The best Shepherd's Bush restaurants

LA chef Kris Yenbamroong's first non-US restaurant is the endlessly fun Chet's, which you'll find downstairs at the west London outpost of hotel chain The Hoxton. Yenbamroong’s deeply Californian take on Thai food spans larb gai with chicken, lime, mint and coriander chilli, but also a gloriously gloopy blue-cheese-slathered wedge salad and a fried chicken khao soi. Being a hotel they're an all-day proposition, so swing by for a beauty of a brekkie or brunch, with banana french toast and chicken ‘n’ roti waffles on the mighty menu. 

Sushi fans: gather round. Offering eighth-floor views across White City, you’ll sit at long L-shaped counter and then wait for an omakase meal that’s pure theatre. Endo Kazutoshi, a third-generation ‘sushi master’, introduces most of the dishes. Everything we ate was dazzling, from sashimi and a succession of nigiri, to mackerel and lobster tempura and wagyu. It's not cheap, but it is sublime. 

A SheBu favourite, Esarn Kheaw has been serving north-eastern Thai food to appreciative locals since 1992. The dark dining room may be starting to show its age, but the cooking is as good as ever. Witness marinated chargrilled beef with a minced catfish, anchovy and green chilli dip or a blisteringly hot vegetarian jungle curry. Also don’t miss the boiled and deep-fried ‘son-in-law eggs’ – a delicious mouth-cooling foil to the spicy food.

Following the success of its branches in Brixton and Soho, Kricket has found yet another home – this time within the old BBC Television Centre in White City. The food is everything you would expect and more – a succession of killer Anglo-Indian small plates ranging from samphire pakoras and duck leg kathi roll with peanut chutney to tandoori monkfish with smoked aubergine and courgette pickle. Spicy cocktails are big sellers in the bar, and the Indian-themed Sunday roasts are worth knowing about.

This Shepherd’s Bush joint swoos locals with a widerangnig menu of Eritrean, Ethiopian, Somali and Yemeni cuisine. Signature dishes include burem (literally ‘boiled meat’), steamed lamb mandi and grilled sea bass (blackened, splayed open and served with a pile of rice of salad), but also note the various ‘fata’ breads served with dates or banana, cream and honey. Sides include chips as well as injera.

The first proper restaurant from The Athenian street-food chain is a big beast within White City Place, serving its signature souvlaki wraps (with salad and oregano fries) alongside a whole host of new ideas – from bespoke Gyros burgers to courgette fritters, tomato croquettes with Athenian sauce and desserts such as flourless brownies. 

Big helpings, low prices and a rollickingly relaxed setting are the draws at this vast Syrian restaurant near Shepherd’s Bush Market – no wonder young families and couples head here for a quick, fuss-free meal. Sharing nibbles give way to mighty tagines, couscous, grills and dishes such as tomato and rice maklouba packed with chunks of lamb and aubergine. Otherwise, load up on freshly baked breads and meze at the all-you-can-eat Sunday breakfast buffet. Abu Zaad is unlicensed, but ayran (salted yoghurt) and mint tea do their job.

This popular Chinese restaurant serves huge portions of uncompromisingly fiery Sichuan cuisine backed by gentler items such as steamed scallops with glass noodles, Hunan-style red-braised pork belly or scrambled eggs with Chinese chives. Fans of tofu, luncheon meat and chicken gizzards are in for a treat here.

Taftoon flatbreads are baked in a clay oven by the front window of Sufi, a peach of a Persian restaurant on SheBu’s Askew Road. Glorious stews, spot-on kebabs and beautiful meze are the main attractions, such as the superb kashk-e bademjan (a smoky whey-based aubergine dip with walnuts, garlic and onion). 

Little sister to the Chelsea stalwart, this well-dressed all-day drinking and dining rendezvous spot is a useful addition to the local scene, with a lovely terrace for alfresco breakfasts, lunches and cocktails. Located within the revamped BBC Television Centre building, it’s a genuinely cheerful spot with a lovely ambience and some pretty confident contemporary cooking – the chicken milanese with crispy green beans and herby mayo is a must-order comfort-food classic.

Housed in the classy Dorsett Hotel on Shepherd’s Bush Green and named after the Shanghainese architectural style, Shikumen’s handsome interior doesn’t disappoint. Neither does its line-up of exquisitely crafted and reasonably priced dim sum, especially the signature xiao long bao and sophisticated scallop siu mai topped with tobiko. The kitchen also turns out to be a faultless rendition of stir-fried seafood ho fun in XO sauce, while its Peking duck is correctly served in two stages.

Westfield shoppers are lucky to have this honest-to-goodness tapas bar as a stopgap and refuelling point after a heavy bout of retail therapy, especially as it delivers great value across the board. There are no surprises or molecular gastronomic fantasies here, just down-home jamón croquetas, punchy pan con tomate and delectable churros dipped in top-notch hot chocolate to finish. Tip: don’t miss the ‘happy hora’ jugs of sangria or the stonking daytime ‘menu rápido’.

Recommending a Pakistani canteen for its builder’s tea might seem leftfield, but the sweet, spicy doodh patti chai served at Shola is the real deal. Open weekday lunchtimes, this light, roomy place serves as a refuelling point for workers at the White City Place creative hub – and the food is bang-on excellent. Trawl through the line-up of ‘bites’, ‘bowls’ and ‘coals’ to your heart’s content but don’t miss the crunchy chicken pakoras, the khatti daal with buttery parathas or the tender lamb shoulder wrap.