The new London restaurants to book now

London in the 21st century is the restaurant capital of the world. British chefs vie with the most famous names on the international food scene to secure the primest sites for their new ventures. Here you can find almost any cuisine on the planet, often made with seasonal British ingredients, whether organic meats, sustainably caught fish, and regeneratively farmed vegetables, but the food is only half the story: chefs collaborate with designers to ensure that the surroundings look every bit as enticing as what’s coming out of the kitchen.

Each month, we visit some of the city’s buzziest openings to discover the most exciting new menu items and locations across the capital.

The Wallpaper* guide to new London restaurants

January 2026

Tiella Trattoria and Bar

Chef Dara Klein was born in Italy’s foodie capital of Emilia-Romagna and grew up in New Zealand, where her parents owned a restaurant in Wellington. She first channelled her family heritage with her two-year Tiella residency at the Compton Arms pub in Islington. Now it has a permanent home in Bethnal Green, where Klein has teamed up with her childhood friend, restaurateur Ry Jessup.

The mood: Homely comfort. Klein and Jessup have retained Victorian pub features alongside reclaimed G-Plan chairs and pieces from local friends such as Walthamstow-based furniture designer Herb Palmer.

What to order: Klein’s all-time favourite dish of passatelli in brodo – pasta in broth – is on the menu here; more substantial plates include chicken Milanese with green apple and herbs.

Why we love it: Klein has created the perfect synthesis of the British pub and Italian trattoria.

Tiella opens in mid-January and is available to book from early January. It is located at 109 Columbia Road, London E2 7RL, UK

DakaDaka

Georgia can claim to be the birthplace of wine, with a heritage stretching back 8,000 years, but the Caucasian country has an equally rich culinary history. Georgian eating and drinking both get a contemporary spin at this restaurant and natural wine bar just off Regent Street, courtesy of chef-patron Mitz Vora.

The mood: Katya Samsonadze’s design of handmade clay, limestone, carved woodwork and hand-blown chandeliers reflects Georgian craft traditions, as does the open-fire charcoal grill that forms the basis for much of the cooking.

What to order: Georgia’s signature dish of khachapuri – boat-shaped, cheese-filled bread – comes in two versions straight from the fire, while other dishes include khinkali soup dumplings and smoky grilled meats.

Why we love it: One of the world’s oldest and richest cuisines deserves a central London showcase.

DakaDaka opens on 17 January and is available to book now. It is located at 10 Heddon St, London, W1B 4BX, UK

Cato

Cato Alexander was a slave turned freedman who owned his own bar in Midtown Manhattan in the 1840s. His legacy is being revived in 21st century Covent Garden by former Nipperkin bartender Angelos Bafas, who has created a drinks list to reflect three distinct spaces.

The mood: The ground-floor House of Julep is a New York-style tavern for daytime drinking; come evening, head downstairs to the low-lit Cato, where the 14 colour-inspired cocktails are sipped surrounded by wood, velvet and stainless steel. Cocktail masterclasses are held in Cato’s Study, a creative laboratory.

What to order: Mint juleps served in frosted cups and made with herbs grown on site demonstrate Bafas’s dedication to the freshest ingredients; the bar food is equally US-inspired, from fried oysters to a beef pastrami sandwich.

Why we love it: American bartending heritage meets British micro terroir.

Cato opens on 23 January and is available to book from 12 January. It is located at 17 Mercer Street, London, WC2H 9QJ, UK

December 2025

Corenucopia by Clare Smyth

Clare Smyth is the first female British chef ever to win three Michelin stars, for her debut solo restaurant Core by Clare Smyth in Notting Hill. Before that, she was chef-patron of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, but Corenucopia sees arguably Britain’s best chef take a more casual turn with what she calls a luxury bistro.

The mood: The interiors have been designed by Smyth’s goddaughter Natasha Marler, featuring antique oil paintings spotlit on white wood-panelled walls, vintage decanters standing on marble service stations, and a walk-in wine cellar leading off a leather-lined private dining room. The bistro label comes from the proximity of the gold velvet chairs to one another, and the menu of pimped-up British classics.

What to order: Fish and chips, rendered as a beer-battered Dover sole sandwiched around a layer of lobster mousse and accompanied by triple-cooked chips with a choice of six vinegars, seems destined for signature status.

Why we love it: For food and interiors that are a bespoke fit amid the furniture boutiques of Pimlico Road.

Corenucopia by Clare Smyth is located at 18-22 Holbein Place, London, SW1W 8NL, UK

Hawksmoor St Pancras

The dining room at the St Pancras London hotel has proved to be a revolving door for big-name chefs, with Marcus Wareing, Patrick Powell and Victor Garvey all having led the station. Now with Hawksmoor, the British steak chain with restaurants from Manhattan to Manchester, St Pancras International finally has a restaurant with the global profile to match the setting.

The mood: Neo-Gothic grandeur. Hawksmoor’s in-house head of design Mai-yee Ng has applied the group’s signature look of deep greens and golds to the triple-height dining room designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1873. The former Gothic Bar, meanwhile, has been reinvented as the Martini Bar, complete with a cocktail-friendly food menu.

What to order: Charcoal-grilled, sustainably reared and 35-day-aged steaks are Hawksmoor’s calling card, perhaps with some mashed potato and creamed spinach, but there’s more to the menu than meat and two veg: try the native lobster with garlic butter.

Why we love it: Quality British ingredients that are a welcome taste of home after a trip on the Eurostar.

Hawksmoor St Pancras is located at St Pancras, Euston Road, London, NW1 2AR, UK

Read our full restaurant review of Hawksmoor St Pancras

Trogolo

Trattorias are having a moment in London: Francesco Mazzei has launched Mezzogiorno at the Corinthia hotel, The Dover’s Martin Kuczmarski has quietly opened Martino’s on Sloane Square, while Dara Klein is bringing Tiella to Columbia Road in the new year. Now, Lara Boglione, the daughter of Petersham Nurseries founders Gael and Francesco, alongside her winemaker husband Giovanni Mazzei, have joined the casual Italian movement with Trogolo in a chi-chi corner of Notting Hill.

The mood: Rus in urbe. A ‘trogolo’ is the Italian word for ‘trough’, and the restaurant’s long shared tables bring the communal meals of Tuscan farms to west London. If you’re feeling more urbanely Florentine, there are also marble-topped tables for two.

What to order: Anything from a quick plate of salumi or bowl of pasta to Tuscan bone-in pork loin with peperoncino, washed down with wines from a list that Mazzei wants to make the reference point for natural Italian wines in London. Prefer grain to grape? There are cocktails and crostini in the bar.

Why we love it: Italian good taste runs in the Boglione family, and their legacy is safe with Trogolo.

Trogolo is located at 296 Westbourne Grove, London, W11 2PS, UK

November 2025

Bonheur by Matt Abé

Few names in hospitality are as evocative as Le Gavroche, the first British restaurant ever to win three Michelin stars and the training ground for a golden generation of chefs, including Marco Pierre White, Monica Galetti, and Gordon Ramsay, who bought the address when Le Gavroche closed in 2024. He’s using the Mayfair site to showcase the considerable talents of his protégé Matt Abé, until recently the chef-patron of three-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea.

The mood: Russell Sage Studio has designed the interiors for Ramsay restaurants, including Pétrus and 22 Bishopsgate, so it presumably knows a thing or two about what the most demanding chef in the world wants from his interiors. Expect a warm and earthy colour palette in the basement space, with the best spots at the six-seat chef’s table.

What to order: Ramsay might be the backer behind Bonheur, but at Abé’s first solo restaurant, the Australian-born chef will be very much his own man. His tasting menus of seasonal British ingredients include dishes such as 125-day aged Cumbrian Blue Grey sirloin with potato terrine, smoked bone marrow and bordelaise sauce; there’s an à la carte menu, too.

Why we love it: This iconic address could easily have fallen into the hands of a bland international chain; now Abé and Ramsay are safeguarding its future for another generation.

Bonheur by Matt Abé is located at 43 Upper Brook Street, London W1K 7QR, UK

Read our full restaurant review of Bonheur by Matt Abé

Maset

‘London Mediterranean’ – as exemplified by Town, Canal and Lagana – is the restaurant trend no one saw coming. Now Melody Adams, the restaurateur behind Spanish favourites Donostia and Lurra, is joining Club Med with a new Marylebone restaurant inspired by Occitanie, which roughly translates as south-east France.

The mood: A ‘maset’ is a small stone building, originally used by vineyard workers to take shelter from the weather, now converted into holiday boltholes. Parisian studio Haddou Dufourcq have interpreted that as a pared-back home-from-home amidst the boutiques of Chiltern Street.

What to order: Southern French food with Spanish, Italian and North African influences, such as bouillabaisse croquetas, and monkfish tail marinated in preserved lemon. Breakfast service will be introduced at the end of November.

Why we love it: For a shaft of Mediterranean sunshine to brighten up grey winter days.

Maset is located at 40 Chiltern Street, London W1U 7LQ, UK

Read our full restaurant review of Maset

Poon’s at Somerset House

The Poon family is a sort of Chinese-British equivalent of the Roux dynasty: restaurant royalty who changed the course of London dining. Bill Poon was the first Chinese chef to win a Michelin star, with Poon’s in Covent Garden in 1980; now his daughter Amy is resurrecting the family tradition with her first solo restaurant.

The mood: The sitting room of your most cultured Chinese friend. The New Wing at Somerset House accommodates a 62-cover space filled with Poon’s family art, furniture, books and photos. A scene of an imagined Chinese landscape, complete with cigar-smoking lobster, references a lost mural from the Covent Garden restaurant.

What to order: Poon developed a cult foodie following during lockdown for her home-delivery pork wonton dumplings and chilli oil – both on the menu here, along with recipes from her father, such as zha jiang noodles.

Why we love it: A legendary London restaurant name gets a new lease of life.

Poon’s at Somerset House is located at the New Wing, Somerset House, Lancaster Place, London WC2R 1LA, UK

Read our full restaurant review of Poon’s at Somerset House