London is known for many things, chief among them being an amazing food scene. Here are 7 weird restaurants in London you have to see to believe, whether you’re a resident or visitor.
The detour to see the giant ball of yarn, the especially strange stranger, and the meal you ordered that looked like a mystery yet tasted divine. It’s the unexpected details that stick in our memories and make our trips meaningful.
London is a city full of unexpected details, and this is especially true when it comes to the city’s cuisine.
In addition to pubs serving traditional dishes like bangers and mash, fish and chips, and beef Wellington, there’s a host of weird restaurants in London that go out of their way to cater to the tastes of more adventurous travelers.
Read on, and you’ll see some of the most unique London restaurants we’ve found.
The Best Weird Restaurants in London
From the most exotic to the most entertaining, here are seven restaurants in London with menus and decor that shock and delight. And since they’re unique in London, they’re bound to be some of the quirkiest restaurants in the world.
1. Archipelago
Cuisine: International, Vegetarian
Typical Price: The Peruvian Jumper–jerked alpaca, cornmeal slice, buttermilk jelly, and patecones–is 20 GBP.
Unique Dish: All of them, but highlights include Zhug marinated kangaroo skewers with candy beetroot, sub-continent inspired crocodile curry, and Ostrich tenderloin steak.
Archipelago tops many lists of London’s strangest restaurants, and for good reason. Gourmet Guide highlights the restaurant’s menu of exotic creatures such as python, wildebeest, and crickets, which makes each meal a safari of sorts.
Archipelago’s decor includes dwarf palm trees, golden Buddha statues, and giant peacock feathers, all of which add up to a surreal experience that feels like dining in the jungle.
2. Bel Canto
Cuisine: French
Typical Price: The Opera Package offers two courses from 45 GBP.
Unique Dish: 30 grams of Premium Sturgeon Caviar with mini blinis, creme fraiche, and warm potato salad (with an optional shot of chilled Grey Goose vodka for an additional cost).
Classic French cuisine comes paired with high culture from all over the European continent at Bel Canto. The staff at Bel Canto sing opera while they serve you.
Forget “dinner and a show.” At Bel Canto, the dinner is the show.
3. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Cuisine: British
Typical Price: Spiced Squab Pigeon with onions, artichokes, ale, and malt for 46 GBP.
Unique Dish: The Meat Fruit starter, which is a chicken liver parfait that comes inside a mandarin with a side of grilled bread.
It’s a simple name: Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. And the menu presents as equally simple at first glance: a pork chop, a ribeye, sherried scallops.
But look again, and you’ll see the duck breast is powdered, the ribeye steak comes with mushroom ketchup, and is that braised celery? Yes, my friend, it is.
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal presents the unexpected disguised in ordinary British food from across the centuries at one of the coolest restaurants in London.
4. Inamo Soho
Cuisine: Asian Fusion
Typical Price: Thai Green Chicken Curry for 16.95 GBP.
Unique Dish: Wasabi fries, which are vegetarian and come coated with moreish wasabi salt.
Inamo Soho maintains a menu of fairly standard Asian fusion dishes: curries, sushi, and Korean BBQ ribs.
But what makes the restaurant strange is the setting in which it places diners. It’s an environment straight out of the future, complete with digital menus and a Games Room. There, you’ll find more than 150 video games across new and classic consoles projected onto screens that span more than 150 inches.
5. Bob Bob Ricard
Cuisine: British, Russian
Typical Price: The Pave Steak with Peppercorn and Brandy Sauce, a square cut 35-day aged filet of Aberdeenshire Scotch beef served with pepper cream Chantilly, is 29.50 GBP.
Unique Dish: The BBR Signature Chocolate Glory dessert, a combination of chocolate Jivara mousse, chocolate brownie, berries, and gelatin-free passionfruit and orange jelly.
Forget the future. Bob Bob Ricard takes diners back in time, with art deco interiors and an emphasis on glamour at every turn.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the most unique feature of every private booth in Bob Bob Ricard, the “press for champagne” button. Thanks to this button, the restaurant boasts that it pours more champagne than any other dining establishment in the United Kingdom.
6. Bobby Fitzpatrick
Cuisine: Pizza, Pancakes, Cocktails
Typical Price: Bobby Fitzpatrick’s menu is not currently available online.
Unique Dish: Because the restaurant’s menu isn’t immediately visible, it makes it hard to single out a dish, though the potato pancakes make an interesting savory alternative to traditional sweet pancakes.
Our second restaurant on the list with a “Robert”-derived name, Bobby Fitzpatrick isn’t as different from Bob Bob Ricard as it appears on first glance.
The decor is pure ’70s but with an emphasis more on kitsch than glamour. Pineapples, flamingos, and plastic dice dominate surround the restaurant’s patrons.
Those who prefer to skip the pizza on which Bobby Fitzpatrick makes its name may opt for the restaurant’s brunch menu.
7. IceBar London
Cuisine: Pub Fare
Typical Price: The Pork Belly comes with a fennel seed crust and costs 13 GBP.
Unique Dish: The Tiramisu Ice Cream Sandwich, which is vegetarian.
Get out of your comfort zone, but stay within your budget by eating at the UK’s only permanent icebar, which stays at -5 degrees Celsius year-round.
The name implies an upscale drinking experience, but IceBar has a surprisingly affordable and cozy menu of foods too, including cheeseburgers, corn and black bean burgers, pizza bread, baked potatoes, and truffled mac and cheese.
All the Weird That’s Fit to Eat
If you visit a city as big as London and don’t expand your palate, you’re missing out. The city has nearly endless options for culinary exploration. Not only exotic restaurants like these ones. London
has options for all wishes and pockets. From a small street food stall to a fancy restaurant in a luxury hotel, you’ll always find something that surprises you.
Remember, it’s only at one of these places that your meal is over when the fat lady sings.
Check out our other helpful travel and dining tips.