Where to eat in Fitzrovia: restaurants to make you swoon

Portland and Clipstone

Michelin-starred Portland and little sister Clipstone are restaurant royalty in these quarters. Brought into being by Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau, in 2015 and 2016 respectively, both serve modern European cuisine in elegant, pared-back settings. This duo of gems – on Great Portland Street and Clipstone Street (duh) – were at the helm of the small-plate movement, however both also offer two- or three-course lunch menus that are exceptionally pocket-friendly, too (£35 for three courses at Portland and £28 for the same at Clipstone).

Both Portland and slightly-cheaper Clipstone are lauded pretty equally by the critics. And while a truly special occasion calls for the seven-course tasting menu (for £75pp) at Portland, you really can’t go wrong with either. Oh, and did we mention nearly as much attention goes into the wine lists as the food?

Honey & Co.

You can feel the love trickling through the veins of Middle Eastern restaurant Honey & Co. as soon as you walk through its glass-fronted door. The intimate, tile-floored dining room is always filled with chattering foodies; the atmosphere consistently buzzy. Love is also poured into each and every one of the dishes dreamed up here by Israeli husband-and-wife team Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich.

The food itself is an ode to Jerusalem home cooking: fragrant and bold dishes like lamb siniya or Musakha (depending on what time of year you come) plus a wonderful selection of cakes. As a whole, the menu brings a refreshing departure from small plates, breaking down into mezze-for-the-table, mains and pudding. Whatever you order, do not leave without trying the signature deconstructed feta & honey cheesecake, which comes as a creamy mess atop a brittle, straw-like base of kadaif pastry.

Norma by Ben Tish

It's official: we'd happily move into Norma for the whole of winter. The restaurant is housed in a three-storey Fitzrovia townhouse that's especially cosy and inviting with its Art Deco flourishes of fluted glass, curvy golden velvet banquettes, flattering lighting and charming servers. Norma is Ben Tish’s homage to Sicily, one of his favourite places to visit, not least because the Moorish (the name of his excellent most recent recipe book too) influence on its culinary history makes it sun-soaked, fragrantly exotic and boldly Italian.

If Tish’s name is familiar, he used to run the kitchens across Salt Yard Restaurant Group, including Opera Tavern, after training with Jason Atherton. He joined The Stafford hotel as chef director overseeing the hotel's Gamebird restaurant, before opening Norma, his stand-alone restaurant that is part of the Stafford Collection.

We could wax lyrical about the many details that make Norma so special – not least of all the figs, which pop up in interesting ways as a recurring theme across the menu. But in short, through Norma, Tish manages to channel the culinary exoticism of Sicily straight into the heart of Fitzrovia.

Rovi

Refreshingly different to his six other restaurants, chef and cookbook author, Yotam Ottolenghi’s Rovi celebrates vegetables along with the grilling and fermenting techniques that he has been showcasing in his books for far longer than they've been high fashion. From the gloriously inventive plant-focussed menu, try the extraordinary celeriac schwarma with fermented tomato sauce. Fantastic too are the smoked mussels (pictured), and Jerusalem mixed grill with baharat onions and pickles. Rovi is brilliant for brunch/breakfast too: if it’s your first visit, the green shakshuka is not to be missed.

Circolo Popolare

The bottle-lined walls are a social media addict’s dream, and that’s before we even get to the food. Circolo Popolare is part of Big Mamma, the trendy French restaurant group specialising in Italian cuisine that arrived first in London in the form of Gloria: a ‘70s Capri-style trattoria in Shoreditch. And as of summer 2019, sister Circolo is the couple younger sibling residing in Fitzrovia.

The restaurant draws inspiration from rustic Sicily. Starting from the top: order the burrata, a snowy globe that pools into a gooey mess, white cheese merging with vivid, garlicky pesto. If pizza is your dream meal, rest easy - you can enjoy an entire metre of it to share. Pasta can’t be missed, and the La Gran Carbonara is served at your table, with spaghetti and egg yolk mixed into a whole round of pecorino. It’s pure theatre and exactly what Circolo is all about. However, it was the decadent curls black truffle-covered Mafald Ine Al Tartufo that we were spooning from our plates, even when we were undeniably full. If room remains for pudding, the Insta-famous Lemon Meringue Pie (also a favourite at Gloria) is not to be missed. With prices pitched at high-street level, Circolo is an affordable option for eating alongside the cool crowd.

Ampéli

Taking its cues from the new-school wine bars of Athens-born Jenny Pagoni’s hometown, Ampéli’s in Fitzrovia boasts a wine list focusing on unsung Greek wines. Resist memories of tourist-taverna paintstripper and have faith that, at Ampéli, they truly know their grapes.

The menu, meanwhile, takes inspiration from both Greece and the neighbouring Mediterranean countries. Chef Oren Goldfeld is an Ottolenghi luminary and his creative, colourful pedigree shows in his broad sweep of Greek dishes given a reawakening, then blended with eastern Mediterranean flavours and buzz ingredients including date molasses and poppy seeds.

The interior with three floors of seating is far more sophisticated than memories of earlier Charlotte Street tavernas. Opt for the mezzanine level for optimum comfort, settled comfortably among the amber and pistachio decor and unusually good art on the walls plus covetable crockery, strictly not for throwing.

Bao

If you've visited the original BAO restaurant, on Soho's Lexington Street, you'll have noticed that a queue starts forming even before it opens at 12pm. This is because their small steamed milk buns have become one of the city's most iconic dishes, attracting critical acclaim and social media frenzy for their delicious fillings and inexpensive prices.

Supply always equals demand, so it should come as no surprise that their next opening in Fitzrovia followed the same successful formula. Here, you'll find a few twists. Not only is the restaurant twice the size at nearly 50 covers, but there's a greater emphasis on Taiwanese sharing dishes such as ox heart with Sichuan dressing and crab in rice broth, as well as snacks like crispy bird's feet with hot sauce and oysters with green chilli pickle. It's still no-reservations, though, so expect to queue, but know that it'll be worth it in the end.