It's nearly time for this year's Michelin guide announcement, this year taking place in Dublin. But it's not all about the stars.
One of the precursors to the new stars is the announcement of the Bib Gourmand awards. Last year, they made the poor decision to not even announce these, hiding them on a press release after the main stars were announced. This year, they've rectified that mistake by announcing them a week in advance, like usual. They're still not really making a song and dance about it, which is a shame, but at least those awarded get their day in the sun.
The Bibs are defined as "restaurants offering excellent value for the quality of their cooking." So it's their opportunity to award the kinds of restaurants that don't fit into the normal Michelin star mould. They used to define specifically what they mean by "great value" but that's now left to interpretation.
This year, there's a bumper crop of 13 new Bib Gourmands in London. Here are the 2026 Bibs:
Gina (Chingford) - Ravneet Gill and Mattie Taiano's very popular neighbourhood restaurant/chophouse
Cálong (Stoke Newington) - Ex Galvin at Windows chef Joo Won's neighbourhood Korean restaurant
Oren (Dalston) - Eastern Mediterranean restaurant from Oded Oren
Cadet (Islington) - Natural wine bar that does a mean pate en croute.
Goodbye Horses (Islington) - Stylish Islington restaurant with natural wine and excellent small plates
Singburi (Shoreditch) - Version 2.0 of one of London's best Thai restaurants
Canteen (Notting Hill) - Great Italian food from the team behind The Hero and The Pelican
Café Spice Namasté (Royal Albert Dock) - Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala's Indian restaurant
Akara (Borough Yards) - From the Akoko team, this west African restaurant has a menu built around deep-fried akaras
Lai Rai (Peckham) - Banh mi and coffee by day, Vietnamese canteen in the evening
Kruk (Peckham) - "Unapologetically spicy" Thai food
Tamila (Clapham) - Curry house mini-chain from the Tamil Crown team
Ssam Ssam (Wimbledon) - Family-run Korean restaurant
Look out for the main awards being announced on Monday evening and in the meantime, here are all the current Michelin-starred restaurants in London
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