A recent story from the Popbitch newsletter told of a Hollywood star who was asked what she would do if she weren’t a famous actress. “Eat” was the rather depressing answer.
While celebrities might not have a reputation for possessing the biggest appetites, to some you are where you eat, not what you eat. Restaurants, then, are as powerful a way of signifying an A-lister’s taste as any other aspect of their image. Or maybe, like the rest of us, they just go to a restaurant to have a good time.
Short of sitting in the front row of the theatre, a seat in a London restaurant offers one of the surest ways to see a famous face up close and personal. Even if you don’t come home feeling like you’ve spent a night at the Oscars or Brits, the restaurants below do all at least guarantee a good night. And if a big name is in, just remember that it’s rude to stare.
Julie’s
Showbiz hasn’t seen a celebrity comeback like Julie’s since John Travolta shimmied his way through Pulp Fiction. Originally opened by interior designer Julie Hodges in 1969, the restaurant welcomed pop royalty and the real thing through its doors for the final decades of the 20th century, when one might have been sitting next to anyone from Tina Turner to Princess Diana. This century hadn’t been quite as memorable until new owner and Holland Park local Tara MacBain relaunched Julie’s in 2024 and once more made the old girl the hottest table in town. The only way one is likely to bag a booking is by turning up as the guest of Reese Witherspoon, Ed Sheeran or Stevie Nicks (who came as the guest of Mick Fleetwood). If you can tear yourself away from rubbernecking, there’s buttered asparagus and lobster soufflé on the menu.
135 Portland Road, W11 4LW, juliesrestaurant.com
Arlington
One would probably need to have been born before Margaret Thatcher assumed office to recognise some of the celebrities at Arlington, which feels utterly appropriate for a restaurant that is the reboot of Le Caprice, the Eighties and Nineties classic that was the favourite restaurant of Princess Diana and Elton John. Still, if you can identify the likes of Jools Holland, Michael Caine and Annabel Croft in the picture-round of a pub quiz, you’ll be in celebrity squares heaven here, though you may need your kids to point out Tom Holland and Zendaya. Arguably the biggest star of all is restaurateur Jeremy King, for whom Le Caprice was the first in a string of restaurant smashes that took in The Ivy, J Sheekey and The Wolseley and has here revived the menu’s greatest hits of bang bang chicken, salmon fishcakes and shepherd’s pie.
20 Arlington Street, SW1A 1RG, arlington.london
The River Cafe
If you want to know who you might be sitting next to you at the River Cafe, take a listen to the Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast hosted by the restaurant’s chef and owner Ruth Rogers (aka Baroness Rogers of Riverside). Guests have included Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Lineker, Linda Evangelista and Ralph Fiennes, all of whom have been guests in the restaurant, and many of the podcast’s guests are regulars, too. Critics may carp that one needs a celebrity bank balance to eat here — starters cost around £35, mains almost double that — though a recent visit on a packed Monday lunchtime suggests there’s no shortage of takers for the simple Italian cooking in which the stars of the show are the ingredients. Can’t get a table? The recently opened River Cafe Cafe over the courtyard is no bookings and has a prime view of the restaurant’s front door for celebrity comings and goings.
Thames Wharf, Rainville Road, W6 9HA, rivercafe.co.uk
The Devonshire
Proof that celebrities really are just like the rest of us comes in the guest list of this barnstormer of a boozer just off Piccadilly Circus — for who, deep down, wouldn’t pick a pub for their perfect night out? Do not come here expecting to rub shoulders with the likes of Nigella Lawson, Lewis Capaldi, Joe Jonas and Bono in the scrum of the bar, however. For while the Devonshire serves London’s best pint of Guinness, the best thing about the place is the restaurant upstairs, where St John-esque British food is served in a series of light-filled dining rooms in which the simplicity of the menu is reflected in the brick-walled, white tableclothed interiors. Top tips include scallops with bacon, a beef suet pudding and a soufflé for afters.
17 Denman Street, W1D 7HW, devonshiresoho.co.uk
Novikov
Back in the splash-the-cash, Blairite boom of the mid-Noughties, one had more chance of celebrity spotting on Berkeley Street than a homes-of-the-stars Hollywood tour, as famous faces shuttled between Nobu Berkeley and Novikov over the road. Nobu, alas, has gone to the great fish market in the sky, but Novikov remains, and the fact that the restaurant offers a delivery service for private jets should tell you everything you need to know about the gold-plated calibre of its clientele. Still, Tom Cruise, Natalie Portman, Serena Williams and Johnny Depp wouldn’t eat here for just any old version of in-flight catering, and the Japanese dishes in the Asian half of the operation — seared o-toro nigiri, hamachi yuzu truffle rolls — are excellent. The Italian dining room, however, is celebrity Siberia.
50a Berkeley Street, W1J 8HA, novikovrestaurant.co.uk
Dear Jackie
West End hotels, with their press-junket jet-lagged residents, are captive markets for star spotting. Over the years we’ve seen Scarlett Johansson at Brasserie Max at the Covent Garden Hotel, Russell Crowe at China Tang at the Dorchester and, perhaps most thrillingly, literally bumped into Bradley Cooper in the breakfast queue at the Connaught. The current hot hotel hangout is Broadwick Soho, where Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Channing Tatum and the double whammy of Zoë and Lenny Kravitz have all been spotted since it opened its doors at the end of 2023. Dear Jackie is the hotel’s evening-only restaurant, which, with its red silk walls and Murano glass lighting, could be a film set even without the beautiful-people clientele. The cooking is nominally Italian, but with an accent softer than Sophia Loren: Devon crab with datterini tomatoes; ricotta tortellini; roast cod with borlotti beans.
The Broadwick, 20 Broadwick Street, W1F 9NE, broadwicksoho.com
The Dover
One would expect a restaurant owned by the former chief operating officer of Soho House to be catnip to celebs but it’s the late-night opening — food is served until 1am and the restaurant closes an hour later — that means The Dover is one of the most reliable places in the West End to see Theatreland stars up close and personal after the final curtain call. Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick dropped in after performing in Plaza Suite, but it’s not all so luvvie: Harry Styles and Margot Robbie have also been spotted. A lack of windows assures privacy whatever the time of day, while the glow of warm lighting ensures that celebrities and civilians alike are flatteringly lit for their close-up. Foodwise, it’s American-Italian comfort classics like chopped salad and spaghetti meatballs washed down by some knockout cocktails.
33 Dover Street, W1S 4NF, thedoverrestaurant.com
Chiltern Firehouse
Celebrity restaurants tend to have a shelf life shorter than last week’s copy of Heat magazine but although it opened way back in 2013, Chiltern Firehouse is as close as London still comes to a guaranteed celebrity spot. In fact the reservations book here isn’t so much a who’s who as a who hasn’t eaten at Chiltz; recent diners include Adele, Paul Mescal, Anya Taylor Joy, Leonardo di Caprio and Gigi Hadid. Why do they all come? The courtyard is one of London’s loveliest when the sun shines, the dining room inside exudes low-key luxury while the globetrotting menu would be equally at home in LA as London. Sea bass tartare might be followed by citrus-marinated chicken and pecan pie for pud.
1 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PA, chilternfirehouse.com
Mount St Restaurant
The name behind Mount St is Artfarm, the hospitality outfit owned by art world power couple Manuela Hauser and Iwan Wirth. So although there’s a decent chance of seeing a famous face sitting at a table here, like Ryan Gosling, Salma Hayek, Barry Keoghan and — practise your bowing and curtsying! — King Charles and Queen Camilla, the real stars are those hanging on the walls, with £50m of art including works from Freud, Matisse and Warhol. Cooking from executive chef Jamie Shears is just as artful, with classic British cooking given a gently contemporary spin in the likes of omelette Arnold Bennett and Orkney scallop scampi.
First Floor, 41-43 Mount Street, W1K 2RX, mountstrestaurant.com
Casa Cruz
So great is the draw of this copper-doored Holland Park restaurant that Rita Ora risked breaking coronavirus rules when she held her 30th birthday bash here during the middle of the UK’s second national lockdown (the restaurant, meanwhile, faced having its licence revoked). But Casa Cruz parties on, most recently playing host to Taylor Swift’s squad of Kate Moss, Stella McCartney and Phoebe Waller Bridge, among others, to celebrate the American singer’s Eras tour. Victoria Beckham, Naomi Campbell and Cara Delevingne are also fans, which perhaps is all the indication one needs that this is not somewhere to get stuck into jam roly-poly. Instead, expect a protein-heavy South American menu light on carbs in the likes of prawn carpaccio, lemon sole and blackened chicken.
123a Clarendon Road, W11 4JG, casacruz.co.uk
Scott’s
Scott’s celebrity star might have waned since its glory days of the mid Noughties but there’s still a decent chance of spotting a famous face at this classic seafood restaurant, not least on the summertime terrace. Kate Moss, James Corden and Liz Hurley are all fans, as too anyone who values the history of a restaurant almost as famous as its patrons: Scott’s was where James Bond creator Ian Fleming decided he liked his martinis shaken not stirred (although Dukes bar may dispute this), and the place is name-checked by the POWs of The Great Escape as a post-wartime nirvana. Simple fish and seafood dishes that let the ingredients do the talking is Scott’s calling card — smoked Devonshire eel, Cornish sole goujons — but there’s chargrilled meat, too.
20 Mount Street, W1K 2HE, scotts-mayfair.com
Dorian
Lily Allen was one guest at her best friend (and podcast co-host) Miquita Oliver’s birthday bash held at Dorian; Nick Grimshaw was another, while W11 local Victoria Beckham pops in when she’s at home in Holland Park and not the Cotswolds. They’re not the only stars: Michelin bestowed one of its spangly awards earlier this year. On offer is shimmeringly fresh modern European cooking — crab rösti; pigeon with apple; turbot with pumpkin — served up in a surprisingly classic looking space of green leather and marble. Assuming, of course, one can see anything through the crowd of diners thronging the closely set tables.
105-107 Talbot Road, W11 2AT, dorianrestaurant.com
Gymkhana
Romeo Beckham recently held his birthday bash at Ambassadors Clubhouse, which suggests the new Mayfair Indian is one to watch in the star-spotting stakes (David and Victoria were there too). For now, though, the spice world of celebrity remains focused on sister restaurant Gymkhana, which, like Romeo, knows the power of an influential sibling. All the Beckham offspring have dined here, as too Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran, who always orders the butter chicken. They do not, however, just come for the knockout food (two Michelin stars and counting); a secret staircase delivers VIPs straight into one of the discreet alcove tables at the back of the basement, so be sure to ask for a seat downstairs to have the most chance of a star spot here.
42 Albemarle Street, W1S 4JH, gymkhanalondon.com
