Isabel Mayfair

Isabel opened on Albemarle Street in 2017 and has settled into the kind of restaurant where the crowd is as much a part of the evening as the food. It began as a Latin American restaurant and has drifted towards a broader Mediterranean and Latin fusion menu over successive refreshes, served under a canopy of brass lamps to a room that fills with a recognisably well-heeled Mayfair set.

Sharing plates are the way to eat here: a tuna tartare with ponzu, hand-rolled tagliolini with Devon crab and a Sakura wagyu sirloin all turn up on most tables, alongside scallops and seabass from the raw and grill sections. The food is designed to keep a table talking and drinking rather than to showcase a single chef’s vision, and it mostly succeeds on those terms.

Upstairs is polished and bright, all brass and warm lighting, while downstairs the after-hours bar and dancefloor take over once dinner service winds down, which makes Isabel one of the few Mayfair restaurants that genuinely turns into a night out rather than politely closing at eleven. It suits a group booking, a birthday or anyone who wants dinner to run into drinks without changing address.

Isabel is not chasing culinary innovation, and it does not need to. It has built a loyal, well-dressed following on sharing plates, good cocktails and a basement that keeps the night going, and on those terms it delivers reliably. Go with a group, order widely from the sharing menu, and plan on staying late.