Elstree Restaurant Guide

“A true treasure in the leafy suburbs”, this “small and quirky” 16th-century pub operates as a “restaurant spread over different rooms”, “delivering a consistently high standard of high-quality British/Italian cooking”. “Luca (Delnevo) and the team treat you as part of the extended family”.

“A stalwart in a desert for decent cooking” that’s still recommended after 25 years “under Alfonso La Cava’s friendly eye” and where there’s some “delicious food” to be had (be it light lunches, à la carte dinners or a newer set menu); afternoon tea is served in the recent (by the venue’s standards) Betsy’s Tearoom, which launched in 2018.

This well-known family-owned quartet of “upmarket Chinese” operations – in Knightsbridge, Mill Hill, Wandsworth Common and Esher – are “longstanding favourites” for many reporters. “The menus may not excite any true aficionados of Asian cuisine, but its consistency excites us!” And even if it’s “never cheap, it’s always worth the price”.

2022 Review: An unusual theme – it’s modelled after the Indian community’s members’ clubs in Kenya – sets the tone at this wood-panelled stalwart, which celebrated its thirtieth birthday in 2021. The culinary offering (ranging from grills to sharing plates and curries) continues to gain highly positive marks, though commentary this year was scant.

“The Oriental food hall of your dreams” – this gastro-warehouse in Colindale offers a vast choice. “The quality ranges extremely widely between the various stalls”, but choose carefully and you’ll be well fed.

2022 Review: “Great fish ’n’ chips” are the hallmark of the Andreou family's fixture (also with a Bushey Heath offshoot) which marked its thirtieth birthday with an expansion not too long ago. Nowadays, they do gluten-free Mondays too.

An all-you-can-eat buffet – with options at breakfast, lunch and dinner – is a longstanding feature of this no-frills veggie veteran: a family business that started out as a market stall in 1984. It also offers an à la carte menu, which includes a significant Indo-Chinese section. No alcohol, so knock yourself out on the array of milkshakes and lassis. (It also has offshoots in Hatch End and Kingsbury).

2021 Review: A former boathouse on the high street, turned hotel and dining room, that remains of note for its “delightful food impeccably served in a not overcrowded restaurant” – though you’ll need to book ahead on weekends, when they also lay on a “good Sunday lunch”.

“Sunday dim sum lunch is always full of happy families” at this popular Cantonese group with 1980s-nightclub decor – an occasion for which they “cannot be beaten” for many diners: so “arrive around 10:45 to join queue for 11am opening”. With the closure of its Bayswater branch a few years ago, Baker Street and Canary Wharf are its preeminent spots (and SW6 can be “disappointing” by comparison). All feedback is about the lunchtime service – “the evening offering is a bit ordinary”.

This smart ‘country pub’ overlooking the village pond in Totteridge, far North London, boasts a menu that ranges from steaks to sourdough pizza. But marks suffered this year on the basis of one or two reports saying recent standards have been “all a bit ‘meh’”.

The “absolutely delicious” South Indian vegan and vegetarian food at this quintet of low-key cafés – stretching from Harrow to Covent Garden – is “good enough to keep carnivores quiet”: in particular “the dosas, which are just what you want from a dosa: crispy, tender, flavourful”. The formula is “simple but it works, even if the menu is always the same”; and it helps that the experience comes at “very reasonable prices”.

One of North London’s more consistent and interesting culinary success stories: Hendon’s kosher Chinese restaurant “continues to operate at a very high standard”, with “tasty and authentic cooking” and “a great ambience”. It takes its name from a Chinese city with an ancient Jewish community.

2021 Review: “A new chef is bringing style and ambition to this lovely period building” – an “intimate” five-hundred-year-old Tudor structure in central Pinner where Stelian Scripcariu has taken over from Terry Farr (owner for over 25 years) at the stoves. A trip “can work out expensive” (nothing new there) but all local reporters say it’s “well worth a visit”.

The original in a small family-owned group specialising in sushi that is “always quick and super-fresh, with great presentation and delicious”. Brothers Jason & Adam Balsam launched the business in 2015, hiring Japanese chefs in their mission to bring high-quality sushi at reasonable prices to the north London ’burbs. Branches have followed in West Hampstead, Mill Hill, Cockfosters and most recently Hatch End.

“Gourmet cooking at reasonable prices in a delightful village pub” encapsulates the appeal of this five-year-old venture from well-travelled chef James Harkin, whose parents ran the Alpine Restaurant in nearby Bushey for 48 years, and his partner Magda. The menu mixes pub classics with more refined Italian dishes.

This “hidden gem in Barnet” has a “fabulous Greek/Mediterranean menu, made ‘posh’ with additions such as ceviche and miso aubergine”. The “food is fresh, tasty and always delicious”, and “they’re so welcoming”. Founder Louis Loizu promoted former apprentice chef Gerry Sands to co-ownership last summer, at the tender age of 21.