London Brook Green Restaurant Guide

“Lush pizza” that’s reliably “top-quality” has driven the expansion of this Islington-based group that has developed four different 48-hour ferment bases – including gluten-free and ‘black vegetable charcoal’ versions to reduce stomach gas; so “everyone’s happy”. The eight-year-old group now has nine sites in the capital (including a new one labelled as ‘Chelsea’ but on Fulham Broadway) and one in Reading.

“Always a warm welcome from the lovely husband-and-wife team” at this “perfect neighbourhood gem” lost in the backstreets near Brook Green, where “Michele is in the kitchen and Heidi front of house”. For what it is, it would be hard to improve, with its “homely atmosphere”; and “hearty and well-seasoned Italian home cooking” from “a limited menu of crowd-pleasing dishes”; all at “reasonable prices”. “Interesting” wine list too with “some good value for money rarities”.

2021 Review: “Grotty-looking, but serving top steak!” – that’s been the trade-off for over two decades at this “intimate and special”, but simultaneously “fairly basic” little quirk of a bistro, in the backstreets near Olympia. “If you like good steak then this is as good a place to start as any: its excellent meat, cooked perfectly, takes some beating”, and is supplemented by an intriguing wine selection of well-chosen bin ends. The N19 branch is no more.

“A decent attempt to reproduce Provençal cooking in Shepherd’s Bush”: Lawrence & Emily Hartley’s “nice local bistro” north of Brook Green – “a successor to a spot that was Café Rouge for many years” (and briefly Mustard, RIP) – provides “French classics” with “friendly service”. Critics feel that at times, “the food, though fairly authentic, can be just a bit underwhelming”; but the majority see “much to recommend the place” and feel it’s a “welcome venture” in this underserved neck of the woods. Top Tip – “good set menu”.

This “comfortable and friendly gastropub” with a blue-tiled facade has been a staple foodie feature of the backstreets behind Olympia for three decades. Nowadays part of The Metropolitan Pub Company: “the menu doesn’t change as much as it used to”, but is very acceptable, with a focus on pies (e.g. confit duck or braised rabbit), alongside other deftly realised traditional classics (perhaps Steak Sandwich, or Chicken Kiev).

“Great food and drink, especially pizza” makes it worth remembering this stylish (if sometimes noisy) Olympia pub-conversion, a few minutes’ walk from Brook Green (part of the Oak group).

“The food is different and good” – inspired by the street food sold on Indian railways – at these funkily decorated canteens, in a nondescript Ealing parade of shops and a somewhat cuter one on Hammersmith Grove. Top Menu Tip – “sharing Thalis are a must, with great flavour combinations and excellent value”.

“A calm retreat” that comes as a “pleasant surprise”, just one minute’s walk from the tube gates of Hammersmith: this cosy cellar bar is found in the middle of the Broadway at the foot of Bradmore House: a grade II listed eighteenth-century property rebuilt as part of the area’s redevelopment. The basement forms the in-house eatery for the co-working space occupying the building and anyone else who knows about it, with a short and affordable menu: “I wasn’t expecting much, but this was great!”

On a tranquil Hammersmith corner, with a good-sized pavement terrace for the summer months, this attractive and affordable destination makes a useful rendezvous and has the looks of a smart neighbourhood bistro rather than a wine bar. Its neighbouring café, ‘La Cave’, is a popular weekend breakfast spot: “it has the best pastries and head barista Justin is a character”.

2021 Review: “Just around the corner from Olympia”, it’s worth knowing about this well-rated pub, in the not-particularly-auspicious northerly reaches of the North End Road. In the same stable as Earl’s Court’s excellent Atlas, it delivers “a very enjoyable meal, with a good quality menu and a lovely atmosphere”.

Worth knowing about near Hammersmith Broadway, this well-appointed pub is “highly recommended” for its convenient location a few minutes’ walk from the station, its characterful interior, cute outside terrace and – not least – its very decent Italian-leaning menu. “Dog-friendly” is another plus for some.

“A wonderful quiet dining room”, where “the staff are top-notch, the atmosphere too” – Gino Taddei & Sally Eidlitz’s “lovely” restaurant between Kensington and Olympia “has been going for years” and “they have fed generations” with “top-quality Italian cuisine”. Many describe it as “a favourite local” – a view shared by the late Michael Winner.

2021 Review: “I started eating at Alounak when it was in a container in a car park round the corner” over twenty-five years ago, and this Iranian café over the tracks from Olympia remains a “favourite BYO” to this day, with its “consistently good Persian comfort food”: in particular “superb kebabs”. (A Bayswater ‘Alounak’ is still in operation, but seems now to operate independently of W14.)

2023 Review: Limited but good all-round feedback on this family-run Punjabi stalwart, which has long been a feature of the restaurant strip just to the south of Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo (and which sometimes only serves a restricted menu in the early evening during events there). It also has a branch in Ealing (not listed).

2021 Review: “In the heart of Walthamstow Village”, this “great neighbourhood spot” – a Spar supermarket with kitchen attached – wins praise for its “quality” cooking (“the 2019 Harden’s description of pub-type grub underplays its standard and originality”). “Very relaxed and welcoming for young children”, the venture’s best-known innovation is bacon jam, which you can buy by the jar in various flavours. Other branches have opened in Hackney and, most recently, Hammersmith (somewhat better-served areas, so these respective branches are somewhat less of a local lifeline).

“High-end vegetarian cuisine” – with “such inventive recipes” – has carved a brilliant reputation amongst veggies and carnivores alike for Michael and Adrian Daniel’s characterful stalwart, which “has been around forever” (well, since 1989). It occupies an attractively quirky space too, over a Hammersmith church near the Eventim Apollo, but – albeit a “really nice and friendly venue” – one or two reporters feel “the venue and service could do with refreshing” (and its two spin-off branches closed this year). Top Menu Tips – “dreamy aubergine dish” and “courgette flower and the red Thai curry and mushroom are both favourites”.

“What a great restaurant to land in Hammersmith!” – this seafood newcomer has immediately won a big local fanclub. “Worth seeking out, even though it’s in an odd spot just off the Broadway roundabout”, it has a “smart” and surprisingly “glamorous” dining room and provides “excellent-quality fish and seafood”. “Dishes are well-priced and everything is prepared to a good standard”. It’s from the team behind The Victoria seafood pub in Mile End, and they hope it’s the first of a small chain across London.

The first UK branch of one of China’s largest chains (with more than 6,000 branches around the world) opened without fanfare in early 2024, just off Hammersmith Broadway. You can eat anything you like, so long as it’s Malatang (hotpot): choose your own custom ingredients from the chiller cabinets lining the wall, place your order and you are called up when your broth has been prepared. A big TikTok hit with Asian students, it also got a thumbs-up from Daily Mail critic Tom Parker Bowles in his April 2024 review.

All spent out at Westfield? Head for this large first-floor eatery within the much-less-glam’-looking West 12 Shopping Centre on the other side of Shepherd’s Bush Green. Reports on the all-you-can-eat £15 pan-Asian buffet are few, but The Guardian’s Grace Dent in late 2022 was a fan, describing a “vast” array of “feisty flavours” (with diverse dishes from as far afield as Canton and West Sumatra) whose “pleasing” prices spark “joy through dark times and ransacked wallets”.