As we reach the end of another year's worth of eating and drinking, it's time to look back at it all. Here's part one of what we think are our favourite dishes and desserts, best scene and more of 2025, with part two to follow later this week...
Best scene: One Club Row
This door on a Shoreditch side alley, surrounded by graffiti and with a tiny neon sign to denote whether walk-in spaces are available, was all over our FYP pages in April. But it was behind the door and up the rickety stairs where the magic was happening at One Club Row. A talented trio (James Dye, Benjy Leibowitz and chef Patrick Powell) was responsible for this London homage to NYC brasseries by way of Paris. There’s something indefinable about buzz, but what we do know is this place had it in spades. From the martinis to that amazing burger, this restaurant was part of the vanguard spearheading the revival of Shoreditch as a place to eat well again.
Read the One Club Row Test Drive
Runners up: Carbone was (and still is) one of the hardest tables to book in London, and there’s a reason for that that has nothing to do with its menu. It's got all the vibes going on. Nina and its louche, candlelit dining room and good-looking crowd was a palpable scene and while Martino’s has just opened, it’s already finding its groove in Chelsea.
Best snackage - Fried pizza dough at The Kerfield Arms
These snacks at perfect neighbourhood pub The Kerfield Arms are still on the menu eight months after our visit, so clearly regulars won’t stand for their removal. We’d cross town tomorrow for another plate of these puffed-up pizza fingers and tamarasalata.
Read The Kerfield Arms Test Drive
Runner up: The smoked prawn crullers with miso and pickled cucumber at Kudu were one of numerous reasons to love the menu at their new home in Marylebone.
Best reboot - Singburi
Along with pretty much every restaurant reviewer in town, we were forced to admit we hadn’t been to the OG Singburi in Leyton. But the restaurant’s relocation to Shoreditch enabled it not only to broaden its menu (and introduce a drinks menu) but its customer base too. We were one of those new customers and took an instant liking to the food and vibe here.
Runner up: Jackson Boxer’s successful reworking of what was Orasay into Dove showed that a fresh eye and take on a perfectly decent neighbourhood spot could propel it to new heights.
Best excuse to break bread - Row on 5’s shokupan
The bread course at Row on 5 was not only the most beautiful we enjoyed this year, but also delivered on taste. The shokupan came glazed in fermented honey and sea salt and was served up with Hollis mead miso butter with a pool of fermented honey caramel on top. And just look at it!
Runner up: Osteria Angelina’s Hokkaido milk bread came with a winning combo of kumquat & burnt honey butter but we're also still thinking about the warm potato dinner rolls and tangy cultured butter at Luna wine bar in Shad Thames.
Best vegetarian dish - Alta's Hen of the Woods
We've had a lot of great vegetarian dishes this year, but the one at Rob Roy Cameron's Alta was a clear winner the moment we tried it. There's an awful lot to love about this modern Basque restaurant in Carnaby, including its beautiful stripped-back look, but this main dish (which is actually vegan), was our favourite dish of the night, with an incredible crunchy crust on the mushrooms and a great pine-nut sauce.
Runner up: We’ll admit to being so into the pineapple tomato that was used in MOI’s tomato dish that we tracked it back to the Cambridgeshire farm. We weren’t quite so obsessive about the aubergine pad phet at Singburi, but we did really, really like it.
Most obvious trend - Pizza
London’s pizza lovers were definitely spoilt for choice when it came to new openings in 2025. Whether you fancied Detroit, New Haven, East Coast, NYC slice, Neapolitan or even London-style pizza, there was somewhere opening which guaranteed to cater to your preference. We’ve obviously tried our fair share and our favourite two were Crisp’s Vecna, with pepperoni, Parmesan, burrata and hot honey and Carmela’s Vodka with house vodka sauce, fresh mozzarella and chives.
Read the Carmela's Test Drive and the Crisp W1 Test Drive
Most surprising closure - Claude Bosi at Bibendum
There were so many restaurant closures this year due to a perfect storm of factors that made staying open just too financially hard for many great restaurant teams. But we definitely didn’t see either of these big closures coming. First up was the announcement that Claude Bosi’s two Michelin-starred restaurant in the Bibendum building was closing. That seemed to be down to issues with the leaseholder. And the departure of chef Victor Garvey from the Midland Grand after just six months was an equal shocker.
Best reason to grab your passport - Cendrillon
Having seen this on a bunch of chefs’ Insta photo dumps from trips to Paris we booked this restaurant in Belleville (20th arrondissement) and couldn’t have been more delighted with our dinner here. There were caviar bumps, crazy good mezcalitas and a pig sando that was worth the Eurostar ticket alone. The roaming labrador was the icing on the cake.
Runner up: Dinner at Cantina at Hauser & Wirth in Menorca involved taking a boat out to an island in the Mahon harbour and, as the sun dipped while we tucked into black rice with alioli, we enjoyed one of the loveliest meals abroad this year.
Best use of potato - Lilibet's Mash
The delivery of the titular pimped up mash to our table at Lilibet’s was met with a chorus of ‘oohs’ and no wonder. A swirl of buttery mash generously topped with lobster and sitting in an absolute sea of shellfish bisque. it tasted every bit as good as it looked. We can’t think of a better way to spend £15 in London.
Runner up: There was a lot to like at Queen’s Park restaurant Don’t Tell Dad, but the Pommes Anna was a definite highlight.
Best dessert - Shanghai Me's giant fortune cookie
Maybe there's something about the size of this dessert (massive), maybe it's because it was filled with both chocolate and matcha cream, or maybe it was the satisfaction we had in smashing it all up, but we loved this dessert at Shanghai Me. Served high up over London (in the space that was once Galvin at Windows), it's also pretty good value given its mammoth size. Their milky cake was also great.
Read the Shanghai Me Test Drive
Runner up: We were big fans of the sesame caramel ice cream sandwich at Straits Kitchen, while Tom Brown's menu at his new Knightsbridge home finished on a high with a perfect vanilla parfait filled with Alfonso mango compote.
Coming soon...
Look out for our final awards in Thursday's newsletter. Sign up here to see them first.
Subscribe to hear the latest from Hot Dinners
