Dinner at Lilibet's in Mayfair - that room is a real stunner
What do we need to know about Lilibet's?
This is the shiny new Mayfair restaurant that everyone's going to be talking about, that isn't Carbone. It's an elegant seafood restaurant from chef and restaurateur Ross Shonhan, who used to be an exec chef at Nobu, then founded the likes of Bone Daddies and Shackfuyu and has now returned to the London restaurant scene with Lilibet's.
Where is it?
You'll find it just off the top end of Berkeley Square, next door to Hakkasan Mayfair, so Green Park is the closest tube station.
Ross and his team have transformed what was a former office building and car park into a whimsical imagining of what Queen Elizabeth's life would have been if she'd had more time as a Princess before taking the throne. There's a connection to all this of course, and that is that the late queen was born in this building back in the 1920s.
This is what you're looking for - that terrace is going to be a big hit
Where should we meet friends for a drink first?
The Coach & Horses is just down the same street, but the handy thing is that there's a standalone bar here at Lilibet's that's just the place to perch while waiting for the rest of your party to arrive.
Martinis are the mainstay of the cocktail list here. While our Oystershell Martini was well made (and we applaud any bar that produces another frozen glass to transfer your drink into to stop it getting lukewarm) our dining companion's Tomatini made with freshly grilled tomatoes and Ketel 1 vodka (£12) was the clear winner.
The Lilibet's tomatini, which we urge you to try.
And where should we sit?
This isn't an easy question to answer, as there are three very different areas to choose from.
The seafood bar is a great place to perch at a marble counter and enjoy the huge platters of fruits de mer. Then there's a clubby central section beyond the cocktail bar with cosy chairs and also a more formal dining space beyond that. There's even a roomy outdoor terrace which, with its heated seats and overhead heaters, is going to get used all year round.
Counter dining at the seafood bar
The main dining room
What's on the menu?
First impressions are that it's a big one, split into the following sections: oysters, caviar, seafood platters, snacks, raw, small dishes, salads, pasta/rice, unsung heroes (lesser used fish), grilled seafood, whole fish, meat, sides and the fish triptych (more of which, later).
Because it's going to take you a while to get your head around what's on offer, we'd suggest getting the following in first.
Crab tarts with grapefruit (£4.70 each) - sweet and delicious two-bite affairs and an anchovy eclair (£6.20) filled with anchovy parfait and topped with a sweet and sour sauce.
At this point, we decided we also wanted to try some of the oysters. The restaurant was on soft launch during our visit, so they weren't offering the option we really fancied - the flamidou oysters with beef fat - but our wood-roasted alternatives were fabulous.
Half dozen Louet-Feisser oysters roasted on the fire with seaweed butter (£25) - unbelievably good.
Having heard that the fish triptych was a key pillar of the kitchen's offering, we decided to go for that. This features a fish of your choice, with three that they recommend (bass, bream and gurnard). It's then served three ways, first as a crudo, and then grilled and served with a mojo verde sauce. Finally, the fish is taken away and turned into a soup using a pressure cooker.
The sea bream crudo course with a dog sauce (FYI, that's a Creole vinaigrette and not something made from any four-legged friends).
Next the bream was served, beautifully grilled with a mojo verde sauce.
Finally - a bit of theatre. A trolley rolls up to your table with a tureen of your soup, which is ladled out in front of you.
Anything else we shouldn't miss?
Randomly, one of the other must-have dishes isn't a seafood option at all. Executive chef Alex Harper (formerly Head Chef at The Harwood Arms) is an absolute fiend for pasta and his agnolotti is amazing. They'll only make a certain number of portions of this a night, so you'll need to order this early if you want it (and you absolutely should).
Agnolotti with lemon ricotta and crispy sage (£26.30)
And then there's the mash side that you have to order.
Lilibet's mash (£14.70), swimming in shellfish bisque and topped with generous amounts of lobster.
Room for dessert?
You'll really want to pace your orders, because the desserts are 100% worth having, if the two we ordered are anything to go by. But, before we get into them, we need to address the very unusual first offering on the dessert menu. Yes, that is a prego fillet steak sandwich. It's apparently a common option in Portugal after a big seafood meal. We'd have loved to try it, but honestly, we were approaching wafer-thin mint time.
Princess cake (£14) - you can't have a restaurant dedicated to a princess and not have a princess cake on the dessert menu. This is a lighter take on the traditional Swedish cake.
Strawberry and vanilla cheesecake (£9) a standout classic crunch biscuit-based cheesecake. Nice to see this on a menu instead of the Basque version that's everywhere nowadays.
And what about the drinks list?
We applaud the extensive selection of wines available by the glass and carafe, which is great if you want to try something new. Their entry-level white, a Petritis from Cyprus is clean and flinty at £9.50 a glass, but the organic Soave from the Veneto (£16 a glass) was very good indeed.
Overall thoughts:
What a gem of a restaurant Lilibet's is. Surrounded by brasher, shinier Mayfair establishments, this follows more of The Dover playbook, where it's all about the sense of hospitality. That's obvious from the moment you step in the doors where you'll find some of London's best-known front-of-house team running things.
Similarly, the menu, while it does feature lobster, caviar and raw tuna, is a very different beast to its W1J neighbours - more thoughtful and interesting. We visited it just days before its official opening, but it already felt like a London classic.
More about Lilibet's
Where is it? 17 Bruton Street, London W1J 6QB
When does it open? 16 September 2025
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @lilibetsmayfair
Hot Dinners dined as guests of Lilibet's. Prices correct at time of publication.
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