The best new restaurants in London

Head chef Drew Snaith has taken over the building that once housed Pidgin and things are going rather well. At Sesta, silliness sits comfortably alongside seriousness, with nduja-scotched olives, coastal cheddar and cider scones, smacked cucumber drizzled with sweet raspberry hot sauce, beef ragu toasties and funky-looking prawn and stone bass dolma with ouzo butter. It’s food dreamed up deep in the middle of a Saturday night session and then bought into reality with little concern for judgement from the purists.

The latest opening from David Carter, the chef and restaurateur behind Smokestak and the show-stopping Manteca. Greek food is the jumping-off point for a menu that begins on the Ionian islands before skipping off to the Levant by way of the Balkans, with a south American stop-off. There’s also a whole menu of crudo (with a raw fish ice counter welcoming you into the minimal, slate grey space) and another dedicated to skewers cooked over a large grill in the middle of this first floor spot, which cuts right through the middle of Borough Market with agreeable views of the Dickensian, cobbled Bedale Street. Everything is very, very good - but the xo salt cod and labneh dip is mesmeric. Can't get a table? Try Agora downtstairs.

2-4 Bedale St, SE1 9AL

Whyte Rushen has serious kitchen chops, working everywhere from Brat and Scully St James to Kerridge’s before setting out on his own. With his high profile pop-ups now behind him, Whyte’s latest experiment is his most mature yet; he’s opened an actual restaurant by London Fields. Inside, the set up is simple verging on the basic – a handful of tables and a long L-shaped counter where you can watch the all-smiles Whyte serve forth whatever happens to interest him at that particular moment in time. Our visit follows his whirlwind trip to San Sebastian. As a result, Whyte is cooking an entirely Basque-inspired menu for the next few weeks. By the time you make it there, he’ll be serving up something different entirely, but that’s all part of the fun. 

Unit 3, 143 Mare St, E8 3RH

Luke Ahearne – a dynamo of a chef, has finally been granted a room of his own after spots at The Clove Club, Luca, and Corrigan’s Mayfair, where he was head chef at just 29. Here, he's given full reign of the open kitchen to whip up ‘southern Mediterranean’ sharing plates. In reality this means lots of fish and lots of fire, and everything comes slicked with so much olive oil that the dishes are glossier than a Steely Dan outro. Ignore the pan con tomate with anchovies at your peril, and go hard on the raw fish starters. It's not cheap, but food this spectacular rarely is. 

7-9 Paddington St, W1U 5QH

The latest opening from Endo Kazutoshi sees the sushimaster acting as ‘culinary director’ – a Martin Scorsese of the menu - for this 6th floor stunner. With Japanese technique filtered through all the lovely trips Endo’s been on in the Mediterranean, as well as tummy-tingling views of Nelson’s Column, Horse Guards Parade and the London Eye, the flavours are impeccable. Top dishes include a giddy starter of smoked yellowtail, with crisp batons of apple, aged caviar and crunchy buckwheat sobacha guanciale, as well as a chashu pork ramen ravioli, a one bowl ballet of creamy meat packed into tiny pockets of pasta.

6th Floor, The OWO, 2 Whitehall Pl, SW1A 2BD

If you like Perilla (and many people do), it’s pretty much a given that you’ll be tripping over youself to visit Morchella, which marks the second outing for the Newington Green restaurant's team. Food here is pitched as modern interpretations of classic Mediterranean dishes, and the menu is one of those with no more than three words to describe each dish. Unsurprisingly, this does the generosity of Morchella’s masterly cooking a disservice, but at the same time makes for some neat surprises when the food arrives. A simple ‘pork jowl’ fails to mention this crisp yet gooey flesh toastie comes layered with a veritable sash window of sweet pink quince and thick onion jam, while sublime ‘salt cod churros’ are found on top of a hitherto unmentioned slick of chunky, funky sauce, and ‘egg, spinach and chickpeas’ were dolloped with cream and asteroid-sized sourdough croutons. 

84-86 Rosebery Ave, EC1R 4QY

The latest opening from Ed McIlroy and Jamie Allan, who first popped up as burger boys Four Legs at The Compton Arms. In 2021 they launched The Plimsoll, and now they’re bringing north London's cool kids to the equally trendy Spanish fish bar, Tollington’s. The space used to be a Finsbury Park fish and chip shop and still looks exactly like a Finsbury Park fish and chip shop, with its tiled floors, old school pine counters, and original sign intact. Which actually makes it feel more like a backstreet San Sebastian pintxos bar than any fancy refit ever could. The menu is nothing but small plates, and there are plenty to pick from. The best we tried was a sassy smoked eel omelette, complete with a sultry yolk-y ooze. Booze is plentiful and, happily, cheap. 

172 Tollington Park, N4 3AJ

You'll find Agora underneath the aforementioned Oma. It's also run by Manteca mastermind David Carter, and like upstairs, is inspired by Greek food. But while Oma is more fish-focussed and island-inspired, here they pay tribute to the rustic street food of Athens. Agora translates as ‘market’, and you can casually window shop as if you’re at one before you enter, with large hatches providing front-row viewing of a two-metre charcoal rotisserie. Dips are addictive and the skewers even better; get the chicken thigh, amazingly soft and yielding and with a layer of perfect skin.

4 Bedale St, SE1 9AL

Rather than an Italian Italian, The Dover is a self-styled ‘New York Italian’ that’s more Nolita than Naples. This is not your average nonna’s kitchen but rather a shimmering space to see and be seen, with stunning walnut walls and lots of discreet booths. Food comes from a long-enough list of well-done trad classics; spaghetti meatballs, parmigiana, penne arrabbiata, burger and fries, fillet mignon, and, of course, a house Dover sole, as well as a serious martini list. Prices are pretty reasonable for the area too, and there's some great old school touches; you can only book by phone, and it's not open for lunch. Hyped, but with very good reason.

33 Dover St, W1S 4NF

The Hero might have many hallmarks of a proper British boozer (beer on tap, a slightly eerie painted sign swinging in the breeze, The Clash creaking out of the speakers) but you couldn’t just come here for just a pint. There are no stools at the bar, for starters. What The Hero is though, is a great restaurant. The latest opening from the team behind The Pelican in Notting Hill, the menu comes stacked with sizable snacks of sticky lamb ribs and a toastie bursting with dense ogleshield and a tart Branston-esque pickle. Better still is the cheese and onion pie, a sturdy and robust thing with pastry shorter than my attention span when someone tells me that I simply must listen to Charli XCX. It’s a savoury version of a chocolate lava cake, oozing yet more ogleshield out of pastry that is essentially and incredibly, nothing but crust.

55 Shirland Rd, W9 2JD

Opened on a residential Holland Park street in 1969 by Julie Hodgess, an interior designer who kitted out stores for high-end hippy fashion house Biba, the latest incarnation of Julie’s doubles down on the fabulous interiors. Back in the day, Julie’s was known more for a good time than a good feed, but new owner Tara MacBain is doing her best to change all that with help from chef patron Owen Kenworthy. After proving himself at both Brawn and The Pelican, his menu at Julie’s straddles the line between bistro staples and cheffy flair, with no room for passing fads. Burrata is banned. Avocado has been 86’d. Take for example a ‘snack’ of pea panisse, a fat, Kermit green fritter heady with Cornish gouda, or a starter of chilled cucumber and nettle soup with hidden, crunchy sourdough crumbs. Kenworthy is evidently proud of his produce too; a starter of asparagus is simply that; chunky spears with nothing more than pecorino and butter to add extra gloss.

135 Portland Road, W11 4LW

Not totally new, but this cult-y Dalston strip Mexican restaurant has found itself a new space, which is good enough for us. The new spot is about four times the size of the original, with the added bonus of windows. Ignore the double decker buses chugging past and you could be in Mexico City. Which would be pointless if the food wasn’t also the real deal. Raised in Guadalajara, chef and founder Daniel Carillo knows what he’s doing. His short but punch-pulling menu revolves around regional specials (including huaraches, a flatbread-ish dish rarely found in London’s Mexican restaurants) and the three Ts; tacos, tortas and tostadas. The cocktails are also seriously impressive. 

70-74 Stoke Newington Rd, N16 7XB

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 (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.

102 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3UB

A small ‘modern Filipino’ restaurant from the same group behind Kentish Town’s culty Panadera Bakery and Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream, Donia offer a brief but masterful menu of rousing, flavour-packed gastronomy. Think prawn and pork dumplings with white crab, thick-cut sea bream kinilaw, massive lobster ginataan with creamy coconut and pumpkin sauce and sensational lamb shoulder caldereta pie. 

Sael is a flashy, brash and extremely glossy production – the Starlight Express of central London brassieres, if you will, with Jason Atherton the sous vide-brandishing Andrew Lloyd Webber of the piece. The concept is, in decor at least, a kind of Britpop take on the nearby French bistro Brasserie Zedel, but with Toulouse-Lautrec prints replaced by Union Jacks, framed pictures of Bryan Ferry and Idris Elba, and a soundtrack provided by Oasis. The overall effect is more Dubai skyscraper than swinging London, and might all be rather cringe, were the cooking not so utterly phenomenal.

1 St James's Market, SW1Y 4QQ

From the same minds who brought you Ducksoup in Soho, Camille is a treat, with classic French dishes using local British produce, lots of wine and a packed chalkboard of daily specials. You might as well be on a backstreet of Montmartre as opposed to Southwark. The interiors are rustic, but not gaudy; bottles are displayed on the walls, candles dot the tables and the whole place hums with a just-loud-enough bustle. And the food? It delivers. When it comes to mains, prepare yourself for some serious meat damage, with the likes of langoustine cassoulet and perfectly assembled potato pavé.

8 Southwark St, SE1 1TL

A cosy French brasserie, with a menu overseen by Rob Aikens (brother and sometime-collaborator of twice Michelin-starred Tom). Despite access via a designated waterside bridge, there is nothing ostentatious or needlessly showy here. Rare is the Instagram-approved dish that eats as well as it photographs, but Marceline's ravioli dauphiné is just that. Mains are classic; moules frites; rotisserie chicken; a fillet steak au poivre, while desserts have a little fun with the formula. Profiteroles are elevated with slivers of banana (a game changer) and a substitute of cold, smooth ice cream instead of creme patissiere. Chic, delicious and worth it. 

5 Water St, E14 5GX

Akoko, the smooth-as-silk Fitzrovia restaurant that glided onto the London restaurant scene, blew everyone’s mind and then won a Michelin star, has spawned a child under the arches of Borough Market. Akara replicates its parent restaurant’s ingenious and critically acclaimed take on west African cuisine and brings it to a more casual, less-intense place. The titular akara are 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.

18 Stoney St, SE1 9AD

Gripe all you want about east London’s current preponderance of boho bistros specialising in small plates and natural wines – but when it’s done right, it’s still a knockout formula. And Sune, just over the bridge from Broadway Market in Hackney, absolutely nails it. There are twists on the Spanish gilda – piquant olives, anchovies and guindilla chillies – mounted on a potato cake that’s essentially a hash brown, and warm flatbreads to dip in a horseradish cream topped with bursting trout roe and herb oil, the whole thing tasting like taramasalata with serious attitude. A smoked eel salad was an olfactory smash and Sune’s signature dish of soft beef tartare on a croque monsieur, was a wild combination, taking supreme skill to balance the optimal temperatures of raw beef and melted cheese. When can we go back?

129A Pritchard's Rd, E2 9AP

Bistro Freddie is a London rarity: a knowingly ‘cool’ vibehouse that doesn’t make you want to dash your brains out on the edge of an understated white table. Bossing it from within the open-fronted kitchen is head chef and flavour magus Anna Søgaard. The spare, paired-back menu belies the erstwhile Erst cook’s talent for concealed pzazz. Many of the dishes, on paper, appear mundane. Søgaard, the Danish-American thaumaturgist, has deceived you. Nothing leaves her kitchen underpowered in the wallop department. Freddie’s glistening, glowing rhombuses of ‘house sausage’, served with punchy (and homemade) brown sauce, deserve a place somewhere near the top. A-tier (at least). Try also snails on top of pillowy flatbread, sprinkled with nubbins of crispy chicken skin, bobbing in tarragon butter.