Point out a restaurant that claims to be totally sustainable, the chef James Lowe once observed, and he’ll point out a restaurant that “are either lying, or they don't understand the depth of the subject”.
From transportation and packaging to energy and cleaning, restaurants — particularly urban restaurants — run almost directly counter to the environmentalist edict of “leave no trace”. Besides, that’s not why we go to them. We go to socialise, to celebrate, to eat and drink the things we cannot (or cannot be bothered to) make ourselves. We go to be entertained. Thetrouble is that the world can no longer sustain the sole pursuit of hedonism without any thought to the consequences.
And so, in recent years, the notion of guilt-free dining has become less about calories and more about the climate: about eschewing industrial farming, food waste and food miles in favour of a more regenerative, planet-friendly approach. This needn’t mean compromising on flavour or fun, but it does mean supporting chefs’ efforts to do their best by the environment. No more is sustainable dining a byword for smugness served with a side of dreary sludge; finally, doing right by the planet tastes as good as it feels.
Apricity
Chantelle Nicholson was London's first chef to get a Michelin Green Star, way back when with Tredwells in Covent Garden — but it's at this Mayfair address that the New Zealander really leans into her appreciation of circularity and regenerative practices, in everything from the cordials in the cocktails to the clothes the team wears (Gung Ho-designed prints made, where possible, from recycled PET bottles). It too has a Green Star.
Nicholson champions a socially and environmentally conscious approach to hosting, with an awareness of accessibility, which is a refreshing contrast to the showy, more-is-more approach typical for this neighbourhood. There are five-course and seven-course tasting menus as suited to omnivores as those who are allergy-sensitive or vegan, and a more accessible à la carte too. Though sustainability is crucial to the business, Nicholson is at heart a seasoned, skilful chef; dishes might include black pearl and oyster mushrooms in an XO sauce, or duck with beetroot and elderberry ketchup. 50p of every bill goes to Kelly's Cause, providing mental health support to the hospitality industry, which is a nice touch. Dogs are welcome.
68 Duke Street, W1K 6JU, apricityrestaurant.com
Spring
It’s been a delicious decade of Somerset House's thoroughly modern reimagining of a 19th-century dining room with a distinctly feminine chic is about honouring the seasons — hence the name. Chef Skye Gyngell was first to give London its most sophisticated lesson in how sustainability is as much about people and packaging as it is sourcing, and that it can still mean pure luxury. Everything from carcass breakdown to butter and cordials are made on site to ensure nothing is wasted — yet where the menus of some zero-waste restaurants can read like an endurance test, Gyngell’s is full of promise. Her female-led kitchen works with vegetables from biodynamic farm Fern Varrow, which she beds up with for Marle at Heckfield Place in Hampshire too. Five years since freeing themselves of all traces of single-use plastic, they are celebrating their 10th anniversary with chefs Ravneet Gill, Julius Roberts and Melissa Hemsley riffing on Skye's ‘Scratch’ concept working wonders with daily offcuts, during autumn 2024.
Somerset House, Lancaster Place, WC2R 1LA, springrestaurant.co.uk
Fallow
Will Murray and Jack Croft define their cooking as “conscious creativity”, and the two words are given equal weight in Fallow’s buzzy, beautiful open kitchen. Cod’s head comes crowned with a housemade sriracha butter sauce and is as much theatre as dinner. The mushroom parfait is made with mushrooms grown in the basement, and it is silky and rich, pepped with pickled shallots and served with butter-drenched sourdough toast. Even the restaurant design reflects their mission statement: the walls are clad with leftover oyster and mussel shells, and complemented by an installation of hanging seaweed. Come for the spicy, limey corn ribs, grown in their farm in Esher; stay for that oft-wasted cod’s head (deservedly famous); and leave with a jar of their own kombu seasoning. Its waterside sibling, Roe (5 Park Drive, Wood Wharf, E14 9GG, roerestaurant.co.uk), has the same credentials and some seriously beautiful food.
2 St James’s Market, SW1Y 4RP, fallowrestaurant.com
Edit Hackney
Edit’s arrival appeared to be a boost for this urban main road near London Fields, thanks to architect Elly Ward’s plant-savvy project as part of their design HQ. With both smart aesthetics and ethics, the zero-waste, low-impact, hyper-seasonal vegan fare relies on whatever small-scale producers show up — even laying on artisanal vegan cheeses that won’t disappoint. And since agriculture and construction are two of the most global-warming sectors, praise be for this working case study in meaningful minimalism. Five courses for under £50 leaves an especially agreeable taste in the mouth.
217 Mare Street, Hackney, E8 3QE, edit.london
Mallow
An offshoot of Soho’s beloved Mildreds, Mallow’s 100 per cent plant-based cuisine puts paid to any idea that eschewing meat means scrimping on satisfaction. Navigate your way past Borough's food stalls to this bricks-and-mortar home for an imaginative menu that dances through Indian, Middle Eastern, and Japanese influences.. Named after an edible plant that blooms in the summer, it's also the perfect weekend brunch destination thanks to its porridge, pancakes, and coriander-enhanced Bloody Marys. The freshest seasonal ingredients are Instagram-flirtingly presented with passion in a pretty, spirit-lifting setting.
1 Cathedral Street, SE1 9DE, mallowlondon.com
Hawksmoor
A steak restaurant group may not be the most obvious contender for London’s best sustainable restaurants — but Hawksmoor is no ordinary steak restaurant group. Full marks for the witty “menuzines”, which are a nod to a caricature of the archetypical City Boy clients who regularly expense meals out in their seven London restaurants, quipping at the top of their B Corp explanation: “I just want a ribeye and chips, please don’t drown it all in self-congratulatory ‘look-how-awesome-we-are-ness’”. We say virtue-signal away and wear your values with pride — and bravo on the engaging annual Impact Reports. They've done their homework on how to green up operations — from running on renewables to organic waste converted into biogas, and offering carbon literacy training. As for those steaks, which come in all cuts and sizes, it hails from cattle raised on small regenerative-agriculture farms around Britain. That, together with near-faultless cooking and a stellar selection of sides — the creamed spinach will bring joy as well as vitamins to your plate; triple cooked chips are a no-brainer — means Hawksmoor is a winner.
Various locations, thehawksmoor.com
Silo
Evangelically sustainable chef Douglas McMaster, author of Silo: The Zero Waste Blueprint, helms what has famously been referred to “the restaurant without a bin”. Plates are made from recycled plastic bags, lampshades from mycelium, crockery from crushed glass and the downstairs basement boasts an anaerobic digester and there's a flour mill for heritage grains grown on regenerative farms. Except for its rightly famed ice cream sandwich, made from old bread and excess buttermilk, Silo’s menu changes daily — but expect hyper-seasonal, hyper-colourful plates that put plants on a pedestal, served in industrial minimal surroundings. There are set menus: The Shortlist and All In, which can be paired with skin-contact wines (these meaning, happily, that a night in Silo isn’t entirely without sin). And £1 goes on every bill to support The Felix Project.
Unit 7, The White Building, 1st Floor, c/o CRATE Bar, Queen's Yard, E9 5EN, silolondon.com
Wahaca
That Wahaca is a fun, affordable Mexican restaurant with cheap, decent margaritas is common knowledge. What’s less well known is that Wahaca recycles as much as it can of pre-existing building materials, installs eco walls for insulation, recycles the hot air from the fridges to provide heating and has been carbon neutral since 2016. Indeed, few if any restaurant empresses have as much claim to sustainable fame as Thomasina Miers who, when her co-founder Mark Selby sought to expand back in 2007, agreed only on the grounds that they were socially and environmentally responsible. Acknowledging food is responsible for 28 per cent of global emissions, they work with Klimato to calculate the carbon footprint (total greenhouse gas emissions) of each dish. Wahaca’s carbon ratings on their menu helps customers make an informed decision to eat more like a climatarian, and they have guacamole alternatives to reduce their reliance on the imported, water-guzzling avo.
Various locations, wahaca.co.uk
Jikoni
Ravinder Bhogal’s “proudly inauthentic immigrant cuisine” doesn’t merely cross borders, it cartwheels over them with infectious energy. Born in Kenya and raised in London by Punjabi Indian parents, her culinary inheritance — and that of the diverse chefs she employs — shines through in dishes such as crispy aubergine, sichuancaramel, sticky garlic rice. The beauty of Jikoni’s presentation is in tune with the prettiest surroundings: embroidered cushions, block-printed table linen and soft pink walls all conspiring with the food and environmental ethos to make it the living definition of the French verb from which restaurant is derived: restaurer, meaning “to restore”. Jikoni has won acclaim for its commitment to green power and sourcing from local, sustainable businesses and for hosting fundraising events.
19-21 Blandford Street, W1U 3DH, jikonilondon.com
Lyle’s
He might flinch at the word, but for the sake of this list there’s no denying that James Lowe runs one of the most sustainable restaurants in London. He also — and the two are not unrelated — runs one of the best restaurants in London full stop, as evinced by Lyle’s longstanding place on the World’s 50 Best list. His approach to sustainability, like his approach to food, hinges on common sense: it’s common sense for delivery companies to reuse their crates, rather than lumber Lyle’s with waste. It’s common sense to eat offal and whey rather than chucking it. It’s common sense to eat seasonally, and to use all of an animal’s carcass — which is why one day the menu might boast Mangalitsa belly with preserved gooseberries, and the next a different cut. The room is reminiscent of Lowe’s alma mater, St John; classic, minimal, daylight-filled and humming with people enjoying a Michelin-starred menu and wine list, both of which are fairly priced — because beautifully wrought, sustainably sourced food is not beyond the reach of everyone but bankers and brokers is also, to Lowe’s mind, just common sense.
Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JJ, lyleslondon.com
Prawn on the Lawn
There’s supply-chain transparency, and there’s commissioning illustrations of each of your indie suppliers. Their line drawings are a love letter to how much they value their anything-but-anonymous fishermen, farmers, brewers and winemakers. All are based in Devon and Cornwall — as are founders Rick and Katie Toogood (nominative determinism?) who established Prawn on the Lawn in 2013 as a small fishmonger in Highbury. Today it is a full-blown restaurant with counter seating, well-crafted cocktails and a menu that promises creative small plates such as crab, seaweed, cucumber, daikon and sesame salad, scallops in Thai marinade, or buttermilk fried fish with sriracha mayo. Fish are dayboat-caught; vegetables are grown by the Toogood’s themselves or their friend Ross on his family farm — and £1 of every bill goes to support The Wave Project. This mental-health charity provides surf therapy helping children suffering from anxiety.
292-294 St Paul’s Road, N1 2LH, prawnonthelawn.com
Frog by Adam Handling
There are two main takeaways when dining at Frog by Adam Handling, a restaurant best suited to special occasions (and also Handling’s “leap-of-faith” restaurant, hence the name). The first is that the eponymous chef loves dry ice, great plumes of which appear every now and again throughout the menu. The second is that he hates — and yet loves — waste. There is wasted chicken fat and chicken skin in his now famed chicken butter. Wasted wine often turns up in his puddings. Hosts explain the provenance of ingredients and how their culinary closed-loop thinking works in cahoots with their kitchens in Cornwall, in a way that is pure eco “edutainment”. Make like a flexitarian since the likes of caviar and sirloin show up if you buckle up for the full performance — and while it’s not entirely virtuous, the Scottish chef is mindful of leaving no trace while making as big an impact as possible long the way. Look out, too, for Handling’s own vintages on offer, though sommeliers here are adept at making non-alcoholic pairings just as interesting. In short, Frog serves fancy, in-your-face food that walks the line between sustainability and fine dining with theatrical swagger.
34-35 Southampton Street, WC2E 7HG, frogbyadamhandling.com
The Buxton Bistro and Wine Bar
The bistro-style European small plates at this revived Victorian pub at the far end of Brick Lane are especially good when you know much of the produce has been plucked from the owners’ very own Culpeper Farm. The sunken open kitchen where the back of the bar once was shows chefs working their magic with their seasonal- and responsibly-sourced goodness. Everything on the hand-written blackboard is tempting, but stand-outs include the whipped cod’s roe panise and croquettes. For drinks, there are plenty of interesting non-intervention wines. The characterful, rough-luxe interiors retain old-school pub charm while showing a head for elegance and being eco — check out the use of Sapele wood, an ethical alternative to mahogany. This Sustainable Restaurant Association star is especially appealing to out-of-towners since it’s also a boutique bolthole with 15 cute rooms upstairs and a rooftop herb garden with satisfying views over Spitalfields. A spin-off from the mothership around the corner, be sure to earmark the rooftop of the Culpeper on Commercial Street to try their regenerative-agriculture menu.
42 Osborn Street, E1 6TD, thebuxton.co.uk
Three green heroes worth travelling to
Knepp Wilding Kitchen & Shop, Sussex
Isabella Tree’s 2018 book Wilding: the Return of Nature to a British Farm made Knepp famous, after they let husband Charlie Burrell's family farm run wild with the introduction of free-roaming grazing animals. The latest chapter in this nature-positive project sees son Ned, trained at the Bull Inn in Totnes and Brat, serving up his smart-cooking, care of a wood-fired kitchen in a laid-back, reincarnated barn on their regenerated land. Food miles? What are those?
Daylesford Organic Farm, Gloucestershire
Lady Bamford was gushing about organic farming long before it became fashionable with the Cotswolds and Kensington chattering classes, opening her first organic cafe in 2002 on the Daylesford House estate. A seal of their eco-friendly operations is their B Corp status with a dazzling array of lifestyle goods available from their farm stores, should you want to splash out on organic cashmere, or crockery, or elevated eco-friendly home essentials.
L'Enclume, Cumbria
This Cartmel superhero sources ingredients straight from chef Simon Rogan's own farm, practices ingenious kitchen circularity and such love for delivering fine dining with heart and soul. Inspired non-alcoholic pairings may have you wondering why we ever need booze. It deserves its Michelin Green Star.
