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The Parakeet
Rob JonesThe Parakeet in Kentish Town

London’s best gastropubs

Discover pubs in London with excellent vibes and extremely delicious menus

Leonie Cooper
Edited by
Leonie Cooper
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What's better than an amazing meal? An amazing meal, served up alongside a delicious pint in a cosy pub, obviously. London is the gastropub capital of the world, full of boozers that can compete with our fantastic restaurants in the culinary stakes – but they just happen to come with cracking Victorian buildings, as well as roaring fires, and the occasional dog. So whether you’re after fish and chips, a roast, an oxtail ragù, or a desi pub serving up sublime South Indian cuisine, you’ve come to the right place. 

RECOMMENDED: London's 50 Best Restaurants.

Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

London’s best gastropubs

  • Bars and pubs
  • Pubs
  • Camberwell

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 2014. 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. 

  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Gastropubs
  • Dalston
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

Besides being a great pub, the food at the Prince Arthur 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).

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  • Restaurants
  • French
  • Soho
  • price 3 of 4

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 (late of Merchants Tavern in Shoreditch). 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, the lamb chop (a hulking triumph paired with earthy chard and turnip), 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.

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Kentish Town
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended

Opened at the start of summer 2023, The Parakeet was formerly 1860s freehouse The Oxford Tavern, and, ostensibly, the Parakeet is still a ‘pub’, with a separate space just for drinking. But chic interiors and a sophisticated cocktail offering suggest more of a restaurant inside a pub’s casing. In the kitchen are Brat alumni Ben Allen as head chef and sous chef Ed Jennings. Similar to Brat, Allen and Jennings’ 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. 

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  • Bars and pubs
  • Mayfair

This ornate Victorian 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. The real deal.

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • South Asian
  • Barnsbury
  • Recommended

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 stuff. 

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  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Hackney Road

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.

  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Stockwell

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.

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  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Southwark
  • price 2 of 4

Nose-to-tail does it in the kitchen of this 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.

  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Bethnal Green
  • price 2 of 4

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 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.

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The Eagle
  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Clerkenwell
  • price 2 of 4

Hailed as the granddaddy of all gastropubs, The Eagle has been showing others how it should be done since 1991. From the off, it got the formula just right, mixing bashed-up furniture with real ales, blackboard menus and a savvy collection of wines by the glass. A glossy wooden ceiling, buttermilk walls and an ash floor set the scene, the kitchen’s tiny (room for just two chefs), and you’re expected to order at the bar from a short menu that’s scrawled up on the blackboard just five minutes before service begins. Everyone knows about the famous ‘bife ana’ (a Portuguese-style marinated steak sandwich), but the day’s choice of earthy Med-accented dishes could take in anything from pan-fried scallops with chorizo, chickpeas, guindilla peppers and chilli jam to grilled napoli sausages with puy lentils, tomato and white cabbage salad. There are usually a few simple tapas plates too, plus a trio of ‘afters’ including the famous ‘pastel de nata’ custard tarts.

  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Barnsbury
  • price 2 of 4

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.

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  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Fulham
  • price 3 of 4

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.  

  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Barbican
  • price 2 of 4

Mounted stag’s heads and stuffed birds in glass cases, plus huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ prints everywhere – yes, this swanky Barbican gastropub really is ‘ahead of the game’ (their pun, not ours). You’d expect nothing less from a handsomely remodelled hostelry that names itself after one of Britain’s most iconic dishes, although the famous jugged hare is strictly seasonal (beginning of August to the end of February). Otherwise, there are rich pickings to be had from a menu that rambles from potted Yorkshire rabbit via savoury pies, long-aged Cumbrian steaks and rotisserie-grilled Suffolk chicken to roast cod with crushed jerusalem artichokes, sprout tops and mussel chowder. Puds are old school and veggies get short shrift, although ale slurpers and wine buffs are in for a treat.

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars and pubs
  • Pubs
  • Dalston
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

One of the more mature pubs in the Hackney canon, the Spurstowe Arms works a sophisticated stripped-back charm, never trying too hard to impress – which of course just wouldn’t wash in this trendy part of town. The nondescript exterior would have you believe the Spurstowe was a football pub or stop-off for a desperate quick half, but inside features fresh-cut flowers, polished brass and a grand horseshoe bar. You’ll still spot the odd reassuring cobweb up on high though. The crowd are mostly large groups of friends in their thirties enjoying a slick indie soundtrack, and munching from a menu that includes such delights as celeriac pie with broad beans and poached chalk stream trout with jersey royals, watercress and beurre blanc sauce.

  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Notting Hill
  • price 2 of 4

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?

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  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Shoreditch
  • price 2 of 4

A shoo-in for hipsters and City slickers within staggering distance of Old Street station, this rebooted eighteenth-century watering hole is best known for the food served in its cosy, good-looking dining room. Ascend the spiral staircase if you’re in the mood for miso chicken caesar salad, duck breast with celeriac and braised endive or beef shin, Guinness and blue-cheese pie followed by a toffee apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. Otherwise, slake your thirst in the bustling downstairs bar, where bottled world beers and local ales sit alongside some very commendable wines by the glass or carafe. You can also snack or dine here from an extended menu that also includes pubby faves like scotch eggs, mac ’n’ cheese, lamb faggots and beer-battered haddock. On Sundays, it’s time for traditional roast meats from indie British farms.

The Prince
  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Stoke Newington
  • price 3 of 4

The residents of Stokey’s quiet terraces have really taken this neighbourhood hostelry to their hearts. As an indie free house, it dispenses any beer that takes its fancy, along with bottles and cans galore. Likewise, the kitchen takes a freewheeling approach, offering up a menu of seasonal gastro fodder that’s well above the local pubby norm. Trendy small plates such as buttermilk chicken with rosemary salt give way to a surprising line-up of burgers (try the marinated seitan or soft-shell crab with crab mayo and tartare sauce). Pies and roasts also have their moment, and there are also a few more cheffy ideas such as asparagus risotto with pecorino and truffle oil. The nifty wine list includes loads by the glass or carafe.

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The Culpeper
  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Spitalfields
  • price 2 of 4

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.

The Garrison
  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Bermondsey
  • price 2 of 4

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.

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  • Bars and pubs
  • Shepherd’s Bush
  • price 2 of 4

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 a few years ago. 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.

  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Fulham
  • price 2 of 4

Custom-built for riverbank revels, this grandiose, gastro-tastic boozer on a quiet stretch of the Thames between Hammersmith and Putney bridges comes complete with a gigantic beer garden and a covetable weeping willow by the water’s edge. Stake your boozy claim in the high-vaulted lounge bar (pints of regularly changing real ales await) or head to the restaurant for sizzling BBQ classics, pies, finger-lickin’ rotisserie plates and more tricksy ideas such as seared tuna with pickled cucumber, teriyaki-glazed aubergine, pumpkin arancini with taleggio and black-olive crumb or miso-glazed lamb rump with confit belly, vegetable yakitori and smashed soy beans. Desserts, meanwhile, are classics including blueberry, cherry and white chocolate mess. The Crabtree also scores a hit with its comedy club, live music, weekly quiz, and riotous annual Boat Race Festival.

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  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Bloomsbury
  • price 2 of 4

A cosy Bloomsbury boozer with a tiled facade, ornate plastered ceilings and legs of jamón hanging in the window? No, you’re not imagining it – this bona fide London pub on a backstreet just off thundering Euston Road has a taste for tapas (they even have a charcuterie slicer on the counter). All the usual suspects are here in abundance (patatas bravas, octopus and chorizo skewers, padrón peppers) but there are plenty of international hits too – from houmous and rollmop herrings to spare ribs and barbecue chicken wings. You can also keep things orthodox by ordering from the daily gastropub menu – vodka-cured salmon with beetroot and celeriac rémoulade followed by homemade tagliatelle with venison ragù, for example. For afters, try the galaktoboureko (a Greek custard pie made with lemony semolina). European wines take preference over beer in the drinks department, although a cold bottle of Sagres always goes down well.

  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Barnsbury
  • price 2 of 4

Given its meaty moniker, you’d imagine plenty of visceral blood-and-guts action here in Barnsbury, and you wouldn’t be far wrong. Rare-breed carcases are butchered on the premises, while the kitchen proves its mettle with homemade black pudding and slabs of home-cured bacon. However, this is a handsomely tricked-out gastropub, not an abattoir, so also expect fine-tuned seasonal cooking – as in braised leg of Ryeland lamb with portobello mushrooms, black kale, heritage potatoes and green sauce or Tamworth pork rump with coffee-roasted celeriac, red onion and spinach. Fish fans and veggies aren’t ignored, while sweet-tooths can get their saccharine fix from the likes of carrot and walnut cake with caramelised white chocolate sauce and lemon-curd ice cream. Bottled craft beers also receive the thumbs-up, thanks to names like Siren Squealer, Red Church Paradise Pale and Kernel India Porter.

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The Brookmill
  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Deptford
  • price 2 of 4

Whether you’re after one of Deptford’s best scotch eggs or a slap-up dinner for two, this reborn Victorian boozer right next to Brookmill Park is an asset worth knowing about. Fancy food, local booze and a community-minded approach (quizzes, exhibitions, pilates, salsa, gin masterclasses etc) ensure a humming local crowd, so join the throngs for some tempting pub classics – anything from ham hock terrine with tomato chutney to chicken and ham pie with mash and savoy cabbage, Cumberland sausages, burgers, beer-battered haddock or flat iron steaks with all the trimmings. Veggies also get a decent look-in, while puds might include strawberry tart. Wetting your whistle pays dividends too, with creative cocktails, decent wines and real ales from surrounding boroughs – look for names such as Gipsy Hill, Belleville and Brockley on tap. The pub also sports a big beer garden.

  • Bars and pubs
  • Gastropubs
  • Belgravia
  • price 3 of 4

Before venturing inside, take a moment to admire the perfect proportions of this Regency townhouse on Elizabeth Street – the handiwork of Victorian master builder Thomas Cubitt. Now an upmarket fixture of Belgravia’s gastro scene, the TC is a smart proposition with a gregarious ground-floor bar for casual eating and drinking, plus an elegantly tricked-out first-floor dining room dedicated to refined modern British food – think black pudding with cognac and apple salad or mackerel with horseradish cream and rhubarb followed by Castlemead chicken accompanied by salt-baked celeriac, ceps and sherry vinegar or pan-fried cod with smoked cauliflower and creamed leeks. Desserts such as treacle and almond tart or pineapple and ginger upside-down cake are in similarly patriotic vein. Boutique wines and cocktails are top-notch, and the Sunday roasts are worthy of a Waitrose TV ad.

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