Moored on the Regent's Canal in Paddington Basin, the Cheese Barge is exactly what it sounds like and all the better for it: a beautifully designed double decker vessel dedicated entirely to the very best of British and Irish cheese. The seasonal menu is genuinely inventive, from the curried cheese curds with chilli honey to a whole baked Baron Bigod, and on a sunny day the open top deck is one of the more unusual and enjoyable places to eat in London.
Dishoom's more relaxed, bar-forward sibling, Permit Room opened its first London outpost on Portobello Road in 2025, housed in the former Portobello Road Distillery. Named after the drinking dens that sprang up in Bombay after prohibition was lifted in the 1970s, it serves all-day Bombay-inspired small plates, smoky grills and Dishoom classics alongside inventive cocktails and resident DJs, with the walls covered in art and two boutique hotel rooms upstairs for those who want to make a proper night of it.
London's largest Asian food hall, Bang Bang Oriental sits on the Edgware Road in Colindale and packs nearly 30 specialist food kiosks into 32,000 square feet, spanning everything from Cantonese roast duck and Korean bibimbap to Indian street food, Japanese ramen, Filipino grilled pork and Taiwanese bubble tea. The format is simple: grab a table, split up, and work your way around the stalls. Worth the trip out to Zone 4 for any serious fan of Asian food.
Known as Honest Greens across Europe and trading as Hg in the UK, this Barcelona born restaurant group opened its first London location on St Anne's Court in Soho in December 2025. The concept is plant forward fast casual done properly: seasonal market plates and garden bowls built around open-fire cooking, olive oil, fresh herbs and sustainably sourced British produce, with no preservatives or processed ingredients anywhere on the menu. A genuinely welcome addition to Soho for anyone looking for a quick, healthy and genuinely tasty lunch.
A busy restaurant with sites in Soho and Covent Garden dedicated to Indo Chinese Hakka cooking, the fusion food that grew out of Kolkata's Chinese immigrant community. The name combines the Chinese surname Fatt with the Indian word pundit, and the food does the same, weaving Chinese techniques through Indian spices to genuinely exciting effect. The crackling spinach is the signature dish everyone orders and nobody forgets, and the steamed momos and Malabar monkfish curry are equally brilliant.
