The best restaurants in Notting Hill

From the bold corner location to the well-put-together crowd of beautiful people, there’s something about this sleek pasta-plus bar that seems far more New York than Notting Hill. This deft vibes curation should come as no surprise when you discover Canteen is run by the same team as the Cotswoldian fever dream that is the Fat Badger (which you’ll find upstairs in the same building), as well as glammy gastros The Pelican, The Hero in Maida Vale, The Bull in Charlbury, and the newly opened Hart in Marylebone. But Canteen does things differently. Here, the interior is a friendly jumble of high tables, booths and counter seating, with two roaring open pizza ovens which keep the whole place supremely toasty. The menu is not online, and changes regularly, but you can always rely on there being a couple of pizzas and a couple of pastas, alongside seasonal starters. Walk-ins only, if you want a table get there early. Lots of fun.

Akub is chef Fadi Kattan’s Palestinian restaurant on a residential backstreet in Notting Hill. With olive branches, warmly lit dining rooms and a wall draped with arabesque William Morris pomegranates, you'll feel like you've been given the key to a secret garden. Here you'll get shish barak – parcels of delicately spiced pumpkin – and dagga ghazzawieh – a spicy Gazan salad of winter tomatoes, chilli, dill, and plenty of good olive oil. A confident newcomer that’s free and creative in its expression and storytelling.

If you want authentic Malaysian food, then run to Normah’s. Located through a neon-lit indoor market in Queensway, the short menu is a list of greatest hits; banging beef rendang, curry laksa, and crispy fried chicken. One woman (Normah) is behind the stove, sharing dishes from her homeland with aplomb. Teh tarik is a sweet, dreamy delight, while hand-pulled parathas demand a return visit. Just make sure you book. For every smug diner there’s a poor soul out of luck at the door.

Formerly known as Orasay, Jackson Boxer’s west London restaurant rebranded itself as Dove at the start of 2025. The new menu is less serious, a playful offering of what Boxer feels like experimenting with at any given time, but, largely, it’s comfort classics with flair. There is a burger, a big, beefy doorstop of a thing that laughs in the faces of the city’s weedy, pulverised smashburgers and grenades of lasagna, giddy, square-shaped artery-cloggers stuffed with deep fried taleggio and truffle. All-round good fun. 

Clamber up the stairs, and past the rammed bar, to find The Fat Badger. Lights are set to an ultra-romantic low, there are comfy nooks, cosy crannies, and an open kitchen where the uber talented George Williams is whipping up a no-choice five-ish course meal. This is the Fat Badger way. Freed from the tyranny of the menu, you pay £105 for whatever George and the team decide they want to serve that week. Thankfully, George – who honed his craft at The River Cafe and The Bull at Charlbury – is a chef you can trust.

Once home to the Electric Diner, this oddly inviting, tunnel-like space is now the second London outpost of the very delicious Speedboat Bar. One of London’s best Thai restaurants, nothing has been lost in translation when it comes to Speedboat Bar 2.0. The Bangkok-inspired flavours still hit hard, with the seriously spicy chicken salad with green mango kerabu a must-order, alongside a compelling crispy pork with creamy black pepper curry, as well as a whole sea bream in addictive makrut lime sauce.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown in W11. The pedigree behind Dorian is strong, and this Michelin-star spot celebrates open-fire cooking. Think excellent small bites and generous sharing plates, though prices are in line with the affluent postcode.

This Ukrainian bistro deftly subverts cliches about nostalgic diasporic Eastern European cuisine. That is to say, it is nostalgic, but the nostalgia lies in the evocation of the smells and flavours of the old country, rather than simply serving up retro cuisine for ex-pats and exiles. Come for beef tartare with mushroom mousse and crispy Jerusalem artichoke; meaty, mutedly sweet-sour cherry glazed BBQ catfish; potato and sorrel waffle; and a rich but restrained honey cake served in its own elegant pool of cream. Of course there is chicken Kyiv. Although dinkier and markedly less greasy than your supermarket variant, there’s something quite sweet about the fact that Sino has played it quite straight.

Head towards Maida Vale to discover one of west London's most beloved Greek restaurants. This friendly taverna has flawless versions of all the classics; taramosalata, tzaziki, halloumi, and Greek salad, followed by souvlaki or whole fresh fish from the in-house chargrill, and majestic moussaka. 

Opened on a residential Holland Park street in 1969 by Julie Hodgess, an interior designer who kitted out stores for high-end hippy fashion house Biba, this restaurant set the template for bohemian west London. Over the next few decades Julie’s attracted grizzled rockers and glossy It girls alike. The latest – and possibly the tastiest – incarnation of Julie’s has a kitchen run by Owen Kenworthy whose menu straddles the line between bistro staples and cheffy flair. Martinis are a must. 

The main characters behind this shiny Notting Hill sophisticate are a starry couple: she is Michel Roux Jnr’s daughter, he is a former head chef at Le Gavroche. Together they have created a classy contemporary venue with a menu that’s oddly divided into six character traits: ‘curious’, for example, equals roast diver scallops with radicchio, hazelnut, blood orange and beurre blanc.

Up by Westbourne Park is this waterfront seasonal plates spot from the people behind one of London’s best restaurants; Bistro Freddie. A glossy retreat on a new-build chunk of yet-to-be battered brickwork by the Grand Union Canal, here the staff may be the best dressed in London, in denim fits by counter-cultural menswear titan Nicholas Daley. The chef too, has everything going for him. New York-born Adrian Hernandez Farina delivers mangalitza sausage with apricot brown sauce, bream crudo with moody cherries and honeydew melon with speck. Classy stuff.

First she bagged three Michelin stars at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, and now Clare Smyth’s solo debut has gone and done the same. The three star Core is housed in a gorgeous period building in Notting Hill: it’s high-ceilinged and elegant but also vibrant, not pompous and great fun. The food is extremely special, with immense technical brio and a playful streak that makes it all very accessible.  

Open since 1967, you’ll find Tiroler Hut down a rickety staircase on Westbourne Grove. Can’t see the sign? Then simply follow the sound of dinging cowbells and the smell of hot, liquid cheese. A fever dream of an Austrian restaurant, it’s Disneyland as penned by Hunter S Thompson. Octogenarian host Josef holds court. A one-man band in a felt hat and full lederhosen, he works the small, low-ceilinged room like we’re in Las Vegas, playing keyboards, sax, accordion and clarinet, before his infamous, and largely indescribable cowbell show. Oh yeah, and there’s also food; fondue, all manner of wurst and plenty of booze.

The first London branch of Dishoom’s all-day Bombay-inspired cafe sideline can be found in the jazzed-up bones of a grand Victorian boozer on one of the city’s most famous streets. The menu is shorter than your standard Dishoom offering, but with dishes exclusive to the Permit Room, such as chilli-cheese naan bites, and fish chapali patties, as well as cinnamon-spiked French toast for brekkie. 

Barnyard-chic from the Gladwin brothers, who were raised on a Sussex farm and still source produce (including wines) from their home turf. Expect farm-to-table food dished up in relaxed worn-wood surrounds. The resulting dishes are inventive, playful and seasonal – think ‘mouthfuls’ of mushroom Marmite éclair or venison cigars with smoked mayo.

Few haute restaurants have the hospitable hum of The Ledbury. Despite its three-Michelin-starred status and deadly serious prices, this world-beating culinary corker is still in the top tier for gustatory good times – thanks to Aussie chef Brett Graham’s way with seasonal British ingredients (and much else besides). For consistently thrilling, audacious, unimaginably delicious food and genuinely friendly fine-dining, nobody does it better.  

Saffron rice bejewelled with pomegranate seeds, cumin-spiked lamb, pillowy naan bread... Sadaf punches through the mediocre ceiling of high-street kebabs with delicate spicing and robust flavours. This is Persian food at its finest. The interior is simple yet elegant, and service is invitingly warm. This is Notting Hill, so expect blasé trust fund kids next to Iranian ex-pats. Either way, you’ll leave with a modest bill and an utterly satisfied belly.

A supremely chill wood-panelled space that fits just six diners, Juno is the smallest omakase counter in the UK. You'll find it upstairs at Japanese-Mexican fusion spot Los Mochis, where exec chef Leonard Tanyag (formerly of Zuma), and head sushi chef Han (Nobu, Roka) deliver banger after banger of perfectly formed fish dishes, like back-to-back DJs at the culinary equivalent of intimate south London rave spot Venue MOT. The 15-course tasting menu is also gluten and nut free. You'll need to be slightly adventurous though; flying ants mixed with chilli and salt, grasshopper shavings and wagyu with an agave worm are the menu's more leftfield additions. 

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. From the same team behind The Pelican in Notting Hill, the menu comes stacked with sizable snacks of sticky lamb ribs, a toastie bursting with dense ogleshield and a cheese and onion pie that is basically a savoury chocolate lava cake, oozing ogleshield out of pastry that is essentially and incredibly, nothing but crust.

As a cookbook specialist, this bookshop-cum-café is one for the purists. Each week, its tiny in-house kitchen road-tests recipes from the latest titles and serves them as two or three-course lunches at OMG prices. There are also loads of cakes, all of which would have Mary Berry coming back for seconds. It may be off the tourist trail, but this is a hugely popular spot – so expect to queue.

There’s usually a queue at this ‘Med-inspired’ Turkish grill, but no-nonsense service means you’ll bag a table pretty quickly. While you wait, get the juices flowing by watching Fez’s meat maestros as they rotate the hefty barbecue skewers and shave slices off the own-made doners. They also score with cut-above accompaniments including crunchy red cabbage, spice-rubbed flatbreads and tangy Turkish yoghurt. It’s BYO and they don’t charge corkage. Bliss.

Med Salleh Kopitiam is inspired by Malaysian ‘coffee shops’, casual spaces serving drinks alongside food stalls. Although a restaurant, the menu is representative of kopitiams with dishes now seen as quintessentially Malaysian, such as roti canai (created by the Indian community), rendang (originally an Indonesian Malay dish), and char kway teow (‘char’ meaning stir-fry in Hokkien and Teochew). The food leans towards a sweet palate and doesn’t have the heat of some Malaysian regions, but if you're new to Malaysian food it’s a great introduction, and if you’re looking for a taste of home, you will find flavours here to curb any homesickness. 

Caia is a tale of two venues. The upstairs room of this new Notting Hill restaurant and wine bar gives off an air of sophistication, with chic bar stools to perch on and floor-to-ceiling bottles. But there’s a clear vibe shift when you walk downstairs to the basement. Suddenly you’re at a ’70s house party, with kitschy-cool velvet seating, chandeliers and even a disco ball. Conceptually, Caia joins the rising London trend of cool music-first joints that also offer banging grub and cocktails.