London Lambeth Restaurant Guide

“Excellent food in a leafy setting, especially on a warm and bright day” makes the elevated café at Lambeth’s Garden Museum “a complete go-to” for foodies in the know. George Ryle, the chef who co-founded it to great acclaim in 2017, left after five years to return to his native Yorkshire, but the kitchen has barely missed a beat under his successor Myles Donaldson (ex-Noble Rot and Anchor & Hope among others).

“From a bygone era, and all the better for it!” – this family-run Italian restaurant behind Waterloo station set sail almost 50 years ago, offering “a combination of excellent traditional dishes, lively atmosphere and attentive service from staff, many of whom have worked there for years”.

This top-class Japanese dining room in the monolithic former County Hall near the London Eye is “a surprising delight in an area largely devoid of good eating options”. Daisuke Shimoyama, previously head chef at Umu in Mayfair who began his career at 15 washing pots in Kanagawa, serves everything from “good-value lunch bentos to enticing main menus”, including a 13-course omakase with the chef’s sake pairing.

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.