Seabird

Seabird sits on the fourteenth floor of The Hoxton Southwark, a joint venture with the team behind Brooklyn’s Maison Premiere, and it has built its reputation on one thing above all else: oysters. The list runs to nine or so varieties on a good day, laid out on a marble raw bar that anchors the room, backed up by a wider Iberian and southern European seafood menu that stretches well beyond shellfish.

Beyond the oysters, the crudo and small plates are where the kitchen does its best work, sardines on toast, an octopus roll and a Basque-style bouillabaisse all turn up regularly and hold their own against the view. The wine list favours small biodynamic European producers rather than the usual big names, and the cocktail programme is more ambitious than most hotel rooftops bother with.

The room and terrace wrap the building with a genuinely wide sweep of the City and beyond, and it suits an early evening drink as much as a full dinner, particularly in the warmer months when the terrace fills up fast. It gets loud, it gets busy, and it is very much a see-and-be-seen rooftop rather than a quiet retreat, so anyone after calm conversation should book early or eat inside.

Seabird is one of the better rooftop restaurants London has produced in recent years, mostly because the kitchen has not treated the view as an excuse to coast. The oysters alone justify a visit, and the wider seafood menu backs them up. Go at golden hour if you can, and go hungry.