The Best Hidden Restaurants in London | 10 Secretive Dining Spots
Three things cannot long stay hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth. – Buddha
What can stay hidden, however – which Buddha clearly knew all too well – are these secret restaurants in London, which you really have to be looking for to find…
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The Tent at the End of the Universe | Marylebone
Turns out the end of the universe is actually in London. In Marylebone, specifically, behind a set of unmarked doors which lead, unexpectedly, to a deeply intimate and atmospheric hidden restaurant set within a bedouin-style tent (which is so secretive, we can’t even show you a picture).
Details: 17 Little Portland Street, W1W 8BP | Book a table
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Kebab Queen | Covent Garden
Creating the ultimate diversion by using a critically acclaimed restaurant as its front, Kebab Queen is an intimate chef’s table hidden as a separate restaurant inside Maison Bab. Set behind what looks like a typical high street kebab shop front, you’ll need to push back the curtain to discover the kitchen and wraparound dining counter. And it’s directly onto this counter – essentially one long plate – that chef Pamir Zeydan will serve his innovative tasting menu…
Details: Inside Maison Bab, Mercer’s Walk, WC2H 9QE | Book a table
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Dans Le Noir? | Clerkenwell
While the restaurant itself may not be much of a secret, the food itself is – because once you’ve been greeted at the door, you’ll be ushered into an entirely pitch black room and served a mystery menu in the dark…
Details: 30-31 Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0DU | Book a table
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La Bodega Negra | Soho
An illicit, tequila-infused, incense-smoking subterranean Mexican restaurant. Which, naturally, can be accessed through an unforgivingly authentic-looking Soho sex shop…
Details: 9 Old Compton Street, W1D 5JF | Book a table
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Opium Cocktail and Dim Sum Parlour | Chinatown
Enter through an unassuming, numberless jade door hidden in the bustle of Chinatown to find a maze of different, stunningly decorated rooms spread out over three surreptitious floors of cocktails, dim sums and opium. Minus the opium.
Details: The Jade Door, 15-16 Gerrard Street, W1D 6JE | Book a table
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Juno | Notting Hill
If you were told that one of Notting Hill’s best Japanese restaurants was inside one of Notting Hill’s best Mexican restaurants, you’d be forgiven for thinking there was some strange Russian doll situation going on. But Juno is a tiny six-seater omakase joint hidden deep within Los Mochis restaurant, and it serves up some absolutely fantastic food…
Details: Inside Los Mochis, 2-4 Farmer St, W8 7SN | Book a table
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Brat | Shoreditch
Despite best efforts to remain low-key, being, as it is, discreetly tucked away on the first floor of a relatively non-descript warehouse, Brat managed to win head chef Tomos Parry a Michelin star within six months of opening.
Details: First Floor, 4 Redchurch Street, E1 6JJ | Book a table
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Rochelle Canteen | Shoreditch
Rochelle Canteen requires you first to locate a plain-looking door in a garden wall, secondly to ring the buzzer for entry, and finally to locate what bears the most resemblance to a critically acclaimed restaurant operating out of a former school bike shed on the other side.
Details: School House, Arnold Circus, E2 7ES | Book a table
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The Bear | Camberwell
A new project for Naughty Piglets chefs Joe Sharratt and Teddy Roberts, The Bear takes the approach of an omakase spot and the tone of a trendy East London small plates restaurant, and packs them into a stripped-back, revamped local boozer on a corner of Camberwell. And it’s an absolute triumph, even without the added mystique of muscling through a busy pub to find an intimate counter dining spot hidden away at the back. The dishes are handed over to you as soon as they’re ready – smoked eel with pickled forced rhubarb; unctuous treacle beef rump croquettes and perfectly firm turbot – and there’s a fantastic negroni & focaccia to tuck into while you wait.
Details: 296A Camberwell New Road, London SE5 0RP | Book a seat at The Counter
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Little Blue Door | Fulham
Hidden behind an entirely nondescript door on the Fulham Road – we’ll leave you to sleuth out which one – is the ultimate house party, with delicious food, drinks for a fiver, and Sunday roasts accompanied by the papers, snacks and board games.
Psst… check out the other houses across town: The Little Yellow Door, The Little Orange Door, The Little Scarlet Door and The Little Violet Door.
Details: 871-873 Fulham Rd, SW6 5HP | Book a table
Like finding secret spots? Check out our guide to the Best Hidden Bars in London
