The best French restaurants in London

A meal at Michelin-starred 64 Goodge Street feels, in the best possible way, a little out of step with current London trends: a three-course à la carte menu where the dishes are helpfully categorised as starters, mains and desserts. This is “idealised” classic French cooking “from an outsider’s perspective” – that outsider being chef Stuart Andrew. That means everything from precise, elegant little hors d'oeuvres and desserts to more rustic tarts and generously sauced meat and fish. Oh and butter – lots of butter. 

This French-inspired restaurant, perched above Regent Street in the heart of London's West End, offers the finest of fine-dining and has two Michelin stars to prove it. Dilling has worked with the likes of Alain Ducasse and Hélène Darroze, and it shows in dishes likepâté de campagne with Iberico pork shoulder and foie gras, and ‘hunter style’ Landes chicken. 

One of London’s hardest reservations at time of writing and with good reason: chef Henry Harris’s reboot of his much-loved and missed Knightsbridge restaurant Racine offers faultless French bistro classics in a compact, lively and light-filled dining room. Chicken live pâté, rabbit in mustard sauce, steak au poivre… all present and correct and executed perfectly. The kind of place where meals stretch out to an undetermined point and plans are cancelled. 

This cosy French bistro on the edges of Borough Market is the perfect date-night spot, a place to get cosy by candlelight in the darker, colder months before moving to the terrace when things warm up. Chef Elliot Hashtroudi and team offer a thrilling take on regional French cooking – think shallot tartins, sausage-stuffed birds and big hunks of meat at market price – while the highly-praised wine list, with by the glass offerings changing daily, and a friendly and knowledgeable front of house team, add to the easy charm.

Looking for the best French brasserie in London? Maison Francois would be in with a shout. If it’s pâté and tartare de boeuf you’re after then this is the place for you. Those in the know will tell you that some of the best dishes are to be found in its wine bar, Frank’s, where the food offering is more ‘picky bits’ which may not have a direct translation in French, but includes bar snacks, charcuterie, seafood and cheeses. They even do an oyster happy hour.

After over 30 years at the top of the gastronomic scene in London, most of those with at least one Michelin star, is it fair to call Pied à Terre an institution? We think so, and pleasingly, it’s a restaurant that hasn’t slipped into any sort of heritage offer, while also offering some of the best vegan tasting menus in London. Current head chef Aggelos Kassais brings classical training and Mediterranean roots.

Upstairs at notorious Soho pub The French House, Neil Borthwick is doing some wonderful things in a kitchen once home to Fergus and Margot Henderson pre-St. John. Fluffy beignets are a thing of beauty, while zingy salads cut through the punchy saucing, and meat and fish is cooked to perfection. Upstairs in the cosy dining room away from the din of the street and the always busy public bar below, you feel like you’ve stumbled on a secret and it’s all the better for it.