Borough | Room or hour | Oblix West looks one way and Oblix East looks the other, so ask which room your booking is in before you accept it. |
| OMA Borough | Room or hour | The only Michelin starred Greek restaurant in London, and it is above a counter at Borough Market rather than in Mayfair. |
| OPSO Marylebone | Booking first | 020 7487 5088 or reservations@opso.co.uk |
| Orient London Soho | Room or hour | No bookings at all on Saturday, Sunday or bank holidays before 5. |
| Oriole Covent Garden | Booking first | Booking recommended, particularly for live music. The cover charge is published plainly and almost never mentioned elsewhere: it is added to your bill and goes straight to the musicians. |
| Orrery Marylebone | Booking first | 020 7616 8000. |
| OXO Tower | Room or hour | Three venues share that floor and they are not the same booking. |
| Padella Borough | No bookings | No reservations at the Borough Market site: join the virtual queue at the door or on the Dojo app. Tagliarini with chilli, garlic and pangrattato is £9.50. |
| Pergola on the Wharf Canary Wharf | Holds tables | They keep tables back for walk ins on a first come basis, so an early arrival beats a booking here. |
| Pizza Pilgrims Camden | Holds tables | They take bookings, but their own line is that walk ins are always available, so you can just turn up. Walk ins are always available, which they state rather than imply, so this is the one to. |
| Plates Shoreditch | Booking first | reservations@plates-london.com |
| Plum Valley Soho | Room or hour | Online or by telephone. |
| Quo Vadis | Door | 020 7437 9585. It is a restaurant and a private members’ club, and people assume the rooms are members only. |
| Randall and Aubin Soho | Holds tables | 0207 287 4447 or info@randallandaubin.com |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay Chelsea | Booking first | 020 7352 4441. Book as far ahead as the diary allows. |
| Roast Borough | Not published | Upstairs in the Floral Hall, which is the iron and glass structure over the market itself, so you eat looking down on the thing everyone else is queueing in. |
| Rock & Sole Plaice Covent Garden | Booking first | 020 7836 3785 or reservations@rockandsoleplaice.com |
| Rotunda Bar and Restaurant Kings Cross | Room or hour | Groups of 10 or more pre order. |
| Sabor Mayfair | Room or hour | Online, for up to 10 guests, in El Asador, La Mesa and at the Counter. |
| Satan’s Whiskers Bethnal Green | Either | 020 7739 8362, by telephone only. Reservations are recommended but not essential by their own account, and walk ins are taken. |
| Scarfes Bar Holborn | Room or hour | Walk in, with tables held for an hour and a half. They take reservations only from people staying at the hotel and from parties of six or more, which is a change: the bar used to book through the hotel system. Everybody else turns up. |
| Scott’s Mayfair | Room or hour | A reservation guarantees an indoor table only. |
| Seabird Southwark | Booking first | Reservations for dining only, with drinks bookings from 9.30pm and a card required. A terrace table cannot be guaranteed. |
| Sketch Mayfair | Room or hour | 020 7659 4500 Sketch is several rooms rather than one restaurant and only the Lecture Room and Library carries the stars. |
| Smoking Goat | Booking first | The latest kitchen of the four here, and the one to hold in reserve for an evening that has run long. |
| som saa | Room or hour | 020 7324 7790. Book by the size of your party, because they split it three ways: up to six online, seven to twelve through a separate form, and anything larger through the group bookings page. |
| Suzi Tros Notting Hill | Holds tables | 020 7221 2223 or info@suzitros.com |
| Swift Soho Soho | Room or hour | Downstairs is reservations only, upstairs is mainly walk ins. The two floors run on different rules, which is the thing to know before you arrive. |
| Sông Quê Café Shoreditch | Not published | Reservations are welcome through the form on their own site, or on 020 7613 3222, but they publish no walk in policy. Kingsland Road now publishes hours: midday to 3pm and 5.30pm to 11pm on weekdays, straight through midday to 11pm on Saturday, and midday to 10.30pm on Sunday and bank holidays. |
| Tape London Mayfair | Door | Table booking, and the walk up queue is whatever is left Physical photo identification only, stated in capitals on their own site: a photograph of your passport will not be accepted. |
| Taq Notting Hill | Room or hour | Reservations taken online Shut on Mondays and no lunch at all until Friday, which is the thing to check before a midweek daytime plan. |
| Tayer + Elementary Shoreditch | No bookings | Still closed after a fire in the building, with updates and pop ups posted to Instagram rather than their site. When open the policy is three words, walk in only, with no bookings of any kind. |
| temper Soho Soho | Booking first | Book midweek. |
| The Anchor and Hope Waterloo | Room or hour | Reservations 30 days ahead, card details held for tables up to eight, no booking by email. The no bookings policy everyone still quotes is gone: they take reservations thirty days ahead and hold card details for tables of up to eight. |
| The Blue Posts Soho | No bookings | No reservations Take the number with you: there are five pubs called the Blue Posts and all five are open. |
| The Clove Club | Room or hour | Online for 1 to 6 guests, up to three months ahead on a rolling basis. |
| The Coach and Horses Soho | No bookings | No table bookings at all. No table bookings of any kind, so it is first come and it fills from six. |
| The Devonshire Soho | Room or hour | The downstairs pub is walk in only. |
| The Drapers Arms Islington | Not published | Deep in the Barnsbury back streets, five minutes off Upper Street and a world away from it. |
| The Golden Hind Marylebone | Either | 020 7486 3644, with online booking and click and collect. The three hour shut between half three and six is the thing to plan around, and Sunday is the exception: straight through from midday. |
| The Grapes Limehouse | No bookings | Very narrow, and the river balcony at the back holds about a dozen people, so it is first come and it goes early. |
| The Guinea Grill Mayfair | Room or hour | The bar is walk in only. |
| The Harp Covent Garden | Room or hour | No bookings on Saturdays There is no kitchen at all, so do not arrive hungry expecting to solve it here. |
| The Ivy Cafe Marylebone Marylebone | Room or hour | Tables of up to 14 online, larger parties by email. The most forgiving booking in Marylebone: open from eight in the morning until at least eleven at night every single day, and it will take. |
| The Ivy Chelsea Garden Chelsea | Booking first | Their own accessibility note is unusually clear: the main restaurant, terrace and bathroom are fully accessible, and the private dining room is reached via the main entrance. |
| The Ivy in the Park Canary Wharf | Room or hour | Tables of up to 14 online, larger parties by email Fourteen online is a high ceiling for a central London booking and it is the reason to keep this one for a group. |
| The Ledbury Notting Hill | Booking first | Closed for three years and came back to a third star, which almost nothing in London has done. |
| The Lighterman Kings Cross | Booking first | All day casual dining and drinking across three floors, with the terraces over the water on the upper two. |
| The Little Scarlet Door Soho | Booking first | Their bookings team works 12pm to 5pm Monday to Friday only An unmarked scarlet door on Greek Street and a house party behind it. |
| The Little Violet Door Soho | Booking first | Their bookings team works 12pm to 5pm Monday to Friday only A house party with a cocktail list, and one of five colour coded Little Door bars in London. |
| The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town Spitalfields | Door | You ask a member of staff to see the Mayor and they open the fridge. |
| The Piano Works Soho | Booking first | Read the two time figures against each other: the live music runs two hours and the bottomless drinks run ninety minutes, so the last half hour is a gig rather than a brunch. |
| The Pig and Butcher Islington | Booking first | Reservations through their booking system. Their roast runs until nine, which almost nothing else in London does, and it makes this the answer for anyone who wants a proper Sunday dinner rather than a Sunday lunch. |
| The Pineapple Kentish Town | Room or hour | Bookings for parties of ten or more only. They take bookings only for ten or more, so for anything smaller it is walk in and take your chances. |
| The Railway, Streatham Common Streatham | Booking first | 020 8769 9448 or info@therailwaysw16.co.uk |
| The River Café | Booking first | Book online and as far ahead as you can. |
| The Vault at Milroy’s Soho | Door | Step through the bookcase at street level and you are in the Vault, which is their own description of it and not a guide writer’s. |
| Trishna | Booking first | 020 7935 5624 An early evening menu at a starred restaurant, which is the best cooking on this page for the money. |
| Trullo | Booking first | 020 7226 2733 Takes bookings, which immediately separates it from the counters. |
| Vagabond Wines Victoria | Holds tables | Walk ins always welcome, booking recommended at busy times. The model is the point. |
| Westerns Laundry Islington | Booking first | 020 7700 3700, or online. The menu changes daily and the kitchen is open to the room, which they flag themselves as a reason to ring ahead about allergens rather than raising it at the table. |
| Zuma Knightsbridge | Either | 020 7584 1010. The bar is the way in. |
How this was compiled
Every entry was read off the venue’s own website, not from a booking platform, an aggregator or a press release, and each links to the page on this site where the venue is covered in full.
What the set is, precisely: the food and drink venues this guide covers that publish anything at all about how you get a table. Bars, pubs, restaurants and clubs, 154 of them, checked through September 2026 and every row compared against its source venue page on 2 October 2026. It is not a ranking, it is not a survey of London, and it is not exhaustive. It is the subset of our own coverage where the venue has said something we could verify.
That matters for reading the percentages. A guide like this covers rooms worth writing about, which skews towards restaurants people plan around rather than the chain on the corner. Read the counts as a picture of London’s notable dining rather than of every table in the city.
Where a venue publishes nothing, that is recorded as publishing nothing rather than guessed at from a third party.
Booking policies change, and they change faster than menus. The index is re-read on the same schedule as the guides behind it. Confirm before you travel, particularly at the door end.
Where to go next
The best restaurants in London is the main list, and late night restaurants covers the other half of this problem, which is what is still serving rather than what will seat you.
For the districts where the booking rules matter most: Soho, where the rule decides the evening more than the menu, Borough Market, home of the queue, and Covent Garden.
Questions we get asked
Which London restaurants hold tables back for walk ins?
Thirteen in this index publish that they do, as standing policy rather than as a favour: Gold on Portobello Road, Randall and Aubin in Soho, Bar Americain, Blacklock at Canary Wharf, Gloria, Suzi Tros, Fischer's, Pergola on the Wharf, Lyaness, Bar Levan in Peckham, Vagabond Wines, Franco Manca and Pizza Pilgrims. It is the most useful category here because it sits between queueing and booking weeks ahead, and it is the least known.
Which London restaurants take walk ins?
Of the 154 venues in this index, 14 take no bookings at all and work purely on a queue or a counter, 13 take bookings but deliberately hold tables back for walk ins every day, and 11 accept either without fuss. A further 38 change the answer depending which room, floor or hour you want. The largest group, 63 venues, wants you to book first.
Do Dishoom and Barrafina take walk ins?
Both do, but on different models. Dishoom splits by the hour: before 6pm it will book a table of any size, and after 6pm tables are walk in only unless there are six or more of you. Barrafina takes reservations and walk ins at its sites, which contradicts the no bookings rule that guides still apply to the whole group. Read the branch and the hour rather than the brand.
What does walk ins welcome actually mean?
Less than it sounds, because it is usually about one part of a building. In this index 36 venues run different rules by room, floor or time: Swift in Soho is reservations downstairs and walk ins upstairs, Noble Rot books the restaurant and leaves the wine bar and terrace to walk ins, The Devonshire is walk in only in the downstairs pub, and Scott's guarantees an indoor table while allocating the terrace oldest request first. Ask which room, not whether.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 168 in the guide.
Last checked 2 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
