As a lifelong foodie, I make it my business to stay ahead of the latest openings, the tables everyone is trying to book, and the small details that make a room feel right, right down to the decor on the table. So when I tell you that London has quietly become the greatest restaurant city in the world, ahead of Paris, ahead of Bangkok, ahead of New York, ahead of every city I have loved and lived in, I mean it. It is the one I already call home, and it keeps rewriting its own culinary story every single season. I want to walk you through exactly why.
Hotel Dining
Raffles London At The OWO
Once the home of the Old War Office and Winston Churchill himself, not to mention where Sir Ian Fleming wrote his famous Bond series, this hotel now holds the Bond themed Spy Bar and a restaurant from chef Mauro Colagreco. It is theatrical, plush, and exactly the kind of London evening I love sending clients to. In house guests can join a historical tour every day at eleven in the morning, which makes the saying "if these walls could talk" feel more true here than almost anywhere else in London. Book your stay through The Travel Collective for complimentary daily breakfast for two and a $100 dining credit to use during your stay, plus other perks.
Waldorf Astoria London Admiralty Arch
Set inside a jewel of a building from 1912, commissioned by King Edward the Seventh in memory of Queen Victoria and designed by Sir Aston Webb, who also designed the facade of Buckingham Palace, this address once served as the headquarters and offices of the British Admiralty and Royal Navy, and remained a government office until 2012. Positioned between Trafalgar Square and Saint James's Park, it holds some of the most sensational views in London, looking straight down the Mall. The hotel now pairs that history with what may be the most exceptional culinary arrival to hit a hotel dining room in years, from Clare Smyth and Daniel Boulud. It is a serious food destination in its own right. Book through The Travel Collective for complimentary daily breakfast for two, a $100 hotel credit, an upgrade to the next room category upon availability, and a guaranteed morning check in. You cannot beat this combination of location, culinary excellence, views, and history.
Beaverbrook Town House
The Chelsea city sister to Beaverbrook's country house in Surrey brings a touch of frivolity to Sloane Street, with a Japanese restaurant and the ebullient Sir Frank's Bar tucked among its fourteen suites. Book through The Travel Collective for complimentary daily breakfast for two and a $100 dining credit.
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, Knightsbridge
Home to Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, this two Michelin starred dining room turns British food history into the meal itself, with every dish arriving on a small card noting the century it was first created, some tracing back to the thirteenth century. It remains one of the most memorable tables I book for clients visiting London. Book your stay through The Travel Collective for complimentary daily breakfast for two, a $100 dining credit, and other perks.
Hotel Bars
The Connaught Bar — voted the best bar in the world in 2021 and best in Europe in 2020, this Mayfair institution is known for the Connaught Martini, wheeled tableside on a black lacquer Martini Trolley by director of mixology Agostino Perrone and poured into engraved crystal glass, with a choice of seven house made bitters to make each pour entirely your own.
Eagle Bar — perched on the roof of The Chancery Rosewood, the former United States Embassy on Grosvenor Square, in a building that once served as General Eisenhower's wartime headquarters, its gilded eagle sculpture famously cast from a B52 bomber. The signature drink is the Beacon 52, a layered rework of the classic B52 named for both the bomber and Beacon, New York.
Duke's Bar — opened in 1908 and the bar where Ian Fleming drank his dry Martinis and first dreamed up the Vesper for Casino Royale. The Duke's Martini is the one to order, made table side from a frozen bottle of gin with a whisper of Sacred Dry Vermouth and a twist of Amalfi lemon, never stirred and never touched by ice, and it is where that famous line, shaken not stirred, is said to have first been spoken.
Restaurants to Book Ahead
These are the tables I am booking for my own clients this season, from a converted Hackney terrace to a Sri Lankan grill by Borough Market
AngloThai
Chef John Chantarasak, half Thai and half British, reimagines Thai cooking entirely through British ingredients at his Michelin starred Marylebone dining room, sourcing much of the produce from his wife Desiree's own family farm.
The Dover
A moody, maroon curtained slice of New York style Italian on Dover Street in Mayfair, with a martini bar worth the visit on its own and just enough members club feel to make an entrance.
Dorian
A Michelin starred Notting Hill bistro from chef Max Coen, built around open fire and wood grill cooking, with a one bite potato rosti that has become the dish everyone talks about.
The Devonshire
Soho's hardest table to book, a proper London pub turned into a full blown dining destination by publican Oisín Rogers, Flat Iron's Charlie Carroll, and former Dinner by Heston chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, best known for the best pint of Guinness in London and duck fat chips to match.
Gymkhana
Karam Sethi's two Michelin starred Mayfair institution, inspired by the colonial clubs of India, where the kid goat methi keema and tandoori masala lamb chops have made it on of the best Indian restaurant in London.
Rambutan
Sri Lankan cooking with a Devon accent, steps from the chaos of Borough Market.
Khao Bird
Northern Thai flavour built almost entirely from British ingredients, in the heart of Soho.
Impala
Egyptian and wider regional cooking from chef Meedu Saad, named for the red car he drove during summers in Egypt.
OMA
London's first Michelin starred Greek restaurant above Borough Market, with a charcoal grill and a wine list running past four hundred bottles.
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