Belgravia, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Tom Aikens’s “intimate townhouse restaurant in Belgravia” has a “pleasant location away from the busy streets” where you eat on two floors, with some of the seating perched counter-style and with other diners sat at tables. “The concept of the menu is that it is based on Tom’s upbringing” and the result of the multi-course offering is “truly world-class cuisine” with “amazing depth of flavour” all provided with “exceptional service”. There is a trade-off that was more evident in feedback this year, however: it’s “great… but very expensive!”

This smart and fashionable (sometimes “extremely loud”) Belgravia gastropub is the original flagship of the upmarket Cubitt House group and named after the Georgian developer who built the area. Given the address, no surprise that its posh gastropub menu – which stretches to oysters, plus steak and chops – can seem “expensive” for what it is.

This “consistently reliable” venture (part of the small Lunar Pub Company group) took over the site of Belgravia’s long-serving Ebury Wine Bar (long RIP) in 2021. The website terms it a ‘Bar & Dining Room’ and neither the brasserie-style menu nor the stylish contemporary decor are particularly pub-like. In any case, it works equally well “for a family get-together or business”. Top Menu Tip – “it stands out for its pithiviers and its cocktails”.

“Good grills” (“great steak” in particular) are the centrepiece of the menu at this popular indie spot in Pimlico’s stylish Eccleston Yards development. The overall experience is boosted by its chic ex-warehouse interior, “friendly staff” and the “very pleasant outdoor space”.

2023 Review: This smartly kitted-out pub with a “nice outdoor terrace” on a cobbled Belgravia street has a “short, simple and well-executed menu”, providing “Sunday roast and fish ’n’ chips of quality”.

2021 Review: This pair of “casual”, well-located all-day brasseries serve an “eclectic menu” from breakfast on, but it’s the “friendly ambience that’s a real winner”. The Sloane Square branch is “very Chelsea” – “great for lunch” and “wonderfully convenient pre- and post-show for Cadogan Hall or Royal Court”.

2021 Review: Sloane Street’s old Cadogan Hotel – formerly a creaky, old Chelsea anachronism – has been transformed to join the über-luxurious Belmond portfolio: it now provides a “gorgeous” and luxurious backdrop to a meal (“perfect to impress a client in Chelsea”). Wunderkind chef, Adam Handling, is in charge of the dining room, and fans say that his individualistic cuisine is “knock-out”: “from the bread with chicken-butter onwards, everything about this menu is now the best of modern British”. However, there’s also a slightly worrying proportion of disgruntled reports too: “as a massive fan of Adam Handling’s Frog restaurants and even his cooking at Caxton Grill back in the day, I was anticipating greatness from AH Chelsea. But the food was sorely disappointing, confused, and as such, very overpriced. Hoping the food matches its surroundings soon!”

“Chef Shay Cooper has upped the ante here”, in the “magnificent” dining room (with “large, well-spaced tables”) of this extremely plush hotel on Hyde Park Corner: a gracious space, with a domed glass ceiling (lit naturally). His modern British cuisine won the venue much more consistent praise this year, including for a “wonderful – and surprisingly reasonably priced – Sunday lunch”. Top Tip – the £40 menu du jour is a steal here – but you must book online.

Hermès, Loewe and Zimmermann help inspire the Spring/Summer 2023 Prêt-à-Portea collection on the ‘cakewalk’ of this Belgravia chamber, which takes annual inspiration for its wizard patisserie selection from the catwalk of the fashion industry. If you have money to burn, it’s an impressively skillful and witty twist on the afternoon tea experience – tuck into “Hermès’ tasselled bucket bag, crafted out of Victoria sponge sandwiched with apricot jam, wrapped in chocolate and finished with a chocolate feather plume!”

2021 Review: In a masterstroke of casting, Andrew Lloyd Webber recruited Brixton’s Naughty Piglets team to run the restaurant at his new Other Palace Theatre in Victoria, bringing their “dependably delightful” cuisine to this “almost secret location tucked away by Buckingham Palace”.

2023 Review: This “fun” rustic-chic pub/hotel/events space is a magnet for an “attractive crowd” on the Pimlico-Chelsea border, and serves a “varied range” of food, from wood-fired pizza in the bar to more formal meals in the dining room upstairs.

Lady Bamford’s quartet of deli-cafés are the London satellites of her organic Cotswolds estate, and – on the plus side – their careful design can give the impression that one has fallen into the pages of ‘Country Living’. Not helped by inconsistent standards over many years, though, they continue to generate mixed feedback in our annual diners’ poll. “A perfect location for a late breakfast” is at the positive end. Negatives include: “I had the impression some staff were in their first job” and “the food can be poor here: it comes from Daylesford Farm and in some cases should never have left it…”

“Love Claude Bosi and there are superb views too!” – two highpoints at this September 2023 debut, which occupies the glam rooftop of the swanky Peninsular London: the newly opened outpost of HK’s oldest hotel, just south of Hyde Park Corner. Gastronomically, Bosi is acclaimed in one or two reports for having created “the best of the new restaurants open this year” with “first-rate” modern cuisine that’s “creative and flavoursome”; and with service to match. The “unusual” interior design generally gets the thumbs-up, but “is perhaps a touch corporate”; and “the layout of the room means some tables are unable to make the most of what is otherwise a fine outlook over Hyde Park”. Top Menu Tip – “at £58 per person, the ‘Concorde Lunch Menu’ offers unsurpassed value (albeit no expensive ingredients)”.