London Camden Town Restaurant Guide

“Doing what they do very well” – “top burgers” are presented with a veneer of Parisian sophistication at this seven-strong chain, popular not just for their value but their “lovely” styling too.

2022 Review: Tom Kerridge’s involvement (in partnership with Mark Emms) made it 100% likely this summer 2021 opening, on the top of Buck Street Market, would attract attention. It’s ‘bad’ in that many dishes (e.g. beef brisket ‘taternator’) are not vegan! – anything with red packaging is for meat- eaters (leaf-eaters, green of course). In an early August 2021 review, Kate Samuelson of The Week was upbeat, branding it “a mightly alternative” to KFC and McDs. Then again, she also noted that: “our meal, which included three portions of food, two milkshakes and two beers, came to about £50” – so you’d kind of hope for a pretty major step up…

2021 Review: “Truly amazing tastes recommended for both vegans and non-vegans!” help win high scores for this year-old, Camden Town offshoot of the UK’s first vegan pizzeria (which first hit Brighton in 2015). Bases include sourdough, hemp and gluten-free options: “it’s the best pizza I’ve had in a very long time!”. Top Tip – kids under 10 get a free pizza when eating with their parents.

2019 Review: “Creative and intelligent” cooking wins nothing but high praise for this contemporary update of the traditional curry house, in Camden Town. It has a sister venue, Salaam Namaste, in Bloomsbury.

“Much better than the long-established, tired pizza chains!” – the Elliot brothers’ growing group is the most-mentioned of London’s more artisanal pizza multiples in our annual diners’ poll, inspiring joy with their “authentic Neapolitan preparation, with quality ingredients” and featuring “yummy crusts and interesting flavour combinations”. And you get “consistent quality irrespective of the branch visited” too, even if conditions can be “a little cramped and chaotic”.

You can “travel back in time” at this trio of deliberately retro chippies, with their “Formica tables and period posters creating a great atmosphere” – “the fish ’n’ chips are excellent, too”. Founder Pat ‘Pops’ Newland, an East Ender who started working at the age 11, was still a hands-on owner in his 80s when he died in April 2022.

Investment a few years ago turbo-charged this ‘100% plant-based’ chain, whose stalwart original Soho branch (est 1988) suddenly spawned a handful of “airy” and “jolly” (somewhat “crammed”) modern spin-offs across town. To this number, a new, two-floor Covent Garden branch opened its doors in February 2022 with 120 covers. The expansion has gone well and its “earnest” and “flavourful” cooking is not just favoured by veggies: “I was taken not entirely voluntarily as a dedicated meat-eater but have changed my tune after dining here!”

2021 Review: “Neapolitan influences are evident in the choice of ingredients, and the wood-burning oven makes for good, chewy, charred crusts, unlike most high-street pizzas” – so say fans of this global chain, whose HQ is indeed in Naples. Not everyone is impressed, though, and ratings are dragged down by those who feel it’s merely an “everyday” choice: “OK for a bog-standard group, but not great”.

2022 Review: This imposing Regency tavern where Camden Town meets Regent’s Park is part of Gordon Ramsay’s portfolio, and impresses some visitors with its cooking. Too many, though, reckon it makes a “poor choice” for a meal, and sleb-chef ownership may be its only real attraction.

2019 Review: “Cute and cheerful” pan-Indian street food and bar operation in a new development near Mornington Crescent. All reports are upbeat, if with a caution that you should “pick your way through the menu carefully to have a better-than-standard curry house experience”.

“Delicious” plant-based versions of classic American comfort food – from burgers, seitan hot dogs and pastrami to milk-free shakes – cut the mustard at this pair of ‘dirty vegan diners’ in Camden Market and Islington. The Islington branch has a vegan butcher next door, touted as the world’s first, with a concession in Selfridges.

“It’s cheap ’n’ very cheerful, but with great-quality authentic pizzas” at this basic Goodge Street spot (“worth foregoing a fancier meal for, as its thin-crust pizzas are so good!”). You’ll find “very fast and friendly service”, and that’s it: “this place is all about the pizza and nothing else (unless you love Snapple drinks)”. Opened in 1999, it now has a branch in Camden and delivery outlets in Wood Green, Colindale and Croydon.

2022 Review: Just a few years after leaving London (and his two Pâtisserie des Rêves stores) behind, Philippe Conticini is back, with this huge new Camden Market patisserie, traditionally tiled and where much of the seating is outside on a large sunny days terrace. (There’s also a smaller, less characterful outlet now nearby (since November 2020) in Buck Street Market).

Cleverly converted from Victorian Grade II listed former stables into a faux-rustic gastroboozer, this Camden Town yearling has “a lovely atmosphere, looking out into buzzy Camden Market”, and serves a “high-quality” menu of British comfort-food classics which are “a cut above your usual pub fare”. There’s also a hidden courtyard with a fire pit, and a good selection of locally brewed beers.

“Behind an unprepossessing facade, on an equally unprepossessing part of not-quite-Camden, not-quite-Kentish Town, lie gastronomic delights from Italy” conjured up in a tiny kitchen by Moroccan-Italian Mustapha Mouflih, a chef who “combines high-quality ingredients with imagination”. “Even if the ambience is somewhat chaotic and basic, at best, the cooking is wonderful” (“the ravioli, malfatti, tortellini and so on are of a freshness and stuffed with flavours you would otherwise have to get on a plane to find”).

This “lovely little Japanese restaurant” near Mornington Crescent tube has no airs and graces, but provides “great food and atmosphere”, with a menu that covers most of the classics of the cuisine, from sushi and sashimi to yakitori grills, hotpots and noodle dishes.

This “friendly and cosy” independent Italian with a “good garden space” has established a comfortable niche for itself in Primrose Hill over the past dozen years. It’s run by Patrick Oberto and his partner Diana Rinaldo, who took over the site in 2011.

Just by the Regent’s Canal, Michael Nadra’s high-quality French restaurant serves some of the “best food in the area” at the top of Regent’s Park. On sunny days, it particularly benefits from its cute courtyard (regarding the interior, some diners feel it’s “a shame that the odd layout can detract from its other qualities”). It used to have an (older) Chiswick sibling, but this has now closed: seemingly a victim of the pandemic.