Seven of our favourite London restaurants right now

Does anybody do steak better than Hawksmoor? Well, no. But don’t take our word for it, because Hawksmoor was voted best steak restaurant in the world by none other than ‘The World’s Best Steaks’. It’s a website that’s all about steak, so they probably know what they’re talking about. But of course, we do too and in our humble opinion if you’ve not yet had a Hawksmoor steak have you really had steak? We think not. They really are that good. And the service here? The best we’ve experienced, too. Make sure you head to this, the flagship Hawksmoor – it’s definitely the best of an exceptionally good bunch.

This high-quality Chinese street-food restaurant has been massively popular since it opened on Romilly Street back in 2018. It’s all about the buns here, with a firm focus on brilliantly light and fluffy bao packed to the gills with all manner of authentic Chinese fillings. The char siu (barbecued pork) is the speciality here, and boy are they good, but very honourable mention to a couple of others, too: the chilli pork steamed bun made of bright pink beetroot juice dough is banging, as is the pork with soybean sauce.

This Notting Hill Italian has been on the Time Out ‘cheap eats’ list for donkey’s years, and whenever we go back we remember just why we love it so much. But it’s not just us: it’s a firm local legend and it draws people from all over, keen to get stuck into the really-very-good pasta and pizzas offered at exceptional prices. A little slice of old Napoli in the heart of Notting Hill. Highly recommended.

If you’re yet to sample the tongue-numbing joy of Szechuan pepper folded expertly into authentic Szechuan dishes then you’re in for a treat. And if you need to know where to head to experience it done really well? Well, we love My Old Place (over by Liverpool Street) but we recently had a belter of a meal at Kaki, a brilliant canal-side restaurant on Caledonian Road. Make sure you try the chilli-fried-chicken, replete with loads of those wonderfully numbing peppercorns.

We’ve been going to this Michelin-starred restaurant for years now, and watched with considerable interest its progression from Atul Kocchar’s heyday to new exec-chef Sameer Taneja. Happily, the quality of the modern-Indian cooking here has remained wonderfully consistent, with beautifully plated contemporary takes on classic dishes alongside innovative new dishes showing off the considerable talent in the kitchen. It’s expensive, of course, but if you book in at lunch you can get a tasting menu offering exceptional value.

Close to London Bridge, not far from The Shard, this superb Thai-Malay restaurant translates to ‘mix and match’. You can see why, with the culinary inspiration actually stretching beyond this south-east Asian peninsula to incorporate Western ingredients and ideas into the menu, too. The rendang here is as authentic as they come but if you fancy seeing how creative they can be try the massaman, here cooked with chicken thigh, and with asparagus and butternut squash, too.

Vivek Singh (him off the tele) followed up his remarkably impressive Cinammon Club restaurant with this top-notch-but-slightly-more-relaxed spot on Devonshire Square. The Indian food served up here really is special, but it gets a unique twist from the ethos: Cinnamon Kitchen’s thing is to combine Indian spices and flavours with seasonal British ingredients. And it really, really works. Heads up though; it can get busy, so book ahead.