Best restaurants in Chelsea

The Five Fields might bill itself as a neighbourhood restaurant, but this elegant eatery is more than worth a trip across town to Chelsea. The sophisticated dining room features etched glass, cream coloured chairs and tables adorned with white table cloths, while the 500-bin wine list proves that this is no ordinary local haunt. The kitchen turns out a tempting array of dishes, with much of the produce plucked from chef/proprietor Taylor Bonnyman’s own garden in Sussex. Try the likes of mutton served with hazelnut, lovage and swede or opt for seabass with rhubarb, curry and onion. A prix-fixe is available at both lunch and dinner, alongside a multi-course tasting menu which has the option of adding paired wines from the aforementioned list.

When dining in a postcode as affluent as Chelsea, a little kitchen theatre alongside your dinner is always welcome. At Yashin Ocean House, you can expect to see a showcase of head-to-tail dining, with the chefs here committed to using all parts of the fish they cook with. We’d argue that the best seats in the house are around the turquoise bar, but there’s also booth seating if you’re in a group. The menu features every Japanese staple you could want, ranging from sushi and sashimi to hot tapas-style small plates and dishes from a robata grill. If you want to go the whole hog, try the multi-course tasting menu or get the party started on the weekend with Ocean House’s bottomless Champagne and sake brunch.

Known for drawing in well-heeled Chelsea locals, Daphne’s is a reliably good and utterly assured Italian restaurant. It’s a handsome space, designed by go-to restaurant interior designer Martin Brudnizki Studios, and punctuated by a dark-pink marble bar flanked with green leather stools. There’s also a baroque conservatory which can be hired for private functions, if you’re looking to add an extra touch of exclusivity. Menus here change seasonally, but you can expect a run of bold regional flavours, with dishes including the likes of scallops with chilli and garlic or pappardelle with wild boar ragu. Attentive, sweet-natured service and an extensive list of Italian wines are further reasons to visit this Chelsea mainstay.

No, your eyes do not deceive you – that is a stained glass window depicting the famous Michelin man. That’s because this historic site was once home to Michelin, and its latest iteration now incorporates a restaurant led by star chef Claude Bosi. We love the dining room décor, which includes those famous windows and an ocean blue carpet, while the deceptively simple menu (with dish names such as ‘My mum’s tripe & cuttlefish gratin’) reveals itself to actually be full of accomplished plates which delight the senses. Prices are as high as you’d expect at a location as iconic as this one, so if you’re on a budget, we’d recommend trying the set lunch menu or coming here on Sunday to enjoy a roast.

Pretty as a picture and with plenty of glamorous touches, this chic all-day bar and grill is a welcome addition to Chelsea’s dining scene, linking the five-star 11 Cadogan Gardens hotel with Pavilion Road. The dining room is an oasis of calm, and brings the outside in, via a pale green colour scheme and hanging plants – it’s not all bohemian vibes though, with marble table tops and suited and booted staff reminding you that you’re still in Chelsea territory. The menu takes guests through from breakfast to dinner via afternoon tea, and serves the type of dishes that impress both Chelsea’s bright young things and mature ladies who lunch – think grass-fed steaks or a lobster roll served with tarragon mayonnaise.

The debut restaurant from chef Rohit Ghai, Kutir has been a long time in the making. Ghai has previously led the kitchens at much-feted establishments including Gymkhana, Jamavar and Bombay Bustle. With this project, the focus is on modern Indian cooking that delights with diligent spicing. Top shouts from a menu which mixes the comforting with the classy include a lamb rogan josh which features lamb shoulder that has been slow-cooked for a whole day, and meaty chops which encourage caveman-style feasting. The balance between fine-dining and homely is also felt in the interiors – diners have to ring a doorbell to enter the restaurant and there’s an air of cosiness, albeit the kind of which you’d find in a glossy interior design magazine.  

Bluebird may have really hit the big time thanks to its frequent appearances on Made in Chelsea, but there’s more substance to this all-day restaurant than the gloss of reality television. Best known for its excellent King's Road location and spacious street-level terrace, Bluebird keeps things simple with a menu of crowd-pleasing dishes. If you’re dining indoors, you’ll find a rustic-chic dining room which is a hodgepodge of blues, floral prints and exposed steel beams. Swift service will soon provide you with dishes such as lobster spaghetti or pork chop with apple sauce. The exhaustive wine list is another win for Bluebird, as are classic puddings such as pineapple upside down cake and a spiced crème brûlée.

Previously known as Cheyne Walk Brasserie, this long-standing restaurant underwent an extensive refurbishment in 2019 under the direction of Sally Greene (who owns Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club). The new vibe is that of a cosy country manor, with smart finishes including plump cushions and marble-topped tables. The menu meanwhile, majors in dishes which thrill and excite, but don’t bother with anything too high-concept – think the likes of aged beef fillet and cheek with creamed spinach and smoked bone marrow. Sunday lunch is also a good shout, while the upstairs Drawing Room (with its views over the Thames) is the perfect place to while away an afternoon in Chelsea.

Following his 25-year tenure at The Square, chef Phil Howard has moved on to pastures new with this stylish modern fine-dining joint. The menu here has been championed for its run of uncomplicated, yet highly sophisticated fare – think jambonette of Cornish red chicken with a mushroom-stuffed onion and straw potatoes, or fillet of sea trout with crushed Jersey Royal potatoes, beetroot and a citrus and shrimp butter. You can expect a hefty bill come the end of the meal, but the fabulously chic dining room helps to soften the blow. Add to that the knowledgeable, friendly staff and a stellar wine list, and this thoroughly modern fine-dining experience is worth every penny.    

Restaurateurs Corbin & King have championed Parisian-style cafés and brasseries on London’s dining scene for many years, and dining at Colbert does feel similar to stopping off at a pavement-side café in the French capital. Colbert boasts a bustling street terrace which is great for when the sun is shining, while inside is a chic affair featuring walls lined with film posters and black-and-white flooring. The all-day menu mostly sticks to classic Gallic brasserie fare, with options including savoury crepes and kedgeree at breakfast time, before moving on to onion soup and flat iron steaks later in the day. Sweet finishers see patisserie and sorbets, while the wine list is comfortingly comprehensive.    

Myrtle is the first solo restaurant from Irish chef Anna Haugh, who has made a name for herself by heading up some of the kitchens of the big names in London restaurants (London House, Bob Bob Ricard) without fully stepping into the limelight.

Myrtle, at the World’s End end of King’s Road, is very much her chance to shine, and if the narrow proportions of the two-floor restaurant speak of the constraints of a chef funding her own restaurant, details like the Galway crystal used for the Baron Albert house Champagne, the green marble bar and butter dishes, and pewter water goblets that wouldn’t look out of place in Game of Thrones speak of an attachment to Haugh’s home country that feels heartfelt rather than corny.      

Haugh’s cooking likewise takes Ireland as inspiration but filters ingredients such as Burren Smokehouse salmon and Crozier blue cheese through a modern Irish sensibility. So while potato comes with black pudding, it is delivered as an elegant cylinder of Clonakilty black pudding tied up in a thin twine of fried potato strings.

Roasted beef fillet with boxty, meanwhile, is presented as an elegant fan of sliced meat cooked medium-rare and spooned with a glossy tarragon and confit shallot jus; there’s more beef inside the boxty, a quivering dome of potato pancake that eats like a sublime savoury dumpling.   

If there are faults, it’s that the cooking displays a little too much of the intricacy learnt at the Michelin-starred likes of Pied à Terre and The Square, and while the pricing is reasonable by Chelsea standards, portion sizes seem too skimpy to encourage the sort of loyal repeat visits that the nearby likes of Medlar prove exist at this tubeless end of SW10; our most filling dish was the knockout veggie option of celeriac pithivier.     

That said, there’s generosity aplenty in the repeated offers of the homemade soda bread (made with treacle for a spoonful of sweetness), the friendly staff deliver warm, personal service while a bottle of Provencal rosé from the well-assembled wine list was perfect for a warm summer evening when the full-length windows were open on to the street.

The first spin-off of The Ivy to be christened with a ‘garden’ moniker, this all-day brasserie has proved a hit with Chelsea locals and visitors alike. The space is decked out with The Ivy Collection’s signature jewel box interiors, while the expansive menu champions cosy, homey classics reimagined as sophisticated dishes. Some of the signatures from the Covent Garden original are here – Shepherd’s pie, say – while there are newer takes too, such as miso black cod fillet and lobster linguine. Chelsea’s fashionistas can regularly be found enjoying brunch here on the weekend, and the maincured garden is naturally the preferred setting for tucking into avocado on toast while supping on fresh juices.

With three Michelin stars to its name, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is the jewel in the crown of the television chef’s ever-expanding restaurant empire. The Chelsea flagship was also the starting place for chef Clare Smyth, who has since gone on to open Core, her own critically acclaimed restaurant in Notting Hill. At Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, you can expect a cool and classy dining room which features all the hallmarks of modern fine dining (white tablecloths, Champagne buckets by your table etc.). The menu also impresses – it’s a hi-spec run of dishes, including the likes of Cornish turbot with potato, leek and black garlic, or the signature dish of lobster ravioli with langoustine and salmon. Sharp service is a given, too.