Top 5 Restaurants in London

1- Café Cecilia

About
Located just off Broadway Market, Café Cecilia is a trendy neighbourhood restaurant run by Max Rocha, who’s previous experience at The River Café, St John Bread & Wine and Spring has stood him in good stead for this east London venture. The restaurant is definitely a family affair though, with Max calling on the expertise of his sister, Simone Rocha, and father, who are both big-name designers, to decorate the space. John Rocha is responsible for the dining room’s design, while Simone ventured into men's wear to design the staff’s uniform. Needless to say, Café Cecilia is an achingly trendy place to eat.
The bright dining room is understated without feeling stark, designed to make the diner feel like they’re somewhere a little bit under the radar. There are artworks from friends and family throughout the space, while wine bottles sit proudly on display behind a grey marble counter. The restaurant is open for breakfast lunch and dinner, although not every day of the week so do check current opening hours. Swing by in the morning for a pick-me-up of granola with poached rhubarb and yoghurt, or its famous bacon sandwich. Later on in the day, an a la carte menu of starters, mains and desserts takes its place. Here, you might be able to find sage and anchovy fritti, or a pork and apricot terrine to start. Followed by skate with spinach, brown butter and capers, or lamb leg with purple sprouting broccoli and anchovy sauce. Dishes are kept simple, and supremely fresh. For dessert, think chocolate and Guinness cake or deep-fried bread and butter pudding. The wine list is an intriguing one with plenty of natural bottles on offer, as well as plenty of enticing cocktails.Read more

2- The Clove Club

About
The Clove Club is now firmly ensconced in the upper echelons of the gastronomic firmament, with world-class awards and gongs galore reflecting its runaway success. It should come as no surprise that main man Isaac McHale’s cooking is radical, unorthodox stuff, with the emphasis on daringly modern, multi-course tasting menus involving seriously sourced ingredients – although welcoming staff are on hand to describe the dishes very well. A tasting menu here might feature white asparagus with ginger and duck ham to start, followed by a raw Orkney scallop with hazelnut, clementine and truffle. You might see Scottish langoustine with green tomato, or duck breast with rare citrus and endive.
Prepare to be challenged as the kitchen applies its abstruse skills to startling, experimental concepts such as hay-smoked sea trout tartare in Pink Fir soup with Japanese sansho pepper or blood pudding with Braeburn apple and chicory relish or even pink-roasted Hebridean lamb embellished with prunes, mustard and mint. McHale’s almost obsessive desire to push the envelope means that you may not necessarily ‘get’ every dish, but there’s undeniable brilliance and creativity at every turn – from the selection of little snacks to audacious sweet riffs like Amalfi lemonade paired with Sarawak pepper ice cream. Occupying a prized pitch within Old Shoreditch Town Hall, the dining room is quite pretty (in a cosy but cool, minimalist kind of way) with plenty of chef-watching opportunities at the blue-tiled open kitchen, while the bustling corner bar is now a full-on destination with its own menu of funky cocktails and small plates including flame-grilled mackerel sashimi with English mustard and cucumber. It’s also the kind of place where they offer soft drinks pairings as well as the standard wine-based options, and even lay on a bespoke ‘tea tasting’ during dry January. Yes, this restaurant is unlike anything else in London.Read more

3- Quo Vadis

About
Founded back in 1926, this quintessential Soho sanctuary has been a stalwart of Soho’s bohemian frivolity for nearly a century, hosting everything from drinks parties to raucous banquets along the way. Quo Vadis isn’t drifting quietly into old age, far from it in fact; a 2023 refurb has given the restaurant a new lease of life, doubling the size of the dining room and brightening the old brown-leather banquettes to a rather more fetching ruby red. Still, this isn’t a total reinvention of a classic - QV still has all the cosy, wood-panelled charm as in previous years, and the jewel-like stained glass windows remain too, though they’ve been lightened a touch. Perhaps most importantly of all, the exuberant Jeremy Lee remains steadfastly behind the stoves, gently ushering lovely plates into the dining room.
Lee’s cooking has always been a joyful celebration of the seasons, and it’s no different now as it ever was. Our meal starts in time-honoured QV tradition with oysters and mignonette, crisp salsify batons loaded with an indulgent pile of Parmesan, and the famous smoked eel and horseradish sandwich - built with generosity rather than stability in mind with four big, meaty chunks of eel balanced precariously inside. There’s so much more to appreciate on the menu as well. Beautifully-cooked guinea fowl arrives with juices dripping onto a bed of polenta, which itself has both fluffy innards and a lovely crisp exterior. We were also rather enamoured by a salad of cuttlefish, fennel, monksbeard and three-cornered leek, which sounds innocuous on paper, but came together in perfect harmony thanks to meaty, tender cuttlefish and a nice hit of black pepper, made all the better by a glass of buttery Chardonnay. Any gripes were minor, limited to a touch of overseasoning here and there. All is forgotten when a piece of lemon tart arrives with a spoon of creme fraiche on the side. Sweet, sharp and with a pleasing density and bronzed pastry casing, it’s an ideal end to proceedings. The surroundings may be new, but Quo Vadis is still a slice of old-school Soho that everyone should experience.Read more

4- Akoko

About
Shrouded behind sprawling greenery and a slim glass door on Berners Street, Akoko’s entrance is easily missed, but this smart Fitzrovia restaurant is fast becoming a key player in London’s West African fine dining movement. Like many restaurants born during the pandemic, lockdowns somewhat hampered Akoko in its early days but the restaurant we visited is one that is picking up pace fast, weaving West African flavours with elegance across an exciting tasting menu and drinks pairings.
We visited Akoko in its relative infancy and though the food was excellent, we wondered if it could be a little more challenging and unique. By comparison, Akoko 2.0 - now led by exec chef Ayo Adeyemi alongside founder Aji Akokomi - is just that. Akokomi has curated an experience where everything has purpose and meaning, from art on the walls (with pride of place given to a woven installation of ekpiri seed husks, fashioned by contemporary Nigerian artist Niyi Olagunju) to the monochromatic terracotta interiors and hand-whittled wooden cutlery that accompanies certain courses. Every aspect feels carefully considered, right down to the custom, Akoko-monogrammed skewers that hold together Adeyemi’s ox tongue suya. That suya - served with a gentle lick of mustard and a pool of aerated bone marrow sauce - is utterly extraordinary. Like many courses at Akoko, it burns fast and bright, and is devoured too quickly. Other high points include a beautiful ballotine of monkfish and white asparagus, and a bowl of delicately-stuffed mussels and ripe tomatoes in a deftly-spiced broth. Plump for the Akoko pairing and sommelier Oscar Clark will libate you with a mixture of wines, cocktails and even a glass of Nigerian stout. In the closing stages of the menu, an old favourite arrives - Akoko’s jollof rice, which emerges in a cloud of smoke, ready to be mixed through a bowl of lamb, aubergine and chives. If we could wish for one thing from Akoko, it would be more courses, and more chances to explore the limits of Adeyemi’s thrilling, dynamic cooking.Read more

5- Chet’s

About
Trendy hotel chain The Hoxton has a new outpost, this time choosing west London’s Shepard’s Bush to set up shop. At first, expect all The Hoxton has previously promised you – a cool lobby area with statement art pieces and sinkable armchairs. Straight ahead is a ritzy, brasserie-style bar and peeking through it, you can just about see the ground-floor restaurant, Chet’s. The Hoxton is well-versed in collaborating with pop-ups and Chet’s was road-tested at the Holborn branch before becoming a permanent fixture here. This is the first UK venture for chef and founder Kris Yenbamroong, who already has a successful group of restaurants in California.
Chet’s brings together the ‘Americana’ spirit of the West Coast and Yenbamroong’s Thai heritage, nodding to his family’s cult restaurant which was among the first to serve mainstream Thai food in LA. Yenbamroong clearly understands the power of a few crowd-pleasing, signature dishes and the menu is littered with plates you’ll want to share with your mates. We tried the day menu, from which the pineapple rice is a non-negotiable. Picture an almost comically-large, hollowed pineapple stuffed with tasty fried rice, crispy onions and peanuts, topped with shards of crab meat. Moist, sweet, salty; it’s the perfect side. We also loved the succulent BBQ shrimp which was served on skewers and satisfyingly smothered in peanut sauce. If you’re a fan of katsu chicken, the fried chicken khao soi nods towards this well-known recipe and shouldn’t be missed. The chicken is mouth-watering, but we were obsessed with the Chiang Mai sauce - it was rich and fragrant, punctuated with freshness in the form of coriander, bean sprouts and red onions. The drinks offering is just as exciting with a well-thought-out list of cocktails, of which Thaiami Vice leads the charge. With a playful nod to full moon parties, this four-person cocktail is served in a bucket and mixes Mehkong, Barcadi Carta Blanca, strawberry, coconut, lemongrass, pineapple, citrus and mint. It’s like going on holiday. Other parts of Chet’s menu reference America’s diner culture. Among the breakfast selection, you’ll find classics such as pancakes and waffles, while the dessert menu includes hard milkshakes with all the toppings. This is a big inspiration for the retro décor, too. With pencil-eraser pinks and faded beiges, it feels like a 70s motel in the best way. The space is anchored by a string of patterned booths which reinforce the diner feel and include chic design features such as soft café curtains. It’s safe to say you’ll want to get a few pictures.Read more