London’s Best New Restaurants of 2026

It takes a whole lot of bravery to open a new restaurant in London. And the best new spots this year – whether it’s Impala, Meedu Saad’s North-African-via-north-London marvel, or Teal, Sally Abé’s tiny London Fields fine diner reimagining historic British dishes – are proof that doing things differently can really pay off. It was also a year that saw the triumphant return of lauded chefs and restaurateurs (Dara Klein with her comforting regional Italian cooking at Tiella, Endo Kazutoshi with a new iteration of his singular omakase Endo, after a fire destroyed his previous site) and exciting new arrivals, like Birmingham chef Aktar Islam’s Oudh 1722, offering an aspect of Indian cuisine Londoners haven’t seen before. Here are this year’s 19 best new restaurants, independently selected by Broadsheet’s editors, listed in the order in which they opened.

Dara Klein’s on-point Italian cooking during her very long residency at Islington’s Compton Arms drew fans and acclaim in a way most pub residencies don’t tend to. So we knew we were in for something great when she launched her own restaurant, Tiella, on Columbia Road. There, Klein has gone ever-deeper into Italian cooking that’s driven by her Pugliese heritage and a sixth sense for what Londoners want to eat right now, whether that’s a bright and summery cherry tomato-sauced pasta studded with tuna, the pasta- and bean-laden pasta e fagioli that’s been bringing diners comfort since her pub days or even just whatever pasta’s on with a little glass of something at the counter, which always has space for walk-ins. In a city of restaurants where Italian has become a go-to, go to Tiella for the real deal.

You don’t need to have been a fan of Charlie Mellor’s Hackney wine bar and restaurant The Laughing Heart to fall for his follow-up, Osteria Vibrato. It’s a sophisticated and transportive tribute to old-world Italian hospitality and ingredients in a pocket-sized space on Greek Street. The little touches add up to the greater whole here: a £3 mandatory supplement gives you a plate of olives and rosemary-flecked crackers to munch on while you consider the menu; order the (extremely generous) portion of aged ricotta and each half will be drizzled at the table with a different type of olive oil; and linger till late at the back bar, where the team – which puts the “hospitable” back into the hospitality industry – will mix you an ice-cold Martini and pour it at the table. Bonus points for the piano that’s built into the panelling of the staircase that leads downstairs – and the Ronnie Scott’s musicians who occasionally pop past for a tinkle. Vibrato is the definition of an all-rounder and already feels part of the fabric of Soho.

Here at Burro, Trullo chef and co-owner Conor Gadd’s restaurant with a name that literally means “butter”, there’s no spotlight on any one Italian region – rather, it’s channelling a spirit of simplicity, with classic dishes designed for bringing people together. And the daily-changing menu is deeply comforting: right now, protection from autumn’s chill comes in the form of fettucine woven through with duck and porcini ragu and Gloucester Old Spot pork chop with borlotti beans. It’s all the joys of relaxed Italian la dolce vita rolled into one sunshine-yellow corner spot in one of the busiest parts of London.

Buzz was building for Kiln co-owner and executive chef Meedu Saad’s North African-via-north-London restaurant Impala long before it opened. It wasn’t unfounded – it’s near-flawless, from its standout wood-panelled exterior and main dining room to the crack front-of-house team and the I-want-to-eat-more-of-it food coming from the open flames of the kitchen, of which diners get a panoramic view. Service, design, drinks list, orbit around the main event: the deeply thoughtful, only-in-London food. Slightly peppery shiso leaf wraps crab kibbeh made with punchy harissa and sun-dried wheat; a deeply savoury dish of bird tongue pasta (orzo) with oxtail demands to be eaten by the spoonful; and tender, pink cull yaw chops arrive with potatoes that are cooked to a marvellous richness in the sheep’s fat. Go immediately, go often.

In the heartland of small plates and natural wines (aka London Fields), one new restaurant leans back into British culinary tradition. In spring this year, the great Sally Abé (who headed up The Bull, The Pem and The Harwood Arms) opened Teal, her diminutive “British bistro” on Wilton Way. And while her menu is inspired by historic British cuisine, there’s nothing stuffy about her concise, ever-changing menu, which features dishes like lockets savoury – toast topped with sliced pears, melted Stilton cheese and watercress – and a dreamy marmalade ice-cream sandwich that’s proved a hit.

Birmingham had been keeping Aktar Islam to itself for too long. Earlier this year, the chef-patron of the two Michelin-starred Indian fine diner Opheem finally opened his first London restaurant. And somewhat remarkably, given the sheer quantity and quality of Indian restaurants in the capital, it brought something new to the table. Oudh 1722 is Islam’s tribute to Awadhi cuisine, a style of food which emerged from 1722 in the royal courts of northern Indian. Influenced by Persian, Turkish and Hindu culinary traditions, this is slow-cooked and intricate food, with luxurious bone marrow curry, richly spiced minced kebabs, skilfully balanced soups and more.

A kind of pizza mania seems to have gripped London in the past 12 months. Blistered-edged Neapolitan-style rounds are still the most ubiquitous, but it’s the thin-crust East Coast pies that have stolen our hearts of late – think Dough Hands, Short Road and, as of spring this year, Bar Etna. It came in hot with serious clout, as a collaboration between The Plimsoll’s Ed McIlroy and celebrated Philadelphia chef Joe Beddia. And while you’ll find classic flavours made with great produce, like a tomato sauce, mozzarella and oregano number, don’t sleep on the Etna Curry Pizza, a spicy riff on sag paneer.

By now, you’ve probably heard about a certain dish from Vesper. Specifically, its spring onion pancake – a crisp isosceles triangle topped with raw tuna and a swirled-up Cantabrian anchovy – which, in two bites, will make you feel sad you didn’t order a second. With Vesper, chef-owner Jackson Boxer takes his characteristically genre-agnostic approach to the next level, with a menu roaming from China to Milan, Basque region to Britain – Broadsheet London columnist Jimi Famurewa calls Boxer’s approach New London Continental. Of course, there’s also the off-menu, gorgonzola-laced burger, of which there are just 10 servings per day – but that’s far from the only reason to book a table at this candlelit neo-industrial space, with its Exmouth Mouth-facing terrace.

Nick Jones’s next move post-Soho House is as heavy a hitter as expected. On paper, Cafe Clement reads simple: an all-day restaurant in the vein of classic European day-to-night haunts. But in practice it’s something singular; a glamorous dining room humming with the energy of an institution, even just a few months post-launch. It feels effortless, yet has Jones’s fingerprints all over it, from free bacon butties with coffee for cabbies once a month to silver trays that whirl dishes around the dining room floor, which is imprinted with hypnotising waves that echo the tides of the Thames. As for the food? Ex-River Cafe chef Danny Bohan’s menu takes cues from the seasons and is like a hitlist of Euro-classics: scrambled eggs for breakfast, pasta and hunks of meat in the evenings and a signature lobster omelette that’s on all day.

With Rosina, Adam Byatt (Trinity, Bistro Union) has created the local we all want in our neighbourhood. At first the white-walled room seems simple, but soon thoughtful details catch the eye: wall sconces shaped like vegetables, a marble-topped island counter hiding a detachable dessert trolley, bright bursts of flowers. There’s familiar Italian fare, like tuna crudo and cavatelli cacio e pepe on the menu, but Byatt ain’t babying anyone, with other regional Italian dishes such as chianti-braised rabbit livers atop bruschetta and veal tongue with frutta mostarda (mustard fruits). It’s a neighbourhood diner worth travelling for.

On Thursday nights at the Turkish Cypriot restaurant above The Globe Tavern in Borough, a musician sits in the corner with an amp and a few plates of meze, plucking the strings of a kanun: a flat, harp-like Turkish instrument. Co-founders chef Keiran Mustafa and restaurateur Dom Hamdy have taken the traditional meyhane (the taverns originating in Turkey and northern Cyprus) as their inspiration for Kismet, a low-lit, dark timber-accented room where generous portions of food, drink and conversation stretch late into the evening. Dishes arrive in waves, beginning with meze (including bulgur köftesi – crisp, stuffed bulgur-wheat dumplings) and moving towards kebabs cooked on the mangal. Kismet is only here for a year-long residency, so don’t leave it too late to join the party.

“It’s sort of in between a restaurant and a dinner party,” co-founder Jake Maskall told Broadsheet earlier this year. “We want diners to leave happier than they came in.” At Pompette – a cosseting 18-seat room in Hornsey – the open kitchen is so close that co-founder and chef Ed Hardy Perkins can join in on conversations across the dining room. At £60, the five-course modern British tasting menu is one of the best-value in London; standout dishes on the ever-changing menu include the celeriac au poivre, cured in rice koji for two days then roasted with green peppercorn sauce – and the dry-aged Longhorn beef steak served with brown-butter ratte potatoes.

Much of the beauty lies in the details at Waterhouse, the follow-up to Bethnal Green’s Waterhouse Project that opened in September just off Columbia Road. Clusters of small flowers spring from the cracks between bricks in the bathroom; drinks – including non-alcoholic sips and a Negroni made with mugwort foraged in Hackney – benefit from the fermentation and infusions used on the food menu; and the kitchen is effortlessly circular: the shell of a tart filled with golden beetroot and trout is made with whey left over from making butter that’s served alongside the rye bread. The bread also includes leftover whey, as does a palate-cleansing sorbet of sorrel. It all speaks to chef-patron Gabriel Waterhouse’s exacting approach, which culminates in a tasting menu (11 courses when Broadsheet visited) served in a serene dining room shaped from a Victorian-era warehouse. The endlessly creative menu is inspired by Waterhouse’s upbringing in rural Northumberland; leftover scallop roe is transformed into a savoury custard, topped with orange spheres of quince-infused tapioca.

David Carter has built an empire on the power of collaboration. Sister restaurants Oma and Agora, developed with Kiln’s Nick Molyviatis, have grown into well-known fixtures since opening two years ago. Now Carter – who’s also behind Shoreditch’s Manteca – has teamed up with chef Sertaç Dirik (the visionary chef who, with his brother Ferhat reimagined Dalston’s Mangal II) on Kid, a cosmopolitan, Turkish-inspired restaurant that opened in Soho at the start of September. Roaring charcoal flames work their magic on dishes like the galata mackerel, which arrives butterflied and blistered over a bed of julienned carrot and cabbage. While some traditional Turkish meze dishes are filtered through a contemporary London lens, others – like the beef İçli köfte, inspired by Dirik’s mother’s cooking – stay more faithful. Start with an inventive cocktail (like the Incir Fizz, blending fig, Turkish pet nat and gin), order a combination of meze and larger grilled dishes, and settle in for more surprises.

It takes you a minute, and then you see it: subtle references to the sea are everywhere at The Horses. In the upstairs dining room, a large spherical light appears held by a loose metallic net. Under it, diners perch on high leather stools with shell-shaped backs, facing an open oyster bar where staff busily select oysters from enormous ice-filled brass trays. It’s the latest venture for the seemingly indomitable Public House Group, which has built a stable of bar-lifting British pubs that share a warmly minimalist design aesthetic and a penchant for pared-back, seasonal British fare. Each has its own distinctive personality, and for The Horses, it’s strongly rooted in Britain’s coast. On the menu? Naturally, the day’s catch; the kitchen is working closely with Hackney fishmonger Fin and Flounder. The whole Dover sole sings with a spritz of lemon and a creamy, warming counterpart of peppercorn sauce. Even mains from the land, like a roasted hispi cabbage, are served with a zingy seaweed sauce over a generous bed of butter beans.

The Pachamama Group has unveiled its biggest London destination yet: Soraya. First launched by the group – which is also behind Nina, Bottarga and Lagana – in Abu Dhabi, Soraya London is in Marylebone’s shiny new Loxton Walk development, and is dedicated to dishing up Persian-inspired fare. But the UK outpost isn’t a carbon copy of its Abu Dhabi counterpart; like all the group’s restaurants, Soraya’s approach is unconventional and tongue-in-cheek, with influences from ’70s Tehran. Yes, there are plenty of excellent kebab options; but there’s also a must-order mixed grill platter lamb koobideh, lamb shashlik, joujeh and chicken wings with rice, red and green shatta, and yoghurt dip. Silk Route-inspired twists on cocktails abound; try The North, a Negroni, which stars harissa, bitters, vermouth, black garlic and gin.

The trio that opened Cloth Cornhill at the beginning of October had big shoes to fill. Two hundred and sixty-nine years’ worth of well-worn shoes, to be exact. Formerly known as Simpson’s Tavern, the distinctive building, tucked away in Ball Court in the City, first opened in 1757. After a year of sensitive restoration works, the team behind Cloth in Farringdon – Joe Haynes, Ben Butterworth and Tom Hurst – have rejuvenated the historic chophouse. It’s a moody, candle-lit cavern, with much of its original character and dishes nodding to Victorian London hospitality. Alongside sardine bites and devils on horseback, chef Hurst’s modern British menu features a venison, bacon and bone marrow pie; Hereford ribeye with bone marrow and caper butter; and Barnsley chop with anchovy and rosemary butter. Can’t get a reservation? It’s well worth visiting the downstairs pub and ordering widely from the bar snack menu, which is also available all day in tasting-menu style for £35 (we’re talking sausage pie, welsh rarebit and pig’s head brioche).

A contender for one of the most highly anticipated restaurants of the year, Endo has returned in a new site, following the fire last September that destroyed the original at the Rotunda in White City. And thankfully for fans of third generation sushi master Endo Kazutoshi, his sleek new Chelsea omakase shares the same DNA. Here, Kazutoshi serves up ecstasy-inducing bites that range from delicate nigiri, using fish wild-caught in the British Isles; Nagasaki-style udon, with noodles sourced from a 90-year-old udon master; and Miyazaki Wagyu with negi (a long Japanese green onion) and a sweet-savoury yakiniku-style sauce, plated like a garden of herbs, and vegetables from suppliers in Cambridge and East Sussex. Next month, Kazutoshi plans to open Moga, his upstairs hi-fi listening bar, up to the public (currently it’s available only to Endo diners).

Florence Knight is back, and for her next trick she’s serving otherworldly glamour. Lunette, on the 11th floor of Nick Jones’s new hotel, St Clement, near Temple, is the chef’s new restaurant and her first venture since departing Sessions Arts Club in early 2024. Up in this celestial rectangular restaurant, just a small clutch of guests dine on a set menu, while drinking in what are surely some of the best views of any London restaurant. After dark, the panorama becomes a backdrop of twinkling lights, with the Southbank Centre’s bright, dynamic sign glinting across the bar. The dishes are Knight’s most beautiful and complex yet; so far, highlights include a mouthful of pomme souffle with smoked eel, roe and nasturtium, and an unctuous golden crab rice with peppered egg yolk.

Additional reporting by Joel Hart, Ben Olsen, Sasha Murray, Ina Yulo Stuve and Cheung Hoi Lam