The best restaurants and bars in the City of London

Global flavours are the focus at self-taught chef Murat Kilic's latest Aldgate restaurant. Think corn ribs with umami dust and mussels skewers in roasted chicken wing butter sauce. As for drinks, it's all about sustainability from the vineyards featured on the wine list to cocktails made from spirits created from waste produce.

Leydi sees a return to the London restaurant scene by chef Selin Kiazim. Here she's channelling her love of Turkish food and the vibes of Istanbul, hoping to translate that to a City audience. It's an all-day affair with Turkish breakfasts and pastries in the morning, through to sharing dishes at lunch and in the evenings. Cocktails are well worth a look too, as one of Turkey's best bartenders, Kevin Patnode, came up with the list here.

Husband and wife duo Eroshan and Aushi Meewella have plundered the favourite recipes of friends and family to come up with the dishes served at this modern Sri Lankan restaurant. The end result is a celebration of culinary diversity with everything from hoppers and samals to spiced chops on the menu. It's a gorgeous space too, with its own bar serving up a range of cocktails made with Sri Lankan spirits.

London’s highest omakase restaurant (which seats just 12 people) can be found inside another high-rise restaurant, Los Mochis City. As the name suggests, there’s a lunar theme here, from the decor through to the menu. Expect clever creations from the creative team here as part of a 12-course menu, that also happens to be gluten-free. Sushi, sandos and modern twists on Japanese classics all feature.

Osteria Angelina comes from the same team behind the original Angelina, but this can be viewed as a more casual outpost. it still brings together Italian and Japanese cuisine under one roof, with a specific emphasis on northern Italian cooking. So you'll find milk break, sushi, sashimi and pasta dishes all on the same menu. There's a separate bar here, so if you're in the area it's well worth popping in for cocktails and a snack or two.

Set in a historic part of the City, this neighbourhood-style restaurant was opened by a pair of wine importers so you can expect the wine offering to be on point. It’s split, loosely, into a wine bar for enjoying small plates, and a cosy dining room. The dishes are seasonal and the cooking is both inventive and great, with a big emphasis on seasonality.

Ibai comes from the team behind renowned Basque meat supplier Txuleta (also involved with Lurra in Marylebone) so you know the meat will be of great quality at this City restaurant. Alongside the huge sharing steaks are some great Basque-inspired small plates and the king crab rice is also a signature dish. Make good use of the wine list too, with many great Spanish vintages unique to Ibai.

The people behind Nest created this Smithfield restaurant, hidden away in a courtyard. Here, things are a little different from their previous restaurants, with a focus on hyper-seasonal British food and a huge 15-course tasting menu that starts in the bar before moving through to the restaurant.

Boxpark are primarily known for their semi-container village approach, but for Boxhall, they've opened something that's more in the classic food hall/court mode. Taking over what used to be an Edwardian shopping arcade, they've filled it with 13 spaces for food as well as bars, shops and more. You'll find everything from a bakery to burgers in here and a whole lot more.

In less assured hands, fusion food can be a clunky mismatch. Happily, that’s not the case at the signature restaurant at the Pan Pacific London, where the best of British produce gets an inspired twist from the culinary flavours of Southeast Asia. Perched on a corner, the restaurant offers a great view of the ancient and new elements of the City. And with menu options ranging from an express set lunch to an experience tasting menu, it’s just as good a spot for a business get-together as an evening date.

The City branch of this Notting Hill fusion restaurant serves up a winning mix of Japanese dishes with Mexican influences. Its biggest selling point here at Liverpool Street is the late licence and capacious roof terrace with a great view of the City. There’s also a huge separate bar here as well.

One of London’s best – and oldest – seafood restaurants, Sweetings has been going strong for over a century. All the fish and seafood served here is from sustainable sources, and while it’s only open for lunch, it’s the place to step back in time while also savouring such classics as prawn cocktail, fried whitebait, Lobster Thermidor and cod’s roe on toast.

One of London’s best steak restaurants, this City outlet of the Goodman restaurant group is popular with business diners. The meat is dry-aged on-site, and regular diners even have theirs cut to order. There’s a private dining room seating up to 10, for serious steak meetings.

The Ned is both an impressive City hotel as well as a collection of restaurants. Soho House took over an impressive (and huge) old banking site and stuffed it with places to eat. There are ten restaurants to choose from and while some City restaurants get quiet at the weekends - this is buzzy at all times.

Set within the astoundingly opulent Grade-II-listed St Botolph’s Hall, with its high stone ceilings and large arched windows, Galvin La Chapelle is fine French dining indeed. Holding a Michelin star since 2011, this 110-seater restaurant is the place for dishes such as barbecued Bresse pigeon, celeriac, Yorkshire rhubarb and dark chocolate. There are vegetarian and vegan menus too.

Infamous for its ‘press for Champagne’ button at every table, this London institution is great for groups (the largest booth size seats eight but up to 18 can dine comfortably in their private dining rooms). Menu-wise, expect reinventions of classic European dishes.

If you have a penchant for freshly made udon noodles, this is the place: a larger version of the much-loved Koya in Soho, where you can sit at wooden tables and enjoy izakaya small plates with sake and beer.

One of the best Indian restaurants in The City, Brigadiers is from the same people behind Trishna, Hoppers and Gymkhana. It has a maze of rooms in the largest space in the Bloomberg Arcade, with a sizeable outdoor terrace too. Fans of smoky Indian barbecue will be particularly impressed.

The Wolseley City is a sibling restaurant to the classic Wolseley on Piccadilly, with a design that's very reminiscent of the original but on a larger scale. Like this original, it's styled after a European Grand Café offers with an all-day menu, that also resembles its predecessor while adding exclusive dishes to the City branch. There's also a large upstairs bar here and it's a popular spot for City power breakfasts.

Origin City comes from the team behind 56 West Smithfield wine bar, and is a restaurant that emphasizes provenance with meat sourced from the family's organic farm in Scotland and seafood from Loch Fyne Oyster. Here, the menu showcases British classics including dishes like Tamworth pork tonnato and dry-aged Black Angus sirloin. The restaurant promotes a 'no waste, great taste' philosophy.

This sees chef and restaurateur Guirong Wei (of Master Wei) taking her Shaanxi menu to the heart of the City. The Tower Hill restaurant has a strong focus on hand-pulled noodles with them making up many of the signature dishes.

With spectacular views from the 7th floor of the South Place Hotel, Angler presents Michelin-starred dining with a special focus on seafood. Enjoy a tasting menu, lunch or à la carte meals from the rooftop terrace, with the likes of sea bass tartare with oyster cream, green apple and shiso on offer.

The self-proclaimed ‘highest 24-hour restaurant in London’, Duck & Waffle has views of the city’s landmarks from its floor-to-ceiling windows on the 40th floor of Heron Tower. The curved banquettes are both cosy and retro, and the menu is imaginative, including the signature Duck & Waffle dish.

Travel to Portugal without leaving the City of London by perching at the counter by the open kitchen of the City outlet of Bar Douro. Here you can enjoy petiscos, such as salt-cod fritters and smoked sausage croquetas, while admiring the azulejos that adorn the walls.

Renowned for their steaks, excellent wine list and service, Hawksmoor is a reassuring choice, and their Guildhall branch is particularly suited to the business crowd, with breakfast meetings well-catered for. There’s a 22-person private dining room, complete with audio-visual equipment, for presentations with exceptional catering.

Opened in 2015 and since expanded to restaurants in Soho and Tower Bridge, this original Gunpowder serves Indian small plates with an inventive twist. The dishes are inspired by those that the team grew up with and the Kashmiri lamb chops are a must.

Set in an atmospheric basement of a Grade-II-listed building, the City outlet of Blacklock, a chophouse renowned for the quality of its grass-fed meat, is where carnivores can indulge in the likes of smoked maple-glazed bacon chops or even pig’s head on toast.

Think of this Spitalfields spot as an elevated wine bar, serving not only a cracking list of Italian wines, but a range of traditional Tuscan dishes using top-notch produce. Their slow cooked regional stews are particularly worth seeking out.

Part of the Angel Court development, COYA's City branch features a Latin American bar and a restaurant serving contemporary Peruvian dishes. Head to the Pisco Bar for their own bespoke Pisco cocktails and look out for their popular weekend brunch.

Whether you're looking for Peking Duck or sushi, this restaurant (one of two at the Four Seasons Trinity Square) has what you're after - covering traditional Japanese and Chinese dishes with what they say is a 'modern approach'. Tables are well spaced too making it good for confidential convos.

1 Lombard Street is something of a City institution, in what used to be a former banking hall. Known for its highly impressive glass cupola skylight, its a modern European brasserie that’s been serving breakfast, lunch and dinner since 1998.

This restaurant from chef-about-town Jason Atherton offers stylish art deco surroundings with extraordinary views from the 24th floor of skyscraper Tower 42. As is the case with most of the Atherton empire, the cocktails are exceptional (the bar is a destination in itself) and his modern British fare is always on point.

Run by chef Pascal Aussignac, this Michelin-starred French restaurant (it's now held a star for over 20 years) focuses on the cuisine of the southwest of France, with opulent tasting menus available. Despite the focus on meat, there's real attention too given to their vegetarian and vegan offering.