Leonie Cooper

Sometimes, tinnies in the park, a rowdy beer garden or one of London’s perenially over-subscribed rooftop bars just isn’t going to cut it when it comes to spring and summer drinking. For a more classy way to socialise when the sun comes out, what you want is a table on one of London’s drinking terraces or chic bars. Finding great sunshiney spots in London can be a bit of a challenge, so read on to discover some of our favourite locations for alfresco drinking done the right way. RECOMMENDED: The very best of outdoor London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.  

It won't come as any great surprise to you that Londoners like beer. You can't walk past a railway arch without spotting the tell-tale shiny tanks of a microbrewery, and it would be foolish not to enjoy them. So this weekend, why not enjoy your pint mere yards away from where it was made in one of London’s best craft beer taprooms? Here's our list of the most exciting spots to drink on draught, including craft beer behemoths, rough and ready spaces attached to burgeoning London breweries and legendary locations on the Bermondsey Beer Mile and the east London equivalent, the Blackhorse Beer Mile by Blackhorse Lane. Check opening times before you go, as some spots are only open at the weekend.  RECOMMENDED: The 50 best pubs in London. 

Pasta and pizza are way more than just fast-food comfort carbs at these exceptional London restaurants, which excel in showcasing properly good Italian cuisine. The basics – a creamy carbonara, say, or a simple margherita – are all present and correct, but the capital’s repertoire extends to stylish antipasti, crusty sourdough pizzas, richly sauced pasta and beyond. You can also find finely crafted specialities drawn from the traditional trattorias of the rustic south and fashion-conscious north of the country at London’s best Italian restaurants. From super-spenny spots like The River Café and Luca, to cheaper but just as tasty neighbourhood joints like Artusi, Marcella and the legendary Ciao Bella – as well as everyone’s fave one-stop pasta shop Padella – London’s Italian dining scene is irreproachable. RECOMMENDED: The 50 Best London Restaurants.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Television used to be considered one of the lowest forms of entertainment. It was derided as ‘the idiot box’ and ‘the boob tube’. Edward R Murrow referred to it as ‘the opiate of the masses’, and the phrase ‘I don’t even own a TV’ was considered a major bragging right. And for a long time, it was hard to say that television’s poor reputation was undeserved.  A lot has changed. Television is now the dominant medium in basically all of entertainment, to the degree that the only thing separating movies and TV is the screen you’re watching on. Now, if you don’t own a television – or a laptop or a tablet or a phone – you’re basically left out of the cultural conversation completely. The shift in perception is widely credited to the arrival of The Sopranos, which completely reinvented the notion of what a TV show could do. But that doesn’t mean everything that came before is primordial slurry. While this list of the greatest TV shows ever is dominated by 21st century programs, there are many shows that deserve credit for laying the groundwork for this current golden age. Chiseling them down to a neat top 100 is difficult, so we elected to leave off talk shows, variety shows and sketch comedy, focusing on scripted, episodic dramas, comedies and miniseries.  So don’t touch that dial – these are the greatest TV shows of all-time. Recommended: 📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2023 (so far)🔥The 100 greatest movies of all-time🎬The most bingeable series on Netflix

Islington is no slouch when it comes to dining out. From Highbury and the fringes of Holloway Road to Angel via Canonbury, the gastro delights on offer in this north London neighbourhood almost put the best restuarants of Soho to shame. Whether it's heavy metal kebab houses you're after, perfect Italian pasta joints, sexy small plates or mouth-numbing platters of Chinese mapo tofu, you'll find plenty to satisfy you in Islington. Ready for your restaurant crawl of Upper Street and beyond? Let's get stuck in.  Going further afield? These are the 50 Best Restaurants in London.   

There’s honestly nowhere in the world like Soho. The haunt of poets, gangsters, trendsetters and many a louche genius, the seedy, sleazy and impossibly romantic heart of London’s West End is also home to loads of great independent shops, cafés, bars and, most importantly, restaurants. Its culinary diversity has been fuelled by centuries of immigration and cultural cross-pollination. From rustic French fare to Mediterranean small plates and tasty tapas, here is Time Out’s list of our absolute favourite Soho restaurants. Whether you fancy a slap-up meal or are just in the market for a mid-town pitstop, we have you covered. RECOMMENDED: Here are London’s best restaurants. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

April 2024: Clutch your cutlery tightly and rearrange that napkin, because it’s that time of year again: the sacred moment when we reveal our brand new list of London’s very best restaurants for 2024.  Yes, after feasting and eating all across the capital for the past 12 months, we’ve got ourselves a fresh Top 50 list of the very best restaurants in London. Even more excitingly, there’s a brand new Number One; the majestic Mambow in Clapton, east London.  Mambow only opened at its current site at the end of last year, but before that chef and founder Abby Lee was honing her immaculate Malaysian flavours at Peckham food hall Market. It was obvious that her talent would quickly outshine such a set-up, and Abby’s debut bricks-and-mortar restaurant became one of east London’s most in-demand eateries in a matter of weeks. Thanks to her fiery sambal, crispy five spice lor bak, kam heong mussels, standout salads (think grilled banana blossom with spiced fried peanuts) formidable charcoal-grilled sardines with pomelo and fried shallots, and her signature sarawak black pepper curry chicken, Mambow is London’s Best Restaurant 2024.  As well as the new – special nods of the chef’s hat go to Mystic Burek, Sune and Forza Wine at National Theatre, which all also opened last year – our 2024 Top 50 also celebrates London’s old school classics. The new Top 50 includes Victorian icon Quality Chop House, 1980s time warp Oslo Court, and swinging 1960s spot Tiroler Hut, as well the original Smith

The humble brunch is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of the modern age. Breakfast is too early to really get stuck into, while eating eggs and downing buckets of coffee at lunchtime seems odd. Brunch, then, is the one true morning-ish meal, especially if it incorporates pancakes, bacon and those aforementioned eggs – or a totally vegan take on proceedings like at LD's at The Black Heart in Camden. London is particularly well stocked with places to indulge in the famous breakfast/lunch hybrid. Let us guide you to the best restaurants in town for a fabulous brunch in our city, from a traditional full english to innovative twists on the majestic meal, such as a bacon bao brunch. And it’s not just a weekend treat; some of these spots serve brunch every single day.  RECOMMENDED: Like unlimited fizz with your fry-up? Here are the best bottomless brunches in London.  Want to brunch for less? Check out the awesome selection at Time Out Offers. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Every week, a frankly stupid amount of brilliant new restaurants, cafés and street food joints arrive in London. Which makes whittling down a shortlist of the best newbies a serious challenge. But here it is. The 20 very best new restaurants in the capital, ranked.  Go forth and eat, featuring everything from hyped new Mayfair spot The Dover to French bistro bangers at Josephine in Fulham, Med sharing dishes at Morchella in Clerkenwell and Akara, a Michelin star restaurant offshoot in Borough. We also show some love for the sublime small plates at Hackney's Sune, modern Malaysian cuisine at Mambow in Clapton, tasty sausage at Bistro Freddie in Spitalfields, Italian-ish snacks at Forza Wine on the South Bank and Filipino sharing feasts at Donia in Soho.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London.

Looking for the best restaurants in Mayfair? You're spoilt for choice in this extremely swanky central London neighbourhood. There are enough Michelin stars to feed a village here and prices are fittingly fierce. But if you're after some indulgence or looking for the perfect celebration spot, then this is where you should be taking your hard-earned cash, with hotel joints such as The Ritz and Claridge's in-house eateries some of the area's finest. A tip: look out for set lunch menus, which many Mayfair fine-dining restaurants such as Pavyllon and Murano offer, and make the whole experience that much more affordable. Go forth and feast: these are Mayfair's most impressive food spots. Recommended: The best restaurants in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

London is full of perfect pizza. The finest of fast foods, this delicious staple has been elevated far beyond its humble roots by great Italian restaurants in London, pop-ups, street food vendors and pub residencies, and we know just where to find these world-class wonders. Whether it’s delivered in a cardboard box or served in a swish restaurant, excellent pizza is hard to beat. Browse our list of the best pizza parlours in town and try not to drool on your screen. Recent additions to the list include Alley Cats' crispy New York style slices in Marylebone, Chicago deep dish at Soho's Japes and thick, crispy square pies from Detroit Pizza in Spitalfields and Islington. RECOMMENDED: The finest fish and chips in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Sunday lunch. There’s nothing quite like it. An elemental meal, one that Londoners take incredibly seriously. Debates about what constitutes the ‘perfect’ Sunday roast have been known to last for hours. There is no shortage of top roasts in London. We’ve rounded up the city’s best Sunday meals from a host of homely pubs and restaurants all around town. From snug neighbourhood staples to more bijou gastropubs and plently of vegetarian options too, we’ve got something for every taste (if that taste is for comforting mounds of roast meat, lashings of gravy and carbs for days).  A lot of these places get quite busy, by the way. So you’re always advised to book ahead to avoid disappointment.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Despite only opening at the end of last year, The Dover already seems comfortably steeped in its own mythology. Usually it takes a place decades to gain such an alluring cache, but here’s The Dover at 6pm on a Thursday, heaving with heritage rock’n’roll blondes discussing trips to Marrakech and the air that Bianca Jagger might slink in at any moment on the back of a white pony. They even have their own slogan; ‘The Dover, a good place to be since 2023’, which is embossed on their chicer than chic martini mats (to call them beer mats would be deeply inappropriate).  Usually the person behind the opening of a restaurant is less important than who happens to be doing all the hard work in the kitchen, but the fact that The Dover comes from the mind of Martin Kuczmarski – former Chief Operating Office of the Soho House group – actually means a great deal. Here is a man who knows how to craft accessible exclusivity and make everyone who’s outside gagging to be inside.  This is not your average nonna’s kitchen but rather a shimmering space to see and be seen Rather than an Italian Italian, The Dover is a self-styled ‘New York Italian’ that’s more Nolita than Naples. This is not your average nonna’s kitchen but rather a shimmering space to see and be seen, with gorgeous walnut wood walls that seem lifted directly from a 1930s cruise liner and a row of discreet corner booths that line the way from the bar to the raised dining room at the back of the restaurant. The little touches are

The concept of a ‘wood-fired’ London restaurant might not elicit the same reverential ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ as it did a decade ago; such an elemental technique is now commonplace, with the ash-licked likes of Lagom, Acme Fire Club and Eksted at the Yard all dishing up scran straight from the coals. Not to mention Dalston and Green Lanes’ many Turkish mangals, where flames and meat have long lived in scorchingly close quarters.  We can’t help but think it’s for the best. Humping a massive hunk of wood into the kitchen no longer means a restaurant is instantly seen as host to a sort of edible Tough Mudder, where the bigger the fire – and the spicier and meatier the menu – the more boorishly blokey the clientele. Wood-firing the Mayfair way is methodical and calculated, with just a dash of dark ages energy Humo (‘smoke’ in Spanish) received its first Michelin star at the start of 2024, a little over a year since Colombian-born chef Miller Prada – who was sous chef at Endo at the Rotunda – opened the restaurant down a Mayfair backstreet. Of course, Mayfair backstreets are no less grand than Mayfair mainstreets, but any protege of sushi god Endo Kazutoshi is unlikely to set up shop in the far-flung likes of Tooting or Tottenham just yet.  Wood-firing the Mayfair way is methodical and calculated, with just a dash of dark ages energy; if you’re sitting at the counter seats you’ll be confronted head on with fish smoking over the four-metre-long grill, bringing back vivid memories of sch

Sometimes, almost everything about a restaurant works. Josephine is that restaurant – so pitch perfect and so on brand that it could be a movie set – preferably one with Catherine Deneuve flitting about while sweetly sloshing vino. Josephine is pretty and cute, but maintains an edge of robust Gallic urgency; all is in its right place, from the starched white tablecloths to the burgundy leather banquettes, elegant taper candles and walls plastered with far too many Toulouse Lautrec-esque prints. If Disneyland were to craft a ‘wine-sodden French bistro’ this would be the blueprint. If we could change anything? We’d simply get it the hell out of Fulham. We’re only a few months into 2024, but Josephine’s owner and founder Claude Bosi is already having quite the year. Brooklands, the storied chef’s very pricey and peculiarly Concorde-themed restaurant at the equally pricey Peninsula hotel – was just awarded two Michelin stars, despite only opening at the end of 2023. Josephine then, is his second new restaurant in six months, and you’ll find it 15-minutes walk away from Bibendum, his other two-star Michelin restaurant. There’s also the lavish Socca which he opened a year ago in Mayfair. When, we ask, does the man sit down? Flavours are as full-bodied as a ruddy-faced Serge Gainsbourg after a Syrah binge In comparison to the others, Bossi’s latest opening is low key. It’s a small – perhaps too small, going by the way I have to shift our tightly packed two-top table and almost wipe

There was a time when the Hollywood set couldn’t stop opening restaurants. From Dino’s Lodge in Hollywood (Dean Martin) to Langan’s in Mayfair (Michael Caine) and with an honourable mention for Mickey Rooney’s apocryphal Potato Fantasy, there was a hallowed, edible era in which getting kitchen with adjoining banquette seating was second only to scoring an Academy Award. Danny Trejo – everyone’s favourite B-movie mercenary/psychopath/assassin – picked up the baton in his native Los Angeles in 2016, when he opened the first branch of Trejo’s Tacos. Wildly successful, even Anthony Bourdain was a fan, it was followed by a handful of outlets across the city, including a donut shop and larger cantina space. Almost a decade later – and with Danny about to turn the grand old age of 80 – his concept has taken a leap across the pond, settling on Portobello Road.  Trejo’s Hollywood heritage is played upon lightly here. Sure, his beaming face decorates the hoarding and he gleefully brandishes a machete in a window-etching, but inside we’re in much more trad Mexican restaurant territory, complete with a mini cactus garden and southwestern scatter cushions.  At Trejo’s Tacos beverages are just as, if not more, important than the food. Despite the fact that Trejo himself has been sober for over half a century, this is a drinking spot, with a long tequila-stacked bar everyone has to pass before getting to the restaurant proper. The first page of the menu is dedicated as much to cocktails as

Situated in the grounds of the sprawling Coworth Park – famous for being the hotel where Prince Harry spent the night before his wedding, while Megan bedded down at Cliveden House –  this spa is almost as glowing as you ought to be when you leave. Tucked into a grassy hillock with lime hemp walls and herbs growing on its ‘living’ roof, inside you’ll find a peaceful, blue-lit swimming pool and steam room as well as eight treatment rooms where friendly professionals will pamper the hell out of you. Make that city grub a goner with a HydraFacial treatment, a strangely relaxing non-invasive skin resurfacing and rejuvenating treatment which sucks all the dirt out of your face and makes your skin sparkle. Double down on the self-care by doing dinner at Woven by Adam Smith, the hotel’s Michelin-star restaurant. 

Some restaurants are born lucky. Before the doors of Morchella even opened, it already had north London’s nibbling classes on side, thanks to links with Newington Green’s chi-chi neighbourhood eatery, Perilla. If you like Perilla (and many people do), it’s pretty much a given that you’ll be tripping over youself to visit Morchella, which marks the second outing for Perilla’s chef-owner Ben Marks and restaurateur Matthew Emmerson, who’ve teamed up with chef Daniel Fletcher for this astute, three-pronged attack on Clerkenwell’s dining scene.  Morchella is the proper name of the morel mushroom – the one with honeycomb-style fungal flesh so densely packed that if you stare at it long enough the logo for a Norwegian black metal band magically appears – and the space itself is broadly similar to Perilla. Both occupy prime corner real estate in desirable locales, but Morchella ramps up the aesthetic to XXL proportions. A divine blood orange portokalopita came with salty slithers of black olive tucked away inside the syrup spattered cake. Go big or go home seems to have been the designer’s brief. Situated in a former Victorian bank, there are sky-high ceilings, marble columns and large canvases of unobtrusive art, while huge street-facing windows put Morchella out of the running for both illicit affairs and preliminary job interviews with MI6. There’s a muted, olive-green, coat-style chore uniform for the staff (you can take the restaurant out of N16, but you can’t take the N16 out

To enter the kingdom of Juno, you must weave your way through what must be one of London’s most nerve-fraying assault courses.  First, traverse Notting Hill’s rom-com worthy backstreets without falling in love with a floppy haired gent from a posh bookshop and do your best to find Los Mochis. Granted, this bit isn’t too hard. Once you’ve spotted this elaborate garish Japanese-meets-Mexican restaurant, you must try and not be overly distracted by Dia De Los Muertos shrines to Yoda from Star Wars, humongous cartoon robot murals and the general feeling that Mr Brainwash might jump out at any moment brandishing a can of neon pink paint and imploring that you do a mezcal shot with him. This skilled duo delivered banger after banger of perfectly formed fish dishes, like back-to-back DJs at south London rave spot Venue MOT If you’ve managed to get this far then bliss – and a more muted colour palette – awaits. Make it to the back end of Los Mochis’ upstairs dining room and you’ll be guided into Juno; a supremely chill wood-panelled space that fits just six diners, making it either the smallest omakase counter in the UK or a strangely seductive panic room. Once inside we were greeted by Los Mochis’ congenial exec chef Leonard Tanyag (formerly of Zuma), and head sushi chef Han (Nobu, Roka). For the next two hours, this skilled duo delivered banger after banger of perfectly formed fish dishes, like back-to-back DJs at the culinary equivalent of intimate south London rave spot Venue M

It may be trite to say “you know where you are with a Four Seasons hotel,” but hey, you know where you are with a Four Seasons hotel. So sturdy is the luxury chain’s reputation, it’s unsurprising to find that their second Beverly Hills-area location offers comfort, style and—curveball—one of the best pizzas in Los Angeles. From a lobby seemingly made of nothing but marble, to the great big installations of fresh, fragrant lilies and a swanky, apothecary-style House of Krigler perfume outlet, entering the hotel is akin to walking into a tech billionaire’s wedding party. And, considering the number of high-end events hosted here, both during awards season and beyond, you might just accidentally find yourself rubbing shoulders with the mother of the bride. Not to be confused with the other nearby Four Seasons spot, the 1920s-built Beverly Wilshire, this hotel has been around since 1987, and not too long ago benefitted from a multimillion-dollar renovation. Taking up an entire city block, it’s a sizable affair, with 285 guest rooms, as well as two restaurants, two bars and a fourth-floor outdoor pool, as well as a landscaped drive where autograph hunters mill just outside, awaiting various sports, music and film stars who frequent the hotel. Aligning with Four Seasons hotels across the world, there’s lots of black and gold and gray, and there’s a comfort in knowing what you’re getting. Tasteful, monochrome prints of 1950s fashion shoots line the walls and the only thing that coul

Don’t be distracted by Kingly Court’s nu-Soho sheen. Scale this panopticon of a food court and you’ll discover a solid stack of proper restaurants (namely Imad’s Syrian Kitchen and Asma Khan’s Darjeeling Express) and now, the instant hit that is Donia.  A small ‘modern Filipino’ restaurant, it promises to recreate the sweet and sour flavours of the Philippines using the best British produce, and very much delivers. Donia – the Tagalog word used to (nicely) address someone as ‘madam’ – comes from the same group behind Kentish Town’s culty Panadera Bakery (they of the perfect pandesal loaf sandos with stratas like a geologist’s daydream), Bintang and Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream. Mamason’s Chinatown parlour aside, Donia marks their first central London dip into finer dining, and sits on the very top floor of Kingly Court in a space reminiscent of an upmarket country pub, complete with putty-coloured walls, high-beamed ceilings and impressive paper artwork that must be a nightmare to dust.  A cyclopsian eyeball of sauce gazed up at us from its crispy, sugared shell, well aware of its fate; total, unapologetic demolishment The menu is brief, but masterful. Chicken offal skewers, at £3.50 each, offered not just serious value for money – a string of six earthy hearts scattered with peanut dust and doused in lime – but opened the gateway to an evening of rousing gastronomy.  Next, a trio of prawn and pork dumplings with white crab, bobbing in a decadent brown butter and lime sauce, the

London loves a bakery. From Greggs to Gail’s, we are a city enraptured by wodges of flaky pastry, bouncy little buns and heroically laminated croissants. But high street staples aside, what we truly lose our collective minds over are the bakeries that seem as though they’ve been lifted directly from a Richard Curtis romcom. From the cobblestone Bloomsbury alley you have to walk down to discover it, to the artsy wooden butchers tables inside, an awning of Farrow & Ball’s bluest blue and a queue of good-looking customers with unnecessary hats stretching out of the door until closing time, Fortitude is a film set made flesh. Will you meet-cute the love of your life here? Perhaps not, but you will find yourself close and personal with some of the dreamiest looking bakes this side of Mary Berry’s personal larder. Sizable bear claws, infused with almond and orange flower water, come with a Scarface-worthy dusting of icing sugar on top With baker Dee Rettali heading up the kitchen since Fortitude opened in 2018, this pastry paradise sets itself apart from the rest of London’s craft bakeries thanks to Dee’s obsession with the flavour of Marrakech and her regular trips to Morocco for edible ideas. She’s not shy about sharing such inspiration in her refreshingly alt. bakes. On our visit, her way with yeasted innovation is there in the merguez roll with chunky chermoula and parmesan, the sausages poking suggestively from the croissant-ated hunk. For afters, why not chow down on sizable

If you cannot stand the mercilessly twee stylings of Wes Anderson, but would nevertheless occasionally like to immerse yourself into the kind of pastel-paletted world where Tilda Swinton pops up out of nowhere to offer you a small digestivo while French piano jazz plays, then Leo’s is the ideal place to while away the hours (NB: a Tilda Swinton is not confirmed with every visit). On the trim, gentrified stretch of Clapton that is Chatsworth Road, and inside what was once Jim’s Cafe (a restored 1960s greasy spoon turned US-style diner that closed post pandemic),  Leo’s retains shades of classic caff-ery. Like E Pellicci’s as stage managed by Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud, it has wood-panelled walls, masterfully tiled flooring and mammoth 1960s posters for Italian vermouth brands everywhere you gaze. We may very well have visited directly from the Hackney Wick community sauna, all pink of face and ruddy of thigh, but we felt as sophisticated as Sophia Loren having a lunchtime cortado as we sit and sip coffee from vintage Duralex cups and saucers.  Leo’s retains shades of classic caff-ery, Like E Pellicci’s as stage managed by Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud In the evening, Leo’s transforms into a Hackney restaurant like many others – cue lovely helpings of meaty, Sardinian-inspired pasta, or sardines fired on the wood hearth in the dining room at the back by chef Giuseppe Belvedere, who formerly plied his trade at the dearly departed Bright. But it’s in the morning and over lunch

Glitz, glamour and the feminine urge to dangle a mother of pearl cigarette holder from your lips while simultaneously making smalltalk with the ghost of Josephine Baker; Soho’s magnificent Brasserie Zédel might just have it all.  One might assume the restaurant was created as an art deco Mr Fogg’s or a cynically thrown-together faux-flapper playground with MDF balustrades. Yet when it comes to authenticity, Zédel is impressively legit. It’s only gone under the Brasserie Zédel name since 2012, but this vast, subterranean space was once the bowels of The Regent Palace Hotel, built in 1915 and rejigged in the early 1930s to give it some extra Jazz Age oomph. From the two original bars; Chez Cup (now Zedel’s cabaret room Crazy Coqs) and Dick’s Bar (now the birch-clad Bar Américain), to the sweeping, cruise-liner-esque dining room, this epic pleasure palace has been tucked under the streets of Soho for over a century. Following a spell as the celeb-y Atlantic Bar and Grill in the 1990s, big boy restaurateurs Corbin & King did the city a huge favour when they revived it as Zédel following the same grand European bistro blueprint as their successful Mayfair project The Wolseley.  In little over a decade Brasserie Zédel has become a London landmark, and, despite its unparalleled size, is never knowingly not rammed. Take your folks, take a date, take an out-of-towner and see their jaws drop as you lead them down the twisting staircase to the main dining room as if you were announcing

Plant-first lovers of the arts, do we have some big news for you. As of next month, there’s going to be a brand new dining destination at top cultural destination Somerset House – and it’s vegan. Café Petiole is the project of chef Rishim Sachdeva, who runs the posh (mostly) vegan Tendril over in Mayfair, and has cooked everywhere from Chiltern Firehouse to The Fat Duck.  The all-day space will launch in May and have 27-covers. You’ll be able to dine-in or take-out dishes such as toasted banana bread with agave, baked courgette, feta & honey swirls, blue corn tostadas with smoked artichoke & lime puree and mushroom focaccia with daikon pickle.  Like Tendril, Petiole is billed as ‘mostly’ vegan, so expect a couple of non-vegan ingredients to sneak into the menu – like in the fennel, roasted orange, goat cheese & dill salad – but these will be avidly signposted and easily avoidable for those who take their plant-based lifestyle seriously. All drinks will be vegan, and include kombucha and low-intervention European wines. You'll be able to find Café Petiole off the Edmond J Safra Fountain Court at Somerset House, right by WatchHouse coffee and the long-standing Spring restaurant. Speaking about the new space, Rishim Sachdeva has said: ‘We hope our Tendril regulars, and new customers alike, will enjoy our more casual menu at Café Petiole, which takes the same plant-first approach and ethos of our restaurant menu, but offers a host of new dishes and baked goods to eat in or take o

It’s been a busy few months for sommelier Honey Spencer, who recently opened the acclaimed Sune in Hackney (which just so happens to feature in our brand new Top 50 Restaurants in London 2024 list). On top of running one of the hottest spots in town, she’s also just released her first book: ‘Natural Wine, No Drama: An Unpretentious Guide’. An informed look at the complex world of natty wine, it explains the knotty differences between organic, biodynamic and natural winemaking, as well as offering pairing suggestions and nuggets of impressive info that you can casually pass off as your own while enjoying a bottle of Pet Nat with pals. Honey tells Time Out about her favourite London wine bars and restaurants, and gives us the perfect snack-and-plonk pairing suggestion for each.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Naughty piglets (@naughtypiglets) Naughty Piglets, Brixton Honey: ‘It’s been a hot minute since Naughty Piglets opened their inaugural wine bar in an old jerk chicken shop in Brixton. But Lyon-born owner Margaux Aubry never stands still and, as a result, neither does Naughty Piglets. Now in its new era of quarterly rotating chefs who fall over themselves to cook on the venue’s famous grill, this bistro feels more alive and current than ever. Add one of the finest natural wine lists stacked with gems Margaux has been cellaring since the mid 2010s, and you have one of the best places to indulge in the holy trinity of wine, food and ser

Oh no, not another one. Yet another London restaurant is shutting up shop; this time it’s one run by a pretty famous name, Masterchef star Monica Galetti. Mere in Fitzrovia opened in 2017, but will be serving its last roasted seabass on April 16. Announcing the news on Instagram, Galetti thanked her team and patrons of the restaurant, which she named after her mother and served French dishes with a South Pacific influence.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monica Galetti (@galettigram) ‘It is with heavy hearts that we announce the closure of Mere restaurant – but we feel this is the right time after 7yrs!,’ she wrote. Galetti ran Mere with her husband David, who was formerly sommelier at Le Gavroche – which also recently closed. Galetti also worked at Michel Roux’s iconic French restaurant until 2015. The Samoan-born New Zealand chef moved to London in 1999 and was Le Gavroche’s first ever female senior sous chef, finding telly fame when she joined the judges on MasterChef: The Professionals in 2009.  Mere and Le Gavroche aren’t the only celeb chef spots to call last orders lately. Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social will also be closing this summer, while Marcus Wareing's restaurant at The Berkeley, Marcus, closed at the end of 2023.  Read our feature celebrating London’s classic restaurants. And check out our brand new list of London's best restaurants for 2024. Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for

London, you’ll be happy to hear, is finally properly eating out again. Last year a whopping 253 new restaurants opened in the capital, the most since 2019, after which we saw the brutal gutting of hospitality in the wake of the pandemic. Over the past four years hundreds of long-standing London favourites, from iconic greasy spoons such as The Shepherdess Cafe in Hoxton to pioneering vegetarian restaurant Vanilla Black, have closed. So how nice it is that a host of new restaurants are giving it a go, letting loose a wave of young chefs on our palettes, all of whom keen to find out if they have what it takes to be a culinary success in the dicy, treacherous world of London food. These are the places that have qualities that outlive immersive disco toilets A prime example from the new school is Abby Lee and her magnificent Mambow, which has just topped our brand new 2024 list of the Best Restaurants in London despite only opening in Clapton at the end of last year. But lest we also forget the fabulous old timers, the storied London restaurants that, were they made of flesh and blood instead of chrome and ceramics, would be collecting their free bus passes. These are the places that have qualities that outlive immersive disco toilets. Places whose menus offer something more significant than teetering, reel-friendly burgers that look great on camera but taste of sod all. Was August Escoffier big on the ‘gram? Did MFK Fisher have serious social media clout? How often did Keith Fl

Here at Time Out we are thrilled to announce our brand-new best restaurants in London list for 2024. After 12 months of hard eating and deliberate degustation, we’ve whittled down our 50 absolute favourite restos from across the capital, featuring old school classics, modern marvels, Michelin star spots and neighbourhood treasures. There’s also a brand new number one topping the list – a restaurant that’s only been open for a matter of months, but has already blown us away with its heroic flavours; Clapton’s marvellous Mambow. The modern Malaysian restaurant is the project of chef/founder Abby Lee, who was cooking under the Mambow name at a food hall in Peckham before launching the first-ever bricks and mortar Mambow site in November 2023. The rest of top 50 takes you on a culinary tour of the capital, through centuries, boroughs and budgets, with the likes of Sydenham’s Macedonian cafe Mystic Burek, Victorian icon Quality Chop House, 1980s time warp Oslo Court and the original Smithfield branch of St John – which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary – all featuring. The brand-new top 10 is below – but you can read the top 50 in full here.  Mambow, Clapton Akoko, Fitzrovia Bouchon Racine, Farringdon Speedboat Bar, Chinatown Etles, Walthamstow St John, Clerkenwell Dim Sum Duck, King’s Cross Restaurant St Barts, Smithfield  Rochelle Canteen, Shoreditch Brasserie Zedel, Piccadilly  Eat up! Want more food?! Here are all the best new restaurant openings in London this Apri

April is a bumper month for brand new London restaurants and bars, with this lovely lot poking their heads above the parapet of a long, dull winter in order to serve you with everything from sausages to sushi. Not to mention there’s a brand new Yard Sale Pizza popping up in Tufnell Park as well as Lina Stores’ first ever west London restaurant, which comes to South Ken on April 19, and a new outpost of Mexican taco spot El Pastor at Battersea Power Station, opening April 26, as well as a Portobello road branch of Poppie's chippie Keen eyes might have seen the recent under-the-radar opening of Tower Hill’s Dream Xi’an too, the latest from Guirong Wei, chef and founder of biang biang noodle emporium Master Wei.  Oma 1. Fish and flesh; Greek style  Oma, Borough The pedigree on this one is strong. Oma comes from David Carter – the founder of Smokestak and co-founder of Manteca – and is inspired by Greek coastal flavours, with chefs from Kiln and Sabor behind the menu. There’ll be a crudo bar (‘Oma’ means ‘raw’ in Greek) and live fire cookery, and you can expect dishes such as hung sheep’s yoghurt with a salt cod XO sauce, hummus masabacha with tahini and green zhoug or squid skewers with garlic and za’tar. The raw bar could have anything from gilthead bream with jalapeño aguachile and datterini tomato, to yellowfin tuna with clementine and aged soy. Below Oma you’ll find the equally new Agora, a walk-ins only joint focussing on full-animal cookery with a nod to the food of Athe

Twenty restaurants across the UK and Ireland have just been awarded the culinary crown that is a Bib Gourmand nod in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain & Ireland 2024.  Two of them are in fair London town, with Crouch End’s Les 2 Garcons and Notting Hill’s Empire Empire joining the elite restaurants recommended by the gastronomic tastemakers. A Bib Gourmand isn’t quite a Michelin star, but it’s pretty damn close, offering a more value-led meal than budget-busting main Michelin star menus. It's “our best value for money restaurants offering a three-course meal at a reasonable price”, say Michelin. Those two new restos join 35 other London restaurants with the honour, including Trullo and Farang in Highbury, Kudu in Peckham, Primeur in Newington Green, Brasserie Zedel and Kiln in Soho, Brutto in Clerkenwell, Padella in London Bridge and Plaza Khao Gaeng in Arcade Food Hall by Tottenham Court Road.  Empire Empire only opened last year and is the latest project from the team behind the Gunpowder restaurant group. ‘Empire Empire focuses on the full throttle cuisine of the northwestern Punjab region, with biryanis, kebabs and tikka given top billing,’ we wrote in our review of the west London restaurant. Les 2 Garcons meanwhile is a French restaurant in north London run by Robert Reid and Jean-Christophe Slowik. Slowik previously ran L’Absinthe in Primrose Hill and Reid is the former head chef of Marco Pierre White’s Oak Room and has cooked at Home House in Mayfair and Balthazar

Vacation rental company Vrbo has named its global and UK ‘Holiday Homes of the Year’. To make the grade, the six properties in each category had to have an A 4.9 or higher star rating on the site, as well as positive guest reviews and standout amenities and spaces – we’re talking hot tubs, firepits, swimming pools and seriously incredible views. Most of them are also large enough to host large extended families, as well as big groups of pals.  The global properties to receive this year’s award can be found in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Malta, Germany and France, while the spots named UK’s ‘Holiday Homes of the Year’ are in Bath, Edinburgh, Uig on the Isle of Skye, Dorstone in Herefordshire, Wimborne in Dorset and Faringdon in Oxfordshire.  ‘What stands out to me is the range in this year’s Holiday Homes of the Year – there are game rooms for families and private pubs for grown-ups. This year’s list is the best of the best but represents the high calibre of private holiday homes across Vrbo,’ said Jon Gieselman, president of Expedia Brands, of which Vrbo is part. Vrbo stands for ‘Vacation Rentals By Owner’ and was founded in 1995 to offer private holiday rentals of entire homes.  The winning homes were selected from over two million properties, and include a cliffside villa in Mexico as well as a sprawling estate overlooking the red rocks of Sedona Arizona. In the UK, there are countryside barns, epic townhouses and traditional thatched cottages.  These are Vrbo’s global Holiday

I wouldn’t usually be awake at the ungodly hour of 6am during a holiday, but when there’s a flamingo pink sunrise illuminating a frozen Lake Muskoka through floor-to-ceiling living room windows, well, I can make an exception.  I’ve been invited to stay at Canada’s ‘holiday home of the year’ in the peaceful, snow-covered, and rather chilly province of Ontario. So named by private homes and vacation rental company Vrbo, the winning property is the gargantuan Falcon’s Nest, a large clapboard-style house that’s known locally as a cottage. It is, however, the first cottage I’ve ever seen with six bedrooms, a red cedar hot tub and its own private boathouse. Pokey hotel rooms, be gone – this is a veritable mini-mansion, with a sprawling master suite and five additional bedrooms, as well as a cosy den and a traditional ‘Muskoka’ room: a screened-in oak porch which, we’re told, is a lifesaver come spring, providing shelter from the mosquitoes and flies that also like to descend on the area.  Photograph: Leonie Cooper for Time Out With an enviable spot right on the banks of Lake Muskoka, this palatial property is a short drive from Billionaire’s Row, where Canada’s rich and fabulous (as well as a fair few notable Hollywood names) have their lavish second homes. Since the 1950s, wealthy Canadians and celebs have vacationed here, including Tom Hanks, Cindy Crawford, Goldie Hawn and recent holidaymakers the Beckhams. David Beckham even indulged in some characteristic Canadian helpfulnes

It’s been a weird few weeks in London food, with one of Brick Lane’s best-loved bagel shops unexpectedly closing down – hopefully not for good. But when one door closes, another flies open and south London’s Silk Road has returned from its seven-month slumber to once again shower us with lamb skewers. We can’t have angered the gods as badly as we thought. A whole bunch of brand-new restaurants and bars are also about to launch in this fair city, so let us introduce you to March 2024’s best new London openings.  Three Sheets 1. The classy cocktail bar Three Sheets, Soho Three Sheets has been casually providing Dalston with the finest French 75s this side of Harry’s since 2016, so it makes total sense that they’re branching out with a new venture in Soho. Our only real question is: what took them so long? Brothers in booze Max & Noel Venning will be joined by ex-Lyle’s chef and butcher William Blank who’ll be pumping out a small menu of alt British classics from salt beef sarnies to fresh oysters. 13 Manette Street, W1D 4AP Unlock 2. Pizza with a side of art Unlock, Hackney Wick In the most Hackney Wick appropriate way, Unlock isn’t just a pizza restaurant and a cocktail bar – it’s also an art collective space. The first London project from Italian siblings Arianna and Giovanni Izzo, Unlock will offer classic and artisanal Neapolitan pizzas, ranging from a simple margherita to a fancier truffle cream, mortadella, burrata and hazelnut crumb pizza. There’ll be a set menu fea

The Pelican – a Notting Hill pub which was relaunched under new management in 2022 – has faced a legal challenge from local residents. A group of nine locals called for the posh gastro boozer on All Saints Road to have its license reviewed, alleging that the pub has been ‘undermining the prevention of public nuisance and public safety’ and will some saying in last years review that they had to sleep with earplugs due to the sound of people talking outside the pub. The likes of Princess Eugenie and David Walliams have been spotted drinking at The Pelican, which also has a high end dining menu, serving bone marrow with parsley as well as a lobster and monkfish pie for £90. The pub was built in the 1870s and was rebranded The Red Lemon in 2014, before returning to its original name.  New measures have now been put in place due to the concerns of locals, reports The Evening Standard. Pub regular Dua Lipa might just be into the ‘new rules’ however, which state that customers will no longer be able to drink and eat outside the pub after 9pm. No drinkers will be allowed to stand outside the pub on cross street Tavistock Road, and they will also need more bouncers at weekends. There will also be a new street warden patrolling the premises on Thursday until Saturday between 10pm and 12.30am, making sure all patrons have left.  The Pelican’s owners have accepted a number of the new conditions but have also appealed others. There will be a three day hearing at Westminster magistrates’

Who needs the Brits, the BAFTAs or the Emmys when you have the National Burger Awards? This year’s annual fast food Oscars saw a London burger named the greatest in the country, and we’re nothing but proud. Bleecker’s ‘bacon double’ burger – made by chef Celine Raeburn – was the overall winner of the contest, which was judged via a live cook-off at Walthamstow’s Big Penny Social on February 20. The industry judges included The Pem’s Sally Abé, El Perro Negro’s Nick Watkins and Anthony Murphy of The Beefy Boys. ‘I feel a bit speechless and emotional. I did shed a tear, but I’m really happy. This burger is damn good, it’s so good. I cooked it today, yes, but you can come into the shops anytime and it’ll be that good,’ said Celine of her win – which follows a 2020 triumph in the same competition. ‘It’s the second time we’ve won – we had to wait a little while in between, so hopefully it won’t be as long next time, but it does make it feel that bit more special.’ Bleecker has outposts in Westfield, Bloomberg Arcade, Victoria and Spitalfields. Find them on Time Out’s best burgers in London list.  Second and third place went to the double cheeseburger from Mollies Motel & Diner (which has locations in Bristol and Oxfordshire) and the house Black Bear Burger from London’s Black Bear Burger. Other London winners at the event included Farbez Uddin of Mile End’s Bun & Sum, who was named National Burger Chef of the Year, and Wholebeast’s Sam Bryant, who won the Bloggers’ Choice Award fo