The 8 best things Time Out staff ate this year in London

I’m pretty sure I have said ‘this is the best thing I’ve eaten all year’ at least 25 times over the past 12 months, making the task of choosing the actual single best thing I’ve eaten this year extremely difficult.

There were the crunchy/sloppy mutton fries at Khao Bird, addictive wontons at Ling Ling’s, sweetie-like slow-braised pork belly nuggets at Lai Rai, Tasca’s naughty tomme de chevre and smoked maple ham bikini sandwich (RIP), and an outrageously juicy devil on horseback at the opening of the new St John wine bar in Neal’s Yard.

London, you have spoiled us. Here are the best things team Time Out ate in 2025. 

The 8 best London restaurant dishes of 2025

The Lavery’s asparagus fonduta

I’ve eaten a lot of rich, heavy things this year. Things drenched in butter. Things swimming in cream. Things layered with lardo. No complaints, but sometimes I crave something light and semi-healthy. The Lavery’s asparagus fonduta managed to elegantly straddle the line between both worlds. This good cop/bad cop dish offered exceedingly decadent and artery-destroying cheese sauce glooped over saintly steamed veg. The restaurant, a Nigella Lawson fever dream in a Georgian townhouse in South Ken, is sophistication personified, and this simple dish the very apex of its classiness. Leonie Cooper, Food and Drink Editor 

Tollington’s scallops 

After a handful of visits to Tollington’s it’s easy to see why scallops (in some form or another) have become a steadfast menu item at this small but mighty Finsbury Park restaurant. They occasionally feature in a more jazzed-up fashion (with truffle or deep-fried), but more often than not scallops here are served as a start-of-the-meal snack. Arriving in their own shell, lightly paddling in a shallow pool of thin but perfectly salty dressing (ideal for mopping up with little chunks of baguette), this dish punches well above its weight. As good scallops should be, they’re seared just enough to char and tenderise, but land on the table at a ready-to-eat temperature. They’re so unfussy and delicious that you shouldn’t be surprised if you end up ordering a couple more. Liv Kelly, Travel Writer

Belly Bistro’s tempura cod pandesal 

If you’ve found yourself on Foodie Instagram this year, you’re likely to have seen a glimpse of the tempura cod pandesal at Belly Bistro in Kentish Town. It’s kind of a big deal. As a long-time filet-o-fish devotee, this dish feels like something that has escaped from one of my most vivid food fantasies. Essentially it’s an elevated version of the McDonald's dish with a Filipino twist – a slab of beautifully light, tempura-battered cod, a slice of American cheese, a load of pickle-y tartar and blobs of cod’s roe, all encased in a pandesal bun, which is slightly sweet and reminiscent of Japanese milk bread. Belly Bistro is full of great dishes, but I’d come back again and again just for this sandwich. Absolutely no notes. Ella Doyle, Guides Editor 

Kudu’s prime rib

Regrettably, I never visited the original Kudu in Peckham, but the South African-infused restaurant’s new Marylebone spot has to be up there with the best restaurant openings of 2025. Several of its dishes could have made it onto this list; special shout outs to the ‘Kudu Kit Kat’, a rich chocolate mousse topped with sliced kumquats and delicate marshmallow foam that gets toasted over hot coals at your table, and the house bread with Cape Malay butter; glossy liquid gold swimming with warm spices, pickled shallots and crispy curry. But it was the dry-aged prime rib, a melt-in-the-mouth hunk of ex-dairy beef cooked to a blushing medium rare that I couldn’t stop thinking about for weeks after. Dropping £95 on a big ol’ slab of flesh isn’t an everyday occurrence, but if you’re gonna do it, do it here. Rosie Hewitson, Things To Do Editor

Adoh!’s crab kothu 

You know the sweet, sweet comfort you feel when you sink your teeth into a doner kebab at the end of the night? Adoh’s crab kothu supplies that feeling tenfold. Kothu is a late-night Sri Lankan staple and at this newly-opened casual dining spot, it’s the shining star of the menu. Scraps of roti, shredded crab meat, crunchy chopped veg and egg are tossed together to form a gleaming dark bronze heap. It’s rich, punchy and gloriously greasy. Several pints in or stone cold sober, it’s easy to scoff up the entire thing in a blink. Amy Houghton, Writer  

Bad Boy Pizza Society’s vodka pie

In proud NYC style, Bad Boy Pizza Society in Bethnal Green suspend their 18-inch pies over the table on a metal pizza stand – all the better for ogling and admiring. Of BBPS’s offering, I’m most ardently a disciple of the uncomplicated but utterly refined vodka pie. Each slice is so supple, so astutely crisped. The booze-base tangily flashes across your mouth, encased in a bracing layer of mozz, while the parmesan topping prickles the front of the tongue, and bountiful leaves of basil waft up your nostrils as you crunch. It’s the sort of dish that reconfigures your foodie worldview – since I tried it, it has become the high water mark by which all other London pizzas are judged. Ed Cunningham, News Editor

Chet’s prawn toast

Instead of arriving on the traditional triangle of bread, Chet’s fried prawn toast comprises a wedge of sweet house-made prawn, green bean and coriander paste stuffed deep inside a golden brown bao bun. The outside comes with a trypophobia-inducing casing of crunchy black and white sesame seeds, and it’s all tied together with a spicy mayo dip on the side. Getting your chops around one of these hunky buns in this Shepherd’s Bush hotel restaurant feels like a real feat. India Lawrence, Staff Writer

Little Earthquakes’s margherita pizza 

This year I’ve eaten at several Michelin-starred restaurants, numerous five-star hotels and a fair few none-more-hip east London hype-y places. But the best thing I ate in 2025 was a margherita. I’m not trying to be contrary or iconoclastic, either. Neil Rankin and his mates at the Railway Tavern in Dalston have done the impossible: they’ve gone and successfully invented a new type of pizza. You’d think by this stage it would be impossible, like creating a brand new colour or facial expression. But somehow the discus-sized, deep-dish pies are unlike any variant that’s come before. Made with gourmet ingredients, the Little Earthquakes pizza is a moreish pub snack from the gods. Joe Mackertich, Time Out London Editor

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