Farringdon, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“Amazing steak (though the rest of menu is good too)” and terrific views over the City and St Paul’s share top billing at the flagship restaurant at the top of a handsome Grade II-listed former Smithfield market warehouse. It can be “a bit noisy”, but it makes for a “solid dining experience” that’s “always good for business”.

“A great wine list from all corners of the globe” has helped underpin the ongoing popularity of this modern wine bar chain, despite a year that saw it sold out of administration and the closure of its popular King’s Cross branch. Although this period inspired iffy marks and the odd report of “totally disorganised” service, the four remaining outlets still inspire tons of, albeit slightly lukewarm nominations as a handy option “for a simple meal”: “don’t expect any sort of culinary fireworks” from the “straightforward” dishes “but there are some very nice, reasonably priced wines” and the interiors are “definitely pleasant”. Top Menu Tips – “lovely cheese croquettes and steak ’n’ chips”.

“A tiny nondescript frontage” north of Smithfield Market hides this “deceptively large” and “classy” Italian – a sibling (though you would never know it) of The Clove Club (see also). You enter through the “very convivial” bar (where they serve “a stunning set business lunch”) to enter “a spacious environment” including “a romantic hidden back terrace”. The cuisine is “sensational old school Italian cooking”: “classic dishes are elevated by the clever use of subtle flavours” and there’s “a beautifully-put together wine list (a not cheap, but interesting selection)”. Top Menu Tip – “worth it for the Parmesan churros, or the homemade Limoncello”.

“This Clerkenwell bolt-hole remains a genuine experience, accessed through a nondescript black door and a rickety brass lift before coming round a curtain into the expansive two-tier dining room”. It’s part of a large, Grade II listed courthouse which features in Dickens’s ‘Oliver Twist’. “From the moment you enter and take the lift to the wow factor of discovering the room itself onto the excellent food (up to the point where the staff gently encourage you to leave) it’s a wonderful experience”. The room itself is “like nowhere else”: so “beautiful” and “glamorous”. But while it’s one of London’s most atmospheric dining locations, the rest of the experience holds up well, with an “eccentric but good” small plates menu which “contains all manner of interesting morsels” and “a great wine list with interesting and eclectic choices”. Top Tip – “A glass of champagne on the roof terrace in the sunshine is a wonderful prelude to a yummy lunch of sharing plates”.

“Very decent” French-influenced food helps elevate this fine old Clerkenwell pub restaurant into being a “good all-rounder”, as does its attractive, glazed dining area. That said, it doesn’t attract the attention it did a few years ago when Henry Harris was at the stoves.

“The original gastropub and still streets ahead of the competition” – this enduring institution (est. 1991) continues to put in a remarkably enduring performance on Farringdon Road. Chef Ed Mottershaw rustles up a daily changing menu of “cleverly constructed, intelligently put together flavours… like the dishes you wish you cooked at home…”; “no faff, pretence or posturing, just honest fare packed with hearty flavour and devotion to the palate”.

2021 Review: “Lush surroundings” set a stylish tone at this “trendy”, six-year-old venue on a “hard-to-find” Farringdon corner, not far from Exmouth Market. It’s a ‘multi-faceted’ venue – a jumble of bar, café, restaurant, club, and private dining space – from a design team whose portfolio includes Pizza East and Riding House Café. “Fab cocktails” are maybe its most reliable attraction, although the food is consistently well-rated too.

A particularly solid choice for brunch – this “buzzy” Kiwi-run chain (with seven branches) fits the bill well, with “interesting small plates” of pan-global fusion food and an emphasis on notably good coffee (which they roast in-house). On the downside, the food is often “passable and no more” and their “lively” interiors (Granary Square in particular) can become “hopelessly crowded”, giving rise to incidents of “slapdash service”. Still, they’re “fun” and “reasonably priced”. (See also Vardo).

2021 Review: “Our local – we’re so lucky!” Near the foodie mecca of Exmouth Market, this “busy” Clerkenwell corner-boozer receives a consistent thumbs-up in reports: “the standard of the food is high”.

Founded in 1895 in Paris, the famous ‘Le Cordon Bleu’ culinary institute hit London in 2012 in Bloomsbury; and then opened here in the Lutyens-designed former Reuters HQ in 2022. All reports agree this in-house restaurant is “a beautiful room” – “light and well spaced” – if occasionally “lacking a bit of spark”. Service is “correct” and the modern European menu focuses on “seemingly simple dishes”, whose “realisation ranges from exemplary refinement to the merely satisfactory”.

“Somewhere to go that isn’t fine dining but is above the ordinary” – this Clerkenwell site became well-known under chef Anna Hansen as The Modern Pantry (RIP), and was relaunched (under new ownership) as this all-day restaurant and deli in 2022. It does do brunch, but that’s no longer the top feature it was in its former guise. The menu includes some “retro” dishes such as prawn cocktail (“mains of Holstein chicken and mushroom ragu were excellent”) and has a something-for-everybody quality to it. What’s more, “service is a notch above the usual” helping to create “a relaxed feel to the place”. (In his November 2022 review, The Telegraph’s William Sitwell noted the venue’s “polite” qualities and thought it a place to “take my favourite aunt”.)

“Sourcing from their 600-acre estate in Argyll and fish farm in Loch Fyne”, the Landsberg family have – with this “traditional-in-a-good-way” Smithfield yearling – “created a restaurant that serves a Best of British menu that is, generally, a roaring success”. “Sustainably sourced food is expertly cooked” and “while it emphasises nose-to-tail cooking, it does so in a much more restrained manner than nearby St John”. “There’s an interesting short wine list (including from their own vineyard in Provence) at quite modest mark-ups, particularly for the City”. “Coupled with friendly service, the result is awesome!”. Top Menu Tips – “Black Pig, Rabbit, Duck and Foie Gras terrine, which draw together its various meat components into one delightful whole”; also “a very good Clam & Mussel Chowder, quite a refined Morteau Sausage with well-flavoured Puy lentils; and first-rate faggots in an intense jus”.

“Every course of the tasting menu is a revelation”, say fans of Johnnie Crowe, Luke Wasserman & Toby Neill’s “calm” and “imaginatively decorated” two-year-old, which enjoys fine views of St Bartholomew the Great and its cloisters through its floor-to-ceiling windows. The cuisine is strongly rooted in the British Isles and results can be “stunning” – “well deserving of the star” the tyre men awarded swiftly after it opened. Perhaps reflecting increasing prices (now £160 per person for a six-course menu), it didn’t quite achieve the top ratings this year that it did in last year’s annual diners’ poll, and the odd critic feels it risks becoming “too cool, up itself and expensive”.

2023 Review: “Recently revamped” with eight ‘boutique guestrooms’, this handsome Clerkenwell establishment is one of the oldest public houses in central London. There are too few reports for a rating as yet, but it looks promising and “the Sunday roast sharing board is pretty impressive”.