Restaurants in London
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Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s
This match made in heaven – London’s most celebrated chef in arguably its grandest hotel – will make you weak at the knees. A meal in the gorgeous art deco dining room is a special occasion indeed; the Ramsay flavours will have you reeling, from the pressed foie gras marinated in white port and the cannon of salt marsh lamb with crystallised walnuts and cumin, all the way to the cheese trolley, whether you choose the one with French, British or Irish number plates. Consider the six-course tasting menu (£80).
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Afghan Kitchen
This minute two-floor gem serves up some of Islington’s best-value and most interesting cuisine. It features traditional Afghan dishes such as qurma suhzi gosht (lamb cooked with spinach) and qurma e mahi (fish stew) alongside a generous vegetarian selection, including borani kado (pumpkin with yoghurt) and moong dall (lentil dhal). It’s absolutely brilliant value, and rightly popular so book ahead for the evenings.
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Fishworks
This Bath-based chain was London’s first truly French poissonnerie (fishmonger) with a restaurant attached, its entranceway counters piled high with shaved ice, crustaceans and fish. We return regularly, especially for the sublime Dartmouth crab eaten cold and the incomparable zuppa del pescatore (fisherman’s soup; £19), a symphony of delights from the deep. There is also a Marylebone branch.
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Mildred’s
Central London’s most inventive veggie restaurant, Mildred’s heaves at lunchtime so don’t be shy about sharing a table in the sky-lit dining room. Expect the likes of roasted fennel and chickpea terrine and puy lentil casserole as well as more standard (and hugely portioned) salads and stir-fries. Drinks include juices, coffee, beer and organic wine.
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Tsunami
The food at this celebrated restaurant exhibits the style and taste you'd expect from an ex-Nobu chef. The sushi is exquisite, but it's the more unusual dishes, like ebi prawns wrapped in Greek pastry and butternut squash, and especially the mint-tea duck with pear and sweet honey miso, that will really bowl you over.
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Brick Lane Beigel Bake
You won’t find fresher (or cheaper) bagels anywhere in London than at this bakery and delicatessen; just ask any taxi driver (it’s their favourite nosherie).
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Boxwood Café
Renowned for its veal and foie gras burgers, Boxwood Café is another outing for the unstoppable Gordon Ramsay.
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Fifteen London
It would be easy to dismiss Jamie Oliver’s nonprofit training restaurant as a gimmick, but on our latest visit the kitchen was in fine fettle. Here 15 young chefs from disadvantaged backgrounds (indicated by their black, as opposed to white, chef’s hats) train with experienced professionals, creating an ambitious and interesting Italian menu. The ground-floor trattoria is a relaxed venue, with the more formal dining room located underground. We found the gnocchi, veal ravioli and bream were all excellent, and the atmosphere was still as buzzing and exciting as ever. Reservations are usually essential.
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Momo
Sister of the celebrated 404 in Paris’ Marais district, this wonderfully atmospheric North African restaurant is stuffed with cushions and lamps, and staffed by all-dancing, tambourine-playing waiters. It’s a funny old place that manages to be all things to all diners, who range from romantic couples to raucous office-party ravers. Service is very friendly and the dishes are as exciting as you dare to be, so after the meze eschew the traditional and ordinary tajine (stew cooked in a traditional clay pot) and tuck into the splendid Moroccan speciality pastilla, a scrumptious nutmeg and pigeon pie. There’s outside seating in this quiet backstreet in the warmer months.
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Ottolenghi
This is the pick of Upper Street’s many eating options – a brilliantly bright, white space that’s worth a trip to see the eye-poppingly beautiful cakes and bread in the front deli alone. But get a table at this temple to good food and you’ll really appreciate it. At lunch you choose between the dishes spread out on the counter, while in the evening there’s á la carte dining, too, though so fanatical about ingredient quality are the chefs that the menu is not confirmed until 5pm. Weekend brunch here is fabulous, though you’ll usually have to wait for a table. Reservations are essential in the evenings.
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Gordon Ramsay
One of Britain’s finest restaurants and still the only one in the capital with three Michelin stars, this is hallowed turf for those who worship at the altar of the stove, notwithstanding the hot water Mr Ramsay seems to get himself into regularly. It’s true that it is a treat right from the taster to the truffles, but you won’t get much time to savour it all. Bookings are made in specific sittings and you dare not linger; book as late as you can to avoid that rushed feeling. The blow-out tasting Menu Prestige (£120) is seven courses of absolute perfection.
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Garrison
The Garrison’s traditional green-tiled exterior and rather distressed, beach-shack interior are both appealing, and it boasts an actual cinema in its basement, but it’s the food – pressed ham-hock terrine, calf’s liver with smoked bacon, lamb with rosemary and garlic – that lures the punters to this evergreen gastropub. If you don’t fancy nearly bashing your neighbour’s elbow every time you lift your fork, though, come for breakfast (8am to 11.30am weekdays) or weekend brunch (9am to 11.30am).
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1 Lombard Street
A totally impressive temple of power dining, 1 Lombard St used to be a bank. Now it's an airy, Michelin-starred restaurant (thanks to chef Herbert Berger) and serves a great combination of seafood, meat and poultry. The menu includes fillets of lamb, beef, venison and roast turbot fish on the bone.
Even more impressive are the caramelised lobster with Thai risotto, and the lobster and coconut velouté. The restaurant is good for impressing clients; the bar mixes a weekday crowd of suits with the occasional celebrity party.
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Asadal
If you fancy Korean but want a bit more style thrown into the act than what you’ll find at Assa, head for this spacious basement restaurant next to the Holborn tube station. The kimchi (pickled Chinese cabbage with chillies) is searing, the barbecues (£7 to £11.50) are done on your table and the bibimbab – rice served in a sizzling pot topped with thinly sliced beef, preserved vegetables and chilli-laced soybean paste – the best in town.
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Inn the Park
This stunning wooden cafe and restaurant in St James’s Park is run by the Irish wonder that is Oliver Peyton and offers cakes and tea as well as substantial and quality British food. The recent addition of extra seating under the trees for the cafe part and the new roof terrace are perfect, but if you’re up for a special dining experience, come here for dinner, when the park is quiet and slightly illuminated. One of London’s most gorgeous structures and locations.
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Oxo Tower Restaurant & Brasserie
The conversion of the old Oxo Tower on the South Bank into housing with this restaurant on the 8th floor helped spur much of the dining renaissance south of the river. In the stunning glassed-in terrace you have a front-row seat for the best view in London, and you pay for this (not the fusion food) handsomely in the brasserie and stratospherically in the restaurant. Fish dishes – confit sea bass with truffle gnocchi, black bream escabèche – usually comprise half the menu.
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Electric Brasserie
The name comes from the adjoining art deco cinema, but the place itself never seems to stop buzzing. Whether it’s for breakfast (£5 to £10) or brunch over the weekend, a hearty lunch or a full dinner, the Electric certainly draws a trendy and wealthy Notting Hill crowd with its British/European Modern, which includes treats such as a jazzed-up chicken-and-leek pie, beetroot-and-goat’s-cheese salad and – a personal favourite – lobster and chips (£32.50).
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Busaba Eathai
We prefer the slightly less hectic Store St premises of this West End favourite, but there are also a couple more locations, including a Wardour St branch. Here the sumptuous Thai menu greets you via an electronic screen outside and the uberstyled interior is softened by communal wooden tables. This isn’t the place to come for a long and intimate dinner, but it’s a superb option for an excellent and (usually) speedy meal of stir-fries and noodles.
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Barrafina
Tapas are always better value in Spain but the quality of the food here and the fact that its popularity just seems to rise may justify the price of what are essentially appetisers to go with your drink. Along with gambas al ajillo (prawns in garlic; £7.50), there are more unusual things such as tuna tartare and grilled quails with aioli. If you can’t get enough, try one of the large platters of cold Spanish meats (£5 to £17.50).
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Back to Basics
There are two or three other options on the menu (see 'Fish not Your Dish'), but seafood is the focus at this superb corner restaurant run by a bevy of affable young Poles in what's become know as Titchfield Village. A dozen varieties of exceedingly fresh fish, and a dozen original, mouth-watering ways to cook them, are chalked up on a blackboard every day. Two-course set lunch is around £10. There's outside seating in summer.
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Mirch Masala
Mirch Masala ‘Chilli and Spice’, part of a small chain based in the epicentre of London subcontinental food, Southall, is a less hectic alternative to Tayyabs and the food is almost up the same level. Order the prawn tikka (£8) as a ‘warmer’ followed by the masala karella (£4.50), a curry-like dish made from bitter gourd, and a karahi meat dish.
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Fish House
This combination seafood restaurant and chippy is just the sort of place you wish you had in your own neighbourhood. The freshest of fresh fish and crustaceans are dispensed from both a busy takeaway section and a cheerful sit-down restaurant. The lobster bisque and Colchester oysters are always good, while the generous fish pie (£8.50) bursting with goodies from the briny deep is exceptional.
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Rules
Established in 1798, this very posh and very British establishment is London’s oldest restaurant. The menu is inevitably meat-oriented – Rules specialises in classic game cookery, serving up tens of thousands of birds between mid-August and January from its own estate – but fish dishes are also available. Puddings are traditional: trifles, treacles and lashings of custard.
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Le Café Anglais
After ditching Kensington Place, Rowley Leigh opened this bustling restaurant with a very eclectic menu a short distance to the northeast. With beef hash and poached egg sitting comfortably with Thai green prawn curry and gigantic roasts that would feed a large family, this place means to please everyone; and, with such excellently priced set menus, it certainly does us.
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Mela
Despite its location in the heart of theatreland, this bustling Shaftesbury Ave eatery serves some pretty authentic dishes from across India (with an emphasis on tandoor) and there is magnificent choice for vegetarians. We love the décor too, with colourful papier-mâché Ferris wheels and naive paintings of carnivals and fairs (mela means 'festival' in Hindi).
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