Best Restaurants in London
With the hospitality industry opening its doors next week for outside dining and indoor dining following on May 17th, here’s my best restaurants in London round up.
From feeling flush to mid-range and cheap eats, these are my best restaurant in London that will cater for all tastes and budgets.
Best Restaurants in London if You’re Feeling Flush
I love an intimate dining experience, and this is my favourite restaurant in London. It's only 16 covers and you can sit anywhere in the restaurant throughout your dining experience; including eating with the chefs on the pass and have a nosey in the cellar with wine.
Mãos is a restaurant dedicated to culinary freedom, exploration and shared experience – ANDDD the food is bloody amazing!
Born in Yokohama, Japan, Endo-san is a third generation sushi master and this is the best place I have EVER had sushi outside of Japan. Chef Endo-san imports the water used to cook the rice from Japan – and the food and sake is to die for.
He makes a huge tuna maki roll for the full restaurant – the whole roll is the diameter of your first. They’re massive and taste unreal.
This place is small and intimate with only 16 covers and is a must visit.
I grew up not understanding what Chinese food was, but A Wong completely changed this view. This is the restaurant that introduced me to what Chinese food is truly like.
My personal faves have to be the truffle bao and the duck egg yolk bao, the mapo tofu and the xo corn.
Hat’s off to Andrew, too, chef patron, who also recently gained a second Michelin star.
Best Restaurants in London That Are Mid Range In Price
You all know I love a bao bun. It’s my FAVE food but I did an AWFUL job on MasterChef: The Professionals and served up a stodgy steamed bao bun to the UK’s top chefs.
You’ll not find no such things as a soggy, stodgy bun at Bao.
The original BAO (there are a few now) is located in the heart of Soho on Lexington Street. Inspired by the Street Food Markets and Xiao Chi Houses in Taiwan, BAO Soho serves a selection of BAOs and small eats. BAO Soho has been awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand for four consecutive years. This place is da bomb.
Chef Selin Kiazim is sick – and this is where I first had Manti Turkish dumplings which were insane.
Selin is of Turkish Cypriot heritage and the Turkish restaurant, in Shoreditch, features dishes that reflect this. In Turkish an ‘oklava’ is a traditional rolling pin which is used to make breads, pastries and pides – and all can be found on the modern menu.
The open kitchen acts as a theatre stage where guests can sit around the bar and spectate as the chefs use a stone oven and real charcoal grill, known as a mangal in Turkish to prepare their meals.
I first had Din Tai Fung at the original restaurant in Taiwan.
The world-renowned Chinese restaurant can now be found across the globe, as well as in Covent Garden.
It specialises in soup dumplings and noodles as well as its Xiao Long Bao, which are incredible.
Expect attention to details and flavours that will make you happy.
This restaurant is naughty, bold and for sure big flavour. Everything is cooked over fire.
A personal favourite of mine is the roasted bone marrow flatbread, this is indulgence!
The black axe mangal cookbook is my favourite cookbook.
Best Restaurants in London Offerings Cheap Eats
Commitment to the burger is king here – and the Aubrey Allen Patty is the BEST burger I have had in London.
Founder Zan Kaufman was working as a corporate lawyer in New York City when he first tried ‘the best burger he has eaten’ at Zaitzeff, an East Village burger joint. He became obsessed with burgers; the ingredients, how to make them and when moved to London in 2012, he bought a van, converted it and started grilling up burgers for hungry Londoners.
At his restaurant, he only uses ‘rare-breed, grass-fed beef from small farms in the UK. It's dry aged and cooked when you order, giving it an intense, beefy flavour. The finishing touches: a sesame seed bun, scratch burger sauce and good old American cheese.’ And this place is BANGIN’.
My favourite pizza in London also it's local to Fulham so we get it weekly #guilty
Angelo and Pasquale, the two owners, after working for many years in several restaurants and pizzerias all over London, decided to start up their own place – am I am soooooo glad they did.
The pizza is exactly the same as the pizza you can eat on the streets of Naples, using the same ingredients and adopting the same cooking method.
Beef bun, pig bun, lamb bun, chicken bun. Hell, there’s even a custard bun. The bao buns here are fun, cute and quirky shaped and they're bloody tasty.
You can even order frozen buns which can be delivered nation wide. DO IT.
Silk Road
Northern Chinese food is one of my favourite foods. The lamb kebabs here are the best, but expect to queue up to get a table. It's definitely worth the wait. This place also does Chinese dumplings, noodles and stews.