London Restaurant Recommendations (near Mayfair)

[LARRY WIENER]

We will be visiting London from the U. S. in late April through early May and would appreciate recommendations on restaurants. We will be staying in Mayfair and will be part of a group but will have a few evenings on our own. We can accommodate a range of price levels, from inexpensive to expensive, but not very cheap or very expensive. We would be interested in seafood, pubs, ethnic (mid-east or far east), European (French, Italian with or without pizza, middle Europe), good British, etc. Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

[Food Snob]

Some suggestions to start you off...

the Sportsman #1 (outside LDN, but worth the trip...)

Viajante

the Ledbury

St John

River Café

Franco Manca

Antepliler

le Gavroche

Edited April 16, 2010 by Food Snob (log)

[Harters]

I'll stick to Middle Eastern (as I don't live in London and only visit as a tourist).

The Noura group have about five restaurants offering very reliable Lebanese. Slightly cheaper, the Maroush group have a number of places around Edgeware (sp?) Road - again reliable. As a stand-alone restaurant, I was also quite impressed with the Lebanese offering at Ishbilia in Knightsbridge (although I was less than thrilled with the closeness of the table spacing and the very fast speed with which I was in and out - eating at around £1 a minute spent there.

If you're unfamiliar with "traditional" British food, you may like Rules (I love it).

All the places have websites.

[Alan Smeaton]

Larry

Lunch at Le Gavroche in Mayfair is highly recommended. 2 star Michelin cooking at just under £50 a head, including a half bottle of wine per person, mineral water, coffee etc. Dinner is much more expensive but still worth it at about £90 per head for food. Corrigan's Mayfair is superb and more affordable, about £50 for three courses at dinner.

[hot trotter]

Personaly id go to The Greenhouse, i think it's better than the Ledbury. Le Gavroche is good but hardly a good advert for modern cooking in London. It's possibly worth looking at Pied a Terre.

[PoppySeedBagel]

I recommend Wild Honey in Mayfair or its sister in Soho, Arbutus (I prefer the ambiance of the latter, though think WH's food is slightly better). As you will see from their threads I rarely go anywhere else in London. For cheapish eats when you're out & about the small Leon chain is very good. For ethnic, Ozer on Upper Regent Street is modest, sort of Turkish (other influences too), very nice food and well-run. Benares is quite amazing inside (not sure if it's re-opened yet), and sometimes its (up-market Indian) food can be amazing too. Avoid Murano - very good but way too expensive.

[LARRY WIENER]

]Thanks to all for your suggestions. We will start exploring some of them as soon as we get some free time.

[PoppySeedBagel]

Do report back Larry - it'll be interesting to hear how you get on.

[JMillar]

Would second the thoughts on Wild Honey

Also

Hereford Rd is not far over in Notting Hill and very reasonable too

Italian and high end Locanda Locatelli

Seafood

J Sheekey in central London

and of course

Scotts which is in mayfair

[david goodfellow]

Totally agree with Wild Honey and Hereford Road.

Locatelli is a disgrace, this was my review last year,

And,,,,, I stumbled on this last week, which makes illuminating reading,

http://truetraveltreasures.blogspot.com/2009/04/locanda-locatelli.html,

Went to Scotts last year and whilst we had perhaps the best Shellfish Bisque (with cream and cognac) ever, the rest was not memorable except again for the shocking service.

They claimed they did not have a booking in my name, when I remonstrated and offered to go back to my car to get the name and booking time the snotty tart relented and gave us a rubbish table next to a busy service area, was I not pleased

[Harters]

Locatelli is a disgrace,

Agreed. It took us about 2 years to tie in the opportunity for a London visit with being able to get a table. And then it was just such a sodding disappointment.