The Telegraph s top 25 restaurants for dining indoors this summer
There’s no substitute for the buzz of a restaurant dining room, and these are the favourites we ll be racing to visit once more
21 May 2021 • 2:43pm
Telegraph writers and chefs reveal the top restaurants they can t wait to visit now they ve reopened
Credit: Magdelen Arms; Brasserie Zédel; London Photography Company; Milo Brown
Right, where were we? Can you remind me? Ah, yes – restaurants! I remember them. Or rather, I remember what they used to be. Whether it was a big, blousy room putting on a seamless show even as it allowed the diners to take centre stage, or a self-consciously curated little space in which the punters’ intimacy with the process was essentially what made the food enjoyable, I remember the way that good (and, indeed, less good) restaurants used to make me feel: thoroughly, in-the-moment alive. Which feels like a lifetime ago, does it not?
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal s sumptuous terrace
Unless you were speed-dialling your favourite restaurants the second that the roadmap to recovery was announced in February, you may be thinking that the chance of securing an outside table in the UK is now less likely than a spring heatwave.
The River Café, for instance, is fully booked until August; there are no dinner reservations at Michelin-starred Hambleton Hall, and its terrace overlooking Rutland Water, until September.
Which is not to say that an alfresco table at one of Britain’s best restaurants isn’t out of the question this side of the summer solstice. There are Michelin-starred terraces reserved for walk-ins if you’re feeling spontaneous, while many of the restaurants that delayed their reopening until 17 May still have some alfresco tables available. Some of the finest kitchens in the country, meanwhile, save the outside seating for their more casual spin-offs.
The Telegraph s top 25 restaurants for dining indoors this summer
There’s no substitute for the buzz of a restaurant dining room, and these are the favourites we ll be racing to visit once more
17 May 2021 • 12:20pm
Telegraph writers and chefs reveal the top restaurants they can t wait to visit now they ve reopened
Credit: Magdelen Arms; Brasserie Zédel; London Photography Company; Milo Brown
Right, where were we? Can you remind me? Ah, yes – restaurants! I remember them. Or rather, I remember what they used to be. Whether it was a big, blousy room putting on a seamless show even as it allowed the diners to take centre stage, or a self-consciously curated little space in which the punters’ intimacy with the process was essentially what made the food enjoyable, I remember the way that good (and, indeed, less good) restaurants used to make me feel: thoroughly, in-the-moment alive. Which feels like a lifetime ago, does it not?