French food had a firm grip on London in 2025. Brasseries and bistros have cropped up all over the capital, while old cult classics have regained traction as average Londoners and food experts alike go out of their way to book tables and debate on which establishment has the best French in the city. This year looks set to continue the trend, with all new openings seemingly pointing due French. 

French awnings are continuing to crop up, casting shadows on London pavements by the masses…

Mallory, Junior Food & Drink Editor
@malloryscalories

Josephine is a 10/10. My favorite restaurant in London right now hands down everyone should go. #restaurants #recommendations #londonfood #london #dinner #josephine #frenchrestaurant

♬ Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Henry Mancini

The claim

I once posted a TikTok video where I claimed Josephine was, dare I say it, the best French restaurant in London (and I’ll say it again). The video got hundreds of thousands of views alongside dozens of comments. Plenty of restaurant videos get watched, liked and saved, but this one travelled further because it did something else entirely: it invited disagreement. And it turns out that starting a debate is often far more powerful than offering a recommendation.

Commenters began sharing that I was wrong and it was actually Bouchon Racine… or Casse-Croûte… or Brasserie Zedel. Or, perhaps, I was correct, and Josephine did take the cake. Either way, each commenter was firm in their belief that whichever one they had said was objectively the best. 

French is nostalgic, classic; you expect the originals, you expect authenticity,  you expect to feel like you are truly there.

The response

It is not often you get so many people who have such a strong opinion on something relatively inconsequential — one that they are not open-minded to changing, but it seems that the topic of French has that effect. To me, I think it’s because there is a right and wrong way to do it. French is nostalgic, classic; you expect the originals, you expect authenticity,  you expect to feel like you are truly there. It’s not often you hear about “French fusion dining”; really, it’s just French. 

Despite the fact that many French menus look relatively similar — or at least that you can usually anticipate a French onion soup, a Boeuf Bourguignon, or a Coq au Vin — French awnings continue to crop up, casting shadows on London pavements by the masses. 

This year, some of the most highly anticipated fronts in the restaurant industry are French. The team behind La Nouvelle Garde announced their plans to open Brasserie Olivia, their first international venture, in Chelsea. Buvette, the iconic New York bistro, is crossing the pond this Spring. Mazarine in Mayfair, Brasserie Angelica, and so on and so forth. And while it all seems a bit repetitive, the people are gagging for it. 

Brian Hennessy, the head chef of the Winter Garden Restaurant at The Landmark, called it: “French-inspired dishes and ingredients are firmly on the menu [for 2026]. Pâté en croûte is seeing a revival, while classic offal dishes like pig’s trotter, calves’ liver and tripe are being reimagined with finesse.” 

French-inspired dishes and ingredients are firmly on the menu [for 2026]. Pâté en croûte is seeing a revival, while classic offal dishes like pig’s trotter, calves’ liver and tripe are being reimagined with finesse.

The takeaway

Something about the very classic, very unmessed-with, very quintessential French palette is tickling the nose of the common Londoner, and it’s led to what I am calling the French revival of 2026. More and more, you will find yourself at bistros and brasseries, sampling livers and offals and pâtés and onions that you’d never really had the stomach to try before, but now you do… Because the table next to you ordered it, and the table next to them ordered it, and the one next to them, too. 

While French food was definitely trendy in 2025, I can guarantee that it will only become trendier, and the cult followers will have more and more battles in the comment sections, more opinions to combat, more hills to die on, more snails to dine on. What’s next after that? Probably berets, black and white stripes, and baguettes as accessories. Vive le petit bistro.

Craving French now? See our list of the Best French Restaurants in London.


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