London’s best gastropubs

There’s no doubting the class of this revamped Victorian boozer on Camberwell Church Street, which has been one of London's most reliable gastropubs since it launched well over a decade ago. 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. Sustainably sourced meat comes from a man called Farmer Tom, and you’ll have the likes of pork loin chop served with semi-hearted red cabbage to get stuck into alongside beer onions on toast with aged gruyere, or crispy fried pigs head with piccalilli. Truly wonderful stuff. 

Address: 65 Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8TR

One of the last vestiges of boozy Old Soho, ‘The French’ (as it’s known) is a die-hard boho watering hole with its own house rules, but graduate to the teeny upstairs dining room and it’s a very different story. Once home to Fergus and Margot Henderson (of St John and Rochelle Canteen, respectively), the kitchen is now run with considerable brio by Neil Borthwick. Forget artsy flourishes and Insta-baiting faff, this is seasonal, gutsy, stripped-back stuff with Anglo-French overtones – and all the more marvellous for it. Picking highlights is tough but do try the slick of goat’s cheese on toast with melting confit garlic and the blancmange-smooth calves’ brains doused in brown butter with capers. Top it all off with a textbook Paris-Brest and some brilliant French cheeses served by equally brilliant staff.

Address: 49 Dean Street, Soho, W1D 5BG

Much has been made of the holy talent incubator that is the Compton Arms. This little Islington pub hosted Four Legs before they left to open Finsbury Park’s never-knowingly-undersubscribed The Plimsoll, and then Tiella, a rustic Italian residency from Dara Klein, who served the city’s finest, freshest chicken Milanese for almost two years. Now is the turn of Rake, who serve seasonal British pub fare from two chefs trained at Quo Vadis, Brat and Acme Fire Cult. The spectre of St John is strong, with a menu that offers the likes of salsify and scotch broth, or bawdy devilled duck hearts on St George’s toast. 

Address: The Compton Arms, 4 Compton Avenue, Highbury, N1 2XD

Once a rampantly mid pub called The Leconfield, this vast Green Lanes boozer’s recent makeover comes courtesy of the Papi chappies, aka chef Matthew Scott and sommelier Charlie Carr, who used to run a hipster bistro in London Fields. The Golden Tooth is home to powerful and intense food, from beef tartare with smoked eel dressing and truffle to plump mussels resting provocatively under a silky sheet of semi-sheer lardo, like an edible take on Tracey Emin’s bed. There is also epic Montgomery cheddar custard tart as wobbly as the very best Basque cheesecake and a stargazy prawn and chicken pie. Fabulous. 

Address: 79 Green Lanes, Newington Green, N16 9BU

Besides being a great pub, the food at the Prince Arthur in London Fields is knife-and-fork-down brilliant. The menu, consisting of small and large(ish) plates, naked oysters with moreish mignonette as well as snackier bits like mushroom toast, is polished enough to make it feel special – but never have you reaching for your phone to Google ingredients. The star of the show is undoubtedly the lobster bisque: three plump Orkney-dived scallops and saffron-cooked potatoes, topped with samphire and swimming in a heavenly bowl of buttery, fishy, unami-loaded bisque (AKA Jesus’s blood).

Address: 95 Forest Road, London Fields, E8 3BH

A desi pub with some of the best food in the capital, The Tamil Prince’s head chef (and Roti King alumni) Prince Durairaj does bombastic, flavoursome cooking that will leave you hungry for more. Try crinkly crunchy okra fries and cheeky, chunky chicken lollipops. For the main event, try a channa bhatura chickpea curry and massive, meaty tiger prawns in garlic masala. Incredible.

Address: 115 Hemingford Road, Islington, N1 1BZ

Before its kitchen glow-up, The Plimsoll was an Irish pub called The Auld Triangle. Then the chefs known as Four Legs took over and turned one half of the pub in a buzzing gastropub for an exceedingly cool crowd. The menu is a mix of snacks, small plates and bigger plates, including their legendary burger, which comes on like a supercharged Big Mac: no lettuce, no bullshit, just a juicy patty. The rest is just as tasty, with well-executed and creative dishes that don’t always take themselves too seriously – shout out to the chipolatas and dijonnaise. Head honcho Ed McIlroy now runs nearby Tollington’s and Bar Etna in Newington Green - both great. 

Address: 52 St Thomas’s Road, Finsbury Park, N4 2QW

If you’re torn between boozing and eating out in style on a Saturday night (or any other time, for that matter), fear not – Hackney Road’s cherished Marksman has all the bases covered. Pitch camp in the gently refurbished bar for tip-top bottled brews, must-try on-tap offerings and a decent slate of wines, or head upstairs to the zanily decorated dining room for some high-calibre gastropub cooking. Nibble on curried lamb buns with lime yoghurt, share a massive chicken and chanterelle pie or go upscale with a combo of artichokes, chickpeas and monk’s beard followed by hake with white beans and brown crab or Aylesbury duck with mash and pickled prunes. To follow, there are British cheeses, savouries such as Welsh rarebit and jazzed-up British puds including treacle tart with buttermilk.

Address: 254 Hackney Road, E2 7SJ

We’ve got a soft spot for the delightfully scruffy Irish-themed saloon bar (pints of Guinness and Belgian beers with plates of oysters and other briny nibbles), although the main gastro action takes place in the upstairs dining room, which has been enlarged and colourfully smartened up with red banquettes and zany modern art. Seafood is also the big player here (dressed crabs, mussels in spicy shellfish broth, fish stew), although you can get chicken kiev, confit pork belly or bangers and mash if that’s your bag; also keep a lookout for more ambitious daily specials. For afters, how about spotted dick or banoffee pie, washed down with something suitable from the short, gutsy wine list?

Address: 89 Westbourne Park Road, W2 5QH

This grand corner pub in Stoke Newington has gone through various iterations over the years, but the current one is undoubtedly the best. Its old-school wood panelled Victorian chop house interior belies its thoroughly modern menu; wines lean natural, and the food is of the furiously seasonal, pan-European persuasion. Our hunk of fried feta with honey and walnuts was sublime, lifted out of cheesy coma status by a peach, tomato and salted, shaved ricotta salad, as well as cucumber with a creamy ajo blanco sauce. Mains are gloriously Henry VIII-worthy; a vension haunch with clove-tastic venison bonbons and damson sauce was fit for a Hampton Court Palace banquet. 

Address: 102 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0LA

This ornate establishment has had a deeply modern revamp, courtsey of gallerists Hauser & Wirth, who now run the joint along with Mount Street Restaurant upstairs. A historic Mayfair boozer is now a proper work of art, with an imposing ceiling mural courtsey of the late Phyllida Barlow. Food is just as impressive, with classic London dishes such as pints of prawns, rarebit, lamb scrumpet, and fabulous fish finger sarnies on offer. Sundays are for roasts, with a mighty beef offering. 

Address: 41-43 Mount Street, W1K 2RX

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) 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. After that, perhaps take a punt on pineapple tarte tatin or rhubarb panna cotta with pistachio crumble. Sunday lunch sees some ginormous roasts called into action. There’s also a secluded patio garden out back for balmy days and nights.

Address: 44 Barnsbury Street, N1 1ER

Run by two generations of the London foodie dynasty, the Spiteris, The Latimer is intentionally pub-first, the white tablecloths which hint at its gastro prefix only visible past the stools and steel-topped tables that occupy its main floorspace. The Latimer’s menu is best pondered over a Westway cocktail – which tastes like adults-only pink sherbet, because, well, tequila. Masala monkfish is the most direct nod to gastropub cooking among the small plates. Confit trout, too, is fresh and light, its silkiness matched by the delicate crunch of green beans. If you’re starting to see a theme here, that’s because there is one: The Latimer’s standouts are its fish dishes. Grilled bream on a bed of fennel, olives and anchovy is what happens when pub food is done really, really well. 

Address: 274 Latimer Road, Notting Hill, W10 6QW

The Parakeet was formerly 1860s freehouse The Oxford Tavern, but chic interiors and a sophisticated cocktail offering now suggest more of a restaurant inside a pub’s casing. In the kitchen is Brat alumni Ben Allen and his food sits in the wheelhouse of modern British and European-inspired sharing plates; rich, interesting food, elegantly presented. Think fresh oysters with fermented kohlrabi, braised leeks and mushrooms with a gut-punchingly good pecorino sauce, perfectly-balanced pollock crudo or trout with sea herbs and the most glorious butter sauce. A real winner. 

Address: 256 Kentish Town Road, NW5 2AA

The Hero might have many hallmarks of a proper British boozer (beer on tap, a slightly eerie painted sign swinging in the breeze, The Clash creaking out of the speakers) but you couldn’t just come here for just a pint. There are no stools at the bar, for starters. What The Hero is though, is a great restaurant. There are sizable snacks of sticky lamb ribs and a toastie bursting with dense ogleshield and a tart Branston-esque pickle. Better still is the cheese and onion pie, oozing yet more ogleshield out of pastry that is essentially and incredibly, nothing but crust.

Address: 55 Shirland Road, Maida Vale, W9 2JD

This revamped Islington pub’s candle-lit Regency-era dining room comes with shades of the Quality Chop House and offers week-round dining. Think massive salty chops slathered with a Rorschach test of melted butter; an allotment’s worth of spuds with a creamy slab of plaice; meaty platters of perky oysters; chickpea panisse that are fatter than the fattest chips and William IV’s house speciality – malty and toasted Guinness bread which comes with a honking, ultra-savoury Marmite butter that looks not unlike a dollop of gelato. All of this to a sublime soundtrack of Scott Walker. Come hungry, and feast until you have to be rolled out of the joint like the decadent king you are.

Address: 7 Shepherdess Walk, N1 7QE

This swished-up neighbourhood pub on South Lambeth Road handles the booze-grub balancing act with confidence, keeping its drinkers happy with esoteric ales while feeding gastro-minded locals with a daily hotchpotch of freewheeling gastropub dishes. We’re talking haggis and spring onion croquettes or cuttlefish rice with chorizo, saffron and aïoli for starters, ahead of honey-marinated quail, curried lamb pie or East Coast hake partnered by lentils and sauce gribiche. Also look to the blackboard for whopping sharing plates such as soy-braised beef short-ribs or seven-hour salt-marsh lamb shoulder with potato gratin. If you still have room after all that, try your luck with a pud such as blood orange and yoghurt cake or a scoop of rice pudding gelato.

Address: 177 South Lambeth Road, SW8 1XP

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.  

Address: Corner of Walham Grove and Farm Lane, Fulham, SW6 1QP

Nose-to-tail does it in the kitchen of this classic, rollicking gastropub not far from Waterloo station, where cramped surrounds, jam-packed tables, 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. 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.

Address: 36 The Cut, SE1 8LP

This Barnes venture from Patty & Bun founder Joe Grossman, with a kitchen led by Sam Andrews (former head chef at The Camberwell Arms and Soho’s Ducksoup), takes the concept of ‘Pub?’ and elevates it to the nth degree. A daily chalkboard of specials features market meat and fish, mostly designed for sharing. Hearty steaks, chips, soda bread and fish stews are executed with a clear, admirable goal: to give the people what they want. Veg is treated with care, think; pumpkin with crispy sage and torched fontina cheese and gnudi with walnuts and mushrooms.

Address: 375 Lonsdale Road, Barnes, SW13 9PY