Looking For London’s 15 Best NEW Restaurants? Well You Just Found Them.
Understatement alert – “There are a lot of new restaurants and bars in London”.
Some are excellent. Some have been undeservedly hyped up by clever marketing… and (arguably) less clever influencers. But very few are that rare combination of new AND actually good. A wondrous combination which – in order to make life as easy as possible for Londoners looking to go out for dinner somewhere that is both new AND very good – we enjoy snappily referring to as “the best new restaurants in London”.
That’s trademarked. Only joking.
Anyway we’ve sifted through them all to bring you only the crème de la crème de la mf*cking crème of recent openings in the London. Yes this list highlights what we consider to be the 15 hottest restaurants in London right now (that are both good, and new), including an elegant new nose-to-tail bistro with a rising star chef; a gorgeous new date spot on Broadway Market; a Michelin-starred eatery serving beef candles; an impossible-to-get-into Italian; a wine bar in a converted tables; and a hidden omakase restaurant that seats just six people.
So tuck into our pick of the hottest restaurants and bars in London right now.
We hope you’re hungry…
(for, y’know, information)
1) TÓU | London Bridge
Caitlin Isola
If you’ve got a hankering for a Japanese katsu sando, you’re going to need to cross The Globe…Tavern’s ground floor, and then head upstairs. Because this is where the TĀTĀ Eatery team have chosen to revive TÓU, their cult pop-up dedicated to Ibérico pork katsu sandos. They’re so good, they’re literally the only main dish on the menu. And just to tick off every square on the ‘hot restaurant’ bingo card, they’ve drafted in Bar Levan and Bar Crispin wine buff Stefano Cazzato to put together a menu of pet nat wine to wash it down with.
Details: Upstairs at The Globe Tavern, 8 Bedale Street, Borough, SE1 9AL | Walk-in only (lunch & dinner Thurs-Sat, plus lunch on Sun)
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2) Sune | Broadway Market
Wine guru Honey Spencer has a new project… opening Sune. It’s a new all-day restaurant – and killer date spot – perched on the canal at the end of Broadway Market, and she’s running the place with her partner Charlie Sims (ex-restaurant manager at Noma). On the pans? Only industry old hand Michael Robins, who’s previously spent two years as head chef at Pidgin, and is serving a menu of exquisite dishes like grilled calçots with goat’s cheese & verjus; chalk stream trout with smoked butter sauce; and saucisson with curried pickles.
Details: 129A Pritchard’s Road, London E2 9AP | Book here
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3) 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 here
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4) Bruno | Victoria Park
In terms of its size, Michael Sager’s latest wine bar is hardly a magnum… but when it comes to atmosphere & style, it’s the whole cellar. It’s called Bruno, and it’s a teeny little converted stable in Victoria Park Village. And for anyone who doesn’t have their finger on the pulse of the London grape-hooch scene, Michael Sager is pretty much London’s resident wine bar whisperer – his other venues, Sager + Wilde and Equal Parts, are absolutely corking…
Details: 211a Victoria Park Road, London E9 7JN | No bookings – open weekdays 2-11pm, weekends 12-11pm
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5) 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 here
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6) Morchella | Exmouth Market
Something new’s grown from Perilla. The Newington Green gem now finally has a sibling in Morchella, a Mediterranean spot just off Exmouth Market. The founders have brought in The Square’s former chef Daniel Fletcher to head up the kitchen, and we’re happy to report that he’s doing the legacies of both his alma mater, and Perilla, justice…
Details: 84 Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, EC1R 4QY | Book here
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7) Arlington | St James’s
In 1981, Corbin & King took over a 34 year-old restaurant in St James’s and turned it into one of the city’s most beloved eateries, frequented by a starry troupe of celebrities, models and royalty. And now, a mere couple of decades later, Jeremy King is back in the saddle at the old Le Caprice site, with the restaurant’s long-serving maître d’, Jesus Adorno, on board as well…
Details: 20 Arlington Street, London SW1A 1RG | Book here
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8) 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 here
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9) Dalla | Hackney
Great Italian trios: cacio, pepe & spaghetti. The Three Tenors. And now, the Leone brothers and Mitchell Damota, who have teamed up to revive the old Peg space on Morning Lane as a cosy, ‘not trendy’ Italian spot that draws on Damota’s time at P. Franco and Burro e Salvia. The only problem? It is trendy. It’s one of the hardest restaurants to snag a reservation at right now. But if you can get in – even if it means perching shamelessly at the half-width counter by the door – do it, because the food here is next level…
Details: 120-122 Morning Lane, London E9 6LH | Book here
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10) Bambi | London Fields
The past was Bright, the future’s… Bambi. The much-missed London Fields restaurant has now been reincarnated as Bambi, a wine bar, by James Dye (one of the guys behind Frank’s in Peckham). And he’s filled the place with low-intervention wines, stellar small plates from an ex-Peckham Cellars chef, and a shedload of vinyl…
Details: 1 Westgate Street, E8 3RL | Book here
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11) Restaurant Story | London Bridge
Tom Sellers’ legendary Restaurant Story – the double Michelin star spot with no menu, where dishes often include a ‘beef candle’ that you actually light – closed in Feb 2023 for an almost year-long refurbishment. Now the place has reopened with a whole new floor attached, which houses a lounge area, a private dining room and a chef’s table-style experience. And the menu is every bit as impressive as it was before…
Details: 199 Tooley Street, SE1 2JX | Book here
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12) Juno | Notting Hill
In any other city, Juno might seem odd.
It is, after all, a six-seater Japanese omakase sushi counter hidden at the back of a Mexican restaurant. And there’s every chance that you won’t find another one of those, even in Japan or Mexico. But here, in this insane melting pot of cultures, the only thing that really matters is: is it any good? And we’re happy to report that Juno doesn’t just meet the mark; it clears it with the grace of a geisha leaping over a cactus…
Details: 2-4 Farmer St, W8 7SN | Book here
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13) Freddles | London Fields
Head down the staircase at London Fields’ Papi (still a scorchingly hot dinner destination in itself), and you’ll find a gold plaque bearing the words ‘Be Good, Have Fun’. It’s a fitting motto for Freddles, an inventive and upbeat new dive bar that – for all its casual trappings – serves some outstanding cocktails, using ingredients like Swedish punsch and mashed potato…
Details: 1F Mentmore Terrace, London Fields, E8 3PN | No bookings – open Wed-Sat from 6pm
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14) TT Restaurant | Shoreditch
When you’re already one of the best cocktail bars in London, how do you top that? With a rooftop restaurant, apparently. Because that’s exactly what the folks at TT have done, crowning their superlative cocktail complex with an all-new restaurant. It’s all the domain of highly talented Sam Lone, the ex head chef at Oren, who’s flexing his culinary muscle with some masterful live-fire cooking…
Details: 17B Kingsland Rd, London E2 8AA | Book here
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15) Twice Shy | Earl’s Court
You know that gorgeous little cocktail bar that feels like your own little secret? The one that’s hidden well enough that you’d never just stumble across it, but delicious enough that you always stumble out? That’s Twice Shy, run by award-winning Amaro founders Elon Soddu and Victor Maggiolo. And once you’re bitten by it, you’ll be thirsty for more…
Details: 14 Hogarth Place, SW5 0QT | Book here
Want to know what’s coming up? Well, luckily there’s a guide to London restaurants opening soon, too.