Intimate in London

Chet Sharma's one-Michelin-star Mayfair Indian, the JKS room that reframed regional Indian cooking in 2021.

Eighteenth-century Lexington Street townhouse with a handwritten daily menu, the last romantic room in old Soho

Jacob Kenedy's region-by-region Italian counter on Archer Street, every dish labelled by province, eighteen years deep

Tomos Parry's Basque-grill flagship, whole turbot over wood, the room that reset East London cooking

The Dirik family ocakbaşı since 1994, the canonical Turkish address the audience takes London-Turks to

Frith Street's 1959 jazz room, the canonical London jazz club, two sets a night, low ceiling, red lamps

London's longest-standing Michelin-starred pub, Fulham backstreets, game and wild food

Karam Sethi's Marylebone coastal-Indian, one Michelin star held since 2012

Ed Wilson's Columbia Road natural-wine bistro, the East End's most consistent neighbourhood kitchen

Henrietta Street's modern British room from the Kitty Fisher's team, clubby, candle-lit, opera-night reliable.

Wentworth Street's unmarked basement, the City fringe speakeasy that does not need a velvet rope

Hoxton Square's basement, the small, no-fuss cocktail room the trade has booked since 2010

Ravinder Bhogal's no-borders Marylebone room, Indian, East African and South-East Asian cooking, ten years in

The Holland Park-edge neighbourhood restaurant the W11 regulars send each other to

Two-floor Old Compton Street cocktail room, aperitivo bar upstairs, three-hundred-whisky lounge below