London Lambeth Restaurant Guide

“Excellent food in a leafy setting, especially on a warm and bright day” makes the elevated café at Lambeth’s Garden Museum “a complete go-to” for foodies in the know. George Ryle, the chef who co-founded it to great acclaim in 2017, left after five years to return to his native Yorkshire, but the kitchen has barely missed a beat under his successor Myles Donaldson (ex-Noble Rot and Anchor & Hope among others).

“From a bygone era, and all the better for it!” – this family-run Italian restaurant behind Waterloo station set sail almost 50 years ago, offering “a combination of excellent traditional dishes, lively atmosphere and attentive service from staff, many of whom have worked there for years”.

This top-class Japanese dining room in the monolithic former County Hall near the London Eye is “a surprising delight in an area largely devoid of good eating options”. Daisuke Shimoyama, previously head chef at Umu in Mayfair who began his career at 15 washing pots in Kanagawa, serves everything from “good-value lunch bentos to enticing main menus”, including a 13-course omakase with the chef’s sake pairing.

Review: “Huge queues are par for the course but worth it in spades”, when visiting this “sensational” basement – “a great, basic pit stop” on “a dodgy street near Euston station” where you “pack in tight” for the “amazing, fresh and feather-light rotis”, “excellent laksa” and other “stalwart Malaysian dishes”. “For a satisfying, cheap meal” many would say this is “the best value in town”. There’s also now a larger spin-off in the Battersea Power Station development – “it’s good, but the original is still the favourite”.