Holborn Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “Good value” sushi, sashimi and other Japanese dishes trundle past your seat at these two ‘kaiten’ (conveyor-belt) operations in the City, tempting you to help yourself. It makes a fun, fast and efficient way to grab lunch. The chain also has takeaway and delivery options for evenings.

A glass-ceilinged former auction house in Chancery Lane is home to this homage to Provençal cuisine from Pascal Aussignac’s Club Gascon group – making it an “excellent place for a business lunch in an otherwise under-served area”. Plus points include an interesting list of southern French and Corsican wines, and the downstairs cocktail bar Baranis. Top Tip – “ask for a booth to celebrate a special occasion”.

For a “good solid business lunch” it remains recommendable, but otherwise reports are uneven regarding this grand hotel’s ‘British brasserie’, where traditional pies are a big menu feature: the least enthusiastic diners feel it’s “disappointing, since it is supposed to be a five star”.

2022 Review: This independent fixture in legal-land (near the LSE) is a long-running staple of the area – welcoming, “always good value”, and with some interesting picks and bin-end deals on the wine list.

2021 Review: “Could this be the best coffee in London?” – this speciality chain has grown from this Leather Lane site to 15 around the capital in 10 years, and is, by all accounts, “exceptional” – “definitely worth going out of the way for a brew”. “Staff are friendly”, and sandwiches, salads and cakes are prepared fresh every day at a central in-house kitchen and bakery.

Caffeine aficionados beat a path to the Leather Lane premises of “one of the early champions of speciality coffee”, where they imbibe information from the “friendly and knowledgeable staff” along with their brews. It’s a “comfortable refurbished space”, and there are “great pastries” and breakfast/brunch options to munch on.

“Surely the best restaurant in London without a Michelin star!” Chef Anthony Raffo provides “modern British cooking at its finest” at this “tiny” Farringdon venture, with “novel flavours and combinations, cleverly incorporating a perfect balance of umami and other tastes; all whilst using seasonal ingredients and looking incredible”. Meanwhile, manager, Marie Danzanvilliers, presides “with great charm and hospitality”. “The venue itself is quite hipster-cool but pretty low key. At the end of the day, it is all about the food offer and they absolutely nail that!”. “It really is a hidden gem”… “No idea why the Tyre Man hasn’t come calling.”

“The pan-Asian food is yummy… the black cod is exceptional” and the “buzzy” atmosphere is “stunning”, say fans of Arjun Waney and Rainer Becker’s svelte Japanese-inspired venues, where “you can either sit at the counter watching the kitchen (great if you’re just two), or at a table”; and where “a typical meal is sushi or sashimi as a starter then a robata (charcoal grill) dish for a main”. Its ratings slid this year, though. Never cheap, prices are becoming “sky high”; the cooking is “not as reliably good as it once was”; and there was the odd incident of “shocking” service.

“Fab burgers with a posh turn” – including “awesome sweet potato fries” – still lead the charge at these Frenchified fast-food outfits, but they are transitioning into a brasserie group under the ownership of Hush Mayfair’s Jamie Barber. The 20-year-old original – a “great, cosy little spot in Camden” – and its Balham offshoot are all that remain as pure burger bars, while Kingston, High Holborn and Chelsea are now branded as brasseries with an extended menu to match.

2021 Review: “Surprisingly good food and charming service” make it worth remembering this historic hostelry (refurbed in recent times), near the Royal Courts of Justice. You can eat in the ground floor bar, or in the upstairs ‘Pig and Goose’ restaurant.

“Proper” Japanese food at a “very affordable price” (“the sushi is seemingly no more expensive than Yo! Sushi, but so much better quality”) ensures that these Tokyo-inspired pitstops are “always busy” and there are “often queues”. “The canteen atmosphere and sometimes inflexible service doesn’t make you want to linger” but no-one cares given the “extensive menu – made with fresh ingredients and served up super quick – that’s good overall value”. Top Tip – “the bento boxes are tasty and authentic”.

“Reliable, generously proportioned burritos with a great range of extra fillings” keeps ’em coming to this fast-food café/takeaway, on a corner amidst Leather Lane Market.

This “impressive French-inspired bistro” is cutely tucked away in a historic yard on the fringe of the City, and thrives on its “simple typically Gallic cooking with good ingredients”, its high-quality wine list, and its “attentive and friendly service”. “It’s not quite what it was” when the adjoining buildings held a posher sister restaurant, but “a reliable mainstay that’s still well worth a visit”, and which is still a go-to business entertaining venue. Top Tip – large and very attractive terrace for the summer months; and “the set menu isn’t bad value either”.

2022 Review: On the fringe of the City, this large tavern is part of the well-known eateries grouped around Bleeding Heart Yard, all under common ownership. A “decent-all-round and handy standby”, it was in particular “a perfect place to meet people for the elusive business meetings that could take place between lockdowns”. Reported by Google as ‘Temporarily closed’ in October 2021, we have rated it on the basis that – as the Square Mile picks up – its return is likely.

Robbie Lorraine has upped sticks from Brixton with his Del Boy-inspired pop-up – a witty, multi-course trip back in time to the cuisine of the 80s and 90s (duck-liver paté, prawn cocktail…). This new home is part of a Grade II listed pub just off the Strand: not to be confused with Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street, which is about ten minutes’ stroll away (although both claim Dickens as a former patron). No survey feedback as yet – reports please!