Michelin star restaurants in London

Alyn Williams, formerly head chef at Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, has opened his own restaurant at the Westbury Hotel.

Make the most of it and book a stay at The Westbury.

Specialising in stylish pan-Indian tapas, Amaya is favoured by a clientele of well-heeled professionals blessed with good taste and deep pockets. Expect service is as smooth as Indian silk.

If proof is needed that tapas is fashionable, the queues at Barrafina are it. And there will be a queue: bookings aren’t taken and hopeful diners can expect to wait at least an hour, any evening of the week. Yet seldom does anyone leave Barrafina disappointed. The place is part restaurant, part theatre, in which diners play a part.

This glamorous first-floor cocktail bar and stylish restaurant blend modern furnishings with traditional Indian touches. The venue attracts big spenders – suits on expense accounts, romancing couples and curious tourists. Fronted by well-known chef Atul Kochhar, the kitchen produces modern cooking in the haute-cuisine league.

Like a well-cut blazer, Chez Bruce may not be especially original, but it is largely reliable. In 2010 the restaurant expanded into the neighbouring site, but little changed, and not much has altered since. The look is a study in classic (if slightly dated) restaurant decor and the cooking is equally timeless, led decisively by the French school without much deference to culinary fads.

Atop a hive of financial firms in Floor 24 of Tower 42, this is one heck of a dining room with a view. It’s a gorgeous space: nocturnal, sexy and full of art-deco flashes, where Jason Atherton earned another Michelin Star in 2015.

Head chef Ashley-Palmer Watts, protégé of Heston Blumenthal, ensures that Dinner is one of London’s most sought-after destinations. While the flagship restaurant, Bray’s Fat Duck, celebrates futuristic flamboyance, Dinner updates historic dishes with flair and precision.

Make the most of it and book a stay at the Mandarin Oriental.

Genial staff take obvious pleasure in working this historic dining room, with its beautiful wood panelling and floral plasterwork ceiling. Waistcoats, silver jugs and Baccarat crystal denote formality, so first-timers may be surprised by the rusticity of the food on display. Such is the special-occasion nature of the place that everyone is presented with a personalised souvenir menu; but rest assured, the experience is memorable in its own right.

Make the most of it and book a stay at the Connaught.

Few haute establishments have the hospitable hum of the Ledbury. Whether it’s due to the off-centre location, the Aussie input, or diners’ sheer delight in securing a table, this former pub remains top-tier for gustatory good times. British ingredients – Hampshire buffalo milk curd, smoked eel, Cumbrian lamb – line up alongside delicacies such as foie gras, Tokyo turnips, Bresse chicken and black truffle, but it’s chef Brett Graham’s clever contemporary treatment of them that sets the place apart.

This restaurant colossus offers unapologetically old-school fine dining. First opened in Chelsea in 1967 by the Roux brothers, Albert and Michel, it’s now run by Michel Roux Jr who took the reins in 1991. Le Gavroche continues to be the go-to haute cuisine establishment for a dignified, extremely wealthy crowd. While it may bear the name of the street urchin from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, there’s nothing scruffy about the club-like decor. Naturally, prices are high, although the set lunch for £52.60 (including half of a bottle of wine) is great value.

The former restaurant 'Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley Hotel' has now been rennovated and reopened at 'Marcus'. Expect the same sommeliers wheeling over trollies of champagne on ice and talking you through the various bottles offered – frankly, it’s hard to say no. Things just get better from amuse-bouche and beyond. Desserts are a particular strong point.

Make the most of it and book a stay at The Berkeley.

It is perhaps a tribute to London’s international status that there’s a niche for this restaurant in the capital; relatively few people apart from star footballers are in a position to frequent it. Nor would we want to: indeed, there are other places we’d rather visit elsewhere within the Dorchester. The cooking and setting are undeniably lovely, yet the overall experience lacks wow factors – apart from the bill – largely because of its unfashionably restrained, traditional approach to fine dining. Still, the restaurant commands a loyal clientele.

Make the most of it and book a stay at The Dorchester.

Clare Smyth MBE has now been appointed chef-patron of Gordon Ramsay’s flagship Chelsea restaurant. Her name features on the intelligently inventive menu, and the cool, elegant dining room has been refurbished with distinctly feminine touches, including lilac-toned silk-screen print panels. Dishes tantalise then delight the senses; no element of the complex assemblies seems showily redundant – even the pouring of sauces at table adds visual and aromatic impact. We left with a smile, and lifted spirits.