London Mayfair Restaurant Guide

This “professional and consistently authentic” family-run Italian has occupied a prime corner site in central Mayfair since 1953, and pleases a crowd who are not keen to pay the ‘Mayfair prices’ charged elsewhere in the area. Breakfast (served from 7.30am), pizza and pasta dominate the menu.

“An exceptional Indian restaurant” – nothing but rave reviews this year for Samyukta & Dinesh Nair’s grand subcontinental in Mayfair, whose “high levels” of attention to detail won it all-round excellent ratings this year. The interior is inspired by the Viceroy’s House in New Delhi and the high-quality cuisine is the work of chef Surender Mohan.

With its lush decor, live music and luxurious menu, this vibey Mayfair Latino is high on energy and good times. All reports say its lively mix of raw food, fish, steaks, caviar and wok dishes is good too… just “way too expensive”.

“Glamorous” and “refined Chinese food in an elegant” – if “very dark” – setting still pleases many admirers at this now-global brand, whose seminal basement original near Tottenham Court Road tube closed down after 24 years in February 2025. The “excellent” roast duck with caviar and other signature dishes can still be enjoyed at its svelte Mayfair offshoot, as well as 10 international locations from Miami to Mumbai. Nay-sayers view it as an experience for “the Instagram crowd, who eat little and take photos all the time” – but most diners still find it “amazing overall”. Top Tip – “they did not seem to like us asking for the Taste of Hakkasan set menu, which is incredible value!”

“So incredibly reliable for some of the most sophisticated Japanese food in London” – this sleek venue chicly tucked away in a cute Mayfair mews behind a Star Trek-style sliding door has remained incredibly consistent since 2004, surviving the collapse of founder Marlon Abela’s restaurant group six years ago. Chef Ryo Kamatsu joined ten years ago and has been executive chef since 2020 and – although there is an extensive à la carte menu – the signature offering has always been a Kyoto kaiseki experience (currently for £260 per person): a form of eating which the restaurant can claim to have introduced to the Capital when it first opened. “The service team tends to anticipate every need before you can think of it with such flair” which – together with the svelte backdrop of the interior – creates a supremely cosetting overall experience. Not a cheap meal of course, but newer competitors means it no longer stands out pricewise as once it did.

“A carnivore’s paradise” where “you can’t go wrong if you crave quality meat cooked over coals” is the reputation that precedes this “classic gem” of a pub, in a quiet Mayfair mews, which boasts a large (much extended) “traditional” grill room next to its quaint, old bar: and which wins praise for “top-notch steaks” and “the best pint of Young’s too”. Long famous – some fans feel that “it’s stepped up another gear since they extended into the building next door” (in 2024), but far too many diners also feel this has coincided with “prices going OTT, even allowing for the fact that it’s located in an expensive part of London”.

“Why, just why?” – Richard Caring’s famously showy Mayfair dining destination on a corner of Berkeley Square is definitely one to skip unless you enjoy spraying money at a meal, with 2/3 of our reporters considering the place dramatically “overpriced”. And it’s not just that its mix of sushi, sashimi and robata-grilled fish, meat and seafood doesn’t live up, but a staff attitude that can appear “very rude”, “the nightclubby style which can detract from the meal” and a sense that unless you have more money than sense it’s just not for you. Fun Fact – the Coral Room here for private dining boasts two of the largest live coral reef tanks in the world.

This “sensitively re-vamped traditional (if rather grand) pub” in Mayfair from ArtFarm, the international hospitality arm of Swiss art dealership Hauser + Wirth, is “a great place to go after work” for some “good-quality” comfort served in a “brilliant atmosphere”. Upstairs is the more formal Mount Street Restaurant (see also). Top Tip – the spectacular abstract ceiling installation was one of the final works by British artist Phyllida Barlow before her death in 2023.

“Not quite as exceptional as we had expected from the reputation and three Michelin stars” – not to mention the stratospheric prices: the London outpost of this much-celebrated French chef and holder of the Legion d’Honneur continues to receive a mixed rep. Located in the heart of Mayfair in the former grill room of this most blue-blooded of hotels, it was given a pink-and-blue makeover in 2022 by Paris-based Pierre Yovanovitch, marking a break with its traditional old-school looks (“not to my personal taste, but fine if you like that sort of thing”). Marco Zampese was appointed Head Chef in 2018 and Executive Head Chef three years later and he provides an eight-course menu for £225 per person (or you can opt for a cut-down six-course version for £210 per person). Fans say “there is genuinely excellent food here – albeit not entirely consistent, and at a price” (“initial dishes were not amazing, but then the kitchen turned the afterburners on and the rest was glorious”). Sceptics, though, are far too numerous to ignore, with a number of diners finding results “astonishingly unimpressive even without the price tag…”; “astonishingly ordinary and insanely expensive…”; “absolutely coasting on reputation which is long past being deserved – for undiscerning billionaires or someone else’s expense account only”.

2024 Review: Other than for a deeply cosseting afternoon tea, it’s hard to be too thrilled by this blue-blooded hotel’s luxurious conservatory dining room. Although it’s branded with the name of the famous NYC chef, it’s difficult to discern any trace of JGV’s fingerprints in the design of the ubiquitous, international-luxe menu of caviar, fish, posh pizza, burgers, salads and so forth. Of course, if you find yourself in Mayfair, and are sanguine about spending £30+ for a bowl of mushroom bolognese or shrimp salad, it’s a jolly pleasant experience. Viewed through a more demanding lens, though, it can seem “overpriced” for something with little in the way of distinctive culinary personality.

2024 Review: “You can’t fail to impress with the food, vibes and service”, according to fans of this Moscow-based chain, whose Mayfair offshoot is not short on glam. It provoked less feedback this year, though, in our annual diners’ poll (too limited for a rating), but expansion is coming in the second half of 2023 with a new branch, below the Strand Palace Hotel.

With its trollies, oil paintings and plush banquettes, this Mayfair dining room is worth considering for an old-fashioned traditional meal, and one fan declares it “just the right place for a special occasion” thanks to attractions like “great Dover sole” (filetted at the table). Other retro offerings in the hotel include an ‘Original Sweet Shop Afternoon Tea’.

2024 Review: That there’s too few reports in our annual diners’ poll for a rating on this Mayfair chamber is remarkable given the lofty heritage of its famous name (for many decades applied to the room that’s nowadays Hélène Darroze, upstairs). After a hiatus of many years, this new space opened in 2020 and has never inspired much press reviewer attention – perhaps due to its ‘citizens of nowhere’ contemporary styling and modern JG Vongerichten-curated menu. Still, such feedback as we do receive on results from the luxurious rotisserie and wood-burning grill is all good.

“The Duck de Chine is transcendental… but so is the bill” at this lavish Chinese venue in the heart of Mayfair, where live music and regular entertainment are central to a sumptuous experience aiming – not unsuccessfully – to channel the ‘decadence of 1930s Shanghai’. In past surveys, the gap between the level of value and expense has soured reports, but all feedback was much more positive this year. Top Tip – if you want to dip your toe in the water, the £29 set weekday lunch is one way to start. BREAKING NEWS: Ironically, just as our ratings were improving, the site entered administration in July 2025, so at the time of writing its future is uncertain.

2023 Review: “A great change to the ghastly chains” – Victoria & Grace Sheppard’s elegant, “friendly” café is tipped for its “terrific coffee”, as well as a quiet bite or their ‘bottomless brunch’.