The best restaurants in London Bridge

What is it? From the same minds who brought you Ducksoup in Soho and Little Duck The Picklery in Dalston comes a new venture with its sights set on France.

Why we love it: Camille is unassuming at first, with classic French dishes using local British produce (you’re in Borough Market, after all), lots of wine and a packed chalkboard of daily specials. But once you’re a course or two in, windows steamy with condensation and a few glasses deep – perhaps fighting the temptation to run your finger over those last drops of sauce – you might as well be on a backstreet of Montmartre as opposed to Southwark.

Time Out tip: The chocolate bun, stacked with velvety ice cream and chocolate mousse, is an engineering marvel.

Address: 2-3 Stoney Street, Borough Market, SE1 9AA.

Opening hours: Mon 5.30-10pm, Weds-Sat 12-3pm & 5.30-10pm, Sun 12-4pm.

Expect to pay: Starters £9, smaller plates £14-19, large plates £25-48, dessert £5-14.

What is it? A Thai restaurant from the same team as Shoreditch’s much-loved Som Saa.

Why we love it: Kolae is in a former coach house and has a sophisticated New York neighbourhood eatery air; all exposed brick and intimate seating stacked over three floors, with old time rock’n’roll playing at a tasteful background volume. Expect full-throttle Thai flavours, including amazing mussel skewers, red kabocha squash, crunchy kale and herb fritters with fermented chilli and cashew nuts, sour mango salad with roasted coconut and dried fish and wild sea bass curry.

Time Out tip: You simply must order those mussel skewers.

Address: 6 Park Street, Borough, SE1 9AB.

Opening hours: Mon-Wed 12-3pm & 5-10pm, Thu 12-3pm & 5-10.30pm, Fri-Sat 12-10.30pm, Sun 12-9pm. 

Expect to pay: Small plates £5-7.50, large plates £8-18, specials £15, sides £10. 

What is it? Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s debut restaurant, Rambutan, is a south London hub for Sri Lankan food. 

Why we love it: The menu draws from what her mother cooked during Shanmugalingam’s 1980s childhood in Coventry as well as trips to the family village in Jaffna province, where pandan grows next to lemongrass and curry leaves. Using a global grab-bag of ingredients, as well as Tamil mainstays, this diasporic, open-kitchen cooking gives Stoney Street its first proper slice of post-colonial South Asian flavour. Try Jaffna lamb ribs, sticky chicken pongal rice and prawn curry with tamarind.

Time Out tip: Look out for supper clubs from Rambutan & Cousins, a series of collaborative dinners with top chefs, serving limited edition menus at the restaurant.

Address: 10 Stoney Street, Borough, SE1 9AD.

Opening hours: Mon-Sat 12-10.15pm, Sun 12-9pm.

Expect to pay: Starters £5-12.50, grill dishes £9-20, clay stove dishes £14-28.

What is it? Akara replicates its parent restaurant Akoko’s ingenious and critically acclaimed take on west African cuisine and brings it to a more casual, less-intense place

Why we love it: Because of the titular akara. It’d be lazy to call them ‘the west African bao’, but that would give the uninitiated an idea of what to expect. Fluffy-yet-cakey balls, delicately fried and perched magisterially on stone cubes, each one bifurcated then ladened with stuff like prawn, ox cheek, mushrooms and scallops. Like most things Akoko-related, they’re accompanied by a bit of psychedelic scotch bonnet sauce.

Time Out tip: There is a very reasonably priced £25 set menu available at lunch. 

Address: Arch 208, 18 Stoney Street, SE1 9AD.

Opening hours: Mon 5-11pm, Tue-Fri 12-3pm & 5-11pm, Sat-Sun 12-11pm. 

Expect to pay: Akaras £7-11, plates £12-28, sides £6-12.

What is it? Michelin star scoring modern Korean cookery.

Why we love it: Husband and wife duo Woong Chul Park and Bomee Ki – who met training at Le Cordon Bleu – have created a unique style of cooking that showcases familiar Korean dishes made using French techniques and artfully woven through the deconstructive tendencies of molecular gastronomy. It’s so damn good it's got a Michelin star. 

Time Out tip: There’s a mushroom martini on the menu and it would be bonkers if you didn’t order it. 

Address: Unit 1, 8 Melior Street, SE1 3QP.

Opening hours: Wed-Thu 6-11pm, Fri-Sat 12-3pm & 6-11.30pm.

Expect to pay: Lunch tasting menu £78. Dinner tasting menu £152.

What is it? Founded by a real-life Texan (he’s the one in the Stetson – no, really), this place has such a self-explanatory name that we don’t really need to add much more.

Why we love it: On the menu is everything your cardiologist has ever warned you not to eat (even down to the white bread accompanying the mains): deep-fried chicken wings, fatty cuts of meat oak-smoked to melting perfection, cheese-stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon… Clean-eating it ain’t, but for one night only, it’s worth loosening that belt buckle.

Time Out tip: The Flying W Saloon is the in-house bar, and very good it is too. Keep an eye out for special events, such as DJ sets from contemporary country music stars such as Nashville-based Margo Price.  

Address: 8-9 Snowsfields, SE1 3SU.

Opening hours: Tue-Wed 5-10.30pm, Thu-Fri 12-3pm & 5-10.30pm, Sat 12-10.30pm. 

Expect to pay: Barbecue plates £12-22, tacos £10-12, sides £4-10.

What is it? Legare is the very definition of a very decent neighbourhood Italian spot.

Why we love it: With a refined menu of simple dishes, its handmade pasta is near perfection with the pappardelle a carb-laden treat wrapped around a rich ragù of fennel sausage and cavolo nero. Also great is the veggie orecchiette, and for pud do not miss the blissful cannoli: crisp pastry, pumped with ricotta and studded with pistachios.

Time Out tip: Like Legare? Then check out Luna just across the road, a wine bar, bottle shop and restaurant from the same team. 

Address: Cardamom Building, 31G Shad Thames, SE1 2YB.

Opening hours: Mon 6-10pm, Tue-Sat 12-10pm, Sun 12-4pm. 

Expect to pay: Small plates and crudo £4-18, antipasti £14-20, primi £22-24, secondi £34-38.

What is it? Bang outside Flat Iron Square, pocket-sized Lupins is in the small-plates business – and it really does know how to deliver.

Why we love it: Expect eclectic seasonal flavours maxed out for colour, vibrancy and zing – full marks for the roast hake with ’nduja risotto and the pigeon breast with smoky chipotle butter, charred baby gem and green chilli yoghurt on our last visit. Amazingly, everything comes from a kitchen that’s no bigger than the cooking area in your average Londoner’s flat.

Time Out tip: The menu changes fortnightly, so you can expect something new on every visit. 

Address: 66-68 Union St, Flat Iron Square, SE1 1TD.

Opening hours: Tue 5-9.30pm, Wed-Sat 12-2.30pm & 5-9.30pm.

Expect to pay: Snacks £3.50-10, small plates £12-14, large plates £14-26.

What is it? A pretty authentic Mexican restaurant. 

Why we love it: Low-lit, inviting and spread over two floors, Santo Remedio seduces punters with easy-listening Latin grooves, flickering tea lights and some inspired food – guacamole sprinkled with tiny grasshoppers, wholemeal quesadillas, Mexican-style prawn ceviche, charred lamb chops with tangy mole. There are punishing shots of mezcal too.  

Time Out tip: Their bottomless brunch is one of the best in London. Come for pork belly tacos and baby potato flautas and free-flowing margaritas, cava, sangria and more.

Address: 152 Tooley Street, London Bridge, SE1 2TU.

Opening hours: Tue-Fri 12-10.30pm, Sat 11am-10.30pm, Sun 11am-9.30pm. 

Expect to pay: Starters £5-13, tostadas and tacos all around £15, sharing dishes £24-50, sides £7-10.

What is it? A classy, double Michelin starred spot on the backstreets of Bermondsey.

Why we love it: This is a place for people who are serious about food. It comes to from a pair with pedigree: Jonny Lake and Isa Bal. For more than a decade, they served as The Fat’s Duck head chef and head sommelier, respectively. Their style of the food is quietly meticulous: there’s flair, but also restraint. 

Time Out tip: The Trivet Bar offers a snacking take on the main menu, as well as classy cocktails and sake.

Address: 36 Snowfields, SE1 3S.

Opening hours: Wed-Sat 12-3pm, Tue-Sat 6-9pm.

Expect to pay: It’s not cheap; starters are around £40 and mains around £60. 

What is it? A double Michelin-starred outpost of modernist cuisine.

Why we love it: Don’t expect to be given a menu at Restaurant Story. Instead, tattooed wunderkind chef Tom Sellers wheels out a cavalcade of playfully artistic plates – the self-proclaimed ‘chapters’ in a gripping gastronomic tale that requires your uninterrupted sensory attention for a goodly amount of time. It’s easy to digest, although the full extent of this seriously weighty tome is only revealed once the bill arrives.

Time Out tip: Restaurant Story has a Covent Garden outpost, the equally good Story Cellar, which specialises in cuisine inspired by the rotisseries and brasseries of Paris.  

Address: 201 Tooley Street, SE1 2UE.

Opening hours: Tue-Thu 6-9pm, Fri-Sat 12-2pm & 6-9pm.

Expect to pay: The 9-course tasting menu, with snacks and treats, is £250 per person. The 5-course lunch menu is £140.

What is it? A super high rise Sichuan and northern Chinese spot up the Shard.

Why we love it: You’ll probably be able to see Chinatown from Hutong’s lofty perch on The Shard, but that’s where the similarities end – this glitzy venue swaps wipe-clean tables and picture menus for glamorous oriental-inflected dark-wood interiors, beautifully presented Sichuan and northern Chinese dishes, and on-the-ball service. The standard of the food almost surpasses the wow-factor of the skyline views, making Hutong a shoo-in for the ‘expensive but worth it’ section of your restaurant hit-list.

Time Out tip: The weekend brunch is £60 a head, with a £40 add-on for free-flowing, bottomless drinks. 

Address: The Shard, Level 33, 31 St. Thomas Street, SE1 9RY.

Opening hours: Daily 11am-1am. 

Expect to pay: Starters £15-28, dim sum £16-25, seafood £42-110, fish and meat dishes £45-50, veg and sides £15-30.

What is it? Sizzling steaks and sustainably sourced fish cooked over coals are the headliners at this London offshoot of Brighton’s Coal Shed.

Why we love it: This handsome space of smoky mirrors, metal and dark wood, comes with a jazzy laid-back soundtrack as accompaniment. Although the big plates hold centre stage, don’t ignore their memorable smaller cousins (short-rib croquettes with punchy gochujang mayo, for example). Brilliant service seals the deal.   

Time Out tip: The very good house cheeseburger, with American cheese, dill pickle aioli and beef fat chips, is only available from 12-4pm. 

Address: Unit 3.1, 4 Crown Square, One Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge, SE1 2SE.

Opening times: Sun-Mon 5-11pm, Tue-Sat 12-11pm.

Expect to pay: Snacks £4-5, starters £12-18, steaks £37-60, mains £19-28, sides £5-7.

What is it? Batik textiles, colourful masks, incense and acres of carved teak spell good times at this self-styled ‘Thai-Malay’ favourite in the shadow of The Shard.

Why we love it: At Champor-Champor inventive vegan and veggie dishes sit alongside hawker classics, curries and east-west mash-ups such as spiced lamb neck with tamarind and sweet-potato mascarpone or red snapper with Malaysian sambal and squid-ink linguine (the restaurant’s name means ‘mix and match’). 

Time Out tip: Book the private table à deux on the mezzanine if you’re feeling flirty.

Address: 62-64 Weston Street, SE1 3QJ.

Opening hours: Mon-Thu 12-3pm & 6-10pm, Fri-Sat 12-3pm & 5-10pm, Sun 12-3pm & 5-9pm.

Expect to pay: Starters £10-15, mains £18-25.