A Guide to Eating in and Around Frieze 2025

For one week from October 15, the global art community converges in Regent’s Park for Frieze London to see contemporary works, admire the crowd’s sartorial choices and, of course, eat.

The restaurant scene and the art world have long influenced one another – think Lucian Freud’s works hanging in The French House, or US artist Wayne Thiebaud’s classic cake and candy paintings (which are now on display at The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House). Fittingly, Frieze London director Eva Langret is strengthening the fair’s ties to London’s hottest restaurants, bringing them on-site for official residencies. Meanwhile, a slate of the city’s more art-minded restaurants make perfect pit stops for the Frieze crowd. Here’s where to eat during Frieze 2025.

Rita’s in Soho is loved for its inventive flavours and understated cool. “I went to art school, but never really felt like I was in the arts,” says Missy Flynn, who co-founded the restaurant with Gabriel Pryce. “As people who came up through that world, we always thought it strange that restaurants were considered outside of the creative sector. But it has been our mission to position Rita’s as the food version of what’s happening elsewhere in the arts across London.” Rita’s is returning to Frieze for its seventh year with Rita’s Taco Bar. Expect grab-and-go gluten-free tacos, generous subs, bright salads, and a concise line-up of fresh juices and cocktails, including Palomas and citrus high balls.

Sessions Arts Club – in the old judges’ dining room at Clerkenwell’s Grade II-listed former courthouse, Sessions House – is by artist-chef Jonny Gent. This year, Sessions unveils a 90-seat pop-up at Frieze, and Gent’s approach is appropriately artistic. “I was thinking about the Lascaux caves [in France] and the Skyline Caverns in Virginia,” he says of the inspiration for his Frieze menu, which is also influenced by the light and shadows in Paul Verhoeven’s film Basic Instinct. “Frieze enables us the opportunity to make this physical – to create these moments – whilst eating milk risotto, porcini and parmesan.”

For the fourth consecutive year, Jikoni – the Marylebone restaurant founded by chef and writer Ravinder Bhogal and her husband, Nadeem Nanjuwany – brings its distinctive “no borders” cuisine to Frieze London. “Art is a form of nourishment, and it is also true that food is a form of art – there has always been ample crossover between the art and culinary worlds,” Bhogal tells Broadsheet. Jikoni is offering a vegetarian menu – a natural extension of the restaurant’s philosophy. “While we are not a vegetarian restaurant, we believe vegetables are the soul of the kitchen,” Bhogal says. “So at Frieze we cook a menu that celebrates the most beautiful vegetarian produce of the season and make it jangle with flavour.” Expect squash fritters spiked with chilli, lemongrass and lime leaf; hot and sour sweetcorn risotto that will transport you to Thailand; and Jikoni’s signature banana cake with miso butterscotch and Ovaltine kulfi.

Highbury Italian restaurant Trullo makes its debut at Frieze London in 2025. The restaurant – led by chef-owner Conor Gadd – has become a culinary landmark for simple, seasonal cooking, and it’s bringing this ethos to Frieze. The menu celebrates seasonal produce with dishes such as pappardelle with beef-shin ragu; tagliarini with picked Dorset crab, Amalfi lemon and chilli; and osso buco with saffron polenta and gremolata.

Although it’s not in the Frieze marquee, Oranj – which recently relocated to a larger space on Dray Walk in Shoreditch – has a longstanding affinity with the arts. The natural wine bar and small plates restaurant regularly hosts exhibitions and collaborations with artists including Faye Wei Wei, Laura Callaghan and Alec Doherty. Now, coinciding with Frieze week, Oranj is entering an exciting new chapter. While the venue has always hosted a roster of chef residencies, founder Jasper Delamothe has now appointed the venue’s first culinary director, Yuto Fujimoto (formerly of Tokyo’s Maz and Paris’s Aux Deux Amis). He’s putting seasonal dishes on the menu, including monkfish with chard and lemon butter sauce, all paired with Delamothe’s natural wine selections.

The Audley Public House and Mount St Restaurant – both operated by Hauser & Wirth’s hospitality arm, Artfarm – merge art, architecture and gastronomy. In the public house, the decor blends Victorian British pub charm with contemporary artistic interventions, such as Phyllida Barlow’s orange and pink collage-inspired ceiling. Upstairs, Mount St Restaurant features 200 artworks by the likes of Warhol, Matisse and Lucian Freud. “Mount St Restaurant is all about the food, the story of Mayfair – and art,” Artfarm CEO Bee Emmott says.