Places in London

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

London's first authentic Antep baklavacı since 1993, Murat Üstünsürmeli's Grand Parade pastry house

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

A 15-cover Michelin-starred tasting room inside Blue Mountain School, cooking is the only headline

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

Nose-to-tail Italian on Curtain Road, house-cured salumi and wood-fired offal in Shoreditch

Tomos Parry's Michelin-starred Beak Street wood-fired room, the Basque grill that Brat became Soho-confident in

The wine-magazine bar, Mark Andrew and Daniel Keeling's Bloomsbury original since 2015

Rainer Becker's original 2004 robatayaki, the Charlotte Street counter Roka grew from, with Shochu Lounge in the basement

Dean Street's no-music, no-mobiles holdout, the Soho the audience first read about in the 80s

Milroy's reborn under the No. 3 door, Greek Street's whisky merchant and bookcase-speakeasy bar since 1964, rebranded 2024

Keith McNally's Russell Street brasserie, the SoHo Manhattan original transposed to Covent Garden, twelve years in.

Erchen Chang and the Chung siblings' original Lexington Street bun counter, Bib Gourmand Taiwanese, queue-only on the corner

Frith Street since 1949, the espresso bar Soho is built around

Sam and Eddie Hart's original walk-in tapas counter, relocated, the Spanish bar London learned the format from

Adriana Cavita's Marylebone Mexican, generous, regional, unfussy

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

The organic Cotswold farm's Westbourne Grove farmshop and café, the audience's Saturday morning anchor

Boundary Street's Bombay Irani café, the bacon naan roll Londoners queue for at breakfast

Green Lanes' top-edged Southeastern Anatolian ocakbaşı, kuzu pirzola the Anatolian standard

The Yavuz family's Green Lanes flagship since 1999, the polished mainstream of London Turkish

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

St Martin's Court's 1890s seafood institution, Theatreland's pre-curtain Dover sole

Ben Chapman's Brewer Street counter, Thai grill cooking over wood and clay, no reservations, the Bib Gourmand argument

Moxon Street's cheese reference since 1992, Patricia Michelson's affineur, walk-in tasting room

Pistachio-green Soho deli since 1944, pasta as Italian commute

Greek Street's 1871 patisserie, London's oldest French pastry shop, still hand-laminated upstairs

The original Ali Dirik ocakbaşı on Arcola Street since 1990, BYOB, walk-in only, untouched

The larger Greek Street sister, 2020 in the former Gay Hussar room, with a proper kitchen

Paddington Street modern Greek, sister to Athens' two-star Funky Gourmet and the most considered Greek cooking in W1.

The fresh-pasta queue London actually accepts, Shoreditch sister of the Borough original

Great Titchfield Street's all-day brasserie, the Fitzrovia office and the Sunday brunch in one room

London's oldest restaurant, Maiden Lane since 1798, four families across ten reigns, and the game-and-claret Britain that has not changed.

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

Tom Conran's 1995 gastropub, Guinness, oysters and the upstairs dining room that started the Notting Hill genre

The glass-roofed Manchester Square courtyard inside the Wallace Collection, Marylebone's quietest daytime room