After a morning with the dinosaurs or the V&A's latest blockbuster, South Ken's food scene is quietly excellent — and Condé Nast Traveller UK has rounded up the seven tables worth booking right now, split between South Kensington and High Street Kensington.
Over near Exhibition Road, the most interesting new arrival is Myrtos London by Asimakis, where Michelin-starred chef Asimakis Chaniotis gives classic Greek food a foraging-and-fishing makeover on Brompton Road. It's better value than it sounds: vegetable mains hover around £15, meat centrepieces around £22, and the grilled octopus and prawn saganaki come with obligatory Greek salad. Just around the corner on Exhibition Road itself, Lina Stores does fast, cheerful handmade pasta in a pistachio-green canteen — think veal raviolini, crab and Amalfi lemon linguine and a cult carbonara, mostly £10–£17.
If it's a pint you're after, the Anglesea Arms on Selwood Terrace dates back to the early 18th century and once counted Charles Dickens as a local. Somerset charcuterie, buttermilk fried chicken and baked camembert with sourdough lead into hearty mains, and the Sunday roasts are the neighbourhood's best-kept secret. For a sunnier escape, The Orangery at Number 16 — the Firmdale hotel on Sumner Place — scatters pastel tables through an English garden; order the club sandwich or book afternoon tea with a glass of Pommery Brut NV among the rose bushes.
Cross to High Street Kensington and the options get louder. Dishoom Kensington, on Derry Street, serves its Bombay-style comfort food in Art Deco surroundings a short walk or two Circle Line stops from the museums — the chicken ruby remains the order of the day for first-timers. Jacuzzi, from the Big Mamma Group, is 4,000 square feet of maximalist Venetian-villa fantasy across three floors, complete with a thousand illuminated bottles; the mafaldine in truffle sauce, spun tableside in a pecorino wheel, is the dish people photograph first and eat second. For something cosier, Maggie Jones has been feeding locals for more than 40 years from a cul-de-sac off Kensington Church Street — a farmhouse-styled warren named after Princess Margaret, doing lamb rump, fish pie and apple crumble by candlelight.
The practical takeaway: this pocket of London is one of the few where you can do two world-class exhibitions and a genuinely good dinner without a taxi. Book ahead at weekends — Dishoom and Jacuzzi in particular fill up fast — and note most of these sit within ten minutes' walk of South Kensington or High Street Kensington tube stations, both on the Circle and District lines.
