Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in London Bloomsbury
Hardens guides have spent 31 years compiling reviews of the best Bloomsbury restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 109 restaurants in Bloomsbury and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Bloomsbury restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Bloomsbury Restaurants
1. Norma
Italian restaurant in Fitzrovia
8 Charlotte Street - W1T
“A beautiful restaurant with equally beautiful food!” – the Stafford Hotel’s first ‘extra-curricular’ venture in late 2019 has created an impressive all-rounder. In the “intimate” setting of a Fitzrovia townhouse, “delightful” staff provide dishes either from “an attractive seafood array” or from a menu of Italian small plates, focused on Sicily. One or two reporters feel results are “nice but nothing amazing”, but more numerous are those who say the food is “super tasty” and “absolutely fabulous”.
2. Bunga Bunga
restaurant in Covent Garden
167 Drury Lane - WC2B
Five years after the opening of the legendary Battersea bar and pizzeria, Bunga Bunga has come to Covent Garden with an even bigger and bolder version of the original. On the ground floor, discover a family pizzeria and bar, BungaTINI. Below accessed through the meat locker li...
3. Bea’s of Bloomsbury
Sandwiches, cakes, etc restaurant in Bloomsbury
72 Russell Square - WC1B
2019 Review: “Fabulously busy… in a good way (as it feels like you have come to the right place)” – this cute tea rooms near Holborn Library spawned a chain of the same name on the back of its inviting-looking cakes and “tasty lunches and snacks” that are “worth a little waiting for”.
4. Café Deco
British, Modern restaurant in Fitzrovia
43 Store Street - WC1E
Bloomsbury greasy spoon that’s been artfully transformed into a simple bar and modern bistro by the team behind 40 Maltby Street, with Anna Tobias (P Franco, Rochelle Canteen) at the stoves. It was launched in December 2020 and won a big thumbs-up from Guardian reviewer Grace Dent, who – while noting that it “looks a bit like a sandwich shop with lofty aspirations” – found “finely judged, nicely eccentric cooking with a strong undercurrent of country-house living”. Our early feedback is limited but similarly upbeat.
5. Master Wei
Chinese restaurant in Camden
13 Cosmo Place - WC1N
“Exceptional, hand-pulled biang biang noodles” are the star turn at this “no-frills diner” near Russell Square, where an “unprepossessing” exterior gains access to a menu of “subtle, interesting and authentic regional Xi’an cuisine”. “The prices are very reasonable for the West End.” Proprietor Wei Guirong also runs Xi’an Impression near Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.
6. Macellaio RC
Steaks & grills restaurant in Camden
6 Store Street - WC1E
“Exceptionally fine beef” from the Italian Fassone breed in the valleys north of Genoa is theatrically presented – as if in a butcher’s shop – at Roberto Costa’s growing group of steakhouses, where the “superb cuts are butchered in front of you”. “I finally went to try out what looked like magnificent beef, from the haunches in the window. I wasn’t disappointed – it delivered magnificently.” The South Ken branch in Old Brompton Road remains the most popular. There are others in Fitzrovia, Exmouth Market, Union Street and Battersea. (The latest to open in summer 2021, in the West End’s Theatreland, is called Il Teatro del Carne – see also).
7. Bloomsbury Street Kitchen
Fusion restaurant in Camden
9-14 Bloomsbury Street - WC1B
2021 Review: The promising, but hitherto under-exploited mix of Mediterranean and Japanese small plates is the crux of the menu offering at this August 2019 opening, which promises ‘a modern, day-to-night, neighbourhood restaurant and bar… complemented by a diverse variety of wines, sake and signature cocktails’.
8. Malabar Junction
Indian restaurant in Bloomsbury
107 Gt Russell St - WC1
A “low-key South Indian with welcoming, gracious staff”, this Bloomsbury Keralan serves “great meals full of good flavours”, from a “well-composed menu” with “a lot of vegetarian choices”.
9. Savoir Faire
French restaurant in Bloomsbury
42 New Oxford St - WC1
2021 Review: “Images redolent of ‘Le Gai Paris’ (the naked bottoms went perfectly with my slow roasted pork belly!)” grace the muralled walls of this “friendly and efficient” Gallic corner bistro, near the British Museum: “a reliable and enjoyable choice”, serving affordable classic French dishes.
10. Dalloway Terrace, Bloomsbury Hotel
Afternoon tea restaurant in Bloomsbury
16-22 Great Russell St - WC1
This “delightful” hotel terrace (with fully retractable roof) takes its name from a Virginia Woolf novel, and provides a rare peaceful haven in busy central London – “honestly, everything’s that’s been said about this beautiful place is true!”. “Service is attentive”, and the venue is perfect for a “lovely afternoon tea catching up with friends”. It can seem a little “chichi and pricey generally, although the brunch set menus are decent value”.
11. VQ, St Giles Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Bloomsbury
111a Great Russell Street - WC1
“Reliable, whatever the hour” – this small group of upscale diners has grown from its long-established Chelsea base, although – with closures in recent times – its only two siblings now are within midtown hotels in Aldwych and Bloomsbury. Aldwych is the only one actually open 24/7 (VQ = ‘Vingt Quatre’, i.e. 24-hour), but both its siblings are open for most of the wee hours, which is when they come into their own as a pick-me-up post clubbing. “It’s a very cosmopolitan menu, but drink may dull the senses of fussier gastronomes…”
12. Hare & Tortoise
Pan-Asian restaurant in Bloomsbury
11-13 The Brunswick - WC1
These pan-Asian pitstops can knock up anything from “reliable Japanese” dishes to “amazing curry laksa” with great speed and efficiency. Launched in Bloomsbury, the chain has expanded slowly over 25 years and now has branches in Ealing, Putney, Kensington and Chiswick.
13. Le Bab
Middle Eastern restaurant in Soho
Top Floor, Kingly Court - W1
“Wow!! Tasty or what?” This upscale kebab group has expanded from its well-known Kingly Court base, and been busy during the pandemic with a couple of new openings. In May 2021 they opened both a new café in a funky Dalston coworking space (part of a new aparthotel from Locke) and a retro, old-school kebab shop in the heart of Old Street, open till the wee hours. “You can’t really fault the food and it’s at a very good price. It’s a nice place too, relaxed but well managed”. See also Kebab Queen.
14. Shoryu Ramen
Japanese restaurant in Camden
84 New Oxford Street - WC1A
“Quick, warm and tasty” is the verdict on Japan Centre owner Tak Tokumine’s “very busy”, “authentic ramen” noodle group, based in the West End but expanding fast via delivery-only kitchens. “The tonkotsu soup stock is a wonder” and the “side dishes are great, too”.
15. Shake Shack
Burgers, etc restaurant in Bloomsbury
80 New Oxford St - WC1
2021 Review: In less than 20 years, Danny Meyer has transformed his New York City hot-dog cart into a global fast-food brand giant with eight outlets in London – including a Covent Garden flagship that was revamped earlier this year. Ratings remain remarkably solid for “a chain that does what it’s supposed to do”.
16. Bon Vivant
French restaurant in Bloomsbury
75-77 Marchmont Street - WC1N
2021 Review: “Like an everyday restaurant in a minor French town”, this “very busy” Bloomsbury bar/bistro is a “noisy but great fun” neighbourhood amenity: “some dishes are more successful than others” but most are délicieux.
17. MEATliquor
Burgers, etc restaurant in Bloomsbury
15-17 Brunswick Centre - WC1N
“Glorious burgers and great music in grungy surroundings” – this punk-inspired dirty burger operation “has many imitators now – but it’s still the best” for its diehard devotees. A decade after making the transition from a food van to a permanent site, the chain now has nine venues in the capital. If the excitement of its early years has dimmed a little, its food ratings continue to shine: “Dead Hippie burger, deep-fried mac’n’cheese, salted caramel brownie – is that not a perfect (heart-stopping) indulgent meal?”
18. Sagar
Indian restaurant in Fitzrovia
17a Percy St - W1
“Great-value South Indian vegetarian food at its best” is served at this long-running group with venues in Covent Garden, Fitzrovia, Hammersmith and Harrow. “Not at all your typical Indian restaurants”, they serve “food to convince that vegetarian and vegan cooking is good”, made with “fresh ingredients, lightly spiced and producing great flavours” – so “don’t let the decor put you off!”. Top Tip: “the dosas are a must”.
19. Chettinad
Indian restaurant in Fitzrovia
16 Percy St - W1
2021 Review: “Simply delicious south Indian cuisine” from the state of Tamil Nadu – including “the best dosas ever” – means this “justly popular independent” in Fitzrovia “is very different from your usual curry house”. “I’m slowly working my way through the menu and have yet to find something I don’t like”.
20. Bao Fitzrovia
Taiwanese restaurant in Fitzrovia
31 Windmill St - W1
“The bao are just so good” at these “charming” and stylish Taiwanese cafés, whose eponymous steamed buns filled with “brilliant” and “magnificent” Asian flavours have been a sensation since their first opening at Netil Market in London Fields in 2013. There are now six venues, the most recent of which have branched out in new directions: Café Bao at King’s Cross, serving an East Asian take on Western classics, such as chicken XO Kiev and baked ham hock congee pie, and Bao Noodle Shop, on the former site of Andina in Shoreditch, which is inspired by old-school Taiwanese beef noodle shops.
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