London restaurants?

[EnglishGirlApproximately]

So we're planning to spend this years holiday budget on a few UK City stays, doing a bit of sightseeing and eating good food 😋 We want to go to an Ottolenghi restaurant, can anyone advise the best one to visit if we're travelling with Annie year old? Not for the food as he eats everything but which would be the most family friendly for an early evening meal?
Would also like any other London restaurant recommendations which are good for families? We're going to book Dishoom but have four nights to fill. Thanks!

Anyone?

What sort of cuisine are you interested in, and what age child? I could have some recommendations 😊

We have a nine year old who eats pretty much anything luckily. Fairly open minded on cuisine - we live somewhere where we only really get Indian, Chinese, Italian,burger bars and pub food so if we're away like to go to different places.
I love middle Eastern food.
DP loves Chinese/ Thai / Vietnamese
DS loves Japanese.
We all like Spanish / Tapas.
So fairly open to ideas to be honest!

Here’s a few options - we don’t tend to have Middle Eastern food often, so I don’t have many recommendations unfortunately, but if you fancied Turkish food Gokyuzu in Manor House is lovely but not very central. I’ve tried to keep everything else suggested quite central

Circolo Popolare or Gloria (Italian, Pizzas and great desserts and decor)
Kiln (lovely regional Thai food)
Fatt Pundit (Indo-Chinese, quite spicy)
Kati Roll Company (great street food style option for lunch/snack near Oxford Street)
Dishoom - I would definitely recommend breakfast
Hoppers (fantastic Sri Lankan food)
Duck and Rice (great Dim Sum brunches and Duck)
Casa do Frango (Great Portuguese Piri Piri chicken)
Mercato Metropolitano/Pergola/Market Hall - fun food market style food (definitely go for lunch with a child as it’s more bar-feel as the evening goes on)
Roka (lovely Japanese and often have deals available)
Brindisa (Tapas)
Xi’an Impression (great Xi’an noodles opposite Arsenal stadium)
Assa Korean (fab food and amazing service and great value)
Spitalfields market - Dumpling Shack, Bleecker (burgers), humble crumble (amazing crumbles!) and Pleasant Lady (Jian Bing wraps) also nearby on Brick Lane are the Bagel shops (Biegel Bake)

Sorry I forgot to add, from 12 April, Westminster Council are re-introducing the outdoor dining that we had in Soho last summer - so most of the streets will be pedestrianised and will be set up for Al Fresco dining evenings and weekends- it was the best atmosphere last year and great for people watching!

In terms of the Ottolenghi restaurants I love Nopi, which is more casual than Rovi. Honey & Co or Honey & Smoke would also be good, also Bubala.

If you like Spanish, you can combine a trip to the museums in South Kensington with a meal at Casa Brindisa.

My kids loved Xu teahouse (feels like you're on a train in the 1930s), BAO in Soho and Leong's Legends in Chinatown. I want to take them to Mangal 2 at some point.

I love Hoppers and Kiln, also Roti King, but they are spicy! My DCs of a similar age to yours would struggle with the heat levels but yours may be more tolerant.

You can check out some of the guides on foodism too, like this one about Japanese restaurants:
foodism.co.uk/guides/best-japanese-restaurant-london/

Another vote for Nopi if you wanted to take a young child
That bit more laid back

Placemarking!

Doesn't fit your criteria, but breakfast at the Hawksmoor blew me away and I've been dreaming of it ever since.

I personally found brindisa pricey the last time we went as a group and included children. Another option is Pix, which has 3 restaurants in central london. They serve pinchos from the Northern Spain, Basque region. During weekday lunches, they used to have a £15 all-you-can eat which was very good value. I'm unsure if they had childrens prices, but they had lots of choice between hot and cold options along with amazing desserts.

NEDS also offer an all-you-can eat option (well used to). I've never been, but friends rave about it.

Aquashard have a bar/restaurant which has the amazing views- without needing to pay to go to the viewing platform. For the bar, you don't need to book, but can still wander around and see the view. The restaurant you do need to book though.

YallaYalla off Oxford Street does good Lebanese food. There is one in Soho too but it's tiny.

This is all brilliant thanks so much! I'm going to have to go for longer i think Does anyone have a good recommendation for Tepanyaki?

@EnglishGirlApproximately- I've been to Benahani near Piccadilly a few times. They used to have groupon discounts sometimes. There were often children there for the earlier sittings.

I've been to a few others (abroad) which were a bit more formal than Benihani and not a chain. I often find its more for a fun night spectable, rather than amazing food. Great for something different though and everying seemed to enjoy it. I did feel a bit rushed at times, so check reviews before you go.

I absolutely love threads like this. Hope you find something nice op!

I loved benihani

Tasty food, really fun atmosphere.. But the lady supposed to welcome people in was the most rude hideous staff member I've ever met in any restaurant.
She trashed us on husband 40th.

@Xiaoxiong was Leong’s Legend good? I’ve been tempted a few times, but not gone, but I loved Bao and Xu, so I’ll trust your opinion. Have you been to Mangal 2? I only discovered them on Instagram during lockdown but really want to go when things open up properly!

Iurker, let's hope the street dining is here to stay..
Ridiculous we've never had anything like it before! And soho totally lends itself to it..

Thanks @Elouera. Agree that Tepanyaki is often more for the spectacle than the food but DS loves it and we're all choosing one restaurant each for the nights we're there. Based on this thread we've already decided on 4 nights rather than three, as we really want to experience street food too. Where we live street food is just a burger van spits a real treat for us

place marking for my next visit. can't happen soon enough.

If you are looking for street food, Bricklane on a Sunday has multiple food markets, craft/clothes markets along with a large 2nd hand section. The food sections have stalls of multiple food options- Ethipoian, Brazilian, Vegan etc. If in Bricklane, I highly recommend a salt beef beigal. 'Beigal Bake' is the better of the 2 near each other IMO and you will see a massive queue outside. The queue moves quickly though, even if its out the door! Their cheesecake and carrot cake are devine too!

Also on a Sunday, and within 5min walk of Bricklane, is Columbia Flower markets. Another must do when in the area.

Not too far from there is Kingsland rd, which have multiple Vietnamese restaurants to choose from.

Place-marking and recommending The Ivy Asia!

Maltby st Market is great, I take DD there and we eat our way through Taco's and Gyoza's, loads on offer plus greta wine and beer options.www.maltby.st

Borough market too boroughmarket.org.uk

Kings X is great now, sit on the steps at the side of the canal, kids can run through the water features, great food from multiple out lets too.
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@lurker101 I haven't been to Mangal 2 yet, many years ago when I used to work in the City DH and I went to Mangal 1 and Best Mangal in Shoreditch and loved them both so I would really like to try Mangal 2 now!! It's a bit of a pain to get out there unless you're local though.

I've only had great experiences at Leong's Legends, especially ordering the xiaolongbao and the Taiwanese specialities, but I have friends who have had long waits for tables and food. I do order in Chinese though which may help (sorry )

@SprungisSpringYaY @lurker101 can't agree more about the outdoor dining in soho. I can't understand why all those streets weren't pedestrianised already, they are by default with people walking in the road and who in their right minds drives through Soho in the afternoon or evening anyway - deliveries all happen in the morning. If you are looking for a cab you generally have to walk out to the edges anyway so it should be the same for an uber.

Thanks @Xiaoxiong two more to add to my reopening list 😂

Honestly the outdoor dining is amazing, feels so safe not having cars everywhere, and when the emergency services needed to get through when we were there it was quickly and seamlessly done. If someone puts it on their mayoral manifesto they’ll get my vote 😂

The mention of Taiwanese food reminded me of two more places I’d recommend for Taiwanese fried chicken - Monga and JI Chicken Good Friend both in Chinatown - really tasty and something different.

Oh, I second salt beef beigel!

We bought one to share on our last day out of pure greed, having already had breakfast (Dishoom 😊). No chance to buy more as we really had to leave and were full anyway, but we were standing in the street, alternately taking bites and wailing, Sistine Chapel style