15 Best London Restaurants You Should Try

21 April 2021

London is known for its amazing food, among other things, and there are some incredible restaurants in the city. Which ones are the best?

The biggest cities around the world invariably have their fair share of stupendous food spots, and London’s no different. The city’s positively bristling with incredible places to eat, and we don’t blame you for wanting to explore them! In this article, we’re going to talk about just that - our favorite food spots in London, and everything you might need to know about them.

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

68 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea London SW3 4HP

Photo By Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

This amazing spot is Gordon Ramsay’s flagship restaurant, and it’s easy to see why. The restaurant itself holds three Michelin stars! On an impressive note, the restaurant earned all three of those stars in the first three years of opening, an incredible achievement.

They make stupendous and elegant modern French cuisine using only the finest seasonal ingredients - they make use of both classical and modern techniques to give you the best dining experience possible.

The restaurant itself has a small amount of seating, leading to an intimate experience with the forty-five guests total. It’s a truly exquisite experience that we’d surely recommend to anyone.

Trivet

Trivet. 36 Snowsfields, London. SE1 3SU

Photo By Trivet Restaurant

Trivet is a restaurant that truly appreciates the delicate balance of flavors that can be struck between great food and great wine. A trivet is a kitchen implement upon which a pot stands, supported above a fire. This name implies balance - an ideal that the spot strives for in their meals.

With over three-hundred-and-fifty wines on offer, you’re sure to be offered a spectacular bottle to go with your meal, and you can be sure that they’ll pair beautifully.

Hide

85 Piccadilly London, W1J 7NB

Photo By Hide Restaurant

This utterly beautiful restaurant embraces the concept of serving stunning food in a luxurious and wonderful location. We love how much wood there is within the dining area, including the beautiful hand-carved wooden staircase.

Despite this wonderful atmosphere (and the fact that the spot overlooks Green Park), nothing could distract you from the unforgettable seasonal menu. As a new restaurant in London (after six months of being open) the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star, certainly something to be impressed by. We adore the seasonal menu - it means you get to experience new delights all year round.

No. Fifty Cheyne

50 Cheyne Walk Chelsea, London SW3 5LR

Photo By No. Fifty Cheyne Restaurant

The wonderful set menus at this spot focus on ensuring that the food is high-quality, while the vibe of the restaurant is more casual. This is a unique concept in the world of fine dining, and we love to see it!

The restaurant and upstairs bar bear the hallmarks of stylish old Chelsea living - it’s a great place that certainly won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

Simpson’s In The Strand

100 Strand, London, WC2R 0EW

Simpson in the Strand Restaurant in London

Photo By Simpson in the Strand Restaurant

There is a lovely sense of fun in this old spot which is just as unlikely as it is welcome. It’s a very traditional British place and boasts a 192-year age along with its status as one of the Savoy’s restaurants. Truly, this place is an institution.

The restaurant is famous for its roast beef, which is incredibly tender and well seasoned. The famous carving trolleys are everywhere within the restaurant and make it a wonderful place to go on the weekend for a roasted delight.

14 Hills

14th floor, 120 Fenchurch St, London EC3M 5BA

Photo By 14 Hills Restaurant

This restaurant is situated just below the new public garden on Fenchurch Road, and is the perfect accompaniment to time there. The restaurant includes a deli, a bar, and a dining room - which combine to serve wonderful food-to-go, as well as impressive lunch and dinner well into the evening.

The crowning glory of the restaurant is its informal atmosphere which, while not casual by any means, allows you to go for a wonderfully cozy, relaxed, meal in a great spot.

Lina Stores King’s Cross Restaurant & Deli

20 Stable Street, King’s Cross, London N1C 4DR

This is one of those special places out there in the culinary world where the food is divine to the point that it would be hard to pick a single dish out of the entire menu for your meal. As such, the consensus is that it’s wise to pick a few dishes for the table and share them to get the most flavor out of your time there.

The spot specializes in Italian food served as it would be served in Italy, most notably stunning pasta dishes. We adore the carbonara, as the pasta itself is fresh and in a gently small portion, to be accompanied by a wonderfully fresh, yolky sauce and divine guanciale throughout.

Sketch Lecture Room & Library

9 Conduit Street, London W1S 2XG

Sketch is perhaps the best underdog story in the restaurant world. When it first opened, the food was lauded with monumentally poor reviews, before cleaning up its act and getting spectacular dishes to the plates of discerning diners.

The restaurant performs well with a powerful sense of theatre. Guests are welcomed through large double doors on the first floor of the townhouse and shown to their table in a flamboyant dining room where the elegance of the atmosphere is nearly enough to overwhelm you.

You must have the tasting menu on your first trip - it is tremendously over the tip and absurd, and that’s what makes it so wonderful. It is clever, colorful, and incredibly delicious!

Amazónico

10 Berkeley Square Mayfair, London W1J 6BR

This beautifully decorated restaurant is perhaps one of the most beautiful rooms that we’ve ever seen! The room is big and the flavors are bold to match. The food is stunning, from small chicken rolls and sea urchin guacamole, not to mention Amazónico’s version of the humble tortilla chip - crispy and wonderful plantains.

The thing that makes this spot truly stupendous is the charcoal-grilled meats, which are hand-carved at the table and absolutely dripping in succulent and wonderful juices. Our advice is to go for the picanha - it’s divine!

Oren

89 Shacklewell Lane, Dalston, London, E8 2EB

This restaurant takes a wonderful approach to dining, presenting you with exceptional food, and a comfortable, stripped-back atmosphere to eat it in. The intimate setting within the restaurant itself is somewhat like a trendy flat, all concrete and low lighting. There are no frills in the dining experience, save for the stupendous food.

The plates are small Mediterranean-style plates which, rather than feeling stingy, feel welcoming and loving. The food is warming, comforting, and spectacular. We particularly love the way that the menu elevates home-cooking-style desserts, particularly the chocolate mousse with almonds.

Fatt Pundit

77 Berwick St Soho, London W1F 8TH

This spot specializes in a type of cuisine that we hadn’t heard of previously - Hakka. It originated in India and boasts huge flavors and colors first and foremost.

We really adore their signature dish - a spicy lollipop chicken. It sounds like a bad joke, but it’s actually wonderful! They also serve one of my favorite dishes ever - crackling spinach with a yogurt topping and a pomegranate zing.

These two dishes are so good that sometimes I’ll just feel them pop into my mind, even when nothing nearby has made me think of the restaurant. We cannot recommend Fatt Pundit enough, they serve amazing food that looks nearly as good as it tastes, make sure to try it soon!

A Wong

70 Wilton Rd, London SW1V 1DE

This restaurant was founded by Andrew Wong, who is a spectacular chef whose name has been big for a long time now. Wong specializes in classic Chinese cuisine - food that’s warm and incredibly good while also contributing to a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere.

This restaurant serves the Chinese food of your dreams, and the tasting menu is a great example of that. It is wonderfully theatrical without being at all gimmicky. It takes a while to get through, though, so set some time aside for that.

The Araki

12 New Burlington Street, London W1S 3BH

Similar to some other restaurants on our list, The Araki places extremely high importance on having the food speak for itself in a restaurant decorated in a more spartan style.

In total, only nine diners can be seated at any one time, which means that you soon develop a nearly personal relationship with head chef Mitsuhiro Araki - he stands and makes food in front of you in a truly wonderful experience.

The Araki is a testament to exactly what can happen when you take a straightforward approach to a whole host of stunning ingredients - food that’s both simple and stupendous.

Bibendum

81 Fulham Road, Chelsea London SW3 6RD

This restaurant opened to stunning reviews and, like a number of spots, the quality fell off after a while. However, Claude Bosi took the reins in 2017, and the restaurant has now returned to its former glory, serving up stupendous dishes that you’ve never heard of before.

Some menu highlights include Cornish turbot and de Bresse roast chicken. Aside from that, we’d also recommend the chicken skin scratchings - they disappear in mere moments thanks to their wonderful flavor and the delicious dip they’re served with.

Kanishka

17 - 19 Maddox Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 2QH

This restaurant has a number of stupendous flavors on offer, such that even the most seasoned palate will likely be pleasantly surprised by the wonderful meals.

A definite must-try dish is the Tibetan guinea fowl thukpa. It’s an aromatic and meaty noodle soup that boasts all of the flavors of a powerful hot and sour broth, but without the burn that so often accompanies that. Don’t forget to order a side of daal and egg curry!

This wonderful spot pushes the boundaries of Indian food, and the result is something utterly stupendous.

What is the most popular restaurant in London?

This is a really tough one to call! There are so many places in London, and they’re constantly shifting up and down the ranks of popular critics and the jury of public opinion. With that said, we’d have to recommend checking out one of Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurants.

Gordon Ramsay Restaurant London is the famous chef’s flagship restaurant and promises some fine dining in a lovely setting. The restaurant holds three Michelin stars and pairs spectacular seasonal ingredients with classic and modern techniques. If you had to pick just one of Ramsay’s restaurants to visit, we’d suggest making it this one.

What is the most expensive restaurant in London?

While prices do fluctuate up and down over time, there is one spot that has garnered a reputation as an exceptional pricey spot to eat. The Lecture Room and Library at Sketch in London is a luxurious spot that boasts three Michelin stars!

Taster menus at Sketch Lecture Room and Library ate around $190 per person, but the ‘Special Treat’ menu is where you can truly spend a large wedge of cash. This menu features eight courses as well as eight prestigious wines and comes to a total of $570.

The food is truly superb, as is the service and atmosphere. While it’s certainly expensive, we can understand why some people would be perfectly happy spending that much!

Which restaurants in London have Michelin stars?

There are a huge number of different restaurants in London which boast Michelin stars. In total there are sixty-six different amazing spots that boast the prestigious award in London, and they’re all sure to be incredible.

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester
Core by Clare Smyth
A Wong
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Amaya
Barrafina Dean Street

Where do the celebrities eat in London?

Because there is always so much going on in London, there are nearly always a huge number of celebrities dotted throughout the capital city. As you might expect, these celebs want to eat at fancy restaurants just as much as we do, and they can definitely get reservations!

Nobu in Mayfair is perhaps the best restaurant for celebrity spotting in the capital. The restaurant is co-owned by Robert de Niro, and frequented by a large number of celebs. The list includes Brad Pitt, Elton John, and Naomi Campbell among other stars, making it a place that’s definitely star-studded.

Do you need to tip in London?

Well, it’s really up to you.

In the UK, waitstaff must earn at least the national minimum wage, though we’d imagine that the wages at fancier locations in London are higher than that of the minimum. This means that, unlike the US, waitstaff don’t need tips to make their wage up to a livable amount, at least in theory.

With that said, the waitstaff is typically paid very little compared to other members of a restaurant’s staff, so we’d recommend tipping out of politeness or if the server did a particularly good job - the extra cash will certainly be appreciated.