Leonie Cooper

If you know where to look, there are some great places for wine, spirits, craft beer and beyond in buzzy King’s Cross. Take a look at our list of the best places to drink in the historic – and revamped – neighbourhood, from old-school spots and elegant DJ bars to wonderful wine caves. Try the bracingly hip Sweeties at The Standard, or the majestic Gothic Bar, which you'll find at another local landmark hotel, after visiting one of the best restaurants in King’s Cross.  RECOMMENDED: These are the best King’s Cross pubs.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Whether you're after old school fish and chips, arty cafes, fancy fine dining or down-to-earth little neighbourhood eateries, you'll find it in Holborn and nearby Bloomsbury. The area might not have the most glamorous of reputations, but you only have to stroll these historic streets for a few moments to find some seriously good eating, with none of the hype of Soho or manic pre-theatre rush of Covent Garden. RECOMMENDED: Check out London's 50 Best Restaurants. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

From classy gastropubs to full-on fast food, Kentish Town restaurants are making a name for themselves. This lovely north-west part of London is no longer simply known as a great place for cheap chippies and shouty boozers (though they're both still available, and thriving, too). Here's where you can go to grab some lovely pub food, perfect pizzas, trad Turkish and so much more. RECOMMENDED: The 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.

It’s time to bellow your favourite anthems surrounded by similarly uninhibited friends. London’s best karaoke bars provide the perfect spaces for hairbrush heroes and air-guitar maestros to realise their pop-star dreams, whether in a private room with mates or in front of an audience of strangers. Cue up your tune and step up to the mic at one of these joints that make embarrassing yourself in public fun. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best karaoke songs.  

Battle through the chain boozers of Upper Street and you'll find a host of charming pubs all across Islington, from Canonbury and Barnsbury to De Beauvoir and Highbury. Whether you're in the mood for a proper old-school palace of pints or a slap-up gastropub with fancy food, there's a watering hole for you in Angel and Islington. Here are some of finest pubs in the area, and if you want to find something a little further afield, then these are the best pubs in nearby Dalston, as well as the best pubs in Stoke Newington and the best pubs in Hackney. RECOMMENDED: Don't forget to check out Islington's best restaurants.    Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.  

London might well be the world’s greatest food city, but in the midst of a cost of living crisis, it’s not like any of us can eat out as much as we’d like to. So welcome to our list of London’s best cheap eats. Every highlighted dish here costs £10 or less and variety is the name of the game – so expect London staples like fish & chips and pie & mash, but also discover the best bargain places for burek, dosa, shawarma, naan, jianbing, buns, baps, doubles and bao. These places give you the kind of buzz only a bargain bite can deliver, while you can relish the fact that you’re supporting small independent London businesses when they need you the most. So hit the streets – feasting at some of London’s best restaurants needn’t empty your wallet. RECOMMENDED: The best vegan 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. Also check out Time Out's great offers on some of the captial's funnest food. 

It's a treat to be veggie in London, and there are plenty of fantastic vegetarian restaurants, cafés and street-food stalls that cater to those who want to feast without the flesh, but still scoff butter, cheese and eggs. Read on and you'll find down-to-earth veggie cafés, meat-free curry houses, healthy restaurants and swish spots that'll convince even hardened carnivores to give peas a chance. We've even included a few places that aren't fully veggie, but offer a great vegetarian menu, like outdoor BBQ spot Acme Fire Cult. RECOMMENDED: Go fully plant-based with 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.  

Afternoon tea is what makes a trip to London truly iconic – even if you already live here. You’ll find some of the best at London’s chicest hotels, restaurants, and art galleries - and we’ve worked out what makes an afternoon tea a truly memorable experience. It'’s not just perfect pastries, the most elegant of teeny tiny cakes and finger sarnies with the crusts cut off, but swish service, the option to have something boozy and bubbly and a picture-perfect, characterful room in which to enjoy it all. From The Ritz to a Caribbean restaurant in Walthamstow, the National Gallery and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, there's truly something for every cake-munching tea-drinker in this round-up of London's best afternoon tea spreads.  Expect to pay in the region of £50 to £80 for the pleasure per person, but you'll be in for a treat if you go with one of our recommendations. Remember, many of the teas have set times for seatings, so booking in advance is always a good idea. RECOMMENDED: The best hotels in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor and knows all about tiny little cucumber sandwiches and drinking Champagne at 3pm. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. The hottest new openings, the tastiest tips, the spiciest reviews: we’re serving it all on our London restaurants WhatsApp channel. Follow us now.

Do you like having to yell at your friends when you go out drinking together? Fine, it’s your shout. We like to cater for everybody, so we’ve put together a list of places where talking is easier – ideal for those quiet catch-ups or maybe even date night. Of course, any bar can get a bit noisy if there’s a large and rowdy crowd in. But these places are all top bets if you don’t want to resort to yelling at your mates or dates. 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.

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 12 months and been visited by our hungry critics. So go forth and take inspo from this list, which features everything from mighty modern Korean cookery at Miga in Hackney, Brit/Thai mashups at AngloThai in Marylebone, deep fried olives at Sesta in London Fields, hip fish bar Tollington’s in Finsbury Park, Oma and Agora’s Greek-ish cuisine in Borough Market, rightly hyped Mayfair spot The Dover, the Whitehall wonder that is Kioku, British bistro classiness at Sael in St James’s, and fire and fish at Lita in Marylebone. 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.

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.

Looking for a traditional Christmas meal – aka, the roast with the most – but without all the faff? Feasting on December 25 definitely doesn't mean getting up at 6am to brine your turkey, half-destroying your kitchen and then washing up into the wee hours. London's full of great restaurants that'll do you proud, whether you're after fancy hotel dining rooms with elaborate set menus, a cosy pub, or down-to-earth curry house feasting. Here are the best places to eat out on Christmas Day in London. If you fancy a cosy pub, then these are the best pubs open on Christmas Day in London. RECOMMENDED: Things to do on Christmas Day in London.  The information on this page was correct at time of publication, but please check with venues when you book.

A faceless new build in the shadow of the Shard might be a strange place to expect innovation, but they do say there’s nothing as exciting as a blank canvas. Painting culinary masterpieces are Woongchul Park and Bomee Ki, a married couple who met when studying at Le Cordon Bleu in London and opened Sollip in August 2020.  The idea is simple; Korean flavours (think ferments and assorted seaweeds) made with British ingredients using French techniques, with a hint of molecular gastronomy, and the execution is deft. Things begin artfully, with an incredibly rich, savoury and moody looking mushroom martini, garnished with a pickled ‘shroom. It is perhaps the most grown-up cocktail within the M25.  Daikon tarte tatin is an ultra earthy, Wicker Man-worthy dish served with burnt hay-infused toasted barley At eight-ish courses, Sollip’s Michelin-star scoring tasting menu opens with a creamy, tiny truffle tartare, an immaculate rendition of the spicy raw burger we know and love, before a small bowl filled with a delicately cheesy and sharp sheep's milk and green-pea foam. More bowl food follows; a soup-y baby artichoke milk with lobster, skin-stripped tomatoes, and blanched almonds that opens our eyes to a hitherto unseen combo of kings. Turns out that lobster and strawberry make extremely complimentary bedfellows. May they be very happy together. A slice of daikon tarte tatin is ultra earthy, a Wicker Man-worthy dish served with some burnt hay-infused toasted barley and roasted potato

Any restaurant that follows the doctrine of Warren Zevon is alright by us. Referencing the late rock’n’roll prophet’s snack-based coda to his life, ‘Enjoy every sandwich’, say Cafe Mondo on their Instagram profile, Previously (and still) in residence at the nearby Grove House Tavern, Mondo Sando has graduated from pub snack purveyor to late-night sarnie bar. Far more than the sum of its parts, Cafe Mondo is not merely a place to grab a sandwich and go. This a place to linger, to drink, and have fun without being trapped by the fanciness and fastidiousness of a Proper Restaurant. Somewhere in-between classic American diner and British greasy spoon – with a touch of NYC deli thrown in for good measure – Cafe Mondo might seem like a casual place, but the food is anything but.  Their mighty patty melt is a truck stop favourite delivered in Downton Abbey fashion You can get a sandwich, sure – and in the daytime that’s the move, with fish finger, egg salad, and pork and greens on offer – but in the evening the menu gets a surprisingly cheffy boost. First comes crostini, using leftover bread from lunch service, crusty nuggets topped with creamy egg mayo and beef fat onions with anchovy. A plate of finocchiona salami and giardiniera pickles is simultaneously exactly what you’d expect from a place like this, but also surprising in its masterful execution.  Alas, Cafe Mondo’s much-vaunted schnitzel isn’t on the menu tonight, but their mighty patty melt is. A truck stop favourite deliv

Glance at it from the top deck of the 55 bus, and Miga looks like it’s been beamed in from another dimension. A stark white box that sits on the cobblestone corner where Cambridge Heath Road morphs into Mare Street, it might be Mayfair gallery or an artisan Fitzrovia denim store. Happily, it’s something far more approachable – a fizzingly warm and welcoming Korean restaurant that over the past six months has become one of east London’s most nattered-about places to eat.  The story of Miga is almost as captivating as the food. Pitched somewhere between Succession and The Bear but with more likeable people involved, Miga is a family brand bought bang up to date by the youngest generation. Much like nearby Mangal 2 – which saw the original owner’s two sons give the traditional Turkish grill a hypebeast makeover – the first iteration of Miga opened in New Malden two decades ago. The latest version’s location was decided upon by two Insta-savvy twenty-something brothers, who convinced their uber talented chef father that east London could do with a break from incessant small plates and pickle platters, and instead be given a dose of dad’s New Malden magic. Very wise.  Hackney’s reigning small plates restos, are you rattled yet?  Branded as a ‘modern take on Korean cuisine’, Miga skips basic bibimbap and workaday bulgogi in favour of burly, full-bodied plates of exceptional, nuanced cookery. Sure, there’s kimchi and other tweaked classics such as jabchae noodles, but this lowkey s

Most people stroll past Hazlitt’s without ever knowing that there’s a sprawling, 30-room boutique hotel tucked away behind the Georgian facade on Frith Street. The four townhouses that make up the hotel date back to 1718, but Hazlitt’s only opened up its doors to the hoi polloi in 1986. Not that this makes the hotel feel any less magical. A traditionally-styled timewarp, Hazlitt’s is kitted out in full antique splendor; four poster beds, throne-style loos, ornate gilt mirrors and endearingly creaky staircases. Think Versailles via Steptoe and Son. But all is not as vintage as it seems - there are flatscreen TVs tucked away behind wood-pannelling, and deep, cosy armchairs that look the old-school part but offer modern comfort. There’s no onsite restaurant at Hazlitt’s, which means all breakfast is breakfast in bed. Staff can help swing bookings at nearby restaurants as well as sort out theatre tickets, and celebs like it too. The late, great Anthony Bourdian, said of the hotel’s two-storey the Duke of Monmouth suite: ‘It is like staying at a potty English uncle’s when he is not at home’. Neighbourhood Soho – forever London’s finest neighborhood – is packed full of the best restaurants, theatres, pubs and bars in the city – and still retains a faintly transgressive air.  Nearby The Coach & Horses: One of London’s best pubs, complete with an untouched 1970s-era interior with wood-pannelled walls and intensely swirly carpets. Quo Vadis: For the very best of British cooking order

Picture an episode of Grand Designs featuring a roomy, converted barn in the Cotswolds. Kevin McCloud skips around the finished space that’s draped with cream linen curtains, lined with metro tiles and featuring some lovingly sanded statement beams, amazed that the Barbour jacket-sporting couple have managed to do it up without divorcing. Wildflowers feels like that barn; all flagstone floors, exposed brick and a warmly-lit open kitchen, lined with bookshelves and adorned with a huge vase of fresh flowers. It is Quite Lovely. Which is to be expected. After all, Wildflowers is in a part of west London where all the shops are named after posh women and sell a variety of useless but gorgeous objects and cardigans made of ethical llama. But don’t let that put you off. In the kitchen is Aaron Potter, heading up his first solo project following stints as executive chef at west London Italian Maria G’s and head chef at the Michelin-starred Elystan Street. Despite the country cottage-core look of the place, the food is decidedly European, with a casual, non-denominational Mediterranean thing going on. Grilled sugar pit Iberico pork, with quince, almond and gremolata hits more notes than Mahler’s 8th symphony We start with snacks of ‘Romeo & Juliets’ – a kind of deluxe take on the pineapple-and-cheese toothpick, with the pineapple replaced by a ritzy nubbin of quince jelly. Then, a creamy ring of sizzling hot moules farcies with garlic and parsley butter, essentially escargots for t

And relax. AngloThai is finally here. What seemed like the culinary equivalent of Guns N’Roses’ Chinese Democracy album – which took 15 years to create – has quietly arrived on one of those quaint straight-out-of-Paddington sidestreets that American tourists assume all of London looks like. Run by dynamic duo John and Desiree Chantarasak, this husband-and-wife team hosted acclaimed pop-ups, followed by heroic residencies, followed by venues falling through, followed by deals gone bad. But what was supposed to officially open way back in 2021 has now found a forever home in a room decked out like a Connecticut beach house with white clapperboard walls and a subtle seaside energy. Like the folk who end up walking, rather than running, the London Marathon, the pair might be a little drained, but they’re certainly no less enthused about crossing the finish line.  A postcard-pretty snack of comice pear with candied beetroot is equally whimsical, like something made by a Herefordshire forager with a penchant for needlepoint John – who honed his craft in the kitchen at Som Saa – is half Thai and half British, and AngloThai shares the same DNA. In reimagining some of Thailand’s most celebrated dishes via the lens of fastidious fine dining, he uses mystical-sounding, Tolkien-adjacent UK ingredients to mimic Thai food’s puckering sour notes. Hence the pleasingly tart seabuckthorn margarita which comes alongside an amuse bouche of creamy, crabby broth. It’s the colour of Fanta, but off

Already the undisputed south London boss of breezy Italian dining thanks to their original Peckham location and Deptford off-shoot Marcella, Artusi’s West End transfer is a little unexpected, but nevertheless sincerely appreciated. While Soho isn’t short of spots offering a taste of La Dolce Vita – there’s Bocca Di Lupo, Lina Stores, and Polpo to name but tre – sometimes you don’t need a pastel-shaded trattoria from a Wes Anderson movie, but simply an undisturbed corner in which to carb-load until sage-infused butter seeps from your eyesockets.  Gnocchi is as seductive as a Dolce and Gabbana ad campaign May we introduce then, Artusi Soho. You’ll find it down Walker’s Court, Soho’s last remaining stretch of iniquity. No longer home to storied strip club Raymond Revuebar (just the neon sign remains), there are at least a couple of sex shops clinging on for dear life here. If you’ve managed not to be tempted by a PVC pony mask, then enter the door to Underbelly Boulevard, a kind of Soho Theatre for even bigger comedy and cabaret show-offs. When the theatre opened in 2023, the first floor was home to a pricey Kitty Fisher’s offshoot called Cafe Kitty. Big spenders were in short supply and it lasted less than a year. Step forward, fuss-free and get-the-job-done Artusi. Inside, we’re a long way from Bellenden Road. Interiors are giving suburban boudoir; all dark blue velvet seats and white marble-ish tables edged with golden trim. As aesthetics go, the look is at odds with Artusi’

A visit to Burgh Island is an adventure before you even set foot inside this proper glamourpuss of a hotel. If the tide is out, then you’ll be ferried across the sand via Land Rover, but if the 21-acre private island is cut off from the mainland (as it is twice a day), then it’s all-aboard the ‘sea tractor’. A massive-wheeled, monster truck-esque contraption braves the waves and delivers you, wind-swept and fabulous, to this vintage slice of Hollywood-on-Sea. Built in 1929, the ultra grand Burgh Island Hotel sits on the scenic south coast of Devon. A favourite of Agatha Christie (and the setting for two particularly gruesome Hercule Poirot mysteries), this historic pile has some serious 1930s timewarp energy. There’s sleek art deco furniture at every turn and stunning common spaces, such as the twinkly Palm Court cocktail lounge and the majestic Grand Ballroom, where dinner is served alongside live jazz and black tie is mandatory.  It could all be a little cheesy, but it’s mainly just a lot of fun. With just 25 rooms and suites – many of them named after former guests such as Noël Coward, darling – the space always feels intimate, so much so that it’s almost possible to believe that you’re staying at the home of a wealthy great aunt. Big comfy beds and sea views come with every room (the benefits of being on an island), and fitting with the old school theme, rooms don’t have tellies. Frankly, that’s just another great excuse to pull up a velvet pouffe in the bar and order ano

As rock pubs go, the Black Heart is pretty much perfect. This Camden pub classic opened back in 2009 and always has heavy, never less than ear-splittingly sonorous metal on the sound system as well as the goth-adjacent quasi-religious tat on the walls. There’s also a venue upstairs for nightly gigs from up-and-coming doom, emo, thrash, stoner, hard rock and psychobilly bands – and anyone else who likes it loud and a touch sinister.  Unlike your average rock pub, the Black Heart is also home to an extremely decent food offering. As long as you like things vegan, you’re well catered for by LD’s Kitchen, a permanent kitchen residency that serves up serious meat-free Saturday brunches and Sunday roasts. During the rest of the week you’ll get dirty fries, ‘wings’ and mac and ‘cheeze’.  They’re open until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights, where live DJs will pummel you with playlists packed with Judas Priest, Slayer and Motorhead.  Try this  If you like the Black Heart, you might want to sink some drinks at the other venues owned by Grace Land, the hospitality group who run the bar. They’ve got The Axe in Stoke Newington, The Earl of Essex in Islington, Saint Monday Brewery in London Fields and Red Hand in Dalston. Get inked There’s a tattoo parlour above the venue, if you have the sudden urge to get new ink mid-pint. Check out Devil’s Door Tattoo, which opened in 2023. RECOMMENDED: The best bars in London.

Mr Lyan aka Ryan Chetiyawardana is London’s leading mixologist. Over the years he’s built up bars only to tear them down at their height, like some boozy oligarch. A scientist with a snappy dress sense and a fresh approach to cocktails, before Lyaness there was White Lyan, Super Lyan and Dandelyan – declared the ‘World’s Best Bar’. Lyaness can be found in the same location as the latter, a Thames-facing hotel bar in Sea Containers London, with awesome drinks that make you think. The powder-blue room is lush and cosy, and enjoying a drink inside this acclaimed bar is surely the best way to gaze upon the river without having to deal with that pesky London breeze.  The drinks menu changes yearly, but what you can expect is a blend of ‘fun, clarity and deliciousness’ – their words. Expect ingredients that run the gamut from challenging to outrageously tasty, including the likes of potatoes and cornflake liqueur. It has also been named the first-ever 3 PIN bar, awarded by the Pinnacle Guide – kind of like Michelin stars for bars.  Eat this  You’ll need a little something to line the stomach here, and what better than an excellent menu of bar snacks, including jerk mushroom buns, four cheese croquettes, and popcorn buffalo chicken.  Nearby The bar is sandwiched between two great cultural institutions; Tate Modern and Southbank Centre, so you’ve got all the theatre, film, music and art you could ever want within stumbling distance. RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants on the South Bank

A inner London spot from Taiwanese restaurant mini-chain Bao. If you like the idea of singing with your supper, then you’re in luck. The restaurant has two private KTV rooms for classic Taiwanese karaoke. The smaller room is big enough for 10 people while the larger one can pack in 22. There are over 300,000 songs to choose from, so that should keep everyone busy, as will food platters that can be delivered to the rooms, featuring mini baos, fried chicken buckets topped with caviar, and fries with curry sauce. There is also a hefty drinks menu of spirits, sake bombs and cocktails. The main restaurant has also new sharing dishes, including grilled Taiwanese pork neck with a soy glaze, grilled whole fish with yu-shiang sauce and fermented plum sauce-glazed duck breast.

This is what wine bars should be; candle-lit, extremely cute and so cosy you’d be perfectly happing sleeping there overnight if you were accidently locked in. Opened by Michael Sager of Sager + Wilde (and named after his father) in a former stables right by the roundabout in Vicky Park, Bruno boasts big French farmhouse energy. Walls are whitewashed (and lined with wine) and little wooden tables play host to small, giggling groups of pals and dates. Select orange, red, white, chilled, pink and fizzy wines come by the glass or bottle, with cheery staff more than happy to suggest their faves. A rotating line-up of extremely good chefs also take over the kitchen on a weekly basis, with small menus but absolutely massive flavours. One to show off to your mates about.

Shocked? Appalled? Confused? Outraged? Yes, we are all those things and more upon hearing that the world’s best food cities have been crowned, and our sweet London doesn’t even make the top 50. The TasteAtlas Awards 24/25 named the 100 best food cities in the world, and London was ranked at a frankly incorrect 90th place; below Houston, Stockholm, Prague, Moscow, Munich, Sarajevo, Mexico City, and well, most other cities in the world, it seems. Four of the top 5 are places in Italy, with Naples at number one, Milan at two, Bologna at three, and Florence at four – well done to Mumbai in India for being the only non Italian city to break the top five. TasteAtlas, which collates its ranking from reviews and recommendations of 17,073 cities in its database, listed the top 100 cities with the highest average ratings for the regional and national dishes most commonly served in those places. The site flagged fish and chips, afternoon tea, English breakfast, coronation chicken and steak and kidney pie as London’s most popular must-try dishes. Which is maybe where they’re going wrong. Of course, we love all these things, but gosh, there’s so much more to London than a fry-up.  The piece also flagged London’s most ‘iconic traditional restaurants’, listing St John Bread & Wine in Shoreditch, Sabor in Mayfair, Legare in Tower Bridge, Padella in Borough Market and The Palomar in Chinatown as places to visit. We’d like to direct you – and TasteAtlas – to our list of the 20 best new restaur

We trust you’ve heard the terrifying news: there’s a Guinness shortage in London. The sublime stout is in such short supply that some pubs are even rationing it.  What to do? Well, it turns out that Guinness aren’t the only people to make stout. In fact, there’s a host of London-based breweries also churning out pretty decent takes on beer’s big brother.  RECOMMENDED: Why is Guinness so popular? We’re here to help you see the great Guinness drought of 2024 not as a time to be sad, but rather a time to be intrepid, and an opportunity to try a series of stouts from independent London brewers. We tried a few bottles and cans, and here’s what we think.  Eddy Frankel for Time Out London Porter, 6 percent Kernel, Bermondsey ‘What a treat, what a delightful, wonderful, perfect treat. The Kernel is in a league of its own in terms of London beer anyway, but its London Porter is on another level. It’s deeply dark, syrupy, an abyss of toasted, warming flavours that I’d happily spend the entire Christmas period falling into.’ Eddy Frankel, Art Editor Joe Mackertich for Time Out Dark Matter, 4 percent Villages, Deptford  ‘Does it taste like Guinness? No. Is it a nice drink? Yes. Dark Matter is a velveteen beverage from the Deptford pale ale specialists. Less of a “challenge” than the fightier stouts, this is a peppy, fun drink that has more in common with low ABV craft beers than Guinness. A fine can, but no substitute for the G unit.’ Joe Mackertich, Editor  Leonie Cooper for Time O

Working at Time Out London isn’t a constant bacchanalian orgy of food, wine and sandwiches, but sometimes it can feel pretty close. This year our editors ate and drank our way around London with the giddy, golden retriever enthusiasm of Paul Mescal on one of his Hackney canal-side runs.  We dine out so frequently, that we know a good dish when we taste one – and we don’t want to gate-keep. Below, we’ve identified eight amazing dishes we really, truly loved this year. Some are from London’s best new restaurants of 2024, others come from the city’s much-loved foodie mainstays and there’s a few pop-ups and residencies thrown in there for good measure. So, in no particular order, these are the best things we stuffed down our gobs this year. The best things we ate in London in 2024 Photo: Guilia Savorelli 1. Scotched ’nduja olives at Sesta, London Fields Funny looking, but heroically tasty things, these. Who’d have guessed that tubby, deep-fried nuggets of spicy sausage served like a scotch egg (but with an olive replacing the egg) would make for the ideal cocktail accompaniment? Sesta – which opened in September in the bones of much-loved tasting menu joint Pidgin – has head chef Drew Snaith conjuring up all manner of left-of-centre snacks that aren’t quite stunt food, but are, in the best possible way, unserious. Swede pakora and cod’s roe beignet might prick up your ears, but the scotched n’juda olives are the undoubted winner. Leonie Cooper, Food & Drink Editor Ella Doyle f

We know our way around a piece of meat here at Time Out. So much so that we’ve just dropped our brand new list of the very best steaks in the world. Our writers and editors from across the globe have added to our top 10 of the mightiest meats, with a Miami steakhouse securing the No. 2 spot in the ranking.  Among the barrage of buzzy Miami restaurant openings over the last few years, Klaw in Edgewater stands out as a spot that not only passes the vibe check but also actually has the high-caliber menu to match. Klaw is a luxurious steakhouse perched at the top of a beautifully restored historic building with truly stunning views of Biscayne Bay, especially at sunset. And the prices reflect that. But on the extensive steak and seafood menu you can also find more approachable options, including one we've singled out as our favorite steak in Miami. Klaw has partnered with local ranchers to serve Florida Cracker Cattle, one of the oldest and rarest breeds in the U.S. (It’s claimed that one of their partners can trace the DNA of their cattle back to the original herd brought to Florida in 1521). Priced at $85, we went for the 16 oz. Florida Cracker striploin, cooked medium-rare. It was juicy and tender, and though it came with a side of two delicious sauces, we found its wood-fired flavor shines best on its own. Plus, Florida Cracker meat is high in Omega-3 fatty acids since the cattle graze on grass instead of corn. The list was topped by El Toro in Agadir, Morocco at number one

A visit to Victoria train station is usually one fraught with anxiety and a sense of impending doom. Unless you’re lucky enough to be taking the Belmond British Pullman, rather than the 18.35 to Brighton. Pullman luxury trains have been around since 1874 – and were at the height of their popularity in the 1920s and 1930s – but went out of service in 1972. In the 1980s, high end hotel company Belmond began purchasing and restoring these endlessly lovely vintage carriages and have put on regular scenic services from their base in Victoria ever since, as well running the lavish Royal Scotsman and – as of July 2025 – the Britannic Explorer, England and Wales’ first luxury sleeper train. We hopped on the Belmond British Pullman to experience the train firsthand.  Leonie Cooper for Time Out I arrive at 10.30am-ish on a Friday morning and head directly to platform two, where London’s loveliest train is idling on the tracks, bringing some serious vintage glamour to an otherwise soul-suckingly dreary station. Everyone on this platform seems to be in a much better mood than the rest of the Victoria commuters on a cold December morning. Leonie Cooper for Time Out Setting foot aboard the classic, cream-coloured train, we are shown to our seats and served mulled wine in gorgeous china teacups. We’re here for (not in a Gen Z way) the festive lunch service, which runs throughout November and December and involves a slap-up meal and a trip around the Kentish countryside and coastline. It

Ikoyi – the central London restaurant with two Michelin stars – is going to be releasing a very special Christmas sandwich. The west African-inspired spot at 180 Strand has teamed up with nearby Toklas Bakery for this high-end seasonal special, with Ikoyi’s head chef Jeremy Chan working Toklas Bakery’s head chef Kyran McAdam to create an Xmas sarnie that reflects both locations.  The sandwich will be available at Toklas Bakery from December 5, and will cost £13, with £1 from each sale donated to StreetSmart homelessness charity. The sandwich takes the form of a brioche bun filled with roast chicken seasoned with scotch bonnet emulsion and celery maple candied bacon. And that’s not all, there'll also be a Montgomery cheddar omelette as well as rare citrus marmalade rammed in there too.  It’ll be on offer until December 20. So head down to Toklas Bakery at 9 Surrey St, WC2R 2ND, if you don’t think you can live without one. We recently tested a bunch of other festive sandwiches from bakeries and delis across London. Find out what we named the best Christmas sandwich in London here. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. 

We know our way around a piece of meat here at Time Out. So much so that we’ve just dropped our brand new list of the very best steaks in the world. Our writers and editors from across the globe have added to our top 10 of the mightiest meats, with a London steakhouse securing a spot in the ranking.  Rather than focus on a very pricey steakhouse, the London selection for the list takes spot Number 10, and is the extremely reasonably priced and accessible Le Relais de Venise l’Entrecôte in Marylebone. The restaurant is part of a small global chain, with another branch on Throgmorton Street in the City of London, as well as in Paris (where the restaurant was born), Mexico and New York. The restaurant only offers steak and chips with the house secret sauce and salad. It costs £31. ‘A culty no-booking, no-choice bistro where there’s only one thing on the menu; impossibly addictive and tender entrecôte steak in a ‘secret sauce’ served with frites. You’ll have to hang about for an hour or so for your table, but good things come to those who wait,’ we wrote.  The list was topped by El Toro in Agadir, Morocco at number one, followed by Klaw in Miami at number two and Adega Solar Minhoto in Lisbon at number three. Find the full list here. These are the best 50 restaurants in London.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. 

Happy 30th birthday to longtime Time Out fave Mangal II.  The east London Turkish restaurant is celebrating its landmark anniversary not with a big old cake, but with a special, limited edition merch drop – 300 pairs of trainers made in collaboration with Puma.  The blue suede shoes have launched with a campaign video that sees Ferhat and Sertaç Dirik – sons of the restaurant’s founder Ali Dirik – visiting Anatolia in Turkey to discover their roots (and eat some delicious looking food while they’re at it). The trainer costs £120 and will be available to buy on Friday December 6 at endclothing.com. View this post on Instagram A post shared by END. (@endclothing) Mangal II is a mainstay of Kingsland Road in Dalston and features in Time Out’s list of the 50 best restaurants in London. In 2020 Ferhat and Sertaç took over running the restaurant from their father, with head chef Sertaç using his years of experience at some of Copenhagen’s best restaurants to tweak the classic Turkish menu into a fine-dining take on traditional mangal cooking. Sertaç left the restaurant in 2023, and plans to open his own venture. The Puma trainer collab features the Mangal II name on the shoe, as well as the year ’94 on the heel to mark the restaurant’s founding date. Speaking about the trip to Türkiye for a promotional video to launch the collab, Ferhat said: ‘Coming back to Anatolia for the first time in 19 years has reinforced, personally, my identity, my roots, experiencing t

In case you hadn’t noticed, It’s almost Christmas. That means there aren’t too many new restaurants opening this December (though there are plenty of Christmas sandwiches doing the rounds). But a few brave souls have decided to launch their foodie babies into the world during the rowdiest month of the year. Good for them! Here’s the ones we’re looking forward to the most.  Photo: Key & Quill 1.The hot chef and his cool pub The Brave, Islington We were a little sad when James Cochran shuttered his excellent Upper Street restaurant 12:51 back in September, but the storied chef isn’t wasting any time getting back out there. Still in the same-ish neighbourhood, he launches his brand new pub venture The Brave on Essex Road on December 5. Food will be inspired by both Cochran’s Scottish roots. Expect the likes of smoked eel with bacon and cheese toastie, as well as potato dumplings with slow braised shin of beef, and a sharing platter of roast haunch of Aynhoe venison, venison sausage, slow braised venison pie, and neep & tattie hash browns.  340-342 Essex Rd, N1 3PB  Photo: Dave's Hot Chicken 2. The cult spicy chicken shop Dave’s Hot Chicken, Soho Setting up shop in an East Hollywood parking lot back in 2017, it’s only taken seven years for Dave’s Hot Chicken to become one of the US’s favourite fried chicken chains. Specialising in zingy Nashville-style hot chicken with six different heat levels, Dave’s are opening their first UK branch on December 7. Right on Shaftesbury Aven

A bunch of incredible London restaurants have closed over the past few months. Here we pay tribute to our favourites.  Jessica Jill 12:51 Upper Street’s great 12:51, run by Great British Menu winner James Cochran (and one of Time Out’s hottest chefs), shut down at the beginning of September. It was famous for its fusion of Scottish and Caribbean cuisine, and legendary Sunday roasts, but James has already moved on. On December 5 he launches The Brave, a pub on Essex Road with more Scots-inspired scran, including smoked eel with bacon and cheese toasties as well as potato dumplings with slow braised shin of beef.  Leroy Leroy Shoreditch’s Leroy announced its closure earlier this month. ‘Only those who run a business, much less a hospitality business post Covid, know how tough it is,’ wrote the restaurant on Instagram. Modern European bistro Leroy sprang from the ashes of Hackney’s Michelin-starred Ellory, which met a similarly sticky end in 2018. So long and thanks for all the small plates, Leroy.  Caitlin Isola Mystic Burek This one hurt. British-Balkan chef Spasia Dinkovski’s cafe and bakery was a super sweet addition to Sydenham, serving up flaky slabs of burek that she’d perfected during her lockdown delivery service as well as creamy cherry baklava buns and massive cups of tea. They even made it into our 2024 50 Best Restaurants in London list! Though shutting at the end of September, Spasia has been busy ever since, hosting a Balkan kebab party at Half Cut Market in

La Liste, which compiles reviews from publications, guidebooks, and online reviews, has just announced its 2024 global ranking of the world’s 1000 best restaurants. And 28 London spots have made the grade. Proud. Restaurants in the list can have a maximum score of 100, but the nine top rated restaurants received a 99.5 score. Only one of the top ranking restaurants was in the UK; well done to Simon Rogan’s acclaimed L’Enclume in Cumbria. You can read more about L’Enclume’s triumph here. The top rated London restaurant in the list was Core by Clare Smyth in Notting Hill, which scored a pretty impressive 97.5. The full list of London winners can be found below, and also includes The Ritz Restaurant in Mayfair, The Clove Club in Shoreditch, and Cornus in Belgravia which only opened in August of this year. Chef Claude Bosi appears twice in the London list, with Brooklands by Hyde Park and Claude Bosi at Bibendum in Chelsea.  The London restaurants in La Liste’s 1000 best restaurants list are Here are all the London restaurants that featured in La Liste’s 2024 ranking, along with their score (out of 100).  Core by Clare Smyth, 97.50 The Ritz Restaurant, 97 Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, 95 Hélène Darroze at the Connaught, 94.50 The Clove Club, 93.50 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, 93 Sushi Kanesaka, 92.50 Brooklands by Claude Bosi, 91.50 The Araki, 91 Story, 90.50 Cornus, 90 Kol, 90 Claude Bosi at Bibendum, 88 Endo at the Rotunda, 87.50 Sketch – The Lecture Room and Library, 87.50 A.

Brick Lane’s Beigel Bake shop is celebrating a milestone birthday with a special bit of merch. Established in 1974, the legendary bakery is releasing a retro-styled football shirt bearing the shop’s name for its 50th anniversary. But you’ll have to be speedy if you want to score one. The shirts are available for five days from Thursday November 14 at coreoeast.com and cost £40.  Speaking about the store that his father and uncles opened, manager Nathan Cohen said: ‘We’re proud to mark 50 years serving Londoners and visitors from across the world to our East End shop. We’re grateful for everyone who passes through our doors, our success as a store is down to the support of our customers who we all consider part of the Beigel Bake team’. You can also buy a newly launched line of Beigel Bake merch, including t-shirts, jackets and tote bags, at beigelbake.co.uk. Beigel Bake is a 24/7 Jewish deli and one of London’s most celebrated fast food outlets, known for its salt beef bagels. It’s often known as ‘white one’ to differentiate itself from next door’s Beigel Shop – aka ‘the yellow one’ – due to its white sign. Earlier this year, the ‘yellow one’ closed for a number of months due to a family dispute. It reopened in June, thank goodness.  Beigel Bake can be found at 159 Brick Lane. Find out more about both stores in Time Out’s exhaustive history of the Brick Lane bagel shops. The hottest new openings, the tastiest tips, the spiciest reviews: we’re serving it all on our London res