Leonie Cooper

May 2026: Al fresco weather is finally here, and here are the spots that truly spring into action when the sun is out. These places are ideal for visiting while wearing your nice new shades looking important and snacking on a little salt cod fritter. Grab a sarnie in the sunshine at Dusty Knuckle's Dalston location, trek out to Epping Forest for seafood at the Oyster Shack, test out the terrace at the new Forza Wine Soho, gorge yourself on gastropub fare in the hidden garden at The Red Lion & Sun in Highgate, try out Mondo Sando's new Deptford location, or trot down the Regent's Canal to Towpath Cafe. Ace Indian restaurant Kokum in Dulwich is also doing al fresco BBQs every weekend until September. When it comes to outdoor dining there are some excellent – and hopefully sun-dappled - options at some of London’s best restaurants. These terraces, canal-side spots, gardens and al fresco restos should make you feel like you’re on a proper holiday in your hometown. Whether you’re in the mood to have spaghetti in the sun or snack on sushi by starlight, our list has you covered. If you don’t mind heights, then check out some of the finest rooftop restaurants with views in London as well. Not all of them are open in the colder months, so do check if you’re booking during a chillier time of year. RECOMMENDED: These are the best rooftop bars in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. The hottest new

What’s better than an amazing meal? An amazing meal, served up alongside a delicious pint in a cosy pub, obviously. London is the gastropub capital of the world, full of boozers that can compete with our fantastic restaurants in the culinary stakes – but they just happen to come with cracking Victorian buildings, as well as roaring fires, and the occasional dog. So whether you’re after fish and chips, a roast, an oxtail ragù, or a desi pub serving up sublime South Indian cuisine, you’ve come to the right place.  London's best gastropubs at a glance: 🇫🇷 Best in central London: Upstairs at the French House, Soho 🍻 Best in north London: The Compton Arms, Islington 🥧 Best in south London: Camberwell Arms, Camberwell  🤴 Best in east London: Prince Arthur, Dalston  🐄 Best in west London: The Latimer, Notting Hill  RECOMMENDED: London's 50 Best Restaurants. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Is there a more satisfying bite than the salty, smoky hit of a really, really good burger? The answer is obviously: of course not. Restaurants all over the world are crafting and griddling their own take on the classic beef burger, with homemade sauces, whacky buns, and specialty meats elevating these patties to entirely new levels. We wanted to find out where, exactly, one can find the tastiest, juiciest, most decadent and inventive burgers out there right now. So we grilled Time Out’s global team of food and drink editors about the very best burgers they’ve sunk their teeth into – then ranked them all according to the venues with the strongest star ratings on Google. The result? Fourteen lip-smacking burgers, found across some of the world’s best cities. From smashed wagyu to a ‘kitschy’ surf and turf and everything in between, these are the greatest burgers on the planet right now, each tried and tested by us. Tuck in. RECOMMENDED:🍕 The best pizzas in the world🥪 The best sandwiches in the world🥩 The best steaks in the world This list was edited by Liv Kelly, Time Out’s travel writer. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

London, obviously, has a great many cafés, but how to choose? We’ve got normal ones and really posh ones. Massive ones and tiny ones. Ones with loads of cake, and ones with loads of sandwiches. All of them, thankfully, with coffee and tea. This list is our attempt to group together the best ones. Want to know the difference between this list and our ranking of London’s best coffee shops? Well at these spots you can get eggs (fried, poached or scrambled) or a sit-down meal with your flat white. London’s best cafes at a glance:  🌳 Best for al fresco eats: Pavilion Cafe, Victoria Park 🥕 Best for vegans: Rons, Peckham 🍳 Best for brunch: Juliet’s Quality Foods, Tooting 🛵 Best for vintage biker energy: Ace Cafe, Wembley 🥞 Best hidden gem: Bolland & Crust, Wood Green 🇮🇹 Best for old school Italian charm: Scotti's Snack Bar, Clerkenwell RECOMMENDED: London's best breakfasts. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

May 2026: In a city where eating out seems to be getting pricier by the minute, this list remains one of Time Out London's handiest guides. We've given the list a seasonal spin and here you'll find some of the best meals for embracing London sunshine, such as Durak Tantuni's zingy Turkish meat wrap, Angel Dabang's excellent egg sarnie, and a visit to the Oyster Shack in Epping Forest - perfect to cap off a summer walk in the wilds of the suburbs.  London’s best cheap eats at a glance: 🌮 Best for Mexican tacos: Sonora Taqueria, Stoke Newington 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Best for Lebanese mankoushe: Edami, Hackney 🫓 Best for Kurdish bread and wraps: Baban’s Naan, Finsbury Park 🥧 Best for pie and mash: M Manze, Tower Bridge 🥙 Best for falafel: Falafel and Shawarma, Camberwell London might well be the world’s greatest food city, but thanks to a never-ending cost of living crisis, it’s not like any of us can eat out as much as we’d like to. So welcome to our list of London’s best cheap eats. You can eat a full meal everywhere here for £10 or less and variety is the name of the game. Expect London staples such as pie & mash, but also discover the best bargain places for naan, lahmacun, baps, roti and burgers. These places give you the kind of buzz only a bargain bite can deliver, while you can relish the fact that you’re supporting small independent London businesses. So hit the streets – feasting at some of London’s best restaurants needn’t empty your wallet. RECOMMENDED: The best vegan

September 2025: Mexican food in London has never been better. What started in the 1990s as a Tex-Mex-leaning fascination with grainy cheese, hard taco shells, and oversalted tortilla chips, has got whole lot more authentic, blossoming into a bold community of cooks and chefs – Mexican, Brit and beyond – who seek outside the taco seasoning for more legitimate cuisine. Across London you can now find dishes from hyperlocal Mexican regions, as well as handmade tortillas, brilliant salsas and ceviches, fresh moles, fabulously mixed margaritas and even Michelin star rated spots. These are the finest 20 Mexican restaurants in London, where you can find all the above and more. Read more about the enviable current state of Mexican food in London here.  London's best Mexican restaurants at a glance: 🍹 Best for a blow-out brunch: Corrochio’s, Dalston 🌮 Best for traditional tacos: Proper Tacos, Holloway 🪙 Best on a budget: Sonora Taqueria, Stoke Newington 💅 Best for a fancy night out: Cavita, Marylebone  🌽 Best for vegans: Tacos Padre, Borough Market RECOMMENDED: London's best street food. Daniela Toporek is a London-based, Mexican-American food and travel journalist with a passion for discovering and sharing Latin-American culture and cuisine in the UK. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

If any city in the world were oversaturated with hotels, it’d be Paris. So a list of the ‘best hotels in Paris’ is casting a pretty wide net. The city has over 1,600 hotels in total, ranging from tiny new boutiques to grand historic hotels charging €25,000 a night – and we wanted to make sure every kind of hotel was represented on this list: the luxurious, the downright cheap, and everything in between. Whatever your vibe in the City of Light, you’ll find a hotel for you here. Updated for 2026: We’ve added the brand-new Hotel Massé in Pigalle, the sickly-sweet Maison Saintonge and the downright iconic Le Pavillon de la Reine to our list for this year – plus some neighbourhood tips to help you choose which hotel is right for you. Enjoy.  In this guide What is the best area to stay in Paris? + − As will surprise no one, the ‘best’ area to stay in Paris is pretty subjective across its 20 arrondissements and 80 or so neighbourhoods. But we do have some pointers. If it’s your first time in the city, you’ll probably want to be as close to the city centre as possible to tick off those major attractions, so anywhere near the 1st arrondissement – Tuileries, the Marais, St-Germain – would be a good bet. If you’re on a budget, however, you’ll find that cheaper options are usually further out in the 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th – and even on the outskirts of the city. Don’t worry, you’ll still be in on the action – this is where the locals hang out, anyway. For the full rundown, here’s 

Nowhere does Christmas quite like London. Come December, this city comes alive with dazzling festive lights, Christmas markets, theatre and endless shopping. Whether you’re venturing in from a nearby city or travelling from across the pond, there are endless reasons why a stay in the UK’s capital should be at the top of your list this festive season. Ready for some serious Christmas spirit? Look no further – we’ve handpicked the best hotels to stay in at Christmas in the Capital. And we’ve covered all the bases: hotels with Christmas markets on your doorstep, hotels that look out over ice skating rinks, and hotels that go all out for their very own festive offerings, with everything from bespoke Christmas packages to mega trees and blowout festive menus. And yes, you can stay on Christmas Day too. Ready to get festive? Us too. Read on for the best Christmas hotels in London this year.  📍 RECOMMENDED: Ultimate guide to the best hotels and Airbnbs in London  The best hotels for Christmas in London at a glance 👪 Best for families: Claridges 🏢 Best views: Shangri-La The Shard ⛄ Best for snow lovers: The Berkeley 🎄 Best Christmas tree: Landmark London ☕ Best festive afternoon tea: The Dorchester Who makes the cut? Headed up by editor Joe Mackertich, our team at Time Out London spend their time reviewing hotels all over the Capital – new openings, old classics and everything in between – to bring you fresh, honest recommendations, all year round. Along with our pool

May 2026: There's a brand new Number 1, with Holy Carrot in Spitalfields taking the top spot thanks to some seriously creative vegetarian cookery. Other fresh additions include Guirong Wei’s The Wei in Fulham, Auguste and Cafe Kowloon in London Fields, the third Forza Wine, super fun Osteria Vibrato and latest branch of YeYe's Noodle & Dumpling (all three in Soho), perfect pasta at Burro in Covent Garden, pizza and Lambrusco at Bar Etna in Newington Green (and the nearby Golden Tooth gastropub), and Logma, a sensational supper club at a Haggerston cafe. Hungry yet? Every week, a frankly silly amount of brilliant new restaurants, cafés and street food joints arrive in London. Which makes whittling down a shortlist of the best newbies a serious challenge. But here it is. The 20 very best new restaurants in the capital, ranked in order of greatness and deliciousness. All of them have opened over the past 12 months and been visited by our hungry critics. So go forth and take inspo from this list, which is updated regularly. Check in often to find out what we really rate on the London restaurant scene. And look here for all the info about the best new openings in May 2026. London's best new restaurants at a glance: 🍝 Central: Osteria Vibrato, Soho 🍠 North: The Golden Tooth, Newington Green 🇹🇭 South: Kruk, Peckham 🍝 East: Holy Carrot, Spitalfields 🥗 West: The Wei, Fulham Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editoria

Cooking outdoors is one of life’s great joys. It’s how our ancestors did it, and just because we live in the city, why should we miss out on the primitive pleasures on chargrilling a chunk of meat over an open flame? So, as summer rolls around, it’s time to head to the park and fire up the barbie. Just bare in mind, local councils are known to issue temporary bans on BBQs in parks where they are usually permitted, becuase of warm weather leading to fire hazards. Please check local council websites before firing up the grill. Most of London’s lush green spaces are reserved for picnics only, but there are some major parks and local gardens where you’re officially allowed to fire up the BBQ. Unfortunately, iconic grill spot London Fields, which used to get packed and smoky on a balmy day, is no longer an option for barbecuing after the council banned BBQs there. Other councils including Islington have followed suit since, but you can still heat 'em and eat 'em elsewhere in the capital. Here are the spots in London where it’s totally chill to grill.  RECOMMENDED: The best things to do outside in London

For centuries, French cuisine has been considered the world’s very best. Although that golden crown might have slipped somewhat, French-accented cuisine is having a real resurgance in popularity. London’s best french restaurants at a glance: 🐽 Best for experimental offal: Camille, Borough 🍷 Best for cosy vibes: Casse-Croûte, Bermondsey 💕 Best for romance: Bouchon Racine, Farringdon  🇫🇷 Best for Lyonnaise cuisine: Josephine, Chelsea 🥐 Best for cool Parisian energy: Bistro Freddie, Shoreditch Its emphasis on technique and ingredients-first approach make it hard to beat when you fancy feasting on something rich, complex, and unimpeachably lavish. So whether you want an old-school onion soup or an elaborate, immaculately conceived dish served with undeniable je ne sais quoi, we’ve got you covered. Here’s our pick of the best bistros, brasseries and fine-dining spots in London spanning every budget, with everything from Michelin-star restaurants to petit back-alley bistros and chic cafes. RECOMMENDED: Here are London’s 50 Best Restaurants. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Updated May 2026: We’ve refreshed our list of 50 best restaurants in London following the latest Michelin Star announcements as well as our visits to a bunch of great new openings. Recent additions include vegetarian wonder Holy Carrot in Spitalfields, glammy Italian Osteria Vibrato in Soho and Auguste in London Fields. We've also added the newly-reopened and highly historic Simpsons In The Strand.   Best Restaurants in London: Our Critic’s Picks: 🍸 Best Michelin-star restaurant: Cycene, Shoreditch - intimate fine dining with foraged finds and superb seasonal ingredients. 🍜 Best affordable restaurant: Lanzhou Lamian Noodle Bar, Covent Garden - late-night noodles at a great price. 🥧 Best British restaurant: St John, Clerkenwell - trad British dishes in a former smokehouse. 🍝 Best Italian restaurant: Tiella, Bethnal Green - a new school trattoria with old school energy. 🍻 Best gastropub: Rake at The Compton Arms, Islington - great pub food in lowkey surroundings. London doesn’t stand still and neither do we. We’re constantly adding new restaurants to the list and taking away ones that no longer make the grade. From freshly starred fine-dining rooms and hidden gems to neighbourhood favourites, these are the 50 restaurants we think you need to be eating out at in London right now. More London restaurant guides 20 best new restaurants in London Every Michelin-star restaurant in London 11 best new openings in May 2026 This is your guide to eating out in the capital. Don'

Hiding in plain sight, you’ll find the demure Camille in one of the busiest foodie destinations in London, if not the world. Happily, it’s on the very edge of Borough Market, meaning you don’t have to experience the full chaos of the foodie nexus, merely skirt around the rim.  Eating at Camille is basically a religious experience  Camille is a small, pretty place. There are a handful of tables outside, and a chic burgundy and primrose colour scheme within. It doesn’t shout about its elegance, but rather whispers it seductively into your ear. There are white candles dotted about the mirrored dining room, some of them dripping with so much built-up wax one might confuse the place with a bijoux gothic cathedral. You’re not too far off, though, because eating at Camille is basically a religious experience.  Opened a couple of years back by the same team behind Soho’s Ducksoup, this French bistro immediately blew its forebear out of the water thanks to the skill and tenacity of head chef Elliot Hashtroudi. Learning his way around a carcass at St John (and his way around Borough Market at Padella across the road), he was tempted into the kitchen following a run of giddily-received pop-ups across the capital, ready to indulge in the regional cookery he fell in love with when visiting his aunt in the south of France, but with local British produce.  Like Keith Floyd in a trucker cap, he’s not French himself (he grew up in Devon), but is committed to the full-throttle nature of the c

Ever wanted to ditch real life and run away to the Tuscan countryside? We’ve found the perfect place to do just that. Bid farewell to friends, family and significant others before pitching up at the luscious L’Andana. Set amongst vineyards and olive groves, and with rolling mountains in the distance, this historic hotel has an exclusive-feeling energy, which makes sense – the main building was the summer gaff of Grand Duke Leopold II in the mid 1800s. It remains deeply regal – as well as the sprawling grounds, dotted with roses and rosemary, there are three pools, a classy spa and a Michelin star restaurant.  Why stay at L'Andana? Come here for a peaceful stay with a hint of Godfather-worthy majesty. First impressions count for a lot, and the one made by L’Andana is spectacular. Guests reach this hillside escape via a long, umbrella pine tree-lined approach which makes for a fittingly cinematic build-up to one of the loveliest hotels I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. There’s also a helipad, should you wish to arrive in a James Bond-like fashion. There’s not much to do at the hotel apart from chill the hell out, which you can do by the picture perfect pool, or by sauntering around the landscaped grounds, indulging in a cake-heavy breakfast buffet and sipping Vermentino at the on-site winery. Come sunset, swallows chirp wildly as they murmurate around the main – they’re the only souls here who are in a less than majorly relaxed state, the poor things.  What are the rooms

It’s always a pleasure to see folks evolve and mature. With The Golden Tooth, the duo behind puckish scenester bistro Papi have levelled up to gastro greatness.  Once a rampantly mid pub called The Leconfield, this vast Green Lanes boozer’s makeover is subtle but important. It’s fabulously roomy inside, with a designated dining area under colossal sky lights. There are a couple of discreet paintings, a few flourishing pot plants, but no wanky or unnecessary touches. Unlike Papi (which closed earlier this year, its building now home to the excellent Auguste),The Golden Tooth not particularly ‘London’, it’s simply a pub; the ideal blank canvas for the regal cookery and wondrous wine choices of the Papi chappies, aka chef Matthew Scott and sommelier Charlie Carr.  This is powerful and intense food A gin pickle martini, mellowed with a splash of elderflower, and the liquid roast dinner that is a rosemary vodka version, are greedily sipped as the first menu highlight amongst many arrives. It’s chunky beef tartare, bound together with a creamy tonnato dressing, and topped with a gleaming egg yolk. The Golden Tooth twist? Instead of traditional tuna, the tonnato is made with smoked eel, offering an unparalleled decadence. On top are some naughty summer truffle shavings, and there’s a glistening slab of beef dripping toast to pile it onto. Yet despite the indulgent ingredients, there's a playful lightness to the dish. Bury me with a bowl of it.  Next comes plump mussels resting prov

You can’t move for excellent pizza in London right now. A new wave of pub residents (Dough Hands etc), slice shops (Vincenzo’s etc) and sit-down parlours (Ace Pizza etc) have transformed the city’s mozzarella-slathered fast food scene. And yet, Bar Etna in Newington Green is utterly correct in assuming there’s still room for more.  Ed McIlroy is now coming for London slice supremacy Not content with serving one of London’s best burgers at his iconoclastic Finsbury Park gastroboozer The Plimsoll, Ed McIlroy is now coming for London slice supremacy. And working with Joe Beddia of Philadelphia’s Pizzeria Beddia (which was once declared ‘America’s best pizza’ by Bon Apétit magazine), he stands more than a fighting chance.  Much like McIlroy’s other excellent restaurant, Spanish-styled fish counter Tollington’s, Bar Etna is an immediate vibe. There’s a classy-but-fun bar up front, with Barbarella-worthy midcentury chrome lights, a big shiny bartop and sparkling bottles on the shelves. It’s a sleek 1960s Sicilian vino den which raises your cool factor by 10 points as soon as you step inside. Drop by for a £5 negroni while performatively reading some Nabokov, why don’t you?  The restaurant itself is on a raised mezzanine, with splashy canvases of assorted nudes and animals on moody wood panelled walls. It’s at once welcoming and slightly intimidating, but smells great (pizza often has that effect), and there’s a satisfying mix of hot dates, chaotic families with sticky-pawed kids,

I’m still not sure if Big Cypress Lodge is real or if I dreamed the whole thing up. A rustic, southwestern-style hotel, you’ll find it inside the ninth wonder of the world; the Memphis Pyramid. Built in 1991 as a concert and sports arena, this beast of a building was turned into a massive branch of Bass Pro Shops in 2015, and is now a one-stop-shop for all things hunting, shooting and fishing. Kind of like Disneyland for alligator tour guides, it comes complete with an indoor swamp, aquatic-themed bowling alley and some 1,800 living fish. The deeply unique hotel sits halfway up the 535,000-square-foot store, with some rooms boasting ‘outdoor’ balconies and porches that overlook the shop floor—a particularly strange experience late at night, when everyone, apart from the in-house gators, has left the store. Big Cypress Lodge is almost as bonkers as California’s ultra-camp Madonna Inn. We loved it. What are the rooms like at Big Cypress Lodge? There are 103 rooms and suites at Big Cypress Lodge, including five stand-alone cabin suites with rustic wood paneled frontages, which appear to float halfway up the inside of the pyramid, looking not unlike the moment in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy’s house takes flight mid-tornado. Wild. The Governor’s Suite is the biggest, complete with a boardroom area, full kitchen, leather couches, fireplace and space for six. There are also treehouses. Because of course there are.  Much like the rest of the pyramid, there is taxidermy everywhere t

Chic little Italian restaurants are all the rage in London right now. Turbo Trullos such as Dalla, Tiella and Osteria Vibrato, with their silky cacio e pepes, heavy duty negronis, and the vague promise of seeing Charli xcx chuffing on a Vogue out front.  Auguste, though equally elegant, isn’t that kind of Italian. For starters, there’s barely any pasta on the menu. Instead, this refined east-London bistro leans into the hearty mountain food of Abruzzo, a hilltop utopia to the east of Rome known for sheep farms, robust reds and mysterious medieval towns.    There are mystical wild boar-stuffed morel mushrooms This is the first real restaurant from one of Time Out’s favourite nomadic chefs, Mike Bagnall (who is somehow simultaneously still running his Elm pop-up at Peckham’s Montpellier pub) and general manager Dylan Walters, formerly of Bambi, but you’d never know it was a debut resto from the slickness of the operation. The dynamic duo have taken over a space previously home to Papi and made it their own, popping up a couple of big, colourful canvases, white cafe curtains and wooden school chairs. It feels a little like Paris, and a lot like Hackney. The menu is perused over an icy cold vesper martini (surely the cocktail of the summer?), and it turns out that rosti with blue cheese and marjoram is every bit as epic as it ought to be. Only a few dishes are what you might consider ‘light’. There’s cured sea bream with a sparky putanesca salsa, or heroically fresh asparagus wi

A sprawling, Neoclassical statement piece, The Ned can feel a touch overwhelming. Sort of like Disneyland for city boys or Las Vegas with a Mary Poppins kink, it was built in the 1920s as the HQ for Midland Bank. This Grade I-listed stone behemoth now contains 10 restaurants and bars and a 250-room hotel, as well as a spa, swimming pool and a multitude of event spaces. There is lots of monochrome marble, some supremely high ceilings, and the constant, nagging reminder that you should really start paying into your long-ignored savings account. The menu at Lutyens is turbo traditional The finest of The Ned’s bevvy of restaurants is Lutyens Grill, named after the building’s architect Edwin Lutyens, who was also responsible for The Cenotaph on Whitehall, as well as much of Raj-era New Delhi. It’s tucked away in the snug, formal space that was once the bank manager’s personal office, but to get there, you have to traverse the cavernous main hall, which at 6pm on bustling Friday feels akin to crashing a banker’s wedding. There’s a band on a circular podium playing souled-up anthems, and the post-work crowd clink their glasses of bubbly in time with the strains of ‘Valerie’ and assorted classic rock bangers.  But it’s worth running the yuppie gauntlet. A small red rope will be lifted and a sturdy door will slyly roll open to reveal a low-lit, glossy wood-panelled space with regal, cosseted energy. This is a room where you’ll want to make big deals, push big red buttons and tell you

Simpson’s in the Strand creaks with a very specific kind of history. One of London’s oldest restaurants, this hospitality monolith dates back to 1828 and has the kind of beyond-the-grave guestlist that would make the doorman at Studio 54 puce with envy. Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill and Arthur Conan Doyle have all eaten here over the past two centuries. There’s even a few women too, who were finally unbanned from Simpson’s’ main dining room in 1984 (1984!). It comes, like many things here, with lots of cabbage Much like everything that’s almost 200 years old, Simpson’s had gotten rather dusty, but a covid-era shuttering gave new owner Jeremy King the chance to spruce the place up. Now re-opening after a six year spa-break, Simpson’s sparkles where once it spluttered.  King, who launched grande dames of London dining such as The Wolseley and Brasserie Zedel, knows how to make a restaurant feel impressive. The sprawling Simpson’s feels like a luxury hotel, and – much like Zedel – is a multi-space affair, featuring all-day cafe Romano’s, and two cocktail bars (Simpson’s Bar upstairs and Nellie’s in the basement). The bars cling on to their traditional roots, but unlike the main restaurant, are now kitted out in slightly more modern dress, sort of like seeing Cary Grant in a Palace hoodie. There’s also a ballroom, should you ever be in need of a ballroom.  The main restaurant, known as the Grand Divan, is breathtaking. The lighting is immaculate and the attention to detail

We honestly can’t think of a better location for a London hotel than the site of the newly-opened Zetter Bloomsbury. One of the city’s chicest mini-chains has expanded its small roster of boutique pads in the most cutesy and village-like areas of central London (they have hotels in both Marylebone and Clerkenwell) to dreamy Bloomsbury. Right next door to the British Museum, and with Russell Square moments away, this surprisingly large hotel boasts 68 rooms spread across six Georgian townhouses on the grand, but certainly not intimidating, Montague Street. Imagine yourself a fully fledged member of the area’s historic literary set as you stroll to the far more hectic likes of Soho and Covent Garden, then return to the comparative solace of Bloomsbury.  What are the rooms like at The Zetter Bloomsbury? Rooms range from cosy, through superior and deluxe, and there are eight suites. We stay in a junior suite on the first floor, which has super high ceilings, a freestanding bath, three curved bay windows which look out onto the garden and the back of the British Museum, and a grand, four poster bed that’s certainly big enough for any Bloomsbury Group-inspired romantic assignations. The room’s modern design pays tribute to those Arts and Crafts-adjacent creatives of the early 20th century, but doesn’t make you feel like you’re tucked away in an elderly relative’s spare room. Fabric wallpaper is in a comforting shade of rust, there are global nick-nacks inspired by the British Museu

Looking for the most mum-friendly restaurant in central London? Polished Italian mega-trattoria Burro is the answer to your panicked family-dinner prayers. We aren’t shy when it comes to singing the praises of perfect little Highbury restaurant and perennial Time Out favourite Trullo, and Burro is its big ticket, ultra-accessible off-shoot. Taking the original Trullo concept (handmade pasta, charming service, salty snacky bits, actual tablecloths), Belfast-born founder Conor Gadd has super-scaled it for the West End masses with a 100-cover restaurant that comes on like a culinary Goldilocks. It’s not too flashy but not too basic, not too pricey but not too cheap, not too experimental but not too cautious. Burro is just right. The most mum-friendly restaurant in central London Reminiscent of a nice hotel lobby, the vast room is thick with the sweet smell of Parmesan. It’s not quite as charming and intimate as Trullo, but what is? There are high ceilings, a huge oil painting of Speedo-sporting Italian bathers, sleek mid-century chairs sourced from a convent (very chic), and velvet banquettes in a geometric pattern not dissimilar to tube moquette. If the Orient Express mated with a Victoria line train, Burro would be the result.  The Trullo link isn’t the only reason we expect great things. In a moment of noble transparency, Burro is named after the Italian word for butter. The true reason restaurant food tastes so good is because of chefs’ extremely liberal use of this element

Less a ‘listening bar’ and more of a ‘dancing restaurant’, the disco diva dining hall that is London Fields’ Bambi only opened a couple of years back, but such is the popularity of its eats-plus-beats concept, they’ve knocked into the abandoned tattoo parlour next door and doubled the space’s capacity.  A mighty gochujang squash is served like a shamaninc offering With a mirror ball, new mezzanine, bold artworks from in-demand illustrator Alec Doherty and absolutely roaring smoking area, Bambi 2:0 feels more like a club than ever before, with tables pushed aside at 11pm to create a dancefloor as the place morphs into Netil House’s approxmiation of Paradise Garage. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the food must have suffered in the face of such dedication to the sesh. How wrong you would be.  Head chef Jamie Thorneycroft honed his flair for fire and ferments over at Lagom, the BBQ kitchen once in residence at Hackney Church Brew Co that’s now dishing out burgers at Dalston Lane’s Three Compasses. His menu is potent stuff, with flavours more than capable of making themselves heard over nightly vinyl-only DJs.  Fluffy sourdough comes from nearby bakery Forno (an off-shoot of beloved local restaurant, Ombra), and is truly divine when dipped into gossamer-light whipped ricotta, swirled with lashings of hot honey (I’m not bored of hot honey yet, and you shouldn’t be either). After something a little more butch? Try the velvety butterbean hummus studded with crispy fava beans. 

Soho feels hectic as of late. The streets are crammed, and pubs pour out mercilessly onto already cluttered pavements. Of course, it’s lovely to see central London thriving, but such overstimulation can lead to the urge to stay at home, rather than tackle the human gauntlet that is Old Compton Street on a Thursday night.  The menu brims with fresh and flirty ceviches But instead of bedrotting, have you ever thought of trying… Fitzrovia? Essentially Soho without the faff, there are many excellent things that might draw you to this comparatively peaceful neighbourhood on the calmer side of Oxford Street. Cometa is the latest. If it looks familiar, that’s because it is. Inside the former wine bar space at Carousel, this Mexican-inspired seafood restaurant is about the lighter, less carb-conscious side of Latinx cuisine, with nary a taco in sight. This is Tulum for the Mounjaro masses, and the menu brims with fresh and flirty ceviches, tart fish crudos, and other things you might want to eat by a breezy beach while considering skipping your flight home in favour of reading tarot at a surf shack.  First, come oysters. Large and fleshy, they’re served with a funky, fermented petróleo that hums with a potent bloody mary kick, as well as a suspicious brown pipette that contains a gentle hot sauce. They are a signpost for a meal that’s all about freshness underlayed with a creeping confidence. The prawn, burnt mandarin and ginger ceviche is served far soupier than ceviches normally a

Time Out editors from across the world have eaten a hell of a lot of burgers and come up with a definitive list of the very best. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. The list of 14 perfect patties (which you can read in full here) takes in everywhere from Sydney to Lisbon, with stop-offs in Paris, New York City, Rio, Hong Kong and more. Of course, London features too – with one of the finest burgers around to be found in this fair city.  To find it you’ll need to visit Asian-inspired burger joint Hanbaagaasuuteeki in Victoria, and then you’ll need to order the shrimp kong baga. This ‘fabulously frilly’ smash burger comes with shrimp, crispy seaweed, cheese and thousand island-style dressing. Think of it as Korean-inspired surf and turf.  Photograph: HanbaagaasuuteekiHanbaagaasuuteeki Other burgers in the list include the dry-aged beef chuck and gruyère cheese burger in a pretzel bun at Nolita in Madrid, the triple bacon cheese classic smash burger at Smash Things in Tokyo and the dry-aged Red Hook Tavern burger from Red Hook Tavern in Brooklyn. We’re drooling just thinking about them.  Hanbaagaasuuteeki is at 36 Buckingham Palace Road, SW1W 0RE and you can find a full list of the best burgers in London here. 🍔 The world’s 14 best burgers in 2026. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the be

You might not be thinking about jacket potatoes during this heatwave, but we know some guys who are. SpudBros, the fast food jacket potato restaurant, have just launched a brand new SpudBros Express flagship store on Princes Street in Mayfair, after they closed their only London location in Soho last year. The store will sell SpudBros’ loaded potatoes, which come with the likes of garlic butter, three-cheese blend, baked beans, crispy onions, chilli con carne, tuna coleslaw, and bolognese. SpudBrosSpudBros The new London location joins the SpudBros outposts in Liverpool, Sheffield, Blackburn, Wakefield, Portsmouth and Barnstaple.  SpudBros started life as a food truck in Preston’s Flag Market, where it’s been for over 70 years. It catapulted to popularity when brothers Jacob and Harley Nelson took control of its social media feeds. Now viral sensations with huge social media followings, the original truck pulls in massive crowds, with people travelling across the country to bag their famous spuds.   Find the new SpudBros Express at 4 Princes Street, Mayfair, W1B 2LE. To celebrate the opening, they’ll be giving away a free potato to the first 100 customers from 12pm today (May 27). The store will be open daily from 11am-8pm. 💸 The best cheap eats in London. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for the bes

It’s hot, it’s sticky and we’re not going to complain about it, because London in the sunshine is the greatest city in the entire world. Happily, there are some extremely fitting openings set for June, including a lavish ice cream parlour in Soho and a boozer with a massive beer garden in Stoke Newington.  And in what will come as very good news to people in south London who like baked things, there’s a brand new branch of Camberwell’s legendary Toad Bakery set for Deptford.   Here’s the best of June.  RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in London. The 10 best new London restaurants opening in June 2026 Photograph: No Forty NineNo Forty Nine 1. The one with an amazing young chef No. Forty Nine, St John’s Wood We recently named Ella Williams as one of the best young chefs in London and she’s now bagged her first ever head chef role. Coming from the kitchen of Peckham’s hip Hausu, she’s crossed the river to St John’s Wood, where she’ll be leading the team at the newest restaurant from the same group as the excellent Cinder. An all-day bakery and bistro, No. Forty Nine will offer Mediterranean-meets-New-York dining, with dishes like cornbread madeleines with scotch bonnet honey butter, tagliolini with prawns and crab choux buns on offer, alongside a special mini pizza menu. We’re also deeply interested in the Baby Guinness sundae. Opens: June Address: 49 St John’s Wood High Street, NW8 7NJ AppalachiaAppalachia 2. The sweet soul food one  Appalachia, Shoreditch   Open for just

We’ve all seen those tube carriages that loom spectacularly over Shoreditch – and now the public will finally have the opportunity to go and have a snoop around them. That’s because the music venue upon which they sit, the Village Underground, is opening up a brand new rooftop terrace. This will be the first time the general public has had access to the recycled Jubilee line carriages on top of what was a railway viaduct on Great Eastern Street.  The rooftop bar will serve pizza as well as booze and will launch on Friday July 3. It’ll be open throughout the summer every Wednesday to Sunday.  Image: Village UndergroundRender of Village Underground’s new rooftop space The Village Underground will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. The Victorian-built warehouse opening as a music venue in April 2007 and quickly becoming one of the most atmospheric gig and club venues in the capital, regularly hosting top electronic DJs and up-and-coming artists. The tube carriages were previously used as artists studios and as offices for the team that runs the venue.   Looking for more rooftop bars in Shoreditch? Here are some of our favourites. Here are some of the best rooftop restaurants in London, too.  ☀️ The best rooftop bars in London. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to

It’s officially a scorcher – and just in time, we’ve picked London’s best sky-high spots for sipping drinks during the sunny season.  With a new number one rooftop bar for 2026, we’ve returned to an old favourite; Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden. This South Bank classic is a brutalist rooftop beauty, with views of the Thames as well as a lovely lawn, and over 200 different kinds of plants, flowers and fruit trees. The bar itself is pretty unobtrusive, set in an old shipping container, and serving wine, botany-inspired cocktails and craft beers, as well as a couple of snacky bits, but it’s the sprawling green space that really makes this spot stand out. First launched in 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden was a joint project between The Eden Project and Grounded Ecotherapy, who help people experiencing homelessness and addiction recovery via gardening. The place re-opens for spring/summer 2026 on April 1.  Photograph: Cesare De GiglioQueen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden, London In second place comes another classic London rooftop bar; Frank’s Cafe in Peckham. This stalwart of London’s rooftop scene doesn’t need much in the way of an introduction – neither does their infamous pink staircase. We love this bar perched on the top of a multi-storey car park for its stunning views, interesting art installations and casual energy. It re-opens for 2026 on May 15.  Coming in third is Forza Wine at The National Theatre. There are now three Forza Wines in London, the original Peckham

JD Wetherspoon is set to open its first ever pub in London’s Theatreland district, with a new West End mega-boozer taking over part of what was once the Trocadero. The pub will be known as Piccadilly Hall, named in tribute to the original Piccadilly/Pikadilly Hall – the 17th century mansion that gave its name to Piccadilly Circus. It will open at 30 Shaftesbury Avenue – most recently home to the now-shuttered Coyote Ugly bar.  A launch date for the latest pub from the budget boozer chain has not yet been revealed, but what we do know is that the space will be over 3,600 square-feet and will fit 280 covers, and be open daily from 7am to midnight. Yes, they will be doing breakfast.  RECOMMENDED: How the Trocadero blew London’s mind then vanished for ever. This follows news that ’Spoons will be opening a new watering hole at Paddington Station. The proposed new pub will span 3,600 square-feet across two floors, including a mezzanine in the station’s former ticket hall, with direct access to the Bakerloo line. It will join two other recently opened railway ’Spoons; Captain Flinders Wetherspoons at Euston and The Lion and The Unicorn at Waterloo. Photograph: Matthew Stone / Shutterstock.comWetherspoons logo Earlier this year Westminster Council also granted Wetherspoons a license to operate a pub and restaurant on the Strand, right next to Charing Cross station.  Find the locations of all the newest Wetherspoons boozers in the UK (and Alicante!) here. The best pubs in London, ac

Empire Empire, a ‘disco-themed’ Indian restaurant in Notting Hill, is eyeing up a second location.  The All Saints Road joint, which opened in 2023 and specialises in Punjabi cuisine, was awarded a Bib Gourmand – Michelin’s accolade for affordable fine dining. Judges praised the restaurant’s butter chicken, adding: ‘You'd be a fool to overlook the terrific King Prawns Kadhai Masala – a prime demonstration of the kitchen's skill with flavours.’ Empire Empire comes from restaurateur Harneet Baweja, who is also behind the mini-chain Gunpowder. The latter brand has sites in Spitalfields and Soho, and recently closed its Tower Bridge outpost.   The new branch of Empire Empire won’t be opening until late 2026 or early 2027, reports the Caterer, and will be in the Grade II listed former home of the Westmoreland Arms pub at 34 George Street, Marylebone. Most recently, the space was occupied by the long-running Japanese restaurant Defune.  The second branch of Empire Empire will feature a ground-floor dining room and a basement ‘pub’ with two private dining rooms and a bar. ‘Having lived in Marylebone for years I have seen first-hand the community that it is known for, both among locals and those further afield and feel that the concept lends itself perfectly to a reimagined pub environment,’ said Baweja about the opening.   Empire Empire’s current menu includes the likes of lamb chops, beef seekh kebabs, lobster biriyani, king prawn masala and dal makhani, as well as a gulub jamun ch

It hasn’t snowed in Reykjavik in four months, but hours after I arrive it starts to pelt down big, fluffy flakes of the stuff. It’s a fitting backdrop for the first day of Food & Fun, a festival in its 23rd year that invites chefs from across the world to cook in some of the Icelandic capital’s finest restaurants. They bring their skill and technique, and Iceland supplies the ingredients from its surprisingly epic stash. Despite what you might have heard, it’s not all fermented shark and puffin burgers around here. In fact, we don’t see either during our four-day visit; instead, we get stuck into the island’s bounty alongside the festival’s chefs, who are also here to experience Iceland’s fascinating food culture. RECOMMENDED: This little-known Icelandic island gives Reykjavik’s food scene a run for its money It might be isolated, and really bloody cold at times, but Iceland’s elite supply of geothermal energy means farmers can pretty much grow whatever they want in huge, sustainable greenhouses. There are thriving banana, tomato, strawberry and cucumber farms, as well as premium lamb from purebred stock that can be traced back to Viking times.  I join the 40-or-so chefs on a visit to one of these farms at Friðheimar, where juicy tomatoes are grown year-round. Friðheimar is, oddly, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions, a farm-to-table dining experience that’s like a high-end version of visiting the garden centre cafe with your nan. On a Thursday lunchtime, it’s absol

Mayfair has long been one of London’s more ‘red flag’ neighbourhoods. Just one street over from friendly fun Soho, but spiritually a million miles away, Mayfair is where oligarchs rub cashmere shoulders, private galleries shift questionable art, and people deal in literal diamonds. London is already one of the most expensive cities in the world, but Mayfair? Mayfair can bankrupt you in seconds.  Mayfair might have finally shaken off some of its stuffiness Despite all that money – or maybe because of it? – restaurants in Mayfair are usually more cringey than classy. It’s full of flashy tourist traps for those in possession of more cash than sense, and bonkers boltholes for the super-rich. But a new kind of Mayfair restaurant has been attracting regular Londoners back to the warren of Georgian lanes between Piccadilly and Oxford Street. It began with New York Italian-inspired disco bistro The Dover, and its sassy little sibling, Dover Street Counter, followed late last year. At both, the food isn’t as madly-priced as you’d think, and the vibes are exceptional. Automat on Mount Street has followed suit, pushing the same martinis-and-fries aesthetic and DakaDaka has impressed with its booming take on Georgian cuisine. New York import Carbone has also joined the party, and even Claridge’s has got in on the action, with historic West Village cafe Dante in permanent residence at the luxury hotel’s main bar and restaurant, and hipster baker Richard Hart in charge of the offering at t

Enjoy a reasonably priced steak and live in south London? All your meaty dreams have come true, because Flat Iron has just announced plans for its first ever restaurant down south. For all the pedants out there, we’re not counting their London Bridge, Southbank, and Waterloo branches, which are merely south of the river rather than in south London proper. Flat Iron will open in Clapham Old Town late in 2026, so you still have a fair few months to wait for your £15 steak, but when it does launch there will be 130 covers (including on an outdoor terrace), meaning that it won’t be too difficult to secure a table.  The Clapham branch will join Flat Iron’s 16 London restaurants, which span Soho, Spitalfields, Marylebone, Kings Cross and Hammersmith. The most recent new opening was in Piccadilly, and Flat Iron restaurants are soon coming to Newcastle, Birmingham, Liverpool as well as the first Scottish Flat Iron in Glasgow. Flat Iron’s ‘Head of Beef’ Fred Smith, is local to Clapham, so is rather excited about the new restaurant. ‘Opening a restaurant in Clapham, my home, will be special,’ he says. ‘I grew up in the area and witnessed firsthand the evolution of the high street. Many years ago, there was a butcher’s shop (Moens, now a few doors down) on this site that my family would visit regularly, so to be bringing the beef back has extra meaning.’ Flat Iron Clapham will open at 18-19 The Pavement, SW4 0HY, later this year. Did you see that this beloved south London bakery is open

A bumper bounty of new bistros are coming to London this May, with new restaurants from Time Out hot chef Jackson Boxer, as well as the third Arcade foodhall and a fresh residency for pizza supremos Dough Hands.  As it’s basically summer now, you’ll be wanting to eat al fresco, so make sure you check out our best outdoor restaurants list, or if you’re after something a bit more chill, then cast your eyes over our ranking of London’s best beer gardens. If you’ve a head for heights, then our best rooftop bars and best rooftop restaurants in London lists are also worth a look.  RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in London. The best new London restaurants opening in May 2026 1. The new Jackson Boxer joint Vesper, Exmouth Market Brunswick House, Dove, Henri… Jackson Boxer has the hospo Midas touch, and he’s bringing his exemplary restaurant brand to north-east London for the first time. Vesper will join the jolly Exmouth Market gang, offering big bistro energy and croquettes ‘arnold bennett’ with tarragon mayonnaise, potato pizzettes with salame rosa and pea & mint gnudi with brown butter. London’s Vibiest Street is about to get even more vibey. See you on the outdoor terrace.  Opens: Mid-May  Address: 8-10 Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, EC1R 4QA. Sam Cornish 2. The combination foodhall, taverna and Thai canteen Arcade feat Zylia and Plaza Khao Gaeng, Covent Garden A brand new Arcade is coming to a grand, Grade-I listed 12,500 sq ft building on the south side of Covvy G, joining th

Friend of Time Out Monica Galetti is helping to launch a brand new social enterprise restaurant, alongside the charity that runs it. She’ll be executive chef at 130 Primrose, which will employ and train people impacted by homelessness. Though day-to-day operations will be run by head chef Eric Zhang, Monica will be devising the menu, which will be based around seasonal British ingredients cooked up with some Mediterranean flair. The restaurant will open on May 8 at 130 Regent’s Park Road. ‘I’ve seen first-hand how, with the right support, people can rediscover hope, dignity and purpose through opportunities like this,’ says Galetti. ‘That’s why I didn’t hesitate when I was asked to help shape the culinary future of this incredible project.’ Recruits for the restaurant have been made through partner charities such as The Big Issue, Crisis, Beam, Soup Kitchen London and Only A Pavement Away. Employees will be offered six-month contracts at front of house or in the kitchen and will be supported by the restaurant upon leaving.  130 Primrose Galetti added: ‘My first task is to create an exciting new menu that attracts customers to support our mission – celebrating the best British seasonal ingredients with a little twist of fun. Later, I’ll weave in touches of my Samoan heritage, giving our trainees a unique development opportunity and helping them to stand out when they move on in their career in hospitality.’ The restaurant will be open for all-day dining from breakfast throug