Bushey, International Restaurant Guide

Spacious and lavishly kitted-out gastropub in a “lovely setting on Totteridge Common” – billed as a ‘country pub in London’, its menu ranges from pizza, burgers and steaks to Sunday roasts. The food is “decent” by most accounts, if “not cheap”, but it’s a “pleasant” place to visit.

“An oasis in North London” for 25 years – Austrian-born Julius Oberegger’s “excellent local restaurant” in Whetstone is “the closest to fine dining without going to the West End” – with a “well prepared and imaginative menu” that skips round the world from fresh Jersey rock oysters and English rack of lamb to chicken Milanese, wok-fried noodles, and chilli and soy-glazed tofu.

A pub has stood on this leafy site on the road to Golder’s Green for three centuries, and was made famous by Edwardian music-hall star Florrie Forde as a ‘little nook down near old Hampstead town’ where Cockneys would head on a day trip. These days a “stalwart still going strong”, it offers a “good-value set lunch in the dining room” (2 courses for £20.95; 3 for £24.95).

A “great location” – on the Kenwood side of the Heath – means you need to book for this ancient (1585) pub, which also boasts a “good menu”, affordable prices and cute garden in summer. Need an excuse to go? Tell people you’re on a literary pilgrimage (Keats, Byron and Dickens all caroused here).

Grade II listed pub in posh Highgate (whose former patrons include Dickens). Run by Young’s, the gastropub fare is solidly rated, but the chief highpoints include its attractively updated period charms, big outside terrace and cosy dining conservatory with large skylight.

“Buzzy” north London flame-grilled specialist with outlets in Belsize Village and St John’s Wood, the brainchild of former LPM and The Ritz chef Jake Finn. “Deservedly very busy”, they’re “both lovely places that are worth a visit”, with “friendly staff” and “delicious food” from a “changing menu” based around a “lovely, small-sharing-plate concept”.

“Still a great pub to have as a local” – Giles Coren’s favourite gastropub and one of our annual diners’ poll’s highest rated in north London is well-placed for a stroll on Hampstead Heath and thronged at the weekend. It is also the “kind of gastropub where you can still just have a drink”. Its ratings staged something of a comeback this year: “the cooking remains good”: in particular “dinner is stunning and good value”. (If you’re an out-of-towner, consider staying in one of their seven guest rooms).

2023 Review: With an all-day menu that bounces happily from the Caribbean and Mexico to the Isle of Man and Thailand, Juliette Banner has provided up-beat service in Crouch End for more than 30 years. “A Banners breakfast is the perfect cure for a hangover” – and you can also earn one with the “great cocktails”. The “authentic American-style burgers” must have attracted Bob Dylan, the bard of Americana, whose 1993 visit is commemorated with a plaque – you can even book the table he sat at!

“Standards have gone downhill this year” according to more sceptical reports on this attractively designed Wolseley Group brasserie in St John’s Wood. Fans do still hail it for its “good choice of reliable French dishes” and “pleasant ambience”, but quite a number feel it is becoming “very disappointing”: “not as good as it thinks it is” with “slow service and poor food”.

“Wonderful fine dining but with the feel of a small local eatery” is both the blessing and the challenge for this Chiswick destination which is “trying very hard to be great, succeeding, and so much better than the location makes you think”. Chef Nathan Cornwell was recruited in 2023 to up the ante here, and his “carefully thought-out” cuisine is “just getting better and better”: it’s a serious rival to nearby Trompette in terms of its “exceptional” quality, with “a fabulous tasting menu which gets it just right and doesn’t overwhelm you”. But while its reputation is generating ever-more feedback in our poll as a “classy” and also a “romantic” destination, it is ever-so slightly constrained by its (albeit posh) “caff-like” premises on the High Street, with the least kind view that you are “crammed in, while the waiters try to deliver to you a fine-dining experience”.

“An institution on Westbourne Grove” – Mathew & Charmaine Tabatabai’s chic Bayswater brunch café provides “lovely coffee… and, if the sun’s out, a nice place to watch the world go by”.

A “charming” atmosphere and “Laura Ashley decor” set the tone at this brunch-and-cocktails spot, which has clocked up 25 years in Strand-on-the-Green. The global menu “may not set the pulse racing”, but seldom attracts much in the way of criticism. Founder Lorraine Angliss also operates the Little Bird and Rock & Rose venues in southwest London.

“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”.

In one of London’s most ‘Mary Poppins’ settings – a tucked-away, Regency square close to the Design Museum in Kensington – this flower-bedecked mid-Victorian tavern has a “great atmosphere”. It excels as a convivial gathering place over a drink or two, with a terrace that gets busy in the summer, and a dependable menu of classic pub dishes. Famous patrons over the years include Princess Di in days of yore to Piers Morgan (who lives nearby) more currently.

“A nice lunchtime respite from shopping in Marylebone High Street” – this characterful café attached to a specialist cheese shop (and its siblings in Bloomsbury and Highbury) “showcases the best of the cheeses they stock” – “there are a few non-cheese dishes, but with cheeses this good, stick to what they do best”. Top Menu Tips – “go for the raclette or the fondue savoyarde”.

Food writer Ravinder Bhogal this year celebrates the 10th anniversary of her “magical” Marylebone showcase, where her “fresh, light, aromatic Indian-fusion cooking” delivers “flavourful food in unique combinations”. “The delicious and original dishes are perfect for sharing (so we tasted almost everything on the menu!)”. “Attentive, intelligent and informal service” is also “greatly appreciated”.

2022 Review: In March 2020, the team behind Flat Iron Yard in Borough opened a new (if old-school in its theming) street-food hall, bar and live music venue. Stallholders include familiar faces (Breddos Tacos, Temple of Seitan and Duck Truck) and some new ones including New York’s respected Sushi On Jones and Pomelo from the Lupins team.

“A nice lunchtime respite from shopping in Marylebone High Street” – this characterful café attached to a specialist cheese shop (and its siblings in Bloomsbury and Highbury) “showcases the best of the cheeses they stock” – “there are a few non-cheese dishes, but with cheeses this good, stick to what they do best”. Top Menu Tips – “go for the raclette or the fondue savoyarde”.