The 24 Best Restaurants in London (2026)

The London classics. These are the rooms that have been feeding London for decades, some for centuries, and the ones worth doing once even if you eat adventurously the rest of the week. Rules is where I'd take anyone on their first night. Thomas Rule opened it on Maiden Lane in 1798, which makes it London's oldest restaurant, and the dining room looks every one of those years. The menu is game, oysters, pies and puddings, and it's done straight.

Order: the steak and kidney pudding (£26.25, or £27.95 with an oyster in it), the potted shrimps (£19.25) and the sticky toffee pudding (£11.50); in season, game like grouse. Spend: those three come to £57 a head before drinks. Book: online any time via SevenRooms; tables of six at most, no under-10s after 7pm. Dress: smart preferred, no shorts or sportswear. Tube: Covent Garden, 4 minutes. The catch: vegetarians get little beyond starters and sides, and it's full of other visitors doing exactly what you're doing.

The Wolseley is a grand European-style café on Piccadilly, open from 7am on weekdays, and it's the most useful classic in London because it works at any hour. Breakfast here (kedgeree with a poached egg, £25.50) is the famous meal, but the lunch prix fixe is the smart money: £29.95 for two courses or £34.95 for three, a few minutes' walk from the Royal Academy and Fortnum & Mason.

Order: the Wiener schnitzel (£38.50), steak tartare (£17.95 small, £32.75 large) or chicken soup with matzo dumplings (£11.25). Spend: £30 to £60 at lunch. Book: yes, but some tables are always held for walk-ins on the day; no-shows cost £25 a head. Dress: no dress code. Tube: Green Park, 2 minutes. The catch: it's a busy room, not a quiet one.

If I could eat only one British meal in London, it would be at St. JOHN, across the road from Smithfield meat market. It's the restaurant most associated with nose-to-tail cooking: a plain, white dining room and a menu written daily around offal, game and unfashionable cuts. It holds a Michelin star, and the prices are more gentle than that suggests.

Order: roast bone marrow and parsley salad (£16.50), Welsh rarebit (£12.50), and the Eccles cake with Lancashire cheese (£12.50); madeleines take fifteen minutes, so order them early. Spend: mains were £25 to £35 on the late-September menus, so three courses land around £55 to £65 before the 12.5% service. Book: online, by email or phone. Dress: none stated. Tube: Farringdon, 5 minutes. The catch: the menu changes every day, so don't come set on one dish, and it's closed on Sunday evenings.

J Sheekey is the theatre-district fish restaurant, tucked into a passage off St Martin's Lane, and it's marking its 130th anniversary with a set menu. It's the classic pre- or post-theatre booking, and the fish pie is the order to make.

Order: the fish pie (£25.50), the king prawn and avocado cocktail (£19.75), or Dover sole (£53) if it's an occasion. Spend: the 130th anniversary set menu is the value play at £38 for two courses or £46 for three (Monday to Saturday until 4.45pm, and Sunday evenings); à la carte, the prawn cocktail and fish pie come to £45.25 before pudding. Add a £2 cover charge and 13.5% service. Book: OpenTable or phone. Dress: smart. Tube: Leicester Square, 2 minutes. The catch: the extras mount up, and check the Sunday closing time before a late booking.

The Regency Café is the working London breakfast, not the hotel version. It opened in 1946 on a quiet Westminster street, keeps its Art Deco interior, and you may recognise it from films like Layer Cake. You queue, order and pay at the counter, then find a seat, sharing a table if you must.

Order: the set breakfast (£9.99: egg, two bacon, sausage, beans or tomatoes, toast and tea or coffee), a steak pie and two veg (£9.60) at lunch, or fish and chips on Fridays (£12.50). Spend: about £10 to £15. Book: no. Dress: none. Tube: Pimlico or St James's Park, 8 to 10 minutes. The catch: no substitutions, closes at 3.30pm and all day Sunday, and it's cramped at peak.

Modern British. The new London cooking, much of it grill- and butcher-led, in rooms that feel like restaurants rather than institutions. The Quality Chop House on Farringdon Road writes its menu every day around chops, steaks and seasonal British cooking. It's where I'd go in London for a proper British steak dinner without the steakhouse theatre.

Order: the confit potatoes (£11), which are the famous side for good reason, then a Barnsley chop (400g, £39) or the Hereford sirloin (400g, £54). Spend: the Tuesday-to-Friday set lunch is £29 for three courses; at dinner, the confit potatoes and a Barnsley chop come to £50 before a starter and 13.5% service. Book: OpenTable, groups up to six. Dress: none stated. Tube: Farringdon, 5 minutes. The catch: card only, and cancelling late is expensive (£40 a head inside two weeks, up to £100 on the day).

The Devonshire is one of the hardest tables in the West End to book, and one of the easiest pubs to walk into. Downstairs is a Soho pub with its own butcher and bakery, pouring a Guinness one Google reviewer calls "The Absolute Best Guinness in London"; upstairs is a wood-ember grill restaurant. It's the place I'd send you for a Sunday roast in the West End.

Order: the beef cheek and Guinness suet pudding (£26), lamb cutlets (£28), or a T-bone priced at £11.50 per 100g, with duck fat chips (£6). Spend: the set menu (prawn cocktail, skirt steak and chips, sticky toffee pudding) is £25 for two courses or £29 for three, and it runs all day Monday to Saturday. Book: tables open every Thursday at 10.30am for three weeks ahead, with no waiting list; the pub and roof terrace are walk-in. Dress: no dress code. Tube: Piccadilly Circus, 2 minutes. The catch: very little for vegans, and a Thursday-morning alarm if you want dinner.

Brat is a first-floor dining room on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch with a Michelin star. The dish to know is the whole turbot, sold by weight, and it's built for a group.

Order: grilled bread with anchovy (£10), crab toast (£7 each), the turbot (£180 for 1.6kg) if you're four, and the burnt cheesecake with fig (£11). Spend: grilled bread and a £32 main come to £42 before a starter, dessert and 12.5% service. Book: SevenRooms. Dress: none stated. Station: Shoreditch High Street (Overground), 3 minutes. The catch: it's loud and tight, the big cuts don't suit two people, and the stairs matter if access is an issue.

The world's cuisines. London's real strength is the range, and these are the restaurants I'd pick to represent each style at its best. Camille is a French bistro on the edge of Borough Market, and Time Out named it London's best restaurant in its 2026 list. The cooking is regional French with British produce: cassoulet made with snout, trout in beurre blanc, a specials board and natural wine.

Order: the snout cassoulet (£16), plaice grenobloise (£16), the chalkstream trout (£36) and the burnt milk tart (£12). Spend: the cassoulet, trout and tart come to £64 before drinks. Book: online for up to six, with the bar kept for walk-ins. Dress: none stated. Tube: London Bridge, 5 minutes. The catch: it's a small room, and vegetarians have few choices beyond the shallot tatin (£28).

For Spanish, Sabor in Heddon Street, just off Regent Street, holds a Michelin star and has distinct areas: a tapas counter, bar and La Mesa dining room on the ground floor, and El Asador upstairs for Castilian roasts. The bar is walk-in, which makes it the easiest seat to get.

Order: at the counter, the black rice with monkfish tempura (£33.50); upstairs in El Asador, pulpo a feira (£19.80) and Segovian suckling pig (from £85 per portion). Spend: the La Mesa set menu is £65 a head; a counter meal is similar, plus 15% service and £2 a head for water. Book: SevenRooms up to ten; the bar and terrace are walk-in with a waiting list. Dress: smart casual recommended, not enforced. Tube: Piccadilly Circus, 5 minutes. The catch: closed Sundays, and the upstairs room is up a spiral staircase.

London has more good Indian restaurants than I could fit here, so I've kept to two, one expensive, one cheap. Gymkhana in Mayfair is the expensive one, and it holds two Michelin stars.

Order: the kid goat methi keema (£22) and wild venison biryani (£50), which are the dishes it's known for. Spend: the lunch menu is £85 and the tasting menu £160 (vegetarian £150), before 15% service and a £4.50-a-head water charge. Book: SevenRooms. Dress: none stated. Tube: Green Park, 5 minutes. The catch: those add-ons, and à la carte curries at £30 to £50 make it an occasion rather than a curry night.

Berenjak is a Persian kabab house in Soho built around an open grill and a clay oven turning out flatbread. It has a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and it's one of the most enjoyable rooms in the West End: smoky, loud and close-packed.

Order: the hummus and kashk e bademjoon (£10.50), taftoon bread (£5), then the koobideh (£26) or jujeh (£28) kababs. Spend: the Tuesday-to-Friday set lunch is £35 and the feast menu £58; à la carte, a dip, bread and a koobideh come to £41.50 before 15% service. Book: two months ahead for two to six people; walk-in seats run a virtual queue that can take up to three hours. Dress: none stated. Tube: Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road, 5 minutes. The catch: no step-free access, card only, and rice and most sides cost extra.

Chishuru in Fitzrovia cooks modern West African food on set menus, and it holds a Michelin star. Nothing else in London tastes like it: rice pancakes with white crab, fish in a blackened tree-bark sauce, and heat that the kitchen won't turn down.

Order: you don't choose; lunch is £55, pre-theatre £65 and dinner £105, and at lunch the party jollof rice with plantain is a £12 add-on worth taking. Spend: £55 to £105 plus 15% optional service. Book: 60 days ahead. Dress: none; they say come as you are. Tube: Oxford Circus, 4 minutes. The catch: weekdays only, closed 2 to 9 November, no vegan menu, and toilets down a flight of stairs.

For Thai, Kiln on Brewer Street is a Thai grill, seafood and claypot kitchen with most seats at a counter facing the cooks. It has a Michelin Bib Gourmand and takes no bookings, which is part of why it stays good value.

Order: the claypot glass noodles with pork belly and brown crab (£11.80), which nearly every table orders, a cull yaw and cumin skewer (£3.80) and the laap-spiced cod collar (£12.60). Spend: those three are £28.20; add a curry (from £18.90) and 12.5% service. Book: no; they'll text you when a stool is free. Dress: none. Tube: Piccadilly Circus, 4 minutes. The catch: evening queues, and most dishes contain shellfish or pork.

Affordable standouts. The places that make London a great cheap-eating city: most take no bookings, and all of them are worth the wait. Dishoom is the Bombay café that became a London habit, and the Covent Garden branch is the flagship, two floors hung with old Bombay photographs. It opens at 8am on weekdays, so it doubles as a breakfast stop.

Order: the house black daal (£11.70), cooked over 24 hours, chicken ruby (£18.90) and the charred lamb chops (£19.90). Spend: daal and a chicken ruby are £30.60 before bread, rice and 12.5% service. Book: any group by day; after 6pm only groups of six or more, so couples queue (go before 6pm). Dress: none. Tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square. The catch: the evening queue, and a menu that leans spicy and salty.

Padella is a pasta bar beside Borough Market with a Michelin Bib Gourmand and, for my money, the best price-to-pleasure ratio in London. If you eat one plate of pasta here, this is where.

Order: the pici cacio e pepe (£13.50) and the pappardelle with 8-hour beef shin ragù (£16.50), plus burrata (£9.50) to share. Spend: a pasta each and a burrata to share comes to under £22 a head. Book: no; join the virtual queue with the QR code at the door from 11am for lunch or 4.30pm for dinner, or remotely on the Dojo app, then wander the market. Dress: none. Tube: London Bridge, by the Borough High Street exit. The catch: groups of six at most, and at peak the wait can be long.

Hoppers on Frith Street cooks Sri Lankan food, and it's where I'd send anyone who thinks they know curry. A hopper is a bowl-shaped rice-and-coconut pancake, crisp at the edges, often with an egg in the middle, for tearing and dunking in a kari. It has a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Order: an egg hopper (£7.50) with the black pork kari (£16), and mutton rolls (£10) to start. Spend: The Hoppers Experience set is £36 a head; the Lunch Plate £22. Add 13% service. Book: for two to four people; otherwise the virtual queue. Dress: none. Tube: Tottenham Court Road, 5 minutes. The catch: a small room with tight counter seats, and serious heat in places.

Next door, Koya has been making fresh udon noodles and dashi since 2010, served hot or cold, in broth or with dipping sauce, mostly at a counter. It's open from 10am, and the English breakfast udon (£16.20, egg, bacon and shiitake) is the most London thing on the menu.

Order: the buta miso udon (£15), the kinoko mushroom udon (£16.70) and the kakuni pork belly (£11.50). Spend: an udon and the pork belly come to £26.50. Book: walk-ins only. Dress: none. Tube: Tottenham Court Road, 5 minutes. The catch: stool seating and a queue at lunch.

BAO on Lexington Street is a tiny Taiwanese café built around the steamed bun, and Soho is the original. It's quick: one Google reviewer puts it at 30 to 45 minutes in and out.

Order: the classic braised pork bao (£5.75), the fried chicken bao (£5.95) and the burnt garlic mackerel bao (£6.95), which is only served at Soho. Spend: those three bao are £18.65, so budget £25 with a side. Book: walk-ins only. Dress: none. Tube: Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus, 6 to 7 minutes. The catch: the buns are small, so a proper meal is several plates.

Roti King is a Malaysian basement dining room off Euston Road where the roti canai is made fresh to order. It's three minutes from Euston and about a quarter of an hour's walk from King's Cross and St Pancras, which makes it the best cheap meal off a Eurostar or a train from the north.

Order: roti canai with dhal (£9.95) or beef rendang (£12.50), and a kari laksa (£12.25). Spend: a roti with dhal and a laksa are £22.20 between two. Book: no, walk-ins only, card only. Dress: none. Tube: Euston, 3 minutes. The catch: the queue at peak, a noisy room, and stairs down with no lift.

Special occasions. The meals you plan a trip around. These are my four. Core by Clare Smyth in Notting Hill holds three Michelin stars, and it's the grandest meal of the four: a menu built on British produce, with signatures like 'potato and roe' and the 'Core apple'.

Order: the Core Classics tasting menu (£265), which includes the signatures, or Core Seasons (£275); wine pairing is £175. Spend: £265 to £275 before wine and the discretionary service charge; the à la carte format is £205 at lunch. Book: OpenTable; cancelling within 72 hours costs £175 a head. Dress: no sportswear, smart trainers are fine. Tube: Notting Hill Gate or Ladbroke Grove, about 10 minutes. The catch: the bill, and those unforgiving cancellation terms.

A. Wong in Pimlico is London's two-Michelin-star Chinese restaurant, and it reopens at its Wilton Road home on 29 September 2026 after a refurbishment. Dinner is a single tasting menu that tours China's regions; lunch is dim sum, which is the more flexible way in.

Order: at lunch, the Shanghai steamed dumpling (£6 a piece) and 'memories of Peking duck' (£16); at dinner, the Collections of China tasting menu (£235, vegetarian version available). Spend: £235 at dinner; at lunch, the suggested 8 to 10 dim sum pieces a head at £4.50 to £16 each. These are the prices published before the refurbishment, so check them when you book. Book: SevenRooms, card required; changes inside 72 hours are charged. Dress: casually smart. Tube: Victoria, a minute's walk. The catch: dinner takes around three hours, and there's no vegan menu.

The River Café has been cooking Italian food on the Thames at Hammersmith since 1987, in a room designed by Richard Rogers with a wood oven and a riverside terrace. It holds a Michelin star, and on a summer lunch in the garden it's hard to beat anywhere in London.

Order: a pasta (the lobster spaghetti was £46 on the sample menu), wood-roasted turbot (£69) and the Chocolate Nemesis (£15), the cake the restaurant is known for. Spend: those three come to £130 before wine; the menu changes daily. Book: online for up to eight, Sunday lunch by phone, with timed tables. Dress: none stated. Tube: Hammersmith, 15 minutes' walk. The catch: the prices, and it's a long way west of the centre.

Clos Maggiore on King Street is the romantic booking: a conservatory with a blossom-covered ceiling and a fireplace. The food leans French, and the set lunch, with a glass of bubbles included, is one of the best deals in Covent Garden.

Order: the Orkney scallop with XO (£27), wagyu fillet (£49) and the chocolate soufflé (£17). Spend: weekday lunch £29.50 for two courses with a glass of bubbles, pre-theatre £32.50, the tasting menu £89; add 14.5% service. Book: online, or call if it looks full. Dress: smart casual, emphasis on smart; no sportswear, shorts or flip-flops. Tube: Covent Garden, 3 minutes. The catch: ask for the conservatory specifically, and expect other diners photographing it.