London Restaurants

London Restaurant Reviews

London rivals Tokyo, New York, and Paris as one of the best places to eat in the world right now. The sheer diversity of restaurants here is unparalleled. Among the city's 6,700 restaurants are see-and-be-seen hot spots, casual ethnic eateries, innovative gastropubs, and hotel-based temples to haute cuisine.

To measure London's spectacular culinary rise, note that it was once a common dictum that the British ate to live, whereas the French lived to eat. The best of British food—local, seasonal, wild, and regional—is now all the rage and appears on more menus by the day. Waste not, want not "nose-to-tail" eating—where every scrap of meat is deemed fair game for the plate—has made a spectacular comeback at St. John in Clerkenwell, and fits perfectly with the age of austerity. Meanwhile, the haute cuisine scene powers serenely on. Clare Smyth sets the highest bar as head chef at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay; Marcus Wareing wows at the Berkeley; Brett Graham is cooking on gas at the Ledbury; and Hélène Darroze does it for the girls at the Connaught.

For cheap eats, don't miss the city's unofficial dish, the ubiquitous Indian curry. The quality of other international cuisines also has grown in recent years, with London becoming known for its Thai, Malaysian, Spanish, Turkish, and North African restaurants. With all of the choices, traditional British food, when you track it down, appears as just one more exotic cuisine in the pantheon.

Whatever eating experience you seek, London can likely deliver. From dirt-cheap street food to posh multicourse meals, the city has become a destination for gustatory adventurers. In this chapter, we've uncovered the best of the best. Dig in, and enjoy!

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