Leonie Cooper

Want a drink? You've come to the right place. This is Time Out’s list of best bars in London, our curated guide to London’s drinking scene, featuring the buzziest booze dens in the capital right now. If it’s on this list, it’s excellent. These are the 50 places we'd recommend to a friend, because we love drinking in them and have done many times over. From classy cocktail joints to delightful dives, hotel bars, speakeasys, bottle shops, rooftops and wine bars, London's got them all. But what makes a truly good bar? Well, our critieria for inclusion on this list is simple; a menu of genius drinks is important, but so is overall vibe – there’s no point having the perfect paloma if you have to drink it in a bar that smells of bins. To make the Top 50, a bar has to be fun, inclusive, and full of lovely folk as well as looking the part.  April 2025: A rash of great new bars have opened in London over the past year or so and many of them have made the immediate jump to our hallowed Top 50. The latest additions to our list include rowdy sports bar meets 80s horror movie set Bloodsports in Covent Garden, whisky wonderland Dram Bar on Denmark Street, the hypnotic Bar Lotus in Dalston, Below Stone Nest in Chinatown, Rasputin’s by London Fields, and Bar Lina, an Italian aperitivo spot underneath a famous Soho deli. Now go forth and drink. RECOMMENDED: Like bars? Then you'll love London's best pubs.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor, and she'll have a gibson marti

After-hours fun in London is easy to find if you know where to look. To help you avoid the hapless post-midnight plod around town on the hunt for more liquor in London's best pubs, consult our definitive list of late-night bars and boozers in London. These are the best of the capital’s drinking spots that stay open into the wee small hours, listed in order of lateness. Remember, cocktail hour can be any hour in London. If you fancy a dance with your drink, then check out London’s best clubs. RECOMMENDED: The best cocktail bars in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Have you noticed that everyone seems to be doing Pilates right now? Well, there’s good reason. Developed by German trainer Joseph Pilates in the 1920s, the exercise regime is low-impact but does absolute wonders for your muscles (including your core) – and it’ll sort out a load of other issues form bad posture to balance, too. Celebs, dancers and elite athletes swear by it and now all sorts of new studios are popping up over the city. If you wanna get a bit more bendy, toned and powerful, look no further than one of these expert pilates classes. What’s more, it doesn’t matter whether they’re mat-based, inspired by ballet or take place on a reformer machine (they’re not as scary as they look, we promise), these fun and fancy studios won’t leave you bent out of shape. Here are the best pilates classes in London. Fancy testing that new-found flexibility? Try one of these yoga classes in London next.  RECOMMENDED: The best sport and fitness in London

Head to Hackney and you've got a seriously exciting evening of dining ahead of you, as some of the city's boldest chefs have set up shop in this rapidly-gentrifying patch of east London. High-end restaurants sit alongside chic brunch spots, inviting gastropubs and long-established neighbourhood joints. Whatever you're after, you'll more than likely find it here. Go east(ish) and eat. The latest additions to the list include modern Korean marvel Miga, Sesta in the old shell of the much-loved Pidgin, fun with fire at Lagom, chef Abby Lee's incredible Mambow, and Bethnal Green kitchen residency Tasca.  RECOMMENDED: Here are London's 50 Best Restaurants. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor and thinks Hackney restaurants are some of the best in London (but don't tell the other boroughs, they'll only get jealous). For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. So east London it hurts? Follow our Time Out East London WhatsApp channel for the latest news, openings and goss from the coolest bit of the capital. (Yeah, we said it.) 

Every week, a frankly silly amount of brilliant new restaurants, cafés and street food joints arrive in London. Which makes whittling down a shortlist of the best newbies a serious challenge. But here it is. The 20 very best new restaurants in the capital, ranked in order of greatness and deliciousness. All of them have opened in the past year and been visited by our hungry critics. So go forth and take inspo from this list, which features everything from modern Korean cookery at Miga in Hackney, bistro-pub delights at The Brave in Islington, deft dosas at Tamila in King’s Cross, bawdy British fare at Rake in Highbury, Brit/Thai mashups at AngloThai in Marylebone, vegan Michelin star goodness at Shoreditch’s Plates, hip fish bar Tollington’s in Finsbury Park, and Iberian inventiveness at Tasca in Bethnal Green. This list is updated regularly, so check in often to find out what we really rate on the London restaurant scene.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London. The hottest new openings, the tastiest tips, the spiciest reviews: we’re serving it all on our London restaurants WhatsApp channel. Follow us now to tuck in.

Live music, lovely little wine spots and some of the city's best cocktails – Covent Garden has more brilliant bars than you can shake a stick at. The area's drinking scene is diverse, so check out our picks of the best places for after-hours drinking in the the middle of town; whether it’s female-founded beaujolais at Lady of the Grapes, rock'n'roll martinis at Stereo, cabaret with your cabernet at CellarDoor or beers, so horror movies and big games at Bloodsports. RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in Covent Garden. 

Bottomless brunch. These words strike excitement – and also a slight sting of terror – into our hearts. Endless quaffing of fizz, usually within a 90 minute time limit, and some hearty breakfast foods seem like the perfect backdrop to catching up with mates on a weekend. Simply bash your cash down and let the London restaurant of your chosing do the rest. Will you get drunk? Most likely. Will you be so full of food that you're worried you may explode? Also possible. Are you in? Yes, you are. In London, you’ll find bottomless bubbles and bloody marys, as well as options with red wine, and cocktails. The food doesn’t have to be straightforward breakfast stuff either. Brunch can be anything from bao to barbecue. Time to go hard then go home! All that sounds a bit too much? You could just stick to regular old brunch. RECOMMENDED: Find more great breakfasts in London.

London is a great city to eat out in while keeping your ethical integrity intact. We’re here to shine a light on the best places to dine at while simultaneously helping to save the planet, with a bunch of restaurants that have been given eco-friendly approval by world-leading specialists. The following places have proved themselves to be dedicated to sustainability in their food, kitchens and interiors. Not our words, but the words of the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s Food Made Good Standard, the We're Smart Green Guide, and B Corp, as well as a bunch of Michelin Green Star-rated restos thrown in for good measure. Recent Time Out research asked our readers what they would be interested in doing to become more sustainable and help save the planet. The top two results focused on food and eating out, with 68% saying they’d choose restaurants with locally sourced ingredients and 67% saying they’d make choices based on venues that employ reduced food waste practices. We’ve done the leg work to give you great options for both. Here are the best sustainable restaurants in London for eco-conscious diners. RECOMMENDED: The best vegan restaurants in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

If you're looking for some good old-fashioned glamour with your drinking, a cosy London pub might not cut it. You need to pull up a shiny stool at one of London’s best hotel bars where the service is seamless, the clientele is classy and every last drink is a showstopper. Sure, you’ll pay for the luxury, but you deserve a treat every once in a while. So here’s a list of London hotel bars where it’ll be worth making your Monzo wince. RECOMMENDED: The best hotels in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Year round, London’s restaurants and breweries are ablaze with barbecues and smokey, live-fire cookery. Here’s our selection of the best grills the capital has to offer including street food hot spots as well as taproom pop-ups. Here you’ll find everything from Jamaican jerk and Scandi-style wood-fired cookery to Texas platters and Korean BBQ. Want to DIY during the summer? Then here’s a list of the London parks that will let you set up your very own grill. And if you want advice from an expert, it’s over to chef and food writer Melissa Thompson on her fave BBQ spots in the city. RECOMMENDED: A guide to the best fried chicken in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. 

Dalston may be known for its buzzing bars and thriving nightlife, but its dining-out scene is just as thrilling. The area boasts killer kebabs – thanks to several of London’s best Turkish restaurants – alongside global cuisine and tons of excellent cafés serving up mouthwatering and hangover-curing breakfasts. From Angelina (a chic Italo-Japanese mash-up) and the Little Duck Picklery (a ‘fermenting kitchen’ related to Ducksoup) to Dusty Knuckle Bakery, there's something for everyone. Try reliable old faves: Andu Café (Ethiopian, vegan and BYO) and Del 74 (a garish, grungy Mexican bar/taqueria) if you don't know where to start your culinary quest.      RECOMMENDED: The very best restaurants in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. So east London it hurts? Follow our Time Out East London WhatsApp channel for the latest news, openings and goss from the coolest bit of the capital. (Yeah, we said it.)

Peckham locals have always been proud of the area’s brand: a melting pot of cultural vibrancy, eccentric individuals, and an artsy, young DIY crowd thanks to nearby Goldsmiths University and Camberwell College of Arts. It rivals Dalston and all those other East End upstarts as the place to hang out, and it’s the perfect spot for new restaurants to find their feet. Here are some of the best in the area, as well as a host of notable places to eat just down the road in Camberwell, too.  RECOMMENDED: The best 50 restaurants in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Sometimes a menu item leaps up at you in the same way that a slobbering puppy might lick your mouth seconds after you’ve been introduced. At Tasca, that item is the jambon beurre gilda. The mere suggestion of the queen of pintxos in a daring tryst with the prince of sandwiches had me in raptures. Be still my beating epiglottis.  Was the dish as good as it was in my head? Better. A silver toothpick of nubbly, caperberry-brined pickle nestling against a sharp guindilla pepper and a dollop of espelette butter wrapped in ham, it was melty and meaty, and tangy all at once. Like a vintage John Waters movie, it’s a bit much, but that’s the whole point.   Who would be so bold as to conjure up this outrageous offering? That would be head chef Josh Dallaway, once of Sager + Wilde, working alongside former Bistro Freddie manager and sommelier, Sinead Murdoch. After munching their way around Portugal and Spain, the couple came back to east London with bellies full of tapas and heads full of ideas. In a year-long residency at Cav – a newly-opened wine bar in the railway arches of Paradise Row – Tasca hits all the 2025 buzz points; there’s bold Basque cookery, an embarrassment of ferments, and a cocktail menu that features a couture martini fit for the racks at Dover Street Market (theirs comes with dill and anchovy oil).  Like a vintage John Waters movie, it’s a bit much, but that’s the whole point Yet there’s something about the playful Tasca that makes it more appealing than other Iber

Think of the balmy Costa Del Sol, and you think of Marbella. Since the 1950s it’s been a tourist hotspot thanks to the promise of (almost) guaranteed sunshine and a sweet subtropical climate. Because of this, there are plenty of places to stay in this buzzy beach town – so many that you might end up paralysed by choice. If you’ve got the cash, then El Fuerte Marbella makes that decision a whole lot easier. This grande dame of the Costa Del Sol has been there since the start of this particular boom in Spanish tourism, opening in 1957 – back before the skyline was dominated by highrise blocks – and securing itself an enviable beachfront spot. Over the years the family-run hotel has just got bigger, with a complete refurb in 2023. It’s right in the middle of town, with the charming old town just a five minute walk away.  Why stay at El Fuerte Marbella? If you like things fancy, you’ll like El Fuerte. It’s a large, luxury hotel and their recent refurb still feels spanking brand new, with lots of putty pink Mediterranean tiling. Of the 266 rooms and suites, 78 come under the ‘Selected’ banner, which is basically a high-end hotel within the hotel. It’s all-inclusive but not as you know it; book a ‘Selected’ room (of course, they are more expensive) and you’ll have exclusive access to an all-day space with free snacks and booze, as well as a separate breakfast room to keep you away from the riff-raff. There’s also a lovely rooftop for all-day sunbathing and dips in the pool, which t

Think of the balmy Costa Del Sol, and you think of Marbella. Since the 1950s it’s been a tourist hotspot thanks to the promise of (almost) guaranteed sunshine and a sweet subtropical climate. Because of this, there are plenty of places to stay in this buzzy beach town – so many that you might end up paralysed by choice. If you’ve got the cash, then El Fuerte Marbella makes that decision a whole lot easier. This grande dame of the Costa Del Sol has been there since the start of this particular boom in Spanish tourism, opening in 1957 – back before the skyline was dominated by highrise blocks – and securing itself an enviable beachfront spot. Over the years the family-run hotel has just got bigger, with a complete refurb in 2023. It’s right in the middle of town, with the charming old town just a five minute walk away.  Why stay at El Fuerte Marbella? If you like things fancy, you’ll like El Fuerte. It’s a large, luxury hotel and their recent refurb still feels spanking brand new, with lots of putty pink Mediterranean tiling. Of the 266 rooms and suites, 78 come under the ‘Selected’ banner, which is basically a high-end hotel within the hotel. It’s all-inclusive but not as you know it; book a ‘Selected’ room (of course, they are more expensive) and you’ll have exclusive access to an all-day space with free snacks and booze, as well as a separate breakfast room to keep you away from the riff-raff. There’s also a lovely rooftop for all-day sunbathing and dips in the pool, which t

This glam hotel hideaway has the enviable claim of being the ‘longest-surviving cocktail bar in London’. A veritable Joan Collins of sophisticated bars, the American Bar opened in 1893, and has taken up its current location just off the Savoy’s grand lobby since 1904. The room itself feels like stepping into the pages of the Great Gatsby (but minus the existential dread); all grey and silver, with a grand piano plonked in the middle of the room, and Frank Sinatra’s cigar lighter casually displayed next to Noel Coward’s powder compact. Classic cocktails are available (including the Fernet-Branca-addled Hanky Panky, which was actually created at The Savoy back in 1903), but it would be foolish not to dip into bar manager Andrea Di Chiara and head bartender Angelo Sparvoli’s list of curated drinks inspired by the hotel’s history. The delicate Touch of Pink is inspired by Marlene Dietrich, who would request 12 pink roses in her Savoy suite, and mixes gin, the perfume-like Muyu Jasmine Verte and lemon, scattered with perfectly pink rose petals. If you’re after something a little punchier, the magnificent Moon Landing combines mezcal, Luxardo Bitter Bianco, Cocchi Americano and Muyu Vetiver Gris into something deeply herbal and smokey, while Five O’Clock Somewhere is a heady, tomato-based take on a martini.   Time Out tip The bar’s high-end offering of vintage and rare spirits, means that, if you want, there is a £5000 sazerac on offer. In more practical advice, it’s walk-ins only,

When it comes to iconic London venues, the Hippodrome is hard to beat. Built in 1900 by Frank Matcham (your go-to Victorian-era architect for big, ballsy music halls), it started life as London’s campest venue, with a 100,000-gallon water tank through which boats could enter the stage as well as a gallery for flying acrobats. Over 100 years later and not much has changed – things here are still furiously flamboyant. The closest thing London has to Las Vegas, it’s open 24/7, and spread like glittery eyeshadow over seven floors; with three casinos, a poker floor, Magic Mike Live, nine bars, and the Heliot Steak House – named after lion tamer Claire Heliot, who performed at the Hippodrome and wowed the crowds by feeding her beasts hunks of raw meat. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a Temu George Clooney in Ocean’s 11, Heliot Steak House is where to come. Sit yourself down on a balcony table overlooking the rattling roulette wheels and blackjack tables, as distractions don’t get much better than a hedge fund manager losing his first born child’s private school tuition fees as you chomp on prime cuts. The space itself is all sleazy-chic, with 1990s chrome and leather chairs, while the menu is packed with classic steakhouse offerings.  As a starter you can’t go wrong with the shrimp cocktail, with juicy, fat prawns and a potent, US-style horseradish sauce. USDA steaks start at £39 and go up to £99 for Japanese wagyu sirloin. When it comes to toppings, the spicy chimichurri packs

Over the past decade or two, Joshua Tree has morphed from a relative wilderness to a buzzy destination that seems to be every L.A. hipster’s weekend break of choice. But despite the influx of visitors, this stretch of the desert still makes for a delightfully rugged alternative to glossy Palm Springs.  Just a couple of hours’ drive from Los Angeles (if you don’t get trapped in brutal traffic on the 10), it still feels vast and limitless, and the moody national park is one of Southern California’s greatest treasures. There were just a handful of motels here a few years back—including iconic 1960s-era spots Joshua Tree Inn and Harmony Motel—but now the place is awash with options. One of the most spectacular is this AutoCamp. A Hilton-affiliated Airstream park with sites across the country, including Yosemite, Cape Cod, the Catskills and Zion, this is glamping at its slickest. AutoCamp Joshua Tree is home to 47 shiny silver trailers across 25 acres, and a handful of more accessible tiny homes.  Unlike some other Joshua Tree properties, AutoCamp is super easy to find. We can see the glistening silver Airstreams from the main road and you pull into the roomy park via an electronic gate. Why stay at AutoCamp Joshua Tree? Anyone who might feel too addicted to home comforts in order to really commit to the great unknown will appreciate just how safe and secure this place feels. The location is ideal; minutes from the many amenities of Joshua Tree and only a short drive to the entran

Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver’s restaurant – now the heart of a mini-empire with branches in Spitalfields and Marylebone as well as bakeries and a wine dealership – has been praised to the skies for reacquainting the British with the full possibilities of native produce, and especially anything gutsy and offal-ish. Perhaps as influential, however, has been its almost defiantly casual style: a Michelin-starred restaurant for people who run from the very idea. The mezzanine dining room in this former Smithfield smokehouse has bare white walls, battered floorboards and tables lined up canteen-style; the downstairs bar, with superb snacks and main menu highlights, is equally basic. The staff are able to chat without allowing anything to go off-track. St John’s cooking is famously full-on, but also sophisticated, concocting flavours that are delicate as well as rich. Cuttlefish and onions was extraordinary, arriving in a supremely deep-flavoured ink-based sauce with a hint of mint, as was perfectly cooked tongue served with fantastic horseradish. This is powerful cooking, so if you go for a full dinner, including the great neo-traditional puds, leave time for digestion. Help it along with a punchy Dr Henderson cocktail, Fergus's powerful combination of crème de menthe and Fernet Branca. Wines – all French, many under St John’s own label, are on the pricey side, but you can also order good beers from the attached bar, which many diners prefer for its more casual vibe.  Time

South Ken has been waiting for something like The Lavery for years.  Your safest culinary bet in SW7 used to be the Las Vegas-style strip of middle-class bakery chains (Paul, Gail’s, Bread Ahead etc) or Profumo roleplay at Daquise, but into this relative wasteland now steps this effortless, Med-leaning dining room. On the first floor of a stucco-fronted, grand Georgian townhouse, The Lavery is part of a larger, slightly spurious-sounding ‘events space’, named after the Irish painter Sir John Lavery, who once called this lavish Grade-II building home. We can’t really get a handle on what these events are, when they might happen, or where they might happen (is it simply a WeWork for toffs?) but the restaurant itself is a delight. Big windows, polished floors and massive mirrors give it an air of Versailles by way of Fortnum & Mason or a high-end museum cafe, which is fitting, seeing as it’s right in the shadow of the Natural History Museum.  Saintly asparagus slathered with decadent fonduta is the good cop/bad cop of dishes Not just a pretty space, there’s a hardcore hospitality taskforce behind the launch, with former Toklas head chef Yohei Furuhashi cooking up a seasonally shifting menu that’s not a million miles away from that of his artsy alma mater. Here, food shunts around the edges of Italian and Spanish cuisine, but pulls from homegrown suppliers, with the likes of chalk stream trout with wild garlic aioli; nettle taglioni and Tamworth pork chop with Amalfi lemon on off

We need more Maubys in the world. It is – with only a small hint of hyperbole – the perfect neighbourhood restaurant. Unpretentious, affordable, friendly, and uncannily delicious, Mauby is the kind of place you could happily dine at once a week until the very end of your days.   First, a little background. Mauby began life as Jerk Off BBQ, a West Indian-inspired pop-up that roamed south London cooking up Jamaican-style barbecue before settling down in Deptford. Mauby saw its affable founders – Daniel and Heleena – change tact. After a successful crowdfunder, Mauby opened in the summer of 2024 in a former fish and chip shop. Though Caribbean flavours wouldn’t be entirely off the menu, the plan was for a wilfully eclectic offering of sturdy, seasonal plates and a cosy, sit-down atmosphere for locals. Just downwind of one of south London’s more iconic Wetherspoons, the Brockley Barge, and in little under a year, they’ve triumphed.  It’s a masterclass in nailing simple, effective dishes and doing them with pride  Unlike Tollington’s in Finsbury Park – which has barely touched the former chippy facade - this small space has shed all signs of the old inhabitants, and is light and airy, with big glass windows and a couple of thriving houseplants. Breezy soca plays on the stereo and the concrete floor is splattered artfully with paint. Wooden school chairs cluster around cosy tables, and there are hessian-sack cushions (more comfortable than you’d think), and a vase of fresh tulips

In a previous life, The Duck and Rice was a pub. Not a fancy pub, but a flat roof 1960s pub that started out as the King of Corsica and by the 2000s had become The Endurance. In 2014 it took on a new guise; as a glossy spot for dim sum and Cantonese cuisine under the auspices of Alan Yau; founder of Wagamama, Hakkasan and the neighbouring Yauatcha. This is a pub by way of Dubai; sleeker than Soho’s many carpeted boozers (the ever-enticing Blue Posts, opposite, for example) and swankier than the restaurants in nearby Chinatown. Upstairs in the ‘restaurant’ (downstairs is more ‘pub’-adjacent, but the same menu applies) house-y music bangs and it’s busy but not hectic.   When it comes to the menu, it’s all about the classics. There’s crispy duck and pancakes, sesame prawn toast, and all the top chicken permutations; kung po, sweet and sour, and chow mein. The Duck & Rice isn’t about deep Cantonese cuts, it’s about crowd pleasers done with a hearty flair in a room where you can sink brimming pints of pilsner direct from steampunk-style copper tanks on site. Our salt and pepper squid is super succulent, accessorised with hunks of potent garlic and soft spring onion, and soft shell crab comes in a creamy, mild curry sauce that’s perfect for spice virgins. Kung po chicken is salty - all the better for sinking more beer to.  Duck & Rice does decent dishes in a fun setting, and the mixture of Chinese restaurant and posh pub is inspired. Consider this the kind of place where you can im

 

Named after Nicholas Culpeper, the seventeenth-century English herbalist, who lived in nearby Spitalfields – is a tonic for any East Ender. The ‘seasonal and local food’ mantra is taken to silly heights at this gastropub in the heart of London’s East End, where salad leaves and some herbs for the kitchen are grown in planters on the roof garden. It’s a bit of fun – and maybe a bit of on-trend window-dressing too. No roof garden can keep a busy kitchen in produce. But ignore the pathos of such tokenism, because everything else about this pub – drinks, service, ambience and, above all, the excellent dishes – towers over any commitment to high-level horticulture. The Culpeper (formerly the Princess Alice) occupies a corner site facing Petticoat Lane Market. It was a Truman’s pub and remains a handsome Victorian inn, with the brewery signage preserved. There’s a ground floor pub, a first floor restaurant and a garden rooftop open from the spring through the summer. The latest owners have improved the frontage, laid beautiful parquet floors, installed a curvaceous bar and added industrial-style lighting – the result is a treat, fitting perfectly with both building and location. Time Out tip Thinking of having an absolutely massive night out? The Cupeper functions as a bijou hotel, with a couple of classy rooms on the second floor.  

Maps make everything easier. Imagine trying to check out a restaurant you’d never been to before, in a part of town you’d never been to before, without a map. Impossible! That’s why we’re grateful for the good people at the National Fish and Chip Awards. They might smell faintly of batter and vinegar, but they’ve got together an extremely helpful map, which shows you all the best chippys in and around London.  There are only two spots within the M25 on the map, Stones Fish and Chips in Byfleet and Brockley’s Rock in Brockley (the latter was named London’s best chippy last year). But if you’re happy to venture further afield for the sake of heroic haddock, then it’ll also show you how to get to Seafare Guildford, Harrisons Fish & Chip Co. in Oxford, Newington Fish Bar in Ramsgate, The Hook of Halstead in Clacton on Sea and Mike’s Traditional Fish & Chips in Eastleigh.  Sure, some of them might take a while to get to, but what’s more British than going on a proper day trip in search of the perfect portion of fish and chips? See the full list of winners from the 2025 National Fish and Chip Awards here and you can check out the national chippy map in full here. London’s best fish and chips, according to Time Out. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. 

Enjoy drinking in classy places? Then you’ll like the Pinnacle Guide, which is kind of like the Michelin Guide, but for bars instead of restaurants.  It only launched last year, but the cocktail crowd is already taking it very seriously. Pinnacle hands out one, two or three ‘Pins’ to bars that are either ‘excellent’, ‘outstanding’ or ‘exceptional’. A bunch of new one and two Pin bars have just been announced, including four in London. The newly anointed one-Pin bars are Equal Parts in Hackney – which you can also find out Time Out’s own Best Bars in London list – as well as The Bar Below, which is part of Hide restaurant in Piccadilly, and The K Bar in South Kensington’s The Kensington hotel, which is one of our Best Bars in Kensington.   Photograph: Kioku Sake Bar Just one London bar was newly given two-Pins; Kioku Sake Bar at The OWO on Whitehall, another spot that you can find in Time Out’s our best bars in London list. This also means that The OWO building now contains three bars that feature in the Pinnacle Guide, with Kioku joining the two-Pin Spy Bar and the one-Pin Guard’s Bar. It’s now the most ‘Pinned’ venue in the world. Check out our full list of the best hotel bars in London if that’s your kind of scene.   The three-PIN category is still solely represented by Lyaness, a multi-award winning bar in London’s Sea Containers Hotel owned by mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana and known for its clever-clever use of ingredients.  All the London bars in the Pinnacle Guide Th

All’s been a bit quiet on the Big Mamma Group front in London for a while.  The European restaurant group known for its lavish mega-trattorias have been busy opening up its first UK spots outside the capital, with spots in Birmingham and Manchester. But now Big Mamma is returning to London for the company’s first new restaurant launch in the city since Carlotta opened two years ago.  Barbarella will open this June in Canary Wharf. In-keeping with the group’s ultra camp styling, the waterside spot will be inspired by 1970s Italian cinema and be just as outrageous as the other Big Mamma restaurants in London; Gloria, Carlotta, Circolo Popolare, Ave Mario and Jacuzzi. Expect a mirrored glass bar, a chrome lounge, and a jungle theme. When it comes to food, the kitchen is headed up by Roma-born chef Marco Rastelli. There’ll be thin and crispy Ruota di Carretto pizzas, as well as stunty fresh pasta, such as a one-metre long spaghettone. You’ll be able to order from a dedicated gelati menu on the terrace and there will also be the biggest-ever cocktail menu from any Big Mamma restaurant yet. The pistachio espresso martini has our attention.  Barbarella opens in June at YY Building, 30 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, E14 5HX. The best Italian restaurants in London. Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.  Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow o

The future of Veeraswamy, the legendary Indian restaurant which opened back back in 1926, hangs in the balance. The restaurant – which is Britain’s oldest curry house– is currently embroiled in a dispute with its landlord, which has said that its lease will not be renewed. Based in Victory House on Regent Street, the building is owned by the Crown Estate, a property management company which belongs to His Majesty the King.    The Times reports that Veeraswamy’s lease expires in June. Ranjit Mathrani, co-owner of MW Eat, the company which runs Veeraswamy, said the news ‘came out of the blue’, adding: ‘I think they’ve come to the view that it’s too tiresome having a restaurant there, they want it to be all offices… They don’t care a bugger for history.’ Mathrani is looking for a new site for the restaurant but has taken the Crown Estate to court in order to get the lease extended until a location has been found. A spokesperson for the Crown Estate commented: ‘We need to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House. This includes a major upgrade to the offices and improving the entrance to make it more accessible. ‘Due to the limited options available in this listed building we need to remove the entrance to the restaurant, which means we will not be able to offer Veeraswamy an extension when their lease expires.’ Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in t

Attention! One of our favourite breweries in London is facing an uncertain future.  Blondies Brewery – the Leyton outpost of Clapton metal bar Blondies – has been subjected to a licensing review after a ‘small number of complaints’ about noise from the venue. ‘With no support from our landlord or local council, our Leyton venue is at risk of losing the right to play any music at all,’ explains the team behind the bar. ‘That includes live performances and recorded music, from full band nights to DJs, playlists, and background sound.’ The venue has now started a crowdfunding campaign to raise £100,000 for soundproofing and site improvements, in order to get the building up to spec. They need to raise £20,000 this month to deal with other urgent costs, such as loss of earnings due to cancelling events. At the time of writing almost £9,000 has been raised.  The original Blondies was opened in 2015 by siblings Sharmaine and Verity Cox. Over the past decade bands such as Mastodon, Machine Head, Bullet for My Valentine and Parkway Drive have played the small, 60-capacity room. Blondies Brewery followed in 2023, offering coffee and cafe during the day and then morphing into a friendly, heavy metal Valhalla as sun sets.  The sisters added that the threat to the brewery could also affect the original bar. ‘The knock-on effect would reach far beyond one location – our Clapton site would also be at risk of closing as everything we have made and borrowed from that venue is now all under t

Hungry for tapas, totopos and sopes? Good, because we’ve got a brand new list of the best Mexican restaurants in London. Our extremely tasty top 20 was compiled by Daniela Toporek, a London-based, Mexican-American food and travel journalist who has eaten her way across the capital in search of the most authentic and delicious Mexican cuisine. The list features food market taco stands, Michelin-starred restaurants, casual canteens and much, much more. The list is topped by Cavita in Marylebone. Daniela praised the restaurant’s ‘phenomenal tacos’, but also said it’s ‘an excellent place to stray from the traditional eats and savour some of Mexico’s more unknown dishes. Cavita opened in 2022 and is the project of Mexico City-born chef Adriana Cavita, and features a menu of ‘elevated street food’, much of it inspired by her grandmother, who had a roadside food stall in Azcapotzalco. Other restaurants to feature in the top 20 include Stoke Newington’s Sonora Taqueria, London Bridge’s Santo Remedio, Leytonstone’s Homies on Donkeys, Walthamstow’s Comalera and south London mini-chain Taca Tacos. Read Time Out’s full list of the best Mexican restaurants in London here.    Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.

Thousands of nominations have rolled in for the title of Britain's Best Local Restaurant 2025. Voting for the Good Food Guide’s annual ranking of the finest neighbourhood restaurants in the country closes on April 16, but currently there’s one London restaurant in the mix to scoop the main prize: Cinder in swanky St John’s Wood.  The Good Food Guide has released the names of the 13 restaurants leading the charge for the title of Britain's Best Local Restaurant 2025. Alongside Cinder, there frontrunners include Fino in Cromer, Porter & Rye in Glasgow, Skosh in York, and Matt’s Kitchen in Bruton. Nominations are still open and the full list of 100 will be revealed later this year. May the best resto win!  Cinder specialises in ‘food cooked by fire’, and head chef/owner Jake Finn is at the helm. The St John’s Wood branch is the second location for Cinder; the first opened in Belsize Park in 2021. The seasonal menu features the likes of BBQ octopus with potato salad and pickled cucumber, mackerel with avocado and chilli crunch and chicken leg, with harrisa yoghurt and herb salad. Dishes are cooked over coals in a Josper oven.  Finn is a regular at Meatopia and previously worked at La Petite Maison and The Ritz. Cinder began live as a home delivery service during lockdown back in 2020. Cinder, 5 St John's Wood High St, NW8 7NG. The best restaurants in London, according to Time Out. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just f

This month brings with it a flurry of new restaurants, pubs and bars, including some well-established London spots keen on branching out. April sees pickle plate paradise Bubala opening its third location in King’s Cross, while Bleecker Burger will launch a new permanent home on Baker Street. Soho’s buzzy Cantonese pub kitchen Duck and Rice is opening up restaurant number two at Battersea Power Station and, breaking loose from Peckham, there’ll be a new 081 Pizzeria on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. Finally, a second branch of Claude Bosi’s lovely little French bistro Josephine will be coming to Marylebone.  Here’s the best of the rest. The best new London restaurant openings in April 2025 Parasol 1. Parasol, Dalston Remember The Nest, or, if you’re even older, Barden’s Boudoir? The excellent basement club below what is now the Red Hand is finally getting the relaunch it deserves. Welcome to the scene, Parasol. A 150 capacity cocktail bar from Andy Kerr (founder of Discount Suit Company and The Sun Tavern) and Tom Gibson (Ruby’s, Corrochio’s, The Bluecoats), expect what they’re calling a ‘1980s NYC style mutant disco’ vibe, classy cocktails and regular big name DJs. It opens April 31.  36 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7XJ Lateef 2. Tom Brown at The Capital, Knightsbridge After shuttering his Michelin-starred Hackney Wick spot Cornerstone last year, Tom Brown is returning to the space where he honed his craft. On April 10 he launches his new flagship at what was Outlaw’s

Finally, Yard Sale has done the right thing and collaborated with Time Out’s number one restaurant in London, Mambow. The Clapton restaurant’s chef-founder Abby Lee has created a Malaysian-inspired pizza inspired by one of Mambow’s signature dishes. It comes topped with black pepper pork curry, pickled green chillies, red onion, and fresh coriander. There will also be a pot of green sambal mayo on the side, for your crust dipping pleasure.  The special pizza will be available from Wednesday April 2 until Tuesday April 29, and you’ll be able to bag it from all 13 Yard Sale locations in London, as well as ordering it for collection and takeaway. The latest Yard Sale openings are in Earlsfield, Bermondsey and Tufnell Park, joining branches in Clapton, Crystal Palace, Walthamstow and Hackney – as well as all manner of other locations across the city.  Photograph: Justin De Souza This is the latest in a long line of Yard Sale collabs with some of London’s best restaurants and chefs, including Tayyabs in Whitechapel, Stoke Newington’s Sonora Taqueria and Chuku’s in Tottenham.   Check out the official Time Out list of the 20 best pizza places in London for more inspiration. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.

A brand new list of the best bakeries in the UK has been released – and eight of the top 50 from the Good Food Guide’s picks are right here in London.  Quite a few of them are also in our very own list of Time Out’s best bakeries in London, including Dusty Knuckle, Bunhead Bakery, Toad, Toklas and E5 Bakehouse. Here’s a little info on what you can expect from each of them Bunhead Bakery, Herne Hill  This Palestinian-British bakery opened last year and was an instant hit. Come for the buns; lovely, sticky hunks of sweet bread, from pink-glazed rose and cardamom swirls to a juicy baklava-esque take on proceedings, as well as one inspired by knafeh, drenched with syrup and studded with wisps of shredded phyllo and rose petals. There are savoury options too, a ‘salty’ bun stuffed with zingy za’atar and crumbles of feta or a vegan-friendly musakhan with spiced red onion and pine nuts.  E5 Bakehouse, Hackney  This archway is a stone’s throw from London Fields. Indoors it’s quietly buzzy from dawn to dusk with informal tables of drinkers and diners feasting on delicious vegetable-forward lunches, very good coffee and wine, and of course the legendary E5 loaves, buns and cakes.  Eric’s, East Dulwich Run by former Flor star Helen Evans, Eric’s opened in 2023 and swiftly became fancy East Dulwich’s go-to spot for croissants. Open from 8am until they sell out (which is often sooner than you’d like), this is another bakery where queuing isn’t just to be endured, it’s to be expected.  Hea

March was a toughie, with some of our favourite places in London to eat and drink closing their doors for good. Pour one out for these legendary venues. Photograph: Graham Turner 1. The Gun, Hackney We’ve already banged on about how much of a loss this is, but we see no reason to stop now. The Gun wasn’t just east London’s perfect party pub, it was an incubator for some of the best cookery talent in the capital. It was at The Gun that Ling Ling’s perfected their Sunday roast and where Rake finessed their fabulously earthy fried foods before moving onto The Gun’s sister boozer The Compton Arms. You will be missed.  2. Dina Wines, Leytonstone There are still a couple more days to cram into Leyton’s lovely Dina Wines, home of some of the tastiest chef residencies in the east. Their last service is on April 5. ‘It has been 4 years of the most joyous memories… customers have told me that this is the best damn low key wine bar in the world and in this moment of reflection, I’ll take that,’ they wrote on Instagram. Jean-Martin Louw and Katy Severson will take over the 289 High Rd Leytonstone venue at the end of April ‘under a new guise but sharing the same values and community focus’. We’re thirsty to see how it shapes up.  Brilliant 3. The Brilliant, Southall Here’s another one with a couple more days left. After half a century, this Southall mainstay of Punjabi cuisine (with a Kenyan twist) is set to shut on April 7. Founded by Gulu Anand in 1975, The Brilliant was named by K

Looking for the perfect bowl of phở? Look no further, as we have just revealed Time Out’s brand new list of the top 20 very best Vietnamese restaurants in London. Written by our expert, Thuy Hoang, a British Vietnamese chef and food writer (as well as a quarter finalist on BBC1’s MasterChef), Thuy’s list is an exhaustive, delicious and detailed look at Vietnamese food in London, and is topped by Soho’s classic Cay Tre. Run by Hiếu Bùi, the godfather of London’s Vietnamese food movement, Thuy praised Cay Tre for its phở. ‘The signature bone marrow version is particularly notable; the bowl comes spectacularly topped with a marrowbone, which has been cooked in broth, then grilled under a robata,’ she wrote.  Cay Tre first opened on Old Street in 2003 before launching their Soho branch in 2011 on Dean Street. Thuy also recommended the restaurant’s Hanoi platter (bún đậu mắm tôm), a northern Vietnamese speciality which comes with blood sausage and a fermented shrimp dipping sauce.  The list also includes a host of family-run Vietnamese restaurants, such as Eat Vietnam 1 in Deptford, Song Hong in Battersea, Sông Quê Café in Hoxton, and Huong Vi Viet in Camberwell.  The newer Dzô Viet Kitchen in Islington also features in the Top 20, and which Thuy praised for ‘carving new, innovative ground’.  You can read the full list of Time Out’s best Vietnamese restaurants in London here. 10 of the UK’s best new restaurants are in London, according to Condé Nast Traveller. Get the latest and