The best restaurants in Chelsea

Martino’s is the latest from Martin Kuczmarski, the man behind The Dover. Martino’s is a little less New York and a little more Milan, with a simple pasta and meatballs menu, and all-day dining (it’s open from 8am on weekdays). Like the Dover, it’s very sensual; all glossy walnut walls, film noir-worthy venetian blinds, extremely flattering light, and slinky demi-booths. The food is unobtrusive and Italian, yet still occasionally surprising. Shoestring zucchini fritti is a stand-out and every cocktail you can think of is on offer.

Claude Bossi’s small bistro is named after his late grandmother and despite its outwardly modest nature, the food is anything but understated. Flavours are as full-bodied as a ruddy-faced Serge Gainsbourg after a Syrah binge, and it self-identifies as a ‘bouchon’ – the name given to French restaurants that serve hearty Lyonnaise cuisine – as well as as that inscrutable thing, a ‘neighbourhood’ restaurant. Punchy flavours include rabbit, frogs, souffles, steak and potatoes five ways.

A smart Indian restaurant, and the first solo project from Rohit Ghai, one-time exec chef of JKS restaurants (Trishna, Gymkhana, Hoppers), Bombay Bustle and Jamavar. That’s one hell of a pedigree. Unsurprisingly, the food at Kutir is excellent. It’s modern Indian but not faddish. Prettily plated, but not excessively cheffy. In short: just right. You’ll struggle to order badly, but there were a few dishes that stood out. Like the sea bass curry, thick with plump mussels, heavy coconut cream and the mustardy kick of curry leaves.

A sister spot to the Marylebone High Street joint, Alley Cats on the King’s Road is an ideal place to indulge in those New York-style (as evinced by the wipe-clean gingham tablecloths), crispy crackly pizzas that are way lighter than their comparatively doughy Neopolitan cousins. The menu’s short, but who needs choice when the standard offerings are so effective? Pizzas are 14”, including a fantastic take on the classic cacio & pepe pasta dish. If you are in the market for starters, both the candied bacon and sauce-slathered meatballs should not be missed. A great addition to London’s varied and ever-evolving pizza scene.

Stroll over to this storied Holland Park venue, which dates back to the seventeenth century. It's right in the middle of the public park itself and was, once upon a time, the summer ballroom for Holland House. It's an enviable location and the Med-styled food here matches up to the lavish surroundings; mussel and saffron broth, prosciutto with rocket, parmesan and truffle oil, and gnocchi with mushrooms and rocket pesto to roast monkfish with a chickpea, chorizo and tomato stew, and confit of pork belly with a pork ragout, puy lentils and tarragon jus.

A glitzy, capacious dining room with a quietly ambitious, head-turning menu. Enjoy ‘modern’ sushi from exec chef Masaki Sugisaki who practises a gill-to-tail approach, with dishes such as potted native blue lobster and sweetcorn croquette and line caught wild seabass carpaccio with truffle salsa and ponzu jelly. Tiny portions and complex precision-tuned flavours are the norm, as are big-city prices.

Slink off the King’s Road, and you'll tumble across The Chalk Freehouse, a bright and airy gastropub from the Tom Kerridge team. Piloted in from sister spot, the Michelin starred The Hand & Flowers, is chef Tom De Keyser. Here he’s whipping up deft British classics that more than match the neighbourhood’s stately surrounds. Dishes are seasonal and sturdy; pork chop schnitzel with smoked bacon & pickled cabbage; butter roasted ray wing with pickled cockles and anchovy & garlic Dressing; while others have been imported along with the chef, such as the Hand & Flowers’ infamous chicken and duck liver parfait. The Chelsea spud - a kind of chip/hasselback/baked potato combo - is a must-order.  

Gordon Ramsay’s signature spot has a Michelin star, because of course it does. Dishes tantalise then delight the senses; no element of the complex assemblies seems showily redundant – even the pouring of sauces at table adds visual and aromatic impact. A snow of frozen buttermilk proved a perfect counterpoint to slivers of summer vegetables in a rock pool of warm, deeply flavoured jus. Shavings of salt-baked turnip gave saline balance to the sweetness of rabbit loin with roast hazelnuts, and vadouvan-spiced, smoke-puffed wild rice provided a crunchy backdrop to tender mutton.

We’re not sure what real country folk will make of Rabbit’s jokey, ‘rustic’ interior, with a tractor bonnet decorating the bar, corrugated iron panelling, and the back end of a fox mounted on a wall. It feels more like a bar that does food, down to the ‘stable door’ entrance where smokers can linger outside. But to see it as a party venue does the cooking a disservice: the Gladwin Brothers – who also run The Shed in Notting Hill – can really cook. 

Phil Howard’s Elystan Street offers high-end modern European fare – meticulously presented in warm, low-lit surrounds. It is hard to fault, but it’s also tough to work out who it’s really for, bar the deep-pocketed denizens of Chelsea. The food is objectively delicious though, and it has, naturally, a Michelin star.

Never mind if you’re into food: the Duke of York Building is very cool. It’s a contemporary beauty, plonked, seemingly randomly on the footprint of an old café, in the middle of Chelsea’s historic Duke of York Square. Inside, it’s equally swish – minimalist woods, stone, more curves – and a fitting setting for a menu that I’m going to call ‘Caravan 2.0’. That is, eclectic, fusion-y small plates from the same team as first brought us killer coffees and coconut bread, but sharper and more stylish. The menu is large – almost too large – and includes an impressive number of plant-based options. Nearly everything we ate was terrific: bright, thrilling plates, their bold ingredients plucked from every shelf of the world’s larder.

A gorgeous room with sumptuous quilted armchairs, green-and-cream walls and a large statement mirror. So far, so chic SW10. The menu claims to be ‘modern European with an Irish influence’ (chef and owner Anna Haugh hails from Dublin), but while dishes may be drawn from across the Continent, the style is more overtly Lyonnaise: lots of butter, lots of meat, rich rich rich. With the odd Irish number as a sort of homely garnish. And no small plates, oh no: this is a strictly starters-mains-puds set-up.

In this stretch of south Chelsea, there are few places more inviting than the robin-egg-blue exterior of No. Fifty Cheyne. Timeless and classy: think high ceilings, sprigs of spring blossoms and flickering taper candles. It’s all very chic. Happily the modern European cooking is as plush and impeccable as the decor, without becoming fiddly or mean-portioned. Standout dishes included a creamy scallop lifted by an asparagus sauce, or the butter-soft rib-eye steak, which had been flame-licked by the wood-fired grill. As for the cotton-fluffy chips with crisp beef-fat crusts, these were good enough to get emotional over.

Daphne’s current incarnation will forever be compared to its Princess Di glory days. Togged out like a snazzy Italian townhouse (complete with a canopied conservatory), it serves punchy regional food – leavening its muscular pastas, grills and seasonal black truffles with more delicate salads, carpaccios and briny-fresh seafood. Service remains a strong point, honed by years of attending to a gaggle of Bolly-glugging regulars.