Fitzrovia, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“Difficult to book for, but if one succeeds it’s fabulous… and what a choice of Champagnes!” – A good proportion of best meals of the year feature in reports on a meal at the 19-seat U-shaped counter whose performance in our annual diners’ poll lives up to its renown as one of London’s top culinary destinations. Star chef, James Knappett provides a carefully sourced and foraged seasonal menu for £195 per person, with the wines curated by his wife, wine expert Sandia Chang (who offers a £250-per-person Champagne pairing amongst the variety of choices). Complaints about the vertiginous pricing here have featured in past years, but were largely notable by their absence in the latest survey.

Film director Guy Richie’s Fitzrovia pub is one of the capital’s hottest tickets for Sunday lunch, with bookings for its “top roast” selling out a full year in advance, according to a February 2025 report in The Times that cited its success with the ‘TikTok generation’ in addition to its more obvious celeb links. A vintage-feel revamp of a three-storey Georgian-era boozer, it offers an appealing menu of ‘contemporary English’ cooking supplemented by upmarket bar snacks like Maldon rock oysters and Creedy Carver duck scotch eggs (but no longer beer from the owner’s Gritchie brewery in Dorset, which has ceased production).

“I’d move to the area to make this my local!” – Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau’s urbane Fitzrovia corner site is a “casual sister restaurant to Portland just round the corner” and provides “a delightful welcome” alongside “a very high standard of dishes”. And to wash down the food, there’s “a wine list that seems to go out of its way to be interesting, including the chalkboard of options by the glass”. But while it’s “consistently a favourite” for most who report on it, the ratings they award are quite middling amidst a general acknowledgement that – “with prices not that far off its Michelin star sibling” – “the saving is insufficient given the disparity in food, experience and space”.

An “utterly charming gem” that stands out in Fitzrovia’s foodie Charlotte Street thanks to the “lovely, inventive Mediterranean-inspired food” provided by chef-patron Jun Tanaka. The “buzzy dining room” is among “the best in the area” – “relatively small with the casual feel of a neighbourhood restaurant” and “not at all stuffy for a Michelin star place”. Top Menu Tip – “the pain perdu is amazing”.

“A popular chain with an interesting and varied international menu” – “V.G. value too” – these Kiwi-run cafés are “still seeing off all of the competition” for their many fans. In particular, they do a “great brunch, and they’re right to boast about their filter coffee” – and given the volume of feedback they generate, there is remarkably little negative criticism. Depending on the venue and the time of day, they work equally well for a “working lunch meeting” or “families out for the day visiting the sights”. Top Menu Tip – “the cornbread is to die for”.

“Went for their bargain 10th birthday menu in Jan 2025, and the food was exceptional!” – Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau’s “very classy” Fitzrovian continues to thrive on its extremely consistent and un-forced formula and attracts barely a word of criticism amongst the many reports it inspires. Service is notably “charming and graceful”, delivering thoughtful cuisine that’s “really impressive” without attempting pyrotechnics; and matched with a “terrific” wine list that’s “full of interest, full of content”. “Yes, people moan that the room is a little pedestrian, but if you’re having dinner spending most of your time looking at the decor maybe you should change your dining companion”. Top Tip – “lunch is the value play” and popular with local expense-accounters.

“A small but perfectly crafted menu” from former Rochelle Canteen chef Anna Tobias wins admirers for her revamped greasy spoon in Bloomsbury, opened five years ago with help from the 40 Maltby Street team. “The ingredients are the star and the dishes sing – everything is so deliciously scrumptious”, say fans – “there’s no frill or nonsense here, just Flavour with a capital F”. There’s an undercurrent of feeling, though, that the prices charged might justify a little more pizzazz.

This dramatic dining room (a former banking hall with an astonishing 5-metre corniced ceiling) of an Ian Shrager-designed hotel north of Oxford Street provides a superb setting for Jason Atherton’s well-established Fitzrovia destination. It has fans for all occasions thanks to its accomplished brasserie cooking, but it’s for wowing clients that it’s most often nominated in our annual diners’ poll and “there are booths that are ideal for business discussions”.

2022 Review: ‘Exciting concept changes’ are promised at this elegant Roux-branded dining room, within the luxurious five-star opposite Broadcasting House. Democratised in style in 2018, then closed for much of the pandemic and beyond, the presumption is that it will take another move to a less formal (perhaps brasserie?) style when it reopens in 2022. Just the other side of the wall is The Wigmore – a pub created from spare space at the hotel and launched with its own entrance and Roux input in 2017. A hint at what’s to come?

Wanting to eat in the wee hours? This stalwart chain has fed tolerable diner food 24/7 (VQ = Vingt Quatre, geddit?) to the denizens of the Fulham Road for as long as anyone can remember (before 1995 it was called ‘Up all Night’); and has a more recent outlet (unusually, licensed till 4am, though you must be eating) that’s more convenient if you are clubbing in the West End on the ground floor of a Bloomsbury hotel.

2023 Review: The “beautiful terrace” with its “attentive staff” at this very central hotel makes for an oasis of calm close to busy Oxford Street. Named in reference to Virginia Woolf, the queen bee of the Bloomsbury set, it has a “fun atmosphere”, and the heating and retractable roof make it ideal for afternoon tea throughout the year.

With its “posh pub grub” (courtesy of Kitchen Table chef, James Knappett, although many diners are oblivious to this fact), this genteel 18th-century tavern near Oxford Circus from the JKS group is a welcome refuge from the hurly burly of the West End’s retail heartland. You can eat in the upstairs dining room, or stay “downstairs at the bar for some well-kept ale with spice-forward bhajis and a scotch egg – both excellent versions of themselves and served with homemade condiments”.

This wine bar/restaurant group has a steady fanbase on the strength of its vinous offerings, although its “bistro fare” is perhaps not much better than “acceptable”. The best of its four venues is probably the “cosy” Marylebone flagship with live jazz and late opening at ’28-50 By Night’, and there’s a “very convenient” branch a minute’s walk from Oxford Circus.