London Holborn Restaurant Guide

2019 Review: This Japanese tabletop BBQ is a “great place for a fun night out” in Holborn (there’s also a new branch at Oxford Circus), cooking your own meat from a “good, reasonably priced set dinner selection”. It is part of a Tokyo-based group with branches in eight countries.

2018 Review: “Great bar snacks” and casual pub dishes can be had in this smart and often loud boozer, off Fleet Street. Or head upstairs for a more ambitious menu in the “much quieter” dining room.

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.

2019 Review: These “busy” Korean BBQ joints – a Holborn original and in the new Pancras Square development (tel 020 3907 8474) – offer a range of grilled dishes, signature hot pickles and Korean cocktails in modern settings. Reports are “slightly variable” but most feel the food is “enjoyable”.

You dine in an airy former auction room with a glass ceiling at this legal-land restaurant in Chancery Lane, whose brief is “delicious” Provençal cuisine and a “wine list full of wonderful surprises” – many of them from the South of France or Corsica. The set menus offer “very good value” for the quality and locality, and a downstairs cocktail bar, Baranis, has indoor pétanque to transport you to the Riviera. Founded in 2010, it is part of Pascal Aussignac’s Club Gascon group.

2019 Review: Executive Pastry Chef, Mark Perkins, has created an artful afternoon tea with a colourful collection of pastries, inspired by the works of the famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh, the “exceptional cakes and pastries are truly a work of art… and taste great too!”.

The “great pies” from chef Calum Franklin – from classic hand-raised pork pie to curried mutton or dauphinoise, black truffle and aged Comté – are “justifiably well known” at this “very well-situated” and very business-friendly dining room on the edge of the City, which also specialises in grills and British charcuterie. The imposing interior is certainly “grand”, although some find it “a bit cavernous”.

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.

This established and well-known Leather Lane caffeine hub may well be equal to the boast: “best coffee shop and baristas in the UK” – it’s certainly “much better than the nearby chains”, and serves “very good, proper coffee” from a selection of leading independent roasters. The breakfasts and light meals are also tasty renditions of carefully sourced ingredients.

“Superbly original cooking” showcasing British ingredients is the hallmark of Mark Jarvis’s “unshowy, minimalist little restaurant” in Farringdon. Structured around a tasting menu of nine small plates, the “food is about as locally sourced as you can get – sometimes foraged less than a stone’s throw from the restaurant”. “The flavour combinations and contrasts are exceptional, and every dish is beautifully plated and presented”, with due attention paid to minimising waste and reviving traditional techniques such as pickling and fermenting. (Note, “while still under the guiding hand of Mark Jarvis, Anthony Raffo nowadays cooks as head chef”).

“The original Charlotte Street site is the best”, but, in fairness, all the branches are superb when it comes to Arjun Waney and Rainer Becker’s sleek Japanese-inspired group, where “a visit always feels like a treat: from the slick service to the buzzy atmosphere to the consistently good food”. Sushi and luxurious bites (for example black cod, yellowtail with ponzu and truffle oil), mostly from the robata grill, are the backbones of the menu. The odd report was slightly downbeat of late (“it was less good than normal, but to be fair they had just reopened post-lockdown with new staff”), but the dominant view remains that a trip is “always a lovely, fun experience” (and some regulars tip a stool at the counter as the best perches).

A “go-to place for top burgers”, this upmarket chain offers a chic Parisian polish that its rivals would struggle to match, and operates seven outlets in Shoreditch, Chelsea, Camden, Clapham, Balham, Holborn and Kingston. Ratings softened this year, however, and one or two reporters feel it’s “not as good as it once was”.

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.

This veteran group has served up “authentic Japanese food” – “always fresh, tasty and beautifully presented” – for four decades, at its half-dozen “basic” (ignore the “tired” decor) but “extremely reliable and good-value” London diners. They “never disappoint”, with “consistently excellent sashimi and sushi, using really high-quality fish”. Venues stretch from Hammersmith via Notting Hill to Soho, Covent Garden and Holborn, while the Golders Green branch adds shabu-shabu to the menu. The group also operates Tonkotsu-ya Ramen on Bond Street. Top Tip: “miso eel is very good”.

2019 Review: “Pittas of pleasure” – “Mediterranean/Israeli street food of the best type (vegetarian, fresh and bursting with taste)” – keep office workers healthy and happy at these City-based “pitstops”. “No wonder there’s always a queue at lunchtime.”