LONDON > EATING
DRINKING / AFTERNOON TEA / SHOPPING / SEEING / SLEEPING
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British
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1. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
With love, British food turned into a real boy. Take your preconceptions to Dinner and you’ll lose them at the appetiser.
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2. The Ledbury
Everyone has their perfect pair. With a wine list 40 pages long, and Sommelier’s at your service, you’ll have all evening to discover yours.
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3. St. John
A sounder of chefs break bread daily at St. John. Foodies on pilgrimage, note that no two services are the same as the menu is created daily.
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4. Duck and waffle
With the best view of London from a restaurant, rich dishes like its namesake (crispy leg confit, fried duck egg, and mustard maple syrup), and everything made to be shared, make sure time is on your side when dining here.
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5. Maggie Jones's
Eating your plate of Burnt Cream you proclaim “very good”, seconded by a man who you recognise as the Cambridge Emeritus professor whose b&w portrait is in the sleeve of your book.
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6. Clove Club
If you experience a buzz when stepping into Clove Club know that, as the heart of the borough since the 1800s, it’s an energy that people have felt around the cultural Shoreditch Town Hall for centuries.
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7. The Ivy
Works of art are often created in tribute. With a menu that includes Elevenses and Lupper on either side of Lunch, The Ivy restaurant is a tribute to the prim-and-proper side of London.
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8. Berners Tavern
While picture galleries are in museums everywhere, London has the best in the world. Awarded best restaurant interior, large paintings scale the walls all the way to the ornate plaster mould decorated ceiling. Make room for a feast for your eyes.
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French
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9. Aubaine
Do you think of bread as the cornerstone to your being? You share that in common with Aubaine, founded dutifully to provide London with the authentic French bread it needed.
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10. La Fromagerie
The cheese shop where you don’t have to worry about whether Pont l'Evêque is in stock or not.
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11. Sketch the Gallery
The eclectic, postmodern interior and vibrant, proudly French, food packs enough excitement for several evenings.
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12. Brasserie Blanc
Pigeon, sweetbreads, pork sausages – Brasserie Blanc doesn’t discriminate between their dish’s pièces de résistance. Each are fashioned into medallions, plated on earthy, speckled ceramic plates.
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13. Clos Maggiore
Idealism in restaurant form. Witness aesthetic sensibilities at odds in the outside world finding themselves agreeing on the heady beauty of Clos Maggiore.
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14. Riding House Cafe
On the one hand, you have breakfast bowls, pancakes, and smoothies…with berries. On the other, you have a full English breakfast, lobster benedict, and poutine!
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15. Brasserie Zedel
Step out of the cold midnight into the Paris that resides on Piccadilly Circus, where a hot meal, wine, and sing-song awaits you.
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16. Chicken Shop
The taste of rotisserie chicken is a flavour stored in our collective memory. It’s best enjoyed in settings… well, where you can laugh as loud as you want and not be judged. The rustic, homey Chicken Shop is just that.
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American
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17. Burger & Lobster
A lobster walks into a burger joint… there’s no punchline here, just the fact that the lobster started making beautiful music with the burger and eventually became rockstars.
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Italian
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18. Villa Bianca
In fine dining, quality of food and service are expected. Villa Bianca meets the standard, yet its charm lies in its accents, from the live piano music, to the beautifully plated dishes… and we call it bella note.
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19. Da Polpo
Of Venice’s backstreet wine bars, owner Russell Norman pondered “is this something I could bring to London, is this something other people would enjoy”? Da Polpo shows us that maybe the key to replicating a city is to pick a focus and make sure to transpose it perfectly.
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Polish
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20. Ognisko
Humming canzone, you can’t go back to the hotel after the opera. You’ve got to celebrate! Order bubbly and caviar blinis while seated in a fine Victorian-era, Empire dining chair (for you chair aficionados).
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Spanish
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21. Barrafina
Oggle at the giant cockle shells as you watch the cooks preparing your tapas from your bar seat vantage point. The menu is meant to emulate the “feasting style of Spanish families” so, if anyone asks, you were being culturally sensitive not a glutton.
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Middle Eastern
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22. Palomar
Modern Jerusalem sounds like an oxymoron. Mull it over while putting together a deconstructed Shakshuka (in your mouth).
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Vegetarian
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23. Mildreds
The zeitgeist of London’s modern vegetarian scene is captured in the aura of the food at Mildreds.
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Fusion
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24. Bob Bob Ricard
A concept is a wonderful thing. Good ones have brought grown men to tears. A cup o’ joe signing individual walks into Bob Bob Ricard and doesn’t know how to leave. So he sits, presses a magical button, and has his first taste of champagne.
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25. Chiltern firehouse
H̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶a̶c̶k̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶e̶r̶v̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶. Made it in and you’re in survival of the fittest mode and, while just savouring the air other champs and some lucky souls have breathed is enough, you’ll order like you’ve won a million bucks.
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26. Nopi
The name sounds like something crunchy. You don’t just stumble into a Yotam Ottolenghi restaurant, so chances are, familiar with his dishes, you booked a table for two – you and your Nopi cookbook.
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27. The Providores
A New Zealand chef that looks like a fusion of Richard Branson and Peter Gallagher walks into a kitchen and prepares a bowl of laksa with a quail egg – what? Don’t make us repeat that again, go see for yourself.
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28. Odette's
England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, inside, outside, smoked eel’s tails! Let the chicken roost while you savour the flavours of Welsh rabbit and English (yes English) Eel.
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29. Ottolenghi
Where pastry chefs go to hang up their aprons and dine as guests. Order the Passionfruit Cake, that’s a command.
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Seafood
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31. Prawn on the Lawn
When dining on fine ingredients off a barrel I feel like I’ve been conscripted to join the mass intelligentsia of chefs and food critics – I, dutifully, go willingly.
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32. Scott's
Where, during WWII, Ian Fleming took two high ranking German prisoners of war to get them drunk so they would reveal their strategic plan.
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Asian
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33. Lahore Kebab House
I hope for your sake you have your desi food craving during your trip so you can experience your favourite curry on steroids and also sample something fancy, like bone marrow or quail stew.
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34. Yashin
“Time to take your hand off the soy sauce in your bag – It’s OK”. And with that, she plunged head first into a seaweed abyss.
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35. Gymkhana
Perhaps you’re still hung up on the fact our British restaurant selection doesn’t contain any Indian. Gymkhana is our attempt to get back in your good graces. The food is hot and sour, just like your feelings after a losing cricket match.
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36. Sticks’n’Sushi
If modern Danish-Nordic cuisine was a musician, Japanese food would be cited as a major influence. International millennials that grew up in a fusion kitchen, here’s looking at you.