The best restaurants in London Bridge

A welcoming cave of warm wood, black leather banquettes, exposed brick and splashes of painted Spanish tile. You'll find rambunctious tables packed with laughing pals and pleasantly sloppy fifth dates – the one where you stop caring about dripping mojo rojo down your chin. This is Bermondsey by way of Barcelona, and the stage is set for a feast of epic proportions, from glistening jamon Iberico, Cantabrian anchovies in golden olive oil, and perfect croquetas. Mains are elaborate but still relatively rustic, with dishes such as bogavante y huevos rotos – native lobster, egg and triple cooked chips. Lots of fun. 

A teasing shot of warm, villagey France in Bermondsey, this infectiously cosy eatery works to a daily blackboard menu of smartly executed bourgeois classics scrawled up in the native tongue. There are just three choices per course, but prices are sensible and flavours are true (sardines escabèche followed by veal marengo, say). You can even come here for a plate of cheese or charcuterie with a shot of pastis.  Either way, you’ll leave feeling oh-so satisfied.

Like many good things in London, 40 Maltby Street sits inside a renovated railway arch. Unassuming but charming, this small restaurant is a microcosm of London culture. The menu changes weekly, with around 12 small plates written on a chalkboard. Exciting and imaginative, it's a testament to the skill of the kitchen staff. It’s quintessentially London – and extremely brilliant.

Founded by a real-life Texan (he’s the one in the Stetson – no, really), this place has such a self-explanatory name that we don’t really need to add much more. On the menu is everything your cardiologist has ever warned you not to eat (even down to the white bread accompanying the mains): deep-fried chicken wings, fatty cuts of meat oak-smoked to melting perfection, cheese-stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon… Clean-eating it ain’t, but for one night only, it’s worth loosening that belt buckle.

This is a place for people who are serious about food. It comes to us from a pair with pedigree: Jonny Lake and Isa Bal. For more than a decade, they served as The Fat’s Duck head chef and head sommelier, respectively. Their style of the food is quietly meticulous: there’s flair, but also restraint. Also try the terrace menu in the summer sunshine, featuring bitesize chicken wings and confit lobster claw. 

Husband and wife duo Woong Chul Park and Bomee Ki – who met training at Le Cordon Bleu – have created a unique style of cooking that showcases familiar Korean dishes made using French techniques and artfully woven through the deconstructive tendencies of molecular gastronomy. It's so damn good it's got a Michelin star. 

Spawned from José Pizzaro’s namesake restaurant further along Bermondsey Street, this tapas bebé has the genuine feel of rustic Spanish hangout – all plain brick walls, timbers, tiles and stools. Food-wise, expect fantastically fresh renditions of the classics at easy-to-swallow prices (deep-flavoured tortilla, crispy/creamy croquetas, patatas bravas, perfectly flash-fried prawns al ajillo etc). You can’t book, but José’s doors-wide-open attitude is bang-on for the neighbourhood, especially when the sherry is flowing.

Legare is the very definition of a decent neighbourhood Italian spot. With a refined menu of simple dishes, its handmade pasta is near perfection with the pappardelle a carb-laden treat wrapped around a rich ragù of fennel sausage and cavolo nero. Also great is the veggie orecchiette, and for pud do not miss the blissful cannoli: crisp pastry, pumped with ricotta and studded with pistachios.

As modern Thai restaurants go, Kin + Deum (literally ‘eat + drink’) is the full shebang: a laid-back, minimalist space serving up big helpings of thrilling, Bangkok-inspired food with the aid of some genuinely lovely staff. 

Bang outside Flat Iron Square, pocket-sized Lupins is in the small-plates business – and boy does it know how to deliver. Expect eclectic seasonal flavours maxed out for colour, vibrancy and zing – full marks for the roast hake with ’nduja risotto and the pigeon breast with smoky chipotle butter, charred baby gem and green chilli yoghurt. Amazingly, everything comes from a kitchen that’s no bigger than the cooking area in your average Londoner’s flat.

Jose Pizarro will not stop until every single shop front on the delightfully quaint Bermondsey Street is serving up unparalleled pan con tomate and endless boquerones, the cobbles awash with streams of sherry. Lolo is the street’s third joint from the convivial Spanish chef. Neither super-fancy Michelin star Madrid grill house nor a bare-bones Cadiz cava bar, Lolo is casual but content with its easy-breezy lot. The menu is short and divvied up into a series of enticingly snackable Spanish dishes with coyly British bent.

This determinedly al fresco Southwark spot is pretty much a big patio. But it’s not just the breezy, external nature of the place that makes In Horto proudly align itself with the great outdoors, it’s the food too. Earthy and bountiful, it offers the kind of hearty spread you would expect Monty Don to tuck into after a hard day tending to his dahlias. The beef shin and cheek parmentier with veal bone marrow is a majestic thing; dense with flavour, oozing richness and topped with creamy, crispy spuds.

Many of Yotam Ottolenghi’s one-time cooks are doing it for themselves these days – witness this clubby Tel Aviv-style rendezvous from chef Eran Tibi. Set in a Southwark railway arch, Bala Baya is a bakery, a fast-paced pita kiosk at lunchtime and a buzzy restaurant in the evenings. Come here for astonishing little Middle Eastern-inspired dishes such as king prawn baklava with bitter lime syrup and nori dust or ‘aubergine mess’ with pomegranate molasses, lychee and house made pita.

Batik textiles, colourful masks, incense and acres of carved teak spell exotic romance at this self-styled ‘Thai-Malay’ favourite in the shadow of The Shard – so book the private table à deux on the mezzanine if you’re feeling flirty. To eat, inventive vegan and veggie dishes sit alongside hawker classics, curries and east-west mash-ups such as spiced lamb neck with tamarind and sweet-potato mascarpone or red snapper with Malaysian sambal and squid-ink linguine (the restaurant’s name means ‘mix and match’).

Sizzling steaks and sustainably sourced fish cooked over coals are the headliners at this London offshoot of Brighton’s Coal Shed – a handsome space of smoky mirrors, metal and dark wood, with a jazzy laid-back soundtrack as accompaniment. Although the big plates hold centre stage, don’t ignore their memorable smaller cousins (short-rib croquettes with punchy gochujang mayo, for example). Brilliant service seals the deal.   

Don’t expect to be given a menu at this Michelin-starred outpost of modernist cuisine. Instead, tattooed wunderkind chef Tom Sellers wheels out a cavalcade of playfully artistic plates – the self-proclaimed ‘chapters’ in a gripping gastronomic tale that requires your uninterrupted sensory attention for a goodly amount of time. It’s easy to digest, although the full extent of this seriously weighty tome is only revealed once the bill arrives.

You’ll probably be able to see Chinatown from Hutong’s lofty perch on The Shard, but that’s where the similarities end – this glitzy venue swaps wipe-clean tables and picture menus for glamorous oriental-inflected dark-wood interiors, beautifully presented Sichuan and northern Chinese dishes, and on-the-ball service. The standard of the food almost surpasses the wow-factor of the skyline views, making Hutong a shoo-in for the ‘expensive but worth it’ section of your restaurant hit-list.

From the folks behind Casse-Croûte, this charming restaurant in a mock-Tudor pavilion on the edge of Tanner Street Park is affably Gallic right down to its untranslated menu and French-speaking staff. Flavours are gutsy, rustic and traditional to the core. Expect things like asparagus with a poached egg and charcuterie on toast, soupe au pistou and braised lamb neck with barley. 

Crowdfunding does it again. Having wobbled in Shoreditch, the new incarnation of Santo Remedio near London Bridge is simply brilliant. Low-lit, inviting and spread over two floors, it seduces punters with easy-listening Latin grooves, flickering tea lights and some inspired food – guacamole sprinkled with tiny grasshoppers, wholemeal quesadillas, Mexican-style prawn ceviche, charred lamb chops with tangy mole. There are punishing shots of mezcal too.  

You don’t have to wait till Shrove Tuesday comes around for your pancake fix – thanks to this bright, buzzy venue squeezed into one corner of Flat Iron Square. Sweet and savoury buttermilk varieties abound, including a combo of banana, praline and marshmallow, and the owners also have what they call ‘another batter’ for those who require gluten-free and dairy-free versions.

The interiors of this glitzy, eye-wateringly priced venue could belong to any international destination, but the stunning views tell you that this is London in all its glory. Book a seat near a window, then splash out on dishes from an eclectic, international menu noted for its line-up of Josper-grilled meat and seafood. The final bill may be scary, but if you’re in the mood to go for excess all areas, Oblix might just be your golden ticket.