The Top Iconic Dishes in London

“Liberated Chinese cooking” is the motto of Kai, a plush Chinese restaurant consistently ranked among the best in London. Their creative menus, equal parts classic Chinese and eclectic creations, feature lots of vegetarian options and the best-selling wasabi prawns. One of the most interesting dishes at Kai, however, is on the dessert list, which is uniquely presented at the beginning of the menu, a concept meant to evoke the happy emotions of childhood. It’s a durian and vanilla souffle with salted caramel sauce that showcases the unusual custardy texture and bittersweet pungency of Southeast Asia’s stinkiest native fruit.

Under Australian chef Brett Graham, The Ledbury in Notting Hill earned a place near the top of many lists of the world’s best restaurants. Graham’s signature dish—flame-grilled mackerel with smoked eel, shiso peppers, Celtic mustard, avocado puree, and pillows of cucumber agar-agar filled with mackerel tartare—wows with its beauty as much as its flavor, plated like a watercolor painting with its components swiped, daubed, dotted, and placed with precision amid tiny edible flowers and micro leaves. Every dish on the modern European menu promises similar splendor, with the Ledbury serving some of the most iconic dishes in London in impeccable style.

The eponymous stories told by the four- to 11-course tasting menus at chef Tom Sellers’ debut restaurant in London have multiple inspirations—fairy tales, British history, Sellers’ own childhood, and his transformation into an acclaimed young chef after intensely training at some of the best restaurants in the world. An often talked-about dish at Restaurant Story is the bread and dripping, a simple offering of beef tallow and house-made sourdough bread. The tallow takes the form of a melting Victorian-style candle, pooling into an unctuous dip for the bread as the course progresses.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, inside the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, presents world-class dishes inspired by the culinary history of Britain, developed in collaboration with historians. The most famous dish on the menu is the “meat fruit” appetizer, a chicken liver mousse sculpted to resemble a mandarin orange, a recipe with origins circa 1500. The chef’s legendary triple-cooked chips show up alongside Hereford rib-eye, as a fillet or bone-in rib for two, prepared in an early 19th-century fashion. Meals might end with ice cream from a custom trolley equipped with a hand-crank that mixes custard with liquid nitrogen, or the critics’ favorite tipsy cake with spit-roast pineapple.

Angler occupies the top floor of the South Place Hotel, a location featuring a rooftop terrace with a retractable roof for al fresco dining. At the helm of the restaurant is chef Gary Foulkes, who trained under British celebrity chef Gary Rhodes and learned from his mentor an approach emphasizing simplicity and the meticulous preparation of top-quality ingredients. At Angler this means fish and seafood, sourced sustainably from British waters and prepared with French-, Asian-, and Scandinavian-influenced techniques. Repeat customers recommend the tartare of yellowfin tuna with Hass avocado, wasabi, and shiso for its balanced delicate and bold flavors. Foulkes’ signature dessert is a banana, salted caramel, and Guanaja chocolate tart.

Trinity in Clapham Old Town sports modern and immaculate offerings that change with the seasons. The dining room décor reads as sophisticated in its simplicity, and café-style seating on the terrace is delightful on a sunny day. If it’s on the menu, don’t miss the chance to order the crispy pigs’ trotters with crackling and sauce gribiche—it comes highly recommended by critics and repeat customers alike. A dedicated vegetarian menu presents treasures too, among them a warm salad of chestnuts, Jerusalem artichokes, and truffle. Trinity prepares seven of their signature tarte tatins per day, usually requiring reservations in advance.

Scott’s Restaurant is one of the oldest restaurants in London, serving elegant fish and seafood dishes since 1851. While their menu features plenty of luxurious items like caviar, oysters, and Champagne, it also offers a chance to enjoy such British classics as fish and chips, potted shrimps, and Welsh rarebit in their most elegant incarnations. Many dishes reflect the influence of French, Nordic, and Asian cuisines as well, such as monkfish and tiger prawn masala with pilaf rice, and gravlax fjord trout with Swedish mustard dressing and pickled cucumber. We suggest the shareable-sized steamed treacle sponge pudding for dessert.

Acclaimed celebrity chef and slow food movement pioneer Richard Corrigan draws upon his rural Irish heritage at his namesake restaurant in Mayfair, a critically acclaimed establishment that blends the masculinity of an old London gentleman’s club with the coziness of a country lodge. Game is Corrigan’s specialty, so give careful consideration to dishes starring venison, partridge, pigeon, and other beasts under the evocatively named “grass-fed, furred and feathered” section of the menu. Or opt for the tasting menu and put your appetite in the safe hands of the chef. After all, numerous publications have named Corrigan’s Mayfair “Restaurant of the Year.”

The menu at Portland Restaurant, a contemporary British bistro with subtle Mediterranean influences, changes daily, but repeat diners rave about its wild game pies. The menu occasionally features a game pithivier, a perfectly bronzed parcel of pastry concealing a spiced and herbed mixture of mallard, pheasant, partridge, rabbit, and/or venison, invariably caught wild in the British countryside. At Portland the not-so-humble pie might have shavings of black truffle on top. Most menu items showcase seasonal vegetables of heritage and heirloom varieties, and the wine list is equally rarefied.