London Highbury Restaurant Guide

“Original and cleverly spiced new-wave Thai food” graces the “unusual menu” at this former pop-up in Highbury from chef Sebby Holmes – “brace yourself for a decent walk afterwards if you’re tempted to eat rather too much of the very delectable food”. Top Tip – “the cleverly done make-at-home range is almost as good as the restaurant”.

“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 “great local” on Highbury Corner has developed from a catering company and supper club into a fully fledged “neighbourhood restaurant, serving proper food at reasonable prices”, with separate all-day brunch/lunch and evening menus featuring modern European dishes.

2022 Review: “Delighted to see this has survived the pandemic!” – this little Sardinian local, not far from the Arsenal ground, delights its Highbury fanclub. They say it serves “Islington’s top pizza”.

2022 Review: This “buzzy” Highbury wine bar specialises in hip low-intervention wines, backed up by “great food and service”. The menu is predominantly small-plate bites to accompany the interesting bottles being quaffed, so “they could do with more main course options – but the atmosphere is fantastic”.

“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.

2022 Review: “A lovely local coffee shop” in Highbury – this four-year-old majors on “tasty fresh bread/pastries and delicious coffee” and “also sells a nice range of deli bits/wines etc”. The same team have opened a second site on nearby Gillespie Road.

This “super-cool local” off the Holloway Road near the Emirates stadium has been a kingpin of the hip sharing-plates dining scene since it opened seven years ago, making stylish use of a post-industrial space where diners are “packed in like sardines... which are delicious here!”. The “healthy modern British” small plates menu always has “quite a few vegetarian dishes” and low intervention wines are a big feature.

This cool-looking, new Highbury haunt is the latest from Mat Appleton & Jess Blackstone, who have opened a trio of cafés under the Fink’s name in the area over the past dozen years. There’s coffee, pastries and grab-and-go bites by day, with a short, seasonal dinner menu from chef Phil Wood (ex-St John and Spring) in the evening, along with cocktails and low-intervention wines. In his November 2023 review, The Evening Standard’s Jimi Famurewa hailed “a wonderfully-composed, sneak-attack of a neighbourhood hit”. Our reporters are a bit more cautious: “recently opened to a wave of social media posts, Saltine is trying hard but still finding its feet”, with “food that’s good but possibly not quite up to the hype around its opening? One or two dishes were exceptional but others were just ‘nice’”.

This micro Italian wine bar in Highbury’s Blackstock Road (formerly the Light Eye Mind arts space) opened in March 2023 and operates as a bottle shop and café by day and a 20-cover wine bar by night, serving low-intervention Italian wines along with cheese and salumi from small producers and pasta. The cakes are from Forno in Hackney, and they produce their own small-batch gelato. Co-owner Leonardo Leoncini ran Highbury’s Farewell Cafe, which closed in 2021.

This “grotty Arsenal pub” near the old Highbury stadium in Finsbury Park has won wide acclaim for its “elevated pub food”, with “small plates of tasty British classics” and a “banging Dexter burger” (“I dream about those burgers, they’re that good”). There’s a “nice old-school pub atmosphere too”, with a “lively bar” and “great beer selection”. Chef duo Jamie Allan & Ed McIlroy (aka Four Legs) have now opened their second transformation project, the former chippy Tollingtons (see also). Top Sartorial Tip – “baseball caps and trainers are ubiquitous”.