St Albans, Japanese Restaurant Guide

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.

“A fabulous wine list” is the highlight one would hope for at this Marylebone venture – a pub converted by part of the family which owns Château Margaux. Fifty wines are served by the glass and there’s an extensive list of directly sourced Château Margaux wines. Feedback says the food – a mixture of French and Mediterranean dishes – is “wonderful”, too.

“One of the most creative and delicious meals I’ve ever had” – Elliot Moss inspires rapturous reviews from a small but very enthusiastic fan club, who acclaim his “luxurious” and “intimate” St John’s Wood two-year-old as one of London’s unsung gastronomic adventures. The restaurant recommends three hours to enjoy its £125, twelve-course tasting menu: “a feast that will amaze and delight any gourmand, providing sensory overload of the sights, smells and tastes”. (“My husband let the restaurant know in advance that it was my birthday, I think in the hope of scoring me a little extra cake or some such but what happened was phenomenal. At the end of the meal my dessert arrived with my portrait, in chocolate, on the plate!!! The chef, who works alone in the kitchen, is an artist with some of the best cooking skills either of us have ever experienced.”)

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.

“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.

“It’s amazing how much fun you can have dining in a shipping container!!” – Irish chef Adrian Martin’s July 2020 newcomer may be thus housed in Camden Town’s new eco market on Buck Street, but – with its incongruously posh decor and £65 eight-course menu (£110 if you go for the wine matching) – it’s certainly not in the grungy, street food category (even if you do have to go outside to the loos in the market). As the name hints, the focus is on seasonality and foraged food, but early press reviews – while not writing the enterprise off – have given it a slightly bumpy ride. Some of our early reporters are much more upbeat, though, hailing “inspirational and outstanding cuisine” that its most ardent supporters would put “in the same class as Aulis and Story”.

“At last the French tyre company and restaurant guide has come to its senses” and in 2019 finally awarded a star to Laurie Gear and his team: recognition that had been bizarrely lacking for so many years. A characterful location in Old Amersham, “it’s a lovely small place where you’re made to feel very much at home”. The main attraction, though, is cuisine showing “a positive attitude to developing new dishes and combinations of flavours and ingredients” – “not cheap, but very memorable”.

“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!”)

“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.

“A gem on Jermyn Street” – this “swanky St James’s Italian classic” has been trading for 75 years but still, paradoxically, “feels a little undiscovered”. Generally “reliable” and “a very good place for a business breakfast and lunch”, it has to be noted that those not adding the bill to their expenses claim can find it “very expensive”. From another perspective, though, “it may be an odd choice for romance, but if you need to show how sophisticated, stylish, discreet and just plain wealthy you are, why go anywhere else?”.

“With a menu well-suited to any Edwardian gourmet” (“wonderful Dover sole” and other “excellent fish dishes”, plus game in season), this “very civilised” and “wonderfully traditional” St James’s bastion (London’s oldest restaurant, established in 1742, albeit not on this site) “just has a certain class about it” and is “ideal for taking someone on business who you want to impress” – “whether it’s for schmoozing or to seal a deal”. A particular highlight is the “old-style service” – “staff are wonderfully discreet” and there’s an “unwavering dedication to customer service”. Just one thing… “you need a very healthy expense account” before setting out, as the final reckoning can be terrifying. (“It is an icon, but if it was half the price, I’d double the score!”)

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.

Richard Corrigan’s 100-year-old veteran, down a cute lane a short walk from Piccadilly Circus, remains one of London’s best-known destinations, with “drinks and nibbles on the heated terrace” (“a godsend during the lockdown era”) as a precursor to sampling the “classic” fish and seafood provided either in the lively ground-floor seafood bar (“lush oysters”) or more stately first floor (think lobster Newburg, Dover sole). Satisfaction levels remain high, but the pressures of the times have weighed a little on ratings: even a fan noting the “brilliant food” also spoke of “rising prices” and “value that’s not quite what it was”. Most reports, though, remain a resounding thumbs-up: “my favourite… you’re guaranteed to have a happy time”.

“Quirky and eclectic”, the dining room at this boutique hotel “tucked away from the maelstrom of Piccadilly” “never fails to excel” under its long-time chef, the highly skilled William Drabble. “The food remains consistent year in, year out”, “hitting lots of high notes”, and is frequently “stunning”. Marks would have been even higher, but for a minority this year who felt their meal was “good, but didn’t quite hit excellent”.

“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.

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”.

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.

For sheer grandeur, it’s hard to match this sweeping, spacious chamber, to the rear of this five-star landmark on Hyde Park Corner, where head chef Giuseppe Strippoli produces a luxurious series of menus – from about £90 per head – in a classic modern European style. For these troubles, he holds a Michelin star, although the venue generates relatively little feedback in our diner survey, amidst some ongoing concerns that “whilst a very good standard, pricing can seem OTT in comparison with other top hotels”. In fact, it – and the nearby ‘Withdrawing Room’ – are more heartily recommended for a push-the-boat-out afternoon tea, which comes with a piano accompaniment at weekends in Celeste.

“The clue is in the name – they really do offer 110 wines by the glass (au homage to the Coravin wine storage system) with a menu designed to pair with this vast selection”, at this spin-off from Paris’s famous Taillevent group, which occupies a smartly appointed dining room on Cavendish Square. The vintages themselves are carefully selected and this is one of the most interesting destinations for taking a wine-lover in town. Perhaps inevitably, it sometimes feels like the seasonal French cuisine “is playing catch-up with the wines”, but most reporters this year felt it “was rather good too!”

“Returning to form following the departure of Atul Kochhar” – this “stunning” first-floor venue on Berkeley Square won renewed kudos this year under new executive chef Sameer Taneja. The “top-notch” Indian cuisine – “perfectly presented and fantastically flavoursome” – has achieved “a well-deserved return to Michelin star status” and service is “just as impressive – attentive and super-friendly”.