Buckhurst Hill, International Restaurant Guide

“Favourite restaurant of all time!” – “Stunning flavours and textures, offered by the fixed-price, no-choice, but ever-changing taster menu” inspire adulation for Adolfo de Cecco’s “unpretentious” shop-conversion in Dalston. It may be one of East London’s true culinary heavyweights, but the style is “totally informal and allows the food to be the star”. “Service is impeccable and the food is brought to your table by the chefs themselves”. And “how does he do it for the price?” – £122 for the eight courses plus wine pairing (a meal might run – roasted beetroot tart; bread and butter; monkfish with bergamot sauce; pig skin congee with XO sauce; Jerusalem artichoke with umeboshi sauce and tahini; cheese with onion ice cream; yuzu granita; dried mushroom and frozen tofu). One report in particular typifies the love the places generates: “we eat out in proper restaurants twice most weeks, so we don’t stint ourselves, and from the receipts can count a full 50 visits to Casa Fofó since the beginning of 2023, and we never seem to be offered the same dish twice!”

“It’s so cute!” – this hipster hotspot in Newington Green still carries the ‘Barnes Motors’ signage of its origins as a 1940s car showroom, with a large glass frontage (which opens in summer). It’s “a wonderful place to while away a sunny afternoon, and very pretty for a candlelit evening too”. Choose from the blackboard menu of numerous, well-realised small plates, plus wines, beers and other tipples.

“Perfect for cheese lovers”: the “quirky and atmospheric” cafés adjoining these excellent retail cheese emporia – particularly the well-known branch in Marylebone – are particularly “good for lunch”, offering cheese and charcuterie boards alongside simple dishes like pan-seared salmon or paté en croute. Top Tip – worth remembering for breakfast.

“A little off the beaten track” at the far end of Islington, but “definitely a gem for this corner of London” – brothers Martin & Christoph Lange’s “cracking neighbourhood restaurant” is “consistently good” (“I’ve never had a bad dish”). There’s a fixed-price multi-choice menu to ensure “reasonable” bills.

Grade II listed pub in posh Highgate (whose former patrons include Dickens). Run by Young’s, the gastropub fare is solidly rated, but the chief highpoints include its attractively updated period charms, big outside terrace and cosy dining conservatory with large skylight.

“Excellent-quality food at a reasonable price” is behind the 24-year success of Austrian-born chef Julius Oberegger’s Whetstone bistro. The cuisine is “mostly modern European but with an eye on pan-Asian flavours” – which makes it “an oasis” in a part of north London where the standard dining options are Greek, Turkish or pizza.

“It just does everything right!” according to fans of Joe Swiers & Ollie Pudney’s phenomenally successful destination, which for many years has topped our survey as north London’s top gastropub, thanks not least to its location near Parliament Hill and the ease of “a long walk over Hampstead Heath” to walk off lunch. Hmmmm. That’s always been our annual diners’ poll’s conclusion hitherto anyway. But this year’s feedback was much less settled, with numerous reports saying it’s “not as good recently” and “despite the hype, produces decidedly underwhelming cooking”. Hopefully just a rough patch?

“Recovering nicely from the Covid effect” – this “perennial favourite for lunch” near Tower Hill is a classic bolt hole for professional buddies conspiring to kill off an afternoon over a decent bottle. Run by an independent wine merchant in a superbly characterful Victorian cellar, it provides “basic platters” of cheese or charcuterie (with veggie/vegan options) to help absorb the “very good wine at accessible prices, with good advice from the owner”. A flat £12 corkage fee makes it a good place to explore more expensive vintages, and it hosts regular events – “did a Chinese wine tasting... who knew?”

“The energy is fab” at this “busy and buzzy” Mayfair haunt, whose large central bar, pavement tables and green leather stools import a sense of chic Italian glamour to this corner-site a minute from Bond Street. The Italian food (cicchetti, risotti, pastas, traditional mains) doesn’t detract from the occasion, but is “highly priced for average quality”, albeit “all decent”; and “service can suffer when it’s over-busy”. Nowadays part of Soho House, its branches spread from Berlin to West Hollywood, via the City of London (in The Ned). Comments on the latter aren’t terrible, but less enthusiastic than those for W1.

‘A taste of South Africa’ is the promise of this City-fringe duo in Farringdon and London Bridge, which combine “an excellent choice of steaks” and dishes from the braai with a wide selection of South African wines. There’s also the prospect of a trip to the (very un-African) walk-in cheese room to end off a meal. But even those who acknowledge “decent Saffa-inspired grills” can say “the overall feel of the place is a little tired” or “functional”. And that it’s “not cheap for what it is” was also a repeat-complaint this year.

‘A taste of South Africa’ is the promise of this City-fringe duo in Farringdon and London Bridge, which combine “an excellent choice of steaks” and dishes from the braai with a wide selection of South African wines. There’s also the prospect of a trip to the (very un-African) walk-in cheese room to end off a meal. But even those who acknowledge “decent Saffa-inspired grills” can say “the overall feel of the place is a little tired” or “functional”. And that it’s “not cheap for what it is” was also a repeat-complaint this year.

“Every year I struggle to come up with new ways of saying just how wonderful this extremely underrated spot is”, say fans of this cherished local – a bright spark in the culinary void near Surrey Quays station. “They’ve been in situ for ages (thank goodness) yet the menu is always changing and continues to impress”: “sourdough pizzas are the main event – the pear and gorgonzola and the tiger prawn with chorizo are particular favourites – and it also has a modern European and grill menu”.

This spectacular tavern, which opened in Queen Victoria’s coronation year next to Greenwich’s Royal Naval College, has “a great setting beside the Thames” complete with a historic interior, and is not surprisingly “a favourite with tourists”. It can provide a good trip, but it can also “be let down by its typical pub grub”.

“Perfect for cheese lovers”: the “quirky and atmospheric” cafés adjoining these excellent retail cheese emporia – particularly the well-known branch in Marylebone – are particularly “good for lunch”, offering cheese and charcuterie boards alongside simple dishes like pan-seared salmon or paté en croute. Top Tip – worth remembering for breakfast.

This “crowd-pleasing destination” – dating from 1585 and “perfect after a walk on Hampstead Heath” – is a place of literary pilgrimage, frequented by Byron and Dickens, while Keats wrote his famous ode after listening to a nightingale sing in its garden. These days you’ll find a menu of “well-cooked and presented pub classics”.

This “large, well-decorated gastropub” overlooking the village pond in Totteridge, on London’s northern fringe, serves a broad menu that majors in steaks, burgers, seafood and pizza. The odd blip is noted in reports foodwise, but it‘s nominated by a number of locals as their top pub.

“Quite unique!” – Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale have won renown (including two Michelin stars and the 2nd highest score in the UK on World’s 50 best 2024) for their transformation of West African culinary traditions into an “incredible” and groundbreaking haute-fusion mashup; and a meal at this copper-shaded and minimalist venue (relocated a couple of years ago from St James’s) is acclaimed in a majority of reports as an “exceptional” and “creative” all-round experience. Even fans, however, often note that it’s also become a “very, very expensive” one, while for a significant minority it’s a “disappointing” or even “joyless” one too. Chief concerns are cooking that can seem “too complicated” or “unmemorable (and I was longing to try it!)”; “robotic” staff “not engaging with customers and barely explaining dishes” is another repeat complaint.

Yes, the boozer from the distantly-remembered song – a music-hall hit for Edwardian chanteuse Florrie Forde. It nowadays pitches itself as a ‘country pub in the city’, thanks to its leafy location, between Golders Hill Park and Hampstead Heath West: so no real change from Florrie’s era, when Cockneys would visit on a day trip. The renovated tavern certainly remains an attractive destination – the menu is not particularly ‘gastro’ but a bit too fancy to be described as ‘pub grub’ (think steak or sea bass rather than burger or fish ’n’ chips).