LDNGuide
16 London Restaurants For When You Want To Get *Cosy*
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Are you deeply miserable or are you just cold?
That’s the question we like to ask ourselves around this time of year, usually while developing hypothermia in a denim jacket that should have been retired around September. Yes, the weather may be terrible and you’re probably rocking the vitamin D levels of a naked mole rat, but the good news is that these London restaurants are ready and waiting to help you get cosy. Think open fires, comforting food, and lovely quaint candlelight that will totally mask the fact that you’re wearing an Ikea blanket as a scarf. Here’s to making the most of the cold weather.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
The upstairs dining room at Soho pub The Devonshire is the kind of place we’d like to be during a blizzard, perusing a handwritten menu of comforting, tasty European classics—lamb hotpot, a hulking piece of rib-eye with creamed leeks, sticky toffee pudding—while the wind howls outside. As well as the heat radiating from an open fire—where dishes are finished off over the embers—there are warming touches, like fluttering linen curtains and flickering candles on tables. Come for one of London’s best pints of Guinness, best enjoyed while mopping up leftover gravy with duck fat chips.
photo credit: The Zetter Marylebone
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From the months of October to May, our sole purpose is to find things—or people (hello cuffing season)—that make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. And it’s physically impossible to not feel warm and fuzzy when you’re sitting directly opposite a fireplace. Yes, your body temperature physically rises too, but it’s the mental cosy feeling that we’re after. And you’ll find both while having afternoon tea at The Zetter in Marylebone. Enjoy the excellent spiced raisin scones while sipping on earl grey in front of the fire. Have you ever heard a more snug sentence in your life? Didn’t think so.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Fairuz is cosy in the kind of rustic, homely way that makes you want to hug the owner on the way out. There’s a particular three-person spot near the front that’s better described as a nook than a table, and it’s peak hunkering down territory. The lighting is low, candles flicker, and the cave-like feel will remind you of the pillow forts you made as a kid. The excellent Lebanese specials also help. Things like creamy aubergine fatteh and hearty lamb makloobeh are comforting and memorable. Don’t make any plans after a meal here because you’ll want to head straight home to bed.
The sambal tumis udang petai from Satay House provides the comfort of five super soft duvets all piled on top of each other. It doesn’t get more tucked away than a table in the basement of this Malaysian spot in Paddington. Couples split rich beef rendang while dressed in gym clothes, and “quick catch-ups” turn into two-hour feasts involving a kari laksa that will clear your sinuses and have you glued to your seat for the foreseeable. At Satay House they’re not trying to make you feel cosy, they just can’t help it.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
You know when you wrap your hands around a novelty mug—”Not Today Satan” in Comic Sans, can’t beat it—and blow on your tea for a bit, and think “wow, I really am so good at winter”? Take that feeling and add deep-fried panelle, beaujolais, and single malt whisky into the mix and you’re on your way to understanding the allure of Llewelyn’s. At the postcard-perfect neighbourhood restaurant in Herne Hill, you can make one of the squishy booths your home for the evening while you get involved in the seasonal modern European menu—think hearty staples like pumpkin, borlotti and a jolly glug of amaretto on your dessert.
photo credit: Sam A Harris
The word ‘nice’ has a bad rep. It’s a word you use to describe people you go on exactly two dates with and never speak to again. But Cadet, a matchbox-sized Newington Green wine bar, is just so… nice. The smiles are large, the European-leaning plates are small, and the servers are always ready to top up your glass with something crisp and fizzy. Never underestimate the cortisol-dropping potential of lazily spreading mousse de canard while you scroll through Uniqlo’s fresh drop of cashmere beanies on your phone. It’s very, very nice.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Knees touch and hearts flutter at Oren. A teeny tiny restaurant on Shacklewell Lane, this is probably our favourite place in London to share body warmth and smoky amba chicken thighs. The Israeli and Mediterranean sharing menu goes from sweet marinda tomatoes to Jerusalem mixed grill and a sensational pistachio hummus quicker than you can say “obviously we’re spooning later”. Cuddle up in the candlelight and then let a rotation of challah and olive oil do the charming.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
This one goes out to anyone who refuses to, even vaguely, dress for the weather. One day, scientists will study you—a flimsy, flapping shirt under a microscope—but for now we suggest spending your evening reclining on the red leather banquette seating in Casse-Croûte. At the charming French restaurant on a corner of Bermondsey Street, the blackboard is a one-way ticket to an imaginary destination we like to call Butter Chaud. Expect classics loaded with cream, comté, and other gloriously satisfying things that will stop your teeth chattering. Yes, even if it’s four degrees and you’ve made the sensational choice to wear denim cut-offs.
photo credit: Jamie Lau
Nothing, absolutely nothing, is cosier than an open fire. This is the exact thought we have every single time we make the great decision to go to Smokehouse on a chilly evening, and feel like we’ve escaped to one of the home counties. This Islington pub is complete with roaring flames and a blackboard listing the best cuts of meat. It’s also worth knowing that there are some great vegetarian options and the roast is one of the best in London.
When you’re averaging six hours of daylight per week, it’s nice to feel fancy. We’re pretty sure that’s how the British aristocracy was invented. Probably. Maybe. Definitely not, but the fact remains that The Cadogan Arms is a show-stopping pub on the King’s Road that will keep you toasty and give you an excellent excuse to crack out your nicest knitwear. On the menu, you’ll find satisfying tarted-up pub classics like hand-raised pork pies, slabs of steak with clotted cream mash, and a delightful sticky toffee pudding. Just be sure to request a table in the back dining room by the fire when you make your booking.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Any good psychiatrist will tell you that true intimacy is cuddling up to a dough ball. On a completely unrelated note, our therapists regularly tell us that we’re prone to misinterpreting key information. Anyway, this effortless Florence-inspired restaurant in Clerkenwell is all about minimum fuss and maximum satisfaction. Think old-school red checked tablecloths, classic pastas done right, and glorious hunks of lucious, sweet and bitter tiramisu. Sit back, relax, and get involved in the aptly named ‘doughball cuddles’.
Raclette is popular on ski slopes. Ski slopes are pretty much always cold places. Do you see where we’re going with this? Make like a rich person whose daddy just happens to have a lodge in Aspen and hit the hot cheese. Hit the hot cheese hard. La Petite Ferme in Clerkenwell is a charming little French restaurant that serves all-you-can-eat raclette for £32 per person. All of the wooden banquette seating and kitsch countryside knickknacks will really help feed into your alpine fantasy too.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
In our opinion, any restaurant that encourages you to order two bread baskets instead of one has a deep understanding of how to make the most of the bleak London winters. Notting Hill’s Sinuhe is exactly that kind of restaurant and everything from the mixed grill meats for two, to the big Persian stews have the power to stop your incessant ‘do I have Seasonal Affective Disorder’ googling habits. A round of the aubergine dips won’t hurt either.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Yada’s covers many of our cold weather survival words: stew, shawarma, bread, homely, BYOB. A Kurdish restaurant in Peckham, it even has something called ‘falafel beauty’ on the menu, which is very in keeping with our self-care aspirations for the coming months. For peak cosiness, request a table near the open kitchen and spend some quality time with the platters that feature deeply life-affirming things like pomegranate and walnut stew, soft lamb, stuffed vegetables, and pistachio hummus. The best part is that this place is really affordable and we all know that’s handy when your heating bill is haunting you.
photo credit: My Neighbors The Dumplings
Candles are the key to surviving the winter blues. At least that’s what we like to tell ourselves while investing in our 12th cinnamon spice candle of the season. You’ll find a whole lot of long candles jammed into old wine bottles at this cool, dim sum parlour in Clapton and importantly, great har gau, siu mai, and crispy wontons too. Be sure to order the steamed cake with banoffee sauce before you leave. Caramel sauce is critical for your energy levels to manage the freezing bus ride home, right?
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Spending a winter’s night in a butchers sounds like the beginning of some terrible modern take on Sweeney Todd that ‘really highlights the bloody nature of capitalism’. No thank you. So when we say that Hill & Szrok is a butchers that should rank highly on your list of go-to warm and comforting spots, please rest assured that we aren’t casually luring you to your death. It really is lovely. Come night it gets transformed into a charming neighbourhood steak place with quality British ingredients and plenty of French wine. Plus, it’s nice to be able to add ‘drank great orange wine in a butchers’ to the list of things you accomplished this winter.
