London’s best gastropubs

Pedigree counts, and with siblings including Waterloo’s Anchor & Hope and Canton Arms in Stockwell, there’s no doubting the class of this revamped Victorian boozer on Camberwell Church Street. Small plates, an open kitchen, blackboards and scrubbed tables – all the trademarks are here, and they even do a good line in rustic sharing dishes (Hereford beef, ale and bone-marrow pie, anyone?). Otherwise, we’re in ‘Britain greets the world’ territory: confit Jerusalem artichokes with pickled walnut mayo, spiced aubergine skewers with peanut sauce, roast skate with tartare sauce and new potatoes, and BBQ merguez-spiced lamb with chickpeas, yoghurt and peppers. For afters, spoil yourselves with a Black Forest sundae or rice pudding with marmalade ice cream. Wines, beers and other booze are all up to the mark, and the drinking continues until 2am (by arrangement) in the upstairs bar.

A Bethnal Green boozer of two halves, if ever there was one, The Royal Oak pleases all and sundry with its booze and its grub. Downstairs is a handsome central bar, a hive of activity with bartenders dispensing ales and pricy wines to a motley crew of rowdy creatives and assorted hipsters, while upstairs is all about serious food served in an almost sedate, civilised atmosphere. A seasonal menu of ‘small’ plates (aka starters) and larger mains runs from pan con tomate or grilled radicchio with labneh, figs and honey to rope-grown Suffolk mussels in cider, roast beef salad with artichokes and watercress or pumpkin and leek risotto, while puds feature Hackney gelati as well as flourless chocolate and hazelnut cake. The Royal Oak is also perfect for a big Sunday lunch after the horticultural shindig that is Columbia Road’s famous flower market.

Nigella Lawson wasn’t the only fan who shed a tear when this one-time Victorian gin palace on Uxbridge Road suddenly closed its doors in 2017. Now it’s back, regally restored to life under new owners, and with all its assets in place – including a well-priced global wine list, 100 gins and cocktails, 40 craft beers and a menu of gussied-up gastro-grub. Glittering chandeliers light up the spectacular dining room, where punters can feast on the likes of plaice fillets with brown shrimp butter, sun-blush tomatoes, samphire and tenderstem broccoli. If that sounds too upmarket, you can always settle for a cracking pizza or fish and chips, with sticky toffee pudding for afters. Saturday brunch, all-day Sunday roasts, a kids’ menu and comedy nights also do their bit to pull in the punters – they even do accommodation, with five luxurious bedrooms upstairs.

Named after Nicholas Culpeper (the seventeenth-century herbalist who lived nearby), this sprawling venue is a real tonic for the East End crowd with its offer of four floors of fun including a pub, kitchen/restaurant, bedrooms and a rooftop garden that doubles as a growing patch and seasonal pop-up space. Culpeper’s menu takes the ‘seasonal food, local food’ mantra to new heights, and you can taste the results by ordering, say, courgette risotto with goat’s curd and mint or crispy egg with celery pesto, confit celeriac and walnut oil. There are also more meaty plates of bavette steak or Welsh lamb with sweetbreads, rösti, watercress and tapenade, ahead of cheeky desserts including rhubarb and almond ‘not a tiramisu’ or pear compote and peanut butter mille-feuille. Above all, The Culpeper is an easy mix of eating and drinking under one roof, with enough real ales to satisfy the most hard-core Camra zealot.

An above-snuff Islington local well away from the Upper Street fray, this high-ceilinged green-hued gastropub delivers exactly what the locals expect – pricey but desirable wines (including loads by the glass and carafe), three real ales on rotation, generously proportioned interiors, neutral decor and thoughtfully seasonal Brit-accented cooking with a few global twists. On a typical day, you might be treated to prawns with spiced mango sauce or lamb’s heart with a beef-dripping pancake and pickled red cabbage, ahead of suet-crusted chicken and mushroom pie, pearl barley risotto with courgettes and asparagus or cod with spiced potatoes, spinach and curry butter. After that, perhaps take a punt on pineapple tarte tatin or rhubarb panna cotta with pistachio crumble. Cheeses come courtesy of Neal’s Yard, and Sunday lunch sees some ginormous roasts called into action. There’s also a secluded patio garden out back for balmy days and nights.

A lot of time and money was spent renovating this food-focused pub on Bermondsey Street and it shows – take a look at the vintage, up-styled and reclaimed furniture, the green tiling and the hotchpotch of curios including a stuffed antelope’s head above the door to the toilets. Everything is shipshape in the kitchen, too, judging by an eclectic menu that promises everything from trendy little plates of mackerel rillettes with blood orange and radish to gut-busting servings of cod with buttered cabbage or hanger steak with puy lentils, bone marrow and red wine sauce. To round things off, expect something simple such as coffee crème brûlée. With breakfast, afternoon snacks, bottomless Saturday brunch and Sunday roasts also on the cards, plus pints of unfiltered lager from the Battersea Brewery on tap and the option of private screenings in the little ‘cinema room’ downstairs, The Garrison has your social life sorted.

From the same team who relaunched The Coach in Clerkenwell and The Hero of Maida in W9, this rebooted backstreet boozer nor far from Mansion House tube is a gastropub project from Francophile chef Henry Harris (he of Racine, back in the day). Drinkers assemble in the oak-panelled ground-floor bar, while the foodie action takes place in a small attractively Farrow-&-Ball’d upstairs dining room. On offer is a tiny meat-heavy menu, split squarely between small-plate collages of different ingredients and various dry-aged chops and steaks from the grill with traditional accompaniments – perhaps a strip of onglet brought to full gutsiness by a knob of anchovy and rosemary butter. Their cheeseburger passes the litmus test, while desserts include chocolate mousse, ice creams and a cup of refreshing apple sorbet with a warming shot of calvados. A brilliant little City bolthole with service that’s beyond genial.

Nose-to-tail does it in the kitchen of this rollicking gastropub not far from Waterloo station, where cramped surrounds, jam-packed tables (no bookings), deliberately battered furniture and dressed-down service set the tone for an artful daily menu stuffed with butchers’ offcuts, wild pickings and seasonal scoff. Big, bold flavours are a given, whether you’re in the mood for snail and bacon kebabs, a pair of grilled Dover soles with chips and wild garlic butter or sautéed lamb’s sweetbreads with peas and mint. There are also trencherman joints of seven-hour lamb shoulder for three to share, plus deeply satisfying trad desserts such as flourless chocolate cake or buttermilk pudding with Yorkshire rhubarb. The no-choice ‘workers’ lunch is a steal, bookable Sunday lunches are a regular sell-out and there are some perky European wines to wash it all down. Handily placed for the Young and Old Vic theatres.

Is it a pub? Is it a restaurant? In truth, this upmarket backstreet boozer just off Fulham Broadway is a bit of both – although with a serious global wine list, a Michelin star to its name and backers including Brett Graham (of The Ledbury), we know where its priorities lie. Prime British produce is the key, with furred and feathered game receiving special attention in season – the venison Scotch eggs are to die for if you’re snacking in the bar, although it pays to trade up to masterful dishes such as roast muntjac with celeriac, kale and pickled pear in the chunkily furnished dining room. The menu changes each day, so expect anything from crab royal with peas and lovage to sea trout on toast with mussels cooked in cider or jowl of Tamworth pork braised in pale ale. Desserts such as a marmalade ice-cream sandwich are also designed to thrill.  

With Smithfield Market on its doorstep, there are no prizes for guessing that the food at this proper City boozer has a serious red-blooded streak – although the kitchen isn’t averse to jazzing up its pork ribs, steaks and burgers with trendy additions such as harissa coleslaw. Dip into the menu and you’ll also find thin crispy pizzas, full-crust pies and even the odd superfood salad. However, if you’re really into all things artisan and carnivorous, book up for the pub’s ‘bespoke menu’ – a meat-fest featuring whole suckling pigs, kid goat, beef sirloins, haunches of wild boar and massive fruit crumbles, all designed to serve ten hungry souls. Quaffing also goes hand in hand with scoffing at this self-styled ‘local beer house’, with a vast selection of craft brews on offer – anyone for Beavertown Gamma Ray, Gipsy Hill Beatnik or Mad as Hops from the London Brewing Co?