If you love a bit of fancy Michelin dining but aren’t quite so keen on the posh, hushed voices kind of restaurant that often offers it, then we may have the answer. You need to pick a Michelin-starred restaurant where the focus is on counter dining. That way, you get to enjoy the thrill of seeing some of the best chefs in the city at work. It’s also a particularly good pick if you’re dining solo. Here are some of the best in town.
Kitchen Table
Fitzrovia- 70 Charlotte St, London W1T 4QG
Kitchen Table was London’s first two Michelin-starred restaurant to put the focus squarely on counter dining, and here it's all about fine dining as theatre. You might be watching chefs doing intricate plating or toasting desserts in front of your nose with white-hot charcoal. There’s a reason why it’s held onto two Michelin stars for almost a decade now.
Humble Chicken
Soho - 54 Frith St, London W1D 4SJ
The evolution of Angelo Sato’s Soho restaurant from a high-concept chicken restaurant to one of the city’s best Michelin restaurants has been a fascinating one. And, frankly, the name is about the only humble thing about this restaurant space. They describe it as a 13-seat chef’s table, and apart from Aulis, there’s nothing else quite like it in this part of town.
Sabor
Mayfair - 35-37 Heddon St, London W1B 4BR
Nieves Barragan’s first solo venture does have more of a formal seating arrangement upstairs, but we all know that the counter by the open kitchen on the ground floor is where the action is. This is the best option if you find yourself hankering for Michelin-level food but haven’t made a booking, as the majority of seats here are for walk-ins only. It's also worth looking at her other Michelin-starred restaurant, Legado, which has a huge wooden counter.
Pavyllon
Mayfair - Hamilton Pl, London W1J 7DR
Yannick Alleno's restaurant at The Four Seasons in Mayfair has a lot of traditional seating, but it's a restaurant that's dominated by a large open kitchen surrounded by a huge counter. That counter seats up to 30 people, more than most of the counter-only restaurants on this list. Sit up there, and you'll see the attention to detail from the chefs and if Alleno himself is in town, it's 100% the place to be.
Aulis
Soho- 6 St Anne's Ct, London W1F 0BF
Aulis is top chef Simon Rogan’s only London outpost, so if you can’t find the time to make a trip to his Lake District powerhouse L’Enclume, this is a very good alternative. There are just 12 spaces up at the counter, and the tasting menu takes you on a tour of the British Isles along with the best produce it has to offer. Think Orkney scallops with pineapple weed jelly or frozen Tunworth cheese with malt and forced Yorkshire rhubarb.
Sushi Kanesaka
Mayfair - 45 Park Ln, London W1K 1PN
One of London’s most exclusive dining options, both in terms of the scarcity of seats but also on account of the pricing, Sushi Kanesaka is chef Shinji Kanesaka’s London restaurant inside 45 Park Lane. Here you get to pick between two counter dining options: the main space has nine seats up at the counter, but there’s also a private dining space for four with its own counter (and own chef).
Evelyn’s Table
Soho - 28 Rupert St, London W1D 6DJ
Most London tourists drinking here probably don’t know that the bustling Soho pub The Blue Posts boasts a hidden Michelin-starred restaurant. To find it, you have to head downstairs to the old beer cellar, which is where you’ll discover the all-counter space that is Evelyn’s Table. It’s a collective dining experience with between two to three sittings a day.
Behind
London Fields- 20 Sidworth Street, London E8 3SD
When Behind first opened, back in the dark days of Covid, it made headlines for garnering a Michelin star despite only having been open for 20 days. But really the bigger story was that there was a market for this kind of counter dining at Michelin-star levels in London Fields. With its meandering design, the counter here is unlike any other in London and if you love seafood (and a good playlist), you couldn’t be in better hands.
Muse
Belgravia - 38 Groom Pl, London SW1X 7BA
Tom Aikens’ Belgravia restaurant boasts not one but two counters as part of the dining experience. In the main restaurant, there are six seats up at the pass that give you an intimate view of the chefs at work, serving up intricate dishes inspired by Aikens’ career to date. And the fun doesn’t stop there, as for the dessert course, you head back downstairs to the pastry counter for some innovative soft serve and beautiful petit fours.
London’s Michelin-starred counters, mapped.
Here's where to go for a top-tier meal up at the counter in London.
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