The definitive list of cool and trendy restaurants in London

Tucked beneath Haggerston’s railway arches, Planque blends minimalist design with serious food and wine credentials. Head Chef Seb Myers crafts refined, French-inspired dishes, while natural wines flow from an ever-changing menu. Expect industrial interiors, communal tables, and plenty of East London charm.

One of 2025's sleeper hits, Lai Rai's candy cane awning and stainless steel minimalism make it one of London's most strikingly designed spaces. Thankfully the food holds up too - Vietnamese flavours with just the right amount of modernism. Don't miss the prawn lollies and papaya salad.

Bistro Freddie lives up to the name with candlelit bistro tables and a menu full of French-style comfort food you'll just want to dive into. Think seasonal starters, hearty pies, and larger cuts cooked over open flames. The sticky toffee pudding is a must.

Lupa launched straight into the hype limelight when it announced one of its co-founders was Theo James. You won't find the White Lotus star rattling pans here, but Lupa remains popular - a sign that its quality endures long after the headlines have subsided. 

Los Mochis seamlessly blends two worlds, mixing a colourful Mexican aesthetic with slick, modern Japanese design. Moody, buzzy interiors are a big part of the interest, but the food is bold, exciting and delicious too.

The hype restaurant of the moment from Four Legs' Ed McIlroy, Tollington's brings the essence of a great Basque pintxos bar to Finsbury Park. It's busy, the acoustics are pretty bad, and the stool-and-bench seating is not comfortable, but you can't deny the magic of the place, or the outrageously good fish cookery. Tollington's is worth the trip for the chips bravas alone. 

A quaint rooftop bang in the middle of London, and some very smart Middle Eastern cooking make Yasmin a pretty unique prospect by all accounts. If you’re looking for somewhere cool to show off to a visitor, we reckon Yasmin fits the bill perfectly.

From the team behind Bob Bob Ricard comes bright young thing Bebe Bob, a rotisserie chicken-focussed concept designed to draw the crowds. Of course there's caviar, Champagne and beautiful interiors to keep people coming back for more. 

Hospitality power couple Honey Spencer and Charlie Sims head to Broadway Market for this achingly cool modern bistro and wine bar. Sune sits right in the zeitgeist but few restaurants nail this combination with such class and conviviality.

This is a restaurant at the pinnacle of immersive dining. Hefty bumps of caviar and ice-cold vodka shots on arrival, phones confiscated, courses you need to wear gloves for, neon artwork, smoke machine action, lasers, and a soap dispenser shaped like a udder. It's a fever dream evening with multiple sensory stages and food that's pretty damn hard to forget. 

Abby Lee’s modern Malaysian restaurant brings the heat at this buzzy site on Lower Clapton Road. Her dishes cleverly layer spice that enhance, rather than distract, from each ultra-fresh ingredient. Intriguing cocktails and a ‘juicy’ natural wine list form a fitting pairing.

The Lavery had us from the first sight of that magnificent whitewashed Georgian portico. Climb the stairs into the old residence of Irish painter Sir John Lavery and bask in the beauty of this regal old space, complete with ceilings, sweeping, ornately-carved wooden bannisters, and towering windows. The cooking is excellent too, but The Lavery is all about the atmosphere. 

Tucked down a graffiti-splashed Shoreditch alley, One Club Row promises a Martini-fuelled evening of old-school New York glamour and warm hospitality. Don't miss the cheeseburger au poivre, which comes with a peppery sauce on the side for dipping. Genius. 

The industrial-chic bones of this former garage now house something quietly magical. Primeur’s hyper-seasonal, stripped-back cooking and thoughtful natural wine list make it ideal for a low-key romantic dinner. The sharp, minimal look is achingly cool, the food genuinely excellent, and the team warm, knowledgeable and generous with recommendations throughout.

This is what you get when you mix live fire cooking with a late-night vinyl dungeon, powered by an absolutely stonking custom sound system and a one-of-a-kind rotary mixer. A steady stream of vinyl selectors come to Caia each week, slinging out jazz, funk and disco sets. 

Miga is Korean for ‘flavourful house’ - a name it more than lives up to. This family-run joint serves up flavour-pumped twists on classic Korean dishes, from spicy Gochujang prawns to soy-braised short ribs with pear, carrots and shiitake mushrooms. Just don't expect any basic bibimbap here. 

Over the park from another Newington Green trendy favourite, Jolene, Cadet is a no-bookings wine bar that hides some truly fantastic cooking behind the scenes. Don’t leave without trying a slice of pate en croute.

Osteria Angelina's Japanese-Italian fusion cooking is so much more than just a gimmick - it's perfectly realised, enthralling, and utterly delicious. Kick things off with a slab of nori focaccia, then enjoy the theatre around you as staff weave between tight tables, unveiling smoked Negronis and shuttling glorious pasta dishes. Sultry interiors and buzzy atmosphere make this the epitome of Shoreditch cool. 

The Hero is the pub on everyone’s lips right now. It comes from the same team behind The Pelican and has had rave reviews since it opened in the summer of 2024. The ground floor pub offers comfort in the form of hearty snacks and pub classics, while the first floor Grill Room is a more refined affair serving speciality cuts of meat and fish cooked over an open fire.  

This walk-in only restaurant appeared with little fanfare, but good luck getting a table these days without queuing. Inside, River Cafe alumni Jessica Filbey and Harry Hills are throwing out nourishing Italian plates - courgette ravioli, girolle risotto, and beef ragu with polenta - to a buzzing dining room, in one of London's most eclectic neighbourhoods.

Singburi has transformed from a modest neighbourhood spot into a Shoreditch sensation. Its lively, open-kitchen setup fuels a compact but thrilling Thai menu of shareable plates, from wild ginger chicken thighs to fiery monkfish curry balanced by refreshing salads. A seat at the counter is one of the most electric dining experiences in London. 

The queues outside this walk-in-only Borough Market spot should be all you need to know about just how good (and how popular) AGORA has been since it opened. Boasting a phenomenal menu of dips, skewers and homebaked breads, classy cocktails and outrageously good prices, we'd queue for AGORA again and again. In fact, we have.

One of the first restaurants to bring charcoal ocakbasi cooking to the UK, owner Ali Dirik's beloved restaurant is setting the standard for exceptional, properly authentic Turkish food in London. Highlights include sourdough pide with cultured butter, smoked hummus with house pickles and any of its succulent grills cooked over hot flames.

A dark horse for the award of London's most aesthetically pleasing restaurant, Leo's conjures the magic of the Italian riviera in the 70s and matches it with pinpoint precision cooking courtesy of former P. Franco chef Peppe Belvedere. Get a table in the back room if you can. 

Dove is Jackson Boxer's rewrite of his previous seafood-focused Orasay, taking over the same site on Kensington Park Road. The cooking is just as superb as before, if not more so, melding genius flavour combos with intention and real creativity. Think deep fried taleggio and truffle lasagna. Come on!

The team behind the excellent Nest and St Barts has relaunched the former as Tavern, swapping seasonal tasting menus for an a la carte full of big-hitting British bistro dishes. It has a certain Victorian charm to it inside, mixing sleek stainless counters with pewter mugs, glowering black iron lamps and rows of flickering candles. An off-menu veal sweetbread burger lifts this into unquestioned cool territory. 

David Carter’s restaurant track record is as good as anyone, and OMA might just be his most aesthetically pleasing spot yet - the upstairs dining room is all sleek lines and jutting, angular furniture, and the view over Borough Market is a nice bonus. If this is the new face of Greek food in London, we’re here for it.

Since Max Rocha opened Café Cecilia in 2021, it’s become known as the place to be and be seen in East London. Why? We think its menu of seasonal, unpretentious sharing plates might have something to do with it.  

Lagana is Shoreditch’s new cool kid, all industrial-chic vibes with a playful twist: crayon-covered tables, cartoon menus, and cocktails named by colour. Greek-inspired plates steal the show – charred pittas dips, and standout soutzoukakia flatbreads – while a Basque cheesecake seals the deal. Fun, unfussy, and buzzing with energy, Lagana makes dining feel like pure joy.

John Chantarasak’s AngloThai concept has taken many forms over the years, from must-visit pop-ups to sellout residencies, but in 2024 he finally opened a permanent site, bringing his dynamic, full-throttle Thai cooking to Marylebone. Don’t expect Pad Thai’s and spring rolls though. John's unique Thai cookery uses UK sourced produce to create boundary-pushing, flavour-packed dishes.  

Has this Notting Hill celeb-magnet ever not been cool and trendy? After a few up and down years, Julie’s is back for good thanks to dream team Tara MacBain, Owen Kenworthy and Emma Underwood. The vibes are back too - Julie’s is let-your-hair-down fun and chic in the best way, but the brasserie-style food is also superb.