The best restaurants in Mayfair

Rather than an Italian Italian, The Dover is a self-styled ‘New York Italian’ that’s more Nolita than Naples. This is not your average nonna’s kitchen but rather a shimmering space to see and be seen, with stunning walnut walls and lots of discreet booths. Food comes from a long-enough list of well-done trad classics; spaghetti meatballs, parmigiana, penne arrabbiata, burger and fries, fillet mignon, and, of course, a house Dover sole, as well as a serious martini list. Prices are pretty reasonable for the area too, and there's some great old school touches; you can only book by phone, and it's not open for lunch. Hyped, but with very good reason.

The name Bibi, which means ‘lady of the house’ in Urdu, is a tribute to chef-patron Chet Sharma’s grandmothers, who inspired his cooking. The Kashmiri fabric on the walls and bar stools is a nod to their shawls. And the food is influenced by his travels around India. But don’t expect vindaloos and bhajis. Instead prepare for an exploration of traditional fine-dining Indian cooking. Come for the Lahori chicken served with a cashew-and-yoghurt-whey sauce.

Forever the flashiest gal in the town, The Ritz's Michelin-starred dining room contains carpets adorned with giant roses, floral swags and crystal chandeliers draped from the ceiling, and massive pink marble columns. Camp? A bit. The ‘Epicurean’ tasting menu is the done thing at The Ritz, either five or seven courses of the best British ingredients, cooked with French precision and flair. It comes at a hefty price, but you'll also get to lavish in the staff’s exceptional timing and sleek tableside manner in one of the world's most famous hotels.

DakaDaka - which is Georgian slang that translates as ‘big mood’ - is a boisterous Eastern European dining room on Mayfair’s buzzy food hub, Heddon Street. Georgia is kind of at the crossroads of the Middle East and Eastern Europe – between Turkey and Russia – and the cuisine very much reflects that in a ‘you get dumplings, but you also get pomegranate’ type of way. Chef Mitz Vora is not trying to offer a slavishly nostalgic ex-pats only experience, but neither is this about culinary reinvention. It’s traditional food, served smartly, with an emphasis on flame-cooked stuff. 

At Mount St Restaurant there are 200 world-class pieces of art, worth a combined total of £50 million. Before you get to exec chef Jamie Shears’s outrageously good menu of elevated trad British dining classics, this five-floor palace is well worth a gawp. Mount St is the first London-based project from Artfarm, a hospitality group founded by the same folk behind the hugely respected gallerists Hauser & Wirth. Food is elevanted British trad classics. Sensational. 

We happen to think that Angela Hartnett’s flagship is Mayfair’s least stuffy fine-dining restaurant. Yes, there are beautifully dressed tables and carpets so thick you’d slip out of your shoes if only they were Manolo Blahniks, but the focus is resolutely on the good times: cue generous portions of big-flavoured Italian dishes, ferried by smiling, down-to-earth staff. (Psst: the set lunch is fabulous.)

The not-that-little sister of The Dover. DSC is just as elegant, but with a naughty glint in its eye. With a shorter menu and a more casual set-up, food is important here – of course it is – but this place is about much more than what you’re eating. It’s about vibes, and DSC has a surfeit of them. The easy menu could be seen as one note, but is made up of things everyone wants; tuna melts, burgers, lobster, salmon steak, pasta, and a raft of juicy sandwiches.

After years as executive chef at Barrafina, Spanish queen bee Nieves Barragán Mohacho now presides over her first solo gaff – a highly distinctive setup spread over two floors (small-plate counter fun downstairs, regional wood-fired feasting upstairs). The food’s all-round flawless with a noticeable rustic edge: don’t swerve the plumped-up, just-runny salt-cod tortilla – it’s sheer eggy bliss.

This Greek ‘neo-taverna’ serves a tzatziki martini, and if that isn’t enough to get you visit, you should probably stop reading now. Their actual tzatziki is thick and rich as the fellas loitering by the Lamborghini shop around the corner, while the Greek salad is a primo example of the form, with succulent cherry tomatoes, crumbly feta, crisp cucumbers and snappable chunks of rusk. Try also the courgette cakes, which come on like falafel after a trip to an Ionian wellness retreat. Good stuff, and nowhere near as stuffy as some other Mayfair spots.

A Chinese-Japanese fusion restaurant on the 28th floor of the London Hilton on Park Lane, Shanghai Me is surprisingly tasteful with an extensive menu; wagyu dim sum, cod and miso, black truffle yellowtail. There was a desire to be cynical about Shanghai Me. But it’s actually fun. The dishes are enjoyable, the people watching is second to none, the view is stunning, the serving staff are jovial and had character. If you’re going for a silly, opulent date night to rub shoulders with London’s anonymous elite, you could do a hell of a lot worse than this. 

If the stodgy pomposity of some Mayfair restaurants leaves you cold, head to the Air Street branch of steak specialists Hawksmoor. This is fine dining without head-up-arse pretentiousness: the low-lit interior is stylish yet comfortable, the service smooth as polished soapstone without being sycophantic, and the food (a mixture of turf here and surf there) well worth the dosh.

For Londoners of a certain age - or those in possession of a Coutts bank account - the name Langan’s is synonymous with martini-fuelled long lunches and intoxicating celebrity glamour. Opened in 1976 by debauched restaurateur Peter Langan and actor Michael Caine, the Mayfair brassiere became a byword for a certain kind of decadence. A ritzy hangout for the likes of Jerry Hall, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando, Langan’s was it. Langan’s French-leaning offering is made up of classics and crowd pleasers, with the likes of shellfish cocktail, dressed crab, fish pie, posh bangers and mash and Dover sole vying for supremacy on a menu that seems largely untouched since Peter Langan’s heyday, with the small exception of vegan ceviche.

Mazarine, a French seafood restaurant in Hanover Square’s Mandarin Oriental, is full, total luxury. Come for the likes of a ‘croque Mazarine’ with lobster and black truffle and smoked eel croquettes with comte and a smoked bonito vitello tonnato which swaps delicate veal slices for almost peaty fish. That Mazarine is obviously High End™ doesn’t stop them serving a cracking Provençal bouillabaisse with classic accoutrements: a psychedelically rich rouille and a massive thing of gruyere cheese.

Everyone knows lunch at this paparazzi-magnet is replete with celeb rubber-necking. But what of the food? Well, it’s insanely good, as long as you like fish: from spanking fresh crustacea and cognac-laced shellfish bisque to peerless Dover sole. Trying to eat here cheaply is futile, but the fact that prices represent value for money goes some way to excusing excesses.

This Indian dining institution is proof that good things come to those who wait (it received a Michelin gong 90 years after opening). If you’re expecting staid, however, think again: old Veera styles it out with quirk and class. The food is perfectly spiced: don’t miss the celebrated signatures or the veggie sides.

Meaning ‘born of nature’ in Japanese, Umu is a super swish sushi spot boasting a much-earned Michelin star. All glossy, dark woods, you'll feel like you're eating out in a splendid Kyoto skyscraper – though glance towards the windows and you'll be reminded that you're actually in a tucked-away Mayfair mews. The menu is pricey, but stacked full of high end delights. For £250 a head, the kaiseki experience is a string of flawless sashimi, sushi, waygu beef shabu-shabu hotpot. 

Since opening in 2013 Gymkhana has been charming London restaurant-goers with higher-than-high-quality Indian cuisine. The kid goat keema, served with salli (enlightened shoestring fries), diced onion and miniature buns, remains one of London’s great dishes, while lamb chops served with a walnut chutney are some of the most succulent in the city. The basement area (built after a massive fire back in 2019) is a triumph of refurbishment. Plush, red and banquete-ish; like if Angus Steakhouse won the National Lottery.

Freshly shucked oysters steal the show at Richard Corrigan’s immensely civilised and carefully polished seafood veteran – especially if you’re grazing at the marble-topped ground-floor bar or carousing alfresco on the chic, heated-and-covered terrace. Otherwise, head upstairs for old-fashioned service, clubby wood-and-leather cosiness and unfussy plates of pristine seafood in the more formal Grill restaurant – don’t miss the fish pie.

Like the rest of this luxe Mayfair extravaganza, Sketch’s velvet-clad dandy-esque Gallery is a lesson in more-is-more eclecticism, complete with semi-permanent exhibitions from high-profile artists such as David Shrigley and Yinka Shonibare, with current work from sculptor Jonathan Baldock. You can come here for a thrillingly creative dinner, but afternoon tea in this decadent boudoir is one of the quirkiest in town – especially if you fancy cosying up in wintertime.

Jamavar’s vibe suggests a smart gentlemen’s club, but don’t let that put you off. What makes it worth a serious punt is the Michelin-starred food, a succession of luscious, delicately spiced small plates bursting with purity and depth of flavour – we’re still salivating over the succulent lobster tail served with sambar and idli dumplings on the side. Yes, Jamavar is pricey, but it’s worth the outlay.