This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to London
It goes without saying: it was not an easy year for London’s hospitality industry — and yet, despite several notable closures, staffing shortages, price pressures and surging rents (to name just a few of the challenges faced), the capital’s restaurant scene continued to reinvent itself. This year yielded dozens of new restaurants, from Mountain, chef Tomos Parry’s new restaurant that rapidly became a cult favourite, to the London debut of an award-winning US chef. The progeny of a timeless venue was born, and we welcomed some long-awaited, special reopenings too. The spotlight was also rightfully shone on cuisines that are traditionally under-represented in gastronomy, and as gluttons we couldn’t be more grateful. It all made for a very delicious year indeed.
Mountain
16-18 Beak Street, London W1F 9RD
Apart from, possibly, The Devonshire, the launch of Mountain was the most insanely hyped and talked-about London opening of 2023. The amazing thing is that everything they promised was true. The food is by Welsh wunderkind Tomos Parry, with an innovative and eclectic menu, and the space is a contemporary interpretation of a sprawling, democratic brasserie. Downstairs, a more club-like vibe pertains (apparently the room is where Christine Keeler met John Profumo). Whichever level you choose to display yourself to an adoring public, Mountain is the place to do it. Website; Directions
— Tim Hayward, food writer, FT Weekend Magazine
Bouchon Racine
Upstairs, 66 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6BP
Bouchon Racine “returned” this year to an inauspicious-looking pub, the Three Compasses, near Farringdon station. Previously a beloved classically French bistro somewhere in west London, it was perhaps less familiar to those of us who are loath to travel four postcodes for dinner. The blackboard menu contains what I am assured are its greatest hits, but ignore the cult — it’s just everything you want to eat. I go as often as I can get a table (it’s tiny, and annoyingly popular, but calling and asking nicely if they’ve a cancellation is effective, thrillingly). A magical new place that feels old, with good wine, and just always feels like a treat. Website; Directions
— Janine Gibson, FT Weekend editor
The Waterman’s Arms
375 Lonsdale Road, London SW13 9PY
South-west Londoners would prefer The Waterman’s Arms be kept a local secret. But after word spread earlier this year that the riverside pub, which had been closed since last year, would reopen in September with an exciting new team behind it, it was impossible to keep a lid on it. Sam Andrews, former head chef of the Camberwell Arms and Soho’s Ducksoup, heads the kitchen, with Simon Walsh running front of house. In news that will shock no one, they’ve spruced up the old boozer and produced a winning new offering: an elevated seasonal menu, a rotating specials board with market fish and meat, fresh pasta and a cracking Sunday lunch. Start with a cocktail or a glass of blanc de blanc with oysters, watch the sun set over the Thames, and stay a while. Website; Directions
— Niki Blasina, deputy editor, FT Globetrotter
Rambutan
10 Stoney Street, London SE1 9AD
Despite a large seating area towards the back and in the basement of this Sri Lankan restaurant in Borough Market, the best option is surely a stool at the kitchen counter near the entrance. Here you get to soak up the drama of clay-stove and charcoal-grill cooking taking place at the aduppu, the traditional hearth modelled on Sri Lankan-village kitchens. It’s a great appetite-whetter for the food itself, which is fiery and full-bodied. Standouts include the charred red pineapple curry, black pork dry curry, chicken pongal and beautifully flaky rotis. Finish with a soft serve (as if you needed to be told). Website; Directions
— Ajesh Patalay, food writer, HTSI
Chishuru
3 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 8AX
I recently hosted a raucous roundtable with nine chefs. They spent much of the evening moaning about how the cost of living crisis had forced this year’s new openings to play it safe. With one exception, they agreed: Adejoké Bakare’s west African restaurant Chishuru in Fitzrovia. (Pedants might argue it’s actually a relaunch: until October last year Bakare was operating out of a small space in Brixton Market.) What I loved about eating here is that while the set menu is as elevated as you’d expect of a restaurant where reviewers have gushed over “modern techniques”, “innovation” and “fine dining credentials”, dishes are served with plantain, pickles and a huge bowl of rice for the table. You’ll leave having eaten some exquisite, fiddly dishes and you’ll be full. Website; Directions
— Harriet Fitch Little, food & drink editor, FT Weekend magazine
Saltine
11 Highbury Park, London N5 1QJ
When rumours started flying that Mat Appleton and Jess Blackstone, owners of the hugely popular Fink’s cafés, were going to open a restaurant on Highbury Park, the neighbourhood went into overdrive. Saltine is that rare thing: a classy, cool local restaurant, with wonderful food at reasonable prices. On my visit, I bumped into some fellow FT journalists on their third meal there. Against an industrial-chic backdrop, food takes centre stage. We washed down pillowy potato sourdough with shiso martinis, followed by excellent Cornish white crab, fennel and pomelo, and mains of sticky roast pork loin with celeriac and apple, and a generous fish stew. A quenelle of rich chocolate mousse was set off with the sour notes of candied kumquats. “Don’t write about it,” my colleague said. “Please!” Website; Directions
— Rebecca Rose, editor, FT Globetrotter
Lasdun
Upper Ground at the National Theatre, London SE1 9PX
Lasdun has good bones and a great pedigree. The latter is the involvement of Jon Rotheram, Tom Harris and John Ogier of The Marksman pub on Hackney Road. The bones are the Brutalist concrete walls of a restaurant space in the National Theatre on the South Bank, purpose-designed by Sir Denys Lasdun in the 1960s. It could not be a more felicitous combination. The food is classic modern British, with that austere aesthetic that derives from St John and its descendants. Nothing could be more appropriate to the surroundings. Nothing could feel more right in a national institution. I don’t just love Lasdun. As a Brit, I’m actually proud of it. Website; Directions
— Tim Hayward
Carlotta
77-78 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 5JX
By now, diners will be familiar with the Big Mamma playbook: maximalist interiors, the finest Italian ingredients and a devil-may-care attitude towards portion control. And, indeed, everything about Carlotta, the latest London restaurant from the fast-growing group, screams bountifulness. Carlotta styles itself as a homage to Italian tradition and la bella vita; a sort of love child between a Sicilian trattoria and a family-run ristorante in New Jersey. Sit on the ground floor, where family-wedding pictures from its founders and framed Gucci silks adorn the curtained walls. Unlike its other joints, pizza is off the menu — but the array of homemade pasta dishes more than makes up for it: paccheri all’arrabbiata, a retro penne alla vodka, and a truly decadent fettuccine with truffle butter, Parmesan and fresh truffles. Gluttons for pleasure can finish with the Carlotta’s Wedding Cake, served under a waterfall of vanilla cream and meringue. Website; Directions
— Harriet Agnew, FT asset management editor
Dear Jackie
20 Broadwick Street, London W1F 9NE
Deep beneath the Soho streets, Dear Jackie looks like a homage to both the neighbourhood’s one-time status as London’s Little Italy and its louche glamour; the Murano lights and red-tinged interiors just the right cocktail of glam and tarty. The walls are strewn with hand-painted plates and the diner’s plates are strewn with smart but not quite radical takes on Italian cuisine; not rustic, not small plates, and intense in flavour. The wine list is extensive and expensive, service is slick and the atmosphere is determinedly after-dark. Designer Martin Brudnizki has blended a little of Ripley, a bit of boho and a lot of Soho. The pastry chef plays a part too in the homage to Soho history. The desserts are superb. Website; Directions
— Edwin Heathcote, FT architecture critic
Bistro Freddie
74 Luke Street, Greater, London EC2A 4PY
From the team behind Spitalfields’ popular Crispin café and Bar Crispin in Soho comes this new Shoreditch bistro. It’s a little bit French, a little bit old-school British, and the whole place is like a great big hug. There are white tablecloths and candles dripping with wax, an extensive French wine list and a regularly changing handwritten menu created by chef Anna Søgaard (previously at the acclaimed Erst in Manchester). Kick off with egg mayonnaise with anchovy and parsley, the perfectly dressed radicchio, Stilton and pear salad or the unctuous house special of snail flatbread. Follow with a classic bavette with peppercorn sauce or share a magnificently light chicken and tarragon pie. Whatever you do, don’t miss the comforting desserts (think spiced apple sundae or rice pudding). The atmosphere is right for a romantic date or a night with friends. Website; Directions
— Tim Auld, executive editor, HTSI
Zapote
70 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QX
For all the splendid variety of London’s restaurant scene, finding good Mexican food has long been a struggle. Enter Zapote, where Mexican classics such as lamb barbacoa tacos and secreto al pastor skewers get the small-plate treatment, backdropped by Shoreditch’s industrial chic. The restaurant, which launched in February, is the passion project of restaurateur Tony Geary and chef Yahir Gonzalez, who hails from the Mexican city of Aguascalientes. The chargrilled scallop soaked in tomato-flavoured clamato juice and chilli-garnished short rib of beef are particularly delicious. There’s hope for Mexican-food lovers in the UK capital yet. Website; Directions
— Oliver Barnes, FT leisure industries correspondent
The Portrait
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE
It’s been a rather staid and institutional restaurant for a long time, but it’s always had a great “secret” outlook over the rooftops of Westminster and beyond. But a revamp of the gallery has put Irish chef Richard Corrigan at the helm and, honestly, it might be the smartest thing they’ve ever done. Corrigan is obsessed with the provenance of outstanding ingredients but also has encyclopedic food knowledge and ludic creativity. It has an eyrie-like feel. You can sit, eat, look out at the world and close off everything behind you. Ridiculously hospitable and peculiarly restful. Website; Directions
— Tim Hayward
Sushi Kanesaka
45 Park Lane, London W1K 1PN
It’s not the easiest place to find: up some stairs, round a corner and behind a discreet doorway at 45 Park Lane hotel. But it’s worth the effort. Sushi Kanesaka offers an omakase menu of mostly raw and cooked fish overseen by chef Shinji Kanesaka (of Tokyo’s two-Michelin-starred Sushi Kanesaka). There’s a nine-seat counter and adjacent four-seat private dining room, each with its own sushi chef. Plates from the daily-changing menu might include Cornish king crab, steamed abalone and Scottish lobster, with the option of wine, sake, beer and whisky pairings. By the end of this rarefied but thrilling two-hour experience, you’ll be conspiring to move to Japan. Website; Directions
— Ajesh Patalay
Llama Inn
1 Willow Street, London EC2A 4BH
Share-plates somewhere with an east London postcode, abundant foliage, millennial-style decor galore . . . but bear with me. Llama Inn comes from the James Beard Award-nominated chef Erik Ramirez, who has brought the modern Peruvian flavours of his beloved Brooklyn restaurant to a London rooftop with aplomb. Standout dishes: the pork chop, with its beautifully caramelised crust and punchy aji verde (a spicy green sauce), and the whole sea bass cooked in a banana leaf (the flesh is, pleasingly, deboned and returned to its skin seemingly unadulterated). The menu is designed entirely for sharing (which mostly works); cocktails are dangerous and, along with the low/no-alcohol drinks, well made; the short wine list covers all bases; and service is friendly and knowledgeable. Ideal for a slap-up supper with friends. Website; Directions
— Niki Blasina
Café Lapérouse
Courtyard, The Old War Office (OWO), 7 Horse Guards Avenue, London SW1A 2EX
The first overseas outpost of the Parisian institution, London’s Café Lapérouse could hardly be more different from its Left Bank inspiration. While the Paris version is an intimate mansion with discreet rooms (once, possibly, both salon and brothel), London’s is a glass pavilion in the courtyard of the bombastic former War Office building in Whitehall, now the Raffles Hotel. Clearly intended to contrast with the imperial Edwardian pomp, its sweeping, digital-organic interior adds a self-consciously contemporary punctuation. The continuity with Paris is culinary. This is pure, unadulterated French cuisine, rich with butter and expensive ingredients. One of a constellation of dining options in the new hotel, it resembles an architectural pin dropped at the centre: eat here. Website; Directions
— Edwin Heathcote
Claridge’s Restaurant
Claridge’s, Brook Street, London W1K 4HR
The restaurant formerly known as Davies and Brook, which shuttered in 2021 due to a disagreement between the hotel and then-executive chef Daniel Humm (he wanted to make the menu fully vegan), launched its elegant reincarnation in September. Now under the operation of the hotel, Claridge’s Restaurant is led by chef Coalin Finn, an alumnus of Davies and Brook, the Michel Roux Jr-overseen Inverlochy Castle and the three-Michelin-starred Sketch. Here, his dishes are classically inspired with a contemporary twist (and unashamedly expensive), highlighting luxury and local ingredients: crumpets with lashings of shaved black truffle, grilled (and almost alarmingly nude) native lobster, meltingly soft sea bass with saffron, and a whole turbot to share. The sophisticated redesign, which nods to the building’s Art Deco heritage with plenty of marble, brass, and pendant lighting, has granted most tables views of the kitchen. There are no bad seats in this house. Website; Directions
— Niki Blasina
Brooklands by Claude Bosi
The Peninsula, 1 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7HJ
Acclaimed chef Claude Bosi’s latest opening — on the eighth floor of the new Peninsula hotel on Hyde Park Corner — has one of the most dramatic views in London, sweeping past Buckingham Palace’s gardens and out to St Paul’s in the east. Inside it’s a visual feast too, if the early days of motor racing and supersonic airliners are your thing, with serial nods to Brooklands in Surrey, the world’s first banked racetrack and the birthplace of Concorde. The dishes, created by Bosi and his chef de cuisine Francesco Dibenedetto, celebrate British produce (Lake District lamb, Exmoor caviar, Nottinghamshire Stichelton, etc), look like works of Expressionist art and delight with their invention: highlights include Racan guinea fowl, sea beet and Scottish razor clams, and a pudding of Scottish cep, banana and crème fraîche. Choose to dine à la carte, or enjoy a five- or seven-course tasting menu (both with vegetarian options). Website; Directions
— Tim Auld
L’Atelier Robuchon
6 Clarges Street, London W1J 8AE
A particular joy in Paris is to sit at the counter of L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, watching in anticipation as dishes are prepared at an open kitchen. Now you can do this in Mayfair at the relaunch of its former Covent Garden premises, spearheaded by executive chef Andrea Cofini. In a world where “small plates” and “clean eating” have become ubiquitous, it is frankly a relief to settle into the burgundy banquette with three exquisite courses all to oneself: lashings of butter, no side dishes and not a sharing plate in sight. There are some familiar Robuchon classics on the menu: the world’s best purée de pomme de terre (a mouthwatering two-to-one potato-to-butter ratio), sea bream carpaccio and quail stuffed with foie gras. I defy you to shun the basket of warm bread. Website; Directions
— Harriet Agnew
64 Goodge Street
64 Goodge Street, London W1T 4NF
Some a new restaurant has the ability to elevate the tone of an entire street (see Honey & Co and Warren Street). Just a stroll away, Goodge Street is now on the culinary map, thanks to the new residents of No 64. The Woodhead Restaurant Group (The Quality Chop House, Portland, Clipstone) has brought a bit of upscale bistro brilliance to Fitzrovia, creating a classy yet cosy joint that brings a fresh twist to French classics. A small pyre of celeriac remoulade with slivers of Bayonne ham was followed by a giant raviolo filled with an explosion of fresh crab bisque. Seasonal mains included succulent partridge paired with saucisse blanche and parsley root, and a dish of girolles, celeriac, egg yolk and Mimolette assembled to impersonate a steak tartare. A French-style restaurant lives or dies by its salade verte — and 64 Goodge Street’s bitter-leaf salad, crunchily fresh with a silky dressing, is the gold standard. A special place for dates and important tête-à-têtes. Website; Directions
— Rebecca Rose
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