The American brand’s first international foray, NoMad London is housed in a 19th-century court and police station (Oscar Wilde was incarcerated here) in Covent Garden. The art program includes nods to the Victorian period and J.M.W. Turner, who lived nearby. There are two on-site restaurants: Side Hustle offers contemporary Mexican cuisine, while the NoMad Restaurant serves New American dishes under a glass-ceilinged atrium.

Opened in 1889, this “grande dame” has undergone many revisions over the years. It was leveled in 1903 and rebuilt in the Edwardian style (thankfully, the Red Lift, London’s first electric elevator, was saved), while Art Deco touches came in the 1920s. The result is elegant rooms that overlook the Thames. Breakfast is served in an extravagant space complete with a pianist, while Gordon Ramsay’s River Restaurant offers water views and seafood.

Walk to Bankside Pier and hop on a riverboat, and you’ll be convinced the London skyline is best appreciated from the water. Heading southwest on the Thames, you’ll pass the Houses of Parliament, with Westminster Abbey’s dual towers rising behind. Big Ben’s clock face is visible, and the London Eye looms in its now iconic spot on the South Bank.

The Star Tavern has been around for ages; today, its cobbled mews look out of place amid the surrounding whitewashed multimillion-pound houses. You’ll want to order the sticky toffee pudding after devouring a colossal plate of beer-battered haddock with thick, triple-cooked chips.

This is London’s oldest family-owned café, or “caff,” as people call it here. Italian immigrant Priamo Pellicci founded it in 1900, and hearty Italian meals and English breakfast classics are still the Grade II–listed greasy spoon’s bread and butter.

In 1990, this store took over a custom-built Edwardian bookshop with a skylight above a two-story atrium and long oak galleries. Founder James Daunt categorized books by country rather than genre, which made the store a quick success; in 2019, he became CEO of Barnes & Noble.

Set in an 18th-century courthouse, the restaurant exudes dilapidated glamour: artfully distressed plaster walls, crystal chandeliers, and a working fireplace that lends the space a cinematic glow. Head chef and culinary darling Florence Knight’s pan-European menu may look simple on paper, but it’s revelatory.

Galicia native Isabel Ríos founded Laxerio in 1982 a place to serve home-cooked Spanish meals and bocadillos— massive baguettes stuffed with ham and tomato, tortilla española, and aioli, all of it simple and sublime.