London Chalk Farm Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: Just a few years after leaving London (and his two Pâtisserie des Rêves stores) behind, Philippe Conticini is back, with this huge new Camden Market patisserie, traditionally tiled and where much of the seating is outside on a large sunny days terrace. (There’s also a smaller, less characterful outlet now nearby (since November 2020) in Buck Street Market).

2023 Review: Cleverly converted from Victorian Grade II listed former stables into a faux-rustic gastroboozer, this Camden Town yearling has “a lovely atmosphere, looking out into buzzy Camden Market”, and serves a “high-quality” menu of British comfort-food classics which are “a cut above your usual pub fare”. There’s also a hidden courtyard with a fire pit, and a good selection of locally brewed beers.

“Beautifully presented and great-tasting food” attracts a loyal crowd to this modern European brasserie, tucked away in a quirky site by the Regent’s Canal in beautiful Primrose Hill. “Michael Nadra is a very good chef – and unlike at many restaurants with a well-known chef who almost never sets foot in their own restaurant, he is actually there cooking the food”. Look out for the week-night specials if you’re price-conscious. Top Menu Tips – “crab and salmon ceviche starters are enjoyable; perfect duck and the beautifully presented sea bass, turkey and black cod tastes great; to finish, sticky toffee pudding, treacle tart and custard tart are all good”.

“You are welcomed warmly” at this attractive and easygoing Primrose Hill brunch-friendly haunt, which – say fans – is “the sort of place you always come out of in a good mood”. But while most reports affirm it’s “a lovely place for simple but delicious meals at any time of the day”, there is also a view that “the food’s perfectly pleasant, it’s a useful local, but nothing to get too excited about”.

2023 Review: “Delicious” plant-based versions of classic American comfort food – from burgers, seitan hot dogs and pastrami to milk-free shakes – cut the mustard at this pair of ‘dirty vegan diners’ in Camden Market and Islington. The Islington branch has a vegan butcher next door, touted as the world’s first, with a concession in Selfridges.

2024 Review: “This upmarket local café” with artistic leanings in Primrose Hill has a “great vibe, relaxed-yet-warm service and consistently good food”. Founded by actor Sam Frears and novelist Andrew O’Hagan, who live nearby, it has an artist-in-residence programme and hosts readings, live music and community supper clubs.

“Almost like being in Greece!” – this huge and “endearing” Primrose Hill taverna has never been a foodie hotspot, and though it might be fair to say that the food is “like your Greek Mum makes”, that’s only if your Ma’s cooking is “unexciting but reliable”. Tony Evangelou founded the business on Regent’s Park Road in 1979 and shifted to its current large site (a former pub) in 1992. “People love the atmosphere”, “it’s always packed” and it helps that “the waiting staff have been working here for years and years”. Even those who say “I feel the food is bumping along the bottom” reckon “the business will probably outlive me!” – “not cheap but people still keep going back”. Top Menu Tips – “the Grilled Halibut is always good and the Chicken Shashlik is great with rice or a delicious salad! Crème Carmel as a dessert is a winner. The Wine list – purchased from Enotria, Bibendum and Hallgarten – is well constructed”.

2023 Review: This “friendly and cosy” independent Italian with a “good garden space” has established a comfortable niche for itself in Primrose Hill over the past dozen years. It’s run by Patrick Oberto and his partner Diana Rinaldo, who took over the site in 2011.

“Very clever cooking – far more satisfying than a carnivore might expect” – is the reason for the ongoing success of this vegetarian group, founded in Soho almost 40 years ago and expanded into a modern chain over the last ten years. “Is it vegan? Yes”, fully plant-based since 2001. “Do you have to be vegan to enjoy it? No” – “the quality and intensity of the flavours” wins over many omnivores, while “the extremely friendly service and full-to-the-gills interior creates an ambience that is conducive to enjoyment”.

2023 Review: You can “travel back in time” at this trio of deliberately retro chippies, with their “Formica tables and period posters creating a great atmosphere” – “the fish ’n’ chips are excellent, too”. Founder Pat ‘Pops’ Newland, an East Ender who started working at the age 11, was still a hands-on owner in his 80s when he died in April 2022.

This Kentish Town fixture from Calabrian-born, Moroccan-heritage chef Mustapha Mouflih has achieved cult status over the past decade for its “mostly great” Italian cooking served in modest premises at very good prices – the bills held in check by “brilliant BYOB for corkage”. Ratings have dropped this year, though, with several reporters “disappointed after reading good reviews”.

“Front-of-house / owner Giuseppe Gullo is charm personified at this proper local Italian” just before the railway foot-bridge in Primrose Hill, “serving Sardinian and Sicilian cuisine” (and he works closely with a Sardinian-based wine exporter to source biodynamic wines from small producers throughout Italy). The menu is concise, with a focus on regional dishes from the two islands: “decent food” if perhaps on the pricey side.

2022 Review: Tom Kerridge’s involvement (in partnership with Mark Emms) made it 100% likely this summer 2021 opening, on the top of Buck Street Market, would attract attention. It’s ‘bad’ in that many dishes (e.g. beef brisket ‘taternator’) are not vegan! – anything with red packaging is for meat- eaters (leaf-eaters, green of course). In an early August 2021 review, Kate Samuelson of The Week was upbeat, branding it “a mightly alternative” to KFC and McDs. Then again, she also noted that: “our meal, which included three portions of food, two milkshakes and two beers, came to about £50” – so you’d kind of hope for a pretty major step up…

2022 Review: “It’s amazing how much fun you can have dining in a shipping container!!” – Irish chef Adrian Martin’s July 2020 newcomer may be thus housed in Camden Town’s new eco market on Buck Street, but – with its incongruously posh decor and £65 eight-course menu (£110 if you go for the wine matching) – it’s certainly not in the grungy, street food category (even if you do have to go outside to the loos in the market). As the name hints, the focus is on seasonality and foraged food, but early press reviews – while not writing the enterprise off – have given it a slightly bumpy ride. Some of our early reporters are much more upbeat, though, hailing “inspirational and outstanding cuisine” that its most ardent supporters would put “in the same class as Aulis and Story”.

2024 Review: The latest venture from a pair of ex-Palomar chefs, in Camden Market’s expansion into North Yard, marries North American diner food with Middle Eastern flair and flavours. Shiri Kraus and Amir Batito already run the Black Cow steakhouse nearby and the result here is an interesting twist on a seemingly familiar (fairly meaty) formula. It opened in late April 2023, too late to generate feedback in our annual diners’ poll.

“Surprisingly good, and good-value, pizza (for an upscale locale)” – and “with the fluffiest crust” – are found at this six-year-old Chelsea hangout with a spinoff in Soho. Branches in Portobello Road and Haverstock Hill closed down last year.

“Come rain or shine, there’s always a queue for this food stall” at Camden Market – “but it’s worth the wait” for these “next-level Venezuelan corn pockets”, among the capital’s most “delicious” street-food offerings of the last 12 years. They’re “naturally gluten-free” with a variety of meat or veggie fillings, and “don’t forget to add the sauce on the side”.

“Breakfast of champions” and a contender for the title of “best bagels in London” – a labour of love from photographer and self-taught baker Dan Martensen, who teamed up with Caravan head baker Jack Ponting to perfect the ultimate New York-style bagel, opening their Primrose Hill shop in 2023. Outlets in Notting Hill and Soho followed in short order. Take-out and delivery, with a couple of tables if you want to eat in.

Billing itself as: ‘A world-first restaurant employing, training and empowering people who have experienced homelessness’ – this charitable venture opened in late 2024 in cute Primrose Hill, on the site that was for decades the late lamented Odette’s (RIP). Its simple menus – brunches, breakfasts, dinners of steak, cod and chicken – aren’t aiming for foodie fireworks but scored well in our survey. (And in his November 2024 review, although The Telegraph’s William Sitwell wanted “a little more oomph, more zest, more thrills and spills”, he still found it “sweet, sensible and conformist with buckets of warm conviviality”, and serving “safe and respectable brasserie fare”).

“The definition of cheap and cheerful Asian food” – these hawker-inspired, ‘Siu Mei’ (meat dumpling) pitstops “show that you don’t have to traipse into Soho for a quick and tasty meal of great Cantonese roast meats”. Founded as a takeaway kiosk in Liverpool Street in 2019 by Hong Kongers, Chong Yew (Uncle Lim), Pui Sing Tsang (Uncle Sidney), and Mo Kwok (Uncle Mo), they now have six locations of which Brent Cross (open in March 2025) is the latest in the mall’s new District food hall. “No frills, but tasty, fast and cheap”, the specialities are Cantonese Roast Duck, Crispy Pork Belly (Siu Yuk), and Char Siu Pork. Top Menu Tip – Auntie Jun’s Char Siu Sou.