Restaurants in London
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Il Bordello
This boisterous – bordello also means ‘chaos’ or a ‘mess’ – neighbourhood eatery is always crammed with happy diners. If you’re drinking at the Captain Kidd or Prospect of Whitby, it’s a convenient blotter stop for excellent pizzas (£7.95 to £9.95) and pasta (£7.75 to £12.45) as well as more ambitious meat and fish main courses.
reviewed
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Taman Gang
This basement restaurant just metres from the traffic chaos of Marble Arch is an oasis of tranquillity, suffused with incense and buzzing with a smart yet surprisingly informal Park Lane crowd. The interesting menu fuses Indonesian and Malaysian with Chinese and Japanese classics. On our last visit, the crispy aromatic duck roll was superb, while honey-glazed lamb cutlets with crispy lotus was of a similarly high standard but low size.
reviewed
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Ubon
Ubon gets as many rave reviews as its big sister, Nobu, which is of course its name spelt backward. While customers argue over whether you really get value for money here (set lunch is a snip at around £21 to around £31), the selling point has to be the breathtaking Thames views from every corner, including the fabulous sushi bar. The restaurant has its own dedicated entrance next to the Four Seasons hotel and its own lift.
reviewed
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Delfina
This white-walled restaurant in a converted Victorian chocolate factory serves delicious modern cuisine to a backdrop of contemporary canvases. Sunday roasts are popular.
reviewed
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Baozi Inn
The smaller sister of Bar Shu has its own personality and a unique (and cheap) menu. Decorated in a vintage style that plays at kitsch communist pop (complete with old Chinese communist songs tinkling out of the speakers), Baozi Inn serves quality Beijing and Chengdu-style street food, such as dan dan noodles with spicy pork and baozi buns (steamed buns with stuffing) handmade daily. It’s authentic, delicious and cheap food-gold in often-unreliable Chinatown.
reviewed
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Cantina Italia
Though this funky little trattoria with modern art on the walls and a Sardinian connection does more ambitious secondi such as the stew-like stinco di maiale (around £14), most people come here for the fine pizzas (from around £5 to £9) and pasta (from around £8 to £12). Don't miss the linguine tossed with bottarga (cured mullet roe), oil, garlic, parsley and red pepper flakes.
reviewed
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Criterion Grill
This beautiful Marco Pierre White restaurant is all chandeliers, mirrors, marble and sparkling mosaics - one breathless wag has compared it to the inside of a Fabergé egg - but its most spectacular feature is the classic French food, which ranges from the delicate tian of Devon crab to roast suckling pig mussel. The daily lunch specials (usually British favourites like shepherd's pie and fish and chips) are a snip at around £13.
reviewed
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Mesón Los Barriles
Avoid the chain-gang restaurants that now dominate the newly ‘regenerated’ (read sterile and corporate-friendly) Spitalfields market and stick to the old school with this long-established family restaurant. While the fresh fish here is great, the real draw is the excellent selection of tapas (£3.50 to £11.95). Sawdust on the floor and air-dried hams overhead add to the rustic market feel of the place.
reviewed
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Hoxton Apprentice
Both professionals and apprentices work the kitchen in this restaurant, under the auspices of the Training For Life charity. Appropriately enough, it's housed in a Victorian school building.
reviewed
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Rasa Samudra
This bubblegum-pink eatery just up from Oxford Street showcases the seafood cuisine of Kerala state on India’s southwest coast, supported by a host – eight out of 14 main courses – of more familiar vegetarian dishes. The fish soups are outstanding, the breads superb and the various curries divinely spiced. It is one of six Rasa restaurants in London.
reviewed
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Christopher's
This sleek American bar and grill is housed in a vast Georgian mansion just off the Strand. Its interior is suitably grand, with a busy downstairs bar and a stylish upstairs dining room, where classic but clever dishes such as blackened salmon with jambalaya risotto are served up next to a wonderful array of gargantuan USDA steaks and surf and turf combinations. Brunch (11:30 to 15:30) at the weekend pulls in the crowds.
reviewed
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Arbutus
This Michelin-starred brainchild of Anthony Demetre does great British food, focuses on seasonal produce and just keeps on getting better. Try inventive dishes such as squid and mackerel ‘burger’, sweetbreads and artichokes or pieds et paquets (lamb tripe parcels with pig trotters) and don’t miss the bargain £16.95 for a three-course lunch or £17.95 for a three-course pre- and post-theatre dinner. Booking is essential.
reviewed
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Harwood Arms
A food-reviewer friend of ours with impeccable taste buds lists this gastropub as one of his favourite places to eat in London – sorry mate! – and returns not infrequently for the likes of game tea accompanied by venison sausage roll, grilled salted ox tongue with Jerusalem artichokes and/or Berkshire wood pigeon with Cumbrian air-dried ham. Carniphobes should hightail it west to the Gate.
reviewed
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Fino
Critically acclaimed (and it’s easy to see why), Fino represents an example of good Spanish cuisine in a London that’s all too dominated by dreary and uninventive tapas bars. Set in a glamorous basement, Fino is a tapas restaurant with a difference. Try the Jerusalem artichoke cooked with mint, the prawn tortilla with wild garlic or the foie gras with chilli jam for a feast of innovative and delightful Spanish cooking.
reviewed
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Couscous Café
This cosy and vividly decorated basement place excels in Moroccan-style couscous and tagines (spicy stews cooked in an earthenware dish), pastillas (filled savoury pastries) and slightly exaggerated service. Try the mixed meze plate (small/large £6.95/11.95). Alcohol is served or you can BYO (no corkage fee).
reviewed
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Tatra
Despite the surfeit of Poles in West London, upmarket Polish eateries remain as scarce as hens’ teeth. Tatra is one major exception, with its designer-driven decor and ever-so-cool waiting staff. The menu offers all the usual favourites as well as less familiar treats, such as kaszanka (grilled black pudding with toast and apple) and a risotto of kasza (buckwheat groats) and wild mushrooms.
reviewed
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Grafton House
The A-listers of Clapham rub shoulders in this very stylish bar-restaurant with marble floors, tropical hardwood tables and curved leather sofas. The menu is modern international – simple but with that extra caress (pumpkin risotto, venison and plum burger; lobster, crab and salmon fishcake) – and brunch is a big deal here, served daily from noon to 4pm. There’s live jazz on Sunday evenings.
reviewed
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Mestizo
If your idea of Mexican food is tacos and gluggy refried beans, think again. At this large and very attractive restaurant and tequila bar you’ll find everything from quesadillas (cheese-filled pasties) to filled corn enchiladas. But go for the specials: pozole (a thick fresh corn soup with meat) and several different preparations of mole (chicken or pork cooked in a rich chocolate sauce).
reviewed
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Matsuri
This high-quality and very authentic Japanese restaurant on the fringe of the City can sometimes feel a little sterile, although the quality of the food is extremely high. With a sushi counter and stylish dining room on the ground floor and a large teppanyaki (hotplate) room in the basement where the meals are prepared in all seriousness by celebrated chef Hiroshi Sudo, there’s plenty of choice.
reviewed
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Nosh Bar
A famous Soho institution in the 1940s and ‘50s, the Nosh has been reincarnated, though now in a sleeker edition. It still serves old Jewish staples such as salt beef (tender, juicy) in bagels (filling, sturdy) and garnished with pickles (hot and sour). You can also have latkes (potato pancakes), chicken soup and Jewish cheesecakes and eat it all as you watch the (under) world of Soho through the window.
reviewed
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Eat & Two Veg
One of the best vegetarian experiences in London, Eat & Two Veg is bright and breezy with charming, friendly staff and a smart 21st-century American-diner look. The menu is international eclectic – Thai green curry, Lankawi hotpot – and the mock meat dishes (‘sausage’ and mash, cheeseburger and fries) would fool even carnivores. There’s plenty on offer for vegans, too.
reviewed
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River Café
The Thames-side restaurant that spawned the world-famous eponymous cookery books offers simple, precise cooking that showcases seasonal ingredients sourced with fanatical expertise; the menus change daily. Booking is essential, as it’s a favourite of the Fulham set.
reviewed
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L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
Superchef Robuchon has 25 Michelin stars to his name – and two of them are derived from this, his London flagship. A wall of living foliage adds lushness to the dimly lit dining room, with a sparkling open kitchen as its showcase. Degustation (£125) and set lunch and pre-theatre menus (two-/three-courses £22/27) are available.
reviewed
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Kensington Place
The impressive glass frontage and design-driven interior look a little corporate to our taste, but the food certainly has soul. The emphasis is on seafood, with the adjoining fishmonger’s providing the goods, although there are some very decent vegetarian and meat options, too.
reviewed
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Green Papaya
This simple but friendly neighbourhood restaurant has been serving up high-quality Vietnamese food to Hackney diners for years. The extensive menu is strong on vegetarian and seafood dishes.
reviewed