Best Restaurants in London

Most of these ‘best of lists’ I’m doing have been compiled with some degree of difficulty often leaving me feeling guilty for excluding somewhere excellent that for whatever reason was nudged out by another place. However, making a concise and definite list of my favourite few London restaurants visited over this past year was an absolute breeze as five fantastic eateries clearly did stand out from the rest with respect to quality of food and overall dining experience.

Listed below in alphabetical order are five London restaurants where I reckon the best meals of 2014 were served.

Keep an eye out for more Best of 2014 posts over the coming days. And please note, these ‘best of’ lists merely reflect how I chose to spend my time during the year and are comprised of well established and brand new venues as well as businesses that are local to me or somehow related to where work and play took me.

Best Restaurants in London

Brasserie Chavot
Next to The Westbury Hotel at 41 Conduit Street, W1S 2YF
Contemporary French cuisine made with quality ingredients sourced from the British Isles and France? It’s a gorgeous idea – especially when executed by a capable chef such as Eric Chavot. A visit to his eponymous brasserie presents the chance to explore his menu of epic flavour and subtle finesse.

INK
44 Palmers Road, Suttons Wharf South, E2 0TA
Set beside the Regent’s Canal with plenty of outdoor seating, INK is as ideal a place as any in East London for grabbing a bite – and a helluva lot more pleasant than most. And even if the setting were less splendid, I still would have loved my dinner there for the wonderful dishes served. Just about everything presented from young Lithuanian chef Martyn Meid’s kitchen was done so exquisitely and – most importantly – utterly delicious.

Kouzu
“Behind” Eaton Square and across from the Goring Hotel at 21 Grosvenor Gardens, SW1W 0JW
Elegant Japanese fine dining (with an amazing whisky menu!) set within a Grade-II listed period mansion with a palatial entrance and stunning contemporary interiors – recently opened Kouzu is one of the best things to happen to haute cuisine scene in London for quite while. Dinner there was hands down the most satisfying of 2014 for me.

Nobu London
First floor of the Metropolitan Hotel, 19 Old Park Lane, W1K 1LB
Big flavour with a big name behind it, in a ‘just right’ space with lofty views across Park Lane to Hyde Park – if you like Japanese cuisine (and extraordinary wines), dinner at Nobu offers a perfect opportunity to make the moreish most of a night out in Mayfair.

Theo Randall at the Intercontinental
Inside the InterContinental London Park Lane, One Hamilton Place, W1J 7QY
Theo Randall at the Intercontinental is THE place to head to for an upscale dinner focused on basic quality ingredients with a no-fuss approach to bringing out the best in Italian cuisine.

More of the Best of 2014 to follow!