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 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. 

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).

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.

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 a trio of chefs who 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. 

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. 

I liked the Lord Clyde. A spacious pub at the top of Englefield Road, it was the go-to boozer for Canonbury’s more down-to-earth residents. So, imagine my snort of patronising derision when I found out the Lord Clyde was being reimagined as a ‘bistro pub’ called The Brave. Isn't that sacrilege? The Man thinks he can come storming into a salt-of-the-earth boozer, put up some new tiles and then start slinging burrata and curds? Not on my watch, Sonny Jim. Not on my watch. But it turns out: yes on my watch. This place is great.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Before it's kitchen glow-up, The Plimsoll was an Irish pub called The Auld Triangle. In 2021, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.