The best seafood in London
86 places
45 Jermyn St
££££Beef Wellington and lobster spaghetti finished at the table, coupes and floats for pudding - a brasserie doing the theatrical old-school service almost nobody still does.
Open 8am to 10pm through the week, so it covers breakfast and late dinner as well as lunch.
Angler
££££A rooftop dining room at the South Place Hotel with an all-seafood tasting menu built around British fish and shellfish - the most formal fish cooking in the City.
Applebee's
£££A family-run Borough Market fixture since 1999 that started as a fishmonger and turned into a restaurant, with the counter still at the front and live-fire cooking behind it.
Attica
££The Kolossi Grill of 1966, renamed by new owners: the mock-Palladian front painted deep blue, marble tables under fairy-lit twigs, and tarama, prawn saganaki and sea bass on a short menu.
Bamboo Mat
£££Nikkei cooking - the Japanese-Peruvian tradition - which is a genuinely unexpected thing to find in Stratford and the reason to skip the chains.
Barrafina Dean Street
£££Counter only and a Michelin star - no tables, you sit where you are put, and the plancha is a foot away. Bookable, despite the reputation for queues.
Walk-in only. The queue is shortest at opening and after 2pm.
Behind
££££Andy Beynon's eighteen-seat horseshoe counter took a Michelin star in January 2021 after roughly twenty days of trading - the fastest in British history. A surprise tasting menu built entirely around fish.
Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill
££££Shucking since 1916 and now Richard Corrigan's. An oyster bar on the ground floor and a grill room above, which amount to two quite different evenings.
Bibendum Oyster Bar
£££Claude Bosi's seafood bistro on the ground floor of Michelin House, where the platters and the caviar list are the point rather than the cooking.
Borough Market
££Traders have sold food on this site since the thirteenth century, and the mix still leans hard on British and European produce - cheese, charcuterie, bread, oysters - alongside cooked stalls from a dozen countries.
Busiest between 11am and 2pm on Saturdays. Friday mid-morning is the quietest window with everything still stocked.
Bottarga
£££The Pachamama group's second Greek restaurant, a small, dark room on the King's Road with a covered, heated terrace: raw yellowtail, a whole grilled sea bass, crisp lamb belly.
Brat
£££Tomos Parry cooking over open fire above a Shoreditch pub, built around whole turbot in a custom grill.
Carlotta
££Italian-American rather than Italian - pasta alla vodka and whole roasted fish, in a plush retro dining room on Marylebone High Street.
Chucs Mayfair
£££Eight tables of 1950s Riviera glamour on Dover Street, from the clothing brand of the same name.
Very small - eight tables - so booking matters more than the walk-in-friendly rooms elsewhere on this list.
Cometa
£££Mexican seafood specifically - tostadas, ceviche and aguachile rather than the meat-led menu everywhere else runs.
Escocesa
£££Scottish seafood cooked the Spanish way in Stoke Newington - the name is the whole idea.
Estiatorio Milos
££££The London branch, opened in 2015, of Costas Spiliadis's Greek fish restaurants: a marble-and-pale-wood room off Pall Mall where fish is priced by weight from an iced display.
Faber
£££A light-filled corner room from a pair who ran a seafood pub in the East End first, so the supply lines were already in place. Watch the blackboard; the chalkstream trout tartare is the standing recommendation.
Fish Central
££Half proper chippy, half sit-down fish restaurant, on the edge of the Old Street roundabout.
Furness Oyster Bar
£A stall rather than a restaurant, and both sources that name it say the same thing: it is the grab-and-go oyster fix at Borough Market.
Gaia
££££The 2023 London branch of a Greek-Mediterranean group from Dubai, Monaco and Doha: gemista, octopus and fava beside bluefin tuna with caviar, and a bar on the first floor.
Hawksmoor
££££British beef dry-aged and grilled over charcoal, in rooms that were mostly something else first - a brewery, a bank, a ballroom.
Hawksmoor
££££British beef dry-aged and grilled over charcoal, in rooms that were mostly something else first - a brewery, a bank, a ballroom.
Hawksmoor
££££British beef dry-aged and grilled over charcoal, in rooms that were mostly something else first - a brewery, a bank, a ballroom.
Hawksmoor
££££British beef dry-aged and grilled over charcoal, in rooms that were mostly something else first - a brewery, a bank, a ballroom.
Hawksmoor
££££British beef dry-aged and grilled over charcoal, in rooms that were mostly something else first - a brewery, a bank, a ballroom.
Hawksmoor
££££British beef dry-aged and grilled over charcoal, in rooms that were mostly something else first - a brewery, a bank, a ballroom.
Hera
£££A big room of chandeliers, greenery and plush booths on the far side of Stratford Cross, where chef Mario Salimis cooks Greek classics with modern twists.
Il Gattopardo
£££Massimo Pasquarelli - Abruzzo-born, a decade under Alain Ducasse, previously executive chef at the Ritz-Carlton Singapore - cooking classic Italian on Albemarle Street.
Sharing is encouraged and portions are generous. Three ways to sit: the main room, the light-filled terrace, or the crudo bar. The £20 Pasta & Vino counter offer makes a Mayfair Michelin-listed kitchen unusually reachable.
Imone
££A small family-run room on New Malden high street, strong on seafood and with halal chicken options that most Korean kitchens do not offer.
J Sheekey
££££Open since 1896 in a warren of small panelled rooms off St Martin's Court, with a central crustacea bar and a fish pie that has outlasted every fashion London dining has been through.
Jacuzzi
£££Four storeys on High Street Kensington, and the most seafood-led of the Big Mamma rooms - local fish, Italian caviar, fresh pasta.
The group's grandest London site. Four floors, so ask which one you are seated on.
Joia
££££Portuguese cooking fourteen floors up beside the Power Station, and one of very few serious Portuguese kitchens in London.
Kima
££££Whole fish and Greek seafood cooking treated at fine-dining level, which almost nothing else in London does.
Kokum
£££Named for the sour coastal fruit, cooking the seafood traditions of India's western shore.
Langosteria London
££££The Milan seafood group's first London site, inside the Old War Office - spaghetti with clams and sea urchin, and prices to match the address.
Legare
££Opened 2019 by Jay Patel (ex Barrafina) and chef Matt Beardmore (ex Trullo), in the warehouse streets by Tower Bridge.
Neighbourhood Italian in the historic Shad Thames warehouse quarter.
Lilibet's
££££Ross Shonhan went from exec chef at Nobu to founding Bone Daddies, and has now opened a full-dress Mayfair seafood room - an unusual arc.
London Shell Co
£££The Paddington barge operation's first permanent restaurant and fishmonger, with a menu dictated by what has been landed and a long wine list.
Lurra
££££Aged Galician beef and whole turbot over coals, from the Donostia team - the Basque asador format done properly.
Mandarin Kitchen
£££The lobster noodles are the reason - a whole lobster over ginger and spring onion noodles, and the dish most London Chinese restaurants are measured against.
Big round tables and lazy susans; built for groups rather than couples. Long-running and deliberately unmodernised.
Manzi's
£££Oyster Hour runs 3pm to 7pm Tuesday to Saturday and all day Sunday, with Jersey and Poole rocks from GBP2. Lunch is GBP16 for two courses. A 2023 opening from the Wolseley group, not a continuation of the Chinatown original.
Maresco
£££Spanish technique applied to Scottish seafood, on a daily specials board that changes with what lands.
Masters Superfish
££A south London institution five minutes from Waterloo, buying from Billingsgate daily and frying several kinds of fish rather than just cod and haddock. The mushy peas are the ones people write about.
Prawns and bread and butter arrive unasked while you wait, which is the house tradition. Portions are large enough that the small is usually the right order.
Meraki
£££A large Fitzrovia room from the Roka and Zuma group, doing Greek at that group's usual volume.
Mount St. Restaurant
££££Over 200 works of art hang in the room - Warhol, Freud, Picasso - above a Mayfair pub, with a menu drawn from the cooking history of London itself.
Myrtos
£££Asimakis Chaniotis left Pied à Terre after 13 years to open this bright room built around an olive tree, with a fish counter. Lunch is two courses for £25.
Nautilus
££Fish fried in matzo meal rather than batter - the Jewish north-London tradition that predates the chip shop as most people know it, and a completely different, lighter crust.
Everything comes coated in matzo meal, in matzo and egg, or grilled. A sit-down restaurant as much as a takeaway, seating around 48. Portions are generous even by chippy standards.
Nissi
££A narrow sit-down room, rare in Palmers Green, with the grill visible from the middle tables; Georgina Hayden takes her yiayia here for the fish meze.
Norma
£££Sicilian cooking with the Moorish influence kept in, across four floors of a Fitzrovia townhouse.
Oma
££££Upstairs from its own more casual sibling at Borough Market, cooking Greek food over fire at serious prices and justifying them.
Ombra
££Named for the Venetian term for a small glass of wine. Fresh pasta, seasonal vegetables and organic wine by the Regent's Canal.
Orasay
£££Jackson Boxer's room, focused on fish and seafood and inspired by the Western Isles in its own words - wood-grilled whole John Dory, Isle of Mull diver scallops.
Osteria Angelina
£££Itameshi - Italian cooking through a Japanese lens - with eight fresh pastas made in a glass-walled corner of the dining room.
Sister to Angelina in Dalston, but a different format: Dalston runs a set kaiseki tasting menu, Spitalfields is a la carte and faster. Executive chef Usman Haider oversees both.
Oystermen Seafood Bar & Kitchen
£££A small Henrietta Street room that expanded to make space for a raw bar, which is the seat to want. Work through the oyster list, then the Dorset brown crab with aioli.
Parsons
£££Chalkboard only, and the menu changes every day with what came in. Whole roasted turbot, gurnard, potted shrimp croquettes, Inverawe smoked salmon with Guinness bread.
Pearl Liang
£££An unexpectedly large basement dining room behind Paddington station, routinely rated above the Chinatown equivalents by people who eat a lot of Cantonese food.
Five set menus, built for a table that wants to share rather than order individually.
Popolo
££A narrow Rivington Street room doing Italian and North African small plates from an open counter.
Quilon
££££Michelin-starred cooking from Kerala and the Malabar coast - the one starred kitchen in London doing south-western seafood rather than northern grills.
Quo Vadis
£££Karl Marx lived in the building. The dining room below has been feeding Soho since 1926.
Randall & Aubin
£££The marble counters of the old butcher's shop are still in place and there is a disco ball over the dining room. Over twenty years on Brewer Street, and it takes no bookings at all.
Richard Haward's Oysters
££Mersea oysters shucked in front of you by a family that has been farming them since the 1700s, with a few pavement tables and a glass of wine.
Rick Stein
£££The TV chef's only London site, on the Mortlake towpath, and the Indonesian seafood curry is the order. Walk the Thames path before or after.
Sabor
££££Nieves Barragán Mohacho cooks her mother's Basque and Galician repertoire downstairs and roasts suckling pig in a wood oven upstairs.
Sagardi
£££The third proper asador in London and the easiest to get into - txuleton from old free-range cows over a charcoal grill in the middle of the room.
Sale e Pepe Mare
££££Ligurian coastal cooking at The Langham, carrying over the original Sale e Pepe's cacio e pepe finished tableside in a cheese wheel.
Sam's Riverside
£££Two courses GBP26.60 and three for GBP31.50 by Hammersmith Bridge, with an oyster happy hour at GBP2 and GBP5 corkage every Monday - the best-value sit-down fish in the guide.
Scott's
££££Trading since 1851, and the grandest seafood dining room in London. Under-sixes are admitted only at weekend and holiday lunch, and from May 2026 it takes assistance dogs only.
Seabird
£££Fourteen floors up on Blackfriars Road from the team behind Brooklyn's Maison Premiere, with an oyster happy hour daily from 3pm to 6pm - the cheapest way into the view.
Smith's of Wapping
££££Fish served plainly and well, in a dining room looking straight at Tower Bridge - the view is the reason and the kitchen does not fight it.
Sorella
££Robin Gill's Clapham room - the team behind The Dairy - cooking the Amalfi Coast through British produce.
Sweetings
£££Open since 1889, lunch only, no bookings, and you eat at a counter on a high stool.
Weekday lunch only. No reservations. Closed evenings and weekends entirely.
Taca Tacos
££Six-hour beef birria and crisp baja fish tacos out of a Deptford railway arch, with margaritas to match.
The Mayfair Chippy
£££Fish and chips treated as a restaurant dish rather than a takeaway, with oysters, crab and mussels alongside - trading since 2015 and carrying an AA rosette for it.
Seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Takeaway runs alongside the dining room.
The Melusine
£££Fish brought up from the coast daily, on a dock full of moored boats - the most pleasant place to sit outside in this part of London.
The Sea, The Sea
££££The fishmonger that supplies Ikoyi and KOL, now with a 40-seat bistro above and a ten-seat seafood bar below - you can buy the fish on the way out.
The Seafood Bar
£££A Dutch import - the family were Volendam fishmongers from 1984 and opened the first Seafood Bar in Amsterdam in 2012. This is their only London site, and the fruits de mer is what the rest of the room is looking at.
The Seashell of Lisson Grove
££On Lisson Grove since 1964 and frying since before the war - the chippy that draws a celebrity crowd without changing anything about itself.
The Summerhouse
£££A New England-looking clapboard room right at the water's edge, doing seafood and fish and chips with the canal a metre from the table.
The Trafalgar Tavern
££A Regency riverside tavern beside the Old Royal Naval College, historically famous for its whitebait dinners.
Sits directly on the Thames path between the Cutty Sark and the Naval College, so it fits into a Greenwich walk without a detour.
Tollington's
£££Ed McIlroy of Four Legs took over an old Finsbury Park chip shop and put a 25-dish Iberian small-plates menu in it, smoked eel omelette included.
Trishna
£££Michelin-starred cooking from India's south-west coast, and the most-cited Indian restaurant in London across every guide we read.
Udaya Kerala Restaurant
££Keralan cooking - appam, coastal fish, coconut - rather than the northern menu most London curry houses run.
Wiltons
££££Founded in 1742 as George William Wilton's shellfish stall near the Haymarket, which makes it older than everything else in the guide by more than a century. Saturday is dinner only and Sunday it shuts.
The certificate on its website is a Michelin Guide listing, not a star. Several published guides report it as a star.
Wright Brothers
£££An oyster bar with fish arriving from Devon daily and a specials board that changes with the boat.
Zephyr
£££From the Pachamama group, on Portobello Road - one of the most photographed rooms in west London, and the cooking holds up.