London does not have one food scene; it has dozens, and they change character street by street. The joy of eating here is in the wandering, following your appetite from one neighbourhood to the next. Here is a map of where to start.
Begin in the centre with the best restaurants in Soho and the grander rooms of Mayfair. Head east for the open-fire cooking of Shoreditch, or south of the river to graze the stalls and railway arches around Borough Market. For a village in the middle of the city, the best restaurants in Marylebone are hard to beat.
Each neighbourhood rewards a different kind of evening, from a no-reservations counter to a long, unhurried lunch. Pick one, get hungry, and let the streets between the tables do the rest.
