The best tasting menu in London
50 places
A. Wong
££££The only two-Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant in Europe, working through the regional cooking of the whole country across a tasting menu.
Dim sum at lunch is a different and far cheaper proposition than the evening tasting menu - the two services barely resemble each other.
Akoko
££££A Michelin-starred tasting menu drawing on the cooking of Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal, with a grill and a clay oven at the centre of it.
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.
Angelina
£££A £74 kondate set menu that runs Japanese ingredients through Italian dishes - shokupan with robiola and umeboshi, wild boar cappellacci with kabocha and furikake.
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.
AngloThai
££££Thai cooking built on British seasonal produce rather than imported substitutes - the idea is in the name and it earned a Michelin star.
AUN
£££A small independent in Stoke Newington working to wakon yosai - Japanese spirit, Western technique - as a tasting menu rather than a sushi counter.
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.
Benares
££££Named Best Fine Dining Restaurant in London at the Asian Curry Awards, and a Berkeley Square fixture for two decades.
BiBi
££££Chet Sharma's Mayfair room, cooking regional Indian dishes through a fine-dining lens with a drinks list built to match.
Bonheur by Matt Abé
££££Matt Abé left Restaurant Gordon Ramsay to open his first solo room, and it took two Michelin stars within three months - about as fast as that has happened in London.
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.
Chishuru
££££Adejoké Bakare became the first Black female chef in Britain to hold a Michelin star, cooking the food of west Africa on a fixed menu.
Core by Clare Smyth
££££Three Michelin stars, built on British produce rather than French technique - widely called the most technically accomplished table in the city.
CUT at 45 Park Lane
££££Wolfgang Puck's first restaurant in Europe, running British native breeds, USDA Prime and Japanese wagyu side by side over a konro grill.
Da Terra
££££Two stars inside a converted Bethnal Green town hall - Brazilian and Italian threads running through a fixed menu.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
££££CLOSING JANUARY 2027. Two Michelin stars for dishes rebuilt from British recipes as far back as the 14th century - the Meat Fruit, a chicken liver parfait disguised as a mandarin, is the one everybody orders.
CONFIRMED CLOSING in January 2027, when the Knightsbridge lease ends. Anyone planning a 2027 trip should not be sent here without checking first. Overlooks Hyde Park from inside the Mandarin Oriental.
Fan
££££Chef Coco Sasaki's neo-Nikkei: Peruvian and Cantonese ingredients through Japanese technique, with pachikay nigiri and a £120 tasting menu.
Frog by Adam Handling
££££A Michelin-starred tasting menu built around zero waste - trimmings from one course become the next, and it is stated rather than hidden.
Gauthier Soho
££££Alexis Gauthier turned a classical French restaurant entirely vegan in 2021 - the same townhouse dining room, the same technique, no animal products at all. Very few kitchens at this level have made that switch.
Across several floors of a Soho townhouse, which makes it feel like eating in a private house. Tasting menus are the format.
Gymkhana
££££Modelled on the colonial-era gymkhana clubs of India, and the highest-decorated Indian kitchen in the city.
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.
Hide
££££Three floors above Green Park with the Hedonism wine cellar underneath - the list runs to thousands of bins.
Hunan
££££No menu at all - you say what you dislike and dishes keep arriving until you stop them. Hunanese cooking, changing daily.
There is no a la carte. The kitchen decides, which is the whole proposition - say in advance if you have restrictions.
Ikoyi
££££Two Michelin stars and a menu that uses West African pantry ingredients - grains, peppers, fermentation - without presenting itself as a heritage restaurant.
Jamavar
££££Named for the handwoven Kashmiri shawl, cooking across the whole subcontinent rather than one region of it.
Kitchen Table
££££Two Michelin stars cooked at a horseshoe counter with no menu given out in advance - you are told each course as it is put in front of you.
Kol
££££Santiago Lastra cooks Mexican technique using British ingredients - no imported produce, which is the constraint the whole menu is built on.
Kurisu Omakase
££££Eighteen courses in Brixton, where chef Chris Restrepo runs Japanese technique through his Thai-Colombian background - the least likely omakase address in London and one of the best.
Kutir
£££A Chelsea townhouse done as an Indian hunting lodge, with a menu built around game and the outdoors.
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.
Napoli on the Road Soho
£££London's first pizza tasting menu, from the pizzaiolo whose Chiswick room has been named Europe's best three years running. Seven courses, four of them pizza, in a basement under the a la carte floor.
TWO FORMATS IN ONE BUILDING. Ground floor is a la carte and seasonal; the basement runs the tasting menu at around GBP 65 a head, with the wine pairing charged on top. Book the basement specifically - it is not the default.
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.
Oudh 1722
££££Two-Michelin-star chef Aktar Islam cooking the Awadhi food of Lucknow - biryanis and kebabs - across three floors of a Victorian townhouse near London Bridge.
Peninsula Restaurant
££££Floor-to-ceiling glass looking straight across the river at the Canary Wharf towers - the best dining-room view in southeast London and Michelin-recognised.
Plates
££££The first fully vegan restaurant in Britain to win a Michelin star, awarded in 2025. Kirk Haworth cooks a tasting menu that treats vegetables with fine-dining technique rather than as a substitution exercise.
Run by Kirk Haworth with his sister Keeley. One open kitchen, floor-to-ceiling windows, polished concrete. Tables are released in batches and go quickly - this is the hardest vegan booking in the country.
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay
££££Three Michelin stars held continuously since 2001, which makes it the longest-running three-star restaurant in London. A small Chelsea dining room rather than a grand one - the reputation is entirely the cooking.
Opened 1998, third star in 2001, and it has never lost it. Bookings open well ahead and go; the lunch menu is the cheapest way in. A quiet room rather than a scene.
Row on 5
££££Jason Atherton's flagship, named for the 'refinement of work' - Spencer Metzger cooks British produce with a French hand, down to turbot with its own liver in the sauce.
Sollip
££££A Korean husband-and-wife team cooking European technique through Korean ingredients - the daikon tarte tatin with kimchi is the signature. One Michelin star.
Sushi Atelier
£££Repeatedly named the best-value serious omakase in central London - the same counter discipline as the Mayfair rooms at a fraction of the outlay.
Sushi Kanesaka
££££Thirteen covers inside 45 Park Lane - nine at the counter, four in a private room - doing omakase only, from the Tokyo original.
Omakase only, no a la carte. Opened July 2023.
Sushi Tetsu
££££Seven seats at a pale hinoki counter in a Clerkenwell alley, run by Toru Takahashi and his wife Harumi - and only them, which is why it is the hardest table in London to get.
Seven seats and a two-person operation. Booking opens in windows and goes almost immediately.
Tattu London
££££Contemporary Cantonese served under a cherry blossom canopy on the sixth floor of the Outernet, laid out as four rooms around an inner courtyard.
The Cherry Blossom dessert - a handmade chocolate tree that fogs when water is poured around it - is what most people book for. Sharing menu around 125 pounds a head.
The Araki
££££A no-choice menu at around £310, built on rare ingredients and served in two sittings a night to a handful of people.
Tuesday to Saturday only, two sittings. Closed Sunday and Monday.
The Cinnamon Club
££££Inside the Grade II listed old Westminster Library, bookshelves still in place - the most unusual dining room of any Indian restaurant in London.
The Cocochine
££££Larry Jayasekara cooking inside a Mayfair townhouse owned by the gallerist behind Hamiltons - the art on the walls is the collection, not decoration.
The Dysart
££££A Michelin star at the gates of Richmond Park, in an Arts and Crafts building, on a menu that changes with what Kenneth Culhane can actually get.
Trinity
££££Clapham Old Town's Michelin star, with a more relaxed room upstairs - the same kitchen at two different prices.
Trivet
££££Two stars from a chef and a master sommelier working as equals - the wine list is the other half of the proposition, not an accessory.
Umu
££££Kaiseki in the Kyoto tradition - a fixed seasonal progression rather than a sushi counter, which makes it the odd one out among Mayfair's Japanese rooms.