LDNGuide
16 Lively Restaurants For Eating At The Counter
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Tables are good, but sometimes, sitting at the bar is better. Here you can survey a buzzing dining room like a plotting pigeon, seamlessly share patatas bravas with your date, or hunker down with claypot crab noodles to yourself. Not every restaurant is built for this, nor even some spots with a counter actually enjoyable—which is why the restaurants on this guide are so good. Some are made for walk-in-only meals, while others are special restaurants that throw you into the heart of the kitchen action, flames and all.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Kiln
Kiln’s walk-in-only counter is a bun fight seven days a week, and polite ruckuses are a standard here. But boy is it worth it—this is the best high-top dining in London. There’s electric chilli-laden laap, aromatic Thai curries, and crab claypot noodles you could eat by the trough. If you don’t have beads of sweat from the food, then you will from the flames of the kitchen opposite. Sitting at Kiln’s gleaming counter, surrounded by those waiting for a seat, you’re reminded of what eating out in Soho should always feel like. Flavour-packed and, most of all, invigorating.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Morchella is an airy restaurant in Clerkenwell full of stylish design touches that will make you look at your Ikea Brimnes shelves with uncontrollable self-loathing. The green-tiled kitchen counter, with nifty fold-out stools and views of the action, is the perfect place to acquaint yourself with a menu of modern Mediterranean bits. Snack on juicy mussel pil pil and swill a glass of cloudy Greek wine while couples canoodle over bowls of sea-scented vongole.
photo credit: Koray Firat
A City of London stalwart that’s been open for over 130 years, Sweetings has the ideal counter if you’re of the opinion that prawn cocktails and midday flutes of champagne really need to make a comeback. The old-school, lunch-only spot is all about seafood and signet rings, and its years-and-years-old wooden bar makes this spot feel like somewhere between a pub and a members' club; which is, really, exactly what it is.
photo credit: Sam A. Harris
Cadet is one of the best wine bars in London, and its pâté en croûte looks like something out of an impressionist’s workshop. But it's the effortlessly cool atmosphere of this Newington Green spot that means minutes so quickly turn into hours. The crowd can feel a little exclusive here, but Cadet is exclusively welcoming—especially at the bar. Here you can talk about what bottles are open, pick at the elegant European small plates, and be easily cajoled into another glass.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
The Japanese izakaya is one of NW3’s most popular restaurants, even before Kate Moss mentioned it as one of her places. There are a couple fun counters here: one is at the sushi bar, where you can watch excellent sashimi sliced up in front of you, and the other is the yakitori counter. Hisses of smoke come off the robata grill and, sure, your clothes won’t thank you, but it makes for an entertaining evening.
Getting a table at Mountain can make a holiday up Kilimanjaro seem appealing, but this hyped Soho restaurant is best enjoyed at one of its counters anyway. At the upstairs counter, you’re able to survey the room, watching sceney content creators chow down on spider crab omelette, while ordering a plate of grilled langoustines for yourself. Downstairs, it’s a little moodier and the vinyl-spinning bar, with a bottle of something and a selection of small plates, feels like the place to be.
photo credit: David Loftus
The bar at Arlington has seen things. Some of them good, some of them bad, and some of them looking like Mick Jagger on a bender. The legendary St James’s restaurant (it’s Le Caprice with a facelift and a new passport) is what most people dream of when they think of a meal at the counter: glamorous, old-timey, and gasping for champagne. The food is familiar, brasserie-ish stuff and we’d happily enjoy a caesar salad and chips here, soundtracked by a pianist, any day of the week.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
There’s a choreographed flamethrower show in Kolae’s open kitchen, and it’s just one of the reasons this Thai spot’s counter in Borough Market feels so thrilling. Juicy hunks of chicken are rotated over flames, wok tornadoes of fire are tamed, and flavour-laded mussel skewers are plated up. It’s one of London’s liveliest bars, and the food matches the heat of the kitchen.
The small, sleek, high-flying Mayfair spot is one of London’s best Indian restaurants and its counter is the place to be. Yes, there are leather-clad and rattan-detailed stools you could nap in, but more importantly there are views of lobster being grilled and gorgeous bowls of lahori chicken heading your way.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Although Trattoria Brutto is an Italian restaurant—it serves a wonderful rabbit pappardelle and plates up a mean dollop of tiramisu—it feels more like it came straight from New York City. The lights are dim, the tablecloths are red gingham, and the £5 negronis flow. Unsurprisingly, its bar seating is very comfortable. These red leather thrones are made for slabs of rare steak, bowls of penne alla vodka, and unnecessarily long lunches.
75% of The Palomar is counter seating—and that’s how you know it’s the place to be. One picante very easily turns into three at this lively Middle Eastern spot on the edge of Chinatown, and it’s one of our favourite restaurants to smell, watch, and eat the action. Watch the springy kubaneh bread rise in front of you, or a chargrilled chicken be sliced and plopped onto labneh. The menu changes regularly, but a luscious flow of tahini is guaranteed.
photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch
POWERED BY
It’s extremely easy to prop yourself up at Morito’s luminous orange bar, get down and dirty with some crispy rabbit, scoff some saucy patatas bravas, and imagine you live in a country where taking a nap in the middle of the day is mandatory. The corridor-sized tapas spot on Exmouth Market was one of London’s first bustling counter situations, and it’s still one of the best around. FYI, in summer, it’s strictly walk-in only after 6pm.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
If organised chaos is one of your personality traits, then you’ll enjoy eating at Rambutan. The Sri Lankan spot in Borough Market is all gundu dosas being flipped in a paniyaram pan and the hypnotising sight of roti being methodically scrunched. There are plenty of seats for all kinds of groups here, but you’re missing out if you aren’t sitting at the counter and close to the action—especially as it gives a great opportunity to clock what’s what on the always-changing menu.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Although we’ve got Glastonbury tickets with less effort than a couple of seats at this walk-in-only wine bar, 107 is one of Hackney’s most unique and enjoyable restaurant experiences when you do get in. The set-up—essentially a kitchen island with a couple of induction hobs manned by whichever guest chef is in—is like being at the best wine-stocked dinner party in the world.
Bocca Di Lupo is one of those effortless restaurants where all of life’s little disappointments get replaced by flattering lighting and a wild boar ragu. On Archer Street in Soho, the cushy counter situation at this classy Italian restaurant covers sophisticated dates (hello, marble), a tender reunion (hi, shared gelati), and comfort (hey, leather backrests).
One for the fish fans, Temaki does some of the best hand rolls in London. This is the kind of counter experience where you’re constantly on the edge of your seat wondering if that BBQ eel is coming in your direction—and when it does, it’s very good. Please note that it’s impossible to have dinner at this tiny counter-only restaurant in Brixton Village and not flirt with the idea that you need to own a bamboo sticky rice pot.
