The City

Unit 2A, Tower Place, London EC3R 5BU

Guirong Wei, the chef behind Master Wei, is behind Dream Xi’an in Tower Hill. Like her previous restaurants, it focuses on Shaanxi cooking with hand-pulled noodles a big part of the menu. Dishes at this location include hand-made steamed dim sum while signature dishes from Master Wei are also available here.

3 Crispin Pl, London E1 6DW

Taking up almost all of one side of Spitalfields Market, this hybrid bar, restaurant and alfresco space manages to be all things without diluting its offering. There are small plates and wines on tap in the bar along with a more formal dining room to enjoy the Italian-led menu. The outdoor kitchen also allows them to do a lot of live-fire cooking.

Unit 2A, Tower Place, London EC3R 5BU

This sees chef and restaurateur Guirong Wei (of Master Wei) taking her Shaanxi menu to the heart of the City. The Tower Hill restaurant has a strong focus on hand-pulled noodles with them making up many of the signature dishes.

9th Floor, 100 Liverpool St, London EC2M 2AT

The City branch of this Notting Hill fusion restaurant serves up a winning mix of Japanese dishes with Mexican influences. Its biggest selling point here at Liverpool Street is the late licence and capacious roof terrace with a great view of the City. There’s also a huge separate bar here as well.

44 Cloth Fair, London EC1A 7JQ

Set in a historic part of the City, this neighbourhood-style restaurant was opened by a pair of wine importers so you can expect the wine offering to be on point. It’s split, loosely, into a wine bar for enjoying small plates, and a cosy dining room. The dishes are seasonal and the cooking is both inventive and great, with a big emphasis on seasonality.

182 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8EW

Want to be looked after to within an inch of your life? Well, Otto's is the restaurant you come to. Properly old-school French, Otto's has carved out a niche for itself serving up incredibly rich French cuisine in a lively environment. It also has a serious bit of kit called the duck press, which produces its signature dish.

63 Bartholomew Cl, London EC1A 7BG

The people behind Nest created this Smithfield restaurant, hidden away in a courtyard. Here, things are a little different from their previous restaurants, with a focus on hyper-seasonal British food and a huge 15-course tasting menu that starts in the bar before moving through to the restaurant.

11 Old Jewry, London EC2R 8DU

One of London’s best steak restaurants, this City outlet of the Goodman restaurant group is popular with business diners. The meat is dry-aged on-site, and regular diners even have theirs cut to order. There’s a private dining room seating up to 10, for serious steak meetings.

68 King William Street, London EC4N 7HR

The Wolseley City is a sibling restaurant to the classic Wolseley on Piccadilly, with a design that's very reminiscent of the original but on a larger scale. Like this original, it's styled after a European Grand Café offers with an all-day menu, that also resembles its predecessor while adding exclusive dishes to the City branch. There's also a large upstairs bar here and it's a popular spot for City power breakfasts.

South Place Hotel, 3 South Place, London EC2M 2AF

With spectacular views from the 7th floor of the South Place Hotel, Angler presents Michelin-starred dining with a special focus on seafood. Enjoy a tasting menu, lunch or à la carte meals from the rooftop terrace, with the likes of sea bass tartare with oyster cream, green apple and shiso on offer.

10-12 Bloomberg Arcade, London, EC4N 8AR

If you have a penchant for freshly made udon noodles, this is the place: a larger version of the much-loved Koya in Soho, where you can sit at wooden tables and enjoy izakaya small plates with sake and beer.

39 Queen Victoria St, London EC4N 4SF

One of London’s best – and oldest – seafood restaurants, Sweetings has been going strong for over a century. All the fish and seafood served here is from sustainable sources, and while it’s only open for lunch, it’s the place to step back in time while also savouring such classics as prawn cocktail, fried whitebait, Lobster Thermidor and cod’s roe on toast.

Level 3, 122 Leadenhall St, London EC3V 4AB

Infamous for its ‘press for Champagne’ button at every table, this London institution is great for groups (the largest booth size seats eight but up to 18 can dine comfortably in their private dining rooms). Menu-wise, expect reinventions of classic European dishes.

35 Spital Square, London, E1 6DY

Set within the astoundingly opulent Grade-II-listed St Botolph’s Hall, with its high stone ceilings and large arched windows, Galvin La Chapelle is fine French dining indeed. Holding a Michelin star since 2011, this 110-seater restaurant is the place for dishes such as barbecued Bresse pigeon, celeriac, Yorkshire rhubarb and dark chocolate. There are vegetarian and vegan menus too.

Heron Tower, 110 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4A

The self-proclaimed ‘highest 24-hour restaurant in London’, Duck & Waffle has views of the city’s landmarks from its floor-to-ceiling windows on the 40th floor of Heron Tower. The curved banquettes are both cosy and retro, and the menu is imaginative, including the signature Duck & Waffle dish.

Bloomberg Arcade, 3 Queen Street, London, EC4N 8BN

One of the best Indian restaurants in The City, Brigadiers is from the same people behind Trishna, Hoppers and Gymkhana. It has a maze of rooms in the largest space in the Bloomberg Arcade, with a sizeable outdoor terrace too. Fans of smoky Indian barbecue will be particularly impressed.

27 Poultry, London EC2R 8AJ

The Ned is both an impressive City hotel as well as a collection of restaurants. Soho House took over an impressive (and huge) old banking site and stuffed it with places to eat. There are ten restaurants to choose from and while some City restaurants get quiet at the weekends - this is buzzy at all times.

12 West Smithfield London EC1A 9JR

Origin City comes from the team behind 56 West Smithfield wine bar, and is a restaurant that emphasizes provenance with meat sourced from the family's organic farm in Scotland and seafood from Loch Fyne Oyster. Here, the menu showcases British classics including dishes like Tamworth pork tonnato and dry-aged Black Angus sirloin. The restaurant promotes a 'no waste, great taste' philosophy.

100 Bishopsgate, City of London, London EC2M 1GT

Fazenda is a rodizio grill restaurant group originating from cities like Leeds and Liverpool, and this is their first London location. While emphasizing the traditional rodizio experience, the London location introduces a broader menu plus there's a pretty huge buffet on offer. Alongside all that meat is a wine list primarily features South American options.

Unit 3, 1 Finsbury Ave, London EC2M 2PF

Travel to Portugal without leaving the City of London by perching at the counter by the open kitchen of the City outlet of Bar Douro. Here you can enjoy petiscos, such as salt-cod fritters and smoked sausage croquetas, while admiring the azulejos that adorn the walls.

Unit 2, 30 Angel Ct, Throgmorton St, London EC2R 7HJ

At Temper, it’s all about the heat, with your barbecue coming from a huge central firepit. Alongside steak, you can also enjoy the likes of wood-roasted sea bass or cheeseburger tacos, as well as a cocktail list that's heavy on mezcal and gin creations.

1 Poultry, London EC2R 8EJ

This elegant French restaurant offers slick rooftop dining that’s popular with the working-lunch set, and is especially busy in summer for its garden with sublime views. There are set menus, including one featuring the ‘classiques’, such as escargots de Bourgogne.

Royal London House, 10th Floor Montcalm, 22-25 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1DX

On the edge of Finsbury Square, this has a view overlooking the square - albeit mainly from the terrace and bar at the front of the hotel - with some excellent views from the private terraces one floor down, which are highly covetable. In winter, there are bookable igloos too while the menu is a modern European affair.

13 Philpot Lane, London EC3M 1DE

Set in an atmospheric basement of a Grade-II-listed building, the City outlet of Blacklock, a chophouse renowned for the quality of its grass-fed meat, is where carnivores can indulge in the likes of smoked maple-glazed bacon chops or even pig’s head on toast.

48 Gresham St, London EC2V 7AY

Cabotte is a restaurant founded by two Master Sommeliers. So while the menu is classic French, really the key thing here is the wine list that accompanies it. A good place for bringing any really keen wine drinkers you want to impress.

11 White’s Row, London E1 7NF

Opened in 2015 and since expanded to restaurants in Soho and Tower Bridge, this original Gunpowder serves Indian small plates with an inventive twist. The dishes are inspired by those that the team grew up with and the Kashmiri lamb chops are a must.

10 Basinghall St, London EC2V 5BQ

Renowned for their steaks, excellent wine list and service, Hawksmoor is a reassuring choice, and their Guildhall branch is particularly suited to the business crowd, with breakfast meetings well-catered for. There’s a 22-person private dining room, complete with audio-visual equipment, for presentations with exceptional catering.

36 Broadgate Circle, London EC2M 2QS

Spanish chef José Pizarro expanded beyond Bermondsey Street for the first time to this City outpost (his third restaurant in what is now a burgeoning empire). There’s a big focus on grilled meats, such as the famed Presa Ibérico, as well as all things tapas.

100 Liverpool Street, Broadgate Circle, London EC2M 2QS

Fresh from success in Hong Kong comes the Aqua Restaurant Group’s latest opening. This time they’re hitting up the City, with this sushi restaurant in the heart of Broadgate. The dish you’ll definitely want to try is the crystal sushi the made a name for themselves with - which sees nigiri draped with intensely flavoured jelly.

Devonshire House, Bishopsgate Plaza, London EC2M 4JX

Multi-award winning pastry chef Cherish Finden, also a judge on Bake Off: The Professionals, is behind this new patisserie in the Pan Pacific London hotel. From handbags of lemon and raspberry compote to chocolate teapots sure to wow, her meticulously-crafted products are inspired by her childhood in Singapore.