Where to eat during London Fashion Week 2025
Published 11 September 2025

More than three decades ago, there was nowhere quite like Le Caprice in London for high-glamour celebrity-spotting. With Jeremy King’s return to 20 Arlington Street comes a new iteration with a new name – ‘it's now touted as “not Le Caprice”, but you could have fooled me,’ noted a confirmed regular from the old days. The predominantly monochrome ‘Parisian brasserie’ look has been faithfully restored: the walls are still lined with David Bailey's iconic monochrome photos of (now half-forgotten) stars, and the piano continues to tinkle in the evening. Even Le Caprice's culinary legends still queue up on the menu, all delivered with great proficiency.

The crispy duck salad, the calf’s liver with bacon, the house burger ('chopped steak Américain’ in Arlington-speak) and, of course, the iced berries with white chocolate sauce all have a legion of followers. Ditto the famous bang-bang chicken and the big-on-comfort salmon fishcakes with sorrel sauce, which we enjoyed. For something more interesting, look to the daily specials – maybe vitello tonnato, followed by chargrilled squid with pepper salsa and bacon.

But it was desserts that hit the top note for us. Two could have made short work of our rich, buttery and delicious tarte tatin, while a light, delicate elderflower jelly with summer fruits was sublime in its simplicity. It's all matched by a wine list that leans towards Europe but offers little choice under £50. However, there’s a reasonable selection by the glass (from £9) and carafe (from £27).

Arlington may serve a city vastly different from the one that its predecessor dazzled back in the day, but it can still deliver classy modern brasserie fare and it still has a certain ‘something for everyone’ appeal, while a seat at the bar by the entrance looks like a great spot for solo diners.

Are high-profile restaurants above pubs becoming a thing in London? On the first floor of the Three Compasses pub in Farringdon, this reworking of Henry Harris’s famed (and much missed) Racine in Knightsbridge revives the chef’s avowed mission to provide resolutely French food and drink after a gap of seven years. Reached via steep stairs, it’s a pleasant, light-filled room, where a lot of effort has gone into creating a mood that is warm and unpretentious. Come here if you want straight-talking Gallic brasserie classics, dishes straight out of Larousse Gastronomique. Escargots à la bourguignonne, perhaps, or Bayonne ham with celeriac rémoulade, then rabbit with mustard sauce or côte de boeuf with sauce béarnaise. All dishes are chosen from a large, densely written blackboard menu, hoisted from table to table – a convincing slice of France if it weren’t for the mainly English accents of the on-the-ball waiting staff. Our meal opened with a gutsy, rich scallop dish (one of the evening specials), served with its coral atop a purée of fennel, lemon and olive oil, ahead of a Racine classic – tête de veau with a punchy sauce ravigote (one of the best-selling items on the menu). To conclude, we enjoyed a hard-to-fault pot de crème aux griottines. The mainly French wine list is a good one, with about 14 by the glass (from £7.50), and bottles from £29.95.

What was once a pole-dancing bar is now a wood-panelled restaurant devoted to 'live fire' cooking. This is Tomos Parry’s flagship Brat (he also runs Climpson’s Arch in Hackney, where the concept originated) and, loosely, it pays homage to Basque cooking. Indeed, the first thing to hit you as you ascend the stairs – it's above Smoking Goat – is the smell of the grill; the second is the sound of diners eating, drinking, chatting and laughing. There’s no such thing as a quiet lunch in this tightly packed dining room. The thing to do, if funds allow, is to come with friends and enjoy a whopping great turbot (from £150, to feed four) or a juicy beef rib. Otherwise, fear not, the menu covers a lot of ground, from Menai oysters and seasonal vegetables (such as peas or young English corn) to crustacea, sausages and chops. It’s often the simplest things that surprise. Peppers from Flourish Produce in Cambridgeshire are essentially pimientos de Padrón, grilled, oiled and salted in the Spanish style but here tossed with chopped herbs. The addition is a revelation. Next, the grilled bread with anchovies, famous on Instagram but surprisingly underwhelming in reality (there’s no shortage of blistered buttery naan in east London). Velvet crab soup looks spectacular with its crown of crab shells and bobbing mussels, and it tastes profoundly of the sea – a bold dish. Main courses might be plaice pil pil with cockles, lemon sole or paella-esque roast duck rice served with the bird's heart and slices of rare breast. To finish, crème caramel is a textbook example. The wine list fits a page of A4, with a good choice of styles and grapes from across Europe, at fair-for-Shoreditch prices.

Back in 1984, Sally Clarke MBE was one of the first chefs to introduce London's restaurant-goers to the now-fashionable notions of seasonality and traceability; she was also an early champion of organic produce. Little has changed in the intervening years. Her once-famous no-choice menu may have been replaced by a carte of daily changing dishes, but the cooking is still influenced by time spent at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse in California.

Dining takes place in a light room dressed in neutral tones (green-grey walls, wicker chairs, black leather banquettes, polished wood flooring) with well-spaced, white-clothed tables and contemporary artwork. The atmosphere is quiet and refined, service courteous and attentive – more so if you are a regular.

There's a naturalistic quality to the menu and the kitchen puts a premium on execution rather than creativity – a delightful Cornish crab salad with tardivo radicchio, lemon mayonnaise and puntarelle plus a couple of rye toasts, say. To follow, our loin of Scottish fallow deer – roasted with thyme and apple and teamed with baked beetroot, cavolo nero and herbed lentils – was elegantly cooked, allowing the flavour to shine. We finished on a high note with a light yet rich dark chocolate and almond cake with crème fraîche.

The set menu is keenly priced for this exclusive neighbourhood and the wine list is a cracker, with quality bottles starting at £30.50 (for an own-label Verdicchio 2020) plus 30 by the glass or carafe. Also look out for mature vintages of Ridge Monte Bello from the Santa Cruz Mountains in Sally Clarke's beloved California.

The new decorative look at Core has worked wonders. What was an underused bar space is now Whiskey & Seaweed (named for its signature cocktail), and the dining room has had quite the 'glow-up' too. The expansive space is bathed in bronze light, with candles performing their age-old office of making a restaurant table look inviting, and at the centre of it all is a striking column, loaded with uplit glassware. So far, so chic. An army of staff is on permanent manoeuvres, yet without making the place feel like a parade-ground. Efficiency and discretion are as finely judged as is consistent given the ambitious context, with just enough friendly chat to ensure civility. As for Clare Smyth's food, the first thing to say is that, for a venue operating in this bracket, it has an uncommonly solid following of regulars. Call them the core of Core. As soon as the nibbles appear, one can see why: a truffled pumpkin gougère; a lobster roll; a caviar sandwich, all sublime. Bread is made with Wessex flour and served with whipped buttermilk. Dishes from the full menu are capable of balancing sparkling freshness and delicate textures – just consider the Isle of Harris scallop tartare in sea-vegetable consommé, the shell sitting proud on a mound of flora. A more assertive fish pairing sees roasted cod honour-guarded with Morecambe Bay shrimps and Swiss chard in brown butter. Tour the home nations with a main course of Rhug Estate venison, which comes with a refined (ie offal-free) 'haggis' of the leg meat and bacon on pearl barley in an ambrosial sauce of 16-year-old Lagavulin single malt. If it's internal organs you're after, look to the crisp-fried veal sweetbread dressed in honey and mustard, with a serving of Norfolk kohlrabi. Desserts incorporate what might be considered the local option, Notting Hill Forest – a trompe-l'oeil pile of ‘fallen leaves’ made of ceps, chocolate, pine and woodruff on nutty crémeux, in which are embedded little shards of millefeuille pastry, to give the acoustic effect of crunching through autumn leaf-litter. And then one stumbles on a prune soaked in Earl Grey tea. Dinner ends with a little tableside tasting of Irish whiskey. A magnificent wine list covers pairing options, as well as an inspired glass selection (from £12), before graduating to the great and the very great of the vinous globe.

Opened in November 2023, this neighbourhood Italian in Hackney puts the emphasis on home-style cooking with a little transatlantic input from the partly Canadian heritage of the chef. You'll need to head over to Instagram if you want to see a menu in advance, but rolling up and taking pot luck works quite well – how about red mullet crudo with sea purslane and tomato dressing. The decor is as simple as can be (creamy white walls, small café-style tables), while the food puts on little in the way of airs and graces. A cuttlefish and chickpea salad won over a first-timer a treat (the bread handy for mopping up the dressing), while a trio of anchovy and tomato fritters was big on crisp, well-seasoned umami. Classic Italian 'primi' and 'secondi' are rendered with impressive panache, as in perfectly formed, delicate ravioli of nettle and ricotta strewn with pine nuts, or a jade-green wild garlic risotto enriched with squacquerone soft cheese. Away from pasta, also expect the likes of lamb chop and belly with wild mint and roasted potatoes, while a chunky side dish of quartered marinated tomatoes in olive oil and basil is reliably worth a punt. A serving of snow-white ricotta flooded with saba grape syrup is a more enterprising way of finishing, if perchance the fabled tiramisu has sold out. There are pedigree Italian wines to accompany.

Jackson Boxer is one of the most versatile chef-owners in the capital and with the price of premium seafood squeezing margins at Orasay, he re-jigged the concept in early 2025 and relaunched the place as Dove – a more accessible proposition. The interior has remained largely untouched: muted and stripped-back, with herringbone flooring, off-white walls, squishy orangey banquettes and pendant lighting. Wooden tables with flickering candles are closely packed along the front room, but there’s more generous spacing at the back that benefits from a skylight – perfect on a warm sunny day, although it can get noisy when busy.

Boxer's extensive repertoire comes to the fore in a broadly based menu that ventures beyond seafood. Orasay’s popular crispy potato cake is now deep-fried, topped with raw scallop and finished with a touch of finger lime and chicken salt, while deep-fried Taleggio and Wiltshire truffle lasagne is an utterly moreish prospect. That said, the kitchen hasn't forgotten how to cook fish: four king-sized red Atlantic prawns are simply grilled with smoked garlic and black-lime butter, while steamed hake with caramelised pumpkin, hazelnuts and mint is a beautifully balanced dish. Larger plates might include Tamworth pork loin chop or glazed duck leg with smoked beetroot for those hankering after some animal protein, and there's an 'off-menu' burger too. To finish, Estate Dairy 'Fior di Latte' soft serve, sprinkled with early-harvest olive oil and served with oat cookies provides a pleasant finale. 

The wine list has also been reconfigured and features a global selection of bottles from £35, with almost everything available by the glass. A handful of weekly special pours is offered by the glass, and there are half a dozen options for non-drinkers. Service is friendly, easy-going and well-tuned to the cool, bustling neighbourhood vibe.

It's no coincidence that Eel Sushi sits directly opposite Dorian, since both are owned by restaurateur Chris D’Sylva. Simply decked out in pinewood and with just 12 seats, it reminded us of similar establishments dotted around Tokyo. And we liked the fact that it goes against the grain when it comes to cost – prices here are definitely not as severe as some of the more recent omakase establishments in London.

We sat at the counter (under a display of Manga toys), which allowed us to chat to the chefs – Nick Xie (ex-Dinings) and Jon Sho (ex-Umu). To begin, there was a miso soup of enoki and shimeji mushrooms packed with umami. This was followed by a sashimi selection including thick cuts of hamachi, although the star was the beautifully fatty and silky otoro.

Top picks from the choice of nigri were a soft, creamy scallop, along with 'bouncy' lobster and superb cuts of tuna (lean akami, chutoro and fatty otoro). The fish was exemplary and it was partnered by sushi rice at the correct temperature. In the tradition of classic sushi bars, the emphasis is emphatically on raw seafood – there are no desserts and the only optional extras are tins of N25 oscietra caviar. To drink, D'Sylva has put together a concise yet intriguing wine list (from £50), including glasses from £11. You can also order from Dorian's extensive restaurant list, which promises high-end drinking from around the globe. 

It’s the whole cod’s head, drenched in sriracha butter, that brings us face to face with the truth: the pursuit of sustainability is going to change the way chefs cook and we eat. Leading the charge are Jack Croft and Will Murray, two young chefs who honed their skills at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal before opening Fallow, originally a pop-up, now a fixture in St James’s. ‘Creative cooking, sustainable thinking’ goes the strapline, and that’s certainly what we get. The menu is broad, incorporating small and large plates, sides, snacks, steaks (45-day dry-aged dairy cow) and Sunday roasts (fallow deer, for example). The £44 lunch is a good deal, though sides and supplements soon bump up the bill. Two snacks to start: piping hot, liquid-centred cauliflower cheese croquetas with black garlic mayo, and fried corn ribs dusted with kombu seasoning, best enjoyed with a drink. Mushroom parfait, sounds pricey at £18, but with hefty slices of sourdough toast it’s generous and as rich as any chicken liver parfait. Impressively, the mushrooms are grown in-house. Presentation throughout is rustic, bordering on eccentric. To wit, that cod’s head, concealing plentiful, beautiful moist flesh. Credit to Fallow for the focus on nose-to-tail eating, even if the lamb’s tongue with caper sauce proves divisive. Desserts are interesting and mostly impressive, such as sourdough soft-serve and a wobbly caramelised whey tart, which just wanted finer pastry. Fallow is progressive but approachable: the glass-walled dining room with bar and open kitchen is boisterous and packed with folk of all ages. The casual vibe belies the ambition of the wine cellar, which offers few bottles under £50 and some 'grands noms' for those with the means.

Make no mistake, Miga is a Korean family business in the most deep-rooted way. Grandma sold ox-bone broth in Seoul before a transcontinental uprooting of the clan led to the establishment of a venue in New Malden, epicentre of the expat Korean community. It's possibly an even bigger cultural leap from the suburbs of Greater London to the streets of Hackney, where a polyglot restaurant scene saw Miga welcomed with open arms by locals. Despite the spare decor (the minimalist aspect is broken by a single painting), the place exudes the warmth of familial hospitality, with Mr Ko cooking in the open kitchen and his sons running the front of house with great enthusiasm.

The food brings a contemporary sensibility to the traditional cooking methods and red-alert seasonings of Korean food, adding tofu and marrow, for instance, to gang doenjang, a thick stew founded on soybean paste. King prawns in gochujang sauce marry seafood freshness and assertive chilli heat to stimulating effect.

Main dishes try out innovative treatments such as perilla-seed aïoli with slices of tender brisket, leeks and baby leaves, but don't miss the galbi jjim, traditional beef short rib braised until the meat falls obligingly off the bone, partnered with pear, carrot and shiitake mushrooms – a ‘comforting hug’ of a dish in the words of one reporter. The ox-bone broth, a tribute to grandma's original spirit of enterprise, is nourishing and cleansing, a fitting end to the experience that stands in for the usual empty calories of a pudding.

There’s still no dessert menu – coffee and a bun at Italian Forno next door is an option if you’re there during the day – but Miga is now licensed and has a short list of soju, natural wines (from £35), and beers including Korean Cass and Five Points, brewed down the road. Teas come from Korean specialists Be-oom in Clerkenwell.

One Club Row, the dining room above the revitalised Knave of Clubs in Shoreditch, is a restaurant at the height of its powers. Unless you pounce early (reservations open eight weeks ahead), you may be stuck with 5.30pm or 9.45pm. We choose early and find we’re not even the first there, the evening buzz building with every martini shaken and served. New York meets Paris in a classic bistro setting, characterised by colourful posters, white tablecloths, bentwood chairs, and a piano player at the weekend.

Chef Patrick Powell (previously at Allegra and the Midland Grand Dining Room) looks more towards New York for his menu. The burger, with ‘au poivre’ sauce for dipping, is a signature, along with excellent Caesar salad, sirloin steak, and lobster and country ham croquettes. It’s not the weather for tomato and peach gazpacho at inspection but we can still admire the flavour (even if the peachy sweetness is near absent) and the addition of goats’ curd and red pepper is a nice touch.

Steak tartare is pleasingly coarse-cut, arriving ready dressed and spicy. Pork schnitzel with sauce moutarde and Gorgonzola is as rich as it sounds but is well fried and not oily. Side orders – including nicely snappy green beans – prove necessary for balance. Desserts are uninspiring though respectable: the New York cheesecake fits the theme.

The Francophile wine list opens at £35 and keeps mostly under £100. Prices are fair across the board; One Club Row feels like a restaurant that genuinely hopes to see you again. N.B. Walk-ins are often available; an illuminated ‘walk-in seats available’ sign at street-level lets you know if so.

Of all the multifarious eating and drinking opportunities in the heart of Soho, this ‘warmly welcoming’ little restaurant is one of the more compelling. Rita’s goes about its business with gusto, its popularity not surprising given the casual vibe, the warmth of the service and straight-to-the point modern American-style cooking. It’s not going to win any prizes for inventiveness – dishes tend to be simple assemblies built around seasonal British produce – but barbecued beef tartare with garlic, raw vegetables and lots of herbs, and a special of corn-crusted turbot served on a heap of courgettes and set in a puddle of herb butter – were good calls on a warm spring evening. Salt-fish taquitos have been praised, fried chicken parmigiana puts in an appearance, and flavours are ramped up with prime cuts and sharing steaks (order with ‘wrong way’ French fries). Desserts feature the likes of sunflower ice cream with caramel sundae, and the express lunch of, say, fried chicken roll, Caesar salad or eggplant panino is good value. Cocktails star alongside a European wine list stuffed with on-trend low intervention producers.

Opened without fanfare or PR bluster towards the back end of 2023, this slick New York Italian is the brainchild of former Soho House COO Martin Kuczmarski, a man who knows a thing or two about running restaurants. From the off, it looks absolutely fabulous, with swathes of Art Deco-inspired wood panelling, proper tablecloths and proper candlelight lending a radiant glow to proceedings. A vinyl soundtrack of 70s disco and soul keeps the good times rolling, although it never intrudes or ruins conversations across the table.

The menu is stuffed with the kind of comfort food that people just love to eat – from lobster rolls, mini hot dogs and bowls of Tuscan minestrone to textbook chopped salad and a raft of pasta classics (spaghetti with meatballs, hot penne arrabbiata etc). Burgers and ribeye steaks are present and correct too, as is ‘The Dover’ sole (suitably finessed with chilli, lime and samphire), while the beef arrosto with mash is up there with the dishes you’d find at the best trattorias in Florence. As expected, desserts hop from New York (baked cheesecake brûlée) to Italy (vanilla panna cotta with summer berries) – and if you fancy a Baileys Shakerato or an Italicus Sgroppino dessert cocktail, they’ll mix that too.

Pre-prandial sips at the bar are a must, and the wine list kicks off at around £40 a bottle, which is reasonable for this part of town. There's also no need to book if you fancy a drink and a snack at the bar out front. In short, this Mayfair hot spot offers some of the best hospitality in London right now, with a side order of irresistible food, in one of the capital’s most alluring dining rooms.

Tucked into one side of the landmark brutalist building that is 180 Strand, Toklas is easy to miss. Just remember it has its own entrance on Surrey Street, opposite the old Strand tube station – if you find yourself outside Toklas Café & Bakery, you’ve gone too far. Set one level above the street, it’s a genuine find – an oasis of calm, especially on a warm summer’s day when a table on the wide, plant-filled terrace is highly prized. The restrained modern interior goes bare on napery and big on concrete, but natural light floods in through huge windows and striking artworks add colour.

The restaurant draws inspiration – and its name – from the avant-garde American food writer Alice B Toklas, but what distinguishes it is a commitment to concise, seasonal and elegant Mediterranean-style cooking. Indeed, the kitchen is noted for its simple, calendar-tuned line-up of dishes based on the freshest of ingredients with classic accompaniments. Those pristine raw materials are handled with a delicate touch, as in a starter of wild sea bass crudo with sweet 'honeycomb' tomatoes offset by dots of salty bottarga, plus a colourfully tangled assembly of black figs, oakleaf lettuce, crunchy hazelnuts, pecorino shavings and honey. Rabbit saltimbocca with a pile of braised chard and a chunk of fresh Amalfi lemon is completely delicious in its simplicity, while homemade pasta is the business: a plate of tagliatelle with Scottish girolles, garlic and parsley showed up well during our lunchtime visit. 

And there’s concord right to the final act: our dessert of gorgeous, perfectly roasted amaretto peaches needed nothing more than a dollop of mascarpone. The innovative wine list is dominated by bottles from the Mediterranean basin. Although there are comparatively few options under £40, drinkers have access to a generous clutch of recommendations by the glass and carafe. Excellent cocktails, too.

Despite its setting on the cusp of touristy Covent Garden, Stevie Parle's latest restaurant is one with serious intent. The first thing to note is the design, as shiny and seductive as the sports car in one of the glossy images on the wall: cream cord and chrome cantilever chairs, heavyweight granite ice buckets, curvy oxblood tiled columns and David Mellor cutlery evoke a retro 60s sort of chic – there’s a glamour that takes us back to the Wolseley in its heyday.

While the fun and buzzy dining room can be enjoyed on an entirely superficial level, executive chef Olly Pierrepont leads a sure-footed kitchen, with a menu driven by whole-carcass butchery and a raft of prime produce – some of it carted in from Kent by Parle himself. A strong snack game kicks off with potato sourdough which arrives with a pot of gravy – messy, slurpy, a bit bonkers but so satisfying. Butterflied day boat sea bass with an anchovy and rosemary sauce was simple but perfectly cooked main, while a curry of cod clams and mussels and gentle spices with ghee flatbread was thrilling. Morello cherry clafoutis makes for a satisfying ending.

Unstuffy service was and spot-on and we found the great-value ‘quick lunch’ (snacks plus two or three courses) is worth knowing about.. Martinis might best match the mood but there’s also an accessible line up of modern alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and a wine list that opens at £38 a bottle.