London Paddington Restaurant Guide

Not satisfied with opening a cheese bar and the world's first cheese conveyor belt, Matthew Carver is taking his theme one step further; The Cheese Barge - hand-crafted in Somerset - hosts a two-storey, 40-cover restaurant. Executive chef Ross Keeling and head chef Reagan Ellenbroek have created a menu of “honest British dishes using small producer cheese”. The opening has been twice delayed due to lockdowns.

“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.

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”.

New from the Daisy Green chain of Aussie cafes, a flagship canalside restaurant that boasts an in-house bakery, rooftop dining, Sunday roasts and lots of plant-based options; find it right beside the group's two barges Darcie and May Green.

From the folks behind Exmouth Market's kitschy Coin Laundry comes an all-day bar and restaurant specialising in wood-fired pizza, but with slow roast meats and fish on offer too. The 6,000 square foot barn of a venue has a Botanique florist, 50-cover canal-side terrace and a 45-seater basement with karaoke, old Nintendos and self service kegs.