Food
De Beauvoir Deli has been a neighbourhood favourite for over a decade, known for its exceptional produce. This July, founder Harry Davies is giving it a new lease of evening life with De Beauvoir Wines, transforming the much-loved café across the road into a wine bar. We went along and bagged a spot on the terrace, which is exactly where you want to be in summer. There’s a strong by-the-glass list, concise and ever-changing, plus seasonal cocktails if you’re not in a wine mood.
Food-wise, it’s classic wine bar territory: interesting cheese plates and a charcuterie selection for sharing, alongside a few extras – the pork belly, rillette and even the bowl of crisps are all worth your time. It’s all built on the deli’s long-standing relationships with independent growers, producers and suppliers, so expect top-tier produce throughout. Same warm hospitality that’s made the deli a local institution, just running later. Costa De Beauvoir is the place to be.
Hackney School of Food is based in a former caretaker’s house on the site of Mandeville Primary School which has been transformed into a purpose-built food education centre. Here, it runs sessions for children and adults alike with the aim to make food education as engaging and accessible as possible, promoting healthy, culturally diverse, and nature-friendly food. The site includes a teaching kitchen, dining room plus a dedicated garden where they grow fresh produce to use in lessons.
Run by the Hackney charity Children With Voices, the Community Food Hub provides fresh food and practical support to local families. What started as a single project has grown into four weekly food hubs across the borough, working with partners to rescue and redistribute surplus food that would otherwise go to waste. Since 2020, the charity has supported over 100,000 people. The hub runs parent workshops, food education sessions and community advice drop-ins, which focus on healthy eating cooking skills and SEND support.
Oma is David Carter’s (Smokestak, Manteca) ode to the Greek isles, perched above sister restaurant Agora in Borough Market. Head chef Jorge Paredes (ex-Sabor) leans into charcoal-grilled everything, spreads and breads built for sharing, and standouts like spanakopita and giouvetsi, backed by a 400-bin wine list heavy on sun-baked coastlines. The restaurant has a Michelin star which makes it even more popular. Bookings are essential.
Rambutan is chef Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s love letter to northern Sri Lanka, tucked into Borough Market on the back of her cookbook of the same name. Expect big, confident Tamil flavours, creamy coconut dal, slow-braised black pork, and a changing menu built around ingredients shipped in from Sri Lanka alongside whatever’s best at the market that day. It’s loud, it’s usually rammed, and it’s some of the best Sri Lankan cooking in London, walk-ins welcome, but go hungry and go early.
After stints at Spitalfields and Peckham, chef Abby Lee’s Malaysian concept went permanent on Lower Clapton Road, and it’s some of the best Malaysian food in London. The room is small and loud, open kitchen, metal tables, colourful plates, a thumping soundtrack, with the strapline “Malaysian Heat + Juicy Wines” summing it up nicely. Lee grew up in Singapore working in family bakeries before cooking her way through Malaysia and Italy, and the menu reflects that layered Chinese and Indo-Malay influence. Don’t miss the lor bak (crispy pork and prawn roll with a killer chilli vinegar jam) and the otak-otak prawn toast wrapped in betel leaf, plus a rotating cast of curries, a black pepper chicken from Lee’s family recipe in Perak, or a pineapple curry topped with garlic chive dumplings. Wash it down with natural wine or a milk tea.
The second site from the team behind The Tamil Prince, this one tucked behind Angel on a quiet Islington backstreet where all the action happens indoors. It’s another pub reinvention doing food from the Tamil Nadu region, split over a lively downstairs bar and a smart upstairs dining room with a checkerboard floor and famously low lighting (bring a candle, or your phone torch). The menu leans on Tamil Nadu classics, Chettinad lamb and Thanjavur chicken curries laced with curry leaves and whole chillies, craggy onion bhajis, alongside newer additions like lime leaf-roasted chicken with pineapple chutney and a rich beef masala uttapam. And the roti, given the founders’ Roti King pedigree, is some of the best in London, order two rounds so there’s nothing left unmopped. Sundays bring an Indian-inspired roast with masala chicken, lamb, and coconut stir-fried cabbage.
Maramia has been serving home-style Palestinian food on and around Portobello Road since 2005, now split across an original Golborne Road spot and a newer, colourful all-day café at 274 Portobello Road. It’s a proper family affair: think moutabal, slow-cooked stews, mixed grills and a falastini minced lamb kebab that regulars swear by. Come for the cinnamon rice, stay because it feels like someone’s front room.
Wanasa brings a slice of Levantine home cooking to Winchmore Hill, by way of Sweden. Founder Hiyam grew up split between Scandinavia and Saudi Arabia, with family roots in Jordan, and built Wanasa around her grandmother’s table, speciality coffee, artisan bakes, and a Middle Eastern breakfast and brunch menu drawing on Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Dog-friendly, baby-friendly, and there’s a plant-filled garden out back for when the sun’s out.
Fatteh is the whole point at T by Tamara, a Marylebone café where founder Tamara Al Saadi, who has Palestinian and Jordanian roots, runs London’s only fatteh bar. Build your own bowl from pitta, chickpeas and garlic yoghurt, topped with anything from sumac-spiced chicken to tomato aubergine, in a room filled with tiles from Jerusalem, mirrors from Jordan and small keys that nod to the Palestinian right of return. Don’t leave without a slice of Tamara’s grandmother’s olive oil sponge cake, no celebration required.
Ibraaz is the six-storey cultural home London didn’t know it needed. Opened in a Grade II-listed Portland stone building on Mortimer Street, it’s part gallery, part gathering place: a soaring great hall (the Majlis) for exhibitions and talks, a library holding The Otolith Group’s archive, and, either side of the entrance, two reasons to linger, Maktaba, a bookshop-in-residence curated by the Palestine Festival of Literature and stacked with Palestinian literature, and Oula, a café serving Tunisian home cooking. Come for the art. Stay for the mint tea and the books you won’t want to put down.
We’ve already raved about the food at Gold’s sister restaurant Tower House in our review – but we MUST add a separate feature for the terrace. Situated in a 19th-century clock tower, it’s a quirky spot amongst the typical endless chain of Richmond restaurants. Perfect for the heatwave, the architecture honestly makes you feel like you’re in the South of France on a Wednesday evening after work – the DREAM!!
With a prime spot overlooking the river, you can order the whole menu including that famous Gold chicken and if you fancy a drink there’s an extensive wine menu and cocktail list. Don’t leave without a dessert, either – the offering changes regularly and seasonally but we guarantee you’ll strike gold whatever you choose.
A.Wong Is Setting Up in Mayfair for the Summer
A month after announcing his new Chinese pub Kong, Andrew Wong has announced he is leaving Pimlico (for the summer only!). A.Wong’s two Michelin-starred site on Wilton Road serves its last lunch and dinner on Saturday 1st August, then shuts for a full refurbishment. From Tuesday 18 August, Wong will run a temporary residency inside Mandarin Oriental Mayfair on Hanover Square, in the private dining rooms next to what’s now Atrium Restaurant.
This independent ice cream parlour is pleasing punters in Marylebone – including one Harry Styles. The spot specialises in real ice cream and fruit lollies, with flavours including ‘grown-up’ vanilla, chocolate peanut chunk, lychee raspberry and rose, and, of course, watermelon sugar. All the milk and cream is delivered daily from The Estate Dairy, a family-run, B Corp-certified farm, so you know the scoops will be perfectly fresh and creamy.
What’s better than a beer in the sun? A beer in the sun with a barbecue, of course. The Garden Bar Grill and Smokehouse by Cue Point London offers both. And we’re not talking your standard hot dog and burger situation. Mursal Saiq and Joshua Moroney take barbecuing to a new level with their Afghan-Texan fusion. The concept is built around low-and-slow barbecue, mixing Texas-style BBQ, and Afghan spices, chutneys, pickles and sauces. The garden is massive too, providing the perfect place to watch the live-fire cooking while sipping on a pint.
Since opening in March 2026, Logma has become a firm favourite in Hackney. The Iranian-Iraqi cafe serves up warming stews, crisp morning pastries and proper Middle Eastern coffee and tea, but the sandwiches are where it’s at. The soft pittas filled with lamb kofte or aubergine went viral for a reason. You’ll have to try yourself to believe the hype. Once you’ve had the sandwich, stick around for Logma Lates – a Wednesday night supper club where 18 guests enjoy dishes that celebrate regional Iraqi and Iranian cooking. Guests can bring their own wines, with no corkage, adding to the feeling that you’re dining in Ziad and Farsin’s home.
Handyman Sushi is a supper club, which mostly takes place in Pedro’s flat in London Fields. BYOB and six seats only, it’s closer to being asked round to a friend’s for dinner than to a night out at a restaurant. Pedro is Brazilian and a self-taught sushi slayer who’s been obsessed with sushi for more than a decade. The menu is shaped by what’s good that week and the season, plus whatever Pedro’s into at the time, and dishes shift mid-service depending on the room or the drinks going round. Expect three to five small plates, a soup course, twelve to sixteen pieces of sushi, a hand roll and dessert. On our visit that meant house-made miso, grilled eel, several cuts of tuna and sea bass belly among others. It’s a long, slow meal and the execution is excellent right the way through. If sushi is one half of the experience, the other is music. As a DJ (yes he wears many hats) Pedro’s record collection is serious stuff. He builds each soundtrack himself, playing full albums rather than a playlist on shuffle.
If you’re struggling to bag a table at Dorian, there’s an easier way to get a taste of the Notting Hill hotspot this summer. The restaurant’s 15-seater terrace runs on a first-come, first-served basis, so no ressies required. Once you’ve snagged a seat, you can enjoy snacks and desserts, like the famous rosti, steak tartare and banana toffee pudding. There’s also a new cocktail menu, inspired by retro 1960s California disco cocktails, including serves like a Frozen Melon Margarita (made with tequila, fino sherry and melon), a Strawberry Tomato Highball (made with Gariguette strawberry, tomato and rooibos) and a Toreador (made with tequila, sweet Riesling, apricot and loquat) – perfect for sipping in the sunshine.
