Where To Eat In London This October

The excuses to stay home start piling up around October. See: darker evenings, wetter pavements, the relentless temptation to order in and hibernate. But, because of the same temptation, it’s also the best time of year to eat out. The crowds thin, the menus turn richer, and the city’s kitchens hit a bit more of a stride.

This month’s lineup proves it. There’s a long-awaited first visit to a Michelin-starred restaurant where West African cooking is treated with extreme precision (and where my obsession with their growing restaurant group has since been entirely justified). There’s a globally acclaimed Cape Town residency shaking up The Waldorf, a Versailles-inspired afternoon tea that’s part history lesson, part spectacle, a Knightsbridge heavyweight pushing Indian fine dining in bold, elemental directions — and, because we all need a little chaos with our cocktails, a new karaoke bar-cum-restaurant that may well break the venue’s Leicester Square curse.

Here’s where to book now that London’s eating season is truly underway.

Where to eat in London: October 2025

1. Akoko

Longhorn beef with Jollof Rice at Akoko, London

©johncarey2024

I’ve been slipping into Akara for the best part of a year now—specifically, for the crisp, feather-light fritters that might just be London’s most addictive “snack”—but had yet to visit the Michelin-starred restaurant that started it all until this past month. And if the akara is the hook, Akoko’s tasting menu is the full story: a confident, deeply considered journey through West Africa that deserves to be savoured, start to finish.

Led by culinary director Aji Akokomi, the team treats the region’s flavours with both reverence and restraint. Egusi, nokoss and moi moi are introduced carefully, avoiding blunt force flavor hits, weaving through dishes such as an onion-foamed yassa, guinea hen in yam sauce, and jollof rice served with served with Lake District beef, ox tongue, and Mbongo sauce. Each plate feels both rooted and elevated, tradition and technique at its absolute peak.

The space mirrors that duality: warm terracotta tones, copper details, and an open kitchen that keeps the masters’ work at the heart of the room. The team knows the story behind every spice and seed and shares it without pretension, making Akoko not just one of London’s most exciting modern African restaurants but one of the city’s most exciting restaurants, full stop.

2. The Pot Luck Club at The Waldorf Hilton

Luke Dale Roberts’ The Pot Luck Club—one of Cape Town’s most celebrated restaurants, if you’re new to the know—is in London for the first time, taking over The Waldorf Hilton’s Homage dining room until the end of the month. The space has been spruced, the cooking is world-class, and it feels more like a restaurant event than a pop-up.

The menu is built around small plates that pull from global influences without losing focus. Smoked beef fillet with truffle café au lait is indulgence dialled all the way up; oysters with passionfruit Nước Chấm are punchy and clean; and Cape Malay-spiced vegetable dishes show the same care and finesse as any meat course. It’s designed for sharing, so you can cover a lot of ground in one sitting—and you’ll want to.

What makes this residency stand out isn’t just the pedigree of its chef but the fact that it doesn’t feel temporary. It’s confident, polished, and perfectly pitched to London’s appetite. There’s only a few weeks left to catch it, though, so I’d book now before those 2.0 Tacos (and with linefish ceviche, they really are) disappear.

3. Let Us Eat Cake Afternoon Tea at The Kensington

There’s no shortage of afternoon teas in this city, but few manage to feel genuinely fresh. Let Us Eat Cake at The Kensington is a rare delight, in that sense. Timed to launch with the V&A’s major new exhibition (Marie Antoinette: Style), it’s a playful and surprisingly smart nod to one of history’s most recognisable icons.

The details make it worth the detour. The fan-shaped menu nods to Versailles’ court life, and the patisserie is properly beautiful, to boot; strawberry sponge layered with Chantilly and fresh fruit, blackberry tarts crowned with mousse, raspberry and white chocolate macarons, et al, with an adorable array of sandwiches and just-baked scones underneath.

It all pairs perfectly with tea, champagne and/or The Queen’s Coupe, an optional cocktail of Belvedere, Pimm’s, Earl Grey cordial, clarified clotted cream and Charles Heidsieck that sounds far less appetising than it is, rimmed with rose petals and raspberries. Taken in the hotel’s elegant lounge, it’s a deliberately dignified affair that still feels grounded in good food.

4. Vatavaran

Rohit Ghai has defined some of London’s best-loved Indian restaurants—including Kutir, which I’ve loved for years—but Vatavaran is on another level. The Knightsbridge project, created with restaurateur Abhishake Sangwan, is ambitious, atmospheric and rooted in the elemental power of fire. The name means “atmosphere” in Hindi, and it’s exactly what the place gets right.

Across two floors, Sigri cooking—the open-flame technique at the heart of the menu—brings a primal depth to dishes across India’s regions. Lamb chops come rubbed with Kashmiri chilli and black cumin; lobster moilee is rich and silky; and morels with broccoli and truffle korma prove how deftly vegetables can carry bold flavour. Even the butter chicken, which is something I’d typically find a little bland for my taste, is a masterclass here—familiar, but dialled up.

And it doesn’t stop there. Upstairs, Shikhar—meaning “summit”—is the restaurant’s somewhat-hidden cocktail bar, designed as the peak of the experience and a nod to the Himalayan landscapes that shape Vatavaran’s wider concept. Put simply, it’s just lovely.

5. U9 Karaoke Bar