London Canonbury Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “Quality meat and good value” have carved a fine reputation for this Canonbury gastropub (part of Noble Inns), which is entering its 10th year in 2023. Whole carcasses are butchered on-site, fish is delivered daily, and it’s a beer-lovers dream, with 20 on tap and 60 bottled.

2022 Review: It’s a bit less nook-like than it looks, if you head to the larger basement of this summer 2020 Highbury newcomer: a deli by day and neighbourhood café in the evenings. With a vague connection to Linden Stores (RIP), which it replaced in 2020, there’s a Turkish twist to the contemporary European small dishes and sharing plates. Limited early feedback, but very positive all-round.

2021 Review: Jolly Canonbury boozer decorated with pictures of 60s icons. There’s also a jukebox – so it “can get very noisy”. On the menu: “honest pub grub”, including “the best burgers” and spit-roast chicken.

“Perfection for simple high quality” – Tim Siadatan and Jordan Frieda’s “lovely neighbourhood Italian” in Islington draws a big fan club from across town and provided many best-meals-of-the-year in our annual diners’ poll thanks to its “exceptional pasta”, “excellent grilled meats and fish” and “fairly priced Italian wine list”. “Always busy and noisy”, it’s also rather “romantic”.

“Exceptional” fish and seafood is served at this “cool” fishmonger-turned-restaurant near Highbury Corner, which is “different every time you go as they decide what and how to cook each dish according to what is fresh”. There’s a perennial complaint that it’s “quite expensive for a cramped space” that’s “a bit too crowded for comfort” – which is why those lucky enough to have been to the Cornish offshoot in Padstow say they prefer it.

“A little off the beaten track” at the far end of Islington, but “definitely a gem for this corner of London” – brothers Martin & Christoph Lange’s “cracking neighbourhood restaurant” is “consistently good” (“I’ve never had a bad dish”). There’s a fixed-price multi-choice menu to ensure “reasonable” bills.

2021 Review: A new kitchen team have livened up the menu at this Arsenal supporters’ pub, which is said to have inspired George Orwell’s fictional, idealised pub The Moon Under Water. Early press reports are excited about its mix of pub grub and somewhat fancier fare.

2024 Review: “Still a bit of a hidden gem, which is a real shame as this place should be packed” – this converted pub by Essex Road station is a longstanding fixture of the area. With its mix of sushi and other “enjoyable and very tasty” fare, fans say it serves “really wonderful izakaya dishes in a pretty chilled-out environment”; and that even if “it’s not as cheap as it once was, it’s still good value”.

Offering a combination of Turkish, Kurdish and Greek dishes, this “cheap ’n’ cheerful” grill on the Islington main drag has been “a mainstay in the neighbourhood for years, and with good reason”.

2022 Review: Returning in early 2020 to an Islington site its owners used to run in the 1980s (and unconnected with Trawler Trash which recently closed on this site, RIP), this somewhat modernified but relatively traditional chippy provides a proper fish ’n’ chip fix for those times when the many more rarefied options available locally just won't hit the spot.

2023 Review: “Delicious” plant-based versions of classic American comfort food – from burgers, seitan hot dogs and pastrami to milk-free shakes – cut the mustard at this pair of ‘dirty vegan diners’ in Camden Market and Islington. The Islington branch has a vegan butcher next door, touted as the world’s first, with a concession in Selfridges.

“The pizza is second to none”, combining “top-quality ingredients and fabulous bases” at this quartet of “bustling” pizzerias founded 15 years ago by Neapolitan-born Angelo and Pasquale. Since launching in Ealing, they have expanded slowly to Fulham, Islington and Fitzrovia – and the extent to which they’ve maintained their ratings is an achievement for an expanding group.

Opening in early December 2024 in a revamped Essex Road, Islington boozer, this ‘bistro pub’ from chef James Cochran (ex-12:51 in Upper Street) promises exciting and interesting dishes ranging from jerk-spiced chicken Scotch egg with Scotch bonnet jam to Aynhoe venison with neep and tattie hash browns.

“You feel as if you’ve been teleported back to the ’80s” (or maybe even earlier) at this “very old-school” Italian relic – a basic café/ristorante by Highbury & Islington tube. “Even if the food isn’t hugely fashionable, it tastes really good and is pretty good value – I bet they make their carbonara with cream!”

Open in July 2024 in De Beauvoir, on the border between Islington and Hackney, this wine bar and restaurant serves biodynamic and natural wines alongside seasonal and sustainable sharing plates. Also on-site, pour-over specialist coffee shop Day Trip and gelato bar the Dreamery.