Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in London Charing Cross
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Charing Cross restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 255 restaurants in Charing Cross and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Charing Cross restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Charing Cross Restaurants
1. Ginza
Japanese restaurant in St James's
15 Bury St - SW1Y
With its counters for teppanyaki and sushi, this sizable St James’s basement (with 70 covers) offers a high-quality, traditional Japanese dining experience. All reports on the food say it can be of an exceptional standard, but even ardent fans can also find it “overpriced”.
2. Opera Tavern
Spanish restaurant in Covent Garden
23 Catherine Street - WC2
“Handily located near the Royal Opera House”, this converted pub serves Spanish and Italian-style small plates of “food that’s just a bit better than its local competition” in the heart of Covent Garden. It is “not the best of the Salt Yard chain, but good for a quick pre-show meal”.
3. Chotto Matte
Japanese restaurant in Soho
11-13 Frith St - W1
Kurt Zdesar’s “loud and dark” haunts promise a culinary journey from Tokyo to Lima with some “brill cocktails” thrown in. It’s “great fun” and the Nikkei food is an “interesting fusion” too, if also a pricey one. Since 2022, the London presence has doubled with the addition of a Marylebone branch to join the first Soho one. It also has six siblings in North America and a couple in the Middle East.
4. San Carlo
Italian restaurant in St James
2 Regent Street Saint James's - SW1Y
“The warmth of the welcome and quality of the food can come as something of a surprise at such a central and well-known location” as this West End branch (just north of Pall Mall) of the national group, created by Sicilian-born Carlo Distefano and now with over 20 locations nationwide. Perhaps it’s the “lovely atmosphere for either a business or social lunch or dinner” that’s its key strength, but all reports suggest the “great and varied menu” is also “consistently good”.
5. Le Garrick
French restaurant in Covent Garden
10-12 Garrick Street - WC2
“Candlelit booths, rustic French food and wine, and discreet service” make this “little slice of France in Covent Garden” “perfect for a date or anniversary”. If possible, “go downstairs and experience the brick arched cellar dining area, which is full of character and charm”. The “classic bistro fare” is “adequately prepared and comes at very reasonable prices considering the location”.
6. SOLA
American restaurant in Soho
64 Dean Street - W1D
“Slightly unorthodox” but “exceptional” Californian food “made with super, luxury ingredients” and backed up by “an interesting and mainly Californian wine list” mean Victor Garvey’s acclaimed four-year-old is “the place to head for in Soho for an out-of-the-ordinary meal”; and some believe “it should have two stars from the tyre men”. (“Highlights included flambéed langoustines with a dashi broth and foie gras; and that rare thing, a grapefruit dessert with jelly, sorbet, consommé and meringue”). If there’s a reservation, it’s about the “small and cramped-feeling” space, which critics feel “for a VERY expensive meal has really no sense of occasion at all” (“it is essentially an unremarkable café in Soho with staff who might have been officiating at some kind of sacred ceremony in a High Temple!”).
7. San Carlo Cicchetti
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
30 Wellington St - WC2
“Don’t be put off by the tourist location or the gold frontage” if you visit the flagship branch of this successful Italian chain near Piccadilly Circus (which is due to double in size over 2023). For a national group, it and its siblings deliver a surprisingly high-quality formula that mixes “a great range of Venetian-style small plates” with “friendly and efficient” service and “bright and vibrant interiors” which create a “wonderful and buzzing atmosphere”. Top Tip – “super for pre-theatre eating”.
8. Zima Russian Restaurant
Russian restaurant in Soho
45 Frith Street - W1
Zima is a Russian Restaurant located in the heart of Soho offering traditional Russian dishes with a modern twist.Treat yourself to the best priced caviar in London and other favourites of Russian cuisine, sip on our homemade selection of infused vodka and enjoy the wel...
9. Frog by Adam Handling
British, Modern restaurant in Covent Garden
35 Southampton Street - WC2E
Many “magical and simply sublime” meals were reported this year at Adam Handling’s “exceptional” Covent Garden HQ, whose open kitchen delivers “creative, passionate and sustainably resourced modern British cooking” (“intricate beyond belief in presentation; and a delightful explosion of taste and texture”). The “buzzing” setting is kept in “relaxed” mood by the “fun”, “slightly irreverent” service. The catch? “You get an incredible meal, but it comes with an incredible price tag!”
10. San Carlo Cicchetti
Italian restaurant in Piccadilly
215 Piccadilly - W1
“Don’t be put off by the tourist location or the gold frontage” if you visit the flagship branch of this successful Italian chain near Piccadilly Circus (which is due to double in size over 2023). For a national group, it and its siblings deliver a surprisingly high-quality formula that mixes “a great range of Venetian-style small plates” with “friendly and efficient” service and “bright and vibrant interiors” which create a “wonderful and buzzing atmosphere”. Top Tip – “super for pre-theatre eating”.
11. Chez Antoinette
French restaurant in Covent Garden
Unit 30 The Market Building - WC2
This “bustling bistrot tucked down a side street near Victoria” feels “just like being in a small, rushed French café”. Lyon-born founder Aurelia Noel-Delclos named the business after the grandmother who inspired her love of food. The 10-year-old original branch, in the tourist ‘ground zero’ of old Covent Garden market, is less reported-on, but said to be “decent” for “post-matinée early dinner”.
12. Bentley’s
Fish & seafood restaurant in Piccadilly
11-15 Swallow St - W1
“Owner Richard Corrigan is often around and the food is always good” at this “iconic” fish and seafood “classic” – 107 years old (est. 1916) – which is to be found in a side street, near Piccadilly Circus. It offers two distinct experiences: “upstairs for very elegant fine dining, or in the bar downstairs for top-notch seafood with less formality – both excellent” (although the latter gets many people’s vote, as “there is always a good buzz in the bar area with a few famous faces sometimes”). “Possibly the best oysters in town (and the best shuckers too)” number alongside “top crab” and “the notably good fish pie” as its best menu options, all in a “reassuringly good-but-expensive” mould (“comfort seafood at West End prices”). Service that’s “very attentive and kind” from long-serving staff is intrinsic to the performance.
13. Cinnamon Bazaar
Indian restaurant in
28 Maiden Lane - WC2E
“From the pricing, you’d be forgiven for expecting a ‘standard’ Indian restaurant”, but Vivek Singh’s popular café is “surprisingly good” to those who’ve not yet discovered it and delivers outstanding value for somewhere in Covent Garden. “The menu is anything but run-of-the-mill, with interesting and creative twists on classics and some wholly new creations”. The worst gripe this year? It can get “too noisy when it’s packed”.
14. 50 Kalò di Ciro Salvo
Pizza restaurant in Westminster
7 Northumberland Avenue - WC2N
“Not quite as good as the original in Naples, but still a safe bet if you want a traditional Neapolitan pizza in the heart of the capital” – Ciro Salvo’s offshoot of his award-winning chain (which is indeed headquartered in Napoli) serves “seriously great” pizza “as Naples intended” (using his special long fermentation dough); and its “busy and vibrant” quarters are “an excellent find so close to Trafalgar Square!”. A few pizza anoraks say “it’s fine, just not London’s best”.
15. Ekstedt at The Yard, Great Scotland Yard Hotel
Scandinavian restaurant in Westminster
Great Scotland Yard - SW1A
“Niklas Ekstedt’s trademark open-fire cuisine” has its first outpost (beyond Stockholm) in Westminster’s Hyatt hotel, where the “relaxed and peaceful ambience, theatrical open kitchen and flames” and “unexpectedly delicate flavours” win over most reporters. Its ratings would be even higher, were it not for the occasional sceptic who feels the performance “relies on the drama of the grill rather than the quality of cooking”.
16. The Parlour, Great Scotland Yard
Afternoon tea restaurant in Westminster
Great Scotland Yard - SW1A
2022 Review: On the site of the original Metropolitan Police HQ, this 100-seater hotel (owned by an Indian entrepreneur and operated by Hyatt) opened in December 2019. The comfortable, ground-floor lounge – with Raj-inspired decor – serves a contemporary take on afternoon tea, with added spice; there are spicy chai options and tea-based cocktails too.
17. Café in the Crypt, St Martin in the Fields
British, Traditional restaurant in Covent Garden
Duncannon St - WC2
A “long-established cafeteria” in the beautiful, brick-vaulted crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields that’s a useful venue for daytime and pre-theatre refuelling – “cheap and tasty and near the National Gallery”. In summer, they open a ‘Café in the Courtyard’, too.
18. The OWO
International restaurant in Westminster
The Old War Office, 57 Whitehall Place - SW1A
A mega new hotel for London sees the Old War Office on Whitehall – in which Winston Churchill made many of the most important decisions of World War II – being taken over by Raffles, no less (their first venture in Europe) and the Hinduja Group, to open in late 2023 as a new 125 bedroom property. It will have nine new restaurants, of which we list the five most notable individually: Café Lapérouse, Endo Kazutoshi, Langosteria, Mauro Colagreco and Paper Moon (see also). Other options include Mauro’s Table and a fine high-ceilinged brasserie called ‘Saison’ – which fall under the Colagreco umbrella – as well as The Drawing Room (lounge and all-day dining) and Guards Bar.
19. Kerridge’s Bar & Grill
British, Modern restaurant in Westminster
10 Northumberland Avenue - WC2N
Within a “luxurious and pampering” five star, the “unpretentious but stylish setting” of TV-star Tom Kerridge’s high-ceilinged chamber provides a “wonderful” yet relaxed atmosphere to suit most types of occasion and the place is “always busy”. However, the bill for the posh brasserie fare is “eye-watering” – to fans “pricey but terrific”, but critics opine that “some gastropubs do this better for half the cost… but then again you are in The Corinthia”. Top Tip – unbelievably good-value set lunch, for £15 per person.
20. The Northall, Corinthia London
International restaurant in Trafalgar Square
10a Northumberland Ave - WC2
“Incredible flower displays” add to the airy and gracious style of this comfortable dining room, within the plush five star near Embankment station. Partly because of the fame of Kerridge’s next door, it has struggled over the years to raise its profile, but can be a handy option for a stately, high-quality West End setting. Top Top – in particular, “the set lunch is excellent value”.
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