The Glossary

“It’s really low-key and approachable. Ed Wilson’s food doesn’t feel too dressed, too contorted.” — Amy Poon

“There’s a little restaurant just down the road from where I live in Shepherd’s Bush. It was started by a couple of locals – they do dinner but they also do these simple breakfasts, which is when I like to go. It’s just so nice to have somewhere local that’s great for brunch. They have amazing breads, delicious homemade jams and excellent coffee.” — Skye Gyngell

“They serve really fun food that’s just breathtaking visually, as well as yum cocktails – I could drink the cacao negroni every day of the week.” — Marie Mitchell

“Brat has got to be on my favourite restaurants in London list, I always go back to it. The flavours are outstanding. The grilled flatbreads with anchovies are amazing, and you must try the whole turbot roasted on the bone over coals, which is beautiful.” — Tom Kerridge

“When I came to London in 2007, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know of Gordon Ramsay – seriously! I met chef Rose Gray [the late co-founder, with Ruth Rogers, of The River Cafe] at the beginning of my London life, when I was working at Zuma. She invited me to the restaurant and I learned a lot from her about ingredients, herbs and local produce. Because I came from Tokyo, I didn’t know Cornwall, I didn’t know Scotland. I remember trying Scottish langoustines and thinking ’wow’. I still use ones from the Isle of Skye; that’s from Rose, she taught me a lot, including what’s important. I’m a lucky guy. At The River Cafe, I love the pasta, any grilled fish or pizza, and the signature dessert, the chocolate nemesis. The wine is also great. The atmosphere at The River Cafe is what I aim for at Endo – friendly, chatty, fun. I never tell the guests how serious I am.” — Endo Kazutoshi

“Bubala is a restaurant everybody needs up their sleeve. It’s not massively expensive and it’s what I call a secretly vegetarian restaurant.” — Grace Dent

“It's a real symbol of London’s wonderful multiculturalism.” — Jago Rackham

“I adore The Wolseley and The Delaunay, or indeed any of the restaurants from the Wolseley Hospitality Group, where you get very simple food that’s done well. Smoked salmon with brown bread and capers, Wienerschnitzel and then a crème brulée, perfect. It’s wonderful in the mornings for brunch too – their eggs Benedict or eggs Florentine are magic.” — Tom Kerridge

“If I had to pick my favourite restaurant in London that’s a real stalwart, it would have to be Trinity in Clapham. It’s been there for at least 15 years, maybe longer, and it just gets better and better. Their signature dish is the beef tartare with caviar and bone marrow mayonnaise, which has been on the menu in one guise or another for years and years. That’s one of my favourite dishes in the whole of London.” — Sally Abe

“I think Le Beaujolais does that like nowhere else.” — Jago Rackham

“I love the vibe at Agora in Borough Market.” — Marie Mitchell

“Dorian is definitely the place to be in west London right now. I went recently and took my head chef and my sous chef, and it was just insane – even more so since they won their Michelin star. Max Coen’s cooking is so imaginative. Most of the things we had last time I went arrived on some bread or another, and in some restaurants that would be annoying, but actually you need the bread to mop up all the delicious sauces.” — Sally Abe

“Lisboa’s egg tarts are just the best.” — Amy Poon

“There’s a Japanese restaurant that has opened on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill called Sumi. They have a very well-curated menu of Japanese dishes, and the food is delicious.” — Skye Gyngell

“Everything on the menu is really delicious – and very spicy – but my favourite dish has to be their morning glory, which they serve with oyster sauce, chillies and fish sauce.” — Chet Sharma

“Top of my favourite restaurants in London list has to be Chishuru.” — Marie Mitchell

“I’m a big fan of Hawsmoor, especially the one on Air Street with its great big upstairs Art Deco dining room. Sunday lunch here is absolutely mega – you can get roast rump of beef, Yorkshire pudding, all the trimmings and brilliant gravy with a fantastic Bloody – or, in my case, Virgin – Mary. It’s a great place with amazing energy and great service.” — Tom Kerridge

“I live in Ealing, so going to Hackney is a trip. Ealing Broadway to Hackney is an hour but when I’m off, I really want to escape my environment. I work 15 hours every day - work, work, work. Elliot’s has very east London vibes. I always order steak from the grill and the flatbreads. They know I love beef. Natural wine isn’t my first choice but in east London a lot of places have natural wine, including Elliot’s. When I go to a restaurant, I don’t want to read a wine list like a dictionary – it’s too much – so I chat to the sommelier and staff. They always recommend something good. I’m developing my knowledge little by little. They know what I like better than anyone.” — Endo Kazutoshi

“When I have time in LA, I go to Spago on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills.” — Nobu Matsuhisa

“Even though it’s expensive, it feels worth it.” — Jago Rackham

“I adore The Wolseley and The Delaunay, or indeed any of the restaurants from the Wolseley Hospitality Group, where you get very simple food that’s done well. Smoked salmon with brown bread and capers, Wienerschnitzel and then a crème brulée, perfect. It’s wonderful in the mornings for brunch too – their eggs Benedict or eggs Florentine are magic.” — Tom Kerridge

“Another of my favourite new London restaurants is Bistro Freddie, which is on the old Oklava site in Shoreditch. They serve super classic, great cooking – they’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, but it’s exactly the kind of food you want to eat. I like that it’s the kind of place you could happily eat on a Monday, Friday or Saturday; it’s not somewhere you feel like you have to dress up and save up to go there once a year.” — Sally Abe

“When I went, we had lots of sharing plates – crab rice, bacalao salt cod, suckling pig, red pepper with lardo. Everything was delicious.” — Chet Sharma

“A Mexican restaurant where they play 90s hip hop and make the most incredible tacos. It’s all done with such care.” — Grace Dent

“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.” — Grace Dent

“For a special occasion, I go to The Clove Club. It’s somewhere I return to again and again. I’m a big fan of the chef there, Isaac McHale – I love his food, the restaurant (which is fine dining but casual), that part of London, right in the heart of Shoreditch.” — Hélène Darroze

“To me, it is the most honest representation of contemporary British cooking - it doesn’t have the feeling of fusion food.” — Jago Rackham

“I’m very Japanese, I don’t really understand Indian cuisine. I didn’t have much experience of it but BiBi opened a new door for me. It’s not exactly traditional Indian food, but for me, that’s great. Chet Sharma’s food is a flavour bomb. There are spicy things but he uses Japanese dashi and a lot of other things, so there’s a good balance to the spicy flavour. I’ve eaten there many times. I like to sit at the bar and order the Texel lamb nihari or the achari British wagyu beef. I did a collaboration with Chet last year and saw so many layers; the micro-management of the cooking really impressed me. I never choose a restaurant only for food; I choose it for attitude and atmosphere, too. If only the food is nice, I’ll never go back. BiBi is in Mayfair but it’s not too ’high-end high end’. They give you a warm welcome and it feels like home. The atmosphere is amazing.” — Endo Kazutoshi

“I love that you’re in a pub, but you get the most richly flavoured, spiced food.” — Marie Mitchell

“I tend to gravitate towards chefs that just cook whatever they want to cook, rather than what they think they should cook, and that’s Jackson Boxer all over. The space at Brunswick House, first and foremost, is just incredible – how could you not want to sit in a dining room surrounded by all those chandeliers? The service is always really laidback and friendly, and never makes you feel rushed.” — Sally Abe

“Anything Ange touches is magic, and Murano has such warmth.” — Tom Kerridge

“We had this tuna and tomato dish with truffle that was knockout, and this laminated stuffed croissant with a cheese sauce that was filthy but so good.” — Chet Sharma

“Japanese restaurant Cubé is another local spot that I visit a lot – it’s my go-to in the neighbourhood for great sushi and sashimi.” — Hélène Darroze

“I can’t list my favourite restaurants in London without mentioning Quo Vadis. It’s just such a gorgeous place and Jeremy Lee is a legend.” — Skye Gyngell

“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.” — Grace Dent

“The Harwood Arms serves the best Sunday roast in the world. The Guiness is perfect, the wine is perfect, the Scotch egg is perfect. It’s all perfect. I cut so much fish in the restaurant, if I eat fish on my day off, my brain thinks it’s at work, which isn’t good for me. So I eat meat, especially beef and this is somewhere I go with friends. The Sunday roast is totally different from the Japanese-style English Sunday roasts I’d seen in hotels. It’s very simple. They use a lot of local produce – from Cornwall, Scotland, Devon, different types of beef. The Yorkshire pudding is in a totally different league. The team is friendly and there’s a nice atmosphere. The problem is I cannot stop drinking! I always have Guinness first, then red wine. Before I came to Europe, I never drank much wine; my education started in Spain when I worked there. Now I’m crazy about wine.” — Endo Kazutoshi

“My wife Beth and I have friends who we meet up with once a year to go for a posh dinner and last year we went to Ikoyi. Jeremy Chan is the chef there and it’s a two Michelin-starred restaurant in the most beautiful dining room with a very African and Asian influenced menu. It’s unique and very, very special, the sort of food that just couldn’t be replicated – it’s so personal to that chef.” — Tom Kerridge

“I was very impressed when I went to Row on 5, which is Jason Atherton and Spencer Metzger’s new restaurant on Savile Row – mainly because of the ludicrous opulence of the space.” — Chet Sharma

“One of my favourite new restaurants in London is Cycene at the Blue Mountain School. I went for the first time recently and it was an incredible experience – I can see why they’ve just been awarded a Michelin star.” — Skye Gyngell

“When my travels take me there, I visit La Maison Nordique, a fantastic caviar and smoked salmon bar that has been around since 1997.” — Nobu Matsuhisa

“The staff are so brilliant and the food is almost always excellent.” — Jago Rackham

“If you were to ask me where was the last place I had a particularly memorable meal, I’d have the answer straight away: Kol.” — Hélène Darroze

“I think it is probably the most beautiful restaurant in the capital.” — Jago Rackham

“For me, Core is one of the best restaurants in the country – or the world. Clare is a phenomenal chef. Her precision and quality of cooking and the team she’s built around her means she’s recognised globally, and rightly so. It’s a very, very special place. I went there with my friend Jonny Lake, who just won two Michelin stars himself, and we ate a brilliant carrot dish with lamb and this amazing new potato side with a caviar butter sauce.” — Tom Kerridge

“When I want a taste of Spain, El Pirata is my top choice.” — Nobu Matsuhisa

“I recently went to Morchella in Exmouth Market for the first time, which is the new restaurant from Ben Marks and Matt Emmerson from Perilla. I’ve always loved Perilla, but Morchella has a more relaxed vibe and the dining room there had this really lovely feeling about it. It fascinates me how they take classic European dishes – and that’s exactly how they’re written on the menu – but then turn them into something completely different from what you’d expect. The snacks were the real highlight for me.” — Sally Abe

“For the price, I don’t think there’s anywhere that’s better or friendlier.” — Jago Rackham

“It’s a tiny place that does just 20 covers a day and the prices are very punchy, but it’s worth every penny.” — Chet Sharma

“It’s a small, family-run place with a Maradona shirt on the wall and everyone in there speaks Italian. And they just make really, really good Neapolitan pizza.” — Chet Sharma

“If there’s one place in London that reminds me of the food scene in Melbourne, it’s Manteca, a cute-looking, neighbourhood restaurant in Shoreditch.” — Skye Gyngell

“It is one of the most beautiful restaurants in London.” — Jago Rackham

“I love Rita’s because the environment there is super chilled, and the cooking is just a little bit different from what you expect. It’s food that I wouldn’t cook for myself at home. All the dishes are very seasonal, but they have quite a lot of American influences – it’s kind of New York-style, but using British ingredients. And Missy Flynn, who runs it, is a complete mega babe, the way she glides along the floor and keeps everything under control. It’s a really lively Soho spot, but it’s no-nonsense cooking.” — Sally Abe

“The Wanstead Kitchen is my happy place. It’s heaven.” — Grace Dent

“I think there are a lot of places that do mediocre Spanish food in London, but Nieves Barragan’s take on it is just a completely different level. The suckling pig that she does at Sabor is one of the most amazing dishes I’ve ever eaten. You look at it and you think, “Oh yeah, that looks nice.” But then when you try it, you’re like, “Oh my god, I just want to eat this all day.” It’s perfectly cooked until it’s falling apart and then it has this lovely crisp shell on the outside.” — Sally Abe

“This is the restaurant that says to me that London is back after a really hard time.” — Grace Dent

“I live in Leyton, and Singburi has always been our go-to local spot when we want to celebrate anything: anniversaries, birthdays, special occasions.” — Marie Mitchell

“Joséphine is a new opening by Claude Bosi, a really good friend of mine. It is French bistro-style food, based on the dishes he grew up eating in his hometown of Lyon. I only get to have dinner out maybe five or six times a year, but I was lucky to go during the soft launch. I took my [eight-year-old] son Acey, who loved it – Claude is one of his godparents, so he’s known as Uncle Claude.” — Tom Kerridge

“But when I go to Normah’s in Bayswater, the food there tastes just like it does in Malaysia.” — Chet Sharma

“My days off are Sunday and Monday and they are really important. I’m a workaholic – when I’m sleeping, I’ll wake up and write a recipe. On Mondays, it’s difficult to find a restaurant. I think that’s why there are so many industry people at Planque on Mondays. I really like the design, and I love Australian chef Seb Myers’ casual French food. The first time I ate brain in London was at Planque; it was served with curry spices. They like to combine different cuisines. The menu changes all the time but the lobster rice is always on the menu – that’s a nice dish. Everybody is really kind; they have a great wine list and they always choose the wine for me.” — Endo Kazutoshi

“The dishes are so inventive and the fish, of course, is phenomenally fresh.” — Amy Poon

“I love Rules. It’s the oldest restaurant in London and also one of the first.” — Jago Rackham

“It’s a tiny hole in the wall shawarma joint that’s been there for a really long time and they just serve shawarma – so chicken, lamb or mixed.” — Chet Sharma