London Shepherd's Bush Restaurant Guide

This big, smartly restored 1829 gin palace in deepest Shepherd’s Bush features a horseshoe bar stocking 100 different gins, and a modern gastropub menu appealing to all age groups – “kids love their pizzas and we love their Sunday roasts”.

2022 Review: An evocative tiled interior adds to a visit to this cheap ’n’ cheerful Syrian café, near the north end of Shepherd’s Bush Market – a handy place for a fresh fruit juice and affordable mezze meal.

“Wow! – How to describe the extraordinary gastronomic experience created by master sushi chef, Endo, and borne from his obsession with quality and refusal to compromise on even the tiniest detail?” Diners are blown away by Endo Kazutoshi’s 16-seater on the eighth floor of the old BBC TV Centre in White City, where he presents over 20 courses at the cost of £250 per person. “Every dish is an experience and the theatre of chef Endo’s entertaining presentation and explanations is a delight. It may seem like no bargain, especially if you take the (recommended) sake pairings, but it is nevertheless excellent value”. It closed for a five-month refurb over summer 2024 – “Good luck getting in here after the reopening!” Since 2020 it has been recognised by Michelin, but “we have no clue as to how this has just a single star, while Alain Ducasse for example has three!”

“Brilliant, innovative and constantly changing” – Will Bowlby & Rik Campbell’s “unfailingly interesting” street-food cafés provide “real Indian food… cooked by Brits” and inspire a large army of fans for this small group, which added a fourth Canary Wharf outlet in early 2024 (and has announced a fifth branch will be coming to Shoreditch at the end of the year). They have achieved an all-round success story: “super-friendly service” scores incredibly highly as does the “buzzy environment”. And in Soho, “the restaurant is now supplemented by the Soma Bar next door” with an array of funky cocktails.

2022 Review: With its foliage, fairy lights and heaters, this September 2020 newcomer – where tables are predominantly outside – injects a festive spark into a quirky space, next to Shepherd’s Bush market and the Goldhawk Road tube bridge (opposite the station). Founders Will Fuller of Soho House Group and Frazer Timmerman of Incipio Group aimed, apparently, to import a bit of East London groove to this converted railway arch and adjoining large yard, and judging by it being permanently packed they’ve succeeded! Pizza is the menu mainstay and staff try hard. A 120-seater, it’s also available for events.

At the foot of a large, Hong Kong-owned hotel beside Shepherd’s Bush Green gyratory, this modern (rather anodyne) dining room has built a reputation, since it opened nearly ten years ago, for “absolutely wonderful” dim sum and superior roast duck from a wide-ranging menu. The food rating dropped a notch this year on the back of one or two reports of “average” results.

“More hit ’n’ miss than they used to be, but still a go-to chain” – the Elliot brothers’ successful group is heading towards 20 branches in the capital, but “still producing quality dishes despite becoming quite a brand”: “lovely scorched, pillowy-based pizzas with plenty of power in the ingredients” and “reasonably priced for the quality!” Latest to launch, in June 2024, was a branch by Euston.

“All falafels are definitely not created equal”, agree fans of this 25-year-old family-run spot that’s “well worth seeking out in marvellous Shepherd’s Bush Market” – “the freshly fried falafels and all the trimmings are eyebrow-wagglingly good!”. Motto ‘We Speak Falafel Fluently’ – you can order the dish in various styles from around the Arab World, including the owners’ native Palestine. “Arrive early to grab a table and avoid the queue”.

“A reminder of how good Italian cooking can be” is to be found at Giulia Quaglia’s neighbourhood two-year-old in ever-posher ‘Askew Village’, which offers a short menu of three-four options for each course (including ‘primi’). “Even the bread is exceptional” and even those who consider it “expensive for Shepherd’s Bush” say “you won’t be disappointed”.

Bringing a “welcome dash of glamour to Shepherd’s Bush Green”, the recently arrived Hoxton Hotel has a stylish and spacious diner featuring the cooking of LA chef Kris Yenbaroong, whose “Californian-Thai food is perfectly enjoyable (if no more than that)”. Service is personable, and it’s a fun place to linger for an “excellent post-meal G&T” in their rather swish bar/lounge.

“Despite now being part of a rolled-out chain, they have managed to maintain good quality” at these tapas-haunts, whose original branch off Goodge Street was an early pioneer of the capital’s trend to small plates. A minor gripe is of “packed” seating, but most feedback focuses on their “delicious food and well-thought-out wine list”.