The Best Notting Hill Restaurants | Where To Dine in W11
We’ve eaten the gourmet burgers. We’ve drunk the bellinis. We’ve extensively tracked the movements of the yummy mummy brigade. It’s been the most gruelling restaurant research of all time (probably).
The results are in, and they may surprise you. Because Notting Hill – long the province of healthy brunches, crisp tablecloths and fine dining – now has quite an impressive array of restaurants under its belt. We’re talking counter dining while chefs wrestle with open fires (and win). We’re talking upmarket gastropubs, and restaurants hidden in supermarkets. Bloody hell people, we’re even talking small plates and natural wines. What is this, East London?
No, mon ami, this is Notting Hill, and here are the best restaurants in the neighbourhood:
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Akub
Hands-down our favourite restaurant in Notting Hill, Akub comes from Bethlehem-born chef Fadi Kattan. It’s a place for gathering family or friends and chattering over beautifully-presented modern Palestinian dishes like shish barak (spiced squash dumplings) with beetroot tahini; slow-cooked beef with garlic yoghurt and pomegranate; moreish zaatar bread and more, in a placid, earthy-toned dining room that’s fitted with an actual olive tree. You can wash it all down with Middle Eastern-styled cocktails, and on weekends they serve one of the finest brunches in West London.
Details: 27 Uxbridge Street, W8 7TQ | Book here
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The Counter
There may be elegant wishbone chairs and buttery soft leather banquettes, but it’s fairly obvious where you really want to sit at The Counter. Chef-owner Kemal Demirasal (also a former national windsurfing champion back in Turkey) and his team of grillers put on a ocakbaşı show in the open kitchen of this intimate restaurant on Notting Hill’s Golborne Road. Sip quirky savoury cocktails as they smoke up a storm and hand over the likes of beef skewers, lamb chops and sweetbreads, as well as an unmissable starter/dessert hybrid in the form of white chocolate baba ganoush… all made with the best Anatolian ingredients.
Details: 108 Golborne Road, Notting Hill, W10 5PS | Book a table
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The Pelican
The Pelican is a beautifully revamped neighbourhood pub just off Portobello Road that just so happens to have chef Owen Kenworthy at the helm, who was head chef at the critically acclaimed Brawn for five years. He’s brought his nose-to-tail philosophy with him for this new venture, where his inventive dishes like spider crab on toast; monkfish pie with lobster head gravy; and scorched leeks with crispy shallots scooped The Pelican a Michelin Bib Gourmand within a year of opening.
Details: 45 All Saints Road, London, W11 1HE | Book a table
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Caia
Coming to you from two guys whose combined experience includes stints at Kiln and The Fat Duck, Caia is a three-in-one: a fancy wine bar, an intimate vinyl den, and best of all, a heavenly open fire restaurant, set on Notting Hill’s Golborne Road. It’s another of those spots fuelling the Notting Hill restaurant renaissance, with a wine list distinctly geared towards smaller producers, and small plates that take your tastebuds into unchartered territory. Designed to share, the menu includes the likes of sweet potato agnolotti tossed in ‘chicken wing butter’; liquorice panna cotta and apple pie soft serve.
Details: 46 Golborne Road, Notting Hill, West London, W10 5PR | Book a table
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SUMI
SUMI is the sister to Endo at Rotunda, the Michelin-starred knockout in Shepherd’s Bush headed up by third-generation sushi master Endo Kazutoshi. His Notting Hill restaurant, however, is a little more neighbourhood friendly, somewhere that you can imagine taking a relaxed first date – or a 91st – and both leaving thoroughly impressed. There’s an effortless elegance to the Nordic-Japanese design, their signature, Japanese-leaning cocktails, and of course the food. Stand out dishes include bright, colourful bowls of iced sashimi, their hand-rolled temaki and their salmon teriyaki. It’s not cheap, but then true quality rarely is. And it’s worth it… even if you do eat beans for the rest of the week.
Details: 157 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, W11 2RS | Book a table
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Core by Clare Smyth
Sleek, sophisticated, and set around a huge kitchen separated only by a glass wall, Core by Clare Smyth is the first solo restaurant from the superb chef who maintained Restaurant Gordon Ramsay‘s three Michelin stars for four years (the first female chef in the UK to do so), and who was recently named Best Female Chef in the World. So to say the food here is good is an understatement. Her trio of tasting menus has won Core universal critical acclaim – and a casual debut two stars in the Michelin guide, followed by a third not long after, joining her old gaff in that elite tier of triple Michelin star restaurants in London. If your budget doesn’t stretch to a full feast, grab a stool in the newly renovated bar area, Whisky & Seaweed, where you can sample her cooking in snack form alongside elegant signature cocktails.
Details: 92 Kensington Park Road, W11 2PN | Book a table
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Empire Empire
Disco is the inspiration behind Empire Empire, the Michelin Bib Gourmand-toting restaurant from Gunpowder founder Harneet Baweja. And sure, the first thing we all picture when we think ‘disco’ is a pie with a lobster sticking out of it. But you’ll also find other delights given a nostalgic spin – stone bass tikka kebabs; pork cheek vindaloo; lamb shank dum biryani and the like – while ‘disco lagers’ and whisky sodas are the order of the day when it comes to drinks. Don’t leave without popping into the retro photobooth at the back.
Details: 16 All Saints Road, W11 1HH | Book here
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Izakaya at Dreams
The Supermarket of Dreams lives up to its name… if the supermarket you think about when sleeping involves high-end sushi and expertly crafted Japanese food. It may be a humble grocer by day (okay, humble is stretching it… they sell St. John doughnuts), but at night the neon ramps up, the long communal table comes out, and it shifts into a sleek, exclusive izakaya. It’s helmed by chefs with experience at two of London’s best sushi restaurants – Jaime Finol (at Sumi) and Juan Cardona (at Endo at the Rotunda) – who carefully plate up monkfish tempura and tuna sashimi topped with caviar alongside a killer list of wines and sake curated by Nathan Ho (of Dorian) and the brilliantly named Ale Villa (Core by Clare Smyth).
Details: 126 Holland Park Ave, W11 4UE | Book a table
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Orasay
Brought to you by chef heavyweight Jackson Boxer (Brunswick House, St Leonards), seafood restaurant Orasay is his ode to the Outer Hebrides. That means well-sourced and exquisitely prepared dishes like grilled white-legged prawns with miso butter & kumquat; aged chalk-stream trout with green apple and smoked yoghurt; and an oyster happy hour every day at 5pm. For drinks, expect twists on classics like the blood orange and chilli Negroni, or explore the mostly European list designed to compliment the food – including bottles from Boxer’s own personal collection. Just ask for the black book…
Details: 31 Kensington Park Road, W11 2EU | Book a table
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Straker’s
Straker’s is a laid-back Anglo-Italian restaurant brought to you by the guy that regularly gets over a million views on his TikTok cooking videos, Thomas Straker. But he hasn’t just blown up on social media from luck, he’s worked at his fair share of renowned restaurants, like Elystan Street and Dinner by Heston. Head on down to Golborne Road and get into some top-notch, hearty food: menu big-hitters include scallops and burnt chilli butter with puffy flatbread, and ex-dairy sirloin steak served on the bone.
Details: 91 Golborne Rd, London W10 5NL | Book a table
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Juno
Easily one of our favourite restaurants in Notting Hill, though marginally tricky to score a reservation at… by virtue of having only six seats. It’s hard to know what to expect when approaching Juno, given that it’s tucked away at the back of a Mexican restaurant. Omakase sushi menus probably aren’t the first things to come to mind. But the unexpected setting is half the joy of dining at Juno – the other half comes courtesy of exquisite, boat-fresh sushi, prepared by Leo and Han, whose respective CVs are laden with places like Nobu, Roka, and Zuma.
Details: Inside Los Mochis, 2-4 Farmer St, W8 7SN | Book a table
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Caractère
Caractère is run by Emily Roux and her husband Diego Ferrari — Roux of course being the daughter of Michel Roux Jr., the two-star Michelin chef who led Le Gavroche; and the grand-daughter of Albert Roux OBE, also of Le Gavroche, before his son took over. No pressure then. Together they’ve crafted a Franco-Italian menu that draws from each of their families’ heritage, featuring dishes like celeriac cacio e pepe; wild turbot with black garlic & liquorice; and slow-cooked cuttlefish with potato gnoccho — all served in the comfort of their chic yet friendly spot on the glitziest stretch of restaurants in Notting Hill, Westbourne Park Road.
Details: 209 Westbourne Park Road, Notting Hill, W11 1EA | Book a table
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The Ledbury
It’s a hard act to follow, opening another restaurant after running a two Michelin-starred operation for 15 years. So when the pandemic shuttered The Ledbury, Brett Graham bided his time, finally opening his follow-up in 2022: The Ledbury. Yes, one of the most esteemed restaurants in Notting Hill has made its return, and it’s firing on all cylinders, resuming its position on the Michelin Star list just months after re-opening, before gaining the maximum of three Stars on the 2024 list. It’s also now tasting-menu only, which removes the pesky issue of decision-making and instead allows you to sit back and surrender to a feast built around using whole animals, ethically and sustainably reared on Graham’s own pastures in the Lake District.
Details: 127 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, W11 2AQ | Book a table
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Suzi Tros
From the team behind another Notting Hill gem, Mazi, Suzi Tros is an airy eatery focussing on Northern Greek cuisine. You’ll find all your favourite holiday dishes here, but refined and elevated a couple of notches almost to the point of fine dining (though in thoroughly relaxed surrounds). There’s Greek salad given extra crunch with Cretan rusks; gyro “tacos” with BBQ pork belly; braised octopus with kalamata olive cream; and Greek coffee profiteroles to finish, which it would be criminal to miss.
Details: 18 Hillgate St, London W8 7SR | Book a table
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The Shed
The roots of The Shed lie firmly in rural Nutbourne, Sussex… which means they’ve grown an impressive 45 miles in length. The idyllic farm and vineyard where the Gladwin brothers grew up now supplies the kitchen of their first restaurant with a bumper crop of the English countryside’s finest ingredients.
As farmer, chef and restaurant-man respectively, they’ve formed the perfect family food cycle: turning already delicious things into more delicious things like lamb chops with lemon, parsley and harissa. And they’re remembering those roots with a heavy dose of farm decor – you’ll be dining among reclaimed tractor parts, oil drum tables and portraits of cows.
Details: 122 Palace Gardens Terrace, W8 4RT | Book a table
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The Cow
The Cow: a Notting Hill institution, beloved by celebrities but more importantly, people with tastebuds. Downstairs is a traditional pub that’s barely changed in the almost 30 years it’s been open (except for the addition of a mad Paul Slater mural). Upstairs is a crisp table-clothed dining room serving up exceptional, old-school British gastro fare, from Sunday roasts to platters of shellfish, best enjoyed with a cold pint of Guinness.
Details: 89 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QH | Book a table
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And if the night is still young…
Well, you’ve just got to bite the bullet and head on over to one Notting Hill’s best bars then, haven’t you?