Providing easy access to the city's vast array of restaurants, The London Underground is not only a convenient way to travel around the capital, but a greener alternative too. The simplest way to pay is to tap your contactless card or smartphone. You can also buy an Oyster card (a pre-payment card which you can top up as required). In this article series, we take a look at some of the Inspectors’ favourite restaurants within easy reach of the Tube network. For information on London's transport network, we've got that covered too.
It may not come as a great surprise, but when the Bakerloo Line opened some 117 years ago it was called the Baker Street and Waterloo Line – just two years later, its decidedly catchier moniker was adopted. Since then, the line has gone through more changes than most and it is now the second shortest of the major routes. Many of its restaurants can therefore be found at either Piccadilly Circus or Oxford Circus, two of the busiest areas in London and both packed with dining options. Travel slightly further out of the city towards Marylebone and beyond, however, and you can find even more wonderful restaurants on offer.
Warwick Avenue: Kateh
Persian
The beauty of the London Underground is the ability it gives you to stop in at neighbourhood restaurants all over the capital. One such spot is the bustling Kateh, which serves an extensive menu of Persian dishes a little west of the thrum of central London. It is the very model of a good local restaurant, full of regulars eating satisfying, great value food. The menu comprises stews, salads, small plates and a range of lamb or chicken dishes from the charcoal grill.
Regent’s Park: Fischer’s
Austrian
Up at the Regent’s Park end of Marylebone High Street you will find this all-day restaurant inspired by the cafés of Austria. Like the other Euro-centric establishments from this group, which include Delaunay and Brasserie Zédel, it is a perpetually busy place yet suitably well run to cope with the numbers. The extensive menu will delight fans of Central European cuisine, with a choice of schnitzels and sausages, plus herring prepared three ways. This is a konditorei too, so a selection of cakes is available for dessert.
Piccadilly Circus: yeni
Turkish
When you’re next among the beeping buses and scuttling crowds of Piccadilly Circus, make an escape into this proudly run restaurant serving authentic Turkish dishes with a subtle modern slant. There’s no shortage of places to eat around here, but there is something delightfully genuine and relaxed about this spot, with flavoursome cooking that’s equally enjoyable. The menu is ideal for sharing, including larger dishes cooked over open flames and some great manti dumplings.
Charing Cross: Bancone
Italian
A well-priced Italian restaurant is something to be savoured – and that is exactly what Bancone provides, in an enviable location just 3 minutes’ walk from Charing Cross station. The menu is focused on freshly made pasta with a range of accompaniments, from cacio e pepe to mackerel with seaweed butter. Burrata, prosciutto and grilled artichokes are among the antipasti on offer before indulging in your main course. A second Bancone is located near Piccadilly Circus station, which can also be visited on the Bakerloo Line.
Embankment: Ekstedt at The Yard
Modern Cuisine
It may lie between Victoria Embankment and Trafalgar Square, but this restaurant’s heart is in Sweden. Housed inside the Great Scotland Yard hotel, it is an offshoot of Niklas Ekstedt’s MICHELIN Starred Stockholm flagship; it retains that restaurant’s ethos of using the simple combination of fire and wood to create an assortment of dishes full of smoky flavours. Fitting with the Nordic approach, expect to find juniper used somewhere on the menu, as well as some cured and pickled produce.
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Other restaurants that we love on the Bakerloo Line include:
Baker Street: Trishna
Indian
Oxford Circus: The Wigmore
Traditional British
Hero Image: Fischer's (© David Loftus)
