The reputation of this newish spot has been bubbling on Green Lanes for a few months now, aided and abetted by applause from chef and writer Melek Erdal and Vittles’s (and Eater London contributor) Jonathan Nunn. It’s the most exciting thing to open on this storied stretch of the A105 in a good while, for several good reasons: its devotion to the soothing, richly homespun depth of soups and stews, whether tangy with yoghurt or rich with lamb’s offal, head, and brain; its being open until 3 a.m. in a city whose “late night food” normally stops at a child’s bedtime; and its being the new darling of London’s Turkish and Kurdish restaurants, whose centrality to the city’s culinary landscape sadly, rarely correlates to anything resembling “hype” when it truly should.

Though Haggerston’s Planque is a wine club, its restaurant — and arched, atmospheric dining room — is open to the public. In the kitchen is Seb Myers, whose elegantly fun approach to cooking loosely modern French food is a perfect foil for a place that is devoted to high quality wines and their cellaring but is also in an east London railway arch. When on the hobs at venerable wine bar P. Franco, Myers reconnected it to the Parisian caves à manger that it long touted as inspiration, and brings that sensibility to Planque with the likes of red mullet tartine; grilled leeks vinaigrette with Tunworth cheese; a duck offal choux farcis; and mackerel with coco beans and greens, as well as a stunning caramel tart with blue cheese.

Strictly speaking this canalside institution breaks rubric: it’s far from new and in fact over twelve years old. But little is ever hotter in London than seasonal simplicity, and in warmer months the produce thermometer goes into overdrive, so Towpath is — throughout its season — always one of London’s hottest restaurants. At breakfast, get the marinda tomatoes with mojo verde; at lunch, the cheese toastie or the goat curd with roasted garlic. Look out for Napoli sausages, bean stews, radishes, the works.

Roti King’s roti king may no longer be central London’s standard bearer for roti prata (canai). The best version of the rich, flaky bread used to mop up good dhal or even better sour fish curries might now be found in this newish Malaysian spot by King’s Cross on Caledonian road. Word is that it’s truly elite when fresh, merely very good when reheated. Elsewhere there are outstanding plates of kway teow goreng , flat noodles which hold onto an umami-heavy seasoning, with bamboo shoots, chilli, crispy onions, and scallions; protein is more or less irrelevant. Make sure to order a side pot of sambal and be prepared to compete with the c.millions of delivery orders flying in and out throughout a sit-down meal.

Taking over the iconic Shoreditch dining room formerly home to Hoi Polloi, Goddard and Gibbs is a new all-day, hotel restaurant specialising in seafood and brasserie classics — lobster and chips; fish pie; roasted skate with XO sauce. This is the type of restaurant which is is low-key and suitable for a bit of breakfast, a little work, or a light lunch by day, and a seen-to-be-seen vibey night time spot.

Brett Graham’s two-Michelin-starred Notting Hill restaurant shut abruptly in summer 2020, when he said: “The economy is smashed; there are no customers in hotels, no international flights ... The business model is not viable.” Come 2022, it clearly is: the tasting menu is back, priced up to accommodate increased costs, and immediately one of the hottest tables in town, for gastronauts and relieved regulars alike.

As above, so below: JKS Restaurants — the group behind a suite of the city’s best, (Michelin-starred), and most innovative kitchens — has managed to transform Arcade Food Theatre into something worthy of the name (while getting rid of the name altogether. The new new Arcade Food Hall is less of a collection of kitchens and more of a panoptic restaurant in its own right. A new ordering system, with table service and no queueing, makes dining feel effortless, while the range of food on offer makes it as suited to a dinner occasion as to a soaker-upper after a night out in the West End. Hits include Nashville hot chicken and smashburgers at Manna (from Bake Street’s Feroz Gajia); butter chicken everything at Hero; and surprising substance in a tempura prawn nori sando from Sushi Kamon.

Located on the mezzanine floor of Arcade Food Hall, chef and grower Lukie Farrell’s new southern Thai restaurant is an instant, complex hit. Self-consciously decked out to not just reference, but mimic its forbears in Bangkok, with strip lighting and blue tablecloths, and reliant on ingredients grown and prepared not just in Thailand, but in Dorset, it is an embodiment of an evolution in what “authenticity” can mean in food. It is also an outstanding restaurant, with hot and sour curries; some ferociously dry (khlua kling moo, heady with long pepper and turmeric) and some puckeringly sauced (gaeng som talay, of mussels and squid) served over rice, next to fried eggs with crisply billowing skirts.

Missy Flynn and Gabe Pryce’s latest iteration of Rita’s sees them put down roots in Soho. The listed building on Lexington Street’s limitations have been turned to advantages, with an unfussed-with design and an opportunity to more fully develop Pryce’s version of Americana cooking and Flynn’s approach to exactingly fun drinks. This is a place for lunch and dinner, not for bits and bobs on small plates: a barbecue beef tartare with herbs; quail and grits; sharing steaks, potatoes, and greens. It’s a Proper Restaurant, with the vibe of cool dinner party.

Lahpet’s arrival in the middle of Covent Garden is a bit of a placing-the-flag moment for Burmese cooking in London, in the wake of some of the cuisine’s best-known restaurants in the city closing their doors in recent months. So while Lahpet is very much continuing what’s it done in Shoreditch, delivering Myanmar staples like the pickled tea leaf salad, lahpet thohk, for which the restaurant is named, its ability to open a second, on prime real estate, is something of a statement.

While its restaurant — also from the founders of renowned art magazine and festival Frieze — is winning plaudits for simple European cooking, Toklas Bakery is reaching even greater heights in the hype stratosphere. A roscón de reyes unseated its French cousin the galette des rois from its epiphany cake throne, while luminous brioche laminations and thick slices of tarts blessed with citrus from Todoli are more quotidian beauties.