London, United Kingdom + Add a trip

Never had sushi in London like I've had in San Francisco until I went to Kobe London. It's not perfect, and it is expensive, but if you like sushi and want a really gorgeously over the top experience, then it's worth entering the absurd crashed nostromo of the building to try it out. Many people I know suspicious of sushi have loved it.

The two St John restaurants are a must for anyone from out of the country who thinks that it's not possible to get good British food. They've had to push back past the second world war to surface some of this stuff, but it's British food at its best.

24/7/365 restaurant in West London

If New York has something over London it has to be that NYC is actually a 24/7 city.

However, a true 24/7 restaurant does exist in London. Called Vingt~Quatre (get it?) it offers service, for a small premium, all day and all of the night.

Food is very good if a little pricey. But if you are stuck for somewhere to eat at 3am you could do a lot worse.

Sketch - a relaxed, central place to meet

Need to tell someone you'll meet them in London but don't want to just meet at the station? Tell them to meet you at Sketch Parlour. It's a relaxed, slightly twee but rather edgy cafe near Oxford Circus where you can drink coffee, use their WiFi and snack on yummy stuff while you're waiting to meet up. They also have a funky restaurant and the wierdest loos in London, but don't let that put you off!

De Santis: really good panini in London

Try De Santis at the west end of Old Street for delicious, addictive panini. The panini bread is freshly baked on site, and you choose from some lovely Italian deli type fillings and fresh salady things.

The "Inter" is great, with parma ham, gorgonzola and rocket, perfectly toasted with a drizzle of olive oil.

Not many veggie options but what they do have is very nice, especially the Ortolano.

Food in West End

My wife and I ate lunch at 'Dim T', billed as a noodle bar. We found the food good and tasty and fairly good value too. We would go back.

Match Bar

Great cocktails, great location. Not too pretentious, good staff. Excellent stop for cocktail hour after wandering round Oxford/Regent Street.

Misato

Probably the best Japanese all around central London. Delicious AND Cheap!

Fifteen

The flagship restaurant of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen charity. The food and wine are delicious and not ridiculously priced either; the staff are well-informed and courteous. I've been lucky enough to eat there 4 times now, and never had a bad experience.

Roast, Borough Market

Great location overlooking the market and really rather wonderful food - but probably a better location for lunch.

Great cafe / restaurant / club in Earls Court

The Troubadour in Earls Court is a lovely coffee house / restaurant with a basement club for live music and poetry in the evenings.

Arty Food

The restaurants and cafes in the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery are hidden gems in central London.

The National Dining Rooms have lovely view of Trafalgar Square and is a great place for lunch National Cafe is great anytime, it has a Grand Cafe atmosphere; I like to have breakfast there The Portrait Restaurant has fabulous roof-top views (as seen in Closer!) and good food by Searcy's

and when you're finished, you can enjoy the art for free!

Fired Noddle

I have tried this chinese resurant. The noddle is as good as what I can get back home - Singapore/Malaysia. It at Greenwich. The serving is huge!

Best Fallafel in the world

Have been back to Just Falafs on covent garden twice now and it is superb. I think it will be even more popular in summer as most of the outside seating is shaded. a more detailed revue can be found here: http://www.londontown.com/LondonInformation/Restaurant/Just_Falafs/9f89/

Coffee and tapas at Camino

Excellent coffee and lovely food at Camino, near Kings Cross. Sandwiches in the bar area and tapas in the restaurant. Good place for a bit of work in the day, but crowded and fun in the evenings.

Google map for camino

The Junction Tavern, great food

Pub in Kentish Town, serving very good food. Just tried it once but my friend has been going there for years and was never disappointed she says.

Lookup places in the Randomness Guide to London

Use the Randomness Guide to London (it's a wiki) to lookup and add to to the info on pubs, restaurants and more that you want to visit.

Based on the famous London Open Guide (which is currently offline), the Randomness guide covers more pubs, restaurants, and other venues than most other sites and is frighteningly up to date.

really really really good coffee at monmouth

monmouth coffee is great. the flat whites are impossibly creamy. they get the temperature of the coffee just right all the time. used to frequent the convent garden cafe, but i really like the borough market cafe better. they have this table full of breads and jams in the morning that everyone just digs into.

Good coffee, free wifi near Tottenham Court Road

Ray's Jazz Cafe, above Foyles Bookshop on Charring Cross Road is a great stop if you're in central London. It's got free wifi and great cake!

Asakusa

Japan is close to Mornington Crescent Tube station not far from the KOKO. Oishi!

Pho - Excellent Vietnamese food

Pho, the Vietnamese restaurant named after the traditional soup, in St. John Street is a wonderful lunch venue. Especially good on chilly London days.

Gourmet Bacon at Inn the Park

My Sunday at London started with a terrible weather, snow falling and Heathrow closed for several hours... What saved the day was amazing breakfast at Inn the Park.

I bet that the bacon beats all italian Parma hams and stuff by a mile! I chose the Rhug Estate Dry Cured Organic Streaky Bacon.

Free Internet and Peace and Quiet

The Barbican Centre has free wifi access and you dont even have to buy anything. Go and sit on the balcony area and work in peace and quiet. There are power points available and if you do get peckish they have canteens and restaurants available as well as films, art, theatre, a library and gallery. Also witness one of the most beautifully ugly buildings in London. The Barbican is one of my favourite places ever.

Kensington Crêperie: Delicious crêpes in South Kensington

It's a small café-crêperie near the tube station. It serves the best crêpes I've eaten in the UK. The menu is varied and has both salted and sweet crêpes. You can have a complete crêpes-based meal has some of the salted meat or fish based ones are quite copious! There are tables inside as well as outside. Its popularity and small size often cause a long queue outside

Konstam at the Prince Albert

Locally-sourced food from around Greater London area in a converted pub that has been touched yet not spoiled by a designer... Dinner for two around £85 including my generous tips.

Chorizo and rocket sandwich at Borough Market

Make sure you ask for a double down at Borough Market on Fridays and Saturdays. Look for the longest queue and you are sure to find the tastiest sandwich on the planet. Barbecue chorizo sausage with rocket and a sweet pepper inside an olive oil covered toasted ciabatta. Unbelievable, and if you ask for a double you get two chorizo and two peppers. You'll wish you had.

Superb Soho Coffee

Flat White in Soho makes coffee for people who actually like the stuff. London has awful coffee, few people will argue with that and the proliferation of Starbucks and Cafe Nero is proof positive.

Flat White is run by Australians and Kiwis and they make a liquid recognisable as coffee. No syrups, double whoppa frappacinos, just proper coffees.

Great sweet treats as well as good solid breakfast stuff, Flat White is a bustling cafe in the true sense of the word. It's also across the road from the brilliant Yauatcha.

Sartoria - Quiet and Classy

I hadn't heard of this restaurant before someone bought us "dining experience" as a gift. After eating there last weekend, it's a somewhere that will certainly be added to my list of favourites! The surroundings are very chic, and this is reflected in the way the food is presented, too. I've been to other places like this where the staff are very aloof, but here the staff were very friendly and attentive. Recommended.

Dinner in the Dark

For an unforgettable dinner (experience) book a table @ the Dans Le Noir?- restaurant. It's pitch black, the waiters are blind and the food is good. A place for a blind date, perhaps? ;)

Unchained: Independent shop guide

A website focused on independent London retailers only. Search by category or place and stay a comfortable distance from the high street chains.

The Norfolk Arms for really good tapas and beer

Not far from Euston, King's Cross and St. Pancras Eurostar is the Norfolk Arms, a small but good gastropub with a reasonable tapas menu and good beers on tap.

Great vegetarian US-style "diner"

Fun place, especially to drag non-vegetarians who are suspicious of vegetarian restaurants (sadly, for good reasons). Can get busy on weekends, but a great place to chill out (and the veggie cheese-burgers are excellent).

MISO noodle bar

Admittedly I had perfect, fluffy egg fried rice over noodles, but still: cheap (for London), served ridiculously fast and absolutely delicious.

High Road Brasserie

Has the best cappuccino I have ever tasted, and their sandwiches are home made prepared with fresh breads.

Highly recommended!

OXO tower restaurant

Excellent food and great wines (several very, very expensive options, but good wines in affordable ranges too). Only drawback is that they stop serving alcohol after 00:00, so order your Port, Sauterne, or Tokaij to go with the cheeseplatter, chocolate surprise or other dessert on time!

Frontline Club restaurant

I do work for the Frontline Club in Paddington as a freelance, but I hope that doesn't make me too biased... The food is excellent traditional British, without being heavy and the ingredients are sourced from the Frontline farm in Norfolk. The club was orignally set up by a bunch of war reporters and foreign correspondents, but the ground floor resto is open to all. 2 mins from Paddington tube and the Food and Wine evenings are blinding. More on those here:

http://www.cooksister.com/2008/03/wining-and-dini.html

And here are some snaps I took int he restaurant and club room,

http://flickr.com/photos/12086274@N05/sets/72157601906609205/

Maggie Jones on Kensington Church Street for great atmosphere and food

There is a tiny little restaurant at the bottom of Kensington Church Street, just by the fire station (just off of High Street Kensington) called Maggie Jones, where they serve delicious English food with a twist (Chicken and Artichoke pIe is to die for!)

Viet Cuisine

good & cheap food in an old bath in hackney. best to go with a group of people.

Saf restaurant for really excellent vegan food

Without a doubt the best food I've ever eaten!! The food is made from seasonal produce, is all vegan and absolutely delicious. I particularly enjoyed their macca ice-cream - amazing! Incidentally, for folk who fear eating vegetarian, let alone vegan food - I have been there with people who are meat-eaters, who commented that they would be vegan if all food was that good. Plus Saf do really excellent cocktails - yum!

Yauatcha Inside

I used to work there in 2006 when they open. The food is fantastic and the service is very good. My favorites

Crispy duck roll Har Gau Steam spinach and praws Venison Puff

The Giaconda Dining Room

Looking for somewhere in Soho/Covent Garden to eat really tasty food that won't cost you an arm and a leg? The Giaconda Dining Room is excellent. They serve set menus that are reasonably priced and they have a great wine list that is also very good value.

It's on Denmark Street, famous for its music shops, really close to Tottenham Court Road.

As it becomes increasingly popular, you may have to book...

Kew Gardens, London suburbs

Kew Gardens, outside London (Zone 3 via District Line tube, destination "Richmond", is a wonderful visitors' venue any time of year. Even in winter, you can visit the Orchid Show (February) or simply stroll around its many glass houses full of flowering trees and plants...a restful oasis in the busy world of London. For refreshment, try the Maids of Honour Tearoom, across the street from the Gardens. They've been serving teas with all the accoutrements since the sixteenth century.

Hakkasan

one of the most interesting restaurants I've ever been too. Michelin-star Chinese in a nightclub setting.

Best Italian Ice Cream in London

My second post about italian ice cream, this time in the global city London. On the weekend you can be sure to find a queue outside of "Gelato Mio" on 138 Holland Park Avenue. And it's worth every minute you wait in that queue.

Bistroteque

Neighbourhood gem! Great for Brunch or dinner. Simple, nice food. French bistro meets modern London - or something

The Wapping Project

Great, unusual dinner surroundings. The restaurant is in an old hydraulic power station and most of the machinery still here. Food is nice too. There is a gallery and an interesting installation on the roof.

Strada

Si estás de compras por Regent St. o Oxford St. Strada es un lugar muy agradable donde descansar un rato y reponer fuerzas.

The Clarence

Un sitio típico british para tomar un refrigerio junto entre Trafalgar Square y el Big Ben.

Muy agradable.

Elegant vegetarian restaurant

Try VanillaBlack vegetarian restaurant for beautiful tasty food. I recommend the candy-stripe beetroot salad. Never full at lunchtime. Good for a business meeting. Just two minutes from Chancery Lane.

Typical English breakfast

Maria's Market Cafe does it for me hands down in London. If the atmosphere of Borough Market doesn't do it for you and you haven't found something else to eat with all the aromas waifting all around you, then the English breakfast complete with bubble and squeak will get you. Maria's a cornerstone having taken over the business from her mama when she passed away several years ago. Only open Wed-Sat until 2pm and later during the holiday season, it's a keeper.