Top 5 guide to London
Don't miss-out on sampling Gordon Ramsay's menu at Claridge's
11 April 2012
This is London
From the unmissable dining experience at Gordon Ramsay's to the Tate Modern's impressive artwork, it's your essential guide to what's not-to-be-missed in London.
Here's our pick of London's fantastic restaurant scene...
TOP 5 LONDON RESTAURANTS
- Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’sClaridge's Hotel, 55 Brook Street, W1A. Tel: 020 7499 009There are so many thing to like about this beautiful hotel restaurant. Claridge’s hosts some of the best food in the capital, in the most relaxed yet glamorous atmosphere. Opening hours are longer than most, so it’s often possible to get a table without booking, even if this means delaying in the delightful bar or lounge areas for a short while. An unmissable dining experience.
- Hakkasan8 Hanway Place, W1. Tel: 020 7927 7000It all comes together at Hakkasan - sensual decor, glitzy clientele, exhilarating noise, smoky scents and the masterful cooking of Tong Chee Hwee, who is in a league of his own in London. Started by the innovative Alan Yau, this restaurant breaks down the Chinatown mould by offering fine, pricey Chinese food in a venue that satisfies both western and oriental tastes. To eat equally well for less money and chat to your companions with greater ease, lunchtime dim sum is the answer.
- The Cinnamon ClubThe Old Westminster Library, Great Smith Street, SW1P. Tel: 020 7222 2555.Chef Vivek Singh has put the Cinnamon Club at the forefront of Indian food in Britain. Classic dishes are cooked with due diligence, if unexpected twists. New creations are well-judged while regional rarities can be revelatory. Within spitting distance of Parliament, the peculiarly apt colonial splendour of the Club regularly attracts Westminster’s political elite.
- NobuMetropolitan Hotel, 19 Old Park Lane, W1K. Tel: 020 7447 474Nobu has unexpectedly unattractive features, with small and packed tables, bright lighting and canteen noise levels, but if you’re here for the food, you won’t spend long worrying about your earthly surroundings. The fusion of Japanese and Peruvian traditions is no longer novel, but it is still capable of inspiring surprise and delight. It continues to offer some of the best cooking and culinary invention to be had in London.
- Andrew Edmunds46 Lexington Street, W1F. Tel: 020 7437 5708This gloriously unselfconscious restaurant has long thumbed its nose at decorative and culinary fashion. Its interior suggests ‘passé wine bar meets gentleman’s club’; it’s cramped, lined with dark wooden pew seating and wood-chip wallpaper hung with Gillary-era political cartoons. The food is superior peasant fare; simple, hearty and fairly priced, yet perfectly pitched and cooked with aplomb. The whole Andrew Edmunds package is sealed by the smiling, utterly chilled staff who radiate inclusiveness.
