Restaurants

Joanna's

Sometimes London’s longest serving eateries are the safest bets, and so it proves with this New York speakeasy-styled brasserie founded by the Ellner family in 1978....

Crystal Palace: 56 Westow Hill, SE19 1RX

Tate Modern Café: Level 2

Whether you’re looking at the art or just the river views, Tate Modern’s Level 2 eaterie is a fantastic place for a quick bite or a longer lunch. Glass walls on...

Bankside: 2nd floor, Tate Modern, Sumner Street, SE1 9TG

The Wolseley

The atmosphere in the Wolseley shimmers with glamour and excitement. Iron chandeliers hang from vaulted ceilings like in a central European castle; the gilded...

Piccadilly: 160 Piccadilly, W1J 9EB

Tom's Kitchen

Tom Aikens’ Tom’s Kitchen is a home from home for Chelsea’s super rich set. But don’t let that put you off. A warm, welcoming room framed in gleaming white...

Chelsea: 27 Cale Street, SW3 3QP

Zetter

The restaurant at Clerkenwell’s foremost boutique hotel (a converted warehouse) is appropriately stylish: a lofty, airy space of subtle dark woods and deep maroons,...

Clerkenwell: 86-88 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5RJ

Chelsea Brasserie

It may be attached to the Sloane Square Hotel, but this smart bar-restaurant doesn’t feel like a fusty corporate appendage. The vibe is buzzy and the room upbeat,...

Belgravia: 7-12 Sloane Square, SW1W 8EG

Gallery Mess

Saatchi Gallery brasserie

Chelsea: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, SW3 4LY

Hoxton Grill

NB in May 2009 the Hoxton Grill(e) was taken over by Soho House Group, and it reopened with a new menu and without the 'e' on July 1 2009. Though not great changes...

Shoreditch: 81 Great Eastern Street, EC2A 3HU

More

New restaurant from Real Greek and Livebait founders

London Bridge: 104 Tooley St, SE1 2TH

Napket

Looks are everything at this stylish café in Sloane central that goes by the tag-line ‘snob food’. The interior is all chic black gloss and space-age perspex,...

Chelsea: 342 King's Road, SW3 5UR

National Café

If you want a more casual alternative to Oliver Peyton’s National Dining Rooms on the other side of the National Gallery, try this, its younger sibling. It’s...

Trafalgar Square: East Wing, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN

St Pancras Grand

Grand brasserie at St Pancras International

Euston: Upper Concourse, St Pancras International, Euston Rd, NW1 2QP

Steam

Wandsworth bar and brasserie

Wandsworth: 55-57 East Hill, SW18 2QE

Acorn House

Nespole, or loquat, is a summer fruit, when it fruits in the UK at all. The Mediterranean climate is more its thing, so we were puzzled to find it sitting (along with...

King's Cross: 69 Swinton Street, WC1X 9NT

Banners

Many trends have come and gone since Banners opened, but its place in Crouch End life remains unassailable. There’s a vaguely Caribbean beach-bar look here, with...

Crouch End: 21 Park Road, N8 8TE

Bob Bob Ricard

Quirky new Soho Brit bar-brasserie

Soho: 1 Upper St James Street, W1F 9DF

Brasserie de Malmaison

Out-of-office diners form the natural clientele of this self-consciously plush restaurant in a boutique hotel converted from a mansion block. In contrast to the...

Farringdon: Malmaison, 18-21 Charterhouse Square, EC1M 6AH

Butcher & Grill

A well-stocked butcher’s counter meets the eye as you enter a restaurant focusing on competently cooked, high-quality meat. Large prints of abstract images of old...

Battersea: 39-41 Parkgate Road, SW11 4NP

Butcher & Grill

Wimbledon: 33 High Street, SW19 5BY

Cookbook Café

The name is misleading; this is no let's-muck-in-together Books For Cooks café, as the smattering of cookbooks here are merely used as shelf decorations (they...

Mayfair: 1 Hamilton Place, Park Lane, W1J 7QY

Electric Brasserie

A stalwart of Portobello’s slick media dining scene, the Electric delivers quality retro cooking throughout the day and much of the night. On the first floor is the...

Notting Hill: 191 Portobello Road, W11 2ED

Gazette

As the second branch in a growing chain (the first at Battersea Reach), we'd expected simple wines and modest food at this little French brasserie. Instead, the wine...

Balham: 1 Ramsden Rd, SW12 8QX

Gazette

Wandsworth: 79 Riverside Plaza, Chatfield Road, SW11 3SE

Giraffe

A warm blast of camaraderie envelops you on entering this popular branch of the worldly wise chain. At lunchtimes Giraffe pulls in a substantial family crowd; children...

Waterloo: Riverside Level 1, Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX

Giraffe

Richmond: 30 Hill Street, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1TW

Giraffe

Marylebone: 6-8 Blandford Street, W1U 4AU

Giraffe

Bloomsbury: 19-21 Brunswick Centre, WC1N 1AF

Giraffe

City: Unit 1, Crispin Place, off Brushfield Street, E1 6DW

Giraffe

Wimbledon: 21 High Street, SW19 5DX