The Best London Restaurants For Outdoor Dining

On a fine day, Rochelle Canteen might just be the best restaurant in London. Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold’s approach to elegant, simple British food using the best seasonal ingredients is oft-imitated, but rarely bettered. The main dining room is a wonderful place to sit when the canteen’s frontage is thrown open, a setting bettered only by the patio tables that, when accounting for the enclosed garden setting, make dinner here as idyllic an experience as it’s possible to get in central London.

Pop Brixton is great any time of year, but comes into its own during the summer when the roof comes off. Already one of the best restaurants in Brixton, this only makes Smoke & Salt better — eating on a breezy, buzzing terrace is always a pleasure, and moreso when the restaurant in question serves some of the most consistently delicious and inventive British small plates in London. The shipping container setup means space at the restaurant is limited, meaning that the few tables outside are in hot demand. Is it worth the effort? Absolutely.               

How do you improve on a perfectly chic French bistro? The answer: transport it to one of the prettiest parks in South London. Tucked away in a corner of Tanner Street park, just off Bermondsey Street, Pique-Nique is perfect for lazy lunches, drinks or dessert on one of its outdoor tables. Catch it on a nice day, when the rotisserie chicken, natural wines and a souffle for the ages (it changes each day) somehow taste even better.

Darby’s is the restaurant with everything, and also boasts a pretty terrace overlooking an adjacent garden and waterways. It’s a fitting place to gather at golden hour for cold Guinness and oysters, cocktails or champagne, and several of maestro Robin Gill’s Irish-American dishes from the grill. Native lobster brioche and chocolate mousse with Guinness gelato? Sign us up.

Like its sister site in Hackney, Sager + Wilde’s restaurant in Paradise Row (just around the corner from Bethnal Green tube) offers a superb range of wines by the glass and an inviting East End aesthetic. Here, the setting is a cavernous railway arch that somehow still feels intimate, with a huge outdoor deck that’s perfect for gathering friends and deep diving into the restaurant’s brunch, pastas, and outstanding small plates of French and Italian-leaning food.

Known primarily for its namesake chef’s counter, Counter Culture in Clapham also has a neat little patio outside for drinks and food, expanding its 14 bar seat offering considerably. Dishes are small, inventive and unequivocally delicious, riffing on a particular theme or menu for months at a time before switching things up to keep it fresh. Recent highlights include Southern-style BBQ and modern interpretations of classic Irish dishes (owner Robin Gill is Irish), while a residency from Anglo Thai chef John Chantarasak was one of the summer’s hottest tickets.

When the sun comes out and tables are schlepped outside, every restaurant on Borough Market’s doorstep catches its irrepressible buzz. Elliot’s is one of these fine establishments, and eating at one of its precious outdoor tables is one of the city’s great pleasures. As well as an expertly-chosen list of natural wines (it was one of the city’s earliest adopters), owner Brett Redman’s emphasis on superbly-sourced seafood and wood-fired small plates is nothing short of a revelation. The weekday lunch-only cheeseburger is one of the finest around.

Taking a prime spot in airy Tooting Market, Plot’s chef counter is rightly beloved, but there’s plenty of additional seating at this tiny open market restaurant. Seasonal British small plates are the draw here—the menu is invariably short based on availability of produce, but execution is always superb. Creative dishes like heritage carrots bolstered by cumin and lemon balm set the tone, while heartier fare like wild boar sausages with Jerusalem artichoke mash and a textbook chocolate tart round things out nicely.

It’s easy to get FOMO when perusing the menu at Granger & Co, as any of the playfully Asian-inflected dishes here are fantastic, likewise the bright, healthful salads. At the very least, get the Instagram-breaking (and, frankly, delicious) ricotta hotcakes to share. The Chelsea outpost of celeb chef Bill Granger’s influential restaurant is set on pretty Pavilion Road, boasting knockout interiors, sweet service, and a garden courtyard for glorious, long brunches.

Exmouth Market is easily one of the best places in London to spend a sunny day, and plenty of the action gravitates around Grind’s outpost here. As well as stellar cocktails, espresso martinis, and a light all-day menu suitable for grazing or a leisurely, drawn-out meal, there’s ample space on the patio for a group to post up for a few hours.

Victoria Park in the summer is a wonderland, and sure, lazing around in the park for a few hours with an off-license sauvignon blanc is lovely—but you can definitely do better than that. Enter East London Liquor Company, who possess a huge patio adjacent to their restaurant and distillery on the park’s doorstep. The menu is sunshine food; burrata, pizzas, and fresh seafood are particular strengths, and there’s an unparalleled cocktail menu with spirits made literally steps away. The. and G&T flights come highly recommended.

Ombra’s Aperol-stained deck is a glorious thing. Packed with spritz-slurping locals in fair weather, it’s also a wonderful setting to enjoy chef Mitshel Ibrahim’s take on modern Italian fare. Venetian-style cicchetti, pasta and desserts are exceptional (particularly the tiramisu and any of the tarts), and a short but sweet list of natural wines make a fitting accompaniment. The adjacent Regents canal may not be the Grand Canal, but hey, it’s pretty impressive for Bethnal Green.

An atmospheric wine bar during the day, Sager + Wilde’s original bar is quintessential Hackney at dusk—svelte, interesting wines by the glass, elegant sharing plates of charcuterie and bread, and a dressed-down crowd of locals and restaurant folk looking to get loose into the wee hours. In good weather, the few tables set on Hackney Road are highly covetable real estate, and are definitely worth snagging if they’re available.

Relaxing on a leafy rooftop overlooking pretty Museum Gardens is nice work if you can get it. Chiringuito brings a shot of Catalan flair to Bethnal Green, with a lush roof deck perfect for weekend day drinking and lazy suppers. Meanwhile, the downstairs restaurant hides a host of details like exposed brickwork, colourful Moorish tiles and a mural from artist Mallory Dawn. The mongrel Spain-by-way-of-Latin America menu is a delight; classic seafood rice sings with piscine flavours, while plancha-grilled seabass is accompanied with punchy chilli and passionfruit.  

Here’s the rub; dining outdoors in central London sounds like it should be a dream, but the reality can be far from relaxing. Up on Foley Street, however, the pace is a little more relaxed. The tables on Bonnie Gull’s patio take full advantage of the relative quiet of the surrounding streets and, with plenty of space for a few friends, it’s an appropriately charming setting for oysters and a plate of perfectly-cooked seafood—always with a glass of Albarino in hand, naturally.

Merely a street away from the chaos of Carnaby, the similarly pedestrianised (but infinitely quieter) environs of Kingly Street make it ideal for dining outdoors on a warm day. Combining sustainably-sourced seafood with a relaxed, comfort-led menu, Claw’s winning formula has won it a loyal following. Share fish tacos and fiery jerk shrimp, or go it alone with one of the restaurant’s signature lobster rolls—you can’t go wrong.

If there’s a cuisine better suited for sunshine than the food of Mexico, we’ve yet to come across it. Corazon’s take on traditional Mexican flavours—from the al pastor-style street tacos of the capital to crisp fish tacos from the Baja coast—have won it plenty of praise, and there are few better things to eat on a fair day than the restaurant’s Contramar tuna tostadas (an homage to the legendary Mexican eatery’s signature dish) paired to a Modelo. Outside: a couple of small, but highly desirable tables, perfect for you and a couple of friends.

On any given night, the chances are that Maison Bab will be one of the most bumping dining rooms in town. The reason? With clued-up service, an upbeat soundtrack, and excellent gourmet kebabs, mezze and cocktails, it’s a slick operation that knows how to show diners a good time. A raft of outdoor picnic tables and a discrete Covent Garden location means there’s plenty of room outside for a group to go all-in.

This Spanish hideaway in pretty Newington Green is the kind of irresistible establishment that most of us hope will open around the corner. There’s an eccentric, cosy dining room that feels magical at any time of year, but during the summer, it becomes a destination for lounging and people watching on its terrace, preferably with negroni in hand and a plate of their delicious tortilla. 

Destination-worthy it may be, but Kudu is also one of London’s best neighbourhood restaurants, with an irrepressible buzz to match. Pull up a chair in their well-kept garden, where chef-owner Patrick Williams dishes out creative plates fusing his Modern European training with ingredients from his South African heritage — braai onion squash laced with cavolo nero and creamy goats curd, for example, or a delicious malted chocolate ganache with sesame ice cream for afters. 

Some of East London’s most creative cooking takes place inside a refurbished railway arch in Forest Gate, at the aptly-titled Arch Rivals. On certain summer evenings, the restaurant opens up onto its terrace, where tables rapidly fill with glasses of natural wine, colourful cocktails, and thrilling dishes like rice cakes with spicy pork fennel ragu, or covetable plates of crisp fried chicken doused in Sichuan pepper, cumin, and spices. 

Fare’s heavenly dining room feels like it was made for warm weather; flooded with daylight, there’s plenty of greenery and pretty tables to perch on, as well as a dazzling zinc bar for languorous gossip marathons with friends. The restaurant opens up at the back to reveal benches in a private courtyard and ample space for midsummer cocktails and wine, bolstered by impressive pizzas and on-point Mediterranean small plates.