London's most beautiful dishes

Top grub, looking pretty

They say you start eating with your eyes. Which is weird - cos you eat with your mouth, everyone knows that. Not even babies try and eat with their eyes - and they're stupid.

But there's certainly no better way to get the juices flowing than with a plate of food that looks darn-right delicious.

So if you want to find a plate of food that's as pleasing to the peepers as it is your palate then take a look at these esteemed establishments...

Lima London image
Lima London
Rathbone Place W1T 1JH
South American
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Michelin-starred Lima serves food that looks as good as it tastes. The octopus is not a creature renowned for its beauty, but here after being lightly braised with olives and white quinoait’s prettified with leaves and flowers. Served as a starter, you’ll wish there was more of it.

Yauatcha Soho image
Yauatcha Soho
15-17 Broadwick Street W1F 0DL
Piccadilly Circus 0.26 miles
AIL
Users
Chinese
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At Yauatcha they’ve cleverly positioned their mouth-watering confectionery in a glass-fronted counter so it’s one of the first things you notice when you enter. The brightly coloured macarons and petits gateaux are enough of a reason to visit, before you tuck into their acclaimed dim sum.

Texture image
Texture
34 Portman Street W1H 7BY
Marble Arch 0.10 miles
Mediterranean
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Texture shows how a pigeon claw can be beautiful rather than savage. Chunks of ruby-red meat are paired with chargrilled sweet corn and bacon-flavoured popcorn.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal image
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
66 Knightsbridge SW1X 7LA
Knightsbridge 0.06 miles
AIL
Users
British
Opening Times
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One of Heston Blumenthal’s most famous dishes is the meat fruit. It looks like a perfect mandarin, but slice it apart and you’ll find silky chicken liver parfait. The whole process – alcohol reduction, terrine, mandarin jelly and creating a perfect stem – takes five days.

Oscar Wilde Bar at Hotel Cafe Royal image
Oscar Wilde Bar at Hotel Cafe Royal
68 Regent Street W1B 4DY
Piccadilly Circus 0.07 miles
Bars
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Café Royal’s Oscar Wilde Bar has one of London’s most ostentatious afternoon teas. One of the desserts is the Passion Banana Opera, a cake sumptuously layered with banana sponge and passion fruit cream, topped with dazzling fruit tuilles.

Pollen Street Social image
Pollen Street Social
8 - 10 Pollen Street W1S 1NQ
Oxford Circus 0.11 miles
AIL
Users
European
Photos

Nothing is what you’d expect at Pollen Street Social. The quail served “brunch” style with cereal bowl, tea and sandwich is in fact quail terrine on a brioche, a cereal bowl of wheat, barley and mushroom risotto and a cup of quail stock and lapsangsouchong “tea”. Oh, and there’s a wooden box with a drawer that reveals confit quail leg and breast.

Tramshed image
Tramshed
32 Rivington Street EC2A 3LX
Old Street 0.27 miles
British
Opening Times

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, but whatever your ideal is Tramshed’sIndian rock chicken with stuffing and chips is a show-stopper. A whole chicken arrives on the table upright on a skewer to be carved by the diners, covered in crispy skin and dripping with gravy for you to mop up your fries with.

Hedone image
Hedone
301 - 303 Chiswick High Road W4 4HH
Chiswick Park 0.12 miles
European
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There is no fixed menu at Hedone, but for a while they served squab pigeon, the leg of which was left whole with a claw. Chef-proprietor Mikael Jonsson manages to beautify it by adding roasted red and golden beetroots along with colourful dabs of jus.

Yashin Ocean House image
Yashin Ocean House
117 - 119 Old Brompton Rd SW7 3RN
Gloucester Road 0.27 miles
Japanese
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Presentation is everything in Japanese cuisine. At Yashin Ocean House the Vegetable Garden Tempura is served on a garden naturally, with the tempura in a plant pot and dipping sauce in a metal watering bucket.