Blackfriars, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

James Dawson’s half-dozen wine bars are “super venues to try interesting new wines in”, with “informative service” – “food is something of an after-thought, but pretty good for all that”, and comes into its own with a “fantastic Sunday roast menu: lamb and beef are high-quality and cooked perfectly”. Top Tip – “great deals on a Monday when most others are closed”.

“Exceptional food cooked by Cordon Bleu students” helps win high marks all-round for this culinary institute’s stylish, light-filled dining room: part of its HQ which shifted in 2022 to the Lutyens-designed building that was once the UK base for Reuters. In particular it’s often recommended as “a winner” for business entertaining: “set lunch offers good choices; portions are just right; dishes are prettily presented and taste delicious; and there’s a nice range of wines by the glass”.

2022 Review: The name says it all about this new ‘Britisserie’ (an ‘authentic British patisserie’), which opened on a corner site near St Paul’s in December 2019. Owners Daniel Jobsz and his mum honed their classic pie-making skills at markets, festivals and pop-ups from 2015 before they found the site, which incorporates a small courtyard. Full English breakfasts (in a tart, of course), plus epic mash and a good list of beers and other drinks complete the formula.

“It’s a staple for entertaining visitors to the capital due to the sensational view”, but – predictably – the cooking is “very very average and very very overpriced” at this quintessential, ’90s- minimalist brasserie atop the South Bank landmark, on which we have written pretty much the same dire review since it first opened in 1996. If you want to visit, maybe “just get a drink” at the bar or eat in the (better rated) adjoining cheaper brasserie.

The cheaper section of this South Bank landmark doesn’t generate as much feedback as its slightly grander adjacent sibling, but it occupies a similar rooftop space with large outdoor terrace and – on admittedly limited feedback – escaped its customary drubbing in this year’s annual diners’ poll, making a visit here the better bet: “visited for a work lunch… glad I wasn’t paying, but the simple food was excellent (if eclipsed by the view on a sunny day)”. Another highlight: “the superb team in the bar”.

“The Saffer-style menu” (featuring “particularly excellent steaks” sourced from Yorkshire) “and even better Saffer wine list” make Neleen Strauss’s out-of-the-way venue, on the southern fringe of the City, “well worth searching out”, despite its “odd location below the Millennium (‘Wobbly’) Bridge”, directly opposite Tate Modern. Top Tip – “the cellar is a super place for a group”.

For a glam rendezvous near Tate Modern, this Tom Dixon-designed lounge with terrace fits the bill, with its smooth design and variety of menus (all day from breakfast) incorporating tempting bites such as Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail, Crispy Chicken Burger or Surrey Farm Rib Eye. It’s predictably expensive though and nothing you eat is likely to dwell long in the memory.

2024 Review: With its “great view over the river”, the sixth-floor restaurant in this converted power station opposite St Paul’s Cathedral is a “really rather splendid place for a decent set lunch”. The food is “better than expected, perhaps better than it needed to be” – “appropriately arty”, too, with dishes inspired by artists on display in the gallery. (Over at Tate Britain, “the Rex Whistler dining room is sorely missed and a real loss” – its closure brought about by a combination of Covid and dilemmas about the depiction of slavery in its Whistler murals, nowadays deemed ‘unequivocally… offensive’.)

“A cut above your average wine bar”: this 20-year-old group remains highly popular in our annual diners’ poll thanks to its “decent wines at fair prices” in “jolly” settings. “The food can be terrific – but not always”, and the overall performance shows signs of steadying after a tricky patch when the business was sold out of administration.

The Bread Street venue near St Paul’s is the most popular of Gordon Ramsay’s pretty “average” chain which has six London branches (plus Liverpool and Edinburgh). With striking views over the cathedral from an atmospheric unit in the mall, the “ambience is good” and it “feels sufficiently special without being intimidating”, winning it nominations for both client-account and personal-account dinners. Actually, it’s a pretty nice experience all round, just one dragged down by “excessive pricing”.

2024 Review: Robbie Lorraine has upped sticks from Brixton with his Del Boy-inspired pop-up – a witty, multi-course trip back in time to the cuisine of the 80s and 90s (duck-liver paté, prawn cocktail…). This new home is part of a Grade II listed pub just off the Strand: not to be confused with Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street, which is about ten minutes’ stroll away (although both claim Dickens as a former patron). No survey feedback as yet – reports please!

“Unbelievable views” of the Thames and across to St Paul’s Cathedral are reason enough to eat at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre’s in-house restaurant. But the modern British menu is well-constructed around carefully sourced ingredients, and the Shakespeare-themed afternoon teas also go down well.

2023 Review: “This low-key wine bar is an absolute gem”, “hiding” in the new waterside Westin Hotel, “with a huge window looking across the Thames” to Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe theatre (“spending the evening watching the river drift by with a glass in hand is a really great way to end a tough week”). The interior has a contemporary Scandi look and the menu is put together by Jorge Colazo, ex-head chef at Aquavit. Feedback is too limited for a rating, but initial reports are upbeat, talking of “interesting wine and imaginative small plates”.

2023 Review: “Imaginative Caribbean fine dining” is an unlikely find at any time – particularly considering the bland location of Anguilla-born Kerth Gumbs’s Bankside newcomer, which opened in early 2022 amidst the anonymous glass-fronted offices behind Tate Modern. The Evening Standard’s Jimi Famu thought his east Caribbean-inspired tasting menu to be “dumbfoundingly good… laser-honed… top end” cuisine, while one early reporter questions “is this a potential Michelin star at some stage”. Definitely “worth trying”.

Ed Boarland & Dee Reid’s “slightly off-beat” venture – a florist-cum-restaurant in an alley near Mansion House tube – offers “very creditable modern food” alongside “some magnificent (and expensive) blooms”, making it a “good spot to know about in the City”. Top Menu Tip – “a very correct (slightly austere) cured trout fillet, creditable leg of guinea fowl and a very good honey cake”.

The ‘nose-to-tail’ British menu focused on organic, heritage-bred meat is “mouthwatering and the food lives up to its description” at this two-year-old in Smithfield – “within easy walking distance of legal London and the City”. The owners’ – the Landsberg family – estate in Argyll and fish farm in Loch Fyne supply many of the ingredients, while “the wine list includes vintages from their own property in France – at surprisingly good prices”, along with some “excellent and unconventional wines at under £30 a bottle”. Top Menu Tip – “the stout-braised Black Angus beef macaroni cheese side dish is worth the trip on its own”.

“The discovery of the year and I’ll come again!” – this three-year-old operation south of Smithfield Market feels like it “has slipped below the radar” to some fans, even though it was very quickly awarded a “well deserved Michelin star” shortly after it opened. Many diners report their best meals of the year here: the “precise cooking of seasonal produce” is “just mouthwatering”, service is “super-attentive”, and the setting – with fine views of St Bartholomew the Great through floor-to-ceiling windows – is “beautiful” (if “a little clinical”). Top Tip – “the business lunch offer is excellent value”.