Fitzrovia’s best restaurants

Mayfair and Soho aside, we’re particularly partial to Fitzrovia’s restaurant scene – after all, it’s where our London services calls home. Right on our doorstep, we’ve got superb chefs’ tables, beautiful private dining rooms, entire constellations of Michelin stars, and – of course – some of the coolest culinary concepts around. So, here’s our list of the restaurants we turn to over and over again.  

Berners Tavern 

It’s no exaggeration to say the dining room at Berners Tavern is a work of art. A chandelier hangs from the corniced ceiling, a golden Champagne trolley revolves between candlelit tables, and the walls are filled with a gallery’s worth of artworks. You almost don’t notice the open kitchen, rippling below a floral painting like one of Harry Potter’s magical moving portraits. It's here that a team led by Jason Atherton turns out similarly artful plates – like the indulgent mac and cheese, topped with pieces of poached lobster.  

Lisboeta

A personal restaurant from proprietor and chef Nuno Mendes, Lisboeta is his love letter to Lisbon – a ‘democratic place’, he told us when hosting one of our supper clubs a couple of years ago, ‘where you want to go once a week.’ And it is indeed the kind of cooking you want to return to, the highlights including halibut served with crispy Swiss chard and Ibérico pork plumas with red pepper sauce. To drink, the wine list features almost exclusively Portuguese wines, and to gather, the ten-seat private room, Adega, fits the bill nicely.  

The Ninth  

We’ll start at the end with The Ninth, as the pain perdu will have you clamouring to return. Made from brioche soaked in custard for 12 hours before being fried in butter and served with tonka bean ice cream, it’s easily one of the best desserts we’ve had in London. Other dishes by chef Jan Tanaka (who trained at the likes of Le Gavroche) are similarly detailed, like deep-fried artichoke served in the shape of a rose. All that, and it still feels remarkably relaxed – especially on the street-level terrace.  

Lima

If you close your eyes whilst biting into the stone bass ceviche at Lima, you almost feel transported to Peru – especially if London’s bashful sun shows its face through the huge skylight. But you are, in fact, on Charlotte Street, eating contemporary Peruvian cuisine by Sergio Arocas, who recently took over from Virgilio Martínez Véliz (chef-owner of Central Restaurante in Lima, crowned the best restaurant in Latin America). Get the tasting menu for the full experience, preceded by – what else? – a Pisco sour.   

Akoko  

One of London’s best West African restaurants, Akoko takes you on a tour through some of the region’s finest flavours, complete with all the theatrics of a culinary magician. Its 10-course tasting menu includes jollof rice, which arrives in a puff of smoke and is peppered with purple carrots, and Gambian stew, here made with Irish oysters. Its appearance, too, merits praise and photography in equal measure – a symphony of warm clay tones, considered art, and hand-carved pottery.  

Kitchen Table

Like memorising the menu before heading out to eat? Good luck at Kitchen Table – if you click ‘menu’ on the website, you’ll simply be told that you’re eating ‘meticulously sourced and foraged British seasonal ingredients.’ But that is the charm of this theatrical, two-Michelin-starred experience: to know the menu would be akin to reading spoilers before the season finale. Just 19 guests sit around the U-shaped table and eat whatever chef James Knappett whips up; for a truly decadent evening, opt for the Champagne pairing. 

Portland

One of the more accessible Michelin-starred restaurants in the city, Portland prides itself on its unpretentious atmosphere. There are no white tablecloths to be found: the focus here is on the food. Clean, colourful plates never feel overcrowded and make full use of seasonal British produce like Isle of Mull scallops or Cornish pollock. The wine list is also impressive and filled with hard-to-find bottles, many of which are available by the glass. 

The Tent (at the end of the universe) 

The Tent certainly feels like a saloon in outer space. Hidden under a members’ club just off Portland Place, it’s decked out with scarlet curtains and moon-like orbs; there’s also a seated DJ, loos that play clips of Robin Williams, and a nightclub hidden on the floor below. Its menu, by chef John Javier, is similarly out of the box – a bit Chinese, a bit French, a touch Middle Eastern. Try the mushroom shish and scallop silk before moving on to poached chicken orzo or the dangerously addictive ‘crack pie’. 

Arros QD 

This dark ‘n’ moody restaurant is Spanish chef Quique Dacosta’s palace of paella – although you can also get other artfully plated dishes if you’re not in the mood for arros (rice). There’s a wood-fired theme running through the menu, from cheese stones served blackened like lumps of charcoal to the paellas themselves. The Valencian paella is a must, with its chunks of tender rabbit and crispy-based rice, as is the Iberian presa – smoky slices of pork served with artichoke purée.  

Chishuru  

There’s been a lot of buzz around Chishuru recently – not least because it just won its inaugural Michelin star. Its modern take on West African cuisine has won over critics and the public alike, with chef Adejoké Bakare turning out a tasting menu filled with intriguing numbers like mushroom moi (bean cake with mushrooms and Scotch bonnet sauce) and banga (barbecued turbot with palm nut cream). Plus, it’s all served in an airy dining room that’s more like a café than a restaurant – relaxed fine dining at its best