Leonie Cooper

Trawling London for excellent seafood restaurants is a joy – it turns out that there are plenty of fish in the sea when it comes to where eat a fine coastal supper. To help you make your choice we've done the decent thing and spread the net wide across the city to bring you the very best in bivales, crustaceans, molluscs and more. From fish and chips and Michelin-starred must-visits to sushi – with this list, London is your oyster. Go fish. RECOMMENDED: The best bargain oysters in London.  

Do our sofas need to see more of us? Probably not after the past few years, but such is the calibre of small-screen (and let’s face it, iPhone) entertainment these days, they’ll just need to lump it. Because the so-called golden age of television and streaming continues to produce nuggets with indecent and almost impossible-to-keep-up-with regularity, bingeing options are almost limitless. Some older viewers may even find themselves pining for the days where the remote control was a passport to three or max, four, channels, and it all felt manageable.   The tyranny of choice can be overwhelming, so to help, we’re narrowing things down... a long way down. We’re ranking the must-see series of the year to date to pare things down to telly’s must-watch elite.  And there’s loads of potential bingeable fare ahead too, with another season of Netflix’s warm and fuzzy Heartstopper and FX’s massively ace The Bear, a long-awaited return for Charlie Brooker’s bleakly brilliant dystopian visions in Black Mirror season 6, more regal shenanigans with The Crown, the thrilling climax of Stranger Things and an emotional finale for Henry Cavill in The Witcher. Keep an eye out for more hits to come, in other words. They’ll all be here. RECOMMENDED: 🔥 The best movies of 2023 (so far).😂 The best comedies of 2023 (so far).🎞️ The best movies to catch at the cinema this month. 📺 From House of Cards to Beef: the greatest Netflix originals,

Every week, a frankly stupid amount of brilliant new restaurants, cafés and street food joints arrive in London. Which makes whittling a shortlist of best newbies down to manageable size a serious challenge. But here it is. The very best new restaurants in the capital.  Go forth and eat – featuring everything from Thai food with a pool table, fine dining surrounded by £50mil worth of masterpieces and a newly minted Michelin star spot by a legendary meat market.  RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London

Whether you’re after a simple chippy or something a bit more snazzy (or even Michelin-starred), Notting Hill is jam-packed with great cafés and restaurants. Whatever you desire – from a Carnival time top-up to a refined dinner – pile through our list below of the best eateries in this ace area. Fancy a pint afterwards? Here are Notting Hill's standout pubs. Or head for something a little more refined at the area's best bars. RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in London. 

When you're dining out with kids, it can be tempting to stick to the familiar: chain restaurants do give out free colouring in sheets, after all. But try somewhere new and you'll cultivate your child's blossoming tastebuds, introducing them to a world of exciting new flavours and textures. London is full of restaurants that offer serious food while welcoming all the family, so your kid doesn’t have to cramp your culinary style. From sushi joints, to pasta places, to restaurants spangled with Michelin stars, the London foodie scene is open to humans of all sizes. If you’ve ever been haunted by the nightmare of being stuck on the kids’ table at a wedding, have no fear – this list takes children’s food seriously. Strap your little one into a high chair, sink a cocktail and dig in (and then maybe hit up some of the best children's theatre in town). RECOMMENDED: The best London museums for kids. 

Afternoon tea. Yes, it's twee. But there is something quite fun about working your way through what's essentially dessert tapas, especially when you’re at one of London’s top hotels or restaurants. This city is renowned for putting on some of the world’s best spreads – with tiny cakes, little finger sarnies and pots of perfect tea the name of the delicious game. They're not cheap – expect to pay in the region of £50 to £80 for the pleasure per person, but you'll be in for a treat and a half. Many of the teas have set times for seatings, so booking in advance is always recommended. RECOMMENDED: The best hotels in London

Sushi doesn’t just mean raw fish, rice and seaweed – although there’s plenty of excellent examples of that kind in the capital. No, sushi can have many forms: fishy forms, meaty forms and even vegan forms. In London, you can eat it in Michelin-starred restaurants, at long omakase counters and with breathtaking views. Our list of London’s best sushi restaurants covers all this ground and more, so have a browse and then book your next Japanese feast. RECOMMENDED: London’s best Japanese restaurants.

Battersea is more than just a lovely ol’ park. There are loads of banging bars, restaurants and places to picnic in the vicinity, from swish spots at the Battersea Power Station development to casual places by the river. Here’s a list of our favourite spots to stop by around Battersea and Clapham Junction – keep it close, you’ll need it the next time you’re in the area. RECOMMENDED: The 50 Best Restaurants in London. 

Spring has finally sprung and outdoor dining in the city is officially back on the cards. Soak up that all-important vitamin D while you eat at London’s best restaurants that have some of the best rooftops views and terraces that will make you feel like you’re on holiday. Whether you’re in the mood to have spaghetti in the sun and snack on schnitzel by starlight, our list has you covered.  RECOMMENDED: These are the best rooftop bars in London. 

With the twin food heavens of Borough Market and Bermondsey Street at its heart, plus an abundance of hidden restaurant gems, you’ll struggle to eat badly in SE1, an area of London with something for every taste and budget. Eating around London Bridge is like a backpacking world tour these days, and our selection includes picks from the global melting pot. Arthur Hooper’s overlooking Borough Market is all about Italian small plates, while Kin + Deum serves up proper Bangkok-inspired cuisine. Mexico is represented by the brilliant reboot of Santo Remedio and taco joint El Pastor, while The Coal Shed doles out sizzling steaks and seafood with an international accent. And that's just for starters. Here are our favourite restaurants near London Bridge. RECOMMENDED: The best breakfasts in London. 

London’s ever-growing Mexican food scene offers far more than platefuls of tortilla chips heaped with salsa, guacamole and jalapeños and smothered in gooey cheese. You'll get incredible nachos if you want them, but there's also quality quesadillas, tip-top tostadas and exemplary enchiladas on offer across town. You’ll find all these and more at London’s very best Mexican restaurants. RECOMMENDED: London's best street food.

Shoreditch is a dining destination for hipsters, tourists and ravenous city workers alike, so it’s no wonder that there are restaurants of all cuisines and price ranges in the always-buzzy area. But which of the many options deserve your time and money? Let us tell you, with our list of the best restaurants in Shoreditch, which only features places that we know will hit the spot. From Michelin-starred favourites best visited on expenses to stellar street-food joints. Go east and feast. RECOMMENDED: The best bars, pubs and rooftops in Shoreditch.

If you don’t want to break the hearts of young children – and if I’m being totally honest, grown adult women too – then don’t, for goodness sake, put a giant, and fun-looking photo booth in the middle of your restaurant which doesn’t actually work. As a disgruntled eight-year-old makes his way back to his family after realising it’s purely for show, the booth’s curtain twitches in a mysterious, Wizard of Oz-like fashion, and we get a flash of the bar stock it seems to be concealing.  Empire Empire’s custom-made, vinyl-only jukebox is thankfully the real deal, sitting prettily by this new neighbourhood spot’s front door and playing a deft selection of 1970s Indian disco that’s heavy on the Asha Bhosle – though this is about the size of the joint’s much promo-ed disco theme; it’s definitely just a normal restaurant, rather than a low-lit Studio 54 meets Bollywood bacchanalia. But the food is more than genuine, coming from the same team as Gunpowder, who’ve been neatly delivering classic Indian sharing plates across their trio of restaurants in Soho, Tower Bridge and Spitalfields for the past few years. This is their first west London venture and it’s here, on a deeply Notting Hill stretch of All Saints Road (we swear we hear someone urgently shouting the name ‘Crispin!’ upon arrival), that Empire Empire focuses on the full throttle cuisine of the northwestern Punjab region, with biryanis, kebabs and tikka given top billing.  Tandoori hariyali king prawns were big, beefy boys,

Mexico City is pretty much the hottest city in the world right now. But transatlantic flights aren’t cheap, so save your money and visit one of the many extremely capable Mexican restaurants in London, of which Shoreditch’s uber sleek Zapote is the latest.  Fifteen years ago, it was nigh-on impossible to get a decent Mexican meal in this city – you’d make do with some overly cheesy enchiladas at La Perla in Covent Garden and be happy about it. Now we’re basically drowning in barbacoa and carne asada, from the classy Kol, El Pastor and Breddos Tacos to the 10 London branches of the omnipresent Wahaca, as well as Sonora Taqueria’s first proper restaurant after graduating from the street food trenches, and all the many tostada slingers in between.  A beef tartare taco with roasted bone marrow was smoky, fresh and impossibly butch; like St John on a vacay to Tulum. Zapote sits in the massive shell of the short-lived but much-vaunted St Leonards, its smooth concrete floor feeling like a very classy car park or an industrial sized roller rink. It’s just around the corner from another Mexican joint, the rather more casual Santo Remedio, and on an early weekend evening quickly fills up with big groups of colleagues and pals picking over a menu packed with punchy meat and elegant seafood dishes. They come from the mind of Yahir Gonzalez, who after a decade has jumped from the Spanish kitchen at Regent Street’s flash Aqua Nueva to cook the cuisine of his native Mexico. It’s something

When it comes to north London pub kitchens, the tiny one stuffed at the back of Islington’s equally diminutive Compton Arms, is a sacred space imbued with otherworldly epicurean powers. Until recently it was the home of Four Legs, the cooking crew who deftly delivered the best burger in town (all sweetly sloppy smashed Dexter beef, soft brioche bun and melted cheese the texture of velvet) before opening up their own colossally cool pub in Finsbury Park, The Plimsoll. After a turn from Belly’s globally-inspired, locally-sourced dishes, now stepping up to the Compton Arms pass is affable New Zealand-raised, Italy-born chef Dara Klein, who brings her family’s rustic Italian cooking – and her experience at Trullo, Rubedo, Brawn and Sager & Wilde – to this lovely backstreet boozer. Due to its size (and also its unshowy excellence), finding space at the Compton Arms is always a bit of a bunfight. The evening we decide to sample Dara’s semi-permanent Tiella pop-up, was also the same one that 60,000-odd sweaty music fans descend on the nearby Arsenal stadium for an Arctic Monkeys gig. Fighting our way through the unseasonal leather jackets and flagrant street drinking from warm tins, The Compton Arms glows like a hallowed beacon; a hidden pub that isn’t really hidden at all. It’s packed out with pre-show pint-people, but our wooden trestle table in the beer garden is a scene of relative chill. The Compton Arms kitchen is a sacred space imbued with otherworldly epicurean powers Tiell

Natty little top hats? Check. Bamboo canes swung with wild abandon? Check. A light-up staircase that leads enticingly up to the heavens? Check and check. Johnathan Church’s new production of the shimmering 1933 Busby Berkeley movie turned-stage musical is a sequin-studded riot.  Sure, the plot of this golden age classic has always been flimsy at best: young hopeful Peggy Sawyer wants to make it as a stage star, and by god, she does! But there are enough epic displays of tap prowess to make up for anything as dreary as a watertight plot.  A musical about a musical, the deeply meta ‘42nd Street’ sees a fast-talking, hard-working gang of Depression-era New York dancers all eagerly attempting to break Broadway with a show called ‘Pretty Lady’. Their demanding star Dorothy Brock is played to prissy perfection by West End veteran Ruthie Henshall, who channels both the great Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard and Joan Crawford in ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’ with terrifying accuracy, first swishing about in a pink marabou gown and later seething from the confines of a lavish wooden wheelchair. Our peek behind the velvet curtain focuses less on the original show’s slightly iffy gender politics – ‘Dames’, a ritzy number about the only reason men would ever want to go to the theatre, is deliciously underplayed – and instead we focus on the fabulous. Like Henshall, Josefina Gabrielle digs into Hollywood’s walk of fame for inspiration, pulling a wisecracking slapstick amalgam of Ro

The South Bank has long been crying out for a primo restaurant. The short stretch between the rumble of wheels on concrete at the hallowed undercroft and the Hungerford Bridge has always seemed the perfect location for something special. You’ve got the Thames in actual spitting distance! Stately views of the comely backside of the Savoy, Cleopatra’s Needle and that building everyone thinks is MI5! Surely this is the perfect place to plonk a divine, gastronomic heavyweight? But instead, this particular chunk of the city is home to an inoffensive clutch of mid-range chains; Strada, Wagamama, Giraffe, Las Iguanas, and, naturally, a Pret. The kinds of places tourists might toddle into before an evening spent at the BFI, the RFH or the NT, nosh away at a katsu curry or serviceable margherita then instantly forget almost everything about it.  Now, unto the breach, comes something that threatens to fill that gap; a Spanish-ish tapas joint from the brothers who run Applebee’s, a family fishmongers turned seafood resto that’s become part-and-parcel of nearby Borough Market’s foodie fabric.  Fried potatoes with Iberico chorizo and jammy fried egg felt particularly decadent in the sun In a spot previously occupied by Yo! Sushi and Pizza Pilgrims, La Gamba does very well at packing them in on a sunny weekday lunchtime. It’s not even 1pm yet and already big, fruit-packed jugs of sweet sangria – red, white and cava options – are being ferried out to tables on the slightly too tightly pack

Since it flung open the doors of its first restaurant in 2015, Bao has become a lowkey London institution. After almost a decade of fluffy buns and basement karaoke, the notoriously tasty Taiwanese mini chain is on its way to being as synonymous with eating out in the capital as St John, The Savoy Grill and a hasty but hallowed Pret baguette scoffed while striding through Soho Square to the pub on a sunny summer’s evening.  Not ones to sit on their soft, pillowy laurels, Bao Mary is the team’s latest outpost following branches in Shoreditch, Borough, King’s Cross and the original Lexington Street digs. It follows the same successful pattern as the others; there’s the utilitarian but gorgeous wood-panelled dining room, the DIY pencil checkbox menu that will never not be entertaining – who are we to deny such a gracious offering of autonomy over our own order? – and, naturally, fast and reasonably priced food.  Its seductive powers remain equal to, if not more powerful than, a Cool Hand Luke-era Paul Newman hand-delivering you an extremely dirty Martini. It’s the first all-day-ish branch of Bao (doors here open at midday and unlike the other branches don’t shut for a couple of hours R&R after lunch service), and we swing by on a weekday afternoon, among solo diners taking a late lunch and a couple of intensely nattering 20-something pals. At Bao Mary, the focus is on dumplings – each Bao has its own unique flavour, like Shoreditch’s noodle focus – but on our visit, it was the

The plaster bust of L’Escargot founder Georges Gaudin jauntily riding a snail twice his size has sat above the entrance to London’s oldest French restaurant for decades. With an outrageously moustachioed Gaudin coming on like a red-blazered multiman combo of Tom Selleck, Salvador Dali and Freddie Mercury, the kitsch effigy is to London food lore what Nelson, coyly perched atop his column in nearby Trafalgar Square, is to bumbling tourists. That this remains after the restaurant’s brief and mysterious closure at the top end of 2023 is sweet relief (though a new green exterior paintjob is less welcome). In fact, L’Escargot – which has been at its current location since 1927, after first opening down the road in 1896 – seems to be going nowhere. There have been bankruptcies, new owners, a move from serving homely French fare in the 1960s to catering for a glammy media crowd in the 1980s, a Marco Pierre White era and threats of eviction, but L’Escargot remains. It was, and still is, all about the snails. It’s named in their honour, as the first place in the UK to serve them and at one point there was even a snail farm in the basement. These days they are sourced more ethically from a guy called The Snail Man who runs an organic snail farm in Herefordshire.  The snails were perfect; springy commas of coal black flesh and drenched in a lurid garlic and parsley butter, a kind of psychedelic liquid gold Les escargots ‘maison’ are a half dozen for £18, or a dozen for £36 if you’re tr

The Savoy Grill heaves with so much history that you might as well be eating your dinner inside a three part BBC documentary. The legendary central London hotel’s grand, but far from excessively capacious, ground floor dining room is where at various moments throughout the 20th century, you’d find 1) Charlie Chaplin at his regular window-adjacent seat, 2) Noel Coward and Ivor Novello holding court in the middle of the room and 3) Maria Callas going about her affair with the fabulously wealthy Aristotle Onassis in plain view of other diners. Tres chic!  The very essence of immutable, star-studded decadence. Other guests include, but are not limited to, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor. So many Hollywood greats have sliced into some steak at the Savoy Grill that it is to London what Musso & Frank is to Los Angeles, and what Sardi’s is to New York; the very essence of immutable, star-studded decadence. And while silver screen sirens are now far more likely to be found in the likes of Hakkasan, Nobu or Chiltern Firehouse, the Savoy Grill will never go out of style.  A revamp in the first half of 2023 saw the Grill closed for a number of months, and rather than bringing in an Instagram-friendly millennial redesign, the refresh has seen it slink further into its iconic status. It’s now so extremely low-lit that it’s hard to make out what’s on the menu – and even harder to take a decent snap for social media – but in an age where some restaurants seemingly put more effort

Denmark Street – once home to various recording studios, music publishers and the very first offices of NME and Melody Maker – has gone through various iterations over the years – in the 1930s it was even known as Little Tokyo, thanks to the number of Japanese businesses there. Many will mourn the latest changes and mega development that Tin Pan Alley and the surrounding area has seen, and it’s safe to say that the arrival of Thirteen probably won’t change the minds of those who miss the days when David Bowie, Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols would roam this Soho-adjacent road, apocryphally trading riffs with their contemporaries.    Pitching up in the neat wraparound corner building left by the most notorious Jobcentre in London, thanks to it being the one-time workplace of Dennis Nilsen – and rather more happily, Lucian Freud's model and muse Sue Tilley – Thirteen has its heart set on importing a little Mayfair glam and high octane gothic design to this historically and charmingly shonky stretch of road. Denmark Street’s sonic heritage is celebrated in loud murals and decadent red velvet drapes. Plush furnishings, sumptuous booths and low-lighting abounds, and DJs here are a vital feature, especially down in basement club Dial8. This is not the kind of central London bar to visit on a night where anonymity and discretion is needed, but rather one where you’ll glug rock-themed cocktails (called things such as Graceland, Little Lie and Lady Stardust) for around the £14-18 ma

As London dining rooms go, there are few as thigh-slappingly spectacular as the newly reopened Midland Grand. Unless, of course, you count the equally lavish and also recently revamped Booking Office 1869, which you can find just down the corridor in the St Pancras Renaissance. This historic hotel does imposing glamour extremely well. If high ceilings are your kink, then this sumptuous space – which housed Marcus Wareing’s The Gilbert Scott for a decade until its post covid kibosh – will have you in filthy raptures.  Thanks to the imposing building’s Grade I-listed status, the imposing room has stayed largely the same as it was when it was built almost 150 years ago; just a few new Art Deco-esque lamps here and some velvety furnishings there, but with vast, creamy ceilings looming above. As such, the energy remains akin to Poirot On a Big Night Out, but there are touches of classic New York here too, like we might have discovered a secret room at the bottom of the Chrysler Building, and Dorothy Parker is going to start flinging table scraps at us. The menu of strutting French food from chef Patrick Powell – who is also in charge of the kitchen at the slightly more far flung Allegra in Stratford – is a fittingly opulent match.  It would be remiss to start an evening here anywhere but the restaurant’s adjoining Gothic Bar, which is less Sisters of Mercy (though those ceilings would certainly accommodate a gigantic backcombed 1980s bouffant) and more Florence and the Machine’s w

There’s something inspiring about Brunswick House. A proud but tatty Georgian mansion, it sits stubbornly amongst the looming, ever-multiplying tower blocks of Vauxhall, refusing to let the churn of modernity and encroaching flashiness knock it from its precarious perch. You imagine that more than one billionaire developer has gazed upon the prime Thameside footprint this shabby old building takes up, and shook their fists in rage upon hearing of its protected Grade II* listed status.  In 2010, Brunswick House finally started getting some serious love. Long after its time as a working men’s club had come to an end, and following on from a few years spent as a squat, brothers Jackson and Frank Boxer hosted a six month pop-up in the building, which was then – and remains – home to architectural salvage experts Lassco. Well over a decade down the line, Jackson is still there (his brother popped off to run the equally-loved Frank's rooftop bar in Peckham), casually running one of the most well-respected restaurants in London.  As atmospheric rooms go, it’s one of the capital’s headiest; a little Mick Jagger in Performance, a little Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  One of the best things about sharing your space with an antiques dealer is the endless, ever-changing decor options. Two trips to Brunswick House are seldom alike. The walls, which are one evening covered with giant Art Nouveau advertising for obscure French chocolate brands, will boast vintage theatre pos

The last time I shuffled around the history-riddled streets around Smithfield meat market, I was flexing my goth muscle at the rarely-open Barts Pathology Museum. An extraordinary collection of 4,000 human specimens, each more intriguing and peculiar than the last, it’s a similar experience to that of visiting the ambitious Restaurant St Barts. The offerings at London’s latest Michelin starred spot might be more appetising than a glass jar containing the pickled liver of a Victorian prisoner, but they’re no less fascinating. And at a heroic 15 courses served over three and a half hours, almost as plentiful. Opened in October 2022 by the power trio of chef Johnnie Crowe, co-founder and front of house guru (and occasional plate maker) Luke Wasserman and money man Toby Neill – who proved their mettle with the shifting single-ingredient focussed Nest in Hackney – Restaurant St Barts makes the most of its ancient-adjacent location. The airy dining room’s massive windows look out onto the cloisters of London’s oldest surviving church, the medieval St Bartholomew-the-Great, as well the city’s oldest residential building, and as you gaze at both, you can simultaneously contemplate your utter meaninglessness in the ongoing, epic churn of time. If you’d rather not focus on the futility of human experience, then simply enjoy a menu closed with a wax seal, which is handed over with a stately, secretive air that can only be described as masonic. Such history buffery is matched by a proudl

最近、アイスクリームショップでバニラ味をオーダーした人はいるだろうか？ 今は「ストラッチャテッラ」「抹茶」「リコッタ」の時代で、ベーシックなフレーバーはもう通用しない。そして、「アニヤ・ハインドマーチ」がそのさらに先に行こうとしている。 彼らが、ロンドンのチェルシーでブランドカフェなどを展開する「The Village」で、2023年6月29日からポップアップイベント「the Ice Cream Project」を開催。イギリスでよく知られている食品ブランドなどをモチーフにした「Anya Brands」ラインのキッチュな世界観とマッチしたフレーバーのアイスを提供するという。 フィーチャーされるフレーバーは「ハインツトマトケチャップ」「ブランストンピクルス」「ケロッグココップス」「リベナ」「キッコーマンしょうゆ」など。この展開はもはや「ラムレーズン」なんかを期待してはダメな領域にあるようだ。 これらのアイスクリームは、イギリス南西部のデヴォンで手作りされ、1スクープずつ、または500ミリリットルの持ち帰り容器で販売される。 このプロジェクトはもともと2022年の夏、The Villageでありきたりではないフレーバーのアイスを提供したことからスタート。2023年に再び登場するということは、よっぽど多くの人々がこのアイスクリームに夢中になったということだろう。 「型破りなフレーバーはちょっと……」などと心配するかもしれないが、例えば「マルドンソルト」は「リッチなダークチョコレートにマルドンのシーソルトフレークとダークチョコレートシェービングを加えたもの」で、「ブルードラゴンスイートチリソース」は「リッチでクリーミーなバニラに、チリのねっとりとした甘みとほのかな辛味が加わっている」とアニヤ・ハインドマーチの関係者は説明している。 気温が急上昇しているこの時期、きっとどんなアイスクリームでもおいしく感じるはずだ。 この投稿をInstagramで見る Anya Hindmarch(@anyahindmarch)がシェアした投稿 関連記事 『You can eat Branston pickle, Maldon salt and Birds Eye pea ice cream in a London bag shop（原文）』 『マカオにイギリスをテーマにしたリゾートホテルがグランドオープン』 『静かになった？ イギリス音楽フェスでの「音体験」が変化』 『イギリスに24時間営業の無人ラーメン店がオープン』 『井村屋の高級アイスブランド「和涼菓堂」が大丸東京店に期間限定出店』 『この夏、由比ガ浜にマイナス15度の極寒ビーチバーこと「ICE BAR」が登場』 東京の最新情報をタイムアウト東京のメールマガジンでチェックしよう。登録はこちら  

The allure of a park picnic might be strong right now, however, the dawning of summer also heralds the arrival of some brilliant new London restaurants.  We would never try and put you off a gözleme, Monster Munch and Tyskie feast in your nearest green space, but if you fancy swapping al fresco snacks for a sitdown meal, we’ve got together all the biggest new openings in the city this July.  Fans of Brat should be excited in particular by Tomos Parry’s new Soho spot Mountain, which is only a short stroll from equally new fishy wonderland Manzi’s. If you like endless options then you’ll be very interested in Arcade’s second massive food hall in Battersea Power Station, while those of a sophisticated nature will be all over the multi Michelin-star crowned chef Yannick Alléno’s debut London opening, Pavyllon in Mayfair.  Now go forth and eat.  Mountain 1. Brat’s new big city baby  Mountain, Soho Tomos Parry needs no introduction, but here’s one anyway; he’s the Anglesey-born restaurant renegade who made an open fire, Basque-inspired restaurant (in a former Shoreditch strip club no less) into one of the world’s foremost dining destinations. Now, post-Brat, he’s sauntering a few miles west and opening his first Soho spot on July 11. Mountain still sees him fixated on Iberian climes, and will be a wood grill and wine bar drawing upon the best stuff he’s ever eaten on his Spanish travels. Think slow braised shellfish, rich beef sweetbreads and lobster caldereta stew. 16-18 Beak St

If you’re wondering where the best place to eat on the entire planet is, the wait is over. The World’s Best 50 Restaurants for 2023 is out, with the awards hosted last night (June 20) in Valencia, Spain. Top of the culinary pops is Lima restaurant Central.  The fine-dining Peruvian spot was founded by Virgilio Martínez in 2008 and focusses on using indigenous Peruvian ingredients and takes the top position from last year's winner; Geranium in Copenhagen. It sounds lush, but you and I both know we’re probably never going to go there. So we took a look a little further down the list to find a trio of offerings closer to home. The highest ranked London restaurant was Kol at number 23. The Michelin star Marylebone restaurant serves up classy Mexican cuisine and is headed up by chef Santiago Lastra, who commented: 'It is an honour for the team to be recognised on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list; we are so grateful for all the support. The source of our inspiration is and remains the beauty found in Mexico’s people and rich culture. It influences how we create food every day. I would also like to thank our wonderful British farmers, foragers, producers and the wider community. You have helped make Kol our home.' Well done, Santiago!  Shoreditch’s The Clove Club comes in at number 38: its £195 tasting menu features modern British flavour combos including Orkney scallops with hazelnuts, and veal sweetbread baked in hay. Then there's Ikoyi at number 35: a homely-but-luxe restaur

Arcade are opening their second London food hall this July. They'll be taking to the ever-expanding Battersea Power Station development, which follows in the supremely successful footsteps of their Centre Point location. The original food hall has been a hit since relaunching in 2022, and offers up such tasty delights as Sushi Kamon and Plaza Khao Gaeng. Arcade's new hall is hoping to follow suit in terms of both popularly and deliciousness, and will host 13 different kinds of cuisine, including a bunch of brand new additions to their foodie family. In the newcomer corner are Thai stir-fries and salads from Phed Power, Cantonese roast meat from Siu Siu, and Italian ice cream from Leccami Gelato. Returning Arcade favourites include Hero's Indian fast food, Sushi Kamon's Japanese offerings, Tipan Tapan's Nepali street food and Shatta & Toum's shawarma. There'll also be three actual restaurants in the hall, including one from smash burger and fried chicken dons Manna, who'll be serving a bunch of brand new menu items including a Hot Bonnet Fish Filay and Chicken Block Burger with hash browns. Then there'll be a new branch of Bao within its walls – hot on the heels of their new Marylebone joint, Bao Mary – and grilled chicken and steak restaurant Solis. Frankly, the number of options almost verges on the overwhelming. Come hungry, leave stuffed.  And it doesn't stop there. There will be two bars; Tap Room and ABC Bar.The first is all about the beers, and the latter deals in class

If you've had the pleasure of working in a central London office over the past 15 years, you will have likely have popped into a branch Leon for lunch. For years their fish finger wrap was a go-to staple; cod fingers, gherkins and tartare sauce all packed up neatly in a grilled Khobez flatbread. Then, one day in 2021, it was no more. White-shirted city workers could be seen weeping in the streets, and more than one HR manager pumped their fist at the heavens, yelling ‘why have you forsaken us?’ The Leon team obviously heard the weeping from those left bereft, and have revealed that the original recipe wrap will be returning to stores from June 28, as part of this year's summer menu.  Hopefully the people who once tweeted the following will be happy about the news:  ‘Scenes at Leon. Fish finger wrap is off the menu. It’s the ONE thing worth going in there for, it DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE.’ ‘TERRIBLE NEWS. Leon have stopped doing the fish finger wrap. This is exactly the kind of change I fear.’ ‘I’ll never forgive Leon for getting rid of the fish finger wrap. What are they good for? The jerk chicken is TRASH.’ Be warned: the recipe might not have changed, but the price has. Leon's fish finger wrap will now be £7.49.  You can eat Branston pickle, Maldon salt and Birds Eye pea ice cream in a London bag shop All the best new restaurants opening in London this June  

After shutting up its massively popular London Fields food stall last year, Sonora Taqueria is finally opening up its first ever real-life restaurant. Hurrah! Situated at 208 Stoke Newington High Street, the official opening date is Thursday June 22, and they'll be in business every Thurs-Sun from 10am-4pm, with breakfast served until 12pm.  With help from a crowdfunder, Sonora Taquería left behind its Netil House digs last year and will be serving up its signature tacos from a counter in its new home, with the likes of carne asada or barbacoa tacos, chorizo quesadillas and queso fresco burritos on the menu. There'll be drinks too, with horchata for those swerving booze, or micheladas for anyone who wants something a little stronger with their lunch. There are also plans for a mixed grill, soups and tamales. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sonora Taquería 🌵 (@sonora.ldn) Sonora Taquería is run by Michelle Salazar de la Rocha (who was raised in Sonora, Mexico) and Sam Napier, who last year faced legal threat from another London based Mexican restaurant, who said that they had trademarked the word ‘taqueria’ in 2005 and wanted Sonora Taquería to remove it from their name. Over 130,000 people signed a petition in support of Sonora Taquería, explaining that it was nonsense. Justice prevailed and Sonora Taquería kept its name.  Over the past year, the team also consulted on the opening of Mexa in central London's Arcade Food Hall. In

Bethnal Green's Da Terra was the highest placed London restaurant at the The Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards 2023. The ceremony took place on Monday June 12 at the Hurlingham Club in Fulham, and saw the fine dining east London eatery taking third place in the UK-wide prize – following Welsh country house hotel restaurant Ynyshir at Number 1, and then Moor Hall in Lancashire, which came second.  In the top 100, 66 of the restaurants were based in London, and included the likes of The Ledbury, KOL, Core by Clare Smyth, A Wong, Brat, Kiln and Ikoyi. See the full, whoppingly massive list below. Bouchon Racine in Clerkenwell took fifth place, and was also the winner of the Opening of the Year award for the best new restaurant in the UK. Bouchon Racine is the latest project from acclaimed chef Henry Harris, who previously worked at Harvey Nichols’ Fifth Floor Restaurant and his own Racine in Knightsbridge. Read Time Out's glowing, five start review of Bouchon Racine here. Other London-leaning wins included Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver of St John, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award for their much-loved restaurant in Smithfield, which opened in 1994 and went on to spawn St John Bread and Wine in Spitalfields and St John Marylebone.  April Lily Partridge Meanwhile, The Ledbury won the Service Award, and their 29-year-old sous chef April Lily Partridge – pictured above – was named this year’s Chef to Watch. The recently opened Midland Grand Dining Room scored

Who, in 2023, is ordering vanilla ice cream?  In a world of stracciatella, matcha, ricotta, your basic flavours aren't reallllly going to cut it anymore. Step forth then, Anya Hindmarch Village in Chelsea, where from June 29 you'll find the Ice Cream Project.  With flavours to match the British accessories and luxury label's kitsch, brand-focussed bags, the frozen dessert pop-up will be hosting everything from Heinz Tomato Ketchup to Ambrosia Rice Pudding to Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli Sauce and KP Salted Peanuts. Want more? How about Branston Pickle, Kellogg's Cocopops and Rice Krispies, Ribena, Kikkoman Soy Sauce and Warburtons Crumpets? We're not in rum and raisin territory anymore.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Anya Hindmarch (@anyahindmarch) The Ice Cream Project first took their less than conventional flavours to the Anya Hindmarch store on Pont Street last summer, and it seems like enough of you were into it to warrant its return this year.  The frozen fancies are hand-made in Devon and you'll be able to sample each flavour by the scoop or in a 500ml takeaway tub. If you're worried that such unconventional flavours might takes a little... funky, then don't – they're all sweeter than you'd think. Maldon Salt is 'rich dark chocolate elevated with Maldon sea salt flakes and dark chocolate shavings', while the Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli Sauce offers a 'rich, creamy vanilla with the sticky sweet tang of ch

Love Cullen skink, Arbroath smokies and Dundee cake? Well you, and other keen fans of yummy Scottish scran are in luck, as this summer London's first ever Scottish deli is set to open. Coming from the team behind the wonderful Auld Hag, who until very recently were serving up some serious haggis poutine at Exhale Brewery in Walthamstow, The Shoap will be bringing all manner of north of the boarder delights to Islington very, very soon. The plan is to open up this summer on St John Street, just south of Angel station, and to get the ball rolling founder Gregg Boyd has set up a Kickstarter in order help raise £40,000 in order to fund kitchen and retail equipment and to fit out the main deli area and purchase stock.  Auld Hag The Shoap will sell Glasgow morning rolls baked in-house and filled with Aberdeen Angus topside. There'll also be the aforementioned Cullen Skink velouté, and seasonal lunch specials, such as Scottish wild mushrooms and pearl barley or haggis with tattie puree. Baked goods will also include shortbread, Ecclefechan tarts and tablet. Coffee will come from Caora Dhubh Coffee Company on the Isle of Skye, and there'll be beer from Scottish breweries Newbarns, Overtone and Simple Things Fermentations, cheeses from IJ Mellis cheesemongers from Edinburgh, Scottish pork charcuterie and Stornoway black pudding. And of course, there will be haggis.  'When I moved to London I couldn't believe Scottish food wasn't readily available,' says Gregg. 'Where could I get a

If you've ever been out drinking in Soho, it's highly likely that you will have stumbled across Trisha's. Officially called the New Evaristo Club, but known in honour of its longtime matriarch Trisha, this Greek Street basement bar is the stuff of legend; one of the last slices of old school Soho, and a late night den of near mythic, boozy repute.  However, the bar have revealed that Westminster Council want to review their licence, causing concern that the venue may be at threat. 'They are asking to close us down and we need your support,' wrote Trisha's on Instagram. They've asked that fans of the bar contact the council by tomorrow (that's Friday June 9) using this link, and share how much the venue means to them.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by 𝕿𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖘 (@trishas.soho) Westminster Council's application for licence review states that the bar is being investigated due to complaints from local residents and customers. They also state that there was an incidence of overcrowding when an inspector visited the bar earlier this year, and added that the bar failed to produce CCTV footage when asked. Trisha's was visited by chef and fan of a boozy night out Anthony Bourdain in a 2011 episode of his show The Layover. In it he branded the bar 'the Dean Martin of drinking establishments'. The bar was also a favourite of Amy Winehouse.    In 2020 regulars helped raise £20,000 to keep the bar open during the post lockdown slump. 'Trisha's is a pl

The Dusty Knuckle isn't just a go-to for a Saturday morning bun fight (most notably over their scrummy morning buns) – the bakery was also founded with the intention of giving back to the local community. The Dusty Knuckle Training Programme is aimed at people aged 18-25 'who face significant barriers to getting their careers underway'. Helping people from the Youth Justice system, including those who have been in care, the Dalston-based bakery offers career advice and therapeutic mental health services, which they have funded by selling sarnies. They now plan to build an employment network to support the programme which will see other other businesses working with trainees from the programme, and Dusty Knuckle helping to pay half the trainee's wages for an initial period. But! They need money to do it all, of course, so are hosting a big and fun fundraiser on June 18 at Dalston Roofpark (which is on the top of their Hackney cafe). 💥FULL LINE-UP ANNOUNCED💥We have two more special guests to announce for our 18th June fundraising party. It's absolutely mad to be writing these names here... brace yourself..The first is none other than the exceptional and multi-talented JESSIE WARE @JessieWare pic.twitter.com/tLrryFHWPL — Dusty Knuckle Bakery (@thedustyknuckle) June 7, 2023 The night will see popstar and Table Manners podcast host Jessie Ware performing an acoustic set, Suggs from north London legends Madness hosting a special auction, a DJ set from Femi Fe

Pasta pros Bancone have announced plans to open a third restaurant this summer, following their Soho and Covent Garden locations. Bancone 3:0 – the big cacio e pepe comeback, will launch in July, and is the latest opening in the Borough Yards development just around the corner from Borough Market. So far these restored railway arches have welcomed branches of Barrafina, Parrillan and Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, as well as an Everyman Cinema, if you fancy catching a movie (and sitting down in a big comfy chair) after filling yourself up with some of London's tastiest food.  The food at Bancone will be headed up by executive chef Ben Waugh, who'll be serving up the brand's classic dishes of silk handkerchiefs with walnut butter and confit egg yolk, mafalde with spicy pork and n'duja ragù and that killer cacio e pepe. But there'll also be some brand new offerings too – think along the lines of raviolo with smoked potato, new season truffle and egg yolk. Bancone bloody love a yolk. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bancone (@bancone.pasta) 'When we opened the doors to Bancone in Covent Garden, none of us ever thought we’d be opening our third site five years later,' say the Bancone team. 'With a huge following of loyal guests and maintaining exceptional hospitality for them we’ve been able to do it - and we could not be more thrilled. Our new site, is big, beautiful and in a fantastic location and we cannot wait to open the doors.'   Bancone will o