14 Of The Best Set Menus In London
Joséphine, Chelsea
Best For Something New
Joséphine is a pretty place in Chelsea that’s fast become a favourite spot of ours. Michelin-starred Claude Bosi’s most personal project to date, Joséphine is run with his wife Lucy and inspired by his late grandmother and the traditional bouchons he often frequented in his hometown of Lyon. The menu is filled with nostalgic French bistro classics: think onion soup, cheese souffle, leek vinaigrette and traditional mains of cod in an excellent beurre blanc sauce. An excellently priced daily set menu is £29 for three courses. The wine menu only features pours from the Rhone Valley, including some from Joséphine’s own label. In keeping with the classic French feel, this is available in bouchon-style metre wine, where the bottle is left on the table for guests to help themselves to more, allowing the service to be casual. At the end of the meal, guests will pay only for what they have drunk, using a nifty ruler to measure what’s been had.
Visit JosephineBouchon.com
Brasserie Zedel, Soho
Best For Value
A French restaurant from the group behind The Wolseley and The Delaunay, Brasserie Zédel offers traditional Gallic dishes in beautiful art-deco surroundings (it’s been described by famed French chef Pierre Koffmann as “the only real brasserie in London”). One of the most affordable options on this list, two courses from the set menu are £16.95 or it’s three for £19.75. Start with the shredded carrot salad, followed by steak haché with fries and peppercorn sauce, and chocolate and caramel tart for dessert. You can stop by Bar Américain for cocktails and champagne before or after your meal – and its location makes it a no-brainer for pre and post-theatre dining.
Visit BrasserieZedel.com
Lasdun, South Bank
Best For London Views
The team behind the critically acclaimed The Marksman in east London looks after this brasserie inside the National Theatre. Named in honour of the landmark building’s architect Sir Denys Lasdun, the restaurant loads its menus with classic and contemporary dishes: look for smoked eel, pressed potato and cured ham; Cornish crab with salt lemon and a saffron bun; whole Cornish john dory; and a chicken, wild garlic and leek pie. On the pudding front, there’s a much-loved brown butter tart with vanilla set cream. From noon to 2.30pm and then 5pm to 6.30pm, the restaurant offers a set menu featuring crab soup and brown crab on toast; smoked haddock and cod fishcake with fish sauce; and a chicken and wild garlic pie for two. Do yourself a favour and go off menu by adding a side of British leaf salad, tarragon and buttermilk dressing. Lasdun also houses the ultimate destination for a nightcap along the Thames – drop by for a drink at its beautiful dark marble bar, which offers cocktails and wine alongside shellfish and small plates.
Visit LasdunRestaurant.com
Kudu Grill, Peckham
Best For Something East
At the original Kudu, Amy Corbin and Patrick Williams quickly won over critics and locals with creative food and warm atmosphere. A Michelin Bib Gourmand soon followed. In early 2020, the couple opened neighbourhood cocktail bar Smokey Kudu under the arches by Queens Road station, followed by Curious Kudu, a gallery and private dining space for up to 14 guests, then a fourth site, Kudu Grill. Here, the team has revived a former Truman’s pub on Nunhead Lane to create a 50-cover restaurant that focuses on braai – a South African way of grilling that uses only wood and charcoal – inspired by Patrick’s South African roots. With most dishes coming straight from the open grill, the menu comprises five sections – snacks, starters, braai mains, sides and desserts. A set dinner is served Wednesday and Thursday nights, offering three courses and a side for £29. This could include mauve aubergine with black garlic and smoked yoghurt; sea bream with Cape Malay curry and wakame; pork chop with monkey gland sauce, plus a side of outrageously moreish beef fat crispy fingerling potatoes.
Visit KuduCollective.com
Fallow, St James’s
Best For Buzz
Chefs Will Murray and Jack Croft are the duo behind ever-popular sustainably focused restaurant Fallow in St James’s Market. After launching as a 12-week pop-up at 10 Heddon Street in March 2020, the pair opened their first full-blown restaurant with a dining room, bar, wraparound terrace and seven-seater chef’s counter overlooking the open kitchen. The menu focuses on bold sharing-style dishes celebrating sustainable produce across the British Isles. A £42 three-course set lunch menu – available during the week – features hero dishes such as Cornish monkfish crudo with cucumber, almond and tiger's milk dressing; dairy cow burger with bacon, cheese and shallot; custard soft serve with British rhubarb and ginger crumble; and – one of our favourite puddings in town – chelsea tart with caramelised whey. If you like what you hear, make sure to check out the team’s new spot, Roe in Canary Wharf, or its fried chicken concept Fowl round the corner from Fallow.
Visit FallowRestaurant.com
Som Saa, Spitalfields
Best For Spice Fans
Som Saa is an atmospheric spot in east London serving up regional Thai classics. There are four ‘tem toh’ set menus, which translates to ‘full table’ in Thai. The menus, chosen by the kitchen, represent a balanced selection of dishes for the table to share. Ranging from £30 to £40 a head, the menus could feature the likes of tua phrik krob (deep fried cashew nuts with makrut lime leaf and dried chilli), nang gai thort (crispy chicken skin served with sriracha sauce), gai yaang (grilled chicken skewer served with a tamarind jaew dip) and nahm phrik lon gung (fresh coconut cream relish of prawns, ma-euk fruit and white turmeric served with vegetables and herbs to dip). All set menus include sticky jasmine rice, then salted palm sugar ice-cream with turmeric and grilled bananas for pudding. Its cocktail bar is open for drinks throughout the evening and serves the likes of the ‘Rak Tong Ham’, a refreshing mix of chilli, cucumber, basil and lime leaf-infused tequila, elderflower, lime and pomegranate.
Visit SomSaa.com
Sucre, Soho
Best For Latin American Dishes
In a former concert hall on Great Marlborough Street, Sucre’s menu features Latin American and European influences, with dishes are made of seasonal ingredients cooked over open fires. A lunch and pre-theatre set menu is £29 for two courses or £35 for three, and is available for groups of up to eight. Highlights include sweetcorn ‘ribs’, strozzapreti and mussels with ’nduja, cherry tomatoes and white wine; Argentine beef entraña with chimichurri; and dulce de leche fondant with mascarpone and hazelnuts for pudding. Downstairs, Bat Abajo is the place to prop up the bar for inventive cocktails and live Latin music.
Visit SucreRestaurant.com
Leroy
Best For Brasserie Experience
Leroy is a Parisian-style bistro and wine bar from sommelier and restaurateur Ed Thaw. Right in the centre of Shoreditch, Leroy has made its name as one of the capital’s original modern bistros, blending a wine-focused approach with a menu of ingredient-led small plates with French notes. A notable wine list features over 400 bottles, offering both classic options and more eclectic wines from small-scale natural and biodynamic producers. Taking cues from Ed’s travels across France, Leroy places hospitality at the centre of the dining experience, creating a space for dinners to linger over a meal, listening to vinyl records and sampling its extensive wine list. Alongside à la carte, Leroy offers a lunchtime set menu from Tuesday to Friday. Recent dishes have included devilled eggs, smoked eel, crispy chicken wings with sweetcorn, and barbecued lamb chops with sweetbread and goat curd.
Visit LeroyShoreditch.com
The Quality Chop House, Clerkenwell
Best For A Sunday Lunch
The Quality Chop House is now 155 years old. Head chef Shaun Searley has been on the pass for the last 12 of those years, sourcing from the best British suppliers. Steak and chops remain at the heart of his menus, which also feature starters like Vesuvio tomato, strawberry, gorgonzola, pea and caper or Brixham mackerel, satay, jalapeno and herb salad. There’s a £29 lunchtime set menu from Tuesday to Friday that often features some of the restaurant’s classic dishes. On Sunday, set lunches are £55 for three courses built around an outstanding selection of roasts.
Visit TheQualityChopHouse.com
Speedboat Bar, Soho
Best For A Laid Back Meal
Speedboat Bar is the second Thai restaurant from chef Luke Farrell and JKS Restaurants (the team behind Gymkhana, Lyle’s, Bao and Kitchen Table) – and it’s a lot of fun. The relaxed bar aims to bring a taste of the Thai-Chinese restaurants on Bangkok’s neon-lit Yaowarat Road to London: expect wok-flamed cooking of sticky meat braises, drunken noodles, curries, fermented vegetables and zingy seafood salads hit with acid and chilli. The Yaowarat Road set menu is £39pp and includes pickled mustard greens with chinese sausage; morning glory with soy bean sauce; cellophane noodles in 'Speedboat Suki Sauce' with seafood – and more. There’s lots of heat and spice, so make sure you finish with a refreshing whisky soda. In Soho and fancy one for the road? The Upstairs Bar is perfect for late-night drinks.
Visit SpeedboatBar.co.uk
Socca, Mayfair
Best For A Holiday Feeling
Socca is a French bistro from chef Claude Bosi (Bibendum, Joséphine) and restaurateur Samyukta Nair (Jamavar, Mimi Mei Fair). On a corner of South Audley Street, the pair’s first joint foray pays homage to their shared love of the French Riviera and the coastal cities of Cannes, Marseille and Nice. It’s a beautiful space: next to the lovely dining room is a timber-lined bar on a floral black-and-white mosaic floor, with oxblood leather bar stools and a banquette hung with linen skirt detailing. There’s a smaller snug-style dining room with hand-painted murals, olive-green leather banquettes, pleated wall lights and sunshine yellow drapes that screen off a flexible private dining space for ten. Crucially for this list, two set menus are available. There’s a £28pp two-course lunch menu and a ‘Slice of Provence’ three-courser, which includes the likes of fried courgette flower with black garlic and goat curd; artichoke ravioli with beurre noisette, toasted pine nuts and sage; and an iced lemon for £45pp.
Visit SoccaBistro.com
SoLa, Soho
Best For A Taste Of The USA
Chef Victor Garvey once took a small corner site in Soho and created Rambla, a great restaurant that opened to critical, peer and public acclaim. It was so good an offer was made that he could not refuse, and he was left with a site he could do what he liked with. So, he launched a restaurant that celebrates all things California. His wine list is exclusively North American, but as these bottles are often uncompetitively pricey in the UK, he’s put an uncompetitively low margin on them, meaning you can afford to drink wines you can’t usually afford. Victor’s elegant cooking can be comprehensively enjoyed through a £59 set menu, which might include an excellent devilled egg; a surf-and-turf of smoked eel with goose liver; langoustine hot pot; olive-fed wagyu; and a pear pudding with truffle, vanilla and almond.
Visit SolaSoho.com
Midland Grand Dining Room, King’s Cross
Best For A Gorgeous Backdrop
This handsome spot is named after The Midland Grand – the 19th-century Gothic-revival hotel that first occupied the building that’s now the St Pancras Renaissance hotel. The beautiful restaurant takes inspiration from the original space, which was renowned for its French haute cuisine. Highlights from the menu have so far included moreish comté gougères; an incredible crab on toast with elderflower and shellfish sauce; sea trout with sorrel, smoked butter and vermouth beurre blanc; plus a soufflé de jour (the one we tried was chocolate and banana – and truly excellent) as well as bombe alaska with raspberry and verbena to share. During the week, a set menu (£32 for two courses and £38 for three) features bavette steak au poivre with shallot and parsley; and chocolate mousse with cherry. Kick things off with a pre-dinner cocktail (we liked the ‘Thirsty Gargoyle’) in the handsome adjoining Gothic Bar.
Planque, Haggerston
Best For A Casual Atmosphere
Planque is a cool, in-demand 60-seat restaurant and wine bar in Haggerston. At its heart, it’s created a community for wine lovers – there’s a small members lounge where you can bring a bottle from your own collection or choose one from Planque’s cellar to enjoy over small plates and sharing dishes. A lovely lunch menu currently includes all the following: house sourdough and butter; shellfish consommé; Vesuvio tomato and brandade; snap peas with sheep’s ricotta and basil; a choice of grilled cuttlefish and hispi cabbage or roast pig’s head with courgettes and pepper sauce; followed by sencha tea ice-cream and mango sorbet. All for £39. You can’t argue with that.
Visit Planque.co.uk
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