This Newington Green favourite leaned into grocery supply during lockdown, but will return serving its large, awning-protected terrace quality, unfussy plates of Spanish sunshine newly guided by that shift. Tapas are heavy on tinned fish and friends, while larger, Galician plates based on meat (Iberico pork) fish (octopus) and summer produce (bull’s heart tomatoes) catch the eye.

Chef Tomos Parry’s Basque-inspired restaurant will occupy the covered yard outside Climpson’s Arch in London Fields for the rest of the year. It is here, undercover, fans of the brand can enjoy its famous grilled turbot and smoked potatoes, plus new dishes like a hefty cast iron pot of chicken rice and grilled mussels with nubs of the restaurant’s own fresh chorizo.

Chef Mitshel Ibrahim’s Ombra has shown great dexterity under successive lockdowns with its fresh pasta kits, wine, and grocery offer, and is planning to do the same upon reopening this spring, with a set menu at £39 per person joining the loosely Venetian rank of dishes that regulars will recognise. A fine terrace has fresh decking, ample space, an awning, and some extra coverage to protect against the rain. 

The covered, heated terrace at this Shoreditch barbecue don comes into its own in the rain, when brisket buns with pickled chilli and slowly smoked, fall-apart meats offer warming shelter from the storm.

The front terrace here is open to the elements, but the backroom-outdoor-glass-roof section of this Maida Hill legend is the perfect place to listen to rain drumming overhead as a soundtrack to grilled souvlaki, fall-apart kleftiko, and smooth tarama that was repping whipped smoked cod’s roe well before it became the hottest small plate in town.

In a most unpredictable year, it was striking that Anna Tobias’ debut restaurant — in partnership with the team behind Bermondsey’s 40 Maltby Street — was unilaterally predicted to be a hit. And so it was. Through lockdown, it was a traiteur, wry sandwich shop, and wine merchant, and now it’s a fully fledged restaurant competing with the city’s very best. The covered terrace is a coveted people-watching spot.

The covered market in Spitalfields features countless food traders. The best of those are John and Yi Lee’s Dumpling Shack, the purveyor of delicious shengjianbao, crispy fried spring onion pancakes, dan dan noodles, and prawn wontons. Elsewhere, check out another outlet of Bleecker Burger, Pleasant Lady Jian Bing, and Monty’s Jewish deli for one of London’s great reubens.

This Fitzrovia institution’s covered awning has long been a place to gather with one of the best flat whites in the city, as locals, cyclists, and celebrities journey in over the morning; it’s even more satisfying when sheltering from the rain.

One of London’s great restaurants, perhaps its finest Italian restaurant, is in possession of the city’s truly great garden terraces, which overlooks ... the River Thames. Stylish parasols here are the only protection from the elements, so check the weather before booking. #DrizzleProof

One of London’s best Neapolitan pizzerias: Pellone respects the classics with care, but the more adventurous and modern “Pizze Le Pizze Gourmet” section is perhaps what sets it apart: the white pizza with mortadella with pistachio pesto and the “Toto” — a base topped with mozzarella, yellow tomatoes, Italian sausage, and provolone are fine places to start. A cosy outside section is covered by the restaurant’s rain-resistant awning.

Inside the covered Brixton Market, find one of London’s best places for Trinidadian dal puri roti, filled with curried mutton, or vegetables — pumpkin, string beans, chickpeas and potatoes — and kuchela (a delicious hot, spiced green mango condiment). Elsewhere, there’s Jamaican jerk chicken, stewed oxtail, and coconut curry prawns, served with rice, peas, mango chutney, and coleslaw.

Endo Kazutoshi’s new —casual— Westbourne Grove paean to sushi is perhaps the sleekest, most elegant rendition of “casual” to open in London in a good while, and the only one to offer caviar as a side. Much like his revered tasting menu restaurant in White City, everything pivots on impeccable quality nigiri and sashimi — the richest of which are offered aburi style for a whisper of char as a counterpoint. But there’s also A4 wagyu, and temaki for a sense of fun.

Chef Budgie Montoya is the reigning champion of lechon in London. This, the chef’s second restaurant-proper, having made his name on the pop-up and supperclub circuit, arrives on the borderlands between Mayfair and Soho. It is, naturally, organised around lechon, the crisp-skinned, meltingly tender Filipino pork dish for which Montoya has become so well known. Here served whole alongside truffled adobo pork rice, with which the young pig has been stuffed. While the chef’s other restaurant in Brixton is a little more informal, the “bistro” wants to further support Montoya’s cooking philosophy. That is: having a “Filipino soul and a London heart.”