Robert J Wills writes London Gentleman’s Guide, an independent guide to eating, drinking and staying in London at the upper end. Every price, opening time and door policy on the site is checked against the venue’s own published information, and nobody pays to be included.
Every page here carries his byline, the date it was last checked and an entry number, because a guide that will not say who wrote it or when is asking you to take it on trust.
How the checking works
A venue’s own website is the only source that counts. Hours, prices, booking windows and dress codes are read off the restaurant, bar, hotel or operator’s own pages, not off other guides, which copy each other and keep closed rooms on “best of” lists for years.
Where two of a venue’s own pages disagree, both are printed, because the disagreement is the useful thing. Where a venue has stopped publishing a figure, the figure comes off this site rather than ageing quietly on it.
Pages are not checked once and left. They go through a rota of about forty five pages a week, and a page’s check date only moves after the whole page has actually been read again. In the four weeks to 2 October 2026 all 177 pages were rechecked that way.
What this site does not do
No payment, commission or hospitality is accepted in exchange for inclusion, position or a favourable write-up. There are no bookings taken, nothing is sold, and there is no advertising. See the editorial policy for the detail.
Corrections
Corrections are the most useful thing a reader can send and they are acted on. If something here is out of date or wrong, the contact page reaches the desk.
About the guide covers what it sets out to be, and the main guide is the way into everything else.