The rise of London Mediterranean, the style defining the capital's hottest restaurants

Yahoo

4 days ago

What is 'London Mediterranean' dining? It's a savvy blend of food from countries along the Mediterranean coast, mostly drawing inspiration from the likes of Portugal, Spain, France and Italy but there are often elements from the likes of Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon too. It is a style that has become immensely popular of late, not just with restaurateurs but diners too.
London Med – to shorten it from the off – is ultimately an amalgamation of cuisines. Menus that take flavours from Provence, an ingredient or two from Sifnos, and then add to them spices from Istanbul. And yes, this has happened for centuries. But there appears to have been a recent(ish) influx of restaurants of this style: super modern, inclusive and perhaps clearer about what comes from where. You might argue that some, like Morchella or Toklas, are roundly built on the notion. Others might be hailed as 'modern European', but that seems too broad a brush these days.
And then there's the fact that all this happens in the UK, mostly London. As is always the case with food — unless you're in fascist Italy — there are no hard-and-fast rules with London Med. Chefs are just as likely to take ideas from Porto and Paris, but it's an easy term to distinguish and categorise, generally; in any case, all included will at least have a coastline on the sea in question.
Here are 10 restaurants that could be defined as being London Mediterranean.
Lita
Lita was one of the standout restaurant openings in 2024. The food traverses Western Europe, though stops in Italy most of all by way of Sicilian red prawns and cacio e pepe. It might be London Med food in its purest form: the very best ingredients from the continent – UK too – cooked with unwavering skill, flair and expense. Head chef Luke Ahearne parted ways with the restaurant at the beginning of July but his menu and well-drilled team remains. And so, for now, the Fuentes bluefin tuna with corno peppers, coriander and capers is still one of London's best dishes; so too the strozzapreti with duck ragu.
7-9 Paddington Street, W1U 5QH, litamarylebone.com
Perilla (and Morchella)
Many in and around the restaurant industry ask why Perilla hasn't ever been awarded a Michelin star. The fact it hasn't been is a damning indictment on the guide. Consider Ben Marks' mussel tartare, which comes fine on top of 'yesterday's bread' and is soaked in the liquor from moules mariniere. Highly inventive and a lot of fun, much the same as the fried cod cheeks with curry sauce arriving with all manner of accoutrement. Here is the move: take half a cod cheek, cover it in a smidge of pickled gooseberry sauce, a little of the tartare and two slivers of sliced cornichon, then add to that a dollop of the curry and a sprinkling of fried capers. Email me if you find a better mouthful this side of Christmas. See also: Morchella, Perilla's sister restaurant. Get the spanikopita and the pork jowl there.
1-3 Green Lanes, N16 9BS, perilladining.co.uk and 86 Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4QY, morchelladining.co.uk
Dove
Dove just about fits in this list despite the fact it's not bound too readily to Mediterranean flavours as the others generally are. Don't order the burger: instead, have octopus gildas, lovely and Spanish-edged, and grilled trout which arrives with black olives and tomatoes. Lucky diners will also find a keen blend of Greece and Italy in the form of whipped fava beans with carosello cucumbers. And then French, as you might expect from chef-patron Jackson Boxer, is uncompromising. The roast chicken with Café de Paris butter is a grand dish to share.
31 Kensington Park Road, W11 2EU, dove.london
Canal
The Standard's restaurant critic David Ellis visited Canal not so long ago, his review of which coined the phrase 'London Mediterranean'. It was an idea I'd long pondered and Dominic Hamdy's latest venture shored it up. To eat? According to Ellis: 'There is a sense of unity throughout the menu that makes a bad order tricky: if you have the plate of pickles — various beetroots, very gently done, the oil and beet juice together like the interior of a lava lamp — you can happily have the cheerful crab doughnut, with its light dough and pink innards. Stracciatella, sitting in a pool of olive oil — liking olive oil is a requirement for liking here — might follow, with its gently blackened turrets of courgette.'
11b Woodfield Road, W9 2BA, mason-fifth.com
Town
Not all the dishes at Town qualify as 'London Med'. Remember London's past incarnation as a haven to XO sauce? Actually still alive and well. There are doses of shiso and miso and so on too. No bad thing. Still, Stevie Parle's latest restaurant, this one lavish and built with big money for celebs, draws as much on Europe as its own, home-grown ingredients. There's a mighty saffron risotto, Cornish crab with Neapolitan tomatoes, Scottish scallops in 'nduja butter, and clams from Kent cooked in sherry. These dishes are the definition of high-end modern dining in town.
26-29 Drury Lane, WC2B 5RL, town.restaurant
Toklas
Mostly Italian, really, but Toklas also brings in elements from elsewhere along the Med, including some Turkish food, which is befitting of London and enjoyable. The ingredients at Toklas are impressive, all sourced carefully, with real care and attention. This but with prices staying affordable: you could dine there, main course and a side or two to share, for less than £50 per head. Those who are able to splash out will do so when they see a good pork tonnato, crab bruschetta and excellently cooked lamb chops with salsa verde. A comforting, happy restaurant on the Strand, a part of the city where the vibes are mostly terrible.
1 Surrey Street, Temple, WC2R 2ND, toklaslondon.com
Sune
Where else but London could you, for the timid sum of £25, begin with a pig's head terrine before easing softly into a decent lamb köfte with harissa, labneh and coleslaw? How marvellous a proposition – and not in the way of a random buffet at a Home Counties service station. Sune is solid thanks to the steering of owners Honey Spencer and Charlie Sims, not to mention head chef Michael Robins, formerly of Hackney favourite Pidgin, still much missed.
129A Pritchard's Road, E2 9AP, sune.restaurant
Quo Vadis
I had reservations about this one, but the powers that be pulled rank and, thinking about it, Quo Vadis works well here. It just predates the boom of the last little while by a countless number of years. Not that dishes such as salad nicoise, peach and courgette salad and spiced aubergine with feta and chickpeas have always been on the menu. Anyway, it's Jeremy Lee in the house, bringing fresh flavours before wonderful pies and towers of fruity meringue. Don't need to say much else (other than: please bring back the herb omelettes).
26-29 Dean Street, W1D 3LL, quovadissoho.co.uk
Mountain (and Brat)
When Mountain opened, 'Welsh ingredients with a Basque accent' was a line uttered more than once. Tomos Parry is a chef who's been at the forefront of modern dining in London for years, ever since he opened Brat in 2018 and introduced London to the seemingly (but not really) simple practice of grilling turbot. Parry's cooking can be unmatched and at Mountain it's at its peak: spider crab omelettes; scarlet prawns grilled and then covered in lardo blankets. Big steaks to satisfy the quiet few who still operate with monstrous expense accounts.
16-18 Beak Street, W1F 9RD, mountainbeakstreet.com
Tasca
Go and order the prawn and pork cachorrinho, a take on a sandwich from Porto, Portugal, which comes flat and grilled with Ossau Iratty (sheep's milk cheese from over there) and piri-piri oil. A phenomenal sandwich, up there with Jose Pizarro's bikini (grilled cheese, jamon and truffle) and – just about – the one at Ibai in the City with boudin noir, carabinero prawns and Tomme de Brebis. Tasca's is worth every bit of the £14 it costs. There is far more than a sandwich to explore, of course. This is a residency from Josh Dalloway and Sinead Murdoch, who are currently in situ at Cav, a wine bar in Bethnal Green from the team behind Oranj and Half Cut Market.
255 Paradise Row, E2 9LE, @tasca.london