Belgravia, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“Tom Aikens is back to his brilliant best!” at his “chic little Belgravia mews house”, where he’s created “an outstanding small restaurant with open kitchen”. Set on two floors, “tables are a bit close”, but the “intimate” style is a selling point for most diners (especially at the chef’s counter), as is the fact that there’s “plenty of interaction with the chefs including patron Tom”, all of whom “serve and explain with a remarkable personal touch”. The menu – “exquisite food, delivered with passion and skill” – draws on Tom’s upbringing – “love the story-telling… a truly special experience”.

“Consistent over many years”, this smart (and “not particularly cheap”) Belgravia gastropub is named after the master-builder who developed the area in the Georgian era, and is the flagship of the ambitious Cubitt House group, which has hired chef-director Ben Tish (ex-Salt Yard, The Stafford and Norma) and food journalist/hospitality expert Joe Warwick to bolster its standards.

“More gastro French than pub, but delicious” – the successor to much-missed Belgravia institution the Ebury Street Wine Bar (long RIP) has got off to a strong start, helped by a “very high standard of food and service” from “welcoming, friendly and courteous staff”.

“A great option near Victoria” – this indie venue in the stylish Eccleston Yards project provides a comfy spot for its Josper-grilled steaks, other grills from ‘sea, land and field’ and fish tartares. It’s “relatively simple fare” but well-realised from a wide variety of menus, including Sunday roasts. And the venue “makes a virtue of its converted warehouse space” with “very friendly” service that helps it win votes both for business and as a good spot to spend “a lovely lazy afternoon”. Top Tip – wonderful outside dining in summer.

2023 Review: This smartly kitted-out pub with a “nice outdoor terrace” on a cobbled Belgravia street has a “short, simple and well-executed menu”, providing “Sunday roast and fish ’n’ chips of quality”.

2021 Review: This pair of “casual”, well-located all-day brasseries serve an “eclectic menu” from breakfast on, but it’s the “friendly ambience that’s a real winner”. The Sloane Square branch is “very Chelsea” – “great for lunch” and “wonderfully convenient pre- and post-show for Cadogan Hall or Royal Court”.

2021 Review: Sloane Street’s old Cadogan Hotel – formerly a creaky, old Chelsea anachronism – has been transformed to join the über-luxurious Belmond portfolio: it now provides a “gorgeous” and luxurious backdrop to a meal (“perfect to impress a client in Chelsea”). Wunderkind chef, Adam Handling, is in charge of the dining room, and fans say that his individualistic cuisine is “knock-out”: “from the bread with chicken-butter onwards, everything about this menu is now the best of modern British”. However, there’s also a slightly worrying proportion of disgruntled reports too: “as a massive fan of Adam Handling’s Frog restaurants and even his cooking at Caxton Grill back in the day, I was anticipating greatness from AH Chelsea. But the food was sorely disappointing, confused, and as such, very overpriced. Hoping the food matches its surroundings soon!”

“The room is the star” at this swish hotel restaurant on Hyde Park Corner, with its gorgeous domed glass ceilings (providing natural light by day) and huge chandeliers. Formerly known as Celeste (RIP), it has now adopted a less fancy, more fashionably straightforward menu under chef Shay Cooper. The overall experience is much more consistently well-rated in this new guise, although there are still some quibbles over “so-so” results and “patchy” service. Most consistent is support for the “sublimely elegant”, “reassuringly traditional, tasty and well-presented afternoon tea”.

Hermès, Loewe and Zimmermann help inspire the Spring/Summer 2023 Prêt-à-Portea collection on the ‘cakewalk’ of this Belgravia chamber, which takes annual inspiration for its wizard patisserie selection from the catwalk of the fashion industry. If you have money to burn, it’s an impressively skillful and witty twist on the afternoon tea experience – tuck into “Hermès’ tasselled bucket bag, crafted out of Victoria sponge sandwiched with apricot jam, wrapped in chocolate and finished with a chocolate feather plume!”

2021 Review: In a masterstroke of casting, Andrew Lloyd Webber recruited Brixton’s Naughty Piglets team to run the restaurant at his new Other Palace Theatre in Victoria, bringing their “dependably delightful” cuisine to this “almost secret location tucked away by Buckingham Palace”.

2023 Review: This “fun” rustic-chic pub/hotel/events space is a magnet for an “attractive crowd” on the Pimlico-Chelsea border, and serves a “varied range” of food, from wood-fired pizza in the bar to more formal meals in the dining room upstairs.

Lady Bamford’s quartet of London ‘rus in urbe’ cafés should have caught the zeitgeist, with their focus on home-produced organic ingredients from her estate. But the offering is variable, with food that’s too often slated as “poor”; or incidents of “staff hanging around not knowing what to do”. The Pimlico branch scores the best of the bunch, but it’s worthy of note that visitors to the Daylesford farm mothership in the Cotswolds report an altogether different and “delightful” experience.

When it opens in September 2023, this rooftop restaurant promises to be one of the capital’s glossier debuts in recent times. It’s on top of the Peninsular London – a branch of the landmark HK hotel, overlooking Hyde Park Corner (right next to The Lanesborough). The kitchen is under the culinary direction of Claude Bosi, the Lyon-born chef behind Bibendum in Chelsea, who will provide a contemporary European menu. Let’s hope the cuisine really takes off… unlike the model of Concorde, which it is promised will soar above the heads of diners on the outside terrace.