The Secret Restaurants in London

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You don’t want to dine with a swarm of other Londoners, you want to cavort in private supper clubs; you want to booze in basement bars, and you want to be the first to tell all of your friends. Boasting some of the best hidden restaurants in the world, London is a homage to secret eateries.
Whether you fancy knocking back dim sum behind an unassuming Chinatown door or schmoozing by candlelight in a secret, subterranean 1920s pop-up, check out some of the best secret restaurants in London. Let’s exploce The Secret Restaurants in London below.

The Secret Restaurants in London

Beast Of Brixton

Nestled off the streets of Brixton is a fantastic secret bar and restaurant, packed with delicious food and wonderful cocktails. Serving up street food inspired eats like tacos, burgers and small sharing plates, Beast of Brixton is also renowned for their Sunday roasts and great selection of local craft beers.

The Secret Restaurants in London

Opium

Hidden behind an unassuming door in Chinatown is a wonderland of oriental whimsy. Featuring three bars across two floors, each with their own menu of cocktails, Opium is the perfect place for an evening spent feasting on delicious dim sum and quaffing down incredible libations from award winning bartenders.

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The Little Blue Door

You’ve probably walked past this spot without giving it a second glance, but you’d be missing out if you didn’t venture through The Little Blue Door. The Fulham playhouse has been designed to look like a flat, complete with a relaxed kitchen, cosy sitting room and, of course, party den for all your eating, drinking and dancing needs.

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Rochelle Canteen 

In a neighbourhood increasingly overwhelmed by mammon vertiginous developments, private members clubs, throbbing hotel bars – a last redoubt holds indomitably on to the Shoreditch values of the recent past: artiness, eccentricity, a wilful withdrawal from the mainstream melee. It is the Rochelle Canteen, a delightful little restaurant housed in an old bike shed on the glorious Boundary Estate, the site of London’s first social housing. Effectively the staff canteen for local artists, the Rochelle isn’t exactly easy to find but the destination justifies the journey.
The space is English modern: understated and egalitarian, with Ercol everywhere. And the food fits right in. Owners Melanie Arnold and Margot Henderson’s approach is direct and honest without fetishising its simplicity. The menu changes all the time but we had a sublimely seasoned steak tartare, and deep and rich fish stew with chickpeas and rouille. The Canteen is open only for weekday lunch and is unlicensed so pop, as we did, to nearby Leila’s for a bottle of wine.

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Primeur

You might assume that the team behind Primeur were attempting a deliberate withdrawal from the hurly burly of the London restaurant scene, housed as it is in a delightful old garage on a quiet residential street in an inbetweeny neighbourhood. And while they’ve certainly managed to create a convivial, locals focused feel with their shared tables and informal atmosphere, they could hardly be more central to the sharp end of the London scene with their simple, small plate menu and on trend wine list.
The waiting staff might look like a band of very clean lumberjacks (luxuriant beards, heavy boot, plaid shirts), but they deliver the food with the delicacy and relish that it deserves. We licked clean the plates of romanesco broccoli in brown butter, roasted onions with romesco sauce, and an onglet cooked to perfection. The wine list is short, much of it low intervention, all of it high quality. Visit in summer when the doors are opened wide.

The Secret Restaurants in London

Pidgin

Want to experience everything that is good about the East End eating revolution in a single sitting? (And avoid all the bad: the street-food car parks, the surly service, the cutester cereal cafés). Then head to Wilton Way for Pidgin’s fantastic four course, no choice tasting menu. The elegant, simple room is small enough to make the whole thing feel like a buzzy little party (due, in no small part, to the popularity of the barrel-aged Negronis).
On our visit we had skate cheek with fermented cucumber and burnt fennel, and a superb Kentucky Fried Rabbit of the sort that you certainly never get from the Colonel. The super friendly front of house team are forever plying you with little treats of bread and burnt butter, chocolates, and their homemade Pidgincello. Amiable, adventurous and affordable, it’s everything this generation do well: if you lived next door you wouldn’t go anywhere else.

The Secret Restaurants in London