London Bayswater Restaurant Guide

“The roast duck is extraordinarily delicious and just melts in the mouth” (and the rest of the menu is worthy of exploration too) at these “squashed in” Cantonese pit stops in Bayswater and Chinatown, which waste little energy on interior design or customer service. (A new branch ‘Chop Chop’, is set to open in the basement of the Hippodrome casino, near Leicester Square, over summer 2022).

“Who would order anything but the lobster noodles?” (“the best way to get the most out of a crustacean, and surprisingly good value!”) at this “unbeatable Cantonese classic” in Queensway: a “chaotic, crowded and noisy”, if “efficiently run” stalwart (est 1978) which sells more lobster than just about any other restaurant in the UK. If you do, there are other delicious seafood dishes to try (scallops, crab, razor clams…) and the Peking Duck’s not bad either.

“You’ll likely find yourselves among Asian customers” at this classic Cantonese restaurant in Queensway. While perhaps “not the best Chinese food London has to offer”, the cooking provides “the real thing”, with roast duck the most recommended dish here.

“The ambience might not be much (it is set inside a no-frills indoor market) but – oh boy! – the beef rending and mee goreng are deeeelicious” at this tiny, high-quality and exceptionally good-value Malaysian café in Bayswater, where Normah Abd Hamid has fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition by sharing her brilliant home cooking with friends and strangers.

“Delicious food from the Levant, served with charm” has earned an enthusiastic following for Barry and Patricia Hilton’s “interesting Middle Eastern” bistros: particularly the original, tucked away in South Kensington’s ‘Little France’ in a quirky modernised unit with a Scandi-meets-North-Africa vibe. A thumbs-up too for its newer, year-old Queensway branch.

“Dead hippie sauce is a must” at these “very loud” operations, which “remain at the head of the gourmet burger pack” for many fans with “lots of options available”. After 14 years of growth from a food van to a national chain with 10 venues in the capital, they “don’t seem to have lost their way yet”. “The dark and grungy ersatz New Orleans interior vibe” is of the love-it-or-hate-it variety.

2019 Review: Big and busy curry house institution on Westbourne Grove, known for the distinctive palm-tree pillars in its main dining room. Its 70+ main courses number “all the standard dishes” – results are “solid if not perhaps great” but come at a cost that’s “extremely cheap”. Founded more than 40 years ago, it has been alcohol-free for the past 19 (no-alcohol Cobra beer is on the menu).

“Incredible coffee” (roasted by Kiss the Hippo) is the star turn at Mathew and Charmain Tabtabai’s four-year-old Bayswater venture. They do a “great breakfast”, too, with “excellent scrambled eggs” – and a range of cocktails for later in the day.

2019 Review: Now in their 21st year, this pair of “bustling, tightly packed” BYO Persian cafés in Bayswater and Olympia knock out “cheap but tasty kebabs and other typical Iranian dishes”. Not bad for a business that started in a Portakabin next to Olympia Station.

2021 Review: “Perfect coffee every time” keeps caffeine fiends crawling back to this small and serious chain. “Baking from Fortitude Bakehouse is a good complement”.

“Excellent Italian food and very personable service” have made this unusual venue, on the first floor of a Notting Hill pub, a place of more-than-local interest for more than 25 years. Admittedly it no longer generates anything like the gigantic buzz it once did, but diehard fans say “it’s comforting that it survived the pandemic and the food’s even better post-lockdown”.

“Delicious roast chicken, with sides such as potato purée and root veggies” – as well, of course, as fries and salads – have won a growing fanclub for Romain Bourrillon’s upbeat French-rotisserie chain, whose most popular branches in our annual diners’ poll are in Bayswater, Queen’s Park and Parsons’s Green.

“The epitome of the local curry house”, this “cosy” 65-year-old family-run tandoori off Westbourne Grove – one of London’s oldest – serves “classic fare” that’s “always delicious”.

A “delightful ever-changing menu of truly delicious and inventive vegan/vegetarian dishes” tickles the taste buds at Camilla Fayed’s Bayswater venue, which is supplied by her Demeter-certified biodynamic farm in Kent.

St John alumnus chef Tom Pemberton “never disappoints” with his modern British cooking at the “small but not too noisy” Bayswater neighbourhood restaurant he opened in 2007, in a cleverly converted former butcher’s shop. “Service is efficient, food is excellent and good value” and the “Sunday roasts are brilliant”.

2021 Review: “Extraordinarily good pizzas”, “very good negronis” and “no burgers” are served at this bar, which boasts “the style of Mayfair transplanted to Notting Hill”. It’s upstairs from Assaggi, and from the same team, in the former pub they share, and these days seems the less risky bet. Top Tip – “try the truffle pizza in winter and English asparagus with San Daniele ham in summer”.

2021 Review: Mussels, prawns, calamari and other seafood by the, er, bucket-load is the promise at this “lovely local” yearling on the Bayswater/Notting Hill border – a “comfortable” modern bistro with simple-but-effective decor, serving “a wide selection of very fresh fish and seafood” (in small metal pails) that’s “very good value”. Top Tip – oyster happy hour 4pm-7pm weekdays and 4pm-6pm on weekends, when oysters are £1 each with any bottle, jug, cocktail or bucket of beers.

With its “superior dim sum”, this unusually spacious modern basement venue in Paddington Basin is often tipped as “better than the Chinatown options”. From the main menu, the “great Cantonese cooking” comes in “generous portions”, with pretty much “everything of an exemplary standard” – while service is “particularly accommodating and cheerful”.

“A bit of an oddball” – this “quirky little place with a fun atmosphere” off Notting Hill serves a selection of creative dishes using sustainably sourced produce that’s foraged or from the Gladwin family’s farm in Sussex and is one of their better-rated venues. The Gladwins have now opened six restaurants under their ‘Local & Wild’ brand across west and central London, with more expected to follow.

Jeremy King is back! (with a vengeance?) at this big, bold newcomer in a landmark new development opposite Kensington Gardens and on the corner of Queensway. Apparently it will be “very much within the ‘Grand Cafés & Brasseries’ mould that [he] love[s] so much but it is however very much of the early 21st Century rather than 20th". Perhaps that means less of the Edwardian (Ivy, Wolseley, Delaunay) or Victorian (Sheekeys) style that has characterised his earlier openings.