Mayfair, Fish & Seafood 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.

“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.

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.

“Iconic” and “opulent” – 007’s favourite restaurant oozes “elegance” and “glamour” under Richard Caring, but is more than just a Mayfair A-lister magnet: it’s also “up there with the very best when it comes to fish and seafood in London”. “You marvel at the wide-ranging menu” and, “though it’s very expensive”, results are “sensational”. (“What a great showcase it is for all that is best around our shores”). Still in the Top-10 most commented-on destinations in our annual diners’ poll, it’s also “still hugely impressive in every way” (if not, perhaps, scaling the giddy peaks it was in the days when Mark Hix was at the stoves and Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi dined here almost daily). It can also seem “a little showy” now, certainly compared with its über-stuffy and fuddy-duddy reputation of decades ago (“customers have evolved – along with the immediate area around Mount Street – alongside formally dressed fiftysomethings you also now get twentysomethings dropping in by limo!”). Top Menu Tips – “you can’t go wrong with the classics here”; “half a dozen Loch Ryan native oysters provide a delicious start with red onion and vinaigrette dressing; grilled Dover sole on-the-bone is perfect, moist and tender”; “sautéed monkfish cheeks and snails are an indulgence for sure – as is the lobster thermidor – but never disappoint”.

Founded in 2011 by four friends, this interesting concept hit ten sites in London in April 2025 with its debut in Kensington (replacing Street Burger on the high street) and also has a Brighton outpost as well as a handful of footholds in the Middle East and Asia. Fans are still in the majority and say its posh comfort food (the clue is in the name) is “a surprisingly good offering”. But while there are few harsh criticisms, its ratings have over the years slipped to a level that’s only “OK”.

The birthplace of the late Queen Elizbeth is a new 160-cover Mayfair dining destination with very elegant and pretty decor. Led by restaurateur Ross Shonhan, the menu features seasonal seafood dishes, championing less well-represented British species as part of a sustainable dining experience.

2023 Review: From Cream Group (owners of Cirque le Soir, Restaurant Ours, Wild and The Windmill Soho), this July opening in Mayfair occupies the erstwhile 120-cover site of XO (RIP). Former Elystan Street head chef Toby Burrowes heads up an extravagant offering, which includes a £3,000 ‘sunken treasure’ caviar platter; and a cocktail listed at £5,000 (a rare 1950s gin and a bottle of 1970 Dom Perignon BTW). All good PR. Opening in mid-July 2022, this new spot calls itself a ‘clubstaurant’ – not a term we feel needs encouragement.