Oxshott Restaurant Guide

2019 Review: “An unusual blend of cuisines that really works” – this café a short walk across the bridge from Hampton Court mixes Spanish and Lebanese inspirations in its tapas dishes, and inspires positive (if limited) feedback.

Sofian Msetfi took over the stoves at this “beautiful restaurant situated within one of Mayfair’s best hotels” in May 2021: the interior is inspired by the 1930s, and lined with aged oak panelling. Initial reports applaud cuisine that has “interesting twists without trying too hard”. There are three tasting menus – five-courses (£50 lunch only) plus seven (£70) and nine-courses (£90), including vegetarian options, all delivered by staff who are “warm, welcoming and charming”.

“Cool music adds to the brilliant vibe for a fun night out” at this “romantic” Peruvian duo in Mayfair and near the Bank of England. The cuisine (charcoal-grilled meat and seafood, plus tacos and Nikkei sashimi) is well-rated, as is the “comprehensive and interesting world-wide wine list”, although some diners find their enthusiasm dampened by “silly prices”. The concept, developed by Anglo-Indian chef Sanjay Dwivedi, has expanded in recent years to Paris, Monaco, Mykonos and moneyed hot-spots in the Middle East.

“A perpetual favourite that never fails to deliver!” – Eric and Sarah Guignard are celebrating twenty years at their “delightful” suburban “gem”, whose quality is a surprise, given its unassuming “neighbourhood” looks and its nondescript location, lost in the streets of Surbiton. In particular, its French cuisine is “splendid”, with a good selection of dishes that contain lots of interest without becoming over-wrought. “Keen prices” add further to its attractions (for example, the option of a six-course tasting menu for £45). “A bonus is their bread and patisserie shop next door, which also supplies the restaurant with delicious bread” (see The French Tarte).

After a succession of different chefs (including Nathan Outlaw and Adam Simmonds), Chris Prow has presided over the stoves since May 2021 at this small, luxurious hotel, a short walk from Harrods. A new, all-day dining menu is a recent introduction, as well as an outdoor seating area which opened for the first time this summer, boosting the capacity of what is a bijou dining space.

“More fusion than Asian, but with clearly Eastern flavours” – the menu at this long-established pan-Asian haunt near Parsons Green is a “diverse and interesting one”. The decor is very “sophisticated for a local restaurant” and “innovative cocktails at the bar” help fuel its “wonderful ambience”.

“The kind of restaurant that makes you want to celebrate more often” – Bruce Poole’s south London legend was voted London’s favourite by our diners for the 16th year running. Reflecting its neighbourhood appearance and location (by Wandsworth Common), it is “as near to a home-from-home as a luxury London restaurant can be”, while features noted in feedback over many years have been its “honest and ungimmicky” approach, “unpretentious staff”, “lack of crazy prices” and the fact that it “never lets you down” (also, to be fair, that the interior is “slightly cramped”). The deceptively simple modern British cuisine (for the last 10 years from head chef Matt Christmas) is in a similar vein: the menu – “always full of dishes you really want to eat” – “has a good mixture of classics and seasonal, more modern dishes” and “the pared-back flavour combinations allow the nuances of each ingredient to be identified and savoured”. “We leave with a smile on our face every time”.

2018 Review: Limited but positive feedback on this ten-year-old Lebanese (which also has a Kensington sibling), praising its high standards, including enjoyable mezze, lunchtime wraps and more substantial fare.

“Somewhat more formal than Chez Bruce (like a sterner sister!) – but still fabulous!” This sibling to the south London phenomenon may hide in a Zone 3 sidestreet, just off Chiswick’s main drag, but it features in London’s Top 20 most-mentioned restaurants thanks to “a quality of experience usually found only in central London”. Rob Weston’s cuisine has been “consistently wonderful” over many years and it is “skillfully served” by “friendly” staff in rather “elegant” surroundings. Very uncharacteristically, though, ratings came slightly off the boil this year amidst reports of “amateur” service, “substantially increased prices” and “a few courses recently that have let the side down”. That’s still a minority view as yet, though, and for the majority it’s still “always top notch” (and was “a beacon through the tedious days of the pandemic” – “it kept us sane!”)

“Excellent cooking with top-quality ingredients” inspires numerous fans of Irish celeb chef Richard Corrigan’s Mayfair HQ, just off Park Lane, whose guiding principle is that of a modernised hunting lodge, focused on “traditional” British and Irish cuisine, including beef from the carving trolley. Naturally it doesn’t come cheap, but the experience was consistently highly rated this year.

Hidden away in St James’s, this “excellent hotel restaurant” delivers “wonderful” old-school British classics with contemporary aplomb; and is “especially good for a Sunday roast”. The Stafford Hotel dates from 1912 and its American Bar has long been famous, but for all its Edwardian trappings, the Game Bird only took flight five years ago.

“Remarkably good food that’s quite reasonably priced”, especially for St James’s, won nothing but praise this year for this versatile hotel brasserie whose smart, contemporary decor is very tasteful throughout. Nigel Mendham’s all-day menu makes a feature of traditional British dishes, including a selection of pies, and the venue wins particular praise as a “perfect business breakfast setting”.

This St James’s institution is a survivor of the American bars which sprang up in grand hotels throughout Europe from the 1920s, and serves a Med-inspired brasserie menu. It has retained a vast collection of flags and mementos over the years, and the adjacent cobbled courtyard (where there’s a summer BBQ) “is a gem – perfect for relaxed business gatherings or a friendly meal”.

“Have never had a bad meal over the 30 years I have eaten here!”. “You feel spoilt and well treated” at Sally Clarke’s Kensington HQ, established in 1984 – she was a very early exponent of Californian-influenced cuisine in London, a formula she has stuck by ever since with “forever outstanding dishes from seasonal produce” (“fresh-tasting and beautifully prepared”). Opinions differ on the understated decor, which is “a bit cold” for some tastes, but “calm and relaxing to others”. In any case the “lovely and helpful” staff add further vim to the experience.

Taylor Bonnyman’s “exceptional” Chelsea heavyweight (one of the survey’s Top 40 most mentioned restaurants, and the winner of Harden’s London Restaurant Awards’ Top Gastronomic Experience in 2019) provides an un-showy but luxurious experience that’s hard to better. It’s very consistent all-round. His and head chef Marguerite Keogh’s thoughtful cuisine is “not too heavy and perfectly judged”, using “own-grown seasonal produce” from the restaurant’s garden in East Sussex. “Service is attentive without being cloying”. And the “charming” premises in the tangle of streets near Peter Jones are often tipped for celebrations: “perfect for romance and decadence”.

“A superb restaurant close to Kew Gardens station” – this “consistently excellent” neighbourhood spot enjoys a disproportionately large fanclub thanks to its “subtly flavoured” modern cuisine; its “extensive and good-value wine list”; its “sweet and attentive” service; and the “light and airy” style of the relatively “small” dining room. Although ratings are not quite as stellar as they were a few years ago, they remain eminently respectable. Perhaps it's suffering from its fine provenance: “viewed on it’s own merits, it’s an extremely good restaurant, just not quite as good as its sibling La Trompette (and the slightly further away Chez Bruce)”.

A stylish Mayfair fixture that pulls out all the stops to provide the best possible Chinese cuisine, with “amazing food” and a “very good, albeit expensive, wine list” (featuring some of the world’s most acclaimed vintages). Proprietor Bernard Yeoh, who represented Malaysia as a trap shooter in the 2004 Athens Olympics, describes it as “liberated Nanyang cuisine” – his take on the cooking of the overseas Chinese throughout southeast Asia.

Ranald MacDonald’s clubby Scottish-themed Belgravian has been around for decades and was an early exponent of carefully sourced British ingredients, particularly steaks and other meaty fare (Aberdeenshire beef, Highland venison, …). It also has the virtue of an unusually strong wine list and one of London’s best selection of whiskies, not to mention a terrace dedicated to smoking Cuban cigars. Unsurprisingly, it’s most recommended as a business location for clubbable males, but the Courtyard garden and regular live jazz help broaden its appeal. Complaints are few, other than that a meal here can prove “expensive”.

Aiming for a taste of La Dolce Vita lifestyle, these retro-glam Italian cafés and restaurants mostly occupy the same sites as the eponymous clothing brand, and deliver classic casual Italian menus mixing pizza and pasta (both typically over £20 a plate) with both more and less substantial dishes. A brief involvement with Zaha Hadid’s Serpentine restaurant has ended, but a new, sixth branch debuted in July 2021 in the heart of St John’s Wood (on the site of a former Côte). With 84 covers, it’s the largest outlet to-date and opens all day from breakfast.