London Bloomsbury Restaurant Guide

“Really nice, and often outstanding dishes” are acclaimed by most reports on this former greasy spoon in Bloomsbury from ex-Rochelle Canteen chef Anna Tobias and the 40 Maltby Street team: and they say the simple, modern bistro dishes are backed up by a “very fair wine list” with a “good selection of natural wines”. (A more sceptical, minority view is that “although the place hits the nerve of the Zeitgeist – with food suggesting honesty and simplicity, complete with an air of sophistication – its success is a pricey London phenomenon possibly explained by the decline in home cooking”).

“Gloriously textured noodles and flavoursome sauces” draw a wide-ranging crowd (including plenty of Chinese students studying nearby) to Wei Guirong’s “friendly” Shaanxi canteen near Russell Square. It’s a sibling to Xi’an Impression near the Emirates Stadium and the new Dream Xi’an at Tower Bridge. Top Menu Tip – “for the price you pay, the cold chicken in sesame sauce and the biang biang noodles are amazing”.

You walk past “chiller meat displays” as you enter Roberto Costa’s Italian group. Macellaio means ‘butcher’, and the focus is on quality steaks, particularly the Piemontese Fassona breed, but also including cuts from the UK (from Herefordshire) and with tomahawk and Halal options; all matched with an “extensive wine list”. “For a great and reasonable dinner (including pre-theatre) and excellent steaks” it does still have fans. But its support has waned in both quality and quantity in recent years, and the group has halved in size since the last edition, shedding branches in Bloomsbury, Borough and Clapham (all RIP) to focus on Theatreland/Soho, Exmouth Market and the South Kensington original. All of the (relatively few) reports say the food is still mostly good but increasingly there are caveats: “Hmmm, the steaks are getting pretty… not bad, but no longer as good value”. Top Menu Tip – the “dessert theatre of tiramisu created at the table”.

2021 Review: The promising, but hitherto under-exploited mix of Mediterranean and Japanese small plates is the crux of the menu offering at this August 2019 opening, which promises ‘a modern, day-to-night, neighbourhood restaurant and bar… complemented by a diverse variety of wines, sake and signature cocktails’.

2021 Review: “Images redolent of ‘Le Gai Paris’ (the naked bottoms went perfectly with my slow roasted pork belly!)” grace the muralled walls of this “friendly and efficient” Gallic corner bistro, near the British Museum: “a reliable and enjoyable choice”, serving affordable classic French dishes.

2023 Review: The “beautiful terrace” with its “attentive staff” at this very central hotel makes for an oasis of calm close to busy Oxford Street. Named in reference to Virginia Woolf, the queen bee of the Bloomsbury set, it has a “fun atmosphere”, and the heating and retractable roof make it ideal for afternoon tea throughout the year.

Wanting to eat in the wee hours? This stalwart chain has fed tolerable diner food 24/7 (VQ = Vingt Quatre, geddit?) to the denizens of the Fulham Road for as long as anyone can remember (before 1995 it was called ‘Up all Night’); and has a more recent outlet (unusually, licensed till 4am, though you must be eating) that’s more convenient if you are clubbing in the West End on the ground floor of a Bloomsbury hotel.

“Where else can you get a range of Japanese, char kway teow, laksa and pad thai, all in one restaurant?” – Ding Chu’s pioneering Pan-Asian canteens (first branch WC1 in Bloomsbury in 1996) continue to put in a consistent if low-key performance. “Busy, crowded and cheap”, “you will find something to your taste”, “service is friendly and efficient” and – for the likes of “a quick meal after going to the cinema” (either in WC1 or W4) – it’s ideal.

This 10-year-old group with six sites offers a “good-value and tasty” take on the Middle Eastern kebab, served with a “modern twist” alongside “noteworthy cocktails”. “A seat at the counter is fun” at the original Kingly Court branch in Carnaby Street, which has a ‘fine dining’ option downstairs, Kebab Queen (see also).

2021 Review: In less than 20 years, Danny Meyer has transformed his New York City hot-dog cart into a global fast-food brand giant with eight outlets in London – including a Covent Garden flagship that was revamped earlier this year. Ratings remain remarkably solid for “a chain that does what it’s supposed to do”.

2021 Review: “Like an everyday restaurant in a minor French town”, this “very busy” Bloomsbury bar/bistro is a “noisy but great fun” neighbourhood amenity: “some dishes are more successful than others” but most are délicieux.

“Ambience is not key when you just want to stuff your face!” – you “just get a great dirty burger” at these tongue-in-cheek diners, whose signature offering is the ‘Dead Hippie’. Founded 16 years ago from the back of a truck by Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis, at the time a technician with the English National Ballet, it now has 15 London outlets and a national delivery operation.

“If you like dosas, idlis and uttapams”, these “cheap and cheerful” but “spotless and well-run” canteens in the West End (plus Hammersmith and Harrow) are “an excellent choice for very good South Indian vegetarian food” – they’re also “a top option to take a crowd because they’re not fazed by large tables”, and “even carnivores don’t complain” when they try the “tasty food”.

This “good-value” contemporary Indian in Bloomsbury offers “reliable” cooking from Tamil Nadu on India’s southern tip. Like its neighbour Sagar, it offers a selection of dosas, but here the menu isn’t vegetarian with many options ‘From our butchers’ or ‘From our Fishermen‘s nets’ and chicken ‘From our Farm’. (If you’re up Leicester way, they also have a branch not far from the De Montfort Hall).

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

Inspired by his parents’ travels with the Indian army, Roop Partap Choudhary’s extravagantly decorated restaurant has proved an unexpected hit in Holborn’s Victorian former town hall – a venue that has seen a succession of previous occupants fail. “The decor shows the owner’s love for his family heritage; the food shows the passion for true Indian cooking; the service is spectacular”. Its success has led to the late 2023 opening of a second, larger branch just off Trafalgar Square (in the former WC2 branch Jones Family Project, RIP).