London Paddington Restaurant Guide

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”.

2021 Review: The ground floor of an international journalists’ club, with photo-reportage as wall decoration: this dining room near Paddington Station is particularly worth knowing about as a smartish option in what’s still a very thinly provided area. Its modern British cooking is “a little hit and miss”, but while it only “sometimes lives up to the space” it seldom goes badly awry. One problem: “with all those photos of heroic war reporting on the wall, one feels a bit of a wimp”.

2021 Review: Anirudh Arora’s two-year-old, north Indian, street-food café on the West End’s ever-bustling Shaftesbury Avenue also has a new outpost in a smart hotel dining room, near Marble Arch. The duo’s title refers to classic Roomali Roti: bread, hand spun into thin sheets, cooked and folded into a ‘hankie’, and both branches win praise for “great food at a relatively small price”.

2021 Review: “A serious wine list complements the good-quality Gallic cuisine” at former Gavroche sommelier Thierry Tomasin’s clever conversion of a Lancaster Gate mews pub into an art nouveau bistro. The “old-fashioned service” is excellent, but prices are high, given the slightly off-the-beaten-track location.

2021 Review: “Reliably upmarket curry house” on the Earl’s Court-South Ken border – a true veteran (est. 1964) whose loyal, well-heeled clientele rate its “consistency” and comforting atmosphere. Given its posh neighbourhood, it’s attracted its share of slebs, with Brangelina, Gwyneth and Robbie spotted over the years. The Bayswater offshoot is similar, but less fashionably located.

2021 Review: Canalside in Paddington Basin, and with massive windows providing water views, this large bar/restaurant – occupying the high-ceilinged ground floor of one of the area’s blocks – has an attractive, if not super-individual, semi-industrial design. Feedback is limited on its gastropub-ish dishes, but suggests it does what it does well.

2021 Review: “A really lovely romantic trip down the canal” on a traditional barge is crowned by four courses of “delicious fish”, plus pud – “great fun!”. In July 2019 a second floating venue, the Grand Duchess, was added, although it stays permanently at the company mooring by Paddington Station.

2021 Review: “Consistently excellent dim sum” – “very good for the price” as well – is the menu highlight at this “go-to” Cantonese destination in Paddington Basin. Despite its smart modern fit-out, however, the basement location can appear “noisy” and “soulless”.

2021 Review: The “scruffy basement of a pub” in Bayswater is the setting for what some in the fooderati believe to be “hands-down the best authentic Thai cooking in London” – “food like you’d have in Thailand”. Top Tip – “the bbq pork neck is melt-in-your-mouth”.

2021 Review: A “wealth of wines by the glass” and “tasty nibbles”, help make this growing group of self-service wine bars a “fun way to try a selection of vintages from a multitude of small producers”. At the Battersea Power Station branch’s school you can educate your palate towards Wine & Spirit Education Trust certification and watch wine being made from grapes grown in Oxfordshire and Surrey.

2021 Review: “A wonderful taste of India!” – the cooking at this plush venue tucked away behind Marble Arch has returned to the heights following an extended period of closure after a fire a few years ago. “The makeover looks great” and “the food is still consistent and authentic”, according to relieved regulars.

2021 Review: “Don’t let the shabby interior put you off” – this “wonderful, simple Iranian café” off Edgware Road serves “excellent and authentic Persian dishes” including “superb lamb”. “I love this place” – “small, squashed and full of character”, it all but defines “cheap ’n’ cheerful” (“and BYOB”).