LDNGuide
The Best Walk-In Only Restaurants For When You Forgot To Make A Booking
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
There are people who make plans and there are people who plan to make plans. This guide is for the latter. So the next time you decide you’d like to go to an excellent restaurant for dinner, before realising several hundred sickeningly organised people have had the same idea, head to one of these spots instead. These aren’t restaurants that save a few seats for walk-ins. These are restaurants entirely made for those of us who lean a little more spontaneous.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
A meal at Viet Alley brings our blood pressure down and the bún bò huê has us gazing into the glistening broth like Narcissus. This is the kind of place where you could drop down into a seat and feel your brain switch off as cave-like black walls envelope you and rich, deep bowls of phở soothe you. Spend an undisturbed lunch hour or two people-watching through the front window—no one will hurry you along. In the evening, this BYOB Vietnamese spot in Deptford fills up with groups of friends making the most of extensive vegan menus and shareable ‘duck’ summer rolls.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Part wine bar, part shop, and part dinner party, 107 Wine Shop & Bar is one of our favourite walk-in spots in London. You’ll find the kitchen-sized space in Clapton crammed full of happy drinkers and those after a coveted spot around the single communal table. The food is a changing, European-leaning small plates thing, with dishes like terrine and cuttlefish with tomatoes. You’re never entirely sure what you’re going to get but that doesn’t matter because everyone feels at home.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
If this New Orleans-inspired restaurant in Kingston took reservations, it’d be fully booked every weekend. Instead, the queue for Poor Boys skirts around the side and goes all the way down to the river. When it gets to the 15-minute mark and you’re tempted to give up, just glance through the window at the person giving googly eyes to a buttermilk fried shrimp sub and they’ll give you all the motivation to wait it out. Excellent OTT comfort food, a lively dive bar atmosphere, and laid-back service make this restaurant a go-to.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Rita’s Chilli Chaat Corner is a canteen-like spot in Southall where casual drop-ins are the norm. Hungry shoppers arrive from the market, bags in hand, and yoghurty samosa chaat on their minds. The Indian street food does not disappoint. You’ll find refreshing, citrussy pani puri shots, as well as 22 variations of the namesake chaat—all of which are probably better than most you’ve had in London. Big groups and headphone-wearing, Twitter-scrolling solo diners are all welcome.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
This Vietnamese restaurant on Clapton Road is a family affair. Mama Hai feels like that auntie who you’ve never seen without an apron on and always has delicious smells wafting from her kitchen. In this shoebox-sized room, perched on a stool happily anticipating phở, curry, or a spring roll, you’ll eat some of the most exciting Vietnamese food in London. Oh and Hai Cafe is walk-in only—just like your auntie’s house.
photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch
Open Wednesday to Saturday with a changing menu that jumps from terrine to fritters to rhubarb jelly with Jersey cream, 40 Maltby is an any day, any night, any situation kind of establishment. The Bermondsey wine bar and European-leaning small plates restaurant is a hidden away, strictly no-reservations hot spot. Given their excellent wine list, spending any amount of time waiting at the bar is a blessing rather than a curse.
photo credit: C&R Café Restaurant
Open since 1998, this Chinatown staple has been around longer than most people you follow on TikTok have been alive. And once you try the excellent nasi lemak you’ll understand why it continues to be a top pick for the people who know about it. A casual Malaysian spot, it's perfect for a low-key dinner with a group of friends in central. Just FYI your whole party has to arrive before you get a seat, so consider that before inviting that friend who’s always having “TFL troubles”.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Koya is a teeny tiny Japanese restaurant on Frith Street in Soho that serves exceptional hand-pulled udon, huge donburis, and London’s best steam facial courtesy of the curry atsu-atsu. Thanks to those chewy noodles, you’ll usually find a queue of people waiting outside with a look of katsu concentration on their faces. But Koya, we thank you for being open from 10am until 10pm daily so our last-minute udon cravings are always covered.
photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch
Padella is one of those restaurants that everyone and their cousin's dog bigs up. Except with Padella, it actually lives up to the hype. The London Bridge handmade pasta spot is a no-reservations, industrial-looking place. The pasta menu changes seasonally but the pici cacio e pepe is a staple that you won’t want to share—and at £12, there’s no need to. They’ve got a virtual wait line system going, and if you have the Dojo app you don’t even have to be at the restaurant to get in the queue.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
You’re not going to walk into Dim Sum & Duck. Not unless you’re getting there at 11:59am on a Tuesday morning. But even then, don’t be surprised if a few people have had the same idea. The Cantonese restaurant in King’s Cross is one of the best around—and lots of people know it. So when you’ve got a hankering for superb xiaolongbao and glistening ho fun and don’t mind waiting around for (most likely) an hour, then you know where to head.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
The morning is a particularly abysmal time to realise that you a) invited everyone to brunch and b) forgot that you invited everyone to brunch and are now wondering if a McMuffin is a socially acceptable offering. Meet Juliet’s—home to London’s best eggs, expert coffee, and a pistachio cake that convinced us once and for all that yuzu is the ultimate icing flavour. During the weekend you’ll often find a short queue snaking out the door of this Tooting cafe but the signature homemade tonkatsu breakfast bap is worth the wait.
photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch
The lack of solid reservations for the dinner you said you’d plan two weeks ago could be seen as chaotic, indecisive, or just proof that you’re a gemini through and through. Either way, Roti King, an excellent Malaysian spot in Euston, is the perfect place to come with a couple of friends for some flaky roti and mutton curry. It’s all about perspective. Hit it for a tasty, casual meal, though be warned that the queue can be long at peak hours. And in case you were looking for one more reason to go, it’s BYOB.
