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(Bloomberg) -- London has never been well known for its outdoor dining scenes. Most al fresco spaces were attached to forgettable restaurants, except for a few spots like the River Café, an outlier when it started serving its evocative Italian dishes outdoors decades ago.
But during the pandemic, chefs and restaurateurs in the UK capital began to rethink al fresco dining—and earn some and additional revenue—as pavement licenses gave them the opportunity to set up tables on closed down streets. Now outdoor dining is becoming standard. It’s been built into major new developments at Canary Wharf and Battersea Power Station and added on at restaurants all around the city. The unusually warm weather has made this a vintage summer for open-air dining, giving people the opportunity to gather with friends for first-rate pizzas, smoked short ribs, and cocktails that evoke a Mediterranean beach. Here are 13 of the best places in London for outdoor eating, from Trivet near London Bridge, which offers a Michelin-starred menu, to a classic oyster spot in the heart of the West End. Grab a seat in the sun and bon appétit.
New developments increasingly feature destination restaurants as part of their allure. The refurbished Battersea Power Station is home to Italian hotspot Fiume, from chef Francesco Mazzei (Sartoria, Radici). On the handsome terrace, shaded by lofty umbrellas and ringed with plants, you can enjoy drinks like a concoction of Malfy gin con limone, almond, and fig syrups, and tonic. Mazzei’s elegant and flavorful cooking evokes a southern Italian beachside menu, with dishes such as grilled octopus with pappa al pomodoro, olives and capers, or a sweet, rosy carpaccio of Sicilian red prawns with asparagus.
Iberica la Terraza, Canary Wharf
A wood-fired Josper oven does the heavy lifting on Iberica’s cool, shady terrace under the trees by the Cabot Square fountain. Octopus emerges smoky and burnished, tentacles snaked around new potatoes dressed with ajada (garlic and paprika sauce), while pluma ibérica (£7.90/200 grams)—the pig’s riposte to wagyu beef—is rich, tender and daringly pink inside, with roasted hasselback potatoes and the chili sauce mojo rojo. The al fresco cocktail bar, La Terraza, takes beachy 1950s Marbella as its inspiration, serving classics like a notably good gin and tonic.
Galvin’s Bistrot and Bar
Brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin are two of London’s classic French cuisine evangelists. Their spacious terrace at Galvin’s Bistrot and Bar, around the corner from Spitalfields Market, conjuresthe spirit of a pavement table at a tried-and-true Parisian bistro, but without the sputtering Citröens or importunate accordionists. Crisp, piping-hot tarte flambée is scattered with shards of Alsace bacon and flecked with herbs; Dorset crab is piled with mayonnaise on toasted sourdough; and thick slices of pink lamb (£32) sit atop asparagus and morels.
Fallow’s chefs and co-owners, Will Murray and Jack Croft, met in the kitchens of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. The smart, well-spaced, bare-wood tables and leather seats outside their year-and-a-half-old restaurant in the traffic-free haven of St James’s Market are fenced with foliage and supremely relaxed. Sustainability is at the core of their dishes, from the audacious signature of cod’s head with house-made sriricha butter (£20) to various cuts of dry-aged dairy cow that go from £38. Roughly half the menu is plant-based, like a mushroom parfait made from fungi grown in the basement.
Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill
Conveniently near the bustle of Regent Street and Piccadilly but safely removed from it, the terrace at Bentley’s boasts well-appointed tables laden with plump shellfish and chilled Chablis. Ebullient chef/restaurateur Richard Corrigan’s evocation of a traditional London oyster house is charming and well-drilled. The place is renowned for the smoked eel from Lough Neagh, served with potato cake, a nod to Corrigan’s Irish heritage, and the £49.50 turbot with olive oil mash and a silk-smooth langoustine sauce.
Ciao Bella’s version of a classic Italian trattoria has been charming customers for almost 40 years. The Anglo-Italian fare appeals to an appreciative crowd of Bloomsbury regulars, City escapees, and the occasional off-duty chef: It’s one of St. John co-founder Fergus Henderson’s favorite spots. The famed chef always orders the lasagne, but the menu is long, and it’s worth exploring dishes like veal ravioli with butter and sage. Or you could just choose one of the 15 or so pizzas (from £11) and a bottle of house wine. The 30-seat terrace is set back from the pavement on the tranquil end of Lamb’s Conduit Lane.
Paladar’s creative and vibrant Latin American menu, the brainchild of Colombian head chef José Rubio-Guevara, has been attracting diners to this Lambeth backwater since it opened a few years ago. There’s a chef’s table in the next-door bodega, and a main dining room festooned with South American art, but the hidden gem is Paladar’s riotously decorated terrace at the rear, covered in case of rain, and heated when its cold. Stand-out dishes include sashimi-grade tuna tostadas with guacamole and chipotle mayonnaise; crisp pork belly tacos with sriracha reduction; and grilled lamb anticuchos (skewers) with Peruvian pepper, for £17.50.
There are fewer more tranquil waterside spots in the capital than the spacious, astroturfed terrace at Rotunda, restaurateur John Nugent’s bar and restaurant beside the Regent’s Canal in King’s Cross. Rotunda’s seasonal, modern British menu leans heavily on meat from Nugent’s own Northumberland farm: Texel lamb tartare with shallot vinaigrette; beef tagliata with rocket, lemon, and parmesan; smoked short rib with horseradish mash for £32. There’s also a long, impressive, and well-priced wine list.
Walk past the handsome bar and through the high-ceilinged, airy dining room at Ognisko, an oasis in the heart of London’s museum district, and you will find a splendid terrace, as smartly dressed as the main room, with a view over the pretty Prince’s Gardens. The smart South Kensington Polish restaurant, owned by veteran restaurateur Jan Woroniecki (Wodka, Baltic), offers a refined but authentic menu: There’s placki (potato pancakes) with spiced chicken livers and dried cherries; Ukrainian fishcakes with sweet pickled cucumber and sour cream; and, for the deep-pocketed, a bottle of Taittinger Champagne with 50 grams of oscietra caviar and all the trimmings for £120. The vodka list is extensive.
Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold’s restaurant, tucked away behind a former schoolhouse, now an arts center, is just a short stroll from the hubbub of Shoreditch, but it could be a million miles away. On fine days, a few tables are set up outside in the old playground, where diners can feast on Henderson’s assured, confident cooking, including croquettes of brill with sauce gribiche and a £21.50 roast shoulder of Gloucester pork with peas, radishes, and gem lettuce. The bottles from the wine label St. John, from Henderson’s husband Fergus, feature strongly on the list.
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The joint creation of chef Jonny Lake and sommelier Isa Bal, both alumni of the Fat Duck, Trivet opened in 2019 and soon earned a Michelin star. It’s now one of the rare spots in London that offers that level of food outdoors, amid bare dark wood tables and cappuccino-colored fabrics that echo the interior decor. The enticing à la carte menu ranges from £31 crisp veal sweetbreads with wild herbs and kombu, and £32 stuffed morels with wild garlic, parmesan, and razor clams, to Lake’s take on duck à l’orange, entitled “Not a crispy duck,” for £45.
Ekte’s modern Nordic food is popular for hurried lunchers looking for the open-faced sandwich smørrebrød, lavishly topped with curried herring, soft-boiled egg and dill, or Danish blue cheese, pear, and candied walnuts. Its also a destination for a more leisurely City crowd. (Ed. Note: Eske is located in the Bloomberg Arcade.) The verdant terrace is lovely, with well-spaced tables following the curves of the corner site’s exterior. There’s the opportunity for a proper Scandi feast of cured loin of red deer with celeriac and capers, and frikadeller (meatballs) with creamy mash and lingonberries, washed down with an akvavit or two.
There are no traffic fumes around the splendidly hidden terrace at Boisdale’s original Belgravia site, but there might be a smoldering Havana cigar at a nearby table. Scottish restaurateur Ranald Macdonald’s passions also include whisky, music, and the cooking of his homeland, and all are well represented here. There’s live music every night, the bar’s humidors are supremely well stocked, and the menu features £15.90 haggis with a nip of Scotch and several cuts of Scottish beef that start at £22.
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