Radlett, British, Traditional Restaurant Guide

This enticing multi-cuisine spread at a country estate hotel near Watford is a real bargain at £74 per person (£94 per person on Friday dinner and at weekends) – “if I win the lottery I’ll be here every week”. There’s an impressive array of ‘stations’ to mix-and-match, from sushi, robata grill and Asian, via seafood, roast meats, live pasta, stone-baked pizza and salad bar to cheese & charcuterie, vegan and dessert. All-in-all, it makes for an experience that is entertaining and fun for all the family, if not necessarily very foodie.

This “lovely old pub” in the Chilterns, handy for the Harry Potter antics at Warner Bros Studio nearby, built up quite a reputation for its Anglo-French cooking over nearly two decades under husband-and-wife team Sally & Alvin Michaels. The 18th-century venue is now managed by Alvin’s former protégé Matt Jackson (and part of the growing RedCat pub company) but, on limited feedback this year, its “exceptional pub dining” still makes it a local magnet.

“A cut above the average chippy” for several decades – this stalwart Muswell Hill fixture was sold in 2024 to the Herts-based Chesterford Group, a century-old family firm with 38 fish’n’chip shops across southern England. “The change of ownership, while widely lamented, has actually given a bit of a fillip to an offering that was getting a bit relaxed” – “the chips seem better, maybe more frequent oil changes”, while “the fish is as fresh as you’d hope from a place with such a high turnover”. It’s “not just your usual fish shop classics” here: “grilled and gluten-free” options are available, and “the wine list is OK, too”. Top Menu Tip – “the grilled plaice fillets are truly magnificent”.

2024 Review: This “hidden gem” – a picture-book Grade II-listed Georgian tavern down a Hampstead side street – is “a great place to take the day off work”, particularly “now the food has been improved”.

Dining in a large annex – originally built as an Edwardian ballroom – boosts the occasion at this “favourite Archway local”, which serves “proper pub food and drink” of an elevated nature, with a “reliably interesting” menu of a Mediterranean bent. It is “well-priced for the standard”, with “attentive service”, but can be “noisy”.

“This wonderful neighbourhood restaurant with seriously good seasonal cooking” and “a relaxed, friendly environment” was launched back in 2011 by Terry Wogan’s daughter Katherine and her husband Henry – and is “still the very best in the area after all these years”, with “impeccable service from staff who are charming and helpful”. Top Tip – “Sunday lunch is sublime”.

2024 Review: “This upmarket local café” with artistic leanings in Primrose Hill has a “great vibe, relaxed-yet-warm service and consistently good food”. Founded by actor Sam Frears and novelist Andrew O’Hagan, who live nearby, it has an artist-in-residence programme and hosts readings, live music and community supper clubs.

2023 Review: Cleverly converted from Victorian Grade II listed former stables into a faux-rustic gastroboozer, this Camden Town yearling has “a lovely atmosphere, looking out into buzzy Camden Market”, and serves a “high-quality” menu of British comfort-food classics which are “a cut above your usual pub fare”. There’s also a hidden courtyard with a fire pit, and a good selection of locally brewed beers.

For “boozy lunches and elbows-on-the-table guzzling”, Tom Conran‘s Irish-themed ‘Guinness-and-oysters’ pub on the fringe of Notting Hill is hard to beat; and a pint plus a pint of prawns or other seafood platter helps fuel the excellent craic. In addition to plentiful crustacea, there’s a solid choice of “good food done well”, with a separate menu in the cute and tiny upstairs dining room.

“A cheese-inspired fever dream (but definitely not a nightmare) for cheese lovers” – Matthew Carver’s engagingly bonkers double-decker floating restaurant, moored in Paddington Basin, is dedicated to snacks and full meals that celebrate the glories of British cheese. He also has more conventional venues on dry land called Pick & Cheese in Soho and Berlin, and Rind in North Yorkshire.

“Cosy”, large tavern just off Acton Green on the fringe of Chiswick, with some fine late-Victorian features, and whose menu has a somewhat “sophisticated” Mediterranean spin. There’s a small rear garden in summer that opens off its characterful rear dining room (though you can also eat in the bar).

2023 Review: “Great coffee and an always-buzzy vibe” make it worth remembering this attractive, all-day Marylebone deli/café, which serves a mix of patisserie, cakes, soups, salads and sarnies from breakfast onwards.

“An Irish pub called the Churchill Arms that has a Thai kitchen inside may sound strange… but it works!” – this big, 18th-century, corner-boozer near Notting Hill Gate catches the attention of passers-by with lavish external “floral displays that are a highlight of the area”; (originally the Bedford Arms, it was renamed after WWII on the basis that the great man’s grandparents used to frequent it). Behind the pub proper sits a large, upbeat dining annex, which for more than 30 years has pioneered the ‘Thai-in-a-pub’ format. “It’s not quite the bargain basement pit-stop it once was” – relatively “unambitious” now, but “full of flavour, never expensive… what’s not to like?”

“The perfect local is full of locals, and this defines The Andover perfectly: a buzzing bar and friendly staff greet you” at this “lively old boozer” in a quiet corner of Hammersmith’s ‘Brackenbury Village’. “Under new ownership for a couple of years now, the food has gone up another level” – somewhat more inventive and “a giant step up from pub grub” (but equally also a little “expensive for a pub”). Top Tip – “Sunday lunch is a must”.

2024 Review: “Great food and drink, especially pizza” makes it worth remembering this stylish (if sometimes noisy) Olympia pub-conversion, a few minutes’ walk from Brook Green (part of the Oak group).

“Wonderfully elevated ‘pub’ food in a glorious and comfortable setting” makes Michel Roux’s take on the British boozer – north of Oxford Circus, near the Beeb – the “perfect place for a quick meal in the West End” (including for business lunchers). As befits a chef of his grandeur, the food is “far fancier than your regular gastropub fare” – it’s closer really to “superb casual dining” – while the “beer is well kept” and there’s a “great range of non-alcoholic drinks”. Top Menu Tips – “you need to share the cheese toastie if you’re going to have room for the wonderfully fun masala scotch egg with dahl, or even the burger with grilled ox tongue... who knew how delicious this could be?”. “A good quick pitstop for some scotch eggs, salmon crumpets and exceptional chips”.

“Iconic” and “opulent” – 007’s favourite restaurant oozes “elegance” and “glamour” under Richard Caring, but is more than just a Mayfair A-lister magnet: it’s also “up there with the very best when it comes to fish and seafood in London”. “You marvel at the wide-ranging menu” and, “though it’s very expensive”, results are “sensational”. (“What a great showcase it is for all that is best around our shores”). Still in the Top-10 most commented-on destinations in our annual diners’ poll, it’s also “still hugely impressive in every way” (if not, perhaps, scaling the giddy peaks it was in the days when Mark Hix was at the stoves and Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi dined here almost daily). It can also seem “a little showy” now, certainly compared with its über-stuffy and fuddy-duddy reputation of decades ago (“customers have evolved – along with the immediate area around Mount Street – alongside formally dressed fiftysomethings you also now get twentysomethings dropping in by limo!”). Top Menu Tips – “you can’t go wrong with the classics here”; “half a dozen Loch Ryan native oysters provide a delicious start with red onion and vinaigrette dressing; grilled Dover sole on-the-bone is perfect, moist and tender”; “sautéed monkfish cheeks and snails are an indulgence for sure – as is the lobster thermidor – but never disappoint”.