The best new restaurants in London

On the ground floor of new members’ club 1 Warwick, this contemporary British bistro and all-day dining spot celebrates its Edwardian heritage and architecture. Nessa is so named in tribute to Vanessa Bell, the English painter, designer, sister of Virginia Woolf and core member of the proto-hippy Bloomsbury Group. Chef Tom Cenci’s indulgent but accessible cuisine celebrates seasonal British ingredients with the likes of celeriac carbonara, spiced bulgar wheat-stuffed savoy cabbage, and juicy mega-meatballs of lamb and pork belly.

86 Brewer St, W1F 9UB

Kapara is the latest venture from ex-Ottolenghi chef Eran Tibi, who is also the brains behind Southwark’s Bala Baya, another Tel Aviv-inspired restaurant with a comparable clubby vibe. In Soho’s new Ilona Rose House development, Kapara is a high-ceilinged modern space where the lights are low and the music pumps politely. The vibe is lively, to say the least, and the menu is just as flirty (dishes have naughty names like ‘cheeky bums’ and ‘sticky treat’). 

Ilona Rose House, Manette St, W1D 4AL

Sibling owners Jordan and Chyna opened Jam Delish off the back of stints at Kerb and a residency at Soho’s Sun and 13 Cantons pub. For this permanent iteration, the kitchen is headed up by Bajan-Jamaican chef Nathan Collymore, an alumnus of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen. The impressive menu ambles through vegan takes on West Indian classics like jerk 'chicken', 'goat' curry, 'saltfish' tostones, 'beef' patties and so on. Collymore is doing seriously alchemical things with seitan, tempeh, jackfruit and soy. 'Oxtail' stew features nuggets of jackfruit in a wildly flavourful liquor, studded with cassava dumplings and served with perfect rice and peas while pakora-style tostones come with fried green plantain and a humming scotch bonnet mayo. Seriously good.

1 Tolpuddle St, N1 0XT

An Indian-Irish fusion restaurant where you'll get delightful things like Spuds & Butter, a cocktail served in a coupe that looks like melted Kerrygold, as well as chaat potatoes; crispy cubes that are silky-smooth inside and come slathered in a turmeric and poitín butter, turning oily and lightly spicy and finding a surprisingly cooling foil in a green chilli chutney. Like every dish at the fantastic Shankeys, it’s a beautiful, colourful mess, served on floral crockery straight off Grandma’s dresser.

221 Well St, E9 6RG

The mighty tapas staple of croquetas now has a whole restaurant dedicated to it thanks to Spanish food folk Brindisa. An intimate northern-Spanish bar and miniature dining room on Beak Street, Bar Kroketa is rustic and informal, perfect for a quick bite or a more leisurely glass of Cava Brut Reserva after a long day of trawling around Soho. 

21 Beak St, W1F 9RR

While Akub isn’t the first proudly Palestinian restaurant in London, or even in Notting Hill – the nearby Maramia Café has been serving up homely Palestinian dishes for nearly two decades – it is still a rare thing. Their contemporary Palestinian cuisine in a Victorian townhouse comes on lens-friendly small plates in pretty pinks, yellows, and greens. 

27 Uxbridge St, W8 7TQ

The first UK opening from LA chef Kris Yenbamroong is at the newly opened Shepherd’s Bush branch of The Hoxton hotel. Here you'll find incredible Thai food with an Americana-feel. A few trad dishes are present and correct: there’s authentic larb gai with chicken, lime, mint and coriander chilli, as well as smooth, rich coconut and lemongrass seared sea bass fillet. But Chet’s goes hard on the LA angle to give British palates a beautifully balanced taste of the Golden State.

65 Shepherd’s Bush Green, W12 8QE

High Street Kensington’s ornate Jacuzzi impressively straddles the line between high camp and high class. Like being invited into Sophia Loren’s boudoir, it’s at once seductive, sort of silly and kind of overwhelming. Italian food includes staples and showstoppers, but there's also the option to be more subtle.  Home-made focaccia was warm, salty and beautifully bouncy, ideal for dipping into our decent dollop of burrata dotted with black truffle and for slathering with a zingy Sicilian gambero rosso di mazara ceviche.

94 Kensington High St, W8 4SJ

St John Marylebone marks the cult London restaurant's biggest opening in an age. Chalkboards explain the day’s offerings. There’s only a handful of starters and mains up for grabs. All are made for sharing, but by God you don’t have to if you don’t want to. The brevity of such a menu is never an issue; everything is exceptional. A menu staple is one slice of immaculate anchovy toast, a small but powerful parsley-scattered pescatarian successor to St John’s iconic bone marrow and parsley toast. 

98 Marylebone Ln, W1U 2QA

At Mount St Restaurant there are 200 world-class pieces of art, worth a combined total of £50 million. The first London-based project from Artfarm – a hospitality group founded by the same folk behind the hugely respected gallerists Hauser & Wirth – offers traditional British fare with a touch of contemporary grace. Sensational stuff.

41-43 Mount St, W1K 2RX

A determinedly al fresco Southwark spot with a Mediterranean menu. The food is earthy and bountiful and despite the commitment to butch, wood-fired cooking, starters were gentle and light; think burrata, fig with cherry molasses and crab meat in charred baby gem. It’s the mains though – which come in single as well as sharing portions for two – which truly make us feel as if we’ve been invited to a wealthy farmer’s country estate to eat on a long table in the fields.

53b Southwark Street, SE1 1RU

Maresco is the sister spot to Crouch End’s Bar Esteban and Stoke Newington’s Escocesa. Here you'll find Spanish food made with Scottish seafood. High stools run along the windows; perfect for watching Soho’s beautiful oddballs go by, as well as next to the kitchen; perfect for watching chefs prepare intricate bocadillo de calamar. Don't miss the puds; creamy Basque cheesecake and bread pudding which is crunchy with sugar and cinnamon, like a giant churro. Maresco has all the hallmarks of a new Soho staple. 

45 Berwick Street, W1F 8SF

This Audley Street spot is swisher than swish. The menu talks of ‘pristine’ fish, which naturally means a high price tag (remember, we’re in Mayfair) but also equals some seriously top drawer fruits de la mer. Their staggeringly long ‘tin list’ might sound like a gimmick, but it’s done with such dedication it’s hard to not be impressed. They’re mostly from Spain and Portugal, and there are almost 100 different kinds available, from razor clams in brine to spiced squid in ragout.

With a maximum of 16 covers who perch along a light pine bar, this highly fancy omakase joint is headed up by chef Takuya Watanabe. Watanabe knows good fish – he used to be behind the counter at Jin, Paris’s first omakase to score a Michelin star – and now he’s bringing edomae to one of Mayfair’s grandest thoroughfares. Harking back to the way fish was cured with vinegar to preserve it during the 1800s Edo-period, this is a deeply traditional style of Japanese cuisine. 

36 Albemarle St, W1S 4JE

Thai racing boats are strung from the ceiling and there's a 1am weekend licence at the bright and boozy Speedboat Bar. Inspired by canteen food in Bangkok’s own Chinatown, here spices jump out triumphantly from every dish, but they’re not going to destroy you – sweetcorn fritters were crunchy pop-in-the-mouth fun and chicken skins with zaep seasoning the very definition of zingy.

30 Rupert Street, W1D 6DL

This is former Nopi and Berber & Q chef Luke Findlay’s idiosyncratic and playful take on Japanese cuisine. He brings a British twist to proceedings and quickly proved this isn't simply stunt food.

191 Rye Lane, SE15 4TP

Omakase is the true saviour of the lazy diner. Can’t be bothered to read, consider and then, after all that hard work, finally choose what you want to eat? No worries! At Sushi Kamon's omakase counter the chef will treat you like the big adult baby you are and pick all your food for you. 

103-105 New Oxford St, WC1A 1DB

A revamped London institution. Mangal II has been a Turkish mainstay since the 1990s, but thanks to sensational chef Sertaç Dirik the great grillhouse now offers high-end cuisine, natty wine and some of the best puds in the game. 

4 Stoke Newington Rd, N16 8BH

Much-loved Paddington restaurant Satay House put Malaysian food on the capital’s map. Now, it has a younger sibling, Sudu, helmed by brother-and-sister duo Fatizah and Irqam Shawal, children of Satay House’s owners.

30 Salusbury Rd, NW6 6NL

Chef Rishim Sachdeva’s brilliant (mostly) vegan small-plates restaurant Tendril makes meat-free dining both easy and unquestionably delicious.

5 Princes St, W1B 2LQ