The hottest restaurants in London aren’t just the ones with open kitchens… equipped with fiery grills… and hermetically sealed windows.
They’re the spots that – thanks to an ineffable combination of factors that might include atmosphere, value for money and straight-up deliciousness – punters flock to in their droves. They might be long-anticipated openings from big name chefs; follow-ups from teams who have already proved their mettle; or under-the-radar independent spots that nevertheless hold their own against the big dogs. But they’re all good, and all worth spending your hard-earned pennies on.
Here’s what we consider to be London’s hottest restaurants right now, including a gorgeous Mediterranean spot in an old timber yard; a trendy new wine bar (where the food threatens to steal the spotlight); a pioneering vegan fine dining spot; sleek cocktails in a futuristic bunker; and the West London outpost of a critically acclaimed icon…
1) The Barbary Notting Hill | Notting Hill
The Barbary, a restaurant that was made famous by the fact that it has only bar seating, and only delicious food, has opened up in West London – and decided to do away with one of those two prerequisites. We’ll let you infer which one for yourself when we tell you that you’ll be able to lean back and enjoy a stunning Mediterranean-style meal in a pretty huge space…
Details: 112 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, W2 5RU | Book a table at The Barbary Notting Hill
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2) Wildflowers | Pimlico
Wildflowers: another top pick. It’s the solo debut for Aaron Potter, former head chef at Trinity and Elystan Street (and described by his old boss Phil ‘Michelin Star collector’ Howard as a “truly great craftsman”). Teaming up with interior designer Laura Hart, he’s created a beautiful, deeply romantic Mediterranean restaurant, where you can share a plate of gnocchi fritti and a little ex-dairy ribeye with smoked bone marrow rice surrounded by candlelight, vintage furnishings and flowers.
Details: Newson’s Yard, 57 Pimlico Road, Chelsea, SW1W 8NE | Book Wildflowers
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3) SOMA | Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf’s cocktail scene has finally got the shake-up it needs. Here, at last, is a grown-up, date-worthy space – a futuristic bunker tucked under the tracks of the DLR, where the mood is set by two glowing geometric alcoves overhead. The drinks, of course, are just as forward-looking: as with the original SOMA in Soho, they take ingredients rarely seen in cocktails from the kitchens of Kricket next door, and pour them into whip-smart concoctions like the Apricot, which blends in cognac, fenugreek bitters and a white chocolate fat-washed bourbon…
Details: 6 Frobisher Passage, E14 5HA | Make a booking at SOMA
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4) Goodbye Horses | Canonbury
It’ll be a long time before London says goodbye to this pack-leading wine bar that’s just opened in between Islington and Dalston. The place itself is a gorgeously understated whitewashed shell that nevertheless oozes atmosphere thanks to copious amounts of candlelight, a crackly vinyl soundtrack, and a colourful hand-painted banner crowning the countertop.
Being a wine bar, there’s plenty of great, low-intervention hooch to explore (with plenty available by the glass), but Goodbye Horses is really a full-time restaurant too. In the kitchen is former Papi chef Jack Coggins, whose menu is a tastebud-baiting line-up of dishes that turn the flavour dial up to 11: rich oxtail ragout, sardines on toasted shokupan, and one hell of a cheese toastie…
Details: 21 Halliford St, Islington, N1 3HB | Book a table at Goodbye Horses
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5) Sael | St James’s
Sael may be one of several openings the accolade-laden chef Jason Atherton has in the pipeline, but it’s definitely carved a niche for itself. Tucked away in St James’s Market, it’s a striking, double-height brasserie that sets out to champion ‘the best of British’, from the produce, to the wine (served by the pint), to the Britpop soundtrack. So if politics, Brexit, and all the rest ever get you down – come here and be reminded that, as the home of 100 layer snail & ox-cheek lasagna, ol’ Blighty can be alright.
Details: 1 St James’s Market, London SW1Y 4AH | Make a booking at Sael
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6) The Hero | Maida Vale
Possibly making its first ever appearance on the London restaurant heat map, Maida Vale has just landed a doozy. The Hero is the second London pub from the all-conquering team behind The Pelican, and bears familiar hallmarks of stripped-back plaster walls, lovingly restored period features, and a modern, grown-up take on trad pub dining. You can hang out downstairs for a pint and probably the best pork pie you’ve ever consumed, but nab a crisply-clothed table upstairs in The Grill Room for an elegant supper of beef tartare served on a hash brown, a stiff-crusted Jerusalem artichoke pie, or hefty bone-in sirloin to share.
Details: 55 Shirland Road, Maida Vale, W9 2JD | Book a table at The Grill Room
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7) Plates | Shoreditch
Safia Shakarchi
It almost feels cruel telling you about this one, because every time new bookings have been released for Kirk and Keeley Haworth’s first bricks-and-mortar restaurant, the website’s crashed and tables have been immediately booked out. However…it’ll definitely be worth a visit in, er, February 2025, because the hype is fully justified. Chef Kirk developed his plant-powered cuisine to manage his Lyme disease symptoms back in 2016, and since then he’s been crowned Champion of Champions on Great British Menu, won Menu of the Year award at last year’s Cateys, and grown a cult following from his fine dining pop-up with sister Keeley. It’s the only place you can find vegan fine dining of this calibre in London, and it’s all delivered in the kind of dining room you’d expect to find in a boutique gastropub in Somerset.
Psst… if you can’t wait till February, it’s worth knowing that they have a few terrace tables each night that are walk-in only.
Details: 320 Old St, Shoreditch, EC1V 9DR | Book a table at Plates
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8) Lucia’s | Hackney Wick
Lucia’s would have the feel of a hidden gem, were it not consistently packed out with happy taco-wielding punters every hour it’s open. But aside from its eminent popularity, the place remains low-key: no hype-loading instagram page, no bookings, just a humble counter space tucked away in Hackney Wick. Come here for pairs of next-level tacos (with the option to build your own), mezcal-flooded cocktails, and some heady, good old fashioned fun.
Details: 43 Whitepost Lane, Hackney Wick, E9 5EN | Just turn up (Wed-Fri 5-11pm, Sat 12-11pm, Sun 12-6pm)
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9) Rake | Hackney
Rake is set to haul in some rave reviews, once it emerges from under the radar. It’s a modern British pop-up helmed by a hyper-talented trio of chefs whose collective CVs include top-tier joints like Brat, ACME Fire Cult, and Quo Vadis – and it bloody well shows. You’ll find them in residence at The Gun, a charming, independent Hackney pub with a dedicated upstairs space for kitchen residencies just like this. They recently said a tearful farewell to Ling Lings. Thankfully, this is a more than adequate replacement.
Details: The Gun, 235 Well St, E9 6FE | Book a table at Rake
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10) Ibai | Barbican
The team behind top-quality meat suppliers Txuleta (it’s pronounced ‘choo-leh-tah’) have joined forces with chef-of-the-moment Richard Foster (it’s pronounced ‘Richard Foster’) on a brand new restaurant. And they’ve really raised the steaks. The menu centres on the eponymous txuleton, the uniquely flavourful meat of Galician ex-dairy cows. Add in a cool, ex-factory setting, and a little open-fire alchemy from the former Chiltern Firehouse chef, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for one of London’s hottest new restaurants…
Details: 90 Bartholomew Close, London, EC1 7BN | Book a table at Ibai
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11) OMA | London Bridge
Gilles Draps
A new contender has just boldly swaggered into the pantheon of London’s great Greek restaurants.
OMA has now flung its doors open in Borough Market, and it might just be the hottest spot in London right now – something that doesn’t come as a particularly big surprise, given that it comes to us from restaurateur David Carter. He’s the founder of SMOKESTAK and co-founder of manteca, both of which have a Bib Gourmand from the people at Michelin – meaning that they’re both good quality and good value. And OMA has the same DNA…
Details: 2-4 Bedale St, SE1 9AL | Book a table at OMA
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12) AGORA | London Bridge
We can only assume that David Carter had an inkling of just how popular OMA was going to be… because he’s very considerately opened a second, more casual restaurant downstairs. AGORA’s specialist subject is skewers charred over a wood grill – but honestly, if you’re not in the market for a full meal, this is the ultimate place to drop in for a couple of unreal flatbreads, dips, and frozen margaritas. Best enjoyed at the dining counter behind the bifold windows, which open onto the bustle of Borough Market.
Details: 2-4 Bedale St, SE1 9AL | No bookings
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13) Cloth | Farringdon
Wine. Candlelight. French cuisine. Some recipes don’t need tweaking, and Cloth is about as perfect a rendition of this date-worthy combo as you could ever hope to find. It sits on an old Dickensian-looking corner of Farringdon’s old market streets, with little café curtains shielding the throng of merry diners from view. Inside, it’s atmosphere incarnate – and really, how could it fail to be, with dishes from an ex-Brawn and The Marksman chef…
Details: 44 Cloth Fair, London EC1A 7JQ | Book a table at Cloth
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14) Miga | Hackney
Miga opened quietly, without fanfare or a PR team working through the night to drum up hype. So it speaks to the quality of the cooking here that this family-run Korean spot has gone stratospheric in the last few weeks. It’s a modest spot on a corner of Hackney, with a no-frills interior where the atmosphere is instead provided by a soundtrack of happy chatter and a steamy cloud of bone broth lingering in the air. That bone broth is a generations-old recipe that saw the family’s grandma become one of the top 3 chefs in Seoul, and her descendants are doing her very proud here…
Details: 3 Mare Street, Hackney, E8 4RP | Book a table at Miga
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15) Tollington’s | Finsbury Park
Probably the hottest restaurant in London right now (but placed here at no. 9 because you’ll probably only get a booking come November). The reason for its wild success? The show-runners hail from The Plimsoll up the road, a humble boozer that’s been showered in acclaim for its wild and unexpected takes on pub grub (if you’ve not been there, name-dropping the pigeon bhuna will receive knowing nods from other foodies). Here, however, they’ve taken over an old chippie and sort of re-skinned it as a Spanish seafood bar: most of the decor is the same, you can still get banging chips, but it’s all a lot less ‘cod scraps and saveloy’ and much more ‘devilled crab fritters and pilpil hake’.
Details: 172 Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, London N4 3AJ | Make a booking at Tollington’s here, or try walking in
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16) Julie’s | Notting Hill
They say the third time’s a charm… though of course it helps when the first and second times were a charm, too. Julie’s has been a bastion of Notting Hill’s restaurant scene for more than half a century, and it’s just been saved from closure for a third time. New owner Tara MacBain is both a local and a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and she’s given the place the revival it deserves, with gorgeously revamped interiors, cosy basement booths, live pianists, table-side martini trolleys and The Pelican chef Owen Kenworthy in the kitchen…
Details: 135 Portland Road, Holland Park, W11 4LW | Book a table at Julie’s
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17) Lita | Marylebone
Lita is getting a lot of people fired up. It’s a gorgeously put-together spot in a quiet pocket of Marylebone, where chef Luke Ahearne (ex-Corrigan’s Mayfair) is performing actual magic over an open flame. Some of the highlights on his Mediterranean menu include smoked Basque sardines, langoustine baked rice and fire-scorched Galician beef rib. And sure, it’ll clear out your overdraft to dine here. But if you’re looking for somewhere to enjoy a blow-out meal, you might as well go down in a blaze of glory…
Details: 7-9 Paddington Street, W1U 5QH | Book a table at Lita
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18) Camille | London Bridge
The team behind Ducksoup and Little Duck – The Picklery have gotten all their ducks in a row for a new restaurant, facing right onto Borough Market. Former St John and 107 Wine Bar resident chef Elliot Hashtroudi plunders that market for all its best bounty, which he then rustles into fantastic French dishes with a nod to the nose-to-tail philosophy: trotter & parsley terrine; smoked eel devilled eggs and whole gurnard with snail butter feature alongside more familiar onglet steaks and onion tarts. But even if you’re not feeling adventurous, don’t miss the burnt milk tart – it really is something.
Details: 2-3 Stoney Street, London SE1 9AA | Book a table at Camille
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19) Mambow | Clapton
After the success of her temporary Peckham site, chef Abby Lee has brought Mambow number four to Clapton. Her take on warming Malaysian comfort food has made her one of London’s most talked-about chefs right now, and since you’re in Clapton, you can pair them all with a lovely bottle of natural wine.
Details: 78 Lower Clapton Road, London, E5 0RN | Book a table at Mambow
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20) The Devonshire | Soho
You know that wedge-shaped building opposite the Moulin Rouge theatre by Piccadilly Circus, that you’ve probably ignored for the past 5 years while it was a Jamie’s Italian, then totally empty? Well, you’re going to want to pay it some attention now – because former Fat Duck exec chef Ashley Palmer-Watts is on the founding team of new pub & grill room The Devonshire, and it’s had crowds spilling onto the pavements ever since it opened…
Details: 17 Denman Street, Soho, W1D 7HW | Book a table at The Devonshire
Want to know what’s coming up? Well, luckily there’s a guide to London restaurants opening soon, too.