London Lambeth Restaurant Guide

This quietly ambitious kitchen at Lambeth’s Garden Museum is a real magnet for diners in-the-know (“I’d happily eat here once a week if I lived locally – it’s always different!”). Former Noble Rot head chef Myles Donaldson delivers a daily changing lunch menu that’s not vegetarian or even vegan, but strong on both camps and on delivering “good, healthy food”. The interior is simple, but enhanced by floor-to-ceiling windows looking onto the street and into the garden. (There’s also coffee, cakes, etc all day).

This “classic” Italian with landmark status at the back of Waterloo station notches up its half-century this year, still knocking out a traditional menu with a good helping of old-school pizzazz (steak diane flambéed at your table!). “It looks unassuming from the outside, but the cooking will surprise you” (albeit the bill might too…). Top Menu Tip – “their alla Barca seafood spaghetti is delicious”.

Former UMU head chef, Daisuke Shimoyama’s “high-end kaiseki” is winning ever-greater recognition for his solo Kyoto-style venture, and his “charming” service helps offset the slightly odd location, near the London Eye, in the rear of the gigantic former HQ of the long-defunct Greater London Council. Daisuke started his career as a teenager washing pots in Kanagawa, and here serves a wide variety of options ranging in price from £45 for a five-course lunch, up to £185 for a 12-course dinner (which comes with the option of a £115 sake pairing). Having been largely ignored for its first seven years of operation, the foodie world has finally woken up to the place and the plaudits are starting to flow in: in the first half of 2024, the Financial Times’s Tim Hayward pronounced it “the best kaiseki in London” (and suggested everyone “go immediately”), a sentiment also echoed by well-known food-blogger Andy Hayler, who (while noting “it’s not a cheap outing”) visited twice in a similar period with the same conclusion.

2022 Review: For a “cheap ’n’ cheerful” fish ’n’ chips hit, fans still recommend a meal at the Formica tables of this long-standing Waterloo chippy.

2022 Review: This ‘Philadelphia dive bar’ in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, has certainly “got the American vibe”, with “US-style beer and bar food” giving a real taste of the City of Brotherly Love. Philly street food classics such as the hoagie and cheesesteak are on the menu – and “it’s not health food, that’s for sure”. Reporters are divided on the results – “defining the category” for fans, “pretty underwhelming” for sceptics. There’s now a second site at Westfield Stratford, complete with baseball batting cages, but a 2021 crowdfunding bid to raise £150,000 for a massive bar under the railway arches in Leake Street, Waterloo, struck out.

“God those rotis are heaven!” – they make it “worth joining the inevitable queue” (including “lots of Malaysian students and Asian visitors enjoying a taste of home”) for this “small Malaysian street-food cafe” in a packed little basement near Euston station. “A lot of patience is required lining up outside”: the queue here is such a regular fixture that the council have allowed the installation of a long decked area in the parking bays on the street to accommodate it. “The fluffy roti canai itself is amazing: you watch chef swirling and stretching paper thin dough”. But the “rich and aromatic” noodles and curries also on the menu can be just as rewarding. Don’t expect a long foodie religious experience. The “functional” service will get you in and out in no time. There are also now a growing number of spin-offs, of which the most high-profile is in Battersea Power Station, whose shiny vibe could not be more at odds with the grungy original; and where there’s “more of a feeling of a fast-food joint”. Even so, it comes “highly recommended for anyone looking to try some authentic and tasty Malaysian cuisine”: “it’s good to find such a reasonable place near Battersea Power Station. You can sit outside if weather permits. But it’s very popular and no booking, so go early to get a table”. Also in Waterloo and – since this year – in Spitalfields. Top Tip in NW1 – takeaway lunch is easier than queueing and amazing value too.

“A great discovery! – Brilliant budget Japanese food is served right in the tourist hell of County Hall” at this “small and off-beat” canteen, which is “hard to find but worth searching for (just like such places in Japan)”. It offers “a little slice of Osaka on London’s South Bank” down to its “authentic” tastes (‘Okan’ apparently means Mum in Osakan dialect) and – with its “great onigiri and okonomiyaki” is a “perfect place to try Japanese food that is not sushi or the ubiquitous ramen”. There are two more branches in Brixton (not listed).