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Candlelit dinner at Andrew Edmunds, in Soho, seen through the restaurant’s front windows
Candlelit dinner at Andrew Edmunds, in Soho.
Andrew Edmunds

The Most Romantic Restaurants in London

Where both food and vibe are just right

by Emma Hughes and James Hansen Updated
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Candlelit dinner at Andrew Edmunds, in Soho.
| Andrew Edmunds
by Emma Hughes and James Hansen Updated

When it came to romantic dinners, Virginia Woolf knew how important it was to get the venue right. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well,” was her view. The food, of course, is important, but even more crucial is the vibe. Pasta somewhere with low lights and staff who know when to step discreetly into the shadows will always beat a solemn procession of two-starred expectorations from the chef-patron of a Mayfair dining room/mortuary. Just remember: shareable dishes can be very romantic, but only if there really is enough for two on the plate.

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Westerns Laundry

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The home of one of London’s best blackboard menus is also one of its best date-night options. Westerns’ Laundry’s great strength is its flexibility. First date? Grab counter stools and split a cheeseboard, then a rum baba. Anniversary? Seafood, seafood, seafood: oysters, cuttlefish and ham croquettes, langoustines. No chance of awkward silences here either; it’s a big room and it’s always busy.

34 Drayton Park, Highbury East, London N5 1PB, UK
020 7700 3700
020 7700 3700

Also featured in:

Towpath

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Canalside, blackboard menu, small kitchen, rickety tables, rickety green tables — Towpath reads like a romantic cliché but rises above it every time the shutters open for the season. On the right day, sun slanting over the canal and a smart salad or two joining some sort of rural French assembly, there’s just nowhere better to be. Get whatever seasonal fruit cordial is on for quenching.

42 De Beauvoir Cres, London N1 5SB, UK

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Milk Beach

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By day, Queens Park’s best-kept secret is a roastery with one of NW’s most enticing brunch menus. By night, the candles come out and it turns into a supremely romantic spot, serving impeccably chosen small plates and wines — natural, organic and skin contact (nudge, wink) are specialities. Start with sourdough from St. John and Napoli salami, then move onto cavatelli with clams, sweetcorn, and miso.

19 Lonsdale Road Queen's Park, Queen's Park, London NW6 6RA, UK
020 8144 8277
020 8144 8277

Also featured in:

Brawn

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There are many restaurants like Brawn in London — low-lit, stylish dining room; elegant, European food; a balance between special occasion dining and weeknight charm — but there is only one that is actually Brawn. It has always had the ineffable something extra that makes it essential, and there’s no exception when it comes to romance.

49 Columbia Rd, London E2 7RG, UK
020 7729 5692
020 7729 5692

Also featured in:

Sessions Arts Club

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Boasting a jaw-droppingly elegant dining room, candlelit booths, and food so painterly that it could be in a gallery, one of London’s best new restaurants of 2021 is also, immediately, one of its most romantic. Florence Knight’s cooking sees that rare saw between tautly precise composition and total sprezzatura in dishes like squid calamarata and raw bream with fig leaf oil and sorrel, and a backdrop of distressed pastel and cracked grandeur makes a perfect frame for its beauty.

Old Sessions House, 24 Clerkenwell Grn, London EC1R 0NA, UK
020 3793 4025
020 3793 4025

Also featured in:

Luca

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A bit of a sleeper hit since it opened in 2016, Luca is a beautiful dining room, complete with a garden terrace and unshowy, confident cooking that won’t be frightening any horses but feels right for letting romance blossom. Ambrosial pasta and parmesan fries, low-lights, and handsome countertops — little else required.

88 St John St, London EC1M 4EH, UK
020 3859 3000
020 3859 3000

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Noble Rot Lamb's Conduit

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As with many restaurants on this guide, it’s confidence and conviction in its passions that makes Noble Rot a surefire hit — as well as the romantically cosy dining room. The boisterously Gallic cooking with diversions into oysters and cured meats is a great mood-setter, and the colossal wine list (with one of the best champagne and friends selections in the city) is as easy to get lost in as a lover’s eyes.

51 Lamb's Conduit St, London WC1N 3NB, UK
020 7242 8963
020 7242 8963

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Café Deco

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Cafe Deco, Anna Tobias’s Bloomsbury restaurant, offers a two-fold romance: the love kind, and the faintly nostalgic kind — in part because of its Bloomsbury setting, and in part because of its transportively straightforward cooking. Old-fashioned puddings offer lush peaks of whipped cream or scarlet jellies; the stout elegance of plates like puntarelle alla Romana and “steamed mussels and chips” is the kind to linger over.

43 Store St, London WC1E 7DB, UK
020 8091 2108
020 8091 2108

Also featured in:

London Shell Co.

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The river cruise with food and wine is the kind of romantic cliché that gets to the heart of the word — it’s almost always naff, but there’s also a reason it had the chance to become so. London Shell Co. is, let it be clear, a boat on the Regent’s Canal, which serves fizzy wine and practically begs for cheesy selfies. But it’s much more than that on the plate, with a focus on seafood presenting as crab risotto; a nifty cod bourgignon; and the ubiquitous smoked cod’s roe. Sometimes clichés are good.

W2, Sheldon Square, London W2 6DL, UK
07553 033636
07553 033636

Also featured in:

Quo Vadis

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“Quo Vadis was my guaranteed knicker-dropper,” confides one London food luminary, recalling the days before he met his husband-to-be. “Also, they [the staff] will never let on if you’re in with one boy one day and another the next.” A combination of super-strength cocktails, steaks cooked to perfection and shareable puddings (profiterole stack, anyone?) makes the grand dame of Dean Street a safe bet. It’s even managed to make Monday sexy — what could be more romantic than sharing half-price oysters and one of Jeremy Lee’s golden-hatted pies?

26-29 Dean St, Soho, London W1D 3LL, UK
020 7437 9585
020 7437 9585

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Andrew Edmunds Restaurant

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Is there a better backdrop than Old Soho for the beginning (or, indeed, the end) of an affair? For more than 30 years Andrew Edmunds has been setting the scene with a Franco-British menu encompassing asparagus, dressed crab, confit duck and rhubarb jelly with cream. Upstairs it’s all flickering candlelight, wax dripping down claret bottles (steady on) and wildflower posies. The discreet tables downstairs, meanwhile, are very popular with men of a certain age whose wives don’t understand them — or maybe understand them a little too well.

46 Lexington St, Soho, London W1F 0LP, UK
020 7437 5708
020 7437 5708

Also featured in:

40 Maltby Street

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40 Maltby Street unfolds layers of romance like the impeccable pastry on its pies and tarts. On one level, it ticks the traditional boxes: a shareable menu; plenty of wine; a balance between coziness and bustle. But over multiple visits, and sometimes just one, the language of its blackboard menu can open up like a shared secret, its depths and foibles revealing themselves to diners just as people do to each other.

40 Maltby St, London SE1 3PA, UK
020 8076 9517
020 8076 9517

Also featured in:

The River Café

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A bit of a baller pick, it’s true, but a real anniversary winner. The terrace is the move, just to add on even more romance, before settling in to what remains some of the best Italian cooking in the city. Checking out the dessert menu, overseen by the brilliant Anna Higham (formerly of Lyle’s and Flor) is a must.

Thames Wharf, Rainville Rd, London W6 9HA, UK
020 7386 4200
020 7386 4200

Also featured in:

Nandine (Camberwell Church Street)

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Nandine, Pery Baban’s Kurdish cafe and restaurant, is a place of warmth, a bustling vibe, and generous cooking, all of which coheres into its own very individual sense of romance. It also delivers a peerless Kurdish breakfast, for when the vibe is needed not come night, but come morning.

45 Camberwell Church St, London SE5 8TR, UK
020 7703 3221
020 7703 3221

Also featured in:

Minnow

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Since it opened in 2017 this neighbourhood restaurant has been quietly going about its business, serving stylish but substantial plates (homemade fettuccine, asparagus and pesto; poached pear with ganache) in a room that’s more than a touch #AccidentallyWesAnderson. The truffle chips lend themselves to a bit of knowing finger-licking, while the mid-century jazz and blues playlist is spot on.

Minnow, 21 The Pavement, London SW4 0HY, UK
020 7720 4105
020 7720 4105

Chishuru

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Adejoké Bakare has registered Chishuru — which from Brixton Market serves dishes such as pork belly asun with charcoal-grilled peppers and onions, jollof rice, kale salad; cassava fritters; and degue with pear — as one of London’s best, most creative new restaurants, whose cooking and atmosphere inspire a devotion that is unmistakably that of love. To eat there is share in it, and there is little more romantic than that.

Unit 9 Market Row, Coldharbour Ln, London SW9 8LB, UK
020 3915 1198
020 3915 1198

Also featured in:

Petersham Nurseries

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A headily floral option in Richmond, Petersham recently revised its hours, so those in such of a romantic evening in TW10 will have to settle for Saturday or bust. Dining here is somewhat of an event whose reputation precedes the food, but the cooking has quietly shifted away from Italian reliability into something a bit more expressive, in places. Still, when seeking Romance, go Roman with puntarella, or settle in for lemon sole with chanterelles and a braised cabbage with Berkswell.

Petersham Nurseries, Richmond TW10 7AQ, UK

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Westerns Laundry

34 Drayton Park, Highbury East, London N5 1PB, UK

The home of one of London’s best blackboard menus is also one of its best date-night options. Westerns’ Laundry’s great strength is its flexibility. First date? Grab counter stools and split a cheeseboard, then a rum baba. Anniversary? Seafood, seafood, seafood: oysters, cuttlefish and ham croquettes, langoustines. No chance of awkward silences here either; it’s a big room and it’s always busy.

34 Drayton Park, Highbury East, London N5 1PB, UK
020 7700 3700
020 7700 3700

Towpath

42 De Beauvoir Cres, London N1 5SB, UK

Canalside, blackboard menu, small kitchen, rickety tables, rickety green tables — Towpath reads like a romantic cliché but rises above it every time the shutters open for the season. On the right day, sun slanting over the canal and a smart salad or two joining some sort of rural French assembly, there’s just nowhere better to be. Get whatever seasonal fruit cordial is on for quenching.

42 De Beauvoir Cres, London N1 5SB, UK

Milk Beach

19 Lonsdale Road Queen's Park, Queen's Park, London NW6 6RA, UK

By day, Queens Park’s best-kept secret is a roastery with one of NW’s most enticing brunch menus. By night, the candles come out and it turns into a supremely romantic spot, serving impeccably chosen small plates and wines — natural, organic and skin contact (nudge, wink) are specialities. Start with sourdough from St. John and Napoli salami, then move onto cavatelli with clams, sweetcorn, and miso.

19 Lonsdale Road Queen's Park, Queen's Park, London NW6 6RA, UK
020 8144 8277
020 8144 8277

Brawn

49 Columbia Rd, London E2 7RG, UK

There are many restaurants like Brawn in London — low-lit, stylish dining room; elegant, European food; a balance between special occasion dining and weeknight charm — but there is only one that is actually Brawn. It has always had the ineffable something extra that makes it essential, and there’s no exception when it comes to romance.

49 Columbia Rd, London E2 7RG, UK
020 7729 5692
020 7729 5692

Sessions Arts Club

Old Sessions House, 24 Clerkenwell Grn, London EC1R 0NA, UK

Boasting a jaw-droppingly elegant dining room, candlelit booths, and food so painterly that it could be in a gallery, one of London’s best new restaurants of 2021 is also, immediately, one of its most romantic. Florence Knight’s cooking sees that rare saw between tautly precise composition and total sprezzatura in dishes like squid calamarata and raw bream with fig leaf oil and sorrel, and a backdrop of distressed pastel and cracked grandeur makes a perfect frame for its beauty.

Old Sessions House, 24 Clerkenwell Grn, London EC1R 0NA, UK
020 3793 4025
020 3793 4025

Luca

88 St John St, London EC1M 4EH, UK

A bit of a sleeper hit since it opened in 2016, Luca is a beautiful dining room, complete with a garden terrace and unshowy, confident cooking that won’t be frightening any horses but feels right for letting romance blossom. Ambrosial pasta and parmesan fries, low-lights, and handsome countertops — little else required.

88 St John St, London EC1M 4EH, UK
020 3859 3000
020 3859 3000

Noble Rot Lamb's Conduit

51 Lamb's Conduit St, London WC1N 3NB, UK

As with many restaurants on this guide, it’s confidence and conviction in its passions that makes Noble Rot a surefire hit — as well as the romantically cosy dining room. The boisterously Gallic cooking with diversions into oysters and cured meats is a great mood-setter, and the colossal wine list (with one of the best champagne and friends selections in the city) is as easy to get lost in as a lover’s eyes.

51 Lamb's Conduit St, London WC1N 3NB, UK
020 7242 8963
020 7242 8963

Café Deco

43 Store St, London WC1E 7DB, UK

Cafe Deco, Anna Tobias’s Bloomsbury restaurant, offers a two-fold romance: the love kind, and the faintly nostalgic kind — in part because of its Bloomsbury setting, and in part because of its transportively straightforward cooking. Old-fashioned puddings offer lush peaks of whipped cream or scarlet jellies; the stout elegance of plates like puntarelle alla Romana and “steamed mussels and chips” is the kind to linger over.

43 Store St, London WC1E 7DB, UK
020 8091 2108
020 8091 2108

London Shell Co.

W2, Sheldon Square, London W2 6DL, UK

The river cruise with food and wine is the kind of romantic cliché that gets to the heart of the word — it’s almost always naff, but there’s also a reason it had the chance to become so. London Shell Co. is, let it be clear, a boat on the Regent’s Canal, which serves fizzy wine and practically begs for cheesy selfies. But it’s much more than that on the plate, with a focus on seafood presenting as crab risotto; a nifty cod bourgignon; and the ubiquitous smoked cod’s roe. Sometimes clichés are good.

W2, Sheldon Square, London W2 6DL, UK
07553 033636
07553 033636

Quo Vadis

26-29 Dean St, Soho, London W1D 3LL, UK

“Quo Vadis was my guaranteed knicker-dropper,” confides one London food luminary, recalling the days before he met his husband-to-be. “Also, they [the staff] will never let on if you’re in with one boy one day and another the next.” A combination of super-strength cocktails, steaks cooked to perfection and shareable puddings (profiterole stack, anyone?) makes the grand dame of Dean Street a safe bet. It’s even managed to make Monday sexy — what could be more romantic than sharing half-price oysters and one of Jeremy Lee’s golden-hatted pies?

26-29 Dean St, Soho, London W1D 3LL, UK
020 7437 9585
020 7437 9585

Andrew Edmunds Restaurant

46 Lexington St, Soho, London W1F 0LP, UK

Is there a better backdrop than Old Soho for the beginning (or, indeed, the end) of an affair? For more than 30 years Andrew Edmunds has been setting the scene with a Franco-British menu encompassing asparagus, dressed crab, confit duck and rhubarb jelly with cream. Upstairs it’s all flickering candlelight, wax dripping down claret bottles (steady on) and wildflower posies. The discreet tables downstairs, meanwhile, are very popular with men of a certain age whose wives don’t understand them — or maybe understand them a little too well.

46 Lexington St, Soho, London W1F 0LP, UK
020 7437 5708
020 7437 5708

40 Maltby Street

40 Maltby St, London SE1 3PA, UK

40 Maltby Street unfolds layers of romance like the impeccable pastry on its pies and tarts. On one level, it ticks the traditional boxes: a shareable menu; plenty of wine; a balance between coziness and bustle. But over multiple visits, and sometimes just one, the language of its blackboard menu can open up like a shared secret, its depths and foibles revealing themselves to diners just as people do to each other.

40 Maltby St, London SE1 3PA, UK
020 8076 9517
020 8076 9517

The River Café

Thames Wharf, Rainville Rd, London W6 9HA, UK

A bit of a baller pick, it’s true, but a real anniversary winner. The terrace is the move, just to add on even more romance, before settling in to what remains some of the best Italian cooking in the city. Checking out the dessert menu, overseen by the brilliant Anna Higham (formerly of Lyle’s and Flor) is a must.

Thames Wharf, Rainville Rd, London W6 9HA, UK
020 7386 4200
020 7386 4200

Nandine (Camberwell Church Street)

45 Camberwell Church St, London SE5 8TR, UK

Nandine, Pery Baban’s Kurdish cafe and restaurant, is a place of warmth, a bustling vibe, and generous cooking, all of which coheres into its own very individual sense of romance. It also delivers a peerless Kurdish breakfast, for when the vibe is needed not come night, but come morning.

45 Camberwell Church St, London SE5 8TR, UK
020 7703 3221
020 7703 3221

Minnow

Minnow, 21 The Pavement, London SW4 0HY, UK

Since it opened in 2017 this neighbourhood restaurant has been quietly going about its business, serving stylish but substantial plates (homemade fettuccine, asparagus and pesto; poached pear with ganache) in a room that’s more than a touch #AccidentallyWesAnderson. The truffle chips lend themselves to a bit of knowing finger-licking, while the mid-century jazz and blues playlist is spot on.

Minnow, 21 The Pavement, London SW4 0HY, UK
020 7720 4105
020 7720 4105

Chishuru

Unit 9 Market Row, Coldharbour Ln, London SW9 8LB, UK

Adejoké Bakare has registered Chishuru — which from Brixton Market serves dishes such as pork belly asun with charcoal-grilled peppers and onions, jollof rice, kale salad; cassava fritters; and degue with pear — as one of London’s best, most creative new restaurants, whose cooking and atmosphere inspire a devotion that is unmistakably that of love. To eat there is share in it, and there is little more romantic than that.

Unit 9 Market Row, Coldharbour Ln, London SW9 8LB, UK
020 3915 1198
020 3915 1198

Petersham Nurseries

Petersham Nurseries, Richmond TW10 7AQ, UK

A headily floral option in Richmond, Petersham recently revised its hours, so those in such of a romantic evening in TW10 will have to settle for Saturday or bust. Dining here is somewhat of an event whose reputation precedes the food, but the cooking has quietly shifted away from Italian reliability into something a bit more expressive, in places. Still, when seeking Romance, go Roman with puntarella, or settle in for lemon sole with chanterelles and a braised cabbage with Berkswell.

Petersham Nurseries, Richmond TW10 7AQ, UK