Leonie Cooper

November 2025: It’s official: London is experiencing a fast-mushrooming plant-based restaurant boom. Across the city, creative chefs are showing off their prowess with plants, creating pitch-perfect imitations of meaty comfort food classics, or dreaming up new vegetable-based delights. Whether you’re after a lavish night of culinary theatre, a delicate Middle Eastern spread, a Michelin-star winning tasting menu, or brisket at a vegan smokehouse, you’ll find it in our list of London’s best vegan restaurants. Read on to plan your next meat-free feast. London’s best vegan restaurants at a glance: 🔥 Best for spicy Sichuan dishes: Facing Heaven, Hackney 🏆 Best for Michelin star dining: Plates, Shoreditch 🌴 Best for Caribbean classics: Jam Delish, Angel 💐 Best for date night: Holy Carrot, Notting Hill 🥪 Best for a swift sarnie: Coven of Wiches, Walthamstow RECOMMENDED: London’s best restaurants for vegetarian food. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Finsbury Park – not just home to the relentless palace of fun (aka karaoke, bowling and booze slushies) that is Rowan’s – but over recent years, it’s become one of London’s most interesting areas to grab an extremely good meal. In this busy pocket of north London you’ll find restaurants serving up unsung global cuisine, impressive small plates at classy little wine bars, trendy gastropubs, some of our favourite cheap eats as well (shout out to the legendary Baban’s Naan on Blackstock Road) and some of the very best restaurants in London.  RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in Islington and Angel. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. 

Battle through the chain boozers of Upper Street and you’ll find a host of charming pubs all across Islington, from Canonbury and Barnsbury to De Beauvoir and Highbury. Whether you’re in the mood for a proper old-school palace of pints or a slap-up gastropub with fancy food, there’s a watering hole for you in Angel and Islington. Here are some of finest pubs in the area, and if you want to find something a little further afield, then these are the best pubs in nearby Dalston, as well as the best pubs in Stoke Newington and the best pubs in Hackney. RECOMMENDED: Don't forget to check out Islington's best restaurants.    Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.  

There’s nothing quite like a proper London pub. After many evenings of important, pint-based research, we’ve done the impossible and ranked the 50 best pubs in London, with a brand new list for 2025.  London’s best pubs at a glance:  🐎 Best pub in Soho: Coach & Horses 🪖 Best pub in Hackney: Army & Navy ⛪ Best pub in Peckham and Nunhead: The Old Nun’s Head 🍻 Best pub in Shoreditch: The Pride of Spitalfields 🎭 Best pub in Angel: The Shakespeares Head Old school boozers are the beating heart of this city, and the ones on this list are heavy with the powerful whiff of history – though that just might be the carpets – and throbbing with heart, soul and community charm.  How did we decide what made the final 50? With a worrying amount of the UK’s pubs closing weekly, we wanted to highlight some of this city’s less well-known and independent inns. The pubs included here are places where you’ll not only get perfect pints, but pickled eggs, karaoke nights and darts sessions. There’s no gatekeeping here at Time Out and these spots are where old-school regulars rub shoulders with the new wave of pintspeople, from Holloway to Hackney, via Bexleyheath, Brixton, Nunhead and more. Want cosy and convivial? You’ve come to the right place.  Of course, in a city with well over 3,000 pubs, not everything can make the cut. If you’re looking for posh pubs with fancy food, you’ll find them in our list of the best gastropubs in London. Wondering where London’s most legendary drinking dens ar

Looking for a traditional Christmas meal – aka, the roast with the most – but without all the faff? Feasting on December 25 definitely doesn’t mean getting up at 6am to brine your turkey, half-destroying your kitchen and then washing up for the rest of the day. London’s full of great restaurants that’ll do you proud, whether you’re after fancy hotel dining rooms with elaborate set menus, a welcoming gastropub, or down-to-earth curry house feasting. Here are the best places to eat out on Christmas Day in London.  The best restaurants open on Christmas Day at a glance: 🍻 Best gastropub: The Red Lion & Sun, Highgate 💸 Best big budget blowout: The Ritz, Mayfair 👛 Best under £100 a head option: Riding House Cafe, Fitzrovia 🍛 Best non-trad choice: Tayyabs, Whitechapel RECOMMENDED: Things to do on Christmas Day in London.  The information on this page was correct at time of publication, but please check with venues when you book.

Updated November 2025: We’ve refreshed our list of best restaurants in London following the latest Michelin star announcements and a bunch of new openings. Recent additions include stunning Michelin star spot Cycene in Shoreditch, newly-opened Chingford chophouse, Gina and super affordable Lebanese food at Finsbury Park favourite, Palmyra's Kitchen.  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 Thai restaurant: Singburi, Shoreditch - cult favourite known for fiery dishes. 🥩 Best Middle Eastern restaurant: Berenjak, Soho - buzzy Persian grillhouse with counter seating and charcoal-smoked kebabs. 🍜 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: Trullo, Highbury - perfect pasta in a cosy neighbourhood classic. 🍻 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 be

November 2025: Cool, crispy weather and far less daylight can only mean one thing - Sunday roast season is here. Not simply just a decent hangover cure, Sunday lunch is one of the most winter-y things a Londoner can possibly do. Our latest update to this list has prioritised the cosiest pubs in town, with extra points for roaring open fires, as well as nooks and crannies to hunker down in as the city gets darker, colder and way more snuggly. There are a couple of posh restaurants in the mix too, with a Nordic roast at the fancy Ekstedt at the Yard, and a proper meat feast at The Quality Chop House. We also have a brand new Number 1; the simple, spectacular roast at London’s OG organic pub, The Duke of Cambridge.  London’s best Sunday roasts at a glance: 🥩 Central: Duke of Cambridge, Angel 😇 North: The Angel, Highgate ⛪ South: Old Nun’s Head, Nunhead 🌈 East: The Nelson’s, Hackney 🍻 West: The Mall Tavern, Notting Hill Sunday lunch. There’s nothing quite like it. An elemental meal, one that Londoners take incredibly seriously. Debates about what constitutes the ‘perfect’ Sunday roast have been known to last for hours. There is no shortage of top roasts in London. We’ve rounded up the city’s best Sunday meals from a host of pubs, restaurants and breweries all around town. What makes a good roast? For us, it’s simple; a welcoming room is a good start, maybe in a pub with an open fire. Then it comes to the plate – we need perfect roast potatoes, well-cooked lamb, beef or por

Marylebone is certainly one of London’s swankier districts, its quaint streets teeming with tourists and well-heeled locals. But that doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to boring, overpriced food. The best restaurants in Marylebone at a glance: 🍝 Best for lavish interiors and Italian classics: Carlotta 🍛 Best for Indian street food: Roti Chai 🥪 Best for old school soup and sarnies: Paul Rothe & Son 💅 Best for glam girlies: Nina 🧀 Best for a cheese feast: La Fromagerie The area is full of absolutely great restaurants, whether they’re peddling haute cuisine or more down-to-earth fare. You’ll find fine dining, relaxed neighbourhood restaurants and hot new openings from hyped chefs sitting side by side in this fashionable corner of the West End as well as a high density of Michelin star spots. Venture off Oxford Street and seek out a meal to remember. RECOMMENDED: London’s 50 best restaurants. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Visiting New York is a frantic experience, and when you’ve only got a number of days to get through shedloads of dining, cocktail-drinking, sightseeing and museum-hopping, that oh-so-precious shut-eye becomes all the more important. Thankfully, even though New York’s famous moniker is the ‘city that never sleeps’, the Big Apple is brimming with stylish, innovative, and world-renowned hotels. So, we’ve combed through all the neighborhoods and avenues to bring you this hand-picked roundup of the very best, from swish new-openings in Brooklyn to opulent institutions in Manhattan.  New additions for fall 2025 include Brooklyn’s gleaming William Vale, Manhattan’s iconic Knickerbocker, the elegant, Park Avenue-adjacent Loews Regency and the beachy Rockaway Hotel. But that’s only the beginning—scroll on for Time Out’s fresh roundup of the best places to stay in New York City.  📍 Discover our ultimate guide to the best budget and Midtown hotels in New York City How we curate our hotel lists Our team of writers and travel experts review hotels all over the world—new openings, old classics and everything in between—to bring you fresh, honest recommendations, all year round. We have reviewed many of the hotels featured below, but we may not have stayed at every single one. Any we haven’t stayed in have been selected by experts based on their amenities, features, pricing and more. By the way, this article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content.

There’s nothing quite as romantic as a dinner date. London is full of romantic things to do, and flowers, gifts and grand gestures are all very well and good, but we reckon sharing a meal is the best way to conjure up some love – and don’t worry if a little sauce dribbles down your chin. ‘Eating with abandon couldn't be more of a turn-on: it shows that you're comfortable with yourself,’ said the late, great Anthony Bourdain, and we're inclined to agree. The places in our list of London’s most romantic restaurants all provide excellent opportunity to shove food in your face while flirting.  London’s most romantic restaurants at a glance: 🍷 Best for rustic French romance: Casse-Croûte, Bermondsey 💅 Best for vintage glam: Brunswick House, Vauxhall 🥂 Best for sleek 1970s seduction vibes: Bebe Bob, Soho 🏮 Best for feeling like you’re in Wong Kar-wai movie: Lao Dao, Walworth 🌜Best for candle-lit chic: Sessions Arts Club, Clerkenwell  From chic French spots to amazing Japanese joints, we’ve got somewhere for every amorous encounter, whether a big date, anniversary dinner or a ‘We finally got a babysitter’ celebration. Really want to push the boat out? Then visit one of London's Michelin-starred restaurants with your beau. To paraphrase Shakespeare: if food be the food of love, munch on. RECOMMENDED: The most romantic hotels in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

If any city in the world were oversaturated with hotels, it’d be Paris. So a list of the ‘best hotels in Paris’ is casting a pretty wide net. The city has over 1,600 hotels in total, ranging from tiny new boutiques to grand historic hotels charging £25,000 a night – and we wanted to make sure every kind of hotel was represented on this list: the luxurious, the downright cheap, and everything in between. Whatever your vibe in the City of Light, you’ll find a hotel for you here. In this guide What is the best area to stay in Paris? + − As will surprise no one, the ‘best’ area to stay in Paris is pretty subjective across its 20 arrondissements and 80 or so neighbourhoods. But we do have some pointers. If it’s your first time in the city, you’ll probably want to be as close to the city centre as possible to tick off those major attractions, so anywhere near the 1st arrondissement – Tuileries, the Marais, St-Germain – would be a good bet. If you’re on a budget, however, you’ll find that cheaper options are usually further out in the 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th – and even on the outskirts of the city. Don’t worry, you’ll still be in on the action – this is where the locals hang out, anyway. For the full rundown, here’s our ultimate guide to where to stay in Paris. Which hotels do celebrities stay in in Paris? + − There is absolutely no reason you should book a stay based on whether or not a famous person has stayed there, but hey, it’s fun to know anyway. It’s pretty fun t

Why not enjoy your dinner with a side of strange? London is home to hundreds of seriously amazing restaurants, but sometimes it’s nice to have a talking point with your tapas. We’ve rounded up a great bunch of entertaining eateries: oddball decor, bizarre culinary concepts, oompa bands, and boats. Our list of unusual restaurants should delight poker players, garlic fans, yodellers and more. You’ll find these joints in venues as varied as a prison, a fake sex shop, and a converted cabmans shelter. This is true dining with a difference.  London’s best quirky restaurants at a glance: ⛵ Best for eating on a boat: Barge East, Hackney Wick 🍝 Best for bottomless pasta: Senza Fondo, Shoreditch 🧛 Best for goths: Garlic & Shots, Soho 🧀 Best for cheese fanatics: Pick & Cheese, Camden 🎰 Best for gamblers: Heliot Steak House, Leicester Square  RECOMMENDED:The best weird bars in LondonQuirky and unusual things to do in London Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Slowburn isn’t like other restaurants. That’s because Slowburn almost isn’t a restaurant, it’s a slap-up dinner party in a working denim factory. The best seat in the house is next to a gigantic industrial washing machine, scrappy paper patterns for jeans line the walls and there’s a lingering smell of starch in the air.  Strangely, this isn’t an entirely unique proposition – Bow’s lovely little Italian spot Polentina is another garment factory dining room – but it remains refreshing (and pleasingly odd) to enter such an unconventional space, and even more appealing to discover terrific cookery inside it.  A hilariously decadent rosti with ox cheek and tail is more meat than it is potato During the week, the warehouse is home to Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, full of buzzing sewing machines and selvedge aficionados. Come Friday evening, the denim-heads are booted out, tables and chairs are bought in from storage and the kitchen fires up for the weekend. Conceptually, it makes so much sense. With so many restaurants struggling under the strain of rent and rates, why not get a little imaginative and lean into that dual-purpose life? We won’t be surprised if your local dry cleaners has turned into a New York-slice pop up by next summer. Chef and founder Chavdar Todorov started Slowburn in late 2020, delivering local meals during lockdown on his motorbike. Over the past five years he’s honed his hearty home -cooking-but-better, menu. It’s not a vegetarian restaurant by any stretch of

It is impossible not to be impressed by Cicoria’s location. In fact, people have been wowed by this London landmark for well over 150 years. For Angela Hartnett’s latest project – seasonal Italian cookery from a pleasingly short menu – it’s nothing but the best; an open plan space on the top floor of the majestic Royal Opera House.  That said, it’s kind of a mission to actually find Cicoria. First, a bag check at doors, then a dash through a capacious lobby, next a staircase, then the final boss of a giant escalator. We can’t remember the last time we were in a restaurant where people were wearing gowns Cicoria is meant to appeal as much to those who aren’t seeing a show here as those that are. Yet it’s going to be hard to attract the crowds when there’s no street-facing shopfront to tempt passing trade inside. In fact, if you’re in Covent Garden and seeking a Harnett hit, then Cafe Murano is but a two minute walk away in the house where Thomas de Quincy wrote drug-fuelled romp Confessions of An English Opium Eater, which has a much more intoxicating curb appeal. Want food directly from the spatula of Angela herself? Then heave off to Mayfair and her Michelin-star scoring Murano, still one of the finest Italian restaurants in the country. It is, however, hard to beat Cicoria’s buzzy sprawl, and the dramatic views across the historic piazza. There’s also something deeply appealing about eating in a theatre, from the excitement when the stage bell rings, to the fact that every

The moody and mysterious Maison Souquet is a former ‘pleasure house’ – which is a nice way of saying ‘former brothel’. Things have cleaned up a touch since this four storey townhouse opened for risque business in 1905, and it relaunched as a boutique hotel par excellence in 2015. Though its more raunchy days during the Belle Epoque might be behind it, you’ll find the hotel within high-kicking distance from the Moulin Rouge and the Pigalle’s strip of marvellously mucky sex shops. It might not be one for a family stay, but if you’re looking for a dose of French history and a great location (you’re right next to the hilariously picturesque cobbled streets of Montmartre) then Maison Souquet is the perfect, slightly pervy, Parisian escape. There’s also an occult-adjacent spa in the basement; all midnight blue and available for private hire by the hour, which makes Maison Souquet even more of a unique proposition.  Why stay at Maison Souquet? Romance – or at the very least, a dirty weekend – is unavoidable at Maison Souquet. Decor is never less than utterly ostentatious, starting with the red lamps outside that announce the hotel’s location on Rue de Bruxelles, the same street on which writer Emile Zola once lived (Number 21, if you’re interested in making a brief pilgrimage). The entrance parlour, complete with campy Arabian Nights-worthy interior, which was originally built for a Belgian aristocrat’s turn of the century mansion, is a many pronged attack on the senses, whiffing de

Moi might look like a high-end Rainforest Cafe and smell like a Totnes candle shop, but this foliage-heavy temple to sushi and woodsmoke is making a serious attempt at the title of Soho’s most important restaurant opening of 2025. A huge space that gets bigger the deeper you delve, Moi is all about Japanese food made with primo British ingredients, and filling up the bellies of hundreds of people per night to the sounds of the Velvet Underground and assorted jazz funk greats. On the street-level dining room (there’s also a sprawling basement complete with the ubiquitous ‘listening bar’), talented head chef Nick Tannett – formerly senior sous at Endo at the Rotunda – whips up modern and traditional takes on sushi, skewers, tataki and sashimi in a kitchen so open that he might as well take his apron off and join you at your table.  This is bread with main character energy Of course, with prices like this you’d expect greatness. It’s almost £50 for a small plate of seared A5 wagyu nigiri, and some meaty bluefin toro taku temaki isn’t much cheaper. A gooey sea trout tartare chu maki brushed with a glossy and creamy yuzukosho emulsion is the best of the bunch, but it’s the small plates where Moi steps into its own (and decides not to whack your wallet quite as brutally).  Thick and fleshy mounds of tuna tataki folded like t-shirts in a branch of Cos, and sitting in a pool of zingy grapefruit liquor are exceptional, the sweet and tart sauce so addictive we have to ask for a spoon

I’ve always had a soft spot for this resolutely gorgeous Grade-II listed shopfront in the hectic stretch between Dalston K and Dalston J; the lands where Amazon Fresh comes to die, the pubs are of a distinctly flag-shaggy persuasion, and you’ll never go wanting for fast, fried food. Exale Brewery have boldly stepped into the fray, introducing new life into this old F Cooke pie and mash shop, formerly home to much-missed Chinese restaurant Shanghai, and – most recently – that preposterous thing, a board game cafe.  The exquisitely-tiled front room is a calling card for Art Nouveau ultras The Black Eel – a reference to its past as a cockney canteen – is what we hope will be this building’s final form; a convivial and surprisingly cavernous bar with so many rooms that you might get lost, especially if you’ve been sipping Exale’s 5.8% Oona Neipa. There’s the exquisitely-tiled and elegant front room – a calling card for Art Nouveau ultras – as well as a Victorian side den, a sprawling main lounge, an area for darts and shuffleboard, a huge beer garden (complete with a boat and pétanque court), and a leopard-print carpeted private karaoke room right at the top, complete with a sturdy safe into which you can bundle any substandard singers. It has more in common with Rowans at 10pm on a Friday than it does a quaint backstreet boozer, but come party season, this place will be packed.  Since opening their taproom on Blackhorse Lane, indie brewers Exale have been on a bit of a roll, la

Full disclosure: I can’t be entirely sure that Cycene isn’t a cult. But if it is, it’s a truly lovely one, a Michelin-star sect where they will take your money (£195 for nine-ish courses), but there won’t be any funny business and your family will probably be very happy for you. You won’t want to leave, and in fact, we almost don’t. I’m here for nearly four hours, and by the time I’m handed an oaty and malty Horlicks-adjacent cup of sourdough-infused milk – as if I’m an overstimulated toddler being tucked into bed – it’s an imposition to even consider leaving for the bus stop.  A veritable Berghain of enigmatic meats and victuals Some background. Cycene – named after the Old English word for kitchen – opened in 2022 inside the Blue Mountain School, a spurious but well-intentioned Shoreditch arts space that isn’t quite a museum, nor an archive, but, in its own words, somewhere that ‘nurtures engagements and interactions between diverse practices’. Sure, why not! Suffice to say, one of those practices is food, and my lordy, they do it extremely well.  Step inside this repurposed Georgian townhouse and each guest is immediately greeted by congenial head chef Taz Sarhane, a cook who loves to get a little bit weird. At a long pine bar he’ll proffer you a ‘picnic’ of blush-pink house-cured meats, a fluffy hillock of virgin butter, a platter of runny, mouth-coating chicken fat, a mini muffin, dense seeded bread, and a beefy beaker of collagen soup that is, in the best possible way,

In 2025, it’s not enough to be a wine bar that simply sells wine. How archaic! Some are wine ‘pubs’ (Islington’s Godet), others have adjoining ice cream parlours (De Beauvoir’s Goodbye Horses), and there are even one’s that self-identify as ‘listening restaurants’ (Peckham’s Hausu). Giacco’s is a tiny, friendly vino den on north London’s unofficial street of the sesh (Blackstock Road) that knows this all too well.   Instead of proffering a list that starts with fizzy, fabulous Lambrusco and finishes with a punchy Pinot, Giacco’s have made the wise decision to become an incubator for London’s brightest kitchen talent. So in addition to curated glasses and carafes of plonk alongside candles in old bottles dripping with wax (a wine bar staple since 1971), they now boast an ever-shifting food menu that impresses just as much as their mainly European, low-intervention wine list.   A friendly vino den on north London’s unofficial street of the sesh So far Giacco’s has had pop-ups from South Asian and Italian fusion dons Firangi, as well as the Time Out-approved young chef Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares. On the evening Time Out visits – securing our table after battling our way through a rowdy Arsenal home crowd – we find chef Jemma Harrison in the kitchen, mid-way through a three-month residency with her Kaunter concept, offering glammed-up New York deli staples that proudly show off their Eastern European Jewish roots.  The room – named after owner Leonardo Leoncini’s grandfather – is

The seriously good Soho flagship of this creative Filipino bakery (there’s a smaller outpost in Marylebone), is part of the 1996 Group, which also includes the acclaimed Donia restaurant. Their Manila-flavoured take on the humble bakery serves all manner of treats, including doughnuts pumped full of photogenic purple ube ooze and chocolate-slathered brown butter cookies, as well as iced ube matcha drinks for unbeatable TikTok clout. Their chicken adobo pocket is like Greggs gunning for a Michelin star But it’s their savoury goods that are particularly outstanding. Everything is made on-site, and the longanisa roll offers a giddy take on the sausage roll, its sweet, flaky pastry stuffed with succulent meat, while their chicken adobo pocket is like Greggs gunning for a Michelin star. Their fluffy brioche-like pandesal bread sits somewhere in between the two - enjoy it filled with garlic and cream cheese if you’re looking for something more adult lunch-appropriate. Sturdy and pleasingly square, Panadera’s pandesal sandos are also a must-nibble, from the classic Filipino flavours of a hearty corned beef hash offering to panko-crusted aubergine for the vegetarians. The space, all warm woods, busy working kitchen and a lowkey hip-hop soundtrack, is on one of Soho’s lesser known thoroughfares (Hopkins Street, which runs just off the altogether busier Broadwick Street), but that only adds to Panadera’s off-the-beaten-track charm. Coffee comes from excellent local roaster Catalyst.

Sweet, shy Colin is having a shit time. His mother is terminally ill (but still trying to set him up with inappropriate men), his only hobby is barbershop quartet singing with his father, and to top it all, he’s a parking attendant.  Played with wide-eyed bemusement by an outstanding Harry Melling, Colin’s dreary existence changes dramatically when he meets very tall, exceedingly handsome and inscrutable biker Ray in a Bromley boozer. Ray, a fittingly stern Alexander Skarsgård, propositions him over a bag of crisps, and before he knows it, Colin’s licking Ray’s boots (and rather a lot more) by the bins next to Primark. Pillion starts as it means to go on; aligning its oddly innocent nature with extreme, hardcore imagery, and managing to give screwball humour an emotional gravitas. Think, if you will, Kenneth Anger’s horny, leather-clad opus Scorpio Rising as directed by Richard Curtis.  Think Scorpio Rising as directed by Richard Curtis Based on Adam Mars-Jones’ 1970s-set novella Box Hill, and helmed by first-time director Harry Lighton, Pillion brings Ray and Colin’s unconventional relationship into the present day, with Colin happily (at first) taking on the role of Ray’s submissive, shaving his head, cooking him dinner and sleeping on a rug on the bedroom floor with a lock around his neck. Colin ingratiates himself with Ray’s gang – featuring real-life members of the historic Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club – which also includes fellow sub Kevin (a perky Jake Shears from Scisso

When chef Spasia Dinkovski closed Mystic Burek – her acclaimed British-Balkan bakehouse – we were gutted, not least because we had to remove it from our Top 50 restaurants in London list. Thank goodness then for her return. Doma has taken over a kebab shop space in Sydenham, just across the road from the original Mystic Burek location, but will be doing things differently.  Open only at weekends, during the day Doma will serve grab-and-go second-generation Macedonian cuisine (including legendary filo pies on the last Saturday of every month), while Saturday and Sunday evenings will be reserved for special dinners, for which you’ll have to buy tickets in advance. Expect everything from Balkan barbecue to fried doughnut-esque mekici served with jam and cheese, sausage baps, stuffed cabbage sarma, loads of burek and baklava buns. 

We have Rocketman and A Complete Unknown to blame for the idea that actors playing musicians can actually nail the gig. Gone are the days of dodgy impressions (apologies to Val Kilmer’s Jim Morrison and André 3000’s Jimi Hendrix) and in their place are films that replace the concept of rock stars as infallible Gods with messy human beings.  Whereas A Complete Unknown painted Bob Dylan as a grumpy fuckboy, Deliver Me from Nowhere digs into Bruce Springsteen’s bout with depression and the childhood trauma from which it stemmed, as well as his fastidious dedication to (arguably) his finest album, 1982’s moody Nebraska.   As a living, loving portrait of blue collar Americana, Deliver Me from Nowhere excels. The late-night diners, faded fairgrounds, and classic cars are gloriously, richly rendered while black-and-white flashbacks to Springsteen’s youth and original are shot with all the misery of Dorothea Lange’s Depression-era portraits.  Jeremy Allen White also slips into Springsteen’s Levi’s with ease. From his spot-on incidental grunts to the uncanny singing voice, it’s clear that White has put in the work, even if it’s sometimes hard to unsee Carmy from The Bear (not least because both characters are unrepentant fans of a James Dean-worthy white t-shirt and denim combo). Alas, Springsteen’s misery means that White never really stretches himself, his facial expression is either sad, brooding, or a glum combo of the two. If you want American gothic with a side of pancakes, you

It might be seen as peculiar to open a restaurant review with an in-depth rundown of the loos, but to hell with convention. Hausu lives in the grand, Grade II-listed, one-time ticket office of Peckham Rye train station, meaning its hilariously spacious bathroom dates back all the way to 1865. Bigger than any other room in the restaurant, the lavs are resplendent, covered with intricate Victorian tiling, and bearing wartime-era warnings against venereal disease. Not something you usually want served up alongside dinner, but for these we’ll make an exception. I would, were the correct bleach used in advance, willingly eat off these majestic floors.  Juicy prawn toast resembles a sea anemone on a diet of Huel and 100 pull-ups a day Alas, Hausu head chef Holly Middleton-Joseph insists that diners have their meals in one of the restaurant’s three rooms instead. There’s the walk-ins-only bar up front; a sit-down dining room in the back; and a strangely bear pit-like middle room, which consists of a shiny counter surrounding a sunken kitchen where you gaze upon chefs at work as if you were a Roman emperor.  Named after a cult 1970s Japanese horror film, Hausu launched in the autumn of 2024, taking over from Peckham institution the Coal Rooms, where Holly Middleton-Joseph (Frank’s, Camberwell Arms, Mountain) had previously staged a pop-up. Her first gig as head chef sees her showcasing a wilfully unique brand of cookery, which draws as much upon high-octane Asian cuisine as it does

The British Indian Good Food Guide is a yearly list of the 100 best Indian restaurants in the UK. Though a London institution didn’t top the list this year – that honour went to Raval Indian Brasserie & Bar in Newcastle – the capital still did pretty well for itself, with six restaurants named as ‘London Icons’, and a further 22 restaurants included in the overall Top 100.  The British Indian Good Food Guide calls itself ‘a celebration of excellence in British-Indian dining’. The independent publication has selected a host of amazing spots across England, Scotland and Wales, assessing them on ‘cooking, consistency, hospitality and the overall dining experience’.  The ‘London Icons’ for 2025 are ‘restaurants whose sustained excellence has helped shape London as a global Indian dining capital’. They’re all in central London, and each one has held a Michelin star at some point. They are Cinnamon Club and Quilon in Westminster, Gymkhana, Jamavar, and Benares in Mayfair, and last but not least, Veeraswamy, which is Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant and can be found just off Regent’s Street. The rest of the London restaurants featured in the British Indian Good Food Guide range from very plush, such as Trishna in Marylebone, to more casual neighbourhood joints such as Time Out favourites, the vegetarian Rasa in Stoke Newington, and Babur in Forest Hill, as well as the Covent Garden branch of Dishoom.  London restaurants in the 2025 British Indian Good Food Guide The full list of L

Iconic London restaurant Maggie Jones has re-opened after closing down due to an electrical fire in September 2023. Granted, we thought it had bitten the dust for good, but the Kensington favourite – which is a sister restaurant to Belgravia’s La Poule Au Pot – is now back in business.   Regularly tipped as one of the most romantic restaurants in the capital, Maggie Jones is also one of London’s oldest restaurants, dating back to 1964. Our most recent Time Out review praised the old school energy of the bistro on Old Court Place: ‘With interiors that look like they’ve been styled by some sort of Beatrix Potter character, Maggie Jones’s has OTT rustic decor that’s hugely atmospheric. Dried flowers and wicker baskets bedeck cosy little corners and hearty fare is piled into Provençal earthenware pots and served on mismatching toile plates.’ Maggie Jones offers French and British country classics, with the relaunched menu including onion soup, roast rump of lamb, fish pie and steak and kidney pie, as well as the likes of apple crumble with custard for pudding.  The restaurant has only closed down twice in its 60 year history, the first time due to the Covid pandemic. It opened in 1964 under the name Nan’s Kitchen, but took on the title of Maggie Jones in the 1970s, as a tribute to the alias used by Princess Margaret when she would make a booking there. The best restaurants in London, according to Time Out. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews t

Plant-based eaters assemble, because there’s a new best vegan restaurant in town. Time Out’s brand new list of the 15 greatest vegan restaurants in London is now topped by Plates, the only Michelin star vegan restaurant in the UK. Situated on Old Street, the Shoreditch tasting menu spot only opened last year, but has become the hottest, and greenest, ticket in town. Plates is run by Chef Kirk Haworth (who you might recognise from BBC’s Great British Menu) alongside his sister Keeley. The £109 tasting menu includes the likes barbecued maitake mushroom with black bean mole, kimchi, aioli and puffed rice, as well as Cornish potatoes with toasted hazelnut and sweet and sour apricot, and caramelised lions mane with blackberries, beetroot, gem lettuce and hibiscus.  Time Out’s five star review of Plates praised its ‘old-world/new-ideas philosophy’ and ‘perfectly arranged bowls of visionary veg’. Read the full review here.  Other restaurants tipped in the list of the best vegan restaurants in London include creative Caribbean dishes at Jam Delish in Angel, Sichuan-style spice at Facing Heaven in Hackney, and sustainable, fermented food at Holy Carrot in Notting Hill. We’ve also given a nod to London’s only vegan cinema, the Ritzy in Brixton, where you can get great Indian-inspired comfort food courtesy of En Root. Vegan sandwich dealers Coven of Wiches in Walthamstow also made the cut, as do vegan fast food at LD’s Kitchen in Camden metal bar The Black Heart.  Read the full list of

The famous Simpson’s Tavern – an 18th century London institution – is set to re-open next year. After over 250 years in business, the Grade II-listed restaurant closed in 2022 after a rent dispute. However, the team behind nearby restaurant and wine bar Cloth have taken over and will be relaunching the venue under the new name of Cloth Cornhill.  The building, which opened in 1757, can be found in the historic Ball Court, off Cornhill, in the City of London. Speaking to the Times, Joe Haynes, Ben Butterworth and Tom Hurst of Cloth stated that the new restaurant will promise the same ‘debaucherous wine-fuelled lunches and dinners’ as the old Simpson’s Tavern was famous for. They added that ‘the old Simpson’s spirit will remain’ despite the name change, and the menu will include ‘chops, steaks and a couple of nods to Simpson’s tradition’. It is thought that the name has had to change for legal reasons.  Photograph: Shutterstock London’s oldest chophouse, Simpson’s Tavern was known for its atmospheric wood-panelled dining room and old-timey menu, serving up old-school English grub like steak-and-kidney pudding, pork chops and something called ‘stewed cheese’. It also has possibly London’s quaintest address: 38½ Cornhill. Charles Dickens and Samuel Pepys were regular visitors to the tavern, and it’s so historical that women were only admitted into the restaurant from 1916.  Simpson’s Tavern is not to be confused with another classic London restaurant (and another fave of Dicke

Well, this one hurts. The innovative and frankly extraordinary Black Axe Mangal – currently known as FKABAM – will be closing its Islington restaurant at the end of the year, with the final night of service on December 20.  However, things aren’t properly ending for the restaurant. Chef-patron Lee Tiernan announced that though the restaurant will be bringing a close to regular service, they will still host events in the space. ‘This is a pause, not a stop. For now I want to focus my creative energy towards a ‘pop up’ within my own restaurant space. Black Axe Mangal opened in 2015, following a trial pop-up in Copenhagen the previous year. Founders Lee and Kate Tiernan have said that further details on a special event, ‘A Decade of FKABAM’, will be announced soon.  Lee, who was head chef of St John Bread and Wine, showcased his Turkish grill-inspired nose to tail cooking at the restaurant, with dishes such as squid ink and cod’s roe flatbread, charred hispi cabbage with fermented shrimp butter and crispy rabbit.  ‘Being original, creative and keeping it fun for ourselves – as well as our customers – has always been the centre of why we do this,’ said Lee in a statement. ‘So how do you celebrate 10 years of running a restaurant? Well, in our case, it’s changing things up while it still feels good. I love and value all we have achieved with FKABAM and will continue cooking in our unique style, turning up the volume at events and future collaborations.’ He continued: ‘It has been

Been enjoying the London food recommendations from Time Out’s Best Young Chefs in London?  So far our talented trio of Ella Williams from Peckham’s Hausu, Jay Claus of Rake at The Compton Arms and author Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares have shared the secrets of their favourite burgers, cheap restaurants, best bakeries and Sunday roasts.  Now it’s time for the big one: what this talented trio reckon is the best pizza in London.   Breadstall Ella Williams’ tip for London’s superior slice is Breadstall in Clapham. ‘My dad used to always treat me to a slice from the OG Breadstall on Northcote Road in Clapham Junction,’ says Ella. ‘I usually go for pepperoni. And they also do Basque cheesecake, quite randomly for an Italian place, which is really good.’ Breadstall now boasts a phenomenally popular branch on Berwick Street in Soho.  Bagel House Jay Claus’s choice was a little more esoteric, naming the Bagel House in Stoke Newington as his favourite London pizza joint. ‘Obviously if you’re in New York or Naples there’s a distinct style, but I think if you’re in London you need to go for a school dinner-style, grandma slice - fat and square,’ he says by way of explanation. ‘The best of those are the 24 hour bagel shop in Stokey, or there’s a really cool spot opposite Phoenix Arts Club on Tottenham Court Road. It’s open late too, I’ve been there past 2am. For me, that’s the kind of pizza we should be celebrating in London.’ Franco Manca Finally, Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares went for high stre

For some reason, this November is a bumper month for new openings. If you’re a pizza-head then there are new branches of Ria’s and Napoli On The Road set for Foubert’s Place and Wardour Street in Soho, while old school Knightsbridge Italian Sale e Pepe is opening a second seafood-forward site, Sale e Pepe Mare, at The Langham hotel by Oxford Circus. Ivan Orkin from Netflix’s Chef’s Table also opens Ivan Ramen, his first London restaurant, this month in Farringdon, while Maset, a classy coastal French restaurant, launches in Marylebone. Want something even more glam? Then Belmond’s festive lunch kicks off this month, offering a five-course meal served on a vintage train that pootles around the most scenic parts of Kent. Here’s the best of the rest.  The best new London restaurant openings in November 2025 Hawksmoor St Pancras 1. The serious steakhouse Hawksmoor St Pancras, King’s Cross  The extremely attractive, Grade I-listed dining room at the St Pancras London Hotel will be re-launching as the eighth London outpost of Hawksmoor. It will seat 95, and have a private dining room and chef’s table, while the adjoining bar will change its name from the Gothic Bar to the Martini Bar. So be it. Opens: November 22.  Address: St Pancras, Euston Road, King’s Cross, NW1 2AR. Vincenzo's 2. The grab-and-go pizza parlour  Vincenzo’s Slice Shop, Shoreditch Vincenzo’s is finally making the leap from Bushey to the big city, opening up his New York/Neapolitan joint in east London. Found

It’s official, the greatest pizza in the country is in London! Frankly, we are unsurprised, considering the quality of this city’s current slice scene.  The 2025 edition of the National Pizza Awards took place yesterday (Nov 4) at Big Penny Social in Walthamstow, with 16 independent and high street pizzerias getting stuck into a live cook-off for a panel of industry judges, including Time Out’s food and drink editor Leonie Cooper. This year’s well-deserved overall winner was Short Road Pizza, which you can find in residence at Three Colts Tavern in Bethnal Green and William The Fourth pub in Leyton, which are both run by Exale Brewing.   Inspired by crispy Romana-style pizza, Short Road Pizza won the signature round with their glammed-up marinara, which came topped with garlic purée, a dose of chimichurri, burrata cheese and anchovies.  Time Out is already a fan of Short Road Pizza. Our review from earlier this year says: ‘This thin crust, zero-flop pie acts as a canvas for Short Road’s Italian founder Ugo to paint all kinds of crazy flavours. Paying homage to his grandfather Gigi's ‘a bocca o forno’ (on the edge of the oven) technique, they pair the light crispy dough with exciting flavour combos.’ In second place was Bing Bong Pizza which operates out of You Call The Shots bar in Hackney, and third was London mini-chain Yard Sale Pizza. Other winners included Antonio Raspone of Mamma Dough in south London, who was named Pizza Chef of the Year. Pizza chef Riccardo Demuru of

Here at Time Out we recently revealed the super talented names we’re tipping for greatness as our Best Young Chefs in London.  Ella Williams of Peckham’s Hausu, Jay Claus of Rake at the Compton Arms in Islington, and author and pop-up chef Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares were our chosen chefs and we asked them for their food recommendations. Last week they named the city’s top bakeries, and their favourite Sunday roasts in London. Now it’s time for the trio to lift the lid on their favourite cheap eats, and what they consider to be the best value restaurants in London. Here are their top four picks.  Tay Do, Kingsland Road Pop-up chef and author Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares chose Vietnamese canteen Tay Do on Kingsland Road. ‘It’s one of my favourite restaurants in London. They have two branches, but it’s the white one - no-one is ever there but in a good way!’ she said of the restaurant, which has two locations right next to each other. ‘The pho is amazing, the bun noodle is amazing with marinated pork grilled to perfection with crispy bits. The fried spring rolls with carrots, daikon, lettuce. Tay Do is just the best. It’s delicious comfort food and the perfect place to chat with your friends for hours. And it’s bring your own booze.’ Tay Do, 60-64 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, E2 8DP Bun House, Chinatown and Regency Cafe, Pimlico   Ella Williams of Hausu in Peckham had two recommendations. ‘Bun House do very good buns, specifically the beef one and the chicken one, which is kind of l

Notting Hill’s The Pelican has been named London’s best pub by the Good Food Guide.  Relaunched as a gastropub in 2022 by the The Public House Group (which also runs foodie pubs The Hero in Maida Vale, The Fat Badger in Notting Hill and The Bull in Charlbury, Oxfordshire), the pub came in at seventh place in a list of the 100 best pubs in the UK, making it the top ranking London pub in the list. This being the Good Food Guide, regular boozers have been overlooked in favour of gastropubs with slick menus and spruced up interiors. You will categorically not find any sticky carpets on this list.  The Pelican, which is on All Saints Road, offers a high-end chop house menu with dishes such as the St John-inspired bone marrow and parsley, as well as beef and Guinness pie. Bar snacks include mince on toast and welsh rarebit. It’s all very swish inside, with cream coloured walls, exposed brick and country-core wooden finishes worthy of the Cotswolds.  Other London gastropubs to make the grade include Farringdon’s The Eagle (at number 11), Camberwell’s newly-opened The Kerfield Arms (14), Kentish Town’s The Parakeet (22), Soho’s The Devonshire (28), Barnes’ The Waterman’s Arms (30), Stockwell’s The Canton Arms (43), Camberwell’s The Camberwell Arms (46), Hammersmith’s The Anglesea Arms in Hammersmith, Waterloo’s the Anchor and Hope, Islington’s The Tamil Crown (69) and Chelsea’s The Surprise (90).  The overall winner was The Highland Laddie in Leeds, which reopened as a gastropub in A

Here at Time Out we recently revealed the super talented names we’re tipping for greatness as our Best Young Chefs in London.  Ella Williams of Peckham’s Hausu, Jay Claus of Rake at the Compton Arms in Islington, and author and pop-up chef Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares were our chosen chefs and we’ve asked them for their food recommendations. Earlier this week they named the city’s top bakeries, and now, just in time for the weekend, here are two of their favourite Sunday roasts in London. Chris Bethell The Raglan Jay Claus chose a recently relaunched pub in Walthamstow, The Raglan, which is run by the same team as Irish-Indian fusion restaurant Shankeys in Hackney and features in our newly-announced list of the 50 best pubs in London. ‘It will come as no surprise to anybody that the Shankeys boys can throw down,’ said Jay. ‘The food is beautiful and the pub is annoyingly cool. It’s cool in a way that’s not trying to be cool. We feel very strongly about our roasts at Rake, because a roast can be the most disappointing restaurant visit you can do. You’re usually in a vulnerable, hungover state, too!’ Danika Magdelena NattyCanCook Ella Williams’ choice is the roast made by chef Nathaniel Mortley aka NattyCanCook, who is just about to open 2210, a new restaurant in Herne Hill, and has previously hosted pop-ups at The Greyhound in Peckham. ‘NattyCanCook has just opened a new place, and his roasts are famous,’ says Ella. ‘They’re Caribbean roasts, so not your average roasts. Ther

Pour one out for Sesta, a relatively new – and extremely great – London Fields restaurant which has just announced it’ll be closing at the end of the year.  Sesta opened on Wilton Way in September 2024, in a space previously occupied by Michelin-star tasting menu restaurant Pidgin. It immediately made the leap to Time Out’s 50 Best Restaurants in London list. Our five-star review praised head chef Drew Snaith’s imaginative menu, which included such dishes as nduja-scotched olives, coastal cheddar and cider scones, and prawn and stone bass dolma with ouzo butter.  ‘Every dish is simultaneously maximalist and minimalist; a triumph of having a laugh in the kitchen, and keeping that energy alive on the plate without it verging into parody. Pidgin is dead – long live Sesta,’ we wrote.  Sesta revealed plans to close on Instagram, writing: ‘It’s with a heavy heart that we announce Sesta will not be reopening in the new year. While we’ve loved every minute of bringing this little restaurant to life, sadly times are just too hard to make ends meet.’ Sesta isn’t the only new London restaurant to announce its closure in recent days. Hello JoJo in Camberwell shut its doors after only six months in business.  The final service at Sesta will be on December 20. The best restaurants in London. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London n