Dining Out: Five Places In London For Eating Al Fresco

It's that time again baby.

It is, emphatically, getting to be outdoor eating season, aka t-shirt season aka Crocs season aka everyone looking sexy in sunglasses season – which, as we all know, is a lovely time of year.

Now of course, there are plenty of places in London where you can eat outside. The best thing, in fact, about the city in spring and summer is that the entire place becomes a veritable restaurant, all the public spaces lined with people vibing and just fuckin photosynthesising while eating a wrap from a van or a double cheeseburger or a sausage roll or whatever. In the sun, I’ve said before, London feels a bit more like it belongs to the people who live here, rather than to money or brands or the algorithm. I think that’s cool, and I’ve been seeing more and more people chomping on benches or sprawled on grass or, indeed, outside on restaurant terraces over the past few weeks – so I thought I’d dedicate this week’s post for paid subscribers to al fresco eating spots.

Because of the aforementioned (and very positive) takeover of public space when the temperature gets to a sustained 16 or so degrees, the places I’ll mention below are all actual restaurants where you go in, get a table outside assigned to you, and eat there, rather than places you can take away from*. Also, to make this actually interesting to read, they are all places that might not initially spring to mind when you think “al fresco” (also why when I write “al fresco” do I say it in my head like Lily Allen in “LDN” btw? Am I that NME-pilled?), but where I’m pretty sure you’ll have a nice time trying to achieve the perfect balance between “lunchtime tipsy and full” and “actually just suffering from minor sunstroke.”

Luca

Michelin-starred Luca in Farringdon is a very fancy affair and the home of a truly phenomenal rum baba I once ate (pictured), absolutely soaked through with booze, but somehow still with that lovely tacky crust that the good ones maintain. Also, they do very good “Parmesan fries” at the start of the meal. Also also: they have an absolutely gorgeous conservatory and garden area out back, and being there makes you feel like you’re being entertained by the Ambassador or something – by evening especially, it’s all romance and wine glasses illuminated by candlelight. By virtue of the Michelin star, it’s not one for every day (though they do do a set lunch menu in the bar during the week for the bargain hunters, £32 for two courses and £38 for three, though those Parmesan fries’ll set you back extra) but if you have a summery special occasion coming up and you like Italian food and feeling posh, this would be high up my list of shouts.