The best restaurants in the City of London, from Fazenda to Sweetings
The Romans founded Londinium in 47AD on the north bank of the Thames around where London Bridge now stands, then the lowest point of the river narrow enough to bridge. Alas, when they hightailed it back to Rome 350 years later, an Italian love of eating out was not part of their lasting legacy (gratias for the roads and baths, though).
Over the following centuries the crowded square mile that corresponded to Roman Londinium established itself as Europe’s financial powerhouse, and as the capital’s social life shifted westwards following the Great Fire of 1666, so the City of London became synonymous with work, not play.
Still, that’s not to say that there is no culinary history here. London’s first coffee houses, the 17th-century dens of intrigue that were the Restoration equivalent of Twitter, opened on St Michael’s Alley off Cornhill in 1652, while Sweetings (est. 1889) is every bit as historic as more famous (and touristy) West End heritage restaurants such as Rules and Wiltons.
And yet the 2023 closure of Simpson’s Tavern — a chophouse founded in 1747, frequented by Charles Dickens and currently fighting redevelopment with a crowdfunding campaign — proves how fragile this ever-changing corner of London is to financial pressures.
On a more positive note, the dining scene of the Square Mile has changed beyond recognition over the past 25 years, from power-lunch venues par excellence to bars and restaurants worth hanging around after work has the country’s highest-earning employees, bargains are hard to find.
