Diners' Choice: Best Overall restaurants in City of London

OpenTable

Updated 05 December 2024

Looking for the best overall restaurants in City of London? You’re in the right place. Each month, OpenTable analyses nearly 2 million global diner reviews from the past four months. We sort the results by location and category to help you discover new favourite restaurants. It's a great partnership: you reserve, eat, and review. We listen...and deliver the results for all to benefit. Enjoy!

Ken's Wine Bar

4.8

4.8 (16)

£26 to £40

Wine Bar

Clerkenwell

About the restaurant

A good time cave à manger on Exmouth Market. Ken's presents a daily rotating food and wine offering. Chef Fergus Shields' contemporary European cooking foregrounds seasonality whilst the wine program is led by Dan Long, with the list featuring established icons, natural wine legends, as well as future classics from all around the world.

Top review

MargjeVIP

Dined 7 days ago

Great place for a nice night out, very friendly people and the food and wine were very nice!

Macellaio RC Exmouth Market

4.7

4.7 (315)

£26 to £40

Italian

Farringdon

About the restaurant

Macellaio RC is a growing family of three Italian restaurants in London. Our restaurants are most famous for its fine steak. In fact, Macellaio means "butcher" and we like to call our steakhouses the butchery with tables. The steak we serve is exclusively from the Fassona beef breed, sourced from special mountain valleys in the north of Genoa. We take pride in sourcing incredible authentic Italian ingredients, food with utmost respect, preparing it with love, and expertly cooking each dish bringing to life a delightful trattoria dining experience. Immerse yourself in an unparalleled dining experience where your steak is masterfully butchered and presented to you before being cooked, and where our chefs craft artisan breads, focaccia and pizza in-house.

Top review

Simon

Dined 1 day ago

We booked Marcellaio early, at 6, before going to the Ballet at Sadlers Wells, which is a short walk away. The entrance looks like a butcher’s shop, with all the different beef on display. In fact the name means ‘Butcher’ in Italian. The service was amazing and our waitress and the owner were brilliant and engaging. They are really passionate about their ingredients, wine and good cooking. We had beef fillet and this was perfectly cooked to order and served on a hot stone plate. We have eaten across the globe and this was amongst the best we have had. The truffle roast potatoes are super. We also had carrot, cooked in marrow and beef dripping - awesome. And some beautiful broccoli. A really nice red wine to go with it and all in all a great experience. We will definitely come back. Quite quiet when we arrived but buzzing by the time we left at about 7.10. Exmouth market is a busy street in the evening with a great vibe. Enjoy!

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Experience

Festive Christmas Booking Appeal 

Restaurant St. Barts

4.8

4.8 (104)

£41 and over

British

Farringdon

About the restaurant

A British Tasting Menu experience for Dinner, and shorter Set Menu for Lunch - tucked away in London’s Smithfield the dining room overlooks the historical Church of St Bartholomew the Great. We received our first Michelin Star in March 2023 and were awarded a Michelin Green Star in February 2024 - making us the only London restaurant to hold both awards.

Tues - Sat Dinner | Tasting Menu | £160pp
Tues - Sat Lunch | Short or Long Set Lunch | £70/£110pp

Restaurant St. Barts is the culmination of passion & hard work from three long-term friends Johnnie, Luke & Toby - the team behind NEST restaurant in Shoreditch. It is a celebration of British produce in the heart of historical London.

Top review

Tim

Dined 3 days ago

The food was amazing and the staff were all very professional and welcoming. We even got extra courses that weren't on the menu as Christmas specials.

The Quality Chop House

4.8

4.8 (2537)

£41 and over

British

Farringdon

About the restaurant

The Quality Chop House celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019.

Our menus are seasonally-focused and change daily based around the best produce delivered each morning.

We suggest bookings, but do take walk-ins.

In addition to our a la carte menu, we offer a £29 set lunch menu (January to November), and on Sunday lunches we serve a splendid roast.

If you are interested in a table for more than 6 guests, we have a Private Dining Room that seats up to 14. A seasonal feasting menu is available. For more information please give us a call.

Top review

JINGYI

Dined 3 days ago

Everything was really delicious, the meats were obviously done very nicely but we also really enjoyed the starters.

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Popular dish

Confit Potatoes

Popular dish

Capezzana olive oil ice cream

Experience

Valentine's Day 2025

St. JOHN Smithfield

4.8

4.8 (4103)

£41 and over

British

Farringdon

About the restaurant

Fergus Henderson’s original home of “Nose to Tail Eating” opened in a former smokehouse around the corner from Smithfield Market in 1994.

Celebrating the finest of indigenous British produce and making the most of what is seasonally best whilst applying straight forward cooking techniques, St. John is now celebrated as one of the 50 Best Restaurants in the World and in 2009 was awarded its first Michelin Star.

Nose to tail eating means that, where appropriate, every part of the animal should be put to good use in the kitchen and so along with Roast Beef and Lemon Sole, diners will find Rolled Pig’s Spleen, Kidneys and Ox Heart, Liver and Chitterlings as well as the Roast Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad, something of a ‘signature’ dish.

Top review

Linda

Dined 3 days ago

Amazing food. Unpretentious but prepared with so much passion and care. Great service too

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Popular dish

Eccles Cake and Lancashire Cheese

Popular dish

Welsh Rarebit

Popular dish

Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad

Tanakatsu

4.8

4.8 (923)

£26 to £40

Japanese

Clerkenwell

About the restaurant

A contemporary Japanese diner,
based on Katsu Specialists throughout Japan.

We strive to produce the finest
Katsu and Teri-Yaki by using our own family recipes.

Believing in Simplicity, Honesty and Quality.

TANAKATSU team.

Top review

Lauren

Dined 3 days ago

Great food, amazing service and all the staff were lovely and welcoming. Will definitely be coming back!! :)

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4.8

4.8 (4472)

£25 and under

Steak

Bank

About the restaurant

Blacklock is a modern version of the Great British chophouse. Set in an old electricity substation on the site of London"s oldest meat market. We take the best meat in the country from the award-winning farmer and butcher Philip Warren in Cornwall. We cook chops simply over our real charcoal grill with a little help from vintage Blacklock irons and serve it all up alongside cocktails that give back and wine on tap in our atmospheric subterranean chop mecca. On Sundays we serve a Roast almost as good as Mum's.

We have limited spaces for Walk-ins, so we encourage booking in advance to avoid disappointment during busy times.

Monday - Friday
Bookings & Walk-ins for lunch - 12pm - 3pm
Bookings & Walk-ins for dinner - 5pm - 10pm

Saturday
Bookings & Walk-ins all day - 12 - 10.30pm

Sunday
Bookings & Walk-ins - 12pm - 5:45pm

Top review

Amy

Dined 3 days ago

The staff here are just amazing, couldn’t fault them, attentive and fun. The food is of the highest quality, great value for money as well. Highly recommend!

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4.7

4.7 (1380)

£41 and over

French

Barbican

About the restaurant

Open for over three decades, Le Cafe du Marche remains a family run, independent French restaurant. Tucked down a cobbled mews on the corner of historic Charterhouse Square and a stones throw from Smithfield Meat Market, we offer honest French food in a convivial and characterful setting. Crossing the threshold, guests feel they escape the hustle and bustle of the Square Mile and instead are transported to the south of France. We have live jazz in the evenings

Top review

Darren

Dined 2 days ago

So it was 5 stars all around. The service was probably 5.5 stars even thought the waiters were Italian not French but for me good service is attentive at all time while not being intrusive. My wife had one cocktail with the meal and wash tentative in ordering and the waiter watached observantly and when she was not drinking came and asked if everything was OK and she said she would have liked it a little more sweet than sour so he took it away and adjusted. Happy wife happy life as they say.

Galvin La Chapelle

4.6

4.6 (1878)

£41 and over

French

Liverpool Street

About the restaurant

Critical acclaim has been heaped upon Galvin La Chapelle, a true destination restaurant and with good reason. This fabulous dining spot, just off of London’s famous Bishopsgate is the work of celebrated Chef-Restaurateur brothers, Chris and Jeff Galvin, and epitomises their approach to designing and running restaurants in every sense. Indeed, Galvin La Chapelle has all the wow-factor of Windows with the stylish refinement of Galvin Bistrot de Luxe while carving out its own very unique character at the same time. The interior is truly special, as is the food – cosmopolitan, continental and wholly elegant every step of the way, creative but familiar, special but unpretentious – no wonder Galvin La Chapelle was named Tatler’s Restaurant of the Year 2010 and AA Best London Restaurant 2010.

Top review

Nick

Dined 4 days ago

We took a client for lunch as a thanks for their business during the year - great venue, quality food and service and wouldn't hesitate to go back or to recommend it! A good few year since I had been but Galvin La Chapelle is just as good as it ever was!

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Experience

Set Lunch Menu

Experience

5 Course Tasting Menu

Experience

7 Course Tasting Menu with a glass of bubble £145

Bife

4.8

4.8 (697)

£26 to £40

Steakhouse

Aldgate

About the restaurant

Welcome to Bife Grill, your independent go-to spot for authentic Argentinian food in London's vibrant Middlesex Street, near Shoreditch. Our grilled steaks, sourced from Argentina, are simply irresistible. As a top-rated steakhouse, we boast a diverse menu featuring mouthwatering cuts like ribeye, sirloin, amongst others.

Don't miss our Lomitos Sandwiches and Empanadas. Whether it's a hearty dinner or a casual lunch, our cozy ambiance is perfect for any occasion. Conveniently located near Spitalfields and Liverpool Street, we're easily accessible for those searching 'restaurants near me' or 'steakhouses near me'.

Please note, our kitchen closes and stops taking orders at 9:00 PM. Join us for an unforgettable dining experience and see why we're among London's best Argentinian restaurants!

Top review

Mark VIP

Dined 4 days ago

Excellent steak and sides. Very friendly staff.

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Popular dish

Sirloin

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