Where To Eat In London Right Now

LifestyleDiningWhere To Eat In London Right NowByLela London,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Lela is a London-based writer and editor who covers food and drink. Follow AuthorJun 03, 2026, 02:00pm EDTA dish from Oudh 1722, London, featured belowRebecca DicksonBy this point in the year, I had planned to be insufferable about terrace season. I was ready for linen, sunglasses indoors, cold wine at 4pm and the collective London delusion that if we all say “al fresco” enough, the weather will simply have to comply.Instead, this month’s arrived with the energy of a damp sock.Fine. Good, actually. Sunshine is a terrible critic. It makes everything look better than it is: the lazy burrata, the $25 spritz, the restaurant whose entire personality is “we have olive trees in planters”. Rain is less forgiving. Rain asks a much more useful question: would you still leave the house for this?This month, the answer is yes. Not for everything. Never for everything. But for food with a point of view, restaurants with reason, and people doing something more interesting than rearranging the same six ingredients under a warmer.And, boy, do I have an unexpected place to start for this ‘summer’ edition of the best restaurants in London.Where to eat in London right now1. Oudh 1722, BoroughOudh 1722 is the best restaurant I have been to in months. Not the best new restaurant. Not the best Indian restaurant. The best restaurant. Full stop, with a second full stop for emphasis.MORE FOR YOUThis is Aktar Islam’s new Awadhi restaurant in Borough, and it has that rare, thrilling feeling of a place arriving with its own gravity. Islam, whose Birmingham restaurant Opheem holds two Michelin stars, has not come to London with a tidy “modern Indian” concept but a frankly-flawless menu devoted to the food of Lucknow: kebabs, breads, biryanis, dum cooking, smoke, perfume, patience, heat. All the things that, basically, make any dinner a great dinner...