People like to ask us food writers where to eat and drink. The question arrives by text, voice note, sometimes even in that panicked mid-dinner moment when your mate find out their Hinge crush wants to take things offline. No matter the instinct, what they\u2019re really asking is this: what are you excited about right now? What\u2019s worth the Uber, the splurge, the two-week waitlist?<\/p>\n
So here you go: five spots I haven\u2019t shut up about lately\u2014not necessarily the ones that are the talk of the town, but the ones that stayed with me. Some are new. Others have quietly hit their stride. All of them feel like places doing something honest, brilliant, and slightly obsessive in the best way.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a Ukrainian restaurant in Shoreditch that nearly made me cry into a dumpling; a chaotic west London dinner party disguised as a night in Cuba; a long-loved bar with a fantastic new food and drink menu\u2014importantly, not just in a \u201cpost it on Stories\u201d kind of way. This month\u2019s list isn\u2019t about hype. It\u2019s about where I\u2019d send someone who really wants to eat and drink well.<\/p>\n
The London Restaurants And Bars To Book Now: Minced meat varenyks at Tatar Bunar<\/p>\n Tatar Bunar<\/p>\n Quietly extraordinary, Tatar Bunar<\/a> is co-founded by Ukrainian restaurateurs Anna Andriienko and Alex Cooper, whose group runs more than 30 restaurants back home. While Cooper remains in Odesa helping with humanitarian relief, Andriienko brought their shared vision to life in Shoreditch in a whitewashed space on Curtain Road. TL;Dr? You should go now, while you can still get a table.<\/p>\n Importantly, Tatar Bunar is not some surface-level Slavic pastiche. The food, by Kyiv chef Kateryna Tkachuk, is both deeply regional and softly modern: rabbit skewers grilled over grapevines; subtly-spiced tomatoes that even now, writing this, make my mouth water; a creme br\u00fbl\u00e9e packed with varenyk. There\u2019s pickled everything, excellent house bread, and a sense of quiet conviction in every dish. My discerning Ukrainian dinner date was so impressed with the restaurant\u2019s nostalgic-yet-elevated dishes it almost brought us both to tears; if that\u2019s not a five-star review, I\u2019m not sure what is.<\/p>\n Address: 152 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AT<\/p>\n 2. Heard<\/strong><\/p>\n The Smoke Stack at Heard<\/p>\n Heard<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first Michelin star chef-backed burger spot in London, but it might be the first one that feels genuinely fun. Heard<\/a> comes from Jordan Bailey (formerly of two-star Restaurant Sat Bains) and sits in Flat Iron Square with the kind of understated swagger you\u2019d expect from someone who\u2019s already proven they can do tweezers and tasting menus. Here, the brief is tighter. Burgers only. But they are serious.<\/p>\n The meat is 35-day-aged British beef, cooked smash-style (so it\u2019s all crispy fringe and molten core), tucked into roast potato buns. There\u2019s tonnes on offer within the many interactions, including house pickles, Ogleshield cheese, and a \u201csecret sauce\u201d that tastes like someone lab-tested it for umami. They\u2019re not reinventing the burger so much as restoring its dignity\u2014less junk-food nostalgia, more clarity, technique, precision. There\u2019s cold beer, natural wine, and a casual confidence to the whole thing that extends to its very lovely staff. My advice? Don\u2019t skip the Smoke Stack.<\/p>\n Address: 1 Flat Iron Square, SE1 0AB<\/p>\n 3. Kapara<\/strong><\/p>\n Kapara, London<\/p>\n Kapara<\/p>\n A little bit of Tel Aviv on Manette Street, Kapara<\/a> is brought to us by one of the nicest men in the industry, Israeli chef Eran Tibi (of Bala Baya fame), as a true expression of the food and culture he loves; vibrant, joyful, a little bit wild.<\/p>\n The food goes big on texture, spice and indulgence: cloud-like challah with za\u2019atar butter, lamb neck tagine layered with rose harissa and saffron, a beautiful Jerusalem artichoke dish that wouldn\u2019t look out of place in a white-tablecloth tasting menu. Which is, in fact, what you should book. The \u00a368 menu is generous and precise, balancing big, traditional flavors with truly inventive new takes\u2014including his \u2018Ode to the Wilding Women\u2019 from his recent appearance on Great British Menu. It\u2019s an edit of Tibi\u2019s best work to date.<\/p>\n Address: 10 Manette Street, W1D 4AL<\/p>\n 4. Paradise Under the Stars<\/strong><\/p>\n Paradise Under The Stars<\/p>\n 58th Street<\/p>\n At a time when half of London\u2019s immersive dining \u201cexperiences\u201d feel like poorly lit theatre with mediocre food, Paradise Under the Stars<\/a> pulls off something arguably difficult: a genuinely good dinner with a genuinely good time. Set in a hall in West Kensington, the space has been transformed into a 1950s Havana supper club\u2014complete with house band, table-side daiquiris, and a perfectly-lit stage that feels like it\u2019s always seconds from a dance break.<\/p>\n The food is a blend of Cuban-Latin big hitters, generous and joyful: ceviche ‘Cojimar\u2019, Lechon Asado (mojo-marinated pork loin, slow-roasted spiced pork, salsa, et al),. But what really makes it is the atmosphere. A sparkling energy runs through the entire night: everyone\u2019s dressed up, the wine\u2019s flowing, and if you don\u2019t end up dancing by the second course, you\u2019re the only one.<\/p>\n Address: 9 Beaumont Avenue W14 9LP<\/p>\n
\n1. Tatar Bunar<\/strong><\/p>\n