The best restaurants in Notting Hill

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.  

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.

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 – hooray!

This likeable Ladbroke Grove restaurant from Brunswick House chef Jackson Boxer offers a simple, but intriguing menu with a focus on fish dishes inspired by the Outer Hebrides. With its affable staff, laid-back interiors and chilled retro soundtrack, it attracts a fun-loving, fashionable crowd. 

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.

Few haute restaurants have the hospitable hum of The Ledbury. Despite its two-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.  

Quietly confident and refreshingly laidback – and that’s just the service at this much-loved Notting Hill favourite, housed in a one-time butcher’s shop. Ex-St John chef Tom Pemberton’s ‘nose to tail’ training shows in a seasonal menu of butch-but-stylish British dishes cooked with real flair and panache (a Blythburgh pork chop with swede and kale, for example). Prices are all-round neighbourly.

With the melting pot of cultures that Portobello Road represents, a fusion-inspired menu feels like the only way to do the iconic postcode justice. Notting Hill’s Portobello 177 is headed up by chef Shay Ola, who pays homage to Caribbean flavours with a modern British twist, mirroring the area’s carnival heritage, and adding the occasional nod to Japanese ingredients. As the newest venture by the team behind Trailer Happiness – the long-running tiki bar downstairs – Portobello 177 invokes a similar kind of celebratory spirit. 

A Turkish grill restaurant near Portobello Road that offers posh dips, healthy salads and incredibly tasty grilled meat. Everything here is inspired by the cuisine of south-east Anatolia; the best are the lamb chops, glorious, delicate and smoky and served with a couscous salad of apricot, mint and pomegranate.

This wholesome clean-living take on the chicken trend smacks of middle-class family holidays in France. Herb-marinated, whole-roasted happy hens are brought to the table on a wooden board, along with your choice of sauces and zingy salads teeming with heroic superfoods – think kale, quinoa, pomegranate, nuts and seeds. Hot sides include classic ratatouille – or the rebel of this goodie-goodie family, truffled mac ‘n’ cheese.

Easily outclassing its previous incarnations, this sidekick of Notting Hill’s Electric Cinema is done out like a grungy New York diner – all bare brick, concrete and red leather banquettes. A blaring soundtrack adds to the vibe, while the supersized menu is stuffed with stateside classics – philly chilli cheese dogs, hot reuben sandwiches, wedge salads and unmissable ‘fries au cheval’ (inspired by Chicago’s Au Cheval diner).

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.

If the very idea of healthy eating in Notting Hill fills you with dread, fear not: this cute café from Aussie-born ‘farm girl’ Rose Mann is a little ripper. Colourful interiors and non-stop sunny service are matched by a healthy menu bursting with vibrant, zingy ingredients – expect hibiscus matcha lattes, açai bowls, coconut BLTs, superfood salads and other tasty renditions of the usual suspects.  

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. 

Owned by well-connected glamour puss Camilla Fayed (of Harrods fame), Farmacy sells ‘clean indulgence’ to an eager audience of moneyed Notting Hillbillies and aspirational hedge-fund wives. It’s a happy, joyful, ‘free-from’ kind of place – no dairy, no sugars, no additives, no meat and lots of plant-based stuff lurking in its signature ‘earth bowls’. Judging by the ridiculously glossy good looks of most of the customers, the idea seems to work.  

This hyped New York restaurant offshoot offers playful spins on American classics. It's particularly popular for brunch, thanks to its fluffy stacks of pancakes, which are served with brown butter and hazelnut maple praline. Or go at dinnertime for burgers, steak or wood-fired lasagna. 

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, with piggy portraits on the wall and bits of tractor serving as decor. The resulting dishes are inventive, playful and seasonal – think ‘mouthfuls’ of mushroom Marmite éclair or venison cigars with smoked mayo.

They break a lot of eggs at this bright, rustic-chic all-day café from the Soho House group. They’re given the Turkish, Calabrian and Levantine treatment, served every which way on sourdough or slipped into the house take on a McMuffin. The menu also finds room for saintly chia pots, devilish ‘cornflake French toast’, crab cakes and bacon cheeseburgers too.

Bill Granger has built a TV cooking career out of selling the Aussie dream, and this Notting Hill outpost of his empire is just lovely: shiny, expensive-looking interiors reflect the affluent clientele, but the vibe is laid-back. The menus are as healthy or as hedonistic as you want them to be, the cocktails flow and celebrity spots are common. Booking essential.

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. 

This upmarket Japanese joint specialises in temaki: chunky rolls of sushi designed to be eaten with your fingers rather than chopsticks. It also boasts tempura dishes, a sake list, and a dessert menu featuring elaborate treats including a many-layered matcha mille crèpe. 

A confident mash-up of traditional and up-to-date styling, this cute chippy is one of Notting Hill’s indie assets. The forward-looking bits include sustainable fish such as ‘rock eel’, a state-of-the-art fryer and tasteful interiors. The reassuringly familiar stuff, meanwhile, ranges from saveloys, steak pies and Sarson’s vinegar to spotted dick with custard. Lovely jubbly.

Taqueria has a charming indie feel with its film posters, Latin soundtrack and unfussy food. Messy tacos stuffed with slow-cooked cuts are the big hitters, but there are also tostadas, enchiladas and the usual suspects on the side. Meanwhile, Mexican beers, mezcal and margaritas turn every night into an ‘out-out’ Saturday; friendly staff keep it all coming.

Coming from the same team as Gunpowder, who’ve been neatly delivering classic Indian sharing plates across their trio of restaurants in Soho, Tower Bridge and Spitalfields for the past few years, this is their first west London venture. Empire Empire focuses on the full throttle cuisine of the northwestern Punjab region, with biryanis, kebabs and tikka given top billing. Order the tandoori hariyali king prawns; big, beefy boys, stained Kermit-green with coriander and mint and juicy goat seekh and duck and guinea fowl jheela kebabs.

There’s no glitz and no cutting-edge cool at Six Portland Road, but bags of substance to keep the locals coming back for more. This place deals in grown-up food tailored to conventional Holland Park appetites: bouncy lamb’s sweetbreads with piquant romesco, catalan fish stew, boudin noir on spring veg, decadent chocolate mousse with boozy griottine cherries.

The Hellenic heroes at this stylish gaff are in the business of reinterpreting the Greek classics to impressive effect. Flavours may be reassuringly authentic, but presentation is progressive – note the meze served in Kilner jars, the hot plates of feta tempura with lemon marmalade and caper meringue, or the loukoumades with lavender honey, crushed walnuts and chocolate sorbet. We’re not in Kavos any more, Toto.

It’s counter seating only at this mini Notting Hill branch of the small chain, which is dedicated to the glories of superior ramen. Thin, homemade noodles steeped in rich, slow-simmered pork bone broth come topped with all the good stuff, and service is so swift that you’ll barely have time to order a cocktail before the main event is blowing steam in your face. Savour this soup.