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:
his legendary late-night bar and brasserie has been through something of a revamp over the last few years – all in an effort to return it to its art deco roots. Sagely they’ve kept the walls much the same, still festooned with headshots. Membership is required to gain entry, but non-members can make a reservation in advance. If you’ve been to the theatre then show the guys on the door your stub and, if there’s enough room, they’ll let you in. And if you really like what’s inside? Membership starts at £10 a month, or £100 a year.
It’s a secret restaurant that everyone knows about. It’s so off-the-radar that it’s on everybody’s radar, and it doesn’t have a website. Sure, you could roll your eyes at the sheer scene-y London-ness of it all – or you could just head over to Notting Hill and give yourself over to the Fat Badger experience, which is, honestly, pretty sublime. Forget the marketing spin – head through the discreet entrance just off Golborne Road and you’ll find yourself in a brilliantly-executed pub-slash-restaurant, a fact that should be unsurprising given that it’s brought to you by the team behind The Pelican, The Hero, and Canteen (which the Fat Badger sits just above). The open kitchen is helmed by George Williams, previously of The Bull at Charlbury, and his menu is hyper seasonal, and changes daily. The only way to find out what’s on the set menu is by ordering it, which is an audacious bit of culinary bravado – but carried off with such panache that even if you arrive a little sceptical, you’ll be badgering your dining partner for a return visit in no time.
Details: 310 Portobello Rd, London W10 5TA | Book The Fat Badger
It seems that whatever chef Jackson Boxer turns his hand to, it quickly turns to gold. Yet more proof of this can be seen in his latest project, a reinvention of the much-loved, seafood-centric restaurant Orasay called Dove. While the restaurant space and chef might look the same, the approach is entirely different and focused on dishes that are more accessible, fun and on the whole, affordable. Most notable from the menu, is the burger – a 50-day, dry-aged beef burger with Gorgonzola, of which there are only 10 made per day – and the roast chicken, which is tender, moist, and comes armed with a Bezos-level-rich red wine sauce.
Details: 31 Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, West London, W11 2EU | Book Dove
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 Akub
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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 at The Counter
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The Barbary 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 Notting Hill – 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 with gorgeous, cinematic lighting…
Details: 112 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, W2 5RU | Book a table at The Barbary Notting Hill
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The Pelican
The Pelican is a beautifully revamped neighbourhood pub just off Portobello Road that was swaddled in rapturous praise when it opened in 2022. The chef at launch, Owen Kenworthy (who was head chef at the critically acclaimed Brawn for five years), has since moved on to another Notting Hill gem, but his Modern British philosophy lives on in dishes like spider crab on toast; monkfish pie with lobster head gravy; and scorched leeks with crispy shallots. No wonder The Pelican scooped a Michelin Bib Gourmand within a year of opening.
Details: 45 All Saints Road, London, W11 1HE | Book a table at The Pelican
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Julie’s
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‘s former chef Owen Kenworthy in the kitchen…
Details: 135 Portland Road, Holland Park, W11 4LW | Book a table at Julie’s
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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 a heavenly open fire restaurant set on 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 at Caia
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Canteen
The Pelican team have added some impressive new strings to their bow in the past two years, including a gorgeous Cotswolds pub and another rustic-style gastro in Maida Vale, The Hero. But as if to prove they’re not confined to flipping historic boozers into beautiful, bare plastered gastros, they’ve gone in a new direction for their latest opening. Canteen is a vibey, relaxed eatery on a corner of Golborne Road fitted with shimmering steel countertops and mid-century wood panelling. The menu takes the form of a constantly morphing Italian line-up, from gnocchi with duck ragù to olive oil-drizzled chocolate mousse – and it’s consistently excellent, too.
Details: 310 Portobello Road, W10 5TA | No bookings
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Holy Carrot
Holy Carrot puts in a strong bid for being one of the most beautiful restaurants in Notting Hill – but it’s not just a pretty face. With ex-Acme chef Daniel Watkins in the kitchen, HC turns out some of the most impressive vegan food in London. His fondness for the grill shines in dishes like grille butter beans with pumpkin and rose XO, and the smoked beetroot with blueberry agrodolce. And with cocktails from The Bar With Shapes For A Name, you might just find yourself coming here religiously…
Details: 156 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London W11 2EB | Book Holy Carrot
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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 at SUMI
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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 starred restaurants in London. If your budget doesn’t stretch to a full feast, grab a stool in the sleek separate 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 at Core
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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 a table at Empire Empire
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Urchin
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.
Urchin is helmed by chefs with experience at some of London’s best sushi restaurants – Yuji Shimokawa (who cut his teeth at Umu) and Juan Cardona (from Endo at the Rotunda) – who carefully plate up the likes of tempura quail and British wagyu with apple mustard. And on Tuesdays, Tuna Fight Club sees enormous whole carcasses of tuna skilfully sliced up into different cuts for the whole table to enjoy.
Details: 126 Holland Park Ave, W11 4UE | Book a table at Urchin
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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 at Juno
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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 at Caractère
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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 at The Ledbury
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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 at The Shed
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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 at The Cow
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?
