The best restaurants and bars in Westminster

Endo Kazutoshi, who also runs Sumi and his signature restaurant Endo at Rotunda, is behind this extensive Japanese restaurant at the top of The OWO in Whitehall. Here he's created a menu that has more European Influences than his other places, while boasting a great roof terrace that looks over some of London's most iconic buildings. Make sure to also pop into the excellent Kioku Bar on the ground floor for cocktails and sake.

Chef and restaurateur Vivek Singh’s fine-dining Indian restaurant has long been a Westminster institution. Housed in a gorgeous Grade II listed building it’s the perfect place for a business lunch or dinner. Game and seafood are a speciality and if things are going particularly well you might want to call the gin trolley over.

For an old-school Lyon bouchon experience look no further than Chez Antoinette. Owner Aurelia took inspiration from her grandmother’s cooking. So we're talking croque monsieur, French onion soup and chicken cordon bleu on the menu. Both this restaurant and the other branch in Covent Garden are packed with furniture, curios and art sourced from France.

If you aren’t headed to Sweden any time soon then a visit here to Michelin-starred chef Niklas Ekstedt's only restaurant outside Stockholm is a must. Here it’s all about using live-fire cooking, applying Swedish techniques to the best of British produce. That might translate to dishes like a Tunworth cheese cooked in a wood-fired oven and served with smoked honey.

Set in the Grade II listed Edwardian Westminster fire station, Yaatra is a modern Indian restaurant
Executive chef Amit Bagyal worked with Atul Kochhar for years at both Kanishka Mayfair and Benares. Menus are created in a way to give you a tasting tour of the Indian subcontinent. The purple carrot & kohlrabi koftar is a signature dish.

A classic English café, this opened in 1946 and is so quintessential-looking that it’s been used as a filming location for its art deco style. This is where to get a proper ‘greasy spoon’ breakfast fry-up. None other than top chef Michel Roux Jr has also declared it his favourite (there’s a framed photo of his on the wall here with his statement to prove it).

This is the place for modern Sichuan cuisine and dim sum. Expect lots of sizzle and spicy flavours in a relatively minimalist and sleek space with service that errs on the formal side. There are two set menus as well as à la carte; it’s particularly good for groups.

Described by top chef Pierre Koffmann as “a restaurant of low-key excellence, serving some of the best food in the city” Wild Honey St James has seen chef Anthony Demetre turn this hotel restaurant into a genuine gastronomic destination. There’s a particularly good value set lunch option but if you can stay for longer, do order whatever seasonal iteration of the crisp Sutton Hoo chicken with pasta is on the menu.

Having won loads of plaudits during her time heading the kitchen at London's only Michelin-starred pub The Harwood Arms, now chef Sally Abé has moved to the Conrad St James. She's in charge of all the food at the hotel and this is her main restaurant, aiming to "build on the foundations of British cuisine" with a menu that intends to be elevated but fun.

His Buckinghamshire pub was the first pub to win two Michelin stars and this was top TV chef Tom Kerridge's first restaurant in London (and remains his signature restaurant in the city). As the name gives away, grilling is a big deal here with regularly changing steak cuts alongside dishes like his venison bun.

The original Naples restaurant is one of the best places to get pizza in the world. So by virtue of that, their London outpost is one of the best places to get pizza in London. Owner Ciro Salvo is a third generation pizzaiolo so he knows the importance of great dough and a hotter than hell wood-fired oven.

This contemporary Italian restaurant in Westminster should prove a boon to spin doctors, lobbyists, journalists and any MP brave enough to put a nice meal out on their expenses. In charge of the kitchen is chef Demian Mazzocchi, Dutch-born but raised in Italy and who has worked in the restaurant for over 15 years.

With London high-end Indian restaurants being so good, it’s worthy of note that the Quilon has been one of the longest-serving in the city and it has a Michelin star to boot. Expect southwest coastal Indian cuisine with a high-end feel.