This French bistro first woos with nooks perfect for a tête-à-tête and vases of fresh flowers that’ll make you go all doe-eyed after a hard day. Servers charm you with a wink as they top up your wine glass. But it’s the incredible things the chefs do with fat that’ll seal the deal: the generously salted, creamy butter with fresh baguette, tender, rich ox tongue draped with chanterelles, crisp pastry base on the sweet shallot tatin, and completely decadent burnt milk tart.
Grasso is a Soho restaurant that specialises in good-times energy and comforting Italian-American food. The music is loud, the disco-themed toilets demand an impromptu karaoke session, and smiley servers deliver fishbowl-sized spritzes. This is the perfect setting for a third date when you’re ready to go full Lady and the Tramp over a plate of massive meatballs. The food isn’t perfect but order the penne alla vodka and chicken parm, and you'll leave happy and full, with plans of returning.
The Dover in Mayfair is a dimly lit Italian restaurant with big-plate aubergine parmigiana and an if-you-know-you-know feel to it. Walk into the unmarked spot, past the heavy maroon curtains, into what feels like an invite-only members' club. Except at this one, it’s all smiles and "buon appetito" from the friendly servers, and the food is actually great. Everything from the complimentary bread, to chocolate paste topped with crunchy hazelnuts, and the citrussy dover sole in between is a hit.
At Kolae, the focus is on southern Thai flavours and marinated things cooked over a very hot coconut—and some of those things are very, very good. A steamed mussel skewer is a revelation and instantly one of London’s great molluscs—even if that category isn’t overcrowded. Similar exclamations can be said about the deep-fried prawn heads. The slick, three-floor spot in Borough Market suits all kinds of get-togethers, but the kitchen counter is where the action is and where Kolae feels most alive.
This tight-knit Malaysian restaurant has gone from street stall, to pop-up, to food hall concession to, now, its own small but superb space in Clapton. Flavours at Mambow dance around Malaysia and Singapore, from five-spice pork and prawn bean curd rolls, to sensational Sarawak black pepper chicken curry, to fiery otak-otak prawn toast. It’s all deeply flavoured, aromatic, and enlivening stuff. The kind of food that will have you scraping the plastic plates clean and doing a little jig.
At Alley Cats Pizza, a walk-in only, NYC-style pizza spot in Marylebone, the exposed brick and checkered tablecloths take you to the streets of Williamsburg. There's a dimly lit lamp on each table, a projector plays The Sopranos, and diners fill the buzzy industrial-looking room, dipping chewy margherita crusts into fiery scotch bonnet sauce, and getting messy with a sweet onion jam-heavy mushroom slice. The pizzas are thin and crisp, covered in a rich tomato sauce, and big enough to share.
The upstairs dining room at The Devonshire is the kind of place we’d like to be during a blizzard, perusing a handwritten menu of comforting British classics—lamb hotpot, creamed leeks, sticky toffee pudding—while the wind howls outside. Come for one of London’s best pints of Guinness, some of the city’s best British food, and to mop up leftover gravy with duck fat chips. If you don’t manage to book the Grill Room, the downstairs bar of this Soho spot is a charming, crowded place.
There’s something about Tashas that makes us feel like we’re in an alternate reality where the sun is always shining on Battersea and passion fruit granitas are a routine part of our day. Maybe it’s the Pinterest coffee shop feel or the fact that you’re not hurried along and time seems to slow down. Whatever it is, we’re hooked. Plus the food is great too. Excellently creamy chicken pasta comes with chunky slices of woody mushrooms, and is the perfect post-work dinner.
The Maginhawa Group is building a Filipino empire across north and central London (with Mamasons, Panadera, and Ramo Ramen, among others) but in Donia they have their best restaurant of the lot. An evening around Carnaby Street can make dinner in the bowels of hell seem appealing, but Donia acts like noise-cancelling headphones to the stresses of Kingly Court. The room has a warm modernity to it which is matched by chummy service and elegant Filipino dishes with a sprinkling of Soho pizzazz.
The Tamil Crown, from the same people behind The Tamil Prince, is an excellent neighbourhood pub and Indian restaurant. The Angel spot pulls a great pint of Guinness downstairs and upstairs, heaving platters of button-loosening Sunday roasts hit tables. Perfectly tender lamb shank or moist chicken with charred skin, surrounded by deep-fried cauliflower, green beans cooked in creamy coconut, and shimmering gravy. During the week, there are curries and buttery, flaky roti on the menu.