The Best Restaurants in Notting Hill
Chepstow Place, Notting Hill
Assaggi is the perfect spot for a quiet lunch or dinner. It has a very relaxed and informal feel. The focus is all about the food.
Real old school Italian staff with the charm to go with it.
Assaggi is one of my favourite Italian restaurants. The pasta is just delicious with the freshest of ingredients.
This is an ideal location for a quiet dinner or small gathering.
Don’t forget to ask them about their truffles.
Clardendon Road, Notting Hill
Casa Cruz was the first London eating-house of Chilean-born, former investment banker Juan Santa Cruz (the other being Isabel in Mayfair) and he has three other restaurants in Buenos Aires.
Casa Cruz is arguably the most glamorous eatery you will find in Notting Hill. We’re so used to unassuming chic that this can feel a bit out of place in our neighbourhood, but we wholeheartedly welcome its’ dash of New York glamour.
The large copper door to Casa Cruz is a teasing nod to the interior design that awaits you inside and is always manned by a welcoming doorman resplendent in bowler hat!
The space has a clubby vibe with floor to ceiling burnished copper walls, plush blue carpets, an oval cocktail bar replete with sultry mixologists and banks of mirrors line the staircase to the cosier second floor.
The chic first floor terrace is lovely in the summer and essential for customers who want to round off their meal with a cigar.
We love the food, although not all do, with its low carb/no carb approach. Our ‘go to’ is the tuna tartar or buffalo mozzarella, which sounds dull, but the simplicity of quality ingredients take such dishes to another level of enjoyment. Whilst we’re not huge meat eaters, the steaks are divine.
Service can be patchy, which doesn’t seem to matter so long as our glasses are full.
Portobello Road, Notting Hill
We love Notting Hill particularly Portobello Road and Golbourne Road but always feel considering what a great neighbourhood it is we lack in enough good spots to hang out. So Gold is a very welcome addition.
A cool unassuming entrance with a graphic face painted on the façade you walk into a chic and well-designed bar.
As you stroll to the light and airy restaurant out back it’s a calm oasis of green with beautiful leafy plants everywhere you look. The glass retractable ceiling gives a serene atmosphere not often found in London. In fact you feel like you are anywhere but London.
The menu is a selection of well thought out ingredients put together to create a fresh healthy and innovative menu. Seasonal plates cooked in a wood ovens.
The second floor restaurant is equally easy on the eye with exposed brick, comfortable seating and relaxed dining experience.
Continue up and you’ll find the private dining room. The very word conjures up images of dead spaces with no atmosphere, but not at Gold. It’s your own den of fabulousness with a great little bar, more brick, more wild leaves and great Feng Su.
This is going to be a VERY popular spot with all the locals that it might be hard for anyone else to get in so get a reservation while you can.
Laylow
Golborne Road, Notting Hill
We love Laylow, which is just on the northern side of Notting Hill on the Golborne Road.
In a cool 4 storey building, you barely realise you are at the restaurant as you approach its dark doorway. Pull back the green velvet curtain and you’ll see a handful of sumptuous pink velvet booths, modernist furniture and unique wicker chandeliers with palm trees and swinging monkeys.
A cool and friendly staff are led by owner, Taz, who moves effortlessly from table to table charming all his regulars. Designed by him and ex-girlfriend Bella Freud, the space feels sumptuous and cool and definitely pulls an interesting crowd with the who’s who of London town.
The food is delicious European small plates served with the best cocktails you’ll find in the hood.
The restaurant is open to one and all. For those lucky few who obtain membership, there’s a lounge upstairs too. This is also a live music venue with a regular calendar of local talent and once it hots up there’s a roof terrace to enjoy as well.
For us, this is a hugely welcome and much needed addition to the Notting Hill scene. Long may it continue!