Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Blackfriars
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Blackfriars restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 54 restaurants in Blackfriars and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Blackfriars restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Blackfriars Restaurants
1. Obicà Mozzarella Bar, Pizza e Cucina
Italian restaurant in City
Unit 4 5 - 7 Limeburners Lane, - EC4M
“Surprisingly decent Italian fare… proper (and huge) pizza and pasta and, if you have room, pleasing puddings” carves an ongoing niche for these smartly decorated outposts of an international Italian chain (started in 2004), where – as the name hints – many dishes feature Mozzarella di Bufala.
2. Club Gascon
French restaurant in Clerkenwell
57 West Smithfield - EC1
“An unfailing choice, near Barts” – Pascal Aussignac’s & Vincent Labeyrie’s homage to gutsy Gascon cuisine and wine opened in 1998 in an idiosyncratic and grand marble-walled former Lyons Tea House near Smithfield Market. It’s now one of London‘s longest established temples of French gastronomy, but chef Pascal has lightened and modernised his cuisine over the years (and foie gras – once omnipresent – only makes the odd appearance on menus nowadays). There is a six-course tasting menu for £120, but also a much cheaper three-course version; and you can also eat here à la carte.
3. Chinese Cricket Club
Chinese restaurant in City
Crowne Plaza, 19 New Bridge St - EC4
For a Chinese meal in the City, a number of reporters recommend this venue at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Blackfriars (fka the Crowne Plaza, reopened post-refurb in summer 2023). The unusual name marks the debut of the Chinese national cricket team in 2009, the year the restaurant opened. Classic dishes range from dim sum and Peking duck to xiao long bao.
4. Hare & Tortoise
Pan-Asian restaurant in City
90 New Bridge St - EC4
“Where else can you get a range of Japanese, char kway teow, laksa and pad thai, all in one restaurant?” – Ding Chu’s pioneering Pan-Asian canteens (first branch WC1 in Bloomsbury in 1996) continue to put in a consistent if low-key performance. “Busy, crowded and cheap”, “you will find something to your taste”, “service is friendly and efficient” and – for the likes of “a quick meal after going to the cinema” (either in WC1 or W4) – it’s ideal.
5. On The Bab
Korean restaurant in City
9 Ludgate Broadway - EC4
2022 Review: “Top Korean street/junk food”, say fans of Linda Lee’s K-pop-styled pit stops, known for their funky fried chicken and other luridly flavoured bites. In the second half of 2021, she closed her Covent Garden branch, leaving just Shoreditch and St Pauls open, but north London and Nine Elms branches are coming soon apparently.
6. Humble Grape
British, Modern restaurant in City
1 Saint Bride's Passage - EC4
It’s “all about the wine, as you might expect” at James Dawson’s “relaxed” wine-bar group, whose branches boast a “splendid list” of “high-quality and well-sourced” bottles. The food is very much “second fiddle”, though “unobjectionable”, while the most interesting venue is the original one, off Fleet Street, “hidden in the vaults of St Bride’s Church”. Top Tip – “go on a Monday night for wine at shop rather than restaurant prices”.
7. CORD
British, Modern restaurant in
85 Fleet Street - EC4Y
Founded in 1895 in Paris, the famous ‘Le Cordon Bleu’ culinary institute hit London in 2012 in Bloomsbury; and then opened here in the Lutyens-designed former Reuters HQ in 2022. All reports agree this in-house restaurant is “a beautiful room” – “light and well spaced” – if occasionally “lacking a bit of spark”. Service is “correct” and the modern European menu focuses on “seemingly simple dishes”, whose “realisation ranges from exemplary refinement to the merely satisfactory”.
8. Epic Pies
British, Traditional restaurant in
53-55 Carter Lane - EC4V
2022 Review: The name says it all about this new ‘Britisserie’ (an ‘authentic British patisserie’), which opened on a corner site near St Paul’s in December 2019. Owners Daniel Jobsz and his mum honed their classic pie-making skills at markets, festivals and pop-ups from 2015 before they found the site, which incorporates a small courtyard. Full English breakfasts (in a tart, of course), plus epic mash and a good list of beers and other drinks complete the formula.
9. Burger & Lobster
Burgers, etc restaurant in City
Bow Bells Hs, 1 Bread St - EC4
A “great concept, expertly delivered” – the two headline dishes are served up in posh, comfortable diner style at this nine-strong London group (with another dozen branches around the world). As a gimmick it doesn’t generate the buzz it once did, but both of the main dishes receive a good rep in feedback, in particular the “excellent and good-sized lobster” (and “for lobster it’s not that expensive”).
10. Paternoster Chop House
British, Traditional restaurant in City
1 Warwick Court - EC4
Now moved to Ludgate Hill from the Paternoster Square perch that originally provided its name, this D&D London restaurant is a “decent and safe option” – although a more upbeat description has it “doing what the City enjoys, with high levels of testosterone and impressive steaks”. “Swarming with suits” – it’s a natural for business entertaining.
11. Oxo Tower, Restaurant
British, Modern restaurant in Southwark
Barge House St - SE1
“OK, but I have always thought it too expensive” is sadly one of the more enthusiastic reports we received this year on this South Bank landmark, whose “great views” over the Thames and St Paul’s are less of a rarity than when it first launched in 1996 with the opening of so many rooftops nowadays. Over three-quarters of feedback here are nominations for either ‘most overpriced’ or ‘most disappointing’ meal of the year in our annual diners’ poll. The modern British menu is too often judged “expensive and tasteless”, which it shouldn’t be when a bowl of chips costs £9. “It’s so disappointing because its great views and location should make it a fantastic restaurant”. “A tourist trap if ever I’ve seen one”.
12. Oxo Tower, Brasserie
British, Modern restaurant in Southwark
Barge House St - SE1
“A most enjoyable meal in an attractive setting” is reported by just over half of reporters visiting the cheaper section of this rooftop landmark on the South Bank. The remainder, though, “expect much, much better at these prices”: “it has a great view but very disappointing food and service – trading off its location!”
13. High Timber
British, Modern restaurant in City
8 High Timber Street - EC4
Easily missed, “near the Millennium (wobbly) Bridge” directly opposite Tate Modern, Neleen Strauss’s “sparse” riverside venture is worth investigating. The focus is simple: “great steaks (from Yorkshire) with everything else – including passionate rugby support – from South Africa”. Star of the show is, some would say, the “Saffer wine list – a reasonably priced one, too”.
14. Sea Containers, Mondrian London
British, Modern restaurant in Bankside
20 Upper Ground - SE1
“This beautiful space by the river” – the stylish dining room of a South Bank hotel, designed by Tom Dixon – has “a wonderful view if you get a table by the window” and “plenty of space between the tables, so conversation is easy”. Standards in other respects, though, have been up-and-down over many years.
15. Tate Modern, Kitchen & Bar, Level 6
British, Modern restaurant in Southwark
Level 6 Boiler House, Bankside - SE1
With its “great view over the river”, the sixth-floor restaurant in this converted power station opposite St Paul’s Cathedral is a “really rather splendid place for a decent set lunch”. The food is “better than expected, perhaps better than it needed to be” – “appropriately arty”, too, with dishes inspired by artists on display in the gallery. (Over at Tate Britain, “the Rex Whistler dining room is sorely missed and a real loss” – its closure brought about by a combination of Covid and dilemmas about the depiction of slavery in its Whistler murals, nowadays deemed ‘unequivocally… offensive’.)
16. Brigadiers
Indian restaurant in City
Bloomberg Arcade, Queen Victoria Street - EC2R
The cooking is awesome and “the bar is mega!” according to the many fans of this JKS outpost in the Bloomberg Arcade. Modelled on an Indian Army mess, “it’s always been a very masculine, ‘City boys’ type place (some evenings the male:female ratio is at gay-bar disparities!)”. The quality of the “inauthentic but deliciously tasty” cooking is undisputed, but there’s lively debate about what’s best on the menu: “the short rib curry is the stand-out here”; no, “the biryani in pie crust is the best Indian dish in town”.
17. Bleecker Burger
Burgers, etc restaurant in City
Bloomberg Arcade, Queen Victoria St - EC4N
“No gimmicks and great flavours” is the recipe for a “semi-religious experience” at this small group (which also has three delivery-only outlets): for its many fans, “still the gold standard by which all burgers in the UK should be judged”. “Gloriously juicy meat with just the right amount of extras” all “comes together in the most mouth-watering way”. You “don’t come for the experience” though: they are “very cramped when busy”, if “still somehow cool”. In August 2024 they opened a new site not far from London Bridge.
18. Vinoteca City
British, Modern restaurant in City
Bloomberg Arcade, Queen Victoria Street - EC4
“A great wine list from all corners of the globe” has helped underpin the ongoing popularity of this modern wine bar chain, despite a year that saw it sold out of administration and the closure of its popular King’s Cross branch. Although this period inspired iffy marks and the odd report of “totally disorganised” service, the four remaining outlets still inspire tons of, albeit slightly lukewarm nominations as a handy option “for a simple meal”: “don’t expect any sort of culinary fireworks” from the “straightforward” dishes “but there are some very nice, reasonably priced wines” and the interiors are “definitely pleasant”. Top Menu Tips – “lovely cheese croquettes and steak ’n’ chips”.
19. Koya
Japanese restaurant in City
Bloomberg Arcade, Queen Victoria Street - EC2R
These noodle bars are “great if you need a quick and satisfying lunch” – either in the original Soho branch, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, or its offshoots in the City’s Bloomberg Arcade and Hackney. They specialise in udon noodles, which are fatter than ramen and served in a more refined and traditional Japanese dashi stock.
20. Ekte Nordic Kitchen
Scandinavian restaurant in City
2-8 Bloomberg Arcade - EC4N
Soren Jessen’s “slick, Nordic cafe in the City of London” occupies part of the Bloomberg Arcade and contributes to the development’s renown for offering “good food in the dry desert of the Square Mile”. It majors in Danish smørrebrød (rye bread with toppings): “nice for a change”, but “you can rack up a fair bill eating these delicate one-bite-and-they-are-gone appetisers” (though “there there are decent main courses such as fish, schnitzel and venison fillet”). On the downside, results can end up seeming “not as Scandi and varied as expected” – “I prefer IKEA meatballs, even if they are not as prettily presented!”
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