The best restaurants in London Bridge

From the same minds who brought you Ducksoup in Soho and Little Duck The Picklery in Dalston comes a new venture with its sights set on France. Camille is unassuming at first, with classic French dishes using local British produce (you’re in Borough Market, after all), lots of wine and a packed chalkboard of daily specials. But once you’re a course or two in, windows steamy with condensation and a few glasses deep – perhaps fighting the temptation to run your finger over those last drops of sauce – you might as well be on a backstreet of Montmartre as opposed to Southwark.

Where to find it: 8 Southwark St, SE1 1TL

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.

Where to find it: 8-9 Snowsfields, SE1 3SU

Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s debut restaurant, Rambutan, is a south London hub for Sri Lankan food. The menu draws from what her mother cooked during Shanmugalingam’s 1980s childhood in Coventry as well as trips to the family village in Jaffna province, where pandan grows next to lemongrass and curry leaves. Using a global grab-bag of ingredients, as well as Tamil mainstays, this diasporic, open-kitchen cooking gives Stoney Street its first proper slice of post-colonial South Asian flavour. Try Jaffna lamb ribs, sticky chicken pongal rice and prawn curry with tamarind.

Where to find it: 10 Stoney Street, SE1 9AD

This is a place for people who are serious about food. It comes to 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. 

Where to find it: 36 Snowfields, SE1 3S

Akara replicates its parent restaurant Akoko’s ingenious and critically acclaimed take on west African cuisine and brings it to a more casual, less-intense place. You may well choose to start with a few of the titular akara. It’d be lazy to call them ‘the west African bao’, but that would give the uninitiated an idea of what to expect. Fluffy-yet-cakey balls, delicately fried and perched magisterially on stone cubes, each one bifurcated then ladened with stuff like prawn, ox cheek, mushrooms and scallops. Like most things Akoko-related, they’re accompanied by a bit of psychedelic scotch bonnet sauce.

Where to find it: Arch 208, 18 Stoney St, SE1 9AD

Kolae is in a former coach house and has a sophisticated New York neighbourhood eatery air; all exposed brick and intimate seating stacked over three floors, with old time rock’n’roll playing at a tasteful background volume. Food comes from the same team as Shoreditch's Som Saa, so expect full-throttle Thai flavours, including amazing mussel skewers, red kabocha squash, crunchy kale and herb fritters with fermented chilli and cashew nuts, sour mango salad with roasted coconut and dried fish and wild sea bass curry.

Where to find it: 6 Park St, SE1 9AB

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. 

Where to find it: Unit 1, 8 Melior St, SE1 3QP

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.

Where to find it: Cardamom Building, 31G Shad Times, SE1 2YB

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.

Where to find it: 66-68 Union St, Flat Iron Square, SE1 1TD

Low-lit, inviting and spread over two floors, Santo Remedio 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.  

Where to find it: 152 Tooley Street, London Bridge, SE1 2TU

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.

Where to find it: Arch 25, Old Union Yard Arches, 229 Union St, SE1 0LR

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.

Where to find it: 201 Tooley St, SE1 2UE

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.   

Where to find it: 4 Crown Square, SE1 2SE

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’).

Where to find it: 62-64 Weston Street, SE1 3QJ

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.

Where to find it: The Shard, Level 33, 31 St. Thomas Street, SE1 9RY

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.

Where to find it: Arch 35a, Flat Iron Square, SE1 0NQ

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.

Where to find it: Level 32, The Shard, 31 St Thomas Street, SE1 9SY