London Westminster Restaurant Guide

“A great addition to the area” – the reason to re-evaluate this hotel Japanese at County Hall includes the CV of chef patron Daisuke Shimoyama, who joined in early 2020. Daisuke spent six years as head chef at UMU under the immensely talented Yoshinori Ishii. At lunch you can eat for as little as £17 from the bento box selection, but aficionados of Japanese cuisine will go for the evening omakase tasting menu. Staff are “very pleasant and efficient” and the “zingy” cuisine is “really imaginative and delicious”. More reports please!

Named for a pioneering suffragette, this July 2021 arrival marks a new determination by the Conrad St James’s Hotel to put itself on the map. At the stoves – Sally Abé – who recently arrived from the Harwood Arms to oversee the hotel’s kitchen generally, with this her showcase. It offers an ambitious menu with classic British overtones. Did no-one tell Sally the unwritten rule that good British restaurants are just not allowed in Westminster? Early social feedback suggests she may – at last – break the mould! (See also The Blue Boar.)

The arrival of Sally Abé from Fulham’s stellar Harwood Arms has majorly upped the cred of this recently relaunched pub-restaurant – one of four eateries set to open in summer 2021 in a newly refurbished Westminster hotel (see also The Pem). In line with her time in Fulham, Sunday roasts are a big feature, as are Scotch eggs and other ribsticking British fare. Some early feedback is positive, but too limited for a rating.

The Old War Office – the Grade II listed building in which Winston Churchill made many of the most important decisions of World War II – was sold in 2014 to the Hinduja Group and will open in 2022 as a luxury, 125-bedroom hotel (and apartments). The hotel will be run in partnership with Raffles (their first venture in Europe) and it is fair to assume a pretty ambitious level will be set for the nine restaurants and bars it will house.

With the September 2021 arrival of Swedish star chef Nicklas Ekstedt, this five-star Hyatt off Whitehall is continuing its creative, north European theme with this “godfather of wood-fired cooking” stepping into the shoes of The Yard by Robin Gill (RIP). It will feature Ekstedt’s “old Nordic” cuisine, which sees seasonal ingredients cooked over wood-grills in a (very) open kitchen.

On the site of the original Metropolitan Police HQ, this 100-seater hotel (owned by an Indian entrepreneur and operated by Hyatt) opened in December 2019. The comfortable, ground-floor lounge – with Raj-inspired decor – serves a contemporary take on afternoon tea, with added spice; there are spicy chai options and tea-based cocktails too.

TV-star Tom’s first London outpost – a wonderfully impressive-looking brasserie in a happening five-star near Embankment – wows many reporters thanks to the “lovely dining room”, “delightful and varied menu” and “an appeal that extends to all ages, from 15 to 75”. (It also incorporates in the same space “a good bar for a quick meet-up pre-theatre”). Ratings came under pressure this year, with a number of reporters finding the experience “massively overpriced” for “high-quality gastropub-level food at eye-watering prices”. For an equal number, though, it’s an investment well made and “a firm favourite”.

“Utterly delicious Neapolitan-style pizza” – the highest rated in town – is to be found here, where you’d least expect it – bang in the middle of the West End, just off Trafalgar Square. Neapolitan master pizza-slinger Ciro Salvo’s UK offshoot occupies a huge, “buzzy and lively” space in a hotel with its own entrance. 50 Kalò signifies ‘good dough’ in Napolitano, and Salvo’s secret is ultra-high hydration and long fermentation for a super-light crust.

“Super ramen” constitutes “a top meal at a great price” at these Japanese-style fast-food bars. In early 2021, the brand opened on Putney High Street in a former branch of Byron and later announced ‘Wing Daddies’ (a virtual chicken wing delivery option at all its London stores).

Off a “beautiful open courtyard”, the ambitious café of Lambeth’s Garden Museum is “well worth a trip”. The “fresh, seasonal cooking” – both “well-executed classics and more unusual, interesting dishes” – is prepared by a kitchen headed by chef George Ryle, formerly of Padella.

“Still a great place for a glass of wine, any time of day” – this ancient wine bar near Embankment tube (London’s oldest, dating from 1890) has a superb interior, including a cavern where it’s hard to stand vertically, and a huge outdoor terrace. Its buffet-style food offering of cold cuts, cheese, salad and dishes of the day is primitive but at least relatively cheap, and in summer there’s also a BBQ on the terrace. Just about every London office worker has visited it at some point… in many cases, though, recollections are hazy…

Is this a rival for the nearby Cinnamon Club? Celeb Indian chef Atul Kochhar is in collaboration with the former commercial director of The Cinnamon Collection, Tina English, for this bold 2021 opening. Transforming a big (5000 square feet), old fire station building in Victoria, it has 200 covers and will focus on the cuisine of India’s north eastern states (the Seven Sister States).

A major new hotel for London sees the Old War Office being taken over by Raffles, no less, and with famed French chef Mauro Colagreco of Mirazur taking three of the 11 dining spaces, we'll have plenty of choice about where to eat. More information (and restaurant names) as we know them, but there'll be a "a brasserie with a twist, a fine dining restaurant, and an avant-garde private Chef’s Table". Opening late 2022.

Review: This ‘Philadelphia dive bar’ in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, has certainly “got the American vibe”, with “US-style beer and bar food” giving a real taste of the City of Brotherly Love. Philly street food classics such as the hoagie and cheesesteak are on the menu – and “it’s not health food, that’s for sure”. Reporters are divided on the results – “defining the category” for fans, “pretty underwhelming” for sceptics. There’s now a second site at Westfield Stratford, complete with baseball batting cages, but a 2021 crowdfunding bid to raise £150,000 for a massive bar under the railway arches in Leake Street, Waterloo, struck out.