Leonie Cooper

Parasite, Squid Game, and BTS – the rising influence and popularity of Korean culture have taken the world by storm in the last few years and that very much includes food. When it comes to Korean cuisine in London it’s all about the three Bs: banchan (small side dishes), bibimbap (mixed rice) and barbecue. From bibimbap in unassuming takeaways to sizzling bulgogi on table-top barbecues and a dizzying array of banchan on fine dining set-menus, you’re spoilt for choice for Korean food in London. Here are the 20 best Korean restaurants in London, many of which you'll find in south west London's New Malden neighbourhood, which has been home to the largest Korean community in the UK since the 1970s.  RECOMMENDED: London’s 20 Best Japanese Restaurants. Angela Hui is an award-winning journalist reporting on the intersection of food and culture, hospitality industry and food justice. She is the author of 'Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter'. 

In London, fried chicken shops are everywhere, but seeking out the best crispy chicken in the capital requires a little research. Whether it’s southern-fried thighs, crunchy Korean-style strips, Nashville hot chicken or a mountainous fillet burger you’ve got your sights set on, we’ve put in the legwork and found the best fried chicken in London for you. Now is the time to get acquainted with some of the best birds in town. RECOMMENDED: London's best ice cream shops. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

January 2025: Last spring we revealed our list of London’s 50 best restaurants, with a brand new Number One; the majestic Mambow in Clapton, east London. There’ll be a new list-topper in a few months time, but we’re always tweaking the Top 50 to reflect the ever-changing food scene in London. Our latest new entries are Shoreditch’s exceedingly chic Bistro Freddie and modern Korean Miga in Hackney. We’ve removed the mighty Singburi from the list for the time being, as the popular Thai spot in Leytonstone is currently closed for winter.  If you’d like to check out some of our recent reviews, then here are our critics’ thoughts on Cafe Mondo in Camberwell, Wildflowers in Belgravia, AngloThai in Marylebone, and Sollip in London Bridge.  This is your guide to eating out in the capital. Don't forget to sign up to our free newsletter for unbeatable London restaurant news and tips. Tuck in.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor and eats out almost every night in the city. It's terrible for her cholesterol, but incredible for you. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED: All the best new restaurant openings in London this February. The hottest new openings, the tastiest tips, the spiciest reviews: we’re serving it all on our London restaurants WhatsApp channel. Follow us now.

Steak fans are seriously well catered for in London, which boasts some of the best and beefiest restaurants in the country. Whether you’re after British beef, Argentinian asado, Gallician blond, or a 1kg tomahawk ribeye, the capital’s restaurants have you covered. You’ve only got to decide how much cash you want to splash: you'll find a few affordable steak houses, but there are also some seriously luxe restaurants for a big meaty blowout. We’ve rounded up the choicest cuts. Here’s where to savour, whether it's sirloin, chateaubriand, or fillet. Recommended: London's best burgers. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. 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 to tuck in.

The humble brunch is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of the modern age. Breakfast is too early to really get stuck into, while eating eggs and downing buckets of coffee at lunchtime seems odd. Brunch, then, is the one true morning-ish meal, especially if it incorporates pancakes, bacon and those aforementioned eggs – or a totally vegan take on proceedings like at LD's at The Black Heart in Camden or WAVE in Hackney. London is particularly well stocked with places to indulge in the famous breakfast/lunch hybrid – the latest addition to this list is FKA Black Axe Mangal in Highbury, which has just started serving weekend brunch (don’t forgot to order a pig cheek and prune donut). Let us guide you to the best restaurants for a fabulous brunch in our city, from a traditional full English to innovative twists on the majestic meal, such as a bacon bao brunch. And it’s not just a weekend treat; some of these spots serve brunch every single day.  RECOMMENDED: Like unlimited fizz with your fry-up? Here are the best bottomless brunches in London.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. Want to brunch for less? Check out the awesome selection at Time Out Offers.

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. 

Londoners love coffee. In the summer, the city’s coffee shops are swarming with queues of thirsty commuters hankering for an iced latte. During the rest of the year, hot coffee pumps through our veins. Whether it’s a flat white or a chai latte, the capital’s cafés and coffee shops are here churning out caffeine-laden cups to keep you buzzing. There are plenty of spots for speciality drinks too, like pumpkin, turmeric or matcha lattes. Read on for our top picks of London’s best coffee shops, stands and stalls. Many of these super spots are also great for all the freelancers out there, acting as de facto offices – as long as you keep the rounds of cake coming.  RECOMMENDED: Best breakfasts 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 the best restaurants in Mayfair? You're spoilt for choice in this extremely swanky central London neighbourhood. There are enough Michelin stars to feed a village here and prices are fittingly fierce. But if you're after some indulgence or looking for the perfect celebration spot, then this is where you should be taking your hard-earned cash, with hotel joints such as The Ritz and Claridge's in-house eateries some of the area's finest. A tip: look out for set lunch menus, which many Mayfair fine-dining restaurants such as Pavyllon and Murano offer, and make the whole experience that much more affordable. Go forth and feast: these are Mayfair's most impressive food spots. 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.

There's loads more to Camden than its big, bustling markets, storied musical history and excellent selection of places to enjoy a pint. The area is packed with loads of lovely restaurants dishing out the likes of vegan pizza (and a whole host of other plant-based joints), great pub grub, and deliciously fast cheap eats. Looking for somewhere to eat in the north-west of London? Here's a list of the best of the best. RECOMMENDED: The best Chinese restaurants 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. 

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. New additions to the list include modern Korean marvel Miga, Sesta in the old shell of the much-loved Pidgin, smoke and fire fun at Lagom, Michelin starry-ness at Behind, chef Abby Lee's incredible Mambow, and canal-side standout, Sune.  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.) 

We all want to be absolutely glowing and super fresh-faced. Alas, living in London can really get in the way of having dewy, delicious skin. That’s thanks to the combined efforts of pollution and air-conditioned offices, as well as the added bonuses of harsh weather, booze, sun exposure, dehydration and – our least favourite – the inevitable passing of time. Just thinking about what we put our skin through is enough to give you frown lines. Happily, there are loads of great spas, treatment rooms and estheticians in London who can give your face a break and a much-needed zhuzh. Whether you’re after a relaxing, soothing facial massage, some instant radiance, a total skincare overhaul or something a little more intense such as microneedling or laser treatment, read our pick of facials in London.  RECOMMENDED: The best spas in London. 

Anyone who has been to San Sebastian knows that though the city runs on pintxos, its lifeblood is steak; big, butch slabs of the stuff, charred and rugged on the outside, and as pink as Barbie’s dreamhouse paintjob in the middle. Ibai, a new Basque grill house appropriately close to Smithfield Market, fulfills its brief with immaculate poise. Of course, when one of your founders already runs two great Basque joints (Marylebone’s Lurra and Donostia) as well as founding Txuleta (the acclaimed beef business who supply high-end restaurants with prime Galician cow) success seems inevitable.  Situated inside a roomy old factory building, Ibai is industrial in the way that showy city boy spots often are, with polished concrete floors, dramatic and exposed steel air ducts, which – what with the live fire cookery – might not just be for the icy aesthetic.   The immaculate Croque Ibai is flagrant in its commitment to obscenity Rather than follow the chronological conventions of a restaurant review, we’ll skip straight to the steak. Not because the starters at Ibai are unworthy of discussion and praise – far from it – but because Ibai is so deeply and indelibly a steakhouse, to start anywhere else would be bizarre. There are three kinds available; black angus, Galician blond and full-blood Wagyu. The names of the men who have raised the cows are on the menu, making it a bit like reading a 12” record’s liner notes to find out who mastered the drums. We can only assume then, that Miguel

This historic Soho café was established in 1949 by Lou and Caterina Polledri, and quickly became a social hub for the Italian community in London. Now it attracts eccentric locals, bikers, mods and a variety of counter cultural tribes. Despite several upgrades to the decor, much of the original fixtures still remain, from the red and white formica to the Gaggia espresso machine and the flooring. Open until very, very late, it remains one of the best places in London.

A terribly chic Fitzrovia outpost for this south east Asian coffee chain which has sites in Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Come here to bask in the light wood interior and soak up some serious Japanese design. Grab a soothing matcha latte in the winter, and their outlandish iced cappuccino in the summer. Their kashi – a moreish cube of baked custard – makes for the perfect chaser. 

Think of Jackson Boxer as the spry Federico Fellini of the London restaurant scene. Masterfully directing the action from behind the pass, this south London chef rose to prominence due to his now-trademark mix of earthiness and glamour. Boxer’s widescreen menus dazzle you with their ineffable imagination, but are backed up with hearty flavour and a whisper of the absurd.  Seductive ricotta dumplings come drenched in a frankly horny pink lobster and lime-leaf cream First came Vauxhall’s lavish Brunswick House and over the past year Boxer has released sequels across the city. There’s the luxe long-term residency at Selfridges’ in-house restaurant The Corner where caviar, champagne and pistachio financiers flow dangerously close to Dolce and Gabbana. Then there’s Henri in Covent Garden, his full-bodied Parisian bistro. Boxer’s also in charge of the food offering at Below Stone Nest, a concrete-clad Chinatown bar where White Russian soft serve is the midnight must-order.   What, though, of Boxer’s fish-forward Ladbroke Grove restaurant Orasay, which opened in 2019 and quickly became a favourite of the west London lunch set? Well, due to creeping prices of dayboat fish, Boxer decided to call time on it at the end of last year. But rather than casting Orasay to the waves, he has re-edited and renamed it, entering 2025 with a focused, and frankly, far more fun, director’s cut; Dove.  The menu is less serious, a playful offering of what Boxer feels like experimenting with at any giv

Almost painfully chic, a visit to Lodestar Coffee is like stepping into a listing on The Modern House. Not only do they stocking expertly curated coffee from some of the world’s greatest – and nichest – roasteries, but operate as a neighbourhood cafe with regular cupping events (that’s coffee tasting to the less caffeine-fluent). Check out their regular ‘night cafe’ sessions, where they’re open late into the evening and laptops are, mercifully, banned. 

Despite all the formalities (including a perfectly moist, heated towelette for your grubby fingers, a teeny tiny table for your chopsticks, and a slightly bigger one for your handbag,) there is something deeply chill about Roketsu. A fastidiously finessed Japanese restaurant in the Marylebone backstreets, everything here is so measured and elegantly formal, that all you have to do is simply turn up. Opened in 2022 by chef patron Daisuke Hayashi – who trained at Kyoto’s triple-Michelin starred Kikunoi – Roketsu specialises in high-end kaiseki experience; a not-cheap tasting menu of which there are about as many courses (nine!) as there are seats in the restaurant (10!). The only decision you have to make is how long you’ll pretend to play it cool until you experience the joy of their heated Japanese loo.  If only all meals were this relaxing At Roketsu the chef’s table is the only table, and if the bleached, hinoki wood walls and sliding screens make you feel as if you’ve been transported to Japan, that makes sense – the room was built in Kyoto before being shipped and reassembled in London. Our nine course menu of spectacularly seasonal dishes is delivered in the form of stories, quietly but clearly told. There’s a layer of thinly cut radish across a bowl of soup made to look like ice on a lake, there are red beans to signify prosperity for the new year, and an all-seeing eyeball crafted from an egg wrapped in a sliver of conger eel. A hot-pot dish takes things even further,

A stroll down the ever-quaint Stoke Newington Church Street is made infinitely better with a stop off at 13th Floor Coffee. Find them in their permanent pitch in a converted horse box outside St Mary’s Church, where they serve a brisk but potent menu of specialty coffee and baked treats. It's run by the team people who put on End of The Road music festival (and the name is a reference to cult Texan psych band the 13th Floor Elevators), so a coffee here also comes with serious indie cred. There's another, bigger site with sit-in options nearby, at Christ Church Highbury.

Having successfully jazzed-up Hackney gastropub The Prince Arthur and Homerton’s The Plough, the same team have launched You Call The Shots, a bar with a twist. Rotating kitchen pop-ups make this Morning Lane cocktail joint swing, with appearances so far from The Prince Arthur’s head chef Joe Couldridge, Mystic Burek’s Spasia Dinkovski and NYC-style nonna pizza pies from Bing Bong Pizza. Drinks are pleasingly left of centre too, with tipples inspired by Only Fools And Horses (Morning Stallion), as well 1980s classics such as the Japanese Slipper. The best bit though, might just be the womb-like loos which play ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ by punk poet John Cooper Clarke (from which the bar gets its name) on a dizzying loop.  What should I drink? As befits the bar’s name, if you’re not sure what to order, let your bartender call the shots. Simply tell them what spirit or liqueur you’re into, and they’ll do the rest. What music do they play? On our visit, You Call The Shots was soundtracked by lots of bangers by gruffly voiced men. If you fancy some Lee Hazlewood or Bill Callahan with your smokey marg, this is the bar for you.  RECOMMENDED: The best bars in Hackney.

The Seafood Bar doesn’t mess about. As soon as you see the sign above this stately Soho restaurant, you know what you’re getting into - a fabulous frenzy of fish. If you still weren’t sure, the giant neon crab on the wall is your final clue. Opened in 2021 as the first UK outpost of a successful Amsterdam restaurant chain, The Seafood Bar is ethical too, leaning towards shellfish due to their sustainability. Portion sizes are almost hysterically large; their fruits de mer platter is extremely hearty, with half a lobster per person, oysters, langoustines, crevettes, smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, Devon brown crab, shrimp and loads more. If you don’t like it cold, then there’s a mixed grill of crustaceans from the plancha, and seafood is delivered daily, so you’ll always have the freshest catch. When are they open? The Seafood Bar is open from 12–11pm every day, including Mondays. Ideal for an afternoon feast if other local places are shut after lunch service.   What shall I drink? Many menu items come with a wine suggestion. And if you’re having so much fun that you don’t want to leave, there’s glammy basement cocktail bar Zum Barbarossa, which is open Thursday-Saturday nights.  RECOMMENDED: The best seafood restaurants in London.

From the team behind Dom’s Subs and Rasputin’s bar, Juptier Burger is a grab-and-go burger joint nestled into Netil Market. Inspired by futurist 1950s googie architecture, it looks a little bit like a spaceship and sells two things; burgers and fries. Paying homage to the west coast’s beloved In-N-Out Burger, their lightly smashed Hill and Szrok beef pattys come sandwiched between Martin’s yellow-hued potato rolls with special Jupiter sauce, pickles, onion, tomato and lettuce. A veggie option is available, and a portion of fries come as standard with every burger.  When is it open? Jupiter Burger is open every day, from 12-7pm. Ideal for a quick and early dinner before hitting up some of the best pubs in Hackney.  RECOMMENDED: The best burgers in London. 

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

Fans of pub/restaurant hybrids will no doubt be spilling their merlot with excitement, as the winners of the 2025 edition of the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs have just been announced. In a ceremony yesterday (January 27) the highest ranking London gastropub was named as Soho’s The Devonshire. ‘The Dev’ took the number two slot, just behind The Unruly Pig in Bromeswell, Suffolk, which topped the list for the third time.  The Devonshire was also the highest new entry in the Top 50. The pub only opened in late 2023 but has quickly become one of London’s most-oversubscribed spots, known for serving lots and lots of Guinness (it’s also the first UK pub to sell Guinness 0.0 on draft) and a constant gaggle of young men outside smoking rollies and performatively wearing crossbody bags. The Denman Street pub – which was home to a branch of Jamie’s Italian until 2019, when Jamie Oliver’s company went into administration – boasts an upstairs restaurant and grill room (as well as a fancy summer roof-top terrace) serving the old school likes of beef cheek and Guinness suet pudding, lamb hotpot, and Sunday roasts. Bookings currently open for tables three weeks in advance, and there’s something of a bun-fight for tables. It’s a little over-hyped for our tastes – you can find our nominations for the best gastropubs in London here.  Justice, we say for Hackney’s Prince Arthur, the French House’s in-house restaurant in Soho, Finsbury Park’s The Plimsoll and the Parakeet in Kentish Town, non

It might be the shortest month of the year, but the good chefs of London have managed to pack it out with a thrilling run of excellent new restaurants, residencies and pub openings. You want sandwiches? We’ve got you covered. Pining for pizza? You’ve come to the right place. Want to visit Gordon Ramsay’s lair, 60 floors up one of London's tallest skyscrapers? It shall be done!  Ling Ling's 1. The returning pop-up champions Ling Ling’s, Tottenham It’s been almost a year since Ling Ling’s left The Gun in Hackney, thus depriving London of its greatest Sunday roast . But from February 5, chef Jenny Phung launches a brand new longterm residency at Tottenham’s The Bluecoats pub. As well as that iconic roast, the Chinese-inspired menu will run weekly from Wednesday to Sunday and feature mapo king prawns with chicken and pomelo, and poached smoked tofu and lime leaf wontons, as well as a Spurs matchday menu that includes a Taiwanese chicken burger and the ‘McLing’ fillet o fish with nori tartare and cheese, in a potato bun.  614 High Rd, N17 9TA Dough Hands 2. Perfect pizza goes south Dough Hands, Nunhead London’s best pizza (according to us), since last summer Dough Hands have been keeping the dedicated drinkers of London Fields well-fed, thanks to their thrillingly great pop-up at The Spurstowe Arms . From February 13, they’ll be taking over the kitchen of one of the best pubs in south London ; The Old Nun’s Head . Expect ace New York-style pies with spicy tuna, drizzles of hot

Great news for the Sunday lunch crew. Ling Ling’s – purveyors of the finest roast in London – are coming back.   Chinese-inspired supper club and pop-up kitchen Ling Ling’s was top of our best Sunday lunches in London list until its residency at Hackney pub The Gun ended at the start of 2024. Run by chef Jenny Phung, Ling Ling’s will be returning with a brand new longterm residency starting on February 5, moving to north London and Tottenham’s The Bluecoats pub. Ling Ling’s will be serving food from 5.30pm every Wednesday to Sunday – with a special matchday snacking menu for when Spurs are playing at home – and the first official Sunday lunch service will be on February 9.  Ling Ling's The roast menu includes beef short rib, five spiced pork belly, crispy skin chicken with ginger and spring onion oil, whole fried seabass, or miso glazed aubergine. All come served with roast potatoes, tenderstem broccoli, carrot, sesame Yorkshire pudding, nori mustard, garlic panko, and miso gravy. You’ll also be able to order starters such as hash browns with sichuan tofu cream and fish roe, as well as mapo king prawns with padron peppers and pomelo. Speaking about the residency, Jenny Phung said: ‘Ling Ling’s has been searching for a new work home in Tottenham for a while and we have finally found it! At last we can bring back the much-anticipated roast, Ling Ling's full menu and also, we will be offering a match day menu’. They'll be offering 50 percent off food (for reservations only) on

The very best places to eat dim sum in London have just been announced... by us! Our brand new, expert-curated list of the top 10 restaurants in the city for dim sum was topped by Baba Tang in King’s Cross, which writer Elaine Zhao praised for its in-house made offering, including the ‘cheung fun rice rolls with peanut and XO sauce – the best I’ve had in London – as well as tantalisingly salty fried turnip cake and beef ho fun noodles, a Cantonese classic.’  Dim sum is a traditional Chinese meal eaten in the early afternoon and comprising numerous small plates with different rolls, cakes, buns, meats and dumplings. The list spans a range of budgets and locations across the city, and – perhaps surprisingly – only one restaurant from central London’s Chinatown made the cut, The Golden Phoenix on Gerrard Street. At number seven on the list, Zhao recommended the restaurant’s chicken feet in black bean sauce, mochi with sesame paste, salted egg custard lava buns and umami turnip cakes in XO sauce.  Other spots to make the cut include the popular Dim Sum Duck – also in King’s Cross – as well as Soho’s big budget Yauatcha, the branch of Golden Dragon by Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall in Colindale, MamaMei on Holloway Road, and Panda Dim Sum in Leytonstone. The super fancy Park Chinois in Mayfair also made the grade. Click here to see the full top 10.   Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp

Skint but fancy a drink? Then Market Place Food Hall and Bar in Vauxhall is offering some very, very cheap drinks this Friday January 17. They’ll be slinging pints of Asahi for just 17p in order to honour the mid-month slump that sees people ditch their attempts at Dry Jan and simply... get on it.  Is there a catch? Well, yes. Of course there is. There are only 100 pints available at this wild, knock down price and they’re only on offer between 12-2pm. That means you’ll have to dash out of the office, have an extremely cheeky lunchtime drink, then rush back and pretend nothing has happened.   Make sure you head the correct Market Place as well. They’ve got outlets in Peckham, Harrow and Hounslow as well as Vauxhall.  Holly Hilton, marketing director of Market Place, has said of the offer: ‘Let’s be honest, most of us set unrealistic goals after over-indulging during December. Rather than feeling guilty about it, why not embrace the fact we’re perfectly imperfect with an almost-free pint in good company? After all, you’ll be with others who agree life’s too short and have also broken their Dry January vow.’ Market Place Vauxhall can be found at 7 S Lambeth Place, SW8 1SP   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.

For one day this month you’ll be able to visit a London pub and pay what you feel is fair – based on how much you earn. The pub – called The Fair Pour – comes from Oxfam, which is drawing attention to the Davos World Economic Forum which will be taking place at the same time. The Fair Pour aims to ‘highlight the growing inequality gap between the super-rich and the rest of the world’. The pub will be open on January 21 from midday until 9pm – and will be taking over The Queen's Head at 64 Theobalds Road.  With pints now reaching the £8 mark in London, it seems a fitting thirsty cause to use in order to draw attention to the vast disparity between earners. ‘At the Fair Pour, more affluent customers are encouraged to dig deep and to pay prices that reflect their individual wealth, highlighting how a fairer tax system could help tackle inequality,’ says Oxfam. The charity has suggested that if billionaires paid slightly (only slightly!!) more tax, then those buckets full of cash could go towards funding healthcare, education and fair wages, as well as helping with protection from the climate crisis. We see their point.  We’re not quite sure how they’ll be checking up on every punter’s net worth, but we reckon you’ll be able to get a pretty cheap drink – unless you’re like, Elon Musk, in which case, expect to pay in the region of £100 for your drink.  There’ll be plenty of booze-free options for Dry January and there’ll also be a free pub quiz at 7pm.  The Fair Pour can be found

The Telegraph has just named the very best pubs in each of the UK’s 48 counties - and the ones the newspaper picked for Greater London and the City of London aren’t to be sniffed at. The Blythe Hill Tavern – which also made Time Out’s recent list of the 50 best pubs in London – was named the best pub in Greater London. The Irish pub in Catford was praised for ‘hit(ting) the spot when it comes to the key pub virtues: welcoming to all, excellent beer, plenty of cosy spots, and a large back garden’. We love this south London pub too, putting it at the number three spot in our list.  The second London pub named in the Telegraph’s ranking was The Cockpit in the City of London. ‘It’s remarkable that a pub as unaffected as The Cockpit can survive amidst the City of London’s recent blandification, but survive it does,’ the newspaper wrote. The Grade II-listed Cockpit can be found halfway between Blackfriars and St Paul’s and the current building dates to 1865. Again, we can’t argue with their choice; it’s a friendly, locals pub of the type you wouldn’t really think existed in London’s every so slightly soulless financial district.  There has been a pub on this site since the 16th century, back when William Shakespeare lived in a house around the corner. There’s a viewing gallery at the top of the venue (purely ornamental, however), a throwback to the time when cockfighting took place on the site, before being banned in the late 1840s. You can find a list of all the Telegraph’s best p

After just 15 months in business, Time Out favourite Whyte’s is closing. The London Fields eatery was the first bricks and mortar restaurant from chef Whyte Rushen and will be open for just seven more weeks before shutting up shop.  We gave the place a glowing five-star review when we visited last year, calling it ‘a simple east London space with one of the city’s hottest chefs in charge’ and praising its ever-changing menu, which ran the gamut of ‘whatever Whyte Rushen wants to serve you – cooked oysters one day, San Sebastian-style Basque cookery the next’. It secured a place in both our best restaurants in Hackney list and our best new restaurants in London list. But all is not lost. Whyte’s will be taking the restaurant on the road. ‘We’re going on a little world tour aren’t we, hopping from city to city, hosting residencies in the maddest places,’ read an announcement on Instagram. Whyte’s will be hosting a series of pop-ups across the globe and partnering with a string of other restaurants. Exact locations will be revealed at the end of February. ‘Thank you all for the endless love. Catch you in China?’ the post added.  This sees a return to Whyte Rushen’s roots, when he hosted a series of pop-ups and residencies after the pandemic, which served up his near-legendary smash-burgers and Monster Munch-coated oysters.  Any maybe, just maybe, Whyte’s will return to London one day… The hottest new openings, the tastiest tips, the spiciest reviews: we’re serving it all on our

The National Burger Awards final takes place next month and loads of London burger joints have made the cut. Of the 16 burgers in the shortlist, six are from London-based restaurants and pop-ups. The big event takes place on February 11 at Big Penny Social in Walthamstow, and a bunch of Time Out’s favourite London burgers featuring in the grand final, including offerings from Lagom in Hackney, Four Legs at The Plimsoll in Finsbury Park, and Black Bear Burger, which has outlets in Camden, Shoreditch and Brixton. This is the 11th annual National Burger Awards. The final will see chefs cook up their nominated burger with judging on the day from a panel of experts. ‘What’s not to love about a day spent celebrating the very best of British burgers?’ commented Genna Ash-Brown, editor of Dine Out magazine, which runs the awards. ‘This line-up could well be the most compelling yet, and we can’t wait for our judges to be floored by the flavourful innovation that’s sure to be demonstrated by these talented chefs.’ The London finalists in the National Burger Awards are: Black Bear Burger’s Miso Bacon Burger Bun & Sum’s Big S’mac Burger & Lobster’s Beast Burger Four Legs’s Cheeseburger Lagom’s The Gothenburger Patty & Bun’s Patty Luger The 2024 contest was won by a London burger: Bleeker’s Bacon Double Burger. Will London triumph again? Last year also saw the 10th anniversary of the National Burger Awards celebrated by the Champion of Champions event, which named Whole Beast’s Aged Che

The Deptford branch of Manze’s will serve its last pie and mash this month Owner George Mascall announced his retirement last year and has now revealed that January 25 will be the last day of trading for the shop, which has been open since 1914. ‘We expect to be very busy in the lead up to our last days. Please, please, please make sure you get in pronto for your visit, we are selling out much earlier in the day than normal and I don't want you to be disappointed and miss out on your last pie and mash,’ says a statement on the Manze’s website.  The statement also revealed that no family members were keen on taking over the business. ‘We have no idea what the landlord wants to do with the building,’ they added.  Other recent pie and mash closures include Walthamstow’s L Manze’s, while Islington’s M Manze’s closed in 2017. Two London branches of M Manze’s remain; Peckham and Tower Bridge Road – as well as an outpost in Sutton.  The Tower Bridge Road branch is the oldest eel and pie shop in London, originally opened by pie shop pro Robert Cooke in 1891 and taken over by his son-in-law Michele Manze in 1902. It was the first of 14 stores to bear the Manze’s name, most of which are now closed. The Manze family originally hailed from Ravello on the Amalfi coast in southern Italy. ‘Maybe the next owner will keep it as a pie and mash shop but I certainly won’t be involved,’ George Mascall told Southwark News last year. ‘A lot of customers will be upset and they reckon they’ll have a

A bunch of lovely London restaurants have just been added to the Michelin Guide. Eleven of them in fact. The Michelin Guide’s inspectors have the enviable job of eating their way through the world and every month add a new batch of restaurants to their approved list of eateries.  A nod in the Michelin Guide isn’t quite as impressive as a Michelin star – but it’s certainly not to be sniffed at. The new, much-heralded stars for the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 2025 will be unveiled on February 10 at a ceremony at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum. Until then though, let’s celebrate the new additions to the Guide, which include some Time Out favourites, including the seasonal British bistro Sesta in Hackney, Filipino restaurant Donia in Soho and sushi spot Niju in Mayfair.   ‘London’s had a particularly strong month, with 11 impressive eateries among our list,’ say the folk from the Michelin Guide. ‘Perhaps most exciting is the sheer variety of styles, from country house tasting menus to Filipino sharing plates – plus two additions to the country’s Japanese restaurant roster.’ The list also includes Arlington on the old site of Le Caprice, Basque steak restaurant Ibai, Peruvian rooftop restaurant Llama Inn, and French-inspired bistro Mignonette in Richmond. RECOMMENDED: Every Michelin starred restaurant in London. The full list of new London additions to the Michelin Guide: Aragawa, Mayfair Arlington, St James’s Donia, Soho Dosa, Mayfair Ibai, City of London

Tickets for the PDC World Darts Championship final at Ally Pally this Friday night (January 3) might have sold out way back in the summer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be part of the action.  For the past two and a half weeks darts icons have been battling for supremacy in north London – and this Friday night two finalists will fight for the title which was last year won by World No. 1 Luke Humphries. Depending on the result of tonight’s semi finals, Friday’s match will either be Chris Dobey or Michael van Gerwen vs Stephen Bunting or Luke Littler, and it will start at 8pm.  There are plenty of places in London screening the big event, from cosy little pubs to big rowdy beer halls – here’s our pick of the best places to get giddy over nine-darters and squeal with joy after every 180. Enjoy our pics from the event and read about why the PDC World Darts Championship is greatest show on Earth.  1. Adam & Eve, Homerton A roomy old Victorian boozer on Homerton High Street, there are plenty of screens at the Adam & Eve, so you’ll always be able to have an eye on the action. Added appeal comes in the shape of their current kitchen pop-up, Greek-Australian kitchen Essi. Fuel yourself for the big night with a saganaki toastie dripping in honey.  155 Homerton High St, E9 6AS 2. Big Penny Social, Walthamstow  Walthamstow’s absolutely massive beer hall Big Penny Social is promising all the electric atmosphere and raucous fun of Alexandra Palace on January 3. Also in the spirit o