The Best No-Reservation Restaurants for London Fashion Week
It’s London Fashion Week, which means the taxis are all taken and you’re already running late. While the circus is in town, stay nimble. Here are the best walk-in restaurants to visit with a moment’s notice.
Evelyn’s Table
The paint is barely dry at this 12-seater restaurant from the owners of mega-hits The Barbary and Palomar, which opened last week. Half of the places are reserved and half are walk-in—all have views of the open kitchen. The food is southern European and elegant (duck cappelletti in broth; pork with padron peppers and stracciatella), but the ambience is relaxed, as though the whole restaurant is at the same dinner party. After slices of tarte tatin you can have a nightcap at The Blue Posts, the beautiful pub upstairs.
El Pastor
From a cheerful bunker beneath an old railway arch, steps from the Borough Market, El Pastor serves the best tacos in town. The house special—pork shoulder with caramelized pineapple—is salty-sweet and hard to resist, but the winning order is the short rib tacos. Spice-rubbed meat is served barely clinging to a honking great bone, which you fork clean with a tub of warm, homemade tortillas at your elbow. On top of everything else, they have one of the most extensive selections of Mezcal in London.
Som Saa
Som Saa started as a venerated Thai pop-up and moved to permanent digs in a converted warehouse a couple of years ago. The hand soap is nicer now, but the crowd is the same: spice-chasing Londoners who know a thing worth waiting for. The bar does a gloriously fatty iced tea with condensed milk, which is the right chaperone for the green papaya salad, pork red curry, and other plates that don’t skimp on the chili. Service is charming and unrushed, as though dozens of other people aren’t waiting to scoop your table.
Morito
Next door to the celebrated restaurant Moro is tiny Morito, a postage-stamp tapas bar where mostly locals come for pan con tomate, spiced lamb, and fried chickpeas with pumpkin and tahini. Nobody minds the sardine seating, and the atmosphere is thick with in-the-know delight: that you’re here, you have a scrap of counter to eat on, and you can order another bowl of the patatas bravas. Don’t skip the ho-hum-sounding chocolate mousse for dessert: this one comes doused in olive oil and piled with toasted hazelnuts.
Ducksoup
The most romantic restaurant on this list, Ducksoup is the good idea you need for a spur of the moment date. The menu is seasonal Italian; recently, there were plates of chanterelles with goat's curd and sourdough crumbs, fried artichokes, and poussin with romesco. It’s simple cooking, and dependably wonderful. A record player spins vinyl (guests are encouraged to choose the tunes) and the excellent natural wine list changes with the food. They have a stunner of a cookbook, too, for those nights when you don’t want to queue.
Gunpowder
Tucked down a side street in Spitalfields with a neon “open” sign out front, Gunpowder has an inconspicuous face that’s too easily passed over (the Fanny Price of Indian restaurants, if you will). But once you’re through the door, the spicy venison doughnuts will entrance you and you’ll become a regular. The lamb chops—always a bellwether—are top notch, as is the smoky aloo chaat and outrageously good rum pudding. The latter is best served with a shot of Old Monk over the top.
Kricket
Kricket roared to prominence from a 20-seat shipping container in Brixton, opening its first permanent restaurant, in swishy Soho, last year. London is full of terrific Indian food (see above), but the menu here stands out for its unexpected dishes: Keralan fried chicken with curry leaf mayonnaise and samphire pakoras—deep fried greens that are second cousins of French fries—are both knockouts. The cocktail list is worth a look too; consider the Tainted Tonic, mixed with ginger vodka and tamarind.
Padella
Near the entrance to Padella is a man with a clipboard and a line of chic-looking people that wraps around the corner. They’re there for pasta. Specifically, for pappardelle with pepper sausage ragu, gnocchi with nutmeg butter, and tagliarini with slow-cooked tomato sauce. With little on offer but noodles, the dishes need to be spot-on, and they are. The best seats are the ones that hug the open kitchen, where the chefs boil, sauté, and grate hillocks of Parmesan with mesmerizing coordination. Under no circumstances should you leave without trying the cacio e pepe, a house specialty.
