restaurant critic, The Guardian & MasterChef host · 14 picks
Grace Dent has reviewed restaurants for the Guardian since 2017, after years at the Evening Standard, and now hosts MasterChef alongside the column. She writes about the room and the bill as much as the plate, which is the reason a Dent list runs from a Michelin dining room to a Greek bakery on the Harringay Ladder without blinking.
Best restaurant in London, the Ledbury. Want that Michelin star service? The Ledbury every time.
Said on TopJaw · watch
It's sexy in there. I just feel like a thousand percent more beautiful from the moment I walk in.
Said on TopJaw · watch
Best burger, the Dexter burger at the Plimsoll. It's just delicious, I just gallop it down.
Said on TopJaw · watch
order: Dexter burger
The one I had at Akoko was made with Herdwick lamb, aubergine and XO sauce and it was spicy, sweet and absolutely delicious – the best jollof rice I’ve ever tasted.
Said on The Glossary · read
order: jollof rice
Bubala is a restaurant everybody needs up their sleeve. It’s not massively expensive and it’s what I call a secretly vegetarian restaurant.
Said on The Glossary · read
This is the restaurant that says to me that London is back after a really hard time.
Said on The Glossary · read
order: homemade walnut bread with very thinly sliced peach and bottarga
Everything that they bring out of that kitchen just makes me... I do like to be upstairs away from the riffraff.
Said on TopJaw · watch
Oma, when I had a deconstructed spanakopita, and afterwards olive oil ice cream with fennel pollen across the top.
Said on TopJaw · watch
order: deconstructed spanakopita, olive oil ice cream
The Wanstead Kitchen is my happy place. It’s heaven.
Said on The Glossary · read
order: Hyderabadi biryani
A new restaurant that has gone straight into my repertoire of places I would send anybody – I’d send you to 64 Goodge Street on a date and I’d equally send you there if your parents are in town.
Said on The Glossary · read
order: lobster vol-au-vent with sauce Américaine
BiBi is a very modern experimental Indian restaurant with rows and rows of Ferraris and Bugattis parked outside.
Said on The Glossary · read
A Mexican restaurant where they play 90s hip hop and make the most incredible tacos. It’s all done with such care.
Said on The Glossary · read
order: chuck steak tacos smoked in roasted guajillo chillies with spring onion relish
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Published 2026-08-29