CW’s 10 best restaurants in London

Bubala, Spitalfields

Brilliant vegetarian Middle Eastern restaurant Bubala barely had time to win over the city’s foodie crowd before it was forced to shutter the doors of its greenery-dotted, pared-down dining room to comply with lockdown restrictions. Marc Summers (former general manager of Berber & Q) and chef Helen Graham (The Palomar, The Barbary and The Good Egg), are the duo in charge here, and they’ve won over vegetarians and die-hard carnivores alike with their innovative, punchy plates. Menu highlights include a dish of fried aubergine with zhoug and date syrup; and confit potato latkes, served with garlicky toum. Bubala means darling in Yiddish and it’s certainly a darling of east London’s restaurant scene.

The Waterhouse Project, Bethnal Green

On an unassuming cobbled alleyway, just off Regent’s Canal in Bethnal Green, you’ll find chef Gabriel Waterhouse’s eponymous, innovative dining destination: The Waterhouse Project. Easily one of 2021’s most exciting restaurant openings, The Waterhouse Project challenges the perceptions of fine dining by offering an experience akin to a well-orchestrated dinner party: guests can tuck into a changing-monthly nine-course tasting menu of seasonal ingredients whipped into surprising, titillating specimens of fine dining, paired with low-intervention wines. It’s gorgeous too: a spacious, pared-down dining room dotted with furnishings and crockery you’ll want to take home.

Read our five-star review

Kudu, Peckham

Kudu might take its name from a breed of African antelope but there’s nothing flighty about this restaurant. The first opening from Amy Corbin, daughter of Chris Corbin of the formidable Corbin & King (The Wolseley, The Delaunay et al.) and her partner chef Patrick Williams, who hails from South Africa, Kudu won a Bib Gourmand award in the 2018 Michelin guide and has since spawned three miniature spin-offs – Smokey Kudu, Curious Kudu and Kudu Grill – all in the Peckham vicinity. The blush-pink decor is stylish, the service top-notch and the tables mercifully well-spaced, but really you’re here for the food.

Menu musts include the Kudu bread with melted seafood butter and baby shrimp: a bulging pan of tear-and-share bread coupled with a second pan of sizzling melted butter, in which swim slivers of perfectly cooked garlic, dill and the shrimps. Also not to be missed is the onglet: slices of rare hanger steak submerged in a pan of their own juices – don’t even think about asking for it to be cooked otherwise; if you think you prefer your meat medium or well done, this is the dish to convert you.

Read our five-star review

Coal Office, King’s Cross

Any restaurant by Israeli-born chef-entrepreneur Assaf Granit is a friend of ours. In terms of this list, it was just a case of deciding whether to pick his London original The Palomar, its intimate counter-dining spin-off The Barbary, newbie The Barbary Next Door – all of which are co-owned with hospitality wizards and siblings Zoë and Layo Paskin – or… Coal Office, Granit’s Coal Drops Yard outpost, owned with lighting designer Tom Dixon. The latter is a spacious, stylish restaurant where all of Granit’s best things come together. Spread across two floors, the restaurant’s signature Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired dishes include Machneyuda’s polenta with asparagus, parmesan and black truffle (a steal from Granit’s Jerusalem restaurant); the Josperized Aubergine (delicate, unusual and made pretty with a scattering of pomegranate); and soft tufts of The Palomar’s signature kubalah bread – its inner dough soft, salty and buttery like a croissant. Insist on a table near the open kitchen to watch the chefs prepare your plates with a side of showmanship, dancing behind the stoves.

Jolene, Stoke Newington

With its rustic interiors, on-site bakery and flour mill, and on-the-board menu of seasonal specials, bakery-cum-restaurant Jolene is one of the most inviting and tantalising places to eat any time of day, any time of year. Arrive early to tuck into pastries, cakes and coffee, or come for lunch or dinner to sample founders’ David Gingell and Jeremie Cometto-Lingenheim’s delectable small plates from the daily-changing menu.

Mazi, Notting Hill

Greek food is enjoying a revival in London. Not the plate-smashing, ouzo-guzzling kind of fare you might remember from novelty holidays over there, but tantalising and über-modern fine dining. Mazi in Notting Hill was ahead of the curve. The restaurant with its gorgeous fairy-lit courtyard has long been serving Londoners exquisite, fresh takes on new-school Greek cuisine.

When on the menu, we can’t resist sensational feta tempura with lemon marmalade; wild cod; cod roe mousse Tarama; proper Greek salad; and loukoumades with lavender honey and chocolate sorbet. Perennially popular with local trustafarians and foodies alike, it deserves to be on every gourmet's hit list.

Paradise, Soho

Paradise is a small contemporary restaurant that marries über-cool minimalist interiors with divine Sri Lankan cuisine.

The restaurant opened in early 2020 with chef Chris Priyadarshana at the helm. It had to close during lockdown and reopened earlier this year with a new chef, Sri Lankan-born Malin de Silva, in charge.

On our visit, we sat at the bar, which is available on a walk-in basis, and started with a ginger arak sour aperitivo followed by a breadfruit pastry with pineapple ketchup. The highlight of the menu was the fried long aubergines in jaggery moju and the blackened Jaffan style beef shin curry. We can't recommend enough…

Kiln, Soho

Eating smoked Thai food at Kiln is an elating experience. The restaurant is not new but still one of our firm favourites. The joy of sitting at the counter, watching chef Ben Chapman and his quick-handed team cooking in clay pots is unbeatable. Food arrives in no particular order and we would recommend the southern-style curry mutton cooked on hot charcoal.

Orasay, Notting Hill

Although temporarily closed over Christmas due to the lack of available chefs, Orasay is one of our West London favourites. It takes its name after the Scottish island that owner Jackson Boxer used to go on holiday to with his family as a child. The Boxer family is well known to London foodies; Jackson’s grandmother Arabella is a cookbook author, his brother Frank launched Frank's Café in Peckham, and Jackson himself also owns Brunswick House.

Orasay offers inspired seafood with a distinct creative twist. We loved the octopus and Tamworth belly skewer and the 'nduja and the whipped cod’s roe, and potato bread with kumquat kosho.

Orasay’s interiors, a wash of reclaimed wooden boards, comfy cushions and soft colour palette, is warm and welcoming. A perfect spot for a cosy and delicious meal on one of those bleak winter evenings.

Jikoni, Marylebone

What started life as a supper club in Ravinder Bhogal's front room has blossomed into one of the city's most tantalising fusion restaurants – without losing any of its homely charm. In an effeminate, East-meets-West dining room – all pink-hued tablecloths, delicate crockery and cushions brushed with Indian patterns – diners can tuck into the signature dishes of the chef, cookbook author and TV personality, which meld flavours from Asia, Africa and the Middle East with traditionally British concepts.

Epitomising Jikoni's essence is the prawn toast scotch egg with banana ketchup and pickled cucumber – a menu staple and a must. Whatever you order, leave room for the banana cake with butterscotch, peanut brittle and Ovaltine kulfi – another clever fusion of flavours you can't quite place but will look back on fondly for weeks to come.