London Restaurants & Eating Out

Abu Zaad provides cheap eats of the finest type, exciting and delicious. Abu Zaad is an excellent Syrian restaurant in London. It’s cheap and the décor isn’t up to much but don’t let that fool you, there’s some skilled hands at work in the kitchen. The staff is a joy, very friendly and sympathetic about our lack of knowledge. Many of the items are standard Middle Eastern fare like mezze and grilled lamb, but very well cooked indeed.

At Chelsea Harbour’s Aquasia in Fulham Broadway you can have a Clasically Bling with, other ingredients, Louis Roederer Cristal champagne and gold leaf for a cool £150 – or an edible tuna martini or smoked duck vodka martini at gentler £8.50 a pop.

Archipelago is an international restaurant. Dishes are inspiring and adventurous, transporting dishes to the four corners of the globe. Here you can find crocodile steak served in vine leaves with yellow plum sauce, Vietnamese green chicken curry, a rabbit with mushrooms. Archipelago dares to be different from other restaurants in London.

For meat eaters this is quite simply a paradise. The Arkansas is a homely looking place with a few chairs and tables on the edge of Spitalfields Market, and all the meat served here is sourced, fresh and delicious, from the nearby traders. Everything is grilled, and served with a good choice of generous side orders like chips or cabbage in the best home-made style.

This is a traditional chain of wine bars and restaurants that carry a wide range of wines from around the world which can be found here in London, as well as some beers, spirits, tobacco and snacks. Located near Victoria station, this is a key place to enjoy your evenings.

From the stunning décor and mysterious setting to the comfortable glass-topped restaurant and attentive, stylish service, everything about Baltic is designed to create a special evening. Along with this special evening, you will love what London has to offer.

There is an air of calm pervades this relaxed and seamlessly-run French-Vietnamese restaurant, which also houses a couple of rather exotic and sumptuous upstairs bars. Located in a sprawling Soho townhouse, on the site of the former Cigar Club, all thoughts of old England are left far behind once you enter.

The Kiwi kitchen at Baroque in Ealing Broadway is London's dedicated Kiwi restaurant. Baroque has been designed to set new standards in style and drinking environments. Menu features mostly lamb, papua, kumara-sweet potato and even New Zealand chocolate fish. Fluffy little ricotta and pea fritters topped with smoked salmon, manuka honey vodka dressing, coconut and ginger scented green-lipped mussels, all this can be found at Baroque in Ealing, London.

This Indian restaurant in Green Park combines designer surroundings with culinary chic, offering a gastronomic journey that redefines Indian food. The service is attentive and friendly. The menu in Benares includes crisp lentil dumplings, aubergine steaks and lamb shanks, among lots of other dishes.

At Benihana's three London Restaurants you will experience the fine art of Teppanyaki cookery. Your famous red-capped chef will dazzle you with his juggling and knife skills as he cooks a variety of succulent meat, crisp vegetables and fresh seafood before your very eyes at your teppan table. Your chef offers a fun and exciting performance as well as cooking mouth-watering cuisine.

This is the flagship Conran Restaurant, opened in 1987 by Sir Terence Conran and Paul Hamlyn. Bibendum is one of London’s most polished and civilised restaurants, situated in a historic setting in South Kensington. The room is spacious, the décor chic and the menus are handwritten. Bibendum serves French cuisine, and you will find dishes such as confit duck legs and poached fillet of cod, accompanied by a varied and excellent wine list.

This restaurant offers a range of Mediterranean cuisine in the heart of London. This new Bistro offers an all plain Vanilla, open seven days a week. Bistro 1 has been recently selected London's top 100 restaurants by the Hardens guide.

Despite the name, this is a great vegetarian restaurant, set over two floors on trendy, scruffy Goldhawk Road. The place has a laid-back feel and the staff are friendly and efficient. The menu is quite limited but each item is special - the odd mixture of Japanese and European dishes are all cooked to perfection, light and yet filling.

It is one of the most remarkable rooms in London, an amazing, skylit restaurant and new bar which overlooks the fashionable King's Road below. The menu features Modern British dishes using the freshest seasonal produce, many from the wonderful foodstore below. Game and crustacea are specialities.

Bombay Palace is part of an international chain. This Indian restaurant located in Marble Arch in west London offers high quality North Indian food, specially known for its clay oven barbecued dishes. Its service is traditional but classy and the staff is friendly and knowledgeable. Dishes include chicken tikka, noorani kebab and changezi champen, there is also a wide choice of vegetarian dishes.

Bush Bar and Grill fancies itself as a cut above the other smart bars serving modern eastern cuisine food in Shepherd's Bush. This corner of West London is incredibly well served with cheap and medium eats, and Bush is that little bit pricier... but deserving of 'treat' status. The food really is very good and this combines with a buzzy ambiance to make you feel like a smart cookie for choosing to eat there.

Corfu is among the best of a host of Greek restaurants around Camden Area. Decor is sleek and simple, the delicious food feels light but fills, and there’s more than retsina to slake your thirst. A belly dancer helps with digestion on the weekend but is warned, on her second spin the buxom beauty takes partners.

A well run Mexican restaurant is somewhere to go if you find yourself in the middle of town and don’t mind paying a premium for a tasty fajita. The bar is particularly good, with one of the best Margaritas in town, and to be honest most of the groups in here have come to drink and order a few nibbles as an afterthought.

Sample the finest steak fries in the stunning surroundings of Chez Gerard’s Opera Terrace restaurant in the heart of London. Settle into a snug booth and enjoy stunning views over central London from the comfort of their glass-domed conservatory.

One of the best Indian restaurants in the country, and exclusively vegetarian! This place is a real treat for non meat-eaters, with a huge menu of spicy treats covering four pages. Chutneys is usually busy, and the efficient friendly staff definitely add to the experience. It is a top tip for vegetarians who feel exasperated by the limited choice in most Indian restaurants.

This Spanish restaurant is in a lovely corner of town in Russell Street, and serves authentic and delicious fare, cooked to consistently high standards. However, many visitors including ourselves have experienced abominable service.

Since its opening there has always been a certain buzz around this restaurant. Cinnamon Club has it all: a superb setting, the Grade II listed Old Westminster Library, now beautifully updated, a remarkable head chef, Vivek Singh, formerly head chef at India's most exclusive hotel, an equally remarkable consultant chef, the Michelin-starred Eric Chavot, spices and ingredients flown in directly from India, and a very buzzy bar. The changing menu draws from all parts of India and features starters like king prawns in saffron almond sauce, shrimp pickle and pilau rice, and mains like lucknow style braised lamb shank with saffron and rose water. Wines have been carefully matched to the menu, with sixteen labels available by the glass. It is a unique addition to London's restaurant scene.

Citrus brings the brilliance of Mediterranean colours and flavours to a terrific Piccadilly location, with leafy views of Green Park and desirable al fresco dining. Just next door to the Sheraton Park Lane, Citrus is done out in cheery shades of fresh yellows and greens, providing a relaxing and refreshing place to enjoy great food. It attracts lots of savvy tourists (it's on the pilgrimage between Knightsbridge and the West End) and local business folk. It has the classically -trained award-winning Andrew Bennett in the kitchen, turning out arresting flavours like starter of Fatayer of artichoke, goats cheese, pine nuts and yoghurt mint dressing. Then try the main of Poached corn fed chicken, ricotta gnocchi and girolles mushrooms. Finish with Rhubarb, saffron and honey tart, cardamom infused cream.

Only a 4-minute taxi ride from Victoria Station, this award-winning restaurant-bar-terrace overlooks 'Side Street', a uniquely-conceived work of art linking John Islip Street and Millbank. Very easy on the eye, the restaurant is a series of mini dining rooms with floor-to-ceiling glass windows. You pass through an arty avenue of columns from the pre-dinner drinks area to your table situated in a light and airy dining environment. It is a fine modern European cooking. Try a little peppered beef, rocket salad and Roquefort to start, followed by baked monkfish with a crayfish risotto from the a la carte menu. For dessert, treat yourself to the lemon and honey rum babas. With an extensive New and Old World wine list, dedicated vegetarian menu (Garden Menu) and a daily changing Kitchen Menu, City Café is a smart choice for informal, not to mention funky, fine dining to suit all diets. The health conscious will no doubt appreciate that low-in-fat and lighter calorie dishes are highlighted on the menus.

An excellent pub, with a menu of truly delightful English dishes. The Cumberland is the only decent pub within a mile radius in Kensington, a friendly place with nice staff and lots of regulars who come for the drink and the board games. The food is very good.

In many ways, Eclipse is the perfect neighbourhood bar, small and intimate without being cramped or claustrophobic. The menu's speciality burgers come in huge portions of everything from sesame-seeded tuna to chicken Caesar. But when all is said and done, this is a bar and you would come here for the drinks, which are excellent.

El Metro is a friendly, affordable place with a great atmosphere in Hammersmith, London. On weekend nights El Metro should be avoided - it becomes a packed nightclub filled with overflow from nearby School Disco. However, on any normal evening or afternoon this is a great place to drop in for a nice cold beer and some tasty mezze.

The well-pitted dartboard, the dark wood furniture, the classic white-on-black letter board displaying the drink list- that’s The Endurance’s sober interior. The nostalgia is updated with few key modern trappings that make for an admirably well-rounded drinking experience-good food and particularly good Sunday lunches, a decent range of wines, beers and premium spirits and a juke-box with a broad but respectable choice of tunes.

Hidden away in the basement of the London Guards Hotel is one of the best Russian places in town. The place has real charm and serves some excellent authentic dishes from Russia and Armenia. The service is friendly and helpful, and includes complimentary vodka.

An exciting and relatively new restaurant that has knocked the socks off the Shoreditch locals since it opened. They thought that their dodgy haircuts and heavy drinking defined sophistication but the North London Eyre brothers have taught them different.

The famous in London Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen located in Old Street area is a relaxed and friendly dining environment where you can eat with family, friends or simply on your own in one of the booths. The restaurant serves top quality seasonal products, prepared with care and passion. Fifteen restaurant aims to create the best modern Mediterranean dishes with an Italian influence.

The Georgetown is located next door to London Bridge Hotel. It offers a return to the gracious colonial days with varied and exquisite cuisines of the Malaysian Malays, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil Indians - all under one roof. Succulent dishes that will appeal to everyone's taste. Open for lunch from 12 noon to 2.30pm and for dinner from 5pm to 11pm every day.

This restaurant is open for lunch and dinner and seats 65 guests. It opened in 2001 at one of London’s most elegant locations, Claridge’s on Brook Street, Bond Street tube station. The restaurant received the Tatler 2002 Best Restaurant Award. The restaurant offers a wide selection of meals, ranging from roast fillet of pork, tian of crab, ravioli of tiger prawns to foie gras and fillet of brill.

Hakkasan is a cool Chinese restaurant in the Soho area, combining classic and contemporary style and colour. The Chinese lanterns providing the light give the restaurant a moonlit oriental feeling. Hakkasan is London’s finest Chinese restaurants and the only one ever awarded with a Michelin star. The highlights on the menu are the dim sum selection and the peppery steaks.

This Korean restaurant is packed at lunch time with crowds of students and office workers ordering excellent lunchtime specials. The nibbles that you get in lunch specials are include beautifully marinated fish and squid in spicy sauces and on the full menu there’s a range of stew and grilled meats. The service is fast and friendly, the venue is welcoming and the food is uplifting, one of the best places to enjoy food in the busy streets of London.

London is the original Hard Rock Cafe and opened its doors in 1971 and was Britain’s first taste of real American food. Popular with native Londoners and homesick Americans flaunt the best hamburgers play great music and displays rock and roll treasures. Also found there can be The Vault which is home to Jimmy Hendrix Flying V guitar. Come on down and see for yourself.

Located in the heart of London, The Hason Raja, named after a poet from Bangladesh, has the stock curry-house dishes, Chicken Tika Massala, Chicken Jalfrezzi and so on.

Hell as a huge bar with a very good kitchen, a welcome addition to this already well-served part of town. This international cuisine restaurant is a 5 minute walk away from Old Street tube station.

One of the most interesting new Italian, reasonably priced, given its rarefied Brompton Cross environs. It’s located in South Kensington Area. Lately Iniga has launched an antipasti menu available either in the bar as an accompaniment to sam deft cocktails, or in the restaurant itself. It’s an addictive way to snack or enjoy lots of different tastes for a full meal: the menu features deep-fried pane carasau (Sicilian bread) with creamed pecorino, deep-fried tiger prawns with chilli jam, or simpler choices such as crostini with tomato oregano and bottarga.

J Sheekey’s restaurant located in central London in St Martin’s Court, that’s an example of traditional fish and seafood restaurant. First opened in 1896 and has grown in size since. J Sheekey’s specialty is fish, but there are also vegetarian and vegan choices available. Due to the freshness and ingredients available, the restaurant has no set menu. However, examples of the menu could be fillet of cod, monkfish and J Sheekey’s own fish pie.

Katana has all the right ingredients for success. An amazing location, highly trained chefs and slick décor combine to create an oasis of elegance amid the West End’s tacky chains and scuzzy sandwich bars. Set above the stylish International Bar it is ideal for a refreshing power lunch or cosy dinner à deux.

The rather wonderful, wallet friendly Leon is, unsurprisingly, expanding. They have just open in Ludgate Circus. Leon serves everything from big breakfasts, bacon sarnies and organic porridge to grilled free-range chicken aioli, salads based on ‘superfoods’- bursting with broccoli, alfalfa, sprouts and seeds- to virtually carb-free chocolate brownies. All this and a bar licence, too.

Locanda Locatelli, located close to Marble Arch, is one of the best Italian restaurants in London and has won several praises from its clients since opening in 2002. The service is bright and friendly with an attention to detail. The menu includes classic Italian dishes with all food sourced from Italy, all pastas and marinades freshly made on the premises and the food cooked simply but with a loving style.

This charming and ever-popular restaurant on the Old Brompton Road is a great choice for lunch. The fish-based set menu at lunch is under ten pounds, and in general Lou Pescadou’s is incredibly good value. The freshly sourced fish dishes are cooked with style, the service is friendly and efficient and the place has a cosy, relaxed atmosphere. Order one of the simpler recipes to ensure you can appreciate the excellence of the fish. A thoroughly satisfying place, well loved by locals.

This is a charming restaurant that will embrace you in its warmth. It is nicely located off Kensington Church Street in Kensington. The large wooden tables promise rich, solid tastes. The menu is traditional, not flash but well thought out and suited to the mission of dining well. The restaurant offers traditional British food such as potted shrimps, kedgeree, fish pie, roast duck, rack of lamb, sirloin steaks. There are also old favourites, as the corn on the cob with nutmeg mayonnaise.

This busy, inexpensive restaurant in Bayswater is the place to go for a seafood blow-out. The house specialty is lobster, clams, squid, scallops, sea bass – it’s all available cooked to perfection in a light style that perfectly brings out the flavours. The cooking is incredibly assured and this place is a sure bet for a great meal. For one of the tastiest mouthfuls in London, try the baby squid tempura.

The best Caribbean in town, the Mango Rooms service is friendly and personal. Dishes are adventurous than most jerk and curry menus, with some light dishes and a few with clear European leanings. Chefs are incredibly enthusiastic about food and experiment in all kinds of satisfactory ways. The Mango Room is a great place to take a date, with real style and atmosphere, and a menu brimming with exotic and delicious options.

There's something about the picky share-and-share-alike nature of Lebanese food that makes you not want the night to end. It's all the overflowing wine glasses, top-notch tapas and high-pitched revealing chat that do it. The good thing about this place is that it’s open till 1.30am, so you can carry on past the witching hour without getting abuse from the waiters. Located on the Edgware Road, it’s only a few minutes away from the West End and the busy shopping street of Oxford Street.

This Japanese restaurant situated at the top of the Metropolitan Hotel in Park Lane, London offers a wide choice of dishes, each one with an intense and great expression of flavours and colours. The restaurant offers Japanese classics such as beef teriyaki and sushi platters, together with more innovative dishes. Eating at Nobu is a pleasurable experience, not only because of the good food but also due to the friendly staff.

This grill restaurant in Shepherd's Bush is dedicated to the English tradition of meat eating. There are a few menu choices for fish eaters and some salads, but the emphasis is definitely on delicious meat, all carefully sourced and raised to produce the best cuts.

This small but perfectly formed North African restaurant is a real treat, this can be found on a busy corner of Baker Street, near the west end of London. The food is lovingly prepared from the best ingredients and centres around Moroccan specialities like Chicken Tajine and couscous dishes. This place stands out among North African restaurants, with a totally authentic, delicate and delicious menu.

It is the hottest spot in the City because the grand opening of one of the latest Conran restaurant, The British menu of simply cooked food, carefully chosen from fisheries, market growers cattle farmers and dairies. Paternoster Chop House has the very best ingredients in the world in this country and aims to demonstrate with its delicious food on of Britain's best kept secrets.