Plekken in London

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

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

World's 50 Best No.5, two rooms that split the modern London bar in half

The Maybourne sister to Connaught and Claridge's — Wilton Place, a rooftop pool over Hyde Park, and a 2024 redesign that finally looks contemporary.

Agostino Perrone's silver-trolley martini and a room that has spent a decade at or near the top of the World's 50 Best Bars list.

The billion-pound 2023 opening at Hyde Park Corner — Brooklands by Claude Bosi on the roof, and the most architecturally serious new hotel in W1 in decades.

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.

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

Shoreditch's whisky reference — 250 bottles, no cocktails, a single felled-oak table

London's oldest luxury hotel — 13 connected Georgian townhouses on Albemarle Street, a Michelin-starred Charlie's by Adam Byatt, and Rocco Forte stewardship.

The Brook Street Art Deco grande dame — afternoon tea in the Foyer, a Foyer Bar by Bryan O'Sullivan, and the most famous lobby in London.

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

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

Coal Drops Yard sit-down taqueria — al pastor on a vertical spit, the rebranded Casa Pastor

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

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

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

The 2023 conversion of the Old War Office on Whitehall — Mauro Colagreco's Michelin-starred Saison, a Guerlain spa, and the most ambitious new opening in the city.

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

Seven seats, one chef, Edomae discipline — London's hardest reservation

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

Corbin and King's 1920s-styled Mayfair townhouse — a 73-room Art Deco hotel with an Antony Gormley sculpture you can sleep inside.

The Mayfair townhouse hotel — three Michelin stars in the dining room, the world's best bar downstairs, and the address that defines W1.

The only hotel ever granted a royal warrant — fourth-generation family-owned in Belgravia, and the address that hosted Catherine Middleton the night before the wedding.

The Oetker Collection mansion at Hyde Park Corner — Regency interiors, a personal butler in every room, and Céleste under the cupola.