French restaurants in London
16 places
64 Goodge Street
£££A Fitzrovia brasserie from the Woodhead group doing the format straight - steak frites, a long bar, and late service.
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester
££££Classical French haute cuisine at three stars, including the Table Lumiere - a private table for six ringed by a curtain of fibre optics, and the single most requested seat in Mayfair.
Inside The Dorchester on Park Lane. Ask about the Table Lumiere specifically when booking; it is not offered by default.
Bouchon Racine
££££Henry Harris cooking unapologetic French bourgeois food above a Farringdon pub - and named the best restaurant in the UK at the 2026 National Restaurant Awards.
Brooklands
££££Claude Bosi cooking on the roof of the Peninsula, in a room themed on British motor racing and aviation, looking over Hyde Park Corner.
Camille
£££A small Borough bistro doing offal, terrines and the unfashionable half of the French repertoire properly.
Casse-Croûte
£££Three dishes per course chalked on a board, a room the size of a front parlour, and no concession to anything but France.
Champagne + Fromage
£££French cheese, charcuterie and grower champagne by the glass - a small chain, but the Greenwich site sits right by the market.
Hélène Darroze at The Connaught
££££Three stars for cooking rooted in Darroze's native Landes, in south-west France - a regional French kitchen at the very top end, which London has almost none of.
Third star awarded in 2021. Inside The Connaught, so the room is the hotel's rather than a restaurant's own.
La Poule au Pot
££££Trading since the 1960s on coq au vin, beef bourguignon and candlelight - the most reliably romantic dining room in London by some distance.
Les 2 Garçons
£££A Crouch End neighbourhood bistro that would pass without comment in Lyon and stands out considerably in north London.
Otto's
££££Canard à la presse carved and pressed at the table - one of the last places in London performing classical French service as theatre.
Paulette
£££A Maida Vale bistro doing short, seasonal French menus for a neighbourhood not overrun with them.
Pique-Nique
£££The Casse-Croûte team in a former park pavilion in Bermondsey, built around rotisserie chicken and a short set menu.
The French House
£££The Soho pub that was the Free French headquarters in the war, with a small dining room above it and beer served only in halves downstairs.
The Turk's Head
££A neighbourhood bistro running French classics at prices that have not followed the postcode.
Toulouse Lautrec
££Three floors of a converted pub run by three brothers since 2008: a rustic French brasserie at street level, a piano bar above it, and a proper jazz club on top for the weekend bands - South London's closest answer to a Soho jazz supper club, at Kennington prices.
Live music most nights; club shows are ticketed separately from dinner (usually £10-20), so book the table and the show together. Piano bar sets are typically free.