clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
Notting Hill carnival
Jerk chicken on the grill
Steve Parsons - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images

Where to Eat Outside in London

Udon in the City, roti on an industrial estate, small plates on the canal, sandwiches in Bloomsbury, and more — many with heaters

View as Map
Jerk chicken on the grill
| Steve Parsons - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images

Here’s a pick of some of the best restaurants in London where it’s possible to feel the breeze — many with heaters.

Here’s a complementary guide to where to eat outside in London when it’s raining.

Restaurants marked with an (H) have heaters.

Read More
Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Da Moreno Pizzeria

Copy Link

Ealing institution Santa Maria has moved out of its St. Mary’s Road home, and with it left behind its two outdoor tables. So now Northfield Avenue competitor Da Moreno takes up the mantle, with outdoor tables ready to groan with expertly prepared Neapolitan style pies.

Riding Wine Co

Copy Link

A fine list of majority-central European natural wines, plenty of outdoor space, cheese, anchovies, burrata (and other vintage small plate candidates), plus a ready supply of heaters makes this Ealing spot worth a visit. (H)

The Black Dog Beer House

Copy Link

A covetable back garden with picnic tables and an outstanding array of cask and keg beers is joined by some top Sunday roasts and sunny drinking food at this Brentford pub, including a smoked aubergine flatbread, loaded fries, and an extremely serious menu of conservas from Spain and Portugal ready to fork on to toast.

Hereford Road Restaurant

Copy Link

Tom Pemberton’s menu in Notting Hill is so marked by his time as head chef at St. John Bread and Wine that it’s practically an homage: the playful “crumbs” on a smoked cod’s roe and little gem dish; the curtness of devilled lamb’s kidneys and mash. With a small, heated terrace, it’s a fine choice for west Londoners in search of the Modern British grail. (H)

Scott's

Copy Link

Scott’s is a London restaurant that holds fast against its glamour and quality fading, with its terrace still one of the most coveted reservations in the city and its seafood cookery still some of the most outstanding. (H)

Red Lion and Sun

Copy Link

This Highgate limpet urges diners to “dress appropriately” despite its heated front garden, so layer up. Look to one of the best Sunday roasts in the city on the appropriate day, and elsewhere Basque baked crab is a serious proposition for a substantial meal. (H)

A. Wong

Copy Link

Whether for matchless dim sum, an elaborate tasting menu, or a few dishes taken from around all of China’s regions, A. Wong remains one of the top restaurants in London, and its heated outdoor terrace would be a fine place to find out why. (H)

Kaffeine

Copy Link

Peter Dore-Smith’s Fitzrovia institution shares something intangible with the rest of London’s best cafes — in acquiring reach and regard beyond their local area, they have not lost their importance to those closest to them. With newly secured outdoor tables on the street, this is the perfect place for just a peerless espresso, some of the best banana bread in London, or a full Aussie brunch.

Quo Vadis

Copy Link

Chef Jeremy Lee’s seasonal British and Mediterranean menus — spanning pies, salads, and old-fashioned puddings — are the reason to visit this classic Soho restaurant. A handful of outside tables on Dean Street are the way to go. (H)

Wong Kei

Copy Link

Make the most of Chinatown’s new outdoor dining permissions with a bowl of wonton noodle soup, some classic Cantonese roast meats, or beef brisket and rice vermicelli in soup. Be sure to add a generous amount of its status-iconic chilli oil to whatever it is you order.

Café Deco

Copy Link

In a most unpredictable year, it was striking that Anna Tobias’ debut restaurant — in partnership with the 40 Maltby Street team — was unilaterally predicted to be a hit. And so it has been, with this Bloomsbury restaurant’s gorgeous pastel tiles first positively trampled by diners hungry for friable pissaladière whose sticky onions dissolve like vapour and wry, flawless sandwiches, before they gave way to one of the most accomplished restaurant debuts for some time.

Master Wei Xi'An

Copy Link

Guirong Wei’s Qishan-style hand-pulled noodles are an elite cold weather food, a crimson slurp of sour, hot soup with a mottling of chilli oil clinging to its surface. It almost makes the heaters at her Bloomsbury restaurant unnecessary — almost, but they’ll ensure that the only cold skin on show is the liang pi noodles. (H)

Big Jo takes the sleek European sensibilities of its siblings Westerns Laundry, Jolene, and Primeur and adds a nostalgic bent, with pizza by the slice, iced buns, and ‘99-esque vanilla soft serve sitting alongside leeks with terracotta romesco or ricotta and herbs. Outdoor tables and parasols abound.

Chishuru

Copy Link

Adejoké Bakare’s Chishuru is at the centre of its street on Market Row in Brixton, so the outdoor tables, while unheated, are rarely drafty. Her faultless hospitality delivers dishes like chicken gizzards with citrus, chilli, and plantain; bavette steak with yaji; and goat ayamase with a prickly green sauce. One of the most outstanding openings of 2020.

Caribe'

Copy Link

Keshia Sakarah’s Brixton spot offers a range of island cooking rooted in her second-generation perspective: small plates of saltfish accra, fried chicken with molasses, or doubles; a trio of roti; and either curry goat or curry chicken with rice and peas.

Catalyst

Copy Link

The heated exterior at Catalyst doesn’t have tables, but it’s a fine place to linger while eating one of Vasilis Chamam and Alex Kikas’ outstanding sandwiches, or snacks from an evening menu on Fridays.

Fish, Wings and Tings Brixton

Copy Link

Fish, Wings and Ting is one of the only “Trini” dining restaurants not just in London, but in the entire country that is highlighting the region’s Indian heritage. Kaleidoscopic plates including chicken or fish with mango chutney and spicy purple slaw are a must. For those wanting to get hands-on, get all the aforementioned inside sumptuous homemade roti bread.

Quality Wines

Copy Link

Nick Bramham’s kitchen is doing its best impression of a Mediterranean enclave on the Farringdon Road, bringing the likes of white port and tonic; gildas; veal Milanese; stewed green beans with feta and oregano; and those peerless cannoli to a lovely outdoor terrace.

Roast pork belly with quince alioli; scallops with fino sherry butter; and pumpkin manti with chilli butter and crispy sage adorn the menu at Sam and Sam Clark’s Clerkenwell paean to Moorish cooking. With heaters outside, a scoop of the Malaga raisin ice cream with Pedro Ximenez drizzled atop should be obligatory. (H)

Llewelyn's

Copy Link

This Herne Hill restaurant has long had one of London’s most photogenic dining terraces, and with some heating it’s a prime candidate for both sunny evenings and cooler nights. (H)

Koya City

Copy Link

Soho’s charming and outstanding udon noodle specialist — with newly arranged outdoor seating and heating in the Bloomberg Arcade. Chef Shuko Oda’s reoepening menu features a reduced menu of udon dishes, plus pork tonkatsu, chicken kara-age and pickles, as well as salads and tempura dishes with ingredients from Namayasai farm, and an expanded donburi selection. (H)

Tasty Jerk

Copy Link

Possibly London’s best Jamaican jerk shop. On the edge of Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park and with a smoky aroma detectable from many hundred metres, this stark room is dedicated to one thing: immaculately, judiciously seasoned protein grilled without remorse. The age of these oil drums and the time-honoured expertise of Murphy Lawrence and his team turn out jerked pork belly, chicken, goat, and even lobster, that is penetrated with smoke, and lifted by all spice, Scotch bonnet, and salt. Tasty Jerk is a heady, intoxicating, and remarkably good value eating experience.

Trangallán

Copy Link

A comparatively unheralded but excellent Spanish restaurant, Trangallan spills out onto a spacious public space, just off Newington Green in north London. Some classics — like, when it appears, a fine tortilla — are executed with aplomb, but its with the modern preparation of Spanish ingredients that the kitchen likes to flex. Cod with hispi cabbage and Iberian pork, for example, or rare grilled beef with anchovy emulsion.

Towpath Café

Copy Link

Towpath is excellent and serves deceptively simple, nourishing plates — likely heavy on Marinda tomatoes, pastel-leaved radicchio, and lentils enlivened by spoonfuls of mustard and buoyant handfuls of herbs. Go to Towpath.

The Clarence Tavern

Copy Link

Quality, sustaining food with good ingredients at this still relatively young Stoke Newington pub, with terrace and garden space for those wishing to brave the elements. Pies, like one filled with ox cheek, brown ale, and bone marrow, are recommended. (H)

40 Maltby Street

Copy Link

Steve Williams and Raef Hodgson’s peerless Bermondsey wine bar has moved out of its traiteur and sandwich shop phase to reopen outdoors for a selection of snacks, which can be ordered with drinks and enjoyed on one of three tables on the terrace out front. Recently that menu included cauliflower croquettes; smoked cod’s roe and radishes; green beans, tomato, and saffron; chicken and bacon terrine; bread; and sorbet. Takeaway lunches do continue, offering some of London’s best sandwiches.

Horizon Foods

Copy Link

A wholesaler of Trinidadian dhal puri roti, buss up shut, and pholouri balls, Horizon opens to the public on Thursday to Saturdays between 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Stop in for some doubles, the deeply savoury and moreish Trinidadian breakfast food, comprised of fried bara and chickpea curry. Eat on the forecourt.

Bleecker Spitalfields

Copy Link

London’s favourite beef burger restaurant is back open in Spitalfields. If beef isn’t the thing, then try the vegetarian burger made with chef Neil Rankin’s vegan, fermented vegetable “symplicity” patty, American cheese, onion, iceberg, and burger sauce.

SMOKESTAK | london barbecue

Copy Link

David Carter’s Americanish barbecue restaurant continues to stand strong in Shoreditch, putting out conscientiously smoked meats by the 100 grams alongside its now overly Instagrammed brisket buns with red chilli. In cooler climes and duller times, the baked potato is a must-order. (H)

Bake Street

Copy Link

This Stoke Newington cafe has returned on all cylinders, bringing out some 2020-21 hits — American diner-style smashburgers, and the inimitable chicken makhani sandwich. Open for outdoor dining Thursday — Sunday, with the kitchen going from around 11 a.m. — 2 p.m.

Brat @ Climpson's Arch

Copy Link

Tomos Parry Basque-inspired al fresco restaurant on the edge of London Fields offers the famous grilled turbot and smoked potatoes the way nature intended — with a cold drink in the hand and the sun on the backs of the consumer. There are also dishes more geared towards the communality of outdoor eating, including a hefty cast iron pot of chicken rice and grilled mussels with nubs of the restaurant’s own chorizo. (H)

London Fields’ first-class restaurant and wine bar returns with an expanded number of tables outside.

Canalside Ombra showed great dexterity under lockdown with its fresh pasta kits and grocery offer, and has done the same ever since reopening, with first-rate pasta dishes and excellent, seasonal, and unfussy assemblies, heated terrace seating and unheated terrace seating, depending on how hardy a party is feeling. (H)

805 Old Kent Rd

Copy Link

805 is an institution on Old Kent Road, with electric suya, and a range of dishes rooted in either jollof rice, stews pounded out of egusi, ewedu, and ogbono, or palm nut soups. (H)

Alhaji SUYA (Greenwich)

Copy Link

Alhaji Suya Peckham is back, but it’s still operating out of an industrial park in Greenwich. Order 30 minutes ahead of time for the superb chicken, lamb, beef and tozo — a meltingly fatty beef cut — suya, electric with Abdullahi Maikano’s own yaji; a fierce, invigorating blend. He’s serving kilishi here too: a type of jerky originating in Hausaland, it’s made with strips of flattened meat spread with more yaji, ground onions and peanuts. A highly savoury, invigoratingly spicy snack.

Honey & Co. Bloomsbury

Copy Link

Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer’s new home for Honey & Co. has been fitted with a sizeable covered terrace just like the original, which feels suitable for the still-excellent range of sunny dishes, like grilled aubergine, egg, tahina, and pita at breakfast or slow-cooked lamb shoulder shawarma and prawns baked in a spiced tomato and pepper matbucha sauce with cracked wheat.

Da Moreno Pizzeria

Ealing institution Santa Maria has moved out of its St. Mary’s Road home, and with it left behind its two outdoor tables. So now Northfield Avenue competitor Da Moreno takes up the mantle, with outdoor tables ready to groan with expertly prepared Neapolitan style pies.

Riding Wine Co

A fine list of majority-central European natural wines, plenty of outdoor space, cheese, anchovies, burrata (and other vintage small plate candidates), plus a ready supply of heaters makes this Ealing spot worth a visit. (H)

The Black Dog Beer House

A covetable back garden with picnic tables and an outstanding array of cask and keg beers is joined by some top Sunday roasts and sunny drinking food at this Brentford pub, including a smoked aubergine flatbread, loaded fries, and an extremely serious menu of conservas from Spain and Portugal ready to fork on to toast.

Hereford Road Restaurant

Tom Pemberton’s menu in Notting Hill is so marked by his time as head chef at St. John Bread and Wine that it’s practically an homage: the playful “crumbs” on a smoked cod’s roe and little gem dish; the curtness of devilled lamb’s kidneys and mash. With a small, heated terrace, it’s a fine choice for west Londoners in search of the Modern British grail. (H)

Scott's

Scott’s is a London restaurant that holds fast against its glamour and quality fading, with its terrace still one of the most coveted reservations in the city and its seafood cookery still some of the most outstanding. (H)

Red Lion and Sun

This Highgate limpet urges diners to “dress appropriately” despite its heated front garden, so layer up. Look to one of the best Sunday roasts in the city on the appropriate day, and elsewhere Basque baked crab is a serious proposition for a substantial meal. (H)

A. Wong

Whether for matchless dim sum, an elaborate tasting menu, or a few dishes taken from around all of China’s regions, A. Wong remains one of the top restaurants in London, and its heated outdoor terrace would be a fine place to find out why. (H)

Kaffeine

Peter Dore-Smith’s Fitzrovia institution shares something intangible with the rest of London’s best cafes — in acquiring reach and regard beyond their local area, they have not lost their importance to those closest to them. With newly secured outdoor tables on the street, this is the perfect place for just a peerless espresso, some of the best banana bread in London, or a full Aussie brunch.

Quo Vadis

Chef Jeremy Lee’s seasonal British and Mediterranean menus — spanning pies, salads, and old-fashioned puddings — are the reason to visit this classic Soho restaurant. A handful of outside tables on Dean Street are the way to go. (H)

Wong Kei

Make the most of Chinatown’s new outdoor dining permissions with a bowl of wonton noodle soup, some classic Cantonese roast meats, or beef brisket and rice vermicelli in soup. Be sure to add a generous amount of its status-iconic chilli oil to whatever it is you order.

Café Deco

In a most unpredictable year, it was striking that Anna Tobias’ debut restaurant — in partnership with the 40 Maltby Street team — was unilaterally predicted to be a hit. And so it has been, with this Bloomsbury restaurant’s gorgeous pastel tiles first positively trampled by diners hungry for friable pissaladière whose sticky onions dissolve like vapour and wry, flawless sandwiches, before they gave way to one of the most accomplished restaurant debuts for some time.

Master Wei Xi'An

Guirong Wei’s Qishan-style hand-pulled noodles are an elite cold weather food, a crimson slurp of sour, hot soup with a mottling of chilli oil clinging to its surface. It almost makes the heaters at her Bloomsbury restaurant unnecessary — almost, but they’ll ensure that the only cold skin on show is the liang pi noodles. (H)

Big Jo

Big Jo takes the sleek European sensibilities of its siblings Westerns Laundry, Jolene, and Primeur and adds a nostalgic bent, with pizza by the slice, iced buns, and ‘99-esque vanilla soft serve sitting alongside leeks with terracotta romesco or ricotta and herbs. Outdoor tables and parasols abound.

Chishuru

Adejoké Bakare’s Chishuru is at the centre of its street on Market Row in Brixton, so the outdoor tables, while unheated, are rarely drafty. Her faultless hospitality delivers dishes like chicken gizzards with citrus, chilli, and plantain; bavette steak with yaji; and goat ayamase with a prickly green sauce. One of the most outstanding openings of 2020.

Caribe'

Keshia Sakarah’s Brixton spot offers a range of island cooking rooted in her second-generation perspective: small plates of saltfish accra, fried chicken with molasses, or doubles; a trio of roti; and either curry goat or curry chicken with rice and peas.

Catalyst

The heated exterior at Catalyst doesn’t have tables, but it’s a fine place to linger while eating one of Vasilis Chamam and Alex Kikas’ outstanding sandwiches, or snacks from an evening menu on Fridays.

Fish, Wings and Tings Brixton

Fish, Wings and Ting is one of the only “Trini” dining restaurants not just in London, but in the entire country that is highlighting the region’s Indian heritage. Kaleidoscopic plates including chicken or fish with mango chutney and spicy purple slaw are a must. For those wanting to get hands-on, get all the aforementioned inside sumptuous homemade roti bread.

Quality Wines

Nick Bramham’s kitchen is doing its best impression of a Mediterranean enclave on the Farringdon Road, bringing the likes of white port and tonic; gildas; veal Milanese; stewed green beans with feta and oregano; and those peerless cannoli to a lovely outdoor terrace.

Moro

Roast pork belly with quince alioli; scallops with fino sherry butter; and pumpkin manti with chilli butter and crispy sage adorn the menu at Sam and Sam Clark’s Clerkenwell paean to Moorish cooking. With heaters outside, a scoop of the Malaga raisin ice cream with Pedro Ximenez drizzled atop should be obligatory. (H)

Llewelyn's

This Herne Hill restaurant has long had one of London’s most photogenic dining terraces, and with some heating it’s a prime candidate for both sunny evenings and cooler nights. (H)

Koya City

Soho’s charming and outstanding udon noodle specialist — with newly arranged outdoor seating and heating in the Bloomberg Arcade. Chef Shuko Oda’s reoepening menu features a reduced menu of udon dishes, plus pork tonkatsu, chicken kara-age and pickles, as well as salads and tempura dishes with ingredients from Namayasai farm, and an expanded donburi selection. (H)

Tasty Jerk

Possibly London’s best Jamaican jerk shop. On the edge of Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park and with a smoky aroma detectable from many hundred metres, this stark room is dedicated to one thing: immaculately, judiciously seasoned protein grilled without remorse. The age of these oil drums and the time-honoured expertise of Murphy Lawrence and his team turn out jerked pork belly, chicken, goat, and even lobster, that is penetrated with smoke, and lifted by all spice, Scotch bonnet, and salt. Tasty Jerk is a heady, intoxicating, and remarkably good value eating experience.

Trangallán

A comparatively unheralded but excellent Spanish restaurant, Trangallan spills out onto a spacious public space, just off Newington Green in north London. Some classics — like, when it appears, a fine tortilla — are executed with aplomb, but its with the modern preparation of Spanish ingredients that the kitchen likes to flex. Cod with hispi cabbage and Iberian pork, for example, or rare grilled beef with anchovy emulsion.

Towpath Café

Towpath is excellent and serves deceptively simple, nourishing plates — likely heavy on Marinda tomatoes, pastel-leaved radicchio, and lentils enlivened by spoonfuls of mustard and buoyant handfuls of herbs. Go to Towpath.

The Clarence Tavern

Quality, sustaining food with good ingredients at this still relatively young Stoke Newington pub, with terrace and garden space for those wishing to brave the elements. Pies, like one filled with ox cheek, brown ale, and bone marrow, are recommended. (H)

40 Maltby Street

Steve Williams and Raef Hodgson’s peerless Bermondsey wine bar has moved out of its traiteur and sandwich shop phase to reopen outdoors for a selection of snacks, which can be ordered with drinks and enjoyed on one of three tables on the terrace out front. Recently that menu included cauliflower croquettes; smoked cod’s roe and radishes; green beans, tomato, and saffron; chicken and bacon terrine; bread; and sorbet. Takeaway lunches do continue, offering some of London’s best sandwiches.

Horizon Foods

A wholesaler of Trinidadian dhal puri roti, buss up shut, and pholouri balls, Horizon opens to the public on Thursday to Saturdays between 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Stop in for some doubles, the deeply savoury and moreish Trinidadian breakfast food, comprised of fried bara and chickpea curry. Eat on the forecourt.

Bleecker Spitalfields

London’s favourite beef burger restaurant is back open in Spitalfields. If beef isn’t the thing, then try the vegetarian burger made with chef Neil Rankin’s vegan, fermented vegetable “symplicity” patty, American cheese, onion, iceberg, and burger sauce.

SMOKESTAK | london barbecue

David Carter’s Americanish barbecue restaurant continues to stand strong in Shoreditch, putting out conscientiously smoked meats by the 100 grams alongside its now overly Instagrammed brisket buns with red chilli. In cooler climes and duller times, the baked potato is a must-order. (H)

Bake Street

This Stoke Newington cafe has returned on all cylinders, bringing out some 2020-21 hits — American diner-style smashburgers, and the inimitable chicken makhani sandwich. Open for outdoor dining Thursday — Sunday, with the kitchen going from around 11 a.m. — 2 p.m.

Brat @ Climpson's Arch

Tomos Parry Basque-inspired al fresco restaurant on the edge of London Fields offers the famous grilled turbot and smoked potatoes the way nature intended — with a cold drink in the hand and the sun on the backs of the consumer. There are also dishes more geared towards the communality of outdoor eating, including a hefty cast iron pot of chicken rice and grilled mussels with nubs of the restaurant’s own chorizo. (H)

Bright

London Fields’ first-class restaurant and wine bar returns with an expanded number of tables outside.

OMBRA

Canalside Ombra showed great dexterity under lockdown with its fresh pasta kits and grocery offer, and has done the same ever since reopening, with first-rate pasta dishes and excellent, seasonal, and unfussy assemblies, heated terrace seating and unheated terrace seating, depending on how hardy a party is feeling. (H)

805 Old Kent Rd

805 is an institution on Old Kent Road, with electric suya, and a range of dishes rooted in either jollof rice, stews pounded out of egusi, ewedu, and ogbono, or palm nut soups. (H)

Alhaji SUYA (Greenwich)

Alhaji Suya Peckham is back, but it’s still operating out of an industrial park in Greenwich. Order 30 minutes ahead of time for the superb chicken, lamb, beef and tozo — a meltingly fatty beef cut — suya, electric with Abdullahi Maikano’s own yaji; a fierce, invigorating blend. He’s serving kilishi here too: a type of jerky originating in Hausaland, it’s made with strips of flattened meat spread with more yaji, ground onions and peanuts. A highly savoury, invigoratingly spicy snack.

Honey & Co. Bloomsbury

Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer’s new home for Honey & Co. has been fitted with a sizeable covered terrace just like the original, which feels suitable for the still-excellent range of sunny dishes, like grilled aubergine, egg, tahina, and pita at breakfast or slow-cooked lamb shoulder shawarma and prawns baked in a spiced tomato and pepper matbucha sauce with cracked wheat.