Dining
The 5 Best Restaurants in Barbican
The best restaurants in Barbican: where to eat well, chosen on merit.
In short: our top picks are The Jugged Hare, Osteria and The Sichuan. 5 places in total, chosen on merit, with the full reasoning below.
Around the Barbican’s brutalist towers sit characterful pubs, a famous game restaurant and the buzz of Whitecross Street. These are the best restaurants in Barbican.
| Place | Area | Price |
|---|---|---|
| The Jugged Hare | Barbican | £££ |
| Osteria | Barbican | £££ |
| The Sichuan | £££ | |
| Cote Barbican | Barbican | £££ |
| Fish Central | ££ |
-
Editor’s choice
The Jugged Hare
Why we pick itA handsome pub and dining room celebrated for its game cookery.
-
Osteria
Why we pick itA smart Italian inside the Barbican Centre, ideal before a performance.
-
The Sichuan
Why we pick itFiery, authentic Sichuanese cooking near Whitecross Street.
-
Cote Barbican
Why we pick itReliable French brasserie cooking a step from the Centre.
-
Fish Central
Why we pick itA long-running, much-loved fish and chip restaurant.
Before you book
Whitecross Street market is a brilliant weekday lunch; the pubs fill before performances.
Common questions
What are the top picks in this guide?
The Jugged Hare is our editor's choice: A handsome pub and dining room celebrated for its game cookery. The Jugged Hare, Osteria and The Sichuan lead the guide, with 5 places in total, all chosen on merit.
How does Lamplit London choose its recommendations?
Every place is chosen on merit, after first-hand visits where possible, with no pay-for-placement. Read our full method at https://www.lamplitlondon.com/how-we-choose/.
Related guides
Dining The Best Restaurants in Notting Hill
West London at its most charming: where to eat well in Notting Hill, from corner bistros to grand rooms.
5 places Read guide →
Dining The Best Restaurants in Marylebone
Village-in-the-city dining: where to eat well in Marylebone, from neighbourhood gems to grand rooms.
5 places Read guide →
Dining The Best Restaurants in Bayswater
The best restaurants in Bayswater: where to eat well, chosen on merit.
5 places Read guide →
Dining The Best Restaurants in Dulwich
The best restaurants in Dulwich: where to eat well, chosen on merit.
5 places Read guide →
Dining The Best Sandwiches in London
Overstuffed sarnies, salt beef bagels and the city's most famous toasted cheese: London's best sandwiches.
6 places Read guide →From the Journal
Dinner as the Main Event: The Case for the Tasting Menu
Most great dinners in London are a means to an end. You eat, you talk, you move on to the bar, the show, the rest of the night. The tasting menu refuses to be that. It is not the warm-up. It is the whole event, the curtain up and the curtain down, three hours that […]
13 Jun 2026Read →
The Enduring Ritual of London Afternoon Tea
Afternoon tea is not a tourist trap. It is one of the last unhurried things London does on purpose. Lunch is rushed and dinner is a production, but the hours between belong to nobody, and that is precisely the point. You sit. You stay. You let an afternoon become long. In a city that measures […]
2 Jun 2026Read →
London’s Quiet Obsession with Japanese Food
London does not fall for things loudly. It just keeps showing up. And over the last decade or so, the city has shown up for Japanese food again and again, until it stopped feeling like a special occasion and started feeling like a default. You see it everywhere now. The counter where one chef feeds […]
28 Apr 2026Read →Readers also viewed
Dining The Best Pies in London
From a Bermondsey marble counter pouring parsley liquor to a Mayfair pie room with nine in-house varieties, here are six London places that still treat the pie as a serious thing.
6 places Read guide →
Dining The Best Birthday Restaurants in London
Six London restaurants built for a birthday that people actually remember: pink rooms, jungle grills, Greco-Roman drama and two Big Mamma blockbusters, across budgets.
6 places Read guide →
Dining Romantic Restaurants in London
The rooms we send people to when the night matters, from a quiet first date to an anniversary you cannot get wrong.
6 places Read guide →
Dining The Best Brunch in Borough Market
Brunch built entirely around the market itself: wood fired grills, market produce and a rooftop view of St Paul's.
6 places Read guide →