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 original Dalston location, trek out to Epping Forest for seafood at the Oyster Shack, test out the terrace at the new Forza Wine Soho, try out Mondo Sando's new Deptford location, or trot down the Regent's Canal to Towpath, which has just reopened for the 2026 season. 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 openings, the tastiest tips, the spicie

Ever since Padella opened in Borough Market, and queues started to snake outside for its simple, affordable pasta small plates, London has become a city of pasta-fiends, lusting after linguine and Instagramming anelli. More and more hip Italian restaurants have opened across the capital serving up stylish, saucy, cheesy and downright-delicious strands of dough and we're also stocking up on perfect fresh pasta from delis like Lina Stores and diving into plates of trad pasta at Ciao Bella in Bloomsbury, as well as bottomless lasagna at Senza Fondo. Here are the finest pasta places in town.  RECOMMENDED: London's best Italian restaurants. 

April 2026: Our latest update includes tasty new openings such as Tiella in Bethnal Green and Casa Felicia in Queen's Park, as well as much-loved neighbourhood joints like Peckham's Artusi and legendary Ciao Bella in Bloomsbury. Try also the well-worth-seeking-out Polentina in Bow and walk-ins only Canteen in Notting Hill. If you've got the cash to spare, there are super plush spots such as Luca and Murano, which both have Michelin stars. If you're on budget, then one-stop pasta shop Padella is a good shout, and if you're really, really skint, then a simple coffee and cannoli at Bar Italia is the move. Wherever you end up, London’s Italian dining scene is irreproachable.  London’s best Italian restaurants at a glance:  🇮🇹 Best for an old school vibe: Ciao Bella, Bloomsbury 💅 Best for the fashion crowd: Dalla, Hackney 🍕 Best for pub pizza: Elephant, Clapton 🍝 Best for pasta: Artusi, Peckham 🍷 Best for date night: Brutto, Farringdon Pasta and pizza are way more than just fast-food comfort carbs at these exceptional London restaurants and trattorias, which excel in properly good and authentic Italian cuisine. The basics – a creamy carbonara, say, or a simple margherita – are all present and correct, but the capital’s repertoire extends to stylish antipasti, sourdough pizzas, richly sauced pasta and beyond. You can also find finely crafted specialities drawn from the traditional trattorias of the rustic south and fashion-conscious north of the country at London’s best Ita

May 2026: We're constantly keeping an eye on this Top 50 list to make sure it's up to scratch, and with so many new restaurant openings in and around Soho, that means regularly adding new places and removing those that might have failed to deliver on our last visit. Recent additions include the rowdy Osteria Vibrato, gplush Japanese joint Moi, northern Spanish grill Alta, the third outing for Peckham-born small plates spot Forza Wine, Thai BBQ at Khao Bird, and a new branch of YeYe's Noodle & Dumpling in what was once legendary goth pub The Intrepid Fox as well as London's third branch of Padella. For a more casual feed there's artisan burger joint Heard or Cambodian pop-up Mamapen.  The best restaurants in Soho at a glance: 🥧 Best for British classics: Quo Vadis 💅 Best for the fashion crowd: Rita’s  🫚 Best for Thai heat: Kiln 🥕 Best for vegetarians: Bubula 🍝 Best for Italian classics: Osteria Vibrato 🌞 Best for an al fresco feast: Forza Wine There’s honestly nowhere in the world like Soho. The haunt of poets, gangsters, trendsetters and many a louche genius, the seedy, sleazy and impossibly romantic heart of London’s West End is also home to loads of great independent shops, cafés, bars and, most importantly, restaurants. Its culinary diversity has been fuelled by centuries of immigration and cultural cross-pollination. From rustic French fare to iconic Italian dishes and tasty tapas, here is Time Out’s list of our absolute favourite Soho restaurants. Whether you fan

Is it safe to say movies are back? Sure, there’s still plenty of anxiety around the film industry and its future. But cinematically speaking, 2026 has gotten off to, arguably, the most blazing hot start since the pre-pandemic glory days, both critically and at the box office.  Of course, for our purposes, we like to focus on the creative successes, and it’s rare for the first quarter of any year to produce so many achievements of various scopes and budgets. Any time you get both a Project Hail Mary and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – not to mention leftfield triumphs like The Testament of Ann Lee, Sirât and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – all before the calendar’s halfway point, you know it’s a good time to be a film fan, especially when there are new spectacles from Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Marvel and the Dune franchise on the horizon.  But that’s later. Here’s the best of what we’ve seen so far.  📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2026 (so far)📕 15 book-to-movie adaptations to get excited about in 2026🔥 The 40 best movies of 2025

Of course greasy spoons are great – but our national cuisine is about way more than fry-ups, roasts and even fish and chips. London is a veritable goldmine of national culinary treasures: from 250-year-old aristo joints and top-hatted doormen to smoked eel sandwich-slinging brasseries, modern British steakhouses and scrubbed-up Victorian canteens. We’ve rounded up all the eateries that will make you come over weirdly patriotic with their exemplary takes on homegrown cuisine, featuring some of London’s most historic restaurants and some trad faves too.  RECOMMENDED: London's 50 best restaurants.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor, and likes nothing more than feasting on a well-stuffed meat pie. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

May 2026: Our latest update includes everything from an early morning Michelin-starred tasting menu to udon noodle bowls, South Indian platters and Hong Kong-style toasted buns. Of course, it wouldn't be a list of the best breakfasts in London without an appearance from Dishoom and their iconic-for-a-reason bacon naan, so that's here too, as is old school East End hangout E Pellicci - one of the best classic caffs in London.  The best breakfasts in London at a glance: 🌯 Best for a burrito: Bad Manners, Shoreditch 😎 Best for celeb-spotting: The Wolseley, Mayfair 🥓 Best for a fry-up: E Pellicci, Bethnal Green 🍛 Best for a South Indian feast: The Tamil Prince, Islington 🍞 Best for Hong Kong French toast: Hoko Cafe, Brick Lane 🍱 Best for Japanese brekkie: Ikoi, Kings Cross Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and luckily for London, the city caters to every possible morning whim. These days, London isn’t just home to the fry-up, but the ubiquitous smashed avocado on toast, bowls of shakshuka and many more besides. In fact, London genuinely might be the best place to eat breakfast in the world. Whether you’re the kind of person who favours a posh restaurant over a greasy spoon, or who champions a caff over a swanky hotel, we’ve rounded up the ultimate list.  RECOMMENDED: Breakfast’s a little too early for you? Try one of London’s best brunches instead. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guid

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: This list highlights some of London's latest and most intriguing afternoon sarnie sessions. Indulge at a themed tea, such as the 'Brat' of afternoon teas aka the martini-fuelled London By Lily Vanilli at Four Seasons Tower Bridge or the Wes Anderson afternoon tea at the Design Museum, which coincides with their exhibition about the film director. Now the weather is on the up, why not channel some English country cottage energy at Petersham Nurseries and if your pockets are deep, there's the new caviar afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason. London’s best afternoon teas at a glance: 👛 Best value: The Wolseley, Piccadilly  💸 Best for splashing out: Palm Court at The Ritz, Mayfair 💃 Best for a modern take on tea: London By Lily Vanilli at Four Seasons Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge 🌷 Best for tea in a greenhouse: Petersham Nurseries, Richmond  🐟 Best for something different (and very expensive): Caviar afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason, Mayfair Afternoon tea is what makes a trip to London truly iconic – even if you already live here. You’ll find some of the best at London’s chicest hotels and restaurants, and even art galleries and theatres. We’ve worked out what makes an afternoon tea a truly memorable (and delicious) experience. It’s not just perfect pastries, the most elegant of teeny tiny cakes and chic little sarnies with the crusts cut off, but swish service, the option to have something boozy and bubbly and a characterful room in which to enjoy it all. From The Rit

Shoreditch is a dining destination for tourists, hipsters and ravenous city workers alike, so it’s no wonder that there are restaurants of all cuisines and price ranges in this always-buzzy area. But which of the many options deserve your time and money? Let us tell you, with our list of the best restaurants in Shoreditch and Spitalfields, which only features places that we know will hit the spot. Check out everything from Michelin-starred favourites for big spenders to stellar plant-based joints and some of the best Italian restaurants in the capital. Go east and feast. January 2026: We've just given this list a proper revamp, removing those Shoreditch spots that are no longer up to scratch and adding a load of new must-visit restaurants in their place. There's also a brand new number one - Plates, which is the UK’s only Michelin-starred vegan restaurant. Other new entries include Legado, from Michelin star Spanish chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho, Cycene (another Michelin-star scorer), sleek Ukranian restaurant Tatar Bunar, Japanese-Italian fusion spot Osteria Angelina, bottomless lasagna paradise Senza Fondo, Singburi 2:0 and spruced up gastropub The Macbeth. Plenty of local classics remain, from Brat and Smokestak to Smoking Goat, Rochelle Canteen, Manteca and The Clove Club.  RECOMMENDED: The best bars, pubs and rooftops in Shoreditch. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

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), as well as numbing Chongqing spice at Jiāonest in Hoxton, perfect pasta at Burro in Covent Garden and Mexican seafood at Cometa in Fitzrovia. 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: Ling Ling’s, Islington 🇹🇭 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 editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London

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'

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

Open since 1967, Scotti’s is legendary in London’s Italian caff game. There isn’t a menu, but there are favourites; the chicken escalope ciabatta sandwich with the works (tomato, lettuce, and mayo) being the main draw at lunchtime, swiftly followed by the cappelletti pasta in brodo (known as the soup), as well as sausage and bacon rolls for breakfast. There’s usually a host of other sandwiches (roast chicken, tuna, beef, cotoletta veal chop) too, but you basically ask for anything you feel like having and then the friendly guys who run the place will see what they can do. A quite unhinged system, but it works a treat.  Family-run, Scotti’s is in what was once the Italian heartland of London, and there remain a few neighbouring spots that share their hertiage; Terroni’s of Clerkenwell (which dates back to 1878) and Casa Italiana social club, which opened in 1960. The deeply old-school decor is a delight; Formica tables, mosaic tiles, a vintage Coca-Cola fridge, pot plants, and a glass cabinet declaring Hot Snacks on offer, as well as various photos of Mother Teresa. Sitting inside is a joy in itself, but on a sunny day the plastic tables outside overlooking Clerkenwell Green and in front of the shop’s Wes Anderson-worthy primrose yellow frontage are, unsuprisingly, in high demand.  Time Out tip Scotti’s is only open Tuesdays to Fridays (not on Mondays or weekends), from 7am-3pm.

Primeur has long been a fixture of this residential swathe of north-east London, opening well over a decade ago at the vanguard of the small-plates trend. Tucked into what was once a double-fronted 1930s commercial garage on the wide, tree-lined boulevard of Petherton Road (surely Canonbury’s answer to the Champs-Élysées), Primeur has built up some serious independent restaurant clout. Not just a grand dame of the natty wine and seasonal snack scene, Primeur went on to birth chic seafood spot Western’s Laundry and the many branches of Jolene, which is now less of a bakery and more of a sentient ‘North London pastry girlie in an alice band’ meme.  Toulouse sausage comes on top of mash smoother than a Frank Sinatra chorus It’s easy to ignore places you know are good in the search of somewhere newer, someplace different. But a recent revisit proved Primeur to be as exceptional as it ever was – and now that the hype has died down and left the place to get on with being a charming neighbourhood bistro  – maybe even better. It looks the same as it did when it first opened, aside from a recent addition of sturdy zinc tops on the tables, which sweetly reflect the glow from candles, helping to bathe the room in a toasty, orange light. Romantic? Very. Comely fresh flowers spill out of painted jugs, and couples (it only seems to be couples) are placed kitty-corner around a large square table, or tucked against a counter that lines the wall.  Primeur has proudly stayed committed to the

Arriving at the glassy double front doors of Canteen, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve been artfully transported to the streets of Brooklyn. 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. The food too, screams Williamsburg Girls-era date night (much more so than New Jersey Sopranos red sauce Italian), with a sassy ‘Name of Chef’ printed at the top of the menu, rather than, y’know, the actual name of the chefs (former River Cafe cooks Jessica Filbey and Harry Hills). This in-joke is the sort of acceptable gatekeeping that’s also present in Canteen’s no-booking policy, which often results in queues around the building. Which is all to say that a visit to Canteen seems like a holiday, or at the very least, a spicy city break. God-tier secondi of chicken is cooked in lemon, milk and sage 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. While they share a similar putty-palate and monied cottage-core aesthetic, 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

While culture vultures flock to the Southbank for its arty attractions, fans of world food circle around its Food Market beside the Royal Festival Hall seeking their weekly fix of street nosh, booze, coffee and artisan produce. Current traders include Kanji for katsu and teriyaki chicken, My Kids are Hungry for Vietnamese banh mi and rice bowls, Pabellon for Venezuelan arepas, Taco Bros for Mexican street food and Honestfolk cocktail bar. The market is normally open at the weekends (Friday, noon-8pm; Saturday, 11am-8pm; Sunday, noon-6pm), and it also operates on bank holiday Mondays.

There are four pubs called The Blue Posts in and around Soho and this is by far the poshest. Upstairs you’ll find romantic natural wine bar The Mulwray, while basement restaurant Evelyn’s Table has a Michelin star. You won’t be getting it confused with the somewhat scruffier Blue Posts on nearby Berwick Street, that’s for sure.  This Rupert Street boozer actually dates back to 1739 and is now in the hands of the people behind hit restaurants The Palomar and The Barbary, coming complete with high leather stools around brushed-metal tables. It definitely feels more bar-like than pubby, but the beer selection is second to none, with Guinness, Deya, Pillars, Jubel and a host of other indie brewers on offer.   Time Out tip In a rare and bargainous move for the centre of town - there’s a happy hour with £5 pints (including Guinness) every weekday from 4-6pm. 

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

Great British Menu’s latest Champion of Champions is set to open a brand new restaurant next month. Nikita Pathakji will launch her first solo restaurant, Maai, on Abbeville Road in Clapham on May 20. The chef has previously cooked at Bibendum by Claude Bosi, Core by Clare Smyth and Kitchen W8, as well as her own supper clubs. Nikita also previously worked as head chef at The Princess of Shoreditch.  Food at Maai will be based around seasonal produce and feature dishes seen on Nikita’s appearances on MasterChef: The Professionals (which she won in 2022),  including her octopus ‘takoyaki’ doughnut, as well as on Great British Menu, such as her Malaysian fish head curry. There will be a tasting menu available, as well as a set menu and a weekly Sunday roast. Maai means ‘mum’ and the restaurant will be a family affair, with Nikita’s mother Rima and sister Isha also involved in the project, which will launch on the site of what was Brook restaurant, according to a post on Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BEST OF CLAPHAM | Clapham’s Biggest News Page (@bestofclaphamldn) Speaking about the restaurant, Nikita has said: ‘My food is made for sharing around a dining table. My cooking uses the classical techniques I’ve learned from working in Michelin starred kitchens, but the flavours reflect the food we love to eat; bold, expressive, and shaped by the cultures and cuisines from the diasporas of London.’ Find Maai at 33-35 Abbeville Road, Cla

We were, frankly, gutted when Black Axe Mangal closed its legendary Highbury restaurant at the end of last year. So you can only imagine how chuffed we are to hear that Lee and Kate Tiernan of the cult grillhouse will be returning for two special dates at Dalston’s Dusty Knuckle bakery next month. On May 21 and 22, they’ll be hosting a ‘two-night blowout’, cooking up the likes of Sichuan-spiced potted pork, pickled cucumbers with Dusty Knuckle linseed baguette, grilled chicken coconut laksa and panna cotta with pink lemonade jelly and yuzu granita (with veggie alternatives available). ‘This is going to be loud, messy, emotional and absolutely delicious,’ they say.   The event will be taking place outside the bakery on their al fresco decking area, and tickets cost £60 each. There will also be two seatings for each evening (at 6pm and 8.30pm), meaning double the chance to get a ticket before they all sell out (which they will). There will also be drinks specials for the evenings.  The original Black Axe Mangal showcased incredible cookery from Lee (who was previously head chef of St John Bread and Wine). If you wanted Turkish grill-inspired nose to tail cooking, such as squid ink and cod’s roe flatbread, charred hispi cabbage with fermented shrimp butter and crispy rabbit, BAM was the place to go.  This is the latest in Dusty Knuckle’s ‘Dusty Dinners’ series, in which the east London bakery teams up with some of the best chefs in town for special, slap-up meals. Previous Dust

One of London’s best restaurants, The Yellow Bittern, is known for its rather terse opening hours. Until now, this French-and-Irish accented King’s Cross bistro has been lunch service only, with one 1pm seating a day. And it’s shut on weekends, too. Well, that’s all about to change. You still won’t be able to get a Saturday or Sunday booking, but, for the very first time, the cash-only Yellow Bittern will be open in the evening. Just one evening, mind. From May 8, and continuing throughout the summer, they’ll be open on Friday nights from 7-9.30pm, with a wine bar-style offering of ‘bottles of wine, pot au feu and cheese and wheaten bread’, rather than a slap-up food menu.  Owner Hugh Corcoran announced the news on Instagram, writing: ‘This [is] primarily for friends, colleagues and regulars to come by and have a glass with me in the evening. It is not aimed at people who want dinner or a restaurant experience and it is not for people who don’t like drinking wine. It is for those of us who enjoy drinking and conversation. So don’t expect much other than that.’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hugh Corcoran (@hugh__corcoran) The food will consist of slow-cooked French stew, with ‘a big tureen of broth, meat and vegetables for those that wish to eat’. Bookings for Friday nights will only be taken on the day, and over the phone [much like a regular lunch table]. The Yellow Bittern, which you’ll find at 20 Caledonian Road, was opened by Belfast-bor

The mighty Ottolenghi is bringing its fantastic Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavours to Scotland for the very first time.  The chain will open their debut Scottish restaurant this autumn, with a site on George Street in Edinburgh. Executive Head Chef and local lad (well, local-ish– he was born in Skye) Neil John Campbell will oversee the joint, which is the second UK Ottolenghi opening outside of London, following the launch of a restaurant in the outlet shopping Valhalla that is Bicester Village in Oxfordshire.  Speaking about the forthcoming opening, Yotam Ottolenghi, chef and founder of Ottolenghi said: ‘We’ve been dreaming about opening in Edinburgh for years, at last the time is right. The city has a brilliant dining culture and access to incredible local produce - fish, seafood, and beautiful vegetables from across Scotland. Neil, our executive chef, is from here, so it’s made the whole thing feel special from the very beginning’.  The menu hasn’t been released yet, but the Spitalfields branch is currently pumping out dishes such as roasted aubergine with feta cream, za’tar tomatoes and carob molasses, as well as shawarma chicken skewers with cucumber pickle and mustard oil. Yum, and yum again.  The first Ottolenghi shop opened in 2002 in Notting Hill, and there are now a host of Ottolenghi delis across London as well as a handful of branded restaurants including Rovi in Fitzrovia and Nopi in Soho. There are also two European Ottlenghi restaurants, in Geneva and Am

Do you love slightly scuzzy bars? Does the smell of a beer-splashed carpet turn you on? Then you need to head to Hackney, because next month the borough will be hosting London’s first ever dive bar festival. Hackney Altfest will be held across Mare Street, Morning Lane and Lower Clapton Road from Monday May 4 to Sunday May 10, and showcase a host of alternative bars and venues in the area, including a bunch of Time Out favourites, from Blondies and Helgi’s to You Call The Shots and Rasputin’s.  The event will also feature The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society, Easy8, Saint Monday, and The Moon Temple, and attendees can be in with a chance of winning prizes (as well as a hangover) if they collect stamps from each of the eight venues across the week.  Photograph: Hackney Altfest Each venue will be hosting daytime and evening events, including bands, DJs, talks, tours, tastings and food offerings across the week.  Backed by Hackney Council, Hackney Altfest is the first of its kind, celebrating the diversity of high streets across Hackney.  Speaking about the event, Allison Crawbuck, director of The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society, said: ‘Hackney Altfest celebrates the creativity and grit of our local independent scene. ‘Across eight venues over one week, the festival is an invitation to explore everything from absinthe parlours and curiosity cabinets to dive bars, metal breweries, witchcraft emporiums, and packed-out gigs. By bringing this raw energy t

After we visited this incredible new restaurant earlier this month, we simply had to put it right at the top of our list of the best vegetarian spots in London. It’s that good.  The newly-anointed finest vegetarian dining room in the city is… Holy Carrot in Spitalfields. It’s only been open a few weeks, but it’s been sending out such serious plates of food that we had no other option.   It’s actually the second branch of Holy Carrot (the first is on Portobello Road in Notting Hill), and while the OG restaurant serves an entirely vegan menu, this second spot has let dairy and eggs sneak into the mix. Vegans will still be more than happy here, but so will your cheese-loving pals.  Read the full, five star Holy Carrot review here Why is Holy Carrot so good? Let us count the ways. Our reviewer Ed Cunningham was in raptures after experiencing the food here, writing: ‘Any of their dishes would be a showstopper in London’s other top vegetarian restaurants.’ There are king oyster mushroom vol-au-vents, tempeh and smoked tofu schnitzels, and burrata with smoked pepper and citrus dressing.   Ollie Tomlinson Ed also praised the pizzettas and flatbreads, which are made using fermented koji and silken tofu. If you manage to get a table, try the one with smoked chilli mushroom ragù or Holy Carrot’s take on a Georgian khachapuri with oozing egg and molten cheese.  The space is also extremely chic, designed with Spitalfields’ fruit-and-veg-flogging history in mind. ‘Earthy and simple, but

There are more openings than we can shake a very large stick at this month, with some of our favourite London kitchens launching spin-offs (Acme Fire Cult’s new Acme Taco venue, Jikoni’s Café Jikoni, and Padella’s third pasta joint) or finally getting their own permanent sites (hello to Cue Point’s excellent Afghan BBQ). Which is great news as there’s been a run of closures over the past few weeks, with Flat Earth Pizza in Bethnal Green, Marceline in Canary Wharf and The Silver Birch in Chiswick all shutting up shop, alongside chicken and caviar bumps joint Bébé Bob in Soho. Pour one out for the London’s fallen foodie soldiers, but raise a glass to the dozen amazing openings below.  The best new London restaurants that will open in April 2026 Photograph: Ed McIlroy 1. The new school pizza bar Bar Etna, Newington Green Four Legs’ quiet domination of north London continues apace with Bar Etna, a pizza bar from The Plimsoll and Tollington’s main man Ed McIlroy alongside Joe Beddia of the Bib Gourmand-rated Pizzeria Beddia in Philadelphia (which was also once named the Best Pizza in America by Bon Appétit). As well as pizza there’ll be red sauce Italian restaurant classics, including aubergine parmigiana, caponata, and meatballs.  Address: 47 Newington Green, Newington Green, N16 9PX Opens: Late April Steve Ryan 2. The taco spin-off Acme Taco, Walthamstow Dalston’s Acme Fire Cult is branching out. Head chef Andrew Clarke is heading to 40ft Brewery off Blackhorse Road with a C

We’ve just had an overhaul of our list of the very best French restaurants in London… and there’s a new number one in town.  Camille in Borough Market is officially the best French restaurant in London, according to us here at Time Out. Congrats, Camille! It’s a relative newcomer on the London cuisine scene, only opening at the start of 2024, but Camille quickly made a name for itself thanks to exceptional cookery from head chef Elliot Hashtroudi. 🇫🇷 These are the 20 best French restaurants in London. We’ve praised the restaurant for ‘classic French dishes using local British produce, lots of wine and a packed chalkboard of daily specials.’ But it’s also known for its fondness for offal and the more rustic side of French cuisine, with trotters and pig’s cheek making regular appearances on the menu. Currently on offer at Camille are calves' brains with broad beans and mint, snout cassoulet and lamb sweetbreads with nettle and asparagus. The restaurant is from the same team behind Ducksoup in Soho and Little Duck The Picklery in Hackney. Other French spots to make the grade include Bouchon Racine in Farringdon and Casse-Croûte in Bermondsey, as well as Brassiere Zedel by Piccadilly and the deeply old school Mon Plaisir in Covent Garden. Find Camille at 2-3 Stoney St, SE1 9AA. Check out the best new restaurants of the past 12 months in London.  ICYMI: A useful new London map shows which pubs have dartboards. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and revie