The 5 best new London restaurants that opened in 2025

You want new restaurants? We got new restaurants. So, so many of them.

2025 has been stacked with tonnes of saliva-inducing new openings across the city, from Balkan barbecue joints and swish South Ken brasseries to new school Vietnamese cafes, Italian-Japanese pasta parlours, a massive new Hawksmoor in a historic hotel and the sprawling Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Covent Garden.  

Sure, we’ve lost a lot of amazing places this year, but clever chefs have been plastering over the gaps with global-trotting menus and inventive dishes – Thai mutton fries, anyone? 

Time Out already keeps a rolling tally of the very best new restaurants in London, updating our list monthly with the freshest reviews from Time Out critics. But right here we name the overall 2025 champions. These are the five best new London restaurants of the year. 

The best new restaurants that opened in London in 2025

1. Belly Bistro, Kentish Town

This Filipino restaurant was pure 2025. Though every dish was super photogenic and Insta-friendly, it wasn't just an influencer’s dream – Belly Bistro also had a menu that tasted as good as it looked. This meant you didn’t need a ringlight and a humiliation kink in order to enjoy their tempura cod pandesal (essentially a posh filet o’ fish with American cheese and salty salmon roe), smoked aubergine and tomatoes with bagong shrimp paste, and smoked trout kinilaw (a fun, Filipino take on a ceviche). Big, bold, and deserving of every bit of praise it gets, Belly Bistro is the best new restaurant of 2025.

Read the full review of Belly Bistro here.

2. The Lavery, South Kensington

The sleekest new opening of the year, The Lavery brought a vintage ladies-who-lunch energy to 2025. Finding a home in a whitewashed Grade-II Georgian townhouse in the barren culinary wasteland of South Ken, The Lavery finally gave us an answer to the eternal question; ‘where shall we have a lovely lunch after dicking around the V&A’? With its big windows, polished floors and massive mirrors, it felt a little like Versailles by way of Fortnum & Mason. The food was fittingly fancy, with former Toklas head chef Yohei Furuhashi cooking the classy likes of pappardelle with Venetian duck ragu and wild seabass with girolles. 

Read the full review of The Lavery here. 

3. Martino’s, Chelsea

A late contender for launch of the year, Martino’s gracefully elbowed its way into this list after opening at the end of November. Even so, it wasn’t the last new restaurant of 2025 from The Dover’s Martin’s Kuczmarski (that would be Dover Street Counter, which launched December 1, and has been open for such a short space of time, we haven’t even had a chance to visit yet). Like The Dover before it, Martino’s manages to be elegant and fun. The room is one of the prettiest we’ve seen in ages, and the menu is short and simple - there’s zucchini fritti, tortellini in brodo, and majestic meatballs. As to be expected from a restaurant on Sloane Square, the crowd is a little older, a little more twin-set-and-pearls. But don’t let that put you off – especially if you like martinis, Milanese-style food and walnut wood walls. 

Read the full review of Martino’s here.  

4. Gina, Chingford

Venture to the resting place of the Kray twins for a neighbourhood chophouse that will have you rethinking everything you know about the suburbs. Husband and wife team Ravneet Gill and Mattie Taian opened Gina over the summer, and received early praise from local resident Danny Dyer. And if it’s good enough for Sir Danny, it’s good enough for us. A blackboard list with daily cuts of meat is complimented by pork and porcini lasagne, kid-friendly pasta and the St John-ish likes of ox cheeks with mash and horseradish. 

Read the full review of Gina here.

5. 2210 by Natty Can Cook, Herne Hill

2210 has been a long time coming. The debut restaurant from Nathaniel Mortley – aka NattyCanCook – showcases inventive plays on Caribbean signature dishes from a chef who honed his craft as a sous at HMP Brixton’s in-house restaurant The Clink. Ackee and saltfish spring rolls, confit pork belly skewers, wiri wiri lamb rump, and superior jollof are all on offer, and are matched by a mid-course atmosphere that’ll have you wondering if you’re in the club rather than a cosy bistro opposite Brockwell Park. 

Read the full review of 2210 by NattyCanCook here.

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