The Best Dishes We’ve Eaten in London in 2026 (So Far)

We may have only recently nudged into the second half of the year, but already we have a plethora of fantastic new restaurants, bars and pubs, and casual eateries to shout about. And in the best new openings there are those stand-out dishes that you can’t help but think about regularly, recommend to your friends, and dream about eating again. In no particular order, these are the best dishes that Broadsheet London editors and contributors have tried so far this year.

Two eyes – one encircled with thick eyeliner, the other closed – are printed on the plates at Zylia. They’re the emblem of Covent Garden’s new Greek Cypriot taverna, and supposedly they represent Yiayia (Greek for grandmother), who is “always watching”. I hope Yiayia didn’t turn her head disapprovingly at the way I resolutely devoured every last morsel of the wild prawns saganaki. What began with demurely lifting a single prawn with my fork descended into animalistic furore, as I swooped my grilled Cypriot bread into the soft bed of yoghurt, tahini sauce and spiced tomato under the crustaceans, desperate to savour every drop. Greek food isn’t meant to be fussy or delicate, and here at Zylia – created in cahoots with the neighbouring Arcade food hall by Greece-born chef Nick Molyviatis and business partner Barry Karacosta – the focus is on classic Greek Cypriot dishes cooked to perfection. This dish, with its fat and juicy wild-caught prawns, and its salty-sweet sauce, exemplifies this approach. I’ll be back soon Yiayia, if you’ll have me. – Rose Johnstone, acting London editor

Maybe it was the time-capsule candlelit room and the glacial Martini poured tableside making me giddy. But a simple slab of aged ricotta at Osteria Vibrato is the dish that I’ve kept flashing back to in the months since I ate it. I say simple but, like everything at Osteria Vibrato, the mojo is in the details: the generous wedge of cheese is drizzled in a tangy Sardinian olive oil, so fresh it’s almost green, that brings a fruity, mildly bitter twang to the creaminess of the ricotta. A good crack of pepper adds a final zing. There’s enough ricotta for several people in a serve – but I unashamedly had it all to myself, piled on crackers (which arrive at each table upon arrival) until they ran out and I simply spooned it directly from plate to mouth. Eating straight-up ricotta in one of London’s most seductive restaurants? It’s a sexy proposition I hope to partake in again sometime soon. – Che-Marie Trigg, commissioning editor

First, a shout-out to the post-Arsenal-victory-parade kofte and salad I had at the ever-reliable 01 Adana on Green Lanes which, despite the subtle hints of Champions League regret, tasted quite frankly euphoric (north London forever etc). And on the subject of winning sides, the grilled carrots on bouillabaisse at Marjorie’s in Soho are sublime. Honourable mention, too, to the lovely Jago Rackham who served spring’s most enjoyable communal feast – lamb with honey and wine! Chartreuse jellies! – at Studio Voltaire’s Crispin to celebrate the launch of his book, To Entertain: Instructions for a Dinner Party. But I’m giving first prize to a dinner at Tavern in Shoreditch which surprised and delighted me in equal measure. Great gothic interiors and fun, inventive cooking – from the footlong shards of pig skin to dip theatrically in cod’s roe to the pork and cuttlefish sausage, to the chicken skewer topped with a satay sauce made from sunflower seeds which, as a guy with a deadly peanut allergy, rewired my whole brain. – Richard Mackichan, print editor

I’ve eaten my fair share of chicken burgers over the course of my life, but I can truly say in all my 28 years I’ve never eaten something that’s come close to the experience of Hoppers’s Kalupol chicken Bun. You might have tried the restaurant’s Kalupol Chicken, an old signature dish which it has reimagined for a limited time this summer. The cut of chicken – one of the most tender I’ve ever tasted – is cossetted with seeni and mustard cream and dressed with a green chilli and herb sambol before being tucked into a pillowy, buttery bun. This is one of those burgers I’d go back for every week, which is a real bummer considering it’s only around until the beginning of September. Consider this my plea to keep it on the menu. – Hannah Thompson, social and newsletter editor

Look, if you have paid even the slightest bit of attention to my output over the past seven months then you will likely already know that my favourite dish of the year is Impala’s bordelaise sweetbreads with salted onions – a miraculous plate of food that I’ve hyped up so much that people may justifiably think Super 8 has me on some sort of secret retainer. But, in the interest of mixing things up, I’m going to say that this dish, enjoyed when ex-Kiln chef Tom Geoffrey’s scintillating Cambodian concept was in residence at The Globe Tavern, runs it close. Succulent, deeply savoury fatty lobes of pork jowl. Verdant brassicas in a hypnotically fragrant, chilli-laced pan gravy. Great, wafting plumes of wok hei. It was a side dish with unforgettable main character energy. And the perfect early primer for an autumn that (if rumours of an ultra-plum permanent site are true) could well belong to Barang. – Jimi Famurewa, Broadsheet London columnist and contributing editor

I don’t know – or want to know – what it says about me, but every single one of the contenders for my favourite dish of the first half of 2026 has been a spoon-food. I had contemplated the “bird’s tongue” pasta at Impala, Zsuzsanna Toth’s currant leaf ice-cream at Merlin Labron-Johnson’s The Old Pharmacy, and Tam Chudaree’s squat squid ink dong dang rice noodles at Carousel, but in the end there was only one real contender: Aktar Islam’s mutanjan dum biryani at Oudh 1722. A gleefully decadent silver platter generously piled with golden, flower-shaped-carrot-studded aged basmati rice, crisp and caramelised fried onions, and oxtail that collapses in steaming heaps straight off the bone, it’s all the best things: sweet, savoury, warming, comforting and utterly divine. Like a dream you’re reluctant to leave behind. Also excellent scooped straight from doggy bag to mouth for breakfast. – Jo Taylor, contributor

The dish I can't stop thinking about this summer has to be a cold pasta dish I had a few weekends ago: the spaghetti alla chitarra with almond butter and buddha's hand (citrus fruit) from Bianca’s. The recently opened buzzy Stoke Newington neighbourhood spot by the Michelin-starred Casa Fofo team created the ultimate summer dish by shocking thick freshly made “noodles” in an ice bath for that hyper chewy and bouncy texture. Tossed in a rich savoury house made almond butter and cut through with the bright aromatic citrus of buddha's hand, it’s pure heatwave perfection. We need a petition to keep it permanently on the menu. – Clerkenwell Boy, contributing editor

Alice, my etiquette coach, always mentions my progress since we began working together last year – my phone is now always tucked away at the dinner table; I chew like I have a secret; and I’ve stopped explaining why pterodactyls aren’t dinosaurs to new acquaintances. That said, I forgot she existed when I attended a dinner at Hon’s BBQ in Hackney Wick last week. Why? Namely, a tray groaning with owner Man Hon Luk’s signature Canto-Texan meats, including pork ribs that a “no red meat” neighbour across from me was devouring enthusiastically, and brisket that made me consider, momentarily, whether I could tolerate another heat wave if it meant wading through a tray of red meat like Obelix rampaging through Les Grands Buffets. What made me revert to my worst self, however, was a tremulous slab of Iberico pork belly, double smoked and steamed and cut thick into greedy person-size portions that pleaded to be devoured whole and worth suplexing your neighbours for. That Hon and his crew are making a go of it with genuinely creative dishes in the former Silo site is little short of miraculous and worth supporting. But the cooking speaks for itself – and is worth surrendering your personal faculties for. – David Paw, contributor

I first visited Iranian Iraqi cafe Logma in February and instantly fell in love. I wondered why there weren’t already queues out the door, but clearly spoke too soon. The kofte sandwich (and the aubergine version) deserves all the hype it’s received this year. The crispy sourdough pita is generous in size and packed with flavours and ingredients that remind me of my Lebanese heritage: lamb, minced in-house and rolled with herbs and spices; roasted red pepper and walnut sauce (muhammara); garlic and fermented whey. It’s messy and comforting: my ideal sandwich. – Sasha Murray, contributor

My brother recently moved to England to do his PhD, and as he’s a huge fan of Indian food, we’ve taken an academic approach to our mission of tracking down London’s finest. While on this quest, I had the delight of meeting my best bite of 2026: a mouth-watering chicken kebab (malai murgh) by Aktar Islam, who recently opened Oudh 1722 in Borough as a love letter to the Awadhi cuisine favoured by the royal courts of northern India. The incredibly tender and tasty chicken leg arrives to the table covered in edible flowers with its claw hanging off the edge of the plate, but don’t let that put you off! Bathed in a creamy, moreish sauce flavoured with cashews, cardamom, and black cumin, it’s slurp-worthy and the perfect naan dunker. – Ina Yulo Stuve, contributor

Vesper was my first rendezvous with one of Jackson Boxer’s restaurants – and it didn’t disappoint. Sitting at the end of Exmouth Market, it’s the ideal spot to settle in for a meal after you’ve visited one (or several) of the bars on the street. While I’m already lining up my next visit to secure one of the off-menu burgers, the spring onion pancake with raw tuna and Cantabrian anchovy is the dish I can’t stop thinking about: sweet, crisp and flaky, it’s topped with silky tuna and an anchovy, offering a subtle nod to the classic Basque gilda. – Lachsley Parton, contributor

I could have easily picked at least three dishes from Maai by Nikita – the new family-run Clapham restaurant from Masterchef: The Professionals and Great British Menu double winner Nikita Pathakji. But amidst all sorts of globe-trotting brilliance spanning cuttlefish doughnuts to dainty chaat tartlets, its tempura padron peppers, stuffed with a fragrant, spiced mix of potato, coconut and Thai basil were glorious – like an Indian street food snack on a Spanish holiday. Dense but light, crispy but soft, oh man, I think about them weekly. The downside? They’re only available as an accompaniment to Pathakji’s halibut main. The upside? That means you’ll have to go and sample even more of Maai’s glorious wares. – Lisa Wright, contributor

Pizza is my undisputed choice of main course for my final meal. And on a pedestal for me right now are the perfectly crispy slices from Dough Hands, available at the All My Friends stall which launched in May. While I like the pies you can order at The Spurstowe Arms near London Fields, I love being able to pick ‘n’ mix a few XL pieces at the Hackney Wick location. It was love at first bite, and I won't lie – I ate there three times last month. My favourite combo so far is a marinara with green sauce, stracciatella and anchovies added. The vegan version of the cheese is also top-notch. Though next on the menu for me is the new beef drip pizza collab with beloved sandwich shop Mondo Sando. – Hayley Spencer, contributor

London's gastropub scene has exploded, but the vast majority are far more restaurant than pub – certainly not places where I'd pop in for a pint. The Shaston Arms is different. From the team behind the excellent Waterman's Arms in Barnes (very much a restaurant) it is (very much) a pub, with a welcome focus on booze and a few tables in the rear dining room dedicated to eating. But like the Waterman's Arms, the food is excellent. The merguez frites baguette for which it has become famous is superb, loaded with sausage, chips, pickled onions and curried mayo. But the standout dish on my visit was from the snacks section (though more of a starter, in size). Thin strips of perfectly pink lamb heart, a delicate yet punchy pepper sauce, capers and crispy shoestring fries. It was inspired. – Tomé Morrissy-Swan, contributor