Leonie Cooper

July 2026: There's a brand new Number 1, with the exceptional Impala in Soho taking the top spot as our favourite new restaurant in London. Other fresh additions include Auguste and Teal in London Fields, Cue Point in Notting Hill, Jackson Boxer's Vesper in Clerkenwell, All Roads in Brixton, Bar Etna in Newington Green and the nearby Golden Tooth gastropub, as well as a sensational supper club at Haggerston cafe, Logma. 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 August 2026. London's best new restaurants at a glance: 🥩 Central: Impala, Soho 🍷 North: The Golden Tooth, Newington Green 🦐 South: The Victory, East Dulwich 🍝 East: Holy Carrot, Spitalfields 🥗 West: Maai by Nikita, 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. The hottest new openings, the tastiest tips, the spiciest revi

July 2026: Al fresco weather is fully here, and here are the spots that spring into action when the sun is out. These places are ideal for visiting in your nice new sunglasses while snacking on a salt cod fritter. Grab a sarnie in the sunshine at Dusty Knuckle's Dalston location, trek to Epping Forest for seafood at the Oyster Shack, gorge on BBQ at Cue Point in their massive Notting Hill beer garden, lunch at Hackney hero Lardo, or trot down Regent's Canal to Towpath Cafe. Excellent Indian restaurant Kokum in Dulwich is also doing BBQs every weekend on their terrace until September. The best outdoor restaurants in London at a glance: 🍸 Best in central London: Forza Wine, Soho 🚣‍♂️ Best in east London: Towpath, Haggerston 🏡 Best in north London: Red Lion & Sun, Highgate  💦 Best in west London: Cue Point, Latimer Road 🍃 Best in south London: Italo, Vauxhall 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

July 2026: The latest additions to this list include excellent barbeque at Cue Point by Latimer Road, The Fat Badger and its seriously good no-choice menu, the second outpost of buzzy Thai canteen Speedboat Bar, witty Ukrainian bistro Sino, the standout Latimer gastropub, and the waterside Canal in Westbourne Park.  Whether you’re after something simple or a bit more flash (or even Michelin-starred), Notting Hill is packed with great cafés and restaurants, as is nearby Holland Park and Ladbroke Grove. Whatever you desire – from a Carnival time top-up to a blow-out dinner – pile through our list below of the best eateries in this historic area. Fancy a pint afterwards? Here are Notting Hill’s standout pubs, or head for something a little more poised at the area’s best bars.  RECOMMENDED: The 50 Best Restaurants in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Year round, London’s restaurants and breweries are ablaze with barbecues and smokey, live-fire cookery. Here’s our selection of the best grills the capital has to offer including street food hot spots as well as taproom pop-ups. Here you’ll find everything from Jamaican jerk and Scandi-style wood-fired cookery to Texas platters and Korean BBQ. Want to DIY during the summer? Then here’s a list of the London parks that will let you set up your very own grill. RECOMMENDED: A guide to the best fried chicken in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. 

The roots of halal food in the UK can be traced back to the 1950s, with south Asian families setting up grocery stores, wholesalers and restaurants selling halal produce. Today, halal cuisine is a rich mixture of all food styles, from steaming bowls of daal and succulent smash burgers to traditional Turkish street-food style grills — there’s a never-ending array of dishes to choose from in the city. There’s no one way to experience halal food. The meat however, must be slaughtered following Islamic law and, ideally, prepped separately from other types of non-halal meat, especially pork, as this is a crucial dietary restriction for Muslims. As such, it can be difficult to find halal-certified joints, so we’ve rigorously gone through our list to ensure these restaurants have been confirmed as halal by certification, verbal confirmation or the restaurant’s own FAQs online. If you’re looking for your next halal lunch spot or where to have a celebratory dinner, we’ve got you covered. Zoya Raza-Sheikh is London-based journalist with a love for live music, great food, and vibrant queer culture.  RECOMMENDED: London’s best vegetarian restaurants.

Sometimes you want hotel beds, fluffy robes and a breakfast buffet laid out for you. But sometimes, you really just want your own space, and to live like an actual local – and for those trips, only an Airbnb will do. Our editors agree; some of our most memorable trips feature memories of playing vinyl and cooking scrambled eggs in a light-filled kitchen, before wondering out to our favourite local bar every morning.  There are endless lists out there of the most extravagant, out-there and one-of-a-kind Airbnbs in Europe – the kinds that get splashed in print magazines and featured on Airbnb’s homepage. But often these stays are booked up for the next three years or, ahem, a little out of our budget. Instead, we thought we’d show you the Airbnbs we’ve actually booked ourselves and fallen in love with lately. Some are rare finds, some are unique, and some are just exactly what we needed – filled with character, comfort and perfectly placed for exploring the city. That’s what we’re all about here at Time Out, after all. So for a bit of holiday inspo (or even your next holiday stay), read on, friends – here are our favourite Airbnbs right now.  ➡️ READ MORE: Our ultimate guide to hotels and Airbnbs in Europe Ella Doyle is Time Out’s Europe editor. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by experts across Europe. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For

There's nothing to get you building up a thirst like admiring a beautiful body of water. And fortunately, London's full of places where you can soak up some riverside or canalside atmos while sipping a crisp and delicious pint. In our guide to the best riverside bars and pubs we provide top-notch Thames-side drinking spots, as well as some first rate canalside pubs and bars fit for a pleasant day of drinking in the capital. The list below runs from west London to east London and takes in the Thames, the River Lea and the Regent’s Canal. RECOMMENDED: Check out London's best rooftop bars and best beer gardens. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Need a place to stay in London? You’re in the right place. Every year, a wealth of new hotels open in the capital – a testament to the fact that London remains one of the most desirable places to visit in the world. That can, however, make it rather tricky to decide which to choose. But worry not: we have slept our way across the city and hand-picked our favourites, to bring you this ultimate list of London hotels, from Mayfair to Shoreditch and far, far beyond.  Newcomers to our list include a few hotshot openings – the likes of Six Senses, the Newman and Zetter Bloomsbury – as well as a plenty of old classics. We’ve made sure to include budget-friendly, family-friendly and tourist-friendly stays, and we’ve included our favourite spots to visit nearby too. This is Time Out London, after all. In other words, we’ve made it all rather easy for you. Thank us later: here are the best hotels in London.  🏘️ Looking for even more options? Check out our list of the best Airbnbs in London Which area is best to stay in London? That entirely depends on what you’re looking for. If you’ve got cash to splash and and want to be right in the thick of it all for sightseeing, theatre and royal parks, stay in the West End. Want to live like a local and try out the city’s best wine bars and small plates? Try Hackney. For a homely, family-friendly vibe that’s a little further out, try Walthamstow. Or for our full breakdown, head to our full guide to where to stay in London.  How we curate our

Ranking the greatest pubs in the UK is, obviously, very tricky business indeed. Pub preference is such an intimate, personal thing – one person’s dream boozer might not remotely appeal to another. That said, when it comes to Britain’s absolute finest pubs there are universal marks of excellence: convivial atmosphere, charming staff, charismatic decor and, above all, a varied selection of well-kept, well-served drinks. Time Out’s 2026 ranking of Britain’s greatest pubs was compiled with the assistance of our UK-wide network of drinking aficionados, and features all kinds of establishments. Pint enclaves built in barren deserts, atop blustery mountains and on isolated beaches. Sturdy booze bastions, age-old no-fuss pubs, innovative craft alehouses and everything in between.  Some of these pubs are old favourites though plenty are more recent obsessions; they’re almost all independent (with a couple of worthy exceptions). Mostly, though, they’re united by one thing: a sense of community. A pub is made by its cast of regulars, and you’ll find quality company in each of the institutions below.  (Oh, and for the most part these pubs are outside London. You can find a list of the capital’s top drinking holes here). RECOMMENDED: The best gastropubs in the UK.  

July 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 exceptional Impala, rowdy Osteria Vibrato, plush Japanese joint Moi, northern Spanish grill Alta, and the third outing for Peckham-born small plates spot Forza Wine, as well as 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 and handroll bar Kumori.   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: Bubala 🍝 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 fancy a slap-up meal or are j

July 2026: If you’ve had the pleasure of strolling down Exmouth Market recently, you’ll know the historic Clerkenwell strip is the buzziest pedestrianised street in London, full of al-fresco fun, convivial pintspeople and sidewalk tapas as far as the eye can see. Which is pretty much all down to the new Number 1 in our list of the best bars in London. Congratulations are due to Cafe Kick, the breezy Euro-chic sports bar about to celebrate 30 years of tricking your brain into thinking you’re on holiday. The rest of our Top 50 features bars old and new, posh and divey, and cheap and pricey, but all of them with great drinks and an unparalleled vibe. Fancy a drink? You’ve come to the right place. This is Time Out’s list of best bars in London, our curated guide to London’s drinking scene, which features the greatest bars in the capital right now. These are the places we’d recommend to a friend, because we love drinking in them and have done many times over. From classy cocktail counters to delightful dives, sleek hotel bars, rooftop bars and places to sip wine, London’s got them all. You’ll find historic drinking holes here as well as brand new openings. But what makes a truly good bar? Our critieria is simple; a menu of great drinks is important, but so is the overall energy of the place – there’s no point having the perfect paloma if you have to drink it in a bar that smells of bin juice. To make it into our Top 50, a bar has to be fun, friendly, convivial and inclusive, as we

July 2026: Beer garden season is in full swing and it's time to answer the call of the al fresco picnic table. Here's our list of the finest places in London to have an outdoor pint, featuring old classics as well as new contenders such as The Black Eel in Dalston and a handful of waterside favourites too. Quite a few of these boozers also feature in our 50 Best Pubs In London list, as well as in our Best Historic Pubs in London ranking (see Hampstead and Highgate heroes The Spaniards Inn and The Flask) and our Most Haunted Pubs in London lists. There are few better ways to make the most of a sunny (or even just slightly warm) afternoon in London than by spending it in a beer garden. Drinking cold pints (or spritzes, or some pink wine with a couple of ice cubes) with your mates feels good anywhere, but there’s something special about imbibing under London’s skies. And this city certainly has no shortage of spectacular beer gardens. Some have lush foliage and serene, chilled-out energy, while others are ideal for what feels like an open-air day party. Some serve up marvellous cocktails, while others provide for gorgeous river views. If you’ve had enough of the great outdoors, don’t forget to check out our list of London’s best pubs. Or, if you want to be outside but higher up, you might like our directory of the capital's finest rooftop bars.  RECOMMENDED: Excellent outdoor activities in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor, and once got lost in the

Cue Point has been one of London’s best-loved (and most nomadic) eateries for a decade. BBQ pros Mursal Saiq and Joshua Moroney have trucked all over town, from Walworth’s Orbit Brewery through to a recent stint off Brick Lane, but have seemingly now found their forever home at the heroically spacious Notting Hill boozer Garden Bar & Grill.  So good it almost makes you want to laugh Less a pub and potentially one of west London’s largest private parks, the sprawling outdoor space feels halfway between Frances Hodgson Burnett’s twee Secret Garden and Steptoe and Son’s chaotic salvage yard. In other words, it’s the ideal location in which to devour this acutely honed and brilliantly over-the-top Afghan-spiked and technically Texan feasting menu. This is food that needs room.  Outside of Meatopia’s annual flesh fest, perfect pitmastery still isn’t usually associated with London, and but Cue Point buck the trend, with Moroney bringing his skills from time as head chef at Smokestak and Saiq her Afghan heritage; she spent her childhood there before her family fled the wartorn country for Mumbai and then the UK. With their giant smoker casually resting in a corner and flames licking the side of an adjacent grill, serious BBQ business is Cue Point’s thing. Their small plates are anything but; fist-sized brisket burnt end skewers are super sturdy, soft meat trembling under a dark, crumbly bark, and bookended with thick pickles. Black lime pepper chicken bites are elite nuggets, with

We’re already huge fans of Hausu, the sassy restaurant inside the former waiting room of Peckham Rye station, with its Victorian tiled loos, complete with original wartime posters about venereal disease. Frankly, the lavs are worth the visit on their own. But now there’s yet another reason to check this place out. Venture up the enticing, mahogany-clad staircase and you’ll also find a beguiling cocktail bar, with inventive drinks, moreish bar snacks and giant vaulted windows from which to gaze upon the building of Peckham’s new public square. Inside it’s a simple but potent set-up; original brick walls are offset by flutteringly sexy red curtains, vintage 1970s classroom chairs, beige walls lined with vinyl and some largely unobtrusive decks in a corner. Yes, it’s another ‘listening bar’, but in this case, it just means you’ll likely hear some very good music (anything from Studio One reggae to winsome folk), which is what all bars should be aiming for, really. Salted daterini tomato martini is a light and elegantly savoury take on the most hyped cocktail around, while the fennel negroni is sweeter than you’d think, offering an ouzo-adjacent burst of aniseed and a pineapple sidecar hums with cognac and a fruity shrub.  Order this  The fennel negroni is barely a negroni at all (which is why I like it). Don’t forget the bar snacks, as these cocktails are potent. Oysters, topped with house hot sauce and lime leaf, are almost a meal in themselves, and on a warm day, sunsweet melo

Kumori is a classy place. A flimsy fabric sheet dances in the breeze of their (very good) aircon above a long granite counter, while the rest of this elegant dreamspace is bathed in a hazy purple light. It feels more like an expensive spa than a restaurant, but we’re quickly reminded it’s time for lunch rather than a facial as we’re handed a tick-box menu and a tiny pencil. Like Bao - and 1990s bookies - before it, you can indulge in Battleships-style menu marking before handing it over to your charming server. That’s when the true theatre begins.  There’s no denying the precision of this superior sushi joint Nominally a handroll bar (but there’s some torched nigiri and various sides, too), at Kumori you can opt for a set menu of three to five handrolls, or choose your own adventure with an a la carte option. Whatever you do, make sure you order what we’re boldly calling ‘the best of the handrolls’; spicy tuna wrapped in Kumori’s custom- made nori and placed on perfectly seasoned rice and laced with surprise crunchy bits. It is divine. The spiciness is more about hearty flavour than brainblasting heat, and were there not a whole range of other options to try, we would have totally ordered another one. The unagi and foie gras option is sweet and creamy, while yellowtail kosho offers a floral hit of fragrance. Baked crab in a pale soy wrapper might have been a little too sweet for us and the wrapper a little too beige, but there’s no denying the precision of this superior sush

Tavern has a lot going for it. There’s the marvellously warren-like dining room with airy, high ceilings, crisp clapperboard walls and stunning Victorian floor tiles that were already in place back when Tavern was Nest. Nest was a British restaurant with a reasonably priced tasting menu and a fixation on foraging. It was good, really good, but punters aren’t really doing tasting menus anymore, or at least they weren’t at Nest, so a fresh approach was needed.  Better still is a juicy pork and cuttlefish sausage A swift revamp and Tavern has appeared in Nest’s place. It’s still run by the same team (who are also behind the excellent Restaurant St Barts), but with the new name comes new branding, a stylistic revamp which suggests a kind of hard-edged, Dark Ages whimsy. The font that bears the restaurant’s name is aggressively gothic, their online presence is replete with chubby lairds drinking from bladders of mead, ragged sheepskins are casually tossed about the place and pewter tankards are used for serving shards of puffed pig skin to dip in a filthy little pot of moodily smoked cod’s roe. But this is where the medieval comparison ends, with Tavern’s menu less feudal chic and more contemporary global fusion with a side order of quirk. The best dishes at Tavern are impeccable. The ‘chunion puff’ is a tennis ball sized offering of choux pastry stuffed with creamy confit onion and cheesy custard before being showered in fluffy parmesan snow. It is a divine and decadent delight.

The founder of Hackney vegan restaurant Facing Heaven and adjacent dive bar Easy 8 has branched out into all-day dining with this spot inspired by the food and restaurants of LA’s vast and varied immigrant communities. ‘As Mexican, Jewish, Greek, and Japanese enclaves popped up all over Southern California,’ says California-raised Julian Denis, ‘so developed a movement of family-run, DIY eateries that became neighbourhood focal points and second homes for many people growing up in these communities, just as they did for me’. It’s open for breakfast on the weekends (come for breakfast burritos and chilaquiles) and for dinner Wednesday through to Sunday, where you can land crab tostada, patty melts and pastrami dip sandwiches.

Zylia’s high ceilings and bashed brick walls belong to another time. Tacked onto the side of the shiny new Arcade food hall in Covent Garden, this Renaissance-style pile was built in the 1870s as a department store. The room retains its historic grandeur, even if attempts have been made to convert it into a low-key taverna, complete with white-washed walls, a rash of rafia, stoneware urns, dried flowers and a breezy Mediterranean energy, not to mention the buzzy clatter from a packed room of eager diners.  Kaimaki ice cream hums with earthy mastic Zylia is the latest from former Kiln head chef and current co-owner of Singburi Nick Molyviatis and restaurateur Barry Karacostas. The former was raised in Athens and the latter is of Cypriot heritage; Zylia is their attempt to marry the two cuisines in a splashy central London location. Both nations are present in the bread basket, with grilled and oiled Cypriot bread and Greek pita puckered with oregano. An enticingly textured (lumpy but good lumpy) spicy feta and yoghurt dip with an undercurrent of roasted chilli is perfect for piling onto both, as is smokey coal roasted aubergine with sweet peppers, which is so elegantly plated it resembles a posh ceviche. Bouncy fried balls of Greek metsovone cheese are crunchy and glistening on the outside and stringy and pliable on the inside. A drizzle of thyme honey adds a touch of elegance to what are essentially high-end party snacks. Next; wild prawn saganaki (referring to cooking in a

Open daily from 9am, swing by this cosy courtyard location from St John for breakfast, small plates lunches and dinners, as well as lots of wine and bakery goods sold to take-away. 

While everyone was eagerly awaiting the re-launch of cult Kings Cross boozer McGlynn’s by surprise new owners - acclaimed artist Peter Doig and his gallerist partner Parinaz Mogadassi - the chic pair have covertly opened the best new bar in London.  The drinks offering is deft, impressive and nonchalant Just behind the eerie 24-hour McDonald’s on City Road, in a municipal room that used to be Doig’s studio, you’ll find Tramps Bar. A white-cube space next to the Victoria Miro gallery, it’s fittingly minimal, with an A4 sheet tacked to the heavy door with the bar’s name scribbled in felt tip, seemingly by a five-year-old. Inside there are just a few splashy, modern canvases on the walls and a knotted rug bearing the Tramps logo (Tramps is also the name of Mogadassi’s roving gallery) behind a curvy, freestanding vintage bar. Most imposing of all, are the room’s two mammoth-sized speakers, which allegedly once belonged to Florian Schneider of German electro-pioneers Kraftwerk. DJs occasionally crop up, with the likes of Nabihah Iqbal getting behind the decks, but on our visit, staff had selected a soothing dub playlist.  The drinks offering is deft, impressive and nonchalant. On a weekly changing A4-paper menu you’ll find house martinis, alongside an ‘Arnoldo’ - a tequila-spiked Arnold Palmer, a vermouth and soda with a gilda on the side, as well as wines starting at £9 a glass. Perch yourself on one of the five round tables, at the handful of seats up against the bar or on one

Tucked away in peak dreamy Somerset countryside, this painstakingly handbuilt cabin is the perfect semi-off grid getaway. You’d never know you were essentially down the back of someone’s garden (well, down the back of someone’s orchard) when ensconced in this surprisingly spacious and ultra romantic two bedroom retreat. Douglas fir cladding, hand-woven hazel panels, an oak and maple kitchen and a locally-fabricated fire pit all add to the artisan energy pulsing through this homely retreat in the village of Kingsbury Episcopi on the Somerset Levels.  What’s it like inside Craftsman’s Cabin?  This handbuilt cabin is surprisingly sturdy. It comes complete with a wraparound deck and an outdoor table for al fresco dining during the warmer months as well as a rocking chair, where you can live out your Little House of the Prairie fantasy. The best bit though, is the outdoor bath tub, which you simply must use whatever the season (don’t worry, the water is piping hot). There are two bedrooms, both with sizable beds and soft linen sheets, as well as a shower and bathroom, and the most charming and fully stocked kitchen; there’s an oven, induction hob, fridge, sink, kettle and all the crockery and cutlery you’d ever need. The living area features a cosy seating area, as well as an indoor dining table. All mod cons and then some. On arrival you’ll find tea and coffee, salt and pepper, olive oil, milk, bread, butter, eggs and jam waiting for you. There are also towels and robes, so you

Tucked away in peak dreamy Somerset countryside, this painstakingly handbuilt cabin is the perfect semi-off grid getaway. You’d never know you were essentially down the back of someone’s garden (well, down the back of someone’s orchard) when ensconced in this surprisingly spacious and ultra romantic two bedroom retreat. Douglas fir cladding, hand-woven hazel panels, an oak and maple kitchen and a locally-fabricated fire pit all add to the artisan energy pulsing through this homely retreat in the village of Kingsbury Episcopi on the Somerset Levels.  What’s it like inside Craftsman’s Cabin?  This handbuilt cabin is surprisingly sturdy. It comes complete with a wraparound deck and an outdoor table for al fresco dining during the warmer months as well as a rocking chair, where you can live out your Little House of the Prairie fantasy. The best bit though, is the outdoor bath tub, which you simply must use whatever the season (don’t worry, the water is piping hot). There are two bedrooms, both with sizable beds and soft linen sheets, as well as a shower and bathroom, and the most charming and fully stocked kitchen; there’s an oven, induction hob, fridge, sink, kettle and all the crockery and cutlery you’d ever need. The living area features a cosy seating area, as well as an indoor dining table. All mod cons and then some. On arrival you’ll find tea and coffee, salt and pepper, olive oil, milk, bread, butter, eggs and jam waiting for you. There are also towels and robes, so you

If you’ve ever dabbled with London’s craft cocktail scene, you’ll no doubt be familiar with A Bar with Shapes for a Name. The super late-night (4am!) Haggerston drinking den is regularly named as one of the World’s 50 Best, with its boiler suit-sporting staff and sleek, science based beverages. But the real magic happens up the road at the bar’s multifunctional sister space, Bauhaus Warehaus. It’s here in Dalston that they make and chainsaw their mega massive ice cubes, whip up pre-batched bottle cocktails in vast centrifugal machines and experiment with new recipes.  With a long airy indoor bar, and a sizable garden out back, Bauhaus Warehaus feels clinical yet cosy, slickly aligning with the Bauhaus movement’s principles of minimalism and mass production. Water comes in utilitarian plastic bottles, while the brown butter old fashioned and olive oil negroni both offer a creamy take on the classics. But try also their seasonal offerings, such as a very 1980s rhubarb gimlet and banana martini. Fun, but functional.  Order this The slinky ‘Haus’ marg is a steal at £8.50, humming with habanero.  Time Out tip  Why not embark on a crawl between Bauhaus Warehaus and A Bar with Shapes for a Name? It’s a mere 14 minute walk down Kingsland Road between the two, and if you get thirsty on the way, you’ll walk past some of London’s other best bars, including Ellie’s and Bar Lotus. 

Lardo has been a Hackney failsafe since the heady days of 2012. A blissfully fuss-free and reliable neighbourhood pizza parlour, its semi-industrial set-up on Richmond Road acted as a Swiss Army knife of restaurants; not only ideal for washing away Spurstowe hangovers, but for entertaining troublesome toddlers and dates you weren’t sure were definitely dates. A menu bristling with anarchic innovation It didn’t particularly need to switch things up (aside from tackling the hilarious trek through an apartment block foyer to find the shared toilets) but almost 15 years after opening, Lardo has reinvented itself by installing the idiosyncratic Marta Sandini in the kitchen. After stints at triple Michelin-starred Hiša Franko in Slovenia and the one-star Luca in Clerkenwell, as well as a little time in China, the Veneto-raised chef has been tasked with bringing Lardo up to par with east London’s new wave of trendy tablecloth trattorias (Tiella, Auguste, Dalla etc).  Rather than leaning into their sleek energy, she’s done it with a global approach to casual Italian cuisine that’s as playful as it is unhinged. Take, for example, a giant spring roll stuffed with smooshed potato and mushed-up mushroom, which rests its heroically crispy bottom on a puddle of parmesan cream and crispy chilli oil. Tuscan dining by way of Cantonese cookery, it’s an A-list take on a Findus Crispy Pancake. Insane? Yes, but whole-heartedly brilliant, too. Slightly more sensible, but only just, is a brined wa

Drinkers, assemble.  Once a year we give our list of the best bars in London a massive overhaul. That time is now. We’ve just launched our brand new top 50 of the finest places to drink in London. The new list features places old and new, posh and divey, cheap and pricey, but all of them with great drinks and an unparalleled vibe. Our new list also has a brand new number one. Congratulations to Café Kick at Exmouth Market, which is Time Out’s best bar in London for 2026. The breezy Euro-chic sports bar currently seems to be more popular than ever, despite opening almost 30 years ago. It’s pretty much down to this unobtrusive spot that this pedestrianised Clerkenwell strip is as popular as it is, kicking off the area’s fresco wave of streetside delights way back in 1997.   ‘If the Spanish Riviera and old school east London had a baby, Café Kick would be it,’ writes Time Out drinks correspondent Eloise Feilden of the five-star bar.  🍸 Read the full top 50 best bars in London list here. The top 50 also features Waltz, Shoreditch, which we’ve crowned the best cocktail bar in London, as well Big John’s Biltong Bar in Deptford, which is our best dive bar. Our highest ranking wine bar is Bonne Route in Harringey, while the best neighbourhood bar is Ellie’s in Dalston. The honour of best new bar in London has gone to Tramps in Islington, which acclaimed artist Peter Doig and his gallerist partner Parinaz Mogadassi opened at the beginning of the year.  Take a look at our rankings o

Lenny’s – a brilliant pop-up in Finsbury Park pub The Bedford Tavern – was one of our favourite places in London to get pizza until it closed last year, so we’re super happy to hear that it’s returning in permanent form.  Lenny’s charred and chewy New Haven-style pizza will soon be found in a Covent Garden restaurant that’s set to open this autumn. Founder Max Lewis is teaming up with MJMK Restaurants (KOL, AngloThai, Luso, Fonda and Casa do Frango) for the project. Speaking about the restaurant, Lewis said: ‘Lenny’s started as a love letter to New Haven apizza and its culture. I couldn’t believe no one had brought this incredible style of pizza, and the stories behind it, to London. The support I’ve had from both London and New Haven has been overwhelming – it”s been amazing to see this idea grow into something much bigger.’ New Haven ‘apizza’ was developed by Italian immigrants in Connecticut, most notably Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria, which opened in 1925 and is still going strong, known for its oblong shape, irregular slices and coal-fired cookery. Our review of the Lenny’s Finsbury Park pop-up praised its ‘crispy and chewy with a proper, loud bite’ base. ‘Charred at the crust, delightfully salty and a little oily, all 14 inches of Lenny’s offering is bang on. For the ultimate test, lift your slice, give it a little wiggle, and see it stay perfectly straight,’ wrote Time Out’s Ella Doyle. The new Lenny’s will serve the popular tomato pie as well as the hybrid ‘Lenny’, a 14-inch

One of the best smash burger stands in London is branching out. Parisian burger pros Dumbo opened a first UK outlet last summer in Shoreditch and are now bringing the winning formula to Soho. This is good news, as the last few times we’ve swung by the east London location, the queue has been epic.  Dumbo’s second London burger joint will be opening late summer at 37 Berwick Street and will serve the same sleek cheeseburgers and fries as their Bethnal Green Road location. Count us in.  Dumbo ranks pretty highly in our top burgers in London list (and topped the ranking last year). Our last visit saw us praise the ‘perfect charred lacy crust on the edges of super succulent dry-aged beef.’ The double patty smash burgers are bulked out with gleaming American cheese as well as tangy, plump pickles and ketchup and mustard. Dumbo also offers a vegetarian ‘Earth burger’ option, as well as fries and nuggets.  Photograph: Valerio GeraciDUMBO Berwick Street, London Dumbo was founded in 2019 in the Pigalle district of Paris and now has a number of burger joints across the city (as well as an outlet in Milan).  Find London’s second Dumbo at 37 Berwick Street, Soho, W1F 8RS, pretty soon-ish by the sound of things.  🍔 The best burgers in London, according to Time Out. Plus: the 6 best new London restaurants opening in August 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

The past few months have seen a bumper amount of new restaurants opening across the capital. Frankly, it’s been exhausting and nigh-on impossible to visit them all, so we’re grateful for this seasonal slow-down, meaning we can actually get out there and visit as many of the best new restaurants in London as possible.  There are still some pretty exciting things incoming this August, including a long-awaited comeback for one of 2025’s best pop-ups, Tasca, and new openings for some of London’s most-loved mini chains: Bancone, Superette and It’s Bagels.   The best new restaurants opening in London, August 2026 TascaTasca 1. The returning champ Tasca at Project 44, Shoreditch We loved last year’s wildly impressive Portuguese and Spanish-inspired pop-up Tasca and are chuffed to hear that head chef Josh Dallaway and sommelier Sinead Murdoch are back. They’ll be in the kitchen of Rivington Street cafe and wine bar Project 44 for the rest of summer, serving the likes of Cornish crab on requeijão cheese, Dexter beef tartare al pilpil, and mussel and chorizo rice.  Address: 44 Rivington Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3QP Opens: Every Wed-Sat evening from July 29   Photograph: BanconeBancone silk handkerchief pasta 2. The big brutalist pasta project Bancone, Bloomsbury Pasta pro Bancone will be opening its sixth London location inside the newly spruced up Imperial hotel on Russell Square this summer. It’ll be a roomy one, with space for 140 diners as well as a 60-person terrace, where yo

We’re not shy about how much we like Bad Boy Pizza Society (one of Time Out’s best pizza restaurants in London) so it brings us great joy to let you know that there’s now another London location serving their serious slices.  You can now get their 12-inch pizzas at the newly-opened Village Underground Rooftop in Shoreditch. The rooftop terrace, which opened earlier this month, is on the top of east London venue the Village Underground.  This is the first time the general public has had access to the space, which as well as an lovely outdoor terrace, features recycled Jubilee line carriages on top of what was once a railway viaduct on Great Eastern Street. The rooftop bar is open Wednesday to Sunday. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Village Underground (@villageunderground) You can also score Bad Boy pizza at their very own pizza parlour in Bethnal Green, as well as at Seven Dials Market in Covent Garden, the Railway Tavern in Tulse Hill and Vinegar Yard in London Bridge. Our favourite is the ‘vodka-roni’, with pepperoni and vodka sauce. Bad Boy Pizza Society started out as a parody university society before they actually started making pizzas, then became a serial pizza award winner, including National Pizza of the Year 2022 and 2024. Inspirational, tbh.  🍕 The greatest pizza restaurants in London. 🍺 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 T

With his legendary Endo at the Rotunda restaurant in White City still closed following a fire, Endo Kazutoshi has plans to open up a brand-new sushi joint. Endo will launch in October, in the building that was formerly home to Michelin-starred Chelsea restaurant, The Five Fields, which closed last year. A tiny, 10-seater omakase restaurant, there will be no menu, with guests dining at the whim of Endo, who will whip up whatever sushi takes his fancy on the night as they perch at a 200-year-old hinoki counter all the way from Kyoto. Classy stuff.  Above Endo, there will be a listening bar called Moga, with a cocktail menu inspired by various teas. At first it’ll only be open to guests dining at Endo, but any old folk will be able to visit from December onwards. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kazutoshi Endo (@kazutoshi.endo) Speaking about the launch, Endo has said: ‘This project is the next chapter of my journey, strengthened by a clear vision and grounded more profoundly in the past. Behind every piece of sushi is the work of many hands - those who catch fish, grow the rice, and create the objects to serve it. This is a story I wish to tell. Like Kintsugi, the scars of last year have become part of my history; they have made me return more deeply to my roots.’ Endo at the Rotunda remains closed, with no relaunch date on the cards. Over the past few months Endo at the Rotunda hosted a pop-up at Mayfair bar Annabel’s, which came to an end earlier

Time to celebrate. Our favourite place to eat in London is opening a brand new restaurant. You’ll have to wait a few more months before you can actually eat there, but the team behind Camille - which recently topped our list of the top 50 restaurants in London for 2026 – will be launching a new location in late autumn. The restaurant will be in Farringdon and will serve food influenced by head chef Elliot Hashtroudi’s grandmother and ‘delve into old regional British and Irish cooking using ingredients from the Isles.’  The new restaurant will honour both ‘Victorian tradition’ and ‘regional cuisine’, according to an announcement on Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Camille (@camille_se1) Camille, which opened in Borough in 2024, serves up French food with an offal-focussed menu incorporating everything from snout cassoulet to cocks comb schnitzel. Our review branded it as a ‘triumph of imagination, talent, and guts’.  Topping our best restaurants list, Camille has followed in the footsteps of Miga (2025), Mambow (2024), Cafe Cecilia (2023), Chishuru (2022) and Singburi (2021) as Time Out’s London Restaurant of the Year. It’s the first spot south of the river to score the position since Chishuru, which was based in Brixton when it secured the honour, however you’ll now find Joke Bakare’s acclaimed, Michelin-star scoring West African restaurant in Fitzrovia.  Read our full review of Camille here. Did you see that Dishoom is opening a mas

A new drinking destination is opening up at Battersea Power Station. The Hero’s Return comes from the same group behind pasta restaurant Bancone and will serve up a menu from former St John chef Jonathan Woolway. The food will apparently showcase the ‘Best of British’ and the ‘Best of London’, and feature such dishes as ox heart with chips and peppercorn sauce, as well as cold roast lamb with celeriac remoulade and pickled walnut, and grilled mackerel with rainbow chard and horseradish. The bar will open up later this summer in the space formerly occupied by No 29 Power Station West, which closed down at the start of 2025. You’ll find The Hero’s Return at Unit 29 on Circus West, just down from Wright Brothers fish restaurant at Unit 26. The bar will feature a 40-seat outdoor terrace which overlooks the River Thames.  Image: The Hero’s ReturnThe Hero’s Return Inspiration for the place comes from the band Pink Floyd – who have long been associated with Battersea Power Station after featuring the building on the cover of their 1977 album Animals. The song ‘The Hero’s Return’ features on their 1983 album, The Final Cut. Rendered images of the proposed interiors of the bar show Pink Floyd-related artwork on the walls, as well as an open fire.  Bancone is set to open another new spot this summer, with a 140-seat pasta restaurant inside the revamped Imperial hotel in Bloomsbury. It’ll be the sixth Bancone location in London, joining outposts in Covent Garden, Kensington, Soho, Bor

What’s better than eating one pizza? Eating lots of pizzas! Well, that’s what Michele Pascarella, founder of the acclaimed Napoli on the Road seems to think. The newly-opened Soho branch of the award-winning pizzeria has launched a pizza tasting menu, which will see a £65 per head offering of Italian classics, and, naturally, plenty (four!) pizzas.  The menu will begin with fritti, before an asparagus and anchovy colatura white pizza, topped with pecorino and anchovy sauce. Next is a classic margherita with slow-cooked tomato, as well as tomato jam, buffalo mozzarella and wild garlic pesto. Then there’s a pizza break, with a melon and cucumber salad, before a vitello tonnato-inspired pizza with veal and tuna sauce.  The fourth and final pizza is chef Michele Pascarella’s signature serve, topped with slow cooked cuts of beef rib, shin, oxtail and pork rib.  Then there’s a sgroppino sorbet and a trio of puddings; ricotta cream tartlet, zuppetta diplomatica and an ice-cream bar with dark chocolate and hazelnuts. A wine pairing is available for an extra £40.  Last month Napoli on the Road took home the top prize at the 50 Top Pizza Europa 2026 Awards for the third year in a row. Pascarella, who hails from Maddaloni near Naples, started his business on a three-wheeled Ape Piaggio truck in 2016 that travelled around London’s street markets. He opened a permanent pizzeria in Chiswick in 2019 and a second branch in Richmond followed four years later. The Soho spot opened earlier this

The American Midwest has long been disparagingly known as ‘flyover country’. Sure, transcontinental flights used to favour the bright, coastal lights of LA and New York, but there’s now finally a direct flight from London to St Louis, allowing British and European travellers to explore some of the lesser-travelled parts of the Midwest. In about nine hours, British Airways will whisk you from Heathrow to the middle of Missouri, home to one of the summer’s World Cup host cities, Kansas City.  I was given a preview of the new route – here’s what I got up to when I landed. RECOMMENDED: I visited Italy’s best-kept coastal secret – and it’s only a short drive from the Amalfi Coast If you know anything about St Louis, it’ll likely either be about the controversial World’s Fair that was held in 1904 (and the Judy Garland banger from the 1944 film Meet Me in St Louis) or because of the soaring Gateway Arch. What I didn't know about the arch was that you can go all the way up it. Was I keen? Not particularly. Did I do it anyway? I sure did.  Photograph: Leonie Cooper for Time OutThe Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri Built in 1965, it remains the tallest arch in the world at 192 metres. Considering my experience at the Pyramids of Giza, I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect, but I will also do anything for the bit, so I boldly took a submarine-style pod on the three-minute journey to the top. Designed by legendary midcentury architect Eero Saarinen, it’s admittedly very chic, with curv

Gleneagles isn’t like other luxury hotels. Not only does this stately Scottish bolthole have a den full of ferrets, a deeply zen outdoor sauna and the kind of breakfast that puts Las Vegas’ bountiful buffets to shame, there’s also a spooky wine cellar where you can indulge in a Champagne-drenched feast. Oh, and they’ll let you shoot a gun. Beat that, The Ritz. If you’ve ever heard anything about Gleneagles Hotel, it’s probably thanks to its world-renowned golf courses. Politics purists might remember its stint hosting the 2005 G8 Summit, when Blair, Bush and Berlusconi hobnobbed over haggis. If you really know your rock’n’roll lore, it might even be to do with Oasis’s gig there for Sony Records execs in 1994. That said, it’s more than possible to keep yourself entertained at this Perthshire paradise if you have zero interest in birdies, bogies and Britpop. It’s not in the list of the Leading Hotels of the World for nothing. I’m not hugely concerned with any of the above (Oasis aside), but Gleneagles’ brand of luxury is pretty easy to enjoy, even when the hotel’s grey stone facade matches the gloomy sky. However, as we’re told approximately 50 times during our stay, in Scotland you’ll experience all four seasons in a single day. This 1924-built cathedral to hospitality is glorious, a sprawling pile that’s The Traitors castle minus Claudia Winkleman, but complete with fleets of Land Rover Defenders. And it’s even more glorious when the sun comes out. Photograph: The Leading Ho

One of London’s most acclaimed cocktail bars closed temporarily in May because of a fire. But Tayēr + Elementary aren’t letting the fact their Old Street original is shut stop them from serving drinks.  Tayēr + Elementary will be opening up a pop-up bar in the basement of new Covent Garden cocktail spot Cato for the rest of the summer. Casual by Tayēr will run from July 15 to August 22. Speaking about the residency, Tayēr + Elementary’s co-owner Monica Berg commented: ‘Casual by Tayēr is our way of staying connected to the people who have supported us, even as we navigate an unexpected moment of change. This residency gives us the freedom to be playful, responsive, and a little spontaneous to create something that feels fresh while still rooted in the values that define Tayēr + Elementary.’  What does this mean? This means cocktails! The semi-legendary One Sip Martini will of course be on offer, as well as a number of the bar’s other classic serves. It’ll be open every Wednesday to Saturday from 6pm to 1am. Tayēr + Elementary took an impressive 5th place in the 2025 ranking of the World’s Best Cocktail Bars. It was one of seven London establishments that featured in the latest list of Europe’s 50 Best Bars. Read our review of Cato here. The bar opened earlier this year and is named after pioneer of American cocktail culture Cato Alexander.   Find Casual by Tayēr at 17 Mercer Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9QJ.  🍸 The best bars in Covent Garden, according to the expert drinker