London Camden Town Restaurant Guide

“Doing what they do very well” – “top burgers” are presented with a veneer of Parisian sophistication at this seven-strong chain, popular not just for their value but their “lovely” styling too.

“Much better than the long-established, tired pizza chains!” – the Elliot brothers’ growing group is the most-mentioned of London’s more artisanal pizza multiples in our annual diners’ poll, inspiring joy with their “authentic Neapolitan preparation, with quality ingredients” and featuring “yummy crusts and interesting flavour combinations”. And you get “consistent quality irrespective of the branch visited” too, even if conditions can be “a little cramped and chaotic”.

You can “travel back in time” at this trio of deliberately retro chippies, with their “Formica tables and period posters creating a great atmosphere” – “the fish ’n’ chips are excellent, too”. Founder Pat ‘Pops’ Newland, an East Ender who started working at the age 11, was still a hands-on owner in his 80s when he died in April 2022.

Investment a few years ago turbo-charged this ‘100% plant-based’ chain, whose stalwart original Soho branch (est 1988) suddenly spawned a handful of “airy” and “jolly” (somewhat “crammed”) modern spin-offs across town. To this number, a new, two-floor Covent Garden branch opened its doors in February 2022 with 120 covers. The expansion has gone well and its “earnest” and “flavourful” cooking is not just favoured by veggies: “I was taken not entirely voluntarily as a dedicated meat-eater but have changed my tune after dining here!”

“Delicious” plant-based versions of classic American comfort food – from burgers, seitan hot dogs and pastrami to milk-free shakes – cut the mustard at this pair of ‘dirty vegan diners’ in Camden Market and Islington. The Islington branch has a vegan butcher next door, touted as the world’s first, with a concession in Selfridges.

“It’s cheap ’n’ very cheerful, but with great-quality authentic pizzas” at this basic Goodge Street spot (“worth foregoing a fancier meal for, as its thin-crust pizzas are so good!”). You’ll find “very fast and friendly service”, and that’s it: “this place is all about the pizza and nothing else (unless you love Snapple drinks)”. Opened in 1999, it now has a branch in Camden and delivery outlets in Wood Green, Colindale and Croydon.

Cleverly converted from Victorian Grade II listed former stables into a faux-rustic gastroboozer, this Camden Town yearling has “a lovely atmosphere, looking out into buzzy Camden Market”, and serves a “high-quality” menu of British comfort-food classics which are “a cut above your usual pub fare”. There’s also a hidden courtyard with a fire pit, and a good selection of locally brewed beers.

“Behind an unprepossessing facade, on an equally unprepossessing part of not-quite-Camden, not-quite-Kentish Town, lie gastronomic delights from Italy” conjured up in a tiny kitchen by Moroccan-Italian Mustapha Mouflih, a chef who “combines high-quality ingredients with imagination”. “Even if the ambience is somewhat chaotic and basic, at best, the cooking is wonderful” (“the ravioli, malfatti, tortellini and so on are of a freshness and stuffed with flavours you would otherwise have to get on a plane to find”).

This “lovely little Japanese restaurant” near Mornington Crescent tube has no airs and graces, but provides “great food and atmosphere”, with a menu that covers most of the classics of the cuisine, from sushi and sashimi to yakitori grills, hotpots and noodle dishes.

This “friendly and cosy” independent Italian with a “good garden space” has established a comfortable niche for itself in Primrose Hill over the past dozen years. It’s run by Patrick Oberto and his partner Diana Rinaldo, who took over the site in 2011.

Just by the Regent’s Canal, Michael Nadra’s high-quality French restaurant serves some of the “best food in the area” at the top of Regent’s Park. On sunny days, it particularly benefits from its cute courtyard (regarding the interior, some diners feel it’s “a shame that the odd layout can detract from its other qualities”). It used to have an (older) Chiswick sibling, but this has now closed: seemingly a victim of the pandemic.

The first London opening from chef Paul Foster, of Stratford-on-Avon's accomplished restaurant Salt, is a casual steakhouse in a railway arch at Camden Market's Hawley Wharf, showcasing high-quality sustainable British ingredients. In addition to grass-fed beef, there will be day-boat fish and a list featuring domestic organic wines.

“Excellent Cantonese roast meats on rice” (“the Hainan chicken rice fills your heart with the warmth of a hug and a blanket from childhood!”) at prices that represent “very good value for money” inspire the highest praise for these Cantonese operations, near Liverpool Street and “tucked away” in Camden Town’s Hawley Wharf. The brainchild of Hong-Kong-raised pals, Pui Sing, Cheong Yew and Mo Kwok, they opened a new branch in March 2022 in Brixton Market (praised by The Evening Standard’s Jimi Famurewa for its “cooking of immense focus, skill and real endorphin-spiking intensity”).