Where is your favourite restaurant in all of London?

Not the swishest or most impressive, the place you genuinely love best

Haven't been since pre-pandemic but always loved Cafe du Marche.  Just rock solid reliable French food with good service and nice atmosphere. 

The original Sophie's steak house is great as well. 

Honorable mention for Miyako in the Andaz near Liverpool street as well. Solid reasonably priced Suhsi and their ice cream is just fvcking amazing. 

 

Has anyone tried Eataly in Bishopsgate? I liked it in NYC but don’t know if it’s travelled well. 
 

Also shout for Voodoo Ray’s which is the closest thing I’ve found to New York style pizza in London. 

you lot have surprisingly good taste. Special shout out for Ronters, RR, Caecilius, Kudeyarov.  

Honey and Co on Warren Street.  Elliot's in borough market.

- Noble Rot (original is slightly better than Soho)

- Quality Chop House (has a good set lunch)

- Bocca di Lupo

- St John Bread & Wine (more relaxed than original but similar menu)

- All Corbin & King restaurants make reliably good cocktails and serve reliably good food

- River Cafe

- Rules may strike you as a tourist trap but is actually very good and has a nice cocktail bar upstairs

- The Ritz is bloody amazing if you want a Michelin blow-out

I came to recommend Murger Han but Mugen beat me to it. Their noodles with chilli oil is immense. Theirs also one in Mayfair which is nicer but the same price.

I eat Lebanese almost every time I eat out. Less than ten quid and sometimes five for a ridiculously large amount of superb freshly made salads, dips and grilled meats. You may not be a fan of Arabic culture but when it comes to food you don't need more. The only two cuisines I would rank as highly are Indian and Italian. 

There used to be a wonderful family-owned Italian place near Dalston Junction called The Bite. Just a nice neighbourhood haunt and the service was very good. It was also (too) cheap, which I fear did for them in the end.

The old Stingray Cafe on Fortess Rd in Tufnell Park was one of my favourite ever neighbourhood restaurants. We left the area in 2007 and haven’t been since then, but it only recently closed.

The Taste of Raj isn't even the best Indian in Blackheath, let alone best restaurant in all of London!

I've only been to Babur once, but I'm looking forward to my next visit in a few days' time. They also do unbelievably good cocktails (for a restaurant). 

I'd completely forgotten about Ciao Bella. I had countless amazing dinners there after post law school drinking sessions.

I'm a big fan of Frog and La Trompette. Clos Maggiore also does surprisingly good food considering most people are there for the setting.

Tbilisi (the restaurant on Holloway Road, not the city).  Honourable mentions to Rules and St John, but imo it's a ludicrously cheap place for what it does.  Admittedly the service is - to put it politely - a bit hit and miss, but Georgian food is superb and they do it superbly.  

Josip - interesting.  I'd like to try Georgian food but for me bad service utterly ruins a restaurant.  Even if the food is good.

Whereas interestingly really good service can compensate for average/merely decent food (see e.g. the Woleseley where the food is decent - standards turned out very competently - but not amazing).

Most of the country would be overwhelmed by the food at the Wolseley, and on top of that the experience is why regulars go. The idea it’s ‘decent’ ffs. And people wonder why there’s a populist government.

WAL - I was at the Wolsey a week or so ago, and got "the" booth (purely because of who I was with). Aged gent at next table dining alone with his book, looking like he'd just drifted down from The Albany for a quiet supper. Other side a group of what *must* have been art dealers with flamboyant scarves. It was absolute perfection. 

"Most of the country would be overwhelmed by the food at the Wolseley,"

Presume you mean they would be overwhelmed by how bland it is? Just look at their menu FFS:

 

1/4 Pint of prawns

chopped liver

prawn cocktail

chicken soup

smoked salmon

salad nicoise

fish goujons and chips 

chicken and chips

steak and chips

calves liver and onions.

 

 

It’s a bit like the river cafe - underwhelming description then massively over deliver on what’s on. The plate. The very finest smoked salmon with the very best butter bla bla. 

It's high quality comfort food delivered in a nice setting with excellent service and nice booze. Exactly the sort of place an affluent chap might very well drift into for dinner alone when at a loose end one evening and perfect for a long lunch with an old friend when you want to know what you are getting and don't want the food to be a distraction.  Nowt wrong with that and I don't think they would claim to be anything else.  

Personally I rarely want anything else these days. 

 

 

 

I like London for the kinds of food you can't get in Scotland. Had brilliant Caribbean in Camden recently (wish was not in Camden but u can't have everything). Cambodian, Sri Lankan, Afghan. It's so cool.

Don't really enjoy "Establishment" vibes and I can make bland comfort food myself.

But also I have never been 😃

The Wolseley is superb because they recognise that hospitality is a different thing from serving great food. (The food is great btw, since when did serving classics disqualify you?). But you don’t go there for the food per se, you go because you’ll have a fantastic experience and leave feeling happy at the end of it 

What she said

i went somewhere last week you’d think wasn’t remotely out of the ordinary. The staff were superb. Made us feel a whole lot better. Makes all the difference. Especially now. This winter is going to be properly shit. Eat out to keep them about. 

Don't get me wrong, I eat there often and I wouldn't go if the food wasn't pretty good.  But there's much better food elsewhere in London and often much cheaper too.

I think it's emperor's new clothes! You can get great service everywhere with much better food.

The Ivy (the original one on West St) has almost the same menu as the Wolesely but the service is so much better.  And actually the cooking is too