SheerLuxe London Bar & Restaurant Awards Winners 2024
RESTAURANT HEROES
WINNER: The River Café
The training ground for many of the UK’s best chefs, Ruth Rogers’s The River Café has been a London favourite for decades and is still the place at which to try and snag a coveted table. In its modern home on the edge of the Thames, the team serves some of the best pasta in the city, and the place is next level in terms of atmosphere and buzz.
Visit RiverCafe.com
RUNNER UP: Brat
Tomos Parry’s Soho opening Mountain might continue to be one of the hottest restaurants in London, but his stylish original spot in Shoreditch is still a firm favourite with SheerLuxe readers.
Visit BratRestaurants.co.uk
SL PICK: Gymkhana
Book a table at beautifully designed, two-Michelin-starred Gymkhana and you can expect everything from a world-class G&T list to a tasting menu filled with stylish signatures like muntjac biryani, and paneer tikka with fig, cashew nut and corn chaat.
Visit GymkhanaLondon.com
RESTAURANT NEWCOMERS
WINNER: Bistro Freddie
Crispin’s Dominic Hamdy only launched Bistro Freddie at the end of September, but it’s fast become the place to get a table – partly thanks to its cool, old-school London dining room and partly for its smartly presented sharing pies and the best chips in town.
Visit BistorFreddie.com
RUNNER UP: Joséphine
Michelin-starred Claude Bosi’s most personal project to date, Joséphine is run with his wife Lucy and inspired by his late grandmother and the traditional bouchons in his hometown of Lyon. There are lots of nostalgic French bistro classics on offer, as well as a great set menu.
Visit JosephineBouchon.com
SL PICK: Oma
David Carter – founder of Smokestak and Manteca – opened Oma, a restaurant inspired by the flavours of the Greek isles, early in 2024. At Borough Market, the gorgeous restaurant transports diners to their favourite taverna through a medley of wonderful small plates.
Visit Oma.London
LUXEGEN RESTAURANT NEWCOMERS
WINNER: Crisp Pizza
In the midst of lockdown, this sell-out spot started as a grab-and-go. Now, you can sit in – if you can find a table. Crisp by name, the pies here are also crisp by nature – founder Carl McCuskey experimented with different levels of flour and water to find exactly the right crust.
Follow @CrispPizzaW6
RUNNER UP: Forza Wine At The NT
Last year, Forza Wine – the Peckham rooftop venue known for simple and fun seasonal drinks, and considered Italian snacks – launched its long-awaited second site. On the north-west terrace of the National Theatre, expect mozzarella with figs and hazelnuts, cherry negronis, and signature soft serves.
Visit ForzaWine.COM
SL PICK: It’s Bagels!
Craving an NYC-style bagel? For our money, It’s Bagels makes some of the best in London. The brainchild of fashion photographer Dan Martensen, the Primrose Hill bakery serves classic combos, like smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers, to queues of people every week.
Follow @Its_Bagels
Dan Martensen
BAR & PUB HEROES
WINNER: Noble Rot
There are now three Noble Rots. Each one – Bloomsbury, Soho and Mayfair – has everything you’d want from a bar and restaurant: fantastic seasonal menu; friendly, on-the-mark service; buzzy atmosphere; and lots of interesting wines by the glass.
Visit NobleRot.co.uk
RUNNER UP: Chiltern Firehouse
SL readers have made it clear: Marylebone hotspot Chiltern Firehouse is still the place to see and be seen. It remains loved by A-listers for everything from breakfast to late-late night cocktails in stylish surroundings.
Visit ChilternFirehouse.com
SL PICK: Camberwell Arms
This cool, south London gastropub is a local hotspot, but many around the capital are prepared to travel across town for one of its epic sharing-style Sunday roasts and a hangover-busting cocktail. Celebrating ten years this summer, it’s a much-loved classic for a reason.
Visit TheCamberwellArms.co.uk
BAR & PUB NEWCOMERS
WINNER: The Devonshire
The hottest pub launch we can remember in a long time, The Devonshire is brought to you by landlord Oisín Rogers (ex-Guinea Grill), Charlie Carrol (founder of Flat Iron) and Michelin-starred chef Ashley Palmer-Watts. As well as having a cracking restaurant, downstairs at The Devonshire is your classic London pub – warm, welcoming and responsible for the city’s renewed Guinness obsession.
Visit TheDevonshireSoho.co.uk
RUNNER UP: Three Sheets Soho
Like its older sibling in Dalston, this new Soho bar serves clean, elegant and thoughtful signature cocktails. Ex-Lyle’s chef William Blank has crafted a menu of classics to accompany the cocktails – count on croquettes, salt beef sandwiches, fresh oysters and triple cooked chips.
Visit ThreeSheets-Bar.com
SL PICK: The Hero
The duo behind Notting Hill’s The Pelican and The Bull in Charlbury are also responsible for The Hero in Maida Vale – a gorgeous four-storey space that makes the most of the building’s 1878 heritage. As well as a strong drinks list, the pub does traditional British comfort food (think ham, egg and chips, and smoked eel and bacon salad) exceptionally well.
Visit TheHeroW9.Com
And here Oisín Rogers, famed landlord of The Devonshire, shows us how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness – and explains why the Best Pub & Bar Newcomer is a more than worthy winner…
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