Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in London Notting Hill
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Notting Hill restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 47 restaurants in Notting Hill and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Notting Hill restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Notting Hill Restaurants
1. Uli
Pan-Asian restaurant in Notting Hill
5 Ladbroke Road - W11
“Relaxed and busy”, Michael Lim’s Notting Hill venue is “always a treat”, with “great Singaporean and other Asian dishes”. It has notched up 26 years, first in All Saints Road and more recently in smart new premises on Ladbroke Road. A second branch opened in Seymour Place, Marylebone, in June 2023. Top Tip – “fantastic in the summer with the roof open”.
2. Six Portland Road
British, Modern restaurant in Holland Park
6 Portland Road - W11
Nowadays owned by Jesse Dunford Wood, this “beauty of a local restaurant” is a “gem worth travelling to Holland Park for” – “with a warm welcome, efficient staff and a regularly changing menu”. It’s notably “small and cosy”, which most reporters “love”.
3. Vori
Greek restaurant in Holland Park
120 Holland Park Avenue - W11
Restaurateur Markos Tsimikalis closed his Shoreditch restaurant, Hungry Donkey, to open this brightly decorated Greek venue in Holland Park in late 2022. Our initial feedback is very upbeat all-round and – in April 2023 – The Independent’s Kate Ng was likewise positive, including about the signature Cretan-style cheesecake made with sheep and goat’s milk (“certainly up there with the greats”).
4. Core by Clare Smyth
British, Modern restaurant in Kensington and Chelsea
92 Kensington Park Rd - W11
“World-class cooking from the best female chef in the country” inspires nothing but reams of rapturous reports on Clare Smyth’s “seemingly effortless and very special” Notting Hill HQ – again the No. 1 gastronomic choice in our annual diners’ poll and “well deserving its three Michelin stars” (the same of which could not be said for most of London’s other holders of these laurels). The “virtuoso” cuisine is “simply exquisite” yet “without seeming pretentious”: it says something that one of this Northern Irish farmer’s daughter’s key signature dishes is made out of potato! “Everything from the welcome, the theatre of the kitchen, the execution of the cooking, the comprehensive wine list, the crisp, airy and bright dining room and the enthusiastic and delightful service” provides a “profoundly good experience with incredible attention to detail”. “Clare is in the kitchen each time” and regularly greets guests personally, and “although the bill is high, it is not outlandish for the culinary performance that is delivered”. “Always at the top of its game” – ratings here have held very steady in a year that has seen wobbles at many of its rivals.
5. Gold
British, Modern restaurant in Kensington and Chelsea
95-97 Portobello Road - W11
This “cool vibes” Portobello Road hang-out with a “let-your-hair-down ambience” was carved out of an old Notting Hill boozer by nightclub entrepreneur Nick House (Mahiki and Whisky Mist). The tapas-y food, by former River Café chef Theo Hill, divides opinion: it’s either “exemplary” and “delicious”, or “sloppy”, “heavy-handed and over-priced”. Top Tip – “if you don’t like noise, ask for a table upstairs”.
6. Haya
Mediterranean restaurant in Kensington and Chelsea
184a Kensington Park Road - W11
This appealing café/restaurant in Notting Hill is “just a gentle place to be”, with a modern eastern Mediterranean menu inspired by founder Victoria Paltina’s visits to Tel Aviv.
7. Mediterraneo
Italian restaurant in Notting Hill
37 Kensington Park Rd - W11
This “decent Notting Hill Italian” is “always mobbed (and the back area is particularly noisy), but the basic fare is great quality and the service is smiley”. It has notched up a quarter of a century, and spawned two offshoots in the same street – Essenza and Osteria Basilico.
8. Osteria Basilico
Italian restaurant in Notting Hill
29 Kensington Park Rd - W11
A “local favourite” in Notting Hill for more than 30 years on account of its “always-consistent” cooking, this rustic Italian is the sort of place with something for “every member of the family”. It has spawned two offspring in the same street, Essenza and Mediterraneo – an indication of how well it suits the neighbourhood.
9. Eggslut
British, Modern restaurant in
185 Portobello Road - W11
2021 Review: Egg-citing Notting Hill arrival of a California-based chain majoring in… you guessed it… which beamed down from La-La Land into Portobello in late-summer 2019, too late for survey feedback. Signature dish is ‘The Slut’: a coddled egg on potato puree in a jar, plus sliced baguette.
10. Orasay
British, Modern restaurant in Kensington and Chelsea
31 Kensington Park Road - W11
“Jackson Boxer’s sublime Notting Hill outpost remains an out-and-out favourite, from the laid- back vibe to the small but perfectly formed menu” – that’s the unanimous view on his “beautifully lit and cosy” four-year-old: a “consistent and fantastic neighbourhood restaurant” serving superb, “inventive” small plates all at a “very reasonable price”. Top Menu Tip – “special kudos has to go to the caviar served simply with potato chips and sour cream just as it should be”.
11. Electric Diner
American restaurant in Notting Hill
191 Portobello Rd - W11
2021 Review: For “a perfect end to a Saturday morning on Portobello Road”, some still recommend this US-diner-style haunt. But while it’s fine if you’re a trustafarian working off a hangover, or just posing around Portobello, you wouldn’t cross town.
12. Tonkotsu
Japanese restaurant in Notting Hill
7 Blenheim Cr - W11
“Tasty, good-value noodles” in a “relaxed environment” make this 12-year-old London chain (14 branches, plus Brighton and Brum) “worth a visit”. The “ramen is deep and fabulous” if “limited in range (no fish-based dishes except prawn)”, and is augmented by “quite acceptable katsu curry”. Aficionados should head to the Haggerston branch to watch the noodles being made.
13. Daylesford Organic
British, Modern restaurant in Notting Hill
208-212 Westbourne Grove - W11
Lady Bamford’s quartet of London ‘rus in urbe’ cafés should have caught the zeitgeist, with their focus on home-produced organic ingredients from her estate. But the offering is variable, with food that’s too often slated as “poor”; or incidents of “staff hanging around not knowing what to do”. The Pimlico branch scores the best of the bunch, but it’s worthy of note that visitors to the Daylesford farm mothership in the Cotswolds report an altogether different and “delightful” experience.
14. Julie’s
British, Modern restaurant in Holland Park
135 Portland Road - W11
This Holland Park hotspot from the Seventies is making a comeback next year under a new owner – Tara MacBain, a former regular who lives nearby and trained at Le Cordon Bleu. Expect French brasserie-style cooking from an all-day menu featuring seafood towers – and, in a nod to its louche past – a Martini trolley to save on trips to the bar.
15. The Ladbroke Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Notting Hill
54 Ladbroke Road - W11
With its “perfect pub atmosphere”, “pretty front garden” and “excellent, interesting food that never disappoints”, this unusually gracious Ladbroke Grove local is “a real contender” as one the capital’s better hostelries. On the debit side, service was often said to be “up and down” this year (“smiling and helpful, but run off their feet”).
16. Tavernaki
Greek restaurant in Notting Hill
222 Portobello Road - W11
“An excellent Greek, with a brilliant, relaxed atmosphere. Being Mediterranean, the staff love children. Highly recommended!” – In the thick of Portobello, this cosy spot is only three years old, but fairly conventional in style, complete with ‘traditional comfort cuisine’ and live Greek music.
17. Fez Mangal
Turkish restaurant in Ladbroke Grove
104 Ladbroke Grove - W11
“Still one of the best Turkish grills in town” – this Ladbroke Grove fixture might be “a bit spartan”, but “speedy service and BYO” make it a “cost-effective alternative to eating at home”. Top Tip – there’s “slightly less-packed seating in the extension next door”.
18. Ottolenghi
Mediterranean restaurant in Notting Hill
63 Ledbury Rd - W11
“Stunning salads, amazing pastries” and a “lovely variety of interesting prepared dishes” have stood the test of time at Yotam Ottolenghi’s “vibrant” deli-cafés – still hugely popular 22 years on from the launch of the first in Notting HIll. The Israeli-born chef and writer has had an enormous influence on the way people shop, eat and cook, helping to create a whole category of modern Middle Eastern cookery and “totally living up to his reputation as a leading expert in vegetarian cuisine” – even though his premises serve meat and fish. An occasional quibble – “the prices? Too high for a few stalks of broccoli even taking into account the undoubtedly skills of the Chef!”
19. The Walmer Castle
Scottish restaurant in Notting Hill
58 Ledbury Rd - W11
2023 Review: A perpetual hit with the minted ne’er-do-wells of Notting Hill, this chichi old boozer changed hands in early 2022. Previously a plaything of Guy Ritchie and David Beckham, its new owner is posh nightclub owner, Piers Adam, owner of Prince Harry’s old favourite, Mahiki. Nowadays billed as ‘in collaboration with The Craigellachie Hotel’ (also owned by Adam), the website promises that ‘The Walmer brings the essence of Speyside to London’ although – cue cynical laughter – this apparently includes such Caledonian specialities as Crispy Monkfish Tacos, Truffled Lobster Macaroni, and Salmon Ceviche. Whether the trustafarians who cram the place will notice anything other than the fun new refurb and more single malts at the bar is debatable.
20. Granger & Co
Australian restaurant in Notting Hill
175 Westbourne Grove - W11
“Excellent breakfasts… you just need to be patient” – “after all these years, the queue outside is there for a reason” according to fans of this Aussie-inspired chain, owned by celeb chef Bill Granger. There are five nowadays, but it’s still the OG Notting Hill branch – cited by fans as “the best brunch spot in West London!” – which receives the most attention. But whereas all feedback acknowledges the “nice buzz” they create, ratings are capped by reports of food that’s merely “meh”.
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