The Best London Restaurants To Walk-In When You Haven’t Made A Booking
London is a city that rewards a reservation, but sometimes you simply haven’t made one. Thankfully, some of the city’s best restaurants still leave room for spontaneity, whether they’re entirely walk-in, keep tables aside for last-minute diners or have a counter you can squeeze onto. From bowls of roti canai and dim sum to Soho institutions and some of London’s best gastropubs, these are the restaurants to try when it’s 6pm, you’re hungry and OpenTable has given you nothing.
Rambutan
Rambutan is actually the very restaurant that inspired this list. The place I walked into without a booking on a busy Thursday, sat, and had perhaps the best meal I’ve had in London. Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s Sri Lankan restaurant is predominantly kept for walk-ins, so you can wander in without having planned your life three weeks in advance. The menu is built around the cooking of northern Sri Lanka, with curries, sambols and dishes coming off the grill, best ordered with abandon for the table. There might be a queue, but it is more than worth the 15 minutes.
Where: 10 Stoney St, London SE1 9AD
Website: www.rambutanlondon.com
Kiln
Kiln has been making the case for spontaneous Soho dinners for years. The Thai restaurant cooks over fire, with a menu influenced by the food of Thailand’s borders and dishes to be ordered across the table. The counter is the seat you really want anyway: close enough to the flames to watch dinner being cooked while you work through clay-pot noodles, skewers and whatever else is coming off the grill. Queues are part of the deal, but for food this good in the middle of Soho, I’ll allow it.
Where: 58 Brewer St, London W1F 9TL
Website: www.kilnsoho.com
Auguste
This is one for when you’ve found yourself in London Fields and want somewhere that still feels like you’ve made a very good dinner decision. Auguste is an Abruzzese restaurant and Camparino club from chef Mike Bagnall and Dylan Walters, with arrosticini cooked over the coals, Italian drinking food, low-intervention wines and Campari in its many glorious forms. It does take bookings, but also welcomes walk-ins. It’s infinitely cool and should be on everyones list, booking or not.
Where: 1F Mentmore Terrace, London E8 3DQ
Website:
Dim Sum Duck
You will probably have to queue for Dim Sum Duck. This is not breaking news. The original King’s Cross restaurant became famous for both its handmade Cantonese dim sum and the line outside, and its newer Pentonville Road sibling has doubled the amount of space available. Crucially, both remain walk-in only.
Where: 124 King’s Cross Rd, London WC1X 9DS
Website: www.dimsumduck.com
Sol’s
Part deli, part wine bar, Sol’s is Bayswater’s answer to the “where do we go for dinner?” text. Better still, it is entirely walk-in only. Come for wine and stay for whatever looks good from the counter: charcuterie, cheese and simple things you want to eat while another bottle is being opened. It works particularly well when you don’t really want dinner dinner, but somehow end up eating enough to constitute one anyway.
Where: 25 Leinster Terrace, London W2 3ET
Website: www.sols.london
The Eagle Farringdon
Before London had a gastropub on every other corner, there was The Eagle. The Farringdon institution still operates with little ceremony: the menu is chalked up twice daily just before service and the food loosely travels around the Mediterranean. Larger tables can be booked, but small tables and bar stools remain what The Eagle calls “free seating”. Keep your eyes peeled.
Where: 159 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3AL
Website: www.theeaglefarringdon.co.uk
Bao
The original BAO on Lexington Street remains walk-in only, even as most of its younger siblings have embraced the reservation system. It’s tiny, there may well be a queue and you’re probably going to order more bao than originally intended, but that is all for love of the game. Go for the classic pork bao, fried chicken and Taiwanese small plates, preferably squeezed around the counter with a cold drink. And because nobody else can book either, your lack of organisation puts you at no disadvantage whatsoever.
Where: 53 Lexington St, Carnaby, London W1F 9AS
Website: www.baolondon.com
St. John Marylebone
St. JOHN Marylebone gives you something increasingly precious in central London: an entire upstairs dining room reserved for walk-ins. It’s the place to remember when Marylebone is heaving and every booking platform is flashing red. Settle in for the sort of gloriously straightforward British cooking St. JOHN built its name on, ideally with something offal-based, a rarebit, and a bottle of wine.
Where: 98 Marylebone Ln, London W1U 2QA
Website: www.stjohnrestaurant.com
Roti King
Roti King has built much of its reputation on people visiting for roti canai, and thankfully it has preserved that spontaneous spirit as it has expanded. The formula is straightforward: turn up, wait your turn and then tear flaky roti into bowls of curry, preferably with a teh tarik alongside. Its official policy remains first-come, first-served across its restaurants, so this is one of the more reliable options when the reservation apps have failed you.
Where: multiple locations
Website: www.rotiking.com
40 Maltby Street
There are no reservations at 40 Maltby Street. None. Which means everyone has exactly the same chance of getting a table at one of London’s most enduringly good restaurants. Sitting inside the warehouse of wine importer Gergovie Wines, it serves a constantly changing menu built around British produce and its proximity to continental Europe, with excellent wine being rather integral to proceedings.
Where: 40 Maltby St
Website: www.40maltbystreet.com
Ducksoup
Ducksoup is tiny, which would usually make it a Soho restaurant you’d assume requires military-level forward planning. It does take reservations, but it’s still worth trying when you’re nearby, particularly if you’re happy to squeeze in rather than demand the perfect table. The menu changes with the seasons but stays rooted in Mediterranean cooking: a plate of salami here, labneh there, vegetables, fish, meat and plenty of natural and biodynamic wine.
Where: 41 Dean St, London W1D 4PY
Website: www.ducksoupsoho.co.uk
Phat Phuc
Tucked into Chelsea’s otherwise rather polished dining scene, Phat Phuc is a noodle bar you can decide to eat at on the day. The tiny courtyard spot specialises in Vietnamese noodles and curries, with steaming bowls arriving quickly from the open kitchen. Come for pho, laksa and noodles rather than an evening of white tablecloths and ceremony. It’s casual, quick and particularly useful to have in your back pocket when you’re around Chelsea without a plan.
Where: The Courtyard, 151 Sydney St, London SW3 6NT
Website: www.phatphucnoodlebar.co.uk
El Pastor
A taco is rarely a bad solution to not having dinner plans. El Pastor makes itself particularly useful by holding back tables for walk-ins at all of its London restaurants, even though bookings are available too. Turn up, get your name on the waitlist if necessary and use the time to contemplate how many tacos constitute a sensible order. Pastor, tostadas, quesadillas, mezcal: whatever you do, get the bottomless salsas.
Where: 66-70 Brewer St, London W1F 9UP
Website: www.tacoselpastor.co.uk
Smoking Goat
Smoking Goat is a now-notorious restaurant that feels far harder to get into than it actually is. The Shoreditch Thai barbecue restaurant is predominantly walk-in, with only a limited number of tables available to reserve. That leaves plenty of room for last-minute plans involving spicy drinking food, grilled meat, fish sauce and cold beer. There’s always a table for you here.
Where: 64 Shoreditch High St, London E1 6JJ
Website: www.smokinggoatbar.com
