The best Greek restaurants in London
Greek restaurant food in London has entered a new era. Long gone are the days of neighbourhood tavernas with whitewashed walls, blue chairs, posters of Santorini and sometimes a bouzouki player in the corner. Offering a taste of sunshine long before Easyjet could transport us to the Aegean, they were mostly family-run, smoky and exuberant. The menus were generous and familiar: moussaka, kleftiko, taramasalata (usually pink), retsina by the jug. Service was warm if slightly chaotic, and the night might end with dancing or smashed plates.
Now a new generation of Greek hospitality has emerged led by chefs with impeccable culinary pedigree, often from fine-dining European restaurants that already exist in the capital. They have swapped exuberance for refinement, reinterpreting those familiar and much-loved Greek flavours and dishes with a modern finesse, while maintaining the spirit of generosity that remains unmistakably Greek.
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1/5Myrtos
South Kensington’s dining scene has long lacked a restaurant of genuine charm and substance — until Myrtos arrived. Conceived by Asimakis Chaniotis, formerly of Pied à Terre, this modern Greek newcomer brings a welcome dose of warmth and Mediterranean flavour to the neighbourhood. Named after his favourite beach in Kefalonia, it reflects Chaniotis’s devotion to simplicity, seasonality and confident restraint.
The mood is friendly and unforced; staff are attentive without a trace of formality. The food, meanwhile, is quietly dazzling. Pillowy pita and wholegrain buns come with a smoky, undyed taramasalata that’s both refined and nostalgic. Pink bream and sea bass ceviche gleam with freshness and a hint of orange zest, while Horta — wild greens layered between shards of filo with dill and feta — is crisp, delicate and instantly memorable.
A miniature moussaka arrives as a cloud of béchamel over rich tomato and tender aubergine; Fosse Farm chicken, roasted to perfect bronze, sits in a sharp, lemony avgolemono sauce. Dessert is a fragrant portokalopita — orange-soaked filo, sticky and sunlit.
Myrtos feels like the restaurant South Kensington didn’t know it needed: relaxed but intelligent, steeped in Greek soul yet entirely at home in London.
Myrtos, St Georges Court, 260-262 Brompton Rd, South Kensington, London SW3 2AS
2/5Kima
Marylebone’s Greek quarter is quietly thriving. At Kima, which opened in summer 2023, the name — Greek for “wave” — signals a devotion to the sea. The restaurant’s “fin-to-gill” philosophy means each fish is used in its entirety, transformed through a series of meticulous, elegant dishes. The small dining room feels calm and deliberate, the staff warm and proud of their culinary heritage.
You are greeted on entering with a marble ice bath displaying fish so fresh they could almost be swimming. We chose a gleaming gilthead bream became the structure of our meal: a lemon-and-oil broth poured over cubes of raw fish, cooking them in its heat; fillet sliced paper-thin, dressed only with thyme and olive oil; head and collar grilled, rich with caper butter. A monkfish fillet followed, served in an earthenware from Corfu (all their tableware is sourced from this pottery studio), its juicy flesh resting on braised spring onions and greens. Dessert was characteristically refined — a coffee-cream mille-feuille of caramelised nori with a lemon ice cream and lime zest. The combination was precise, restrained, and deeply satisfying.
Kima, 57 Paddington St, London W1U 4HZ
3/5OPSO
Just across the street from Kima, its sister restaurant Opso translates to “delectable morsel”. Here the atmosphere is brighter, more convivial — communal tables, cocktails, shared plates. Modern Greek cooking meets London ease: feta kataifi, skordalia, milk buns with goat’s curd, moussaka with unexpected finesse.
Together, Kima and Opso capture the two sides of contemporary Greek dining. While Kima is first meditative and exacting, Opso generous and sociable. Both are driven by confidence, curiosity and a quiet pride in where they come from.
Opso, 10 Paddington St, W1U 5QL
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KHALI ACKFORD4/5PYRO
Tucked beneath the railway arches behind Borough Market, Pyro feels like a discovery: cabana-style interiors, flickering light and the scent of wood smoke curling through the air. It’s the first solo venture from Yiannis Mexis, a Greek-born chef whose résumé includes The Ledbury, Elystan Street, Pétrus and HIDE. Here, he channels that Michelin discipline into open-fire cooking, fusing Greek warmth with technical precision.
A silky tarama topped with fragrant dill oil and shards of rusk, arrives with a warm cushion of potato bread to scoop it up with. Smoked aubergine with walnuts and pomegranate seeds follows, deep and earthy. Pork souvlaki, glazed with prunes and cooked over embers, is juicy and sweet on a bed of bitter radicchio and herbs. Sea bream, chopped and dressed in citrus before being returned to its ice-bedded carcass, divides opinion but shows confidence. Roast lamb over alder wood with anchovy yoghurt and flatbreads is pure pleasure: food to eat with your hands.
A parsnip ice-cream with caramelised bay leaf sauce and honeycomb is an unlikely triumph. Service is relaxed, the staff charming, and mercifully free of concept talk — Pyro speaks for itself.
Pyro, 53b Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU
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Christopher Horwood5/5OMA
Borough Market seems to be having a moment. Upstairs at OMA, above its lively sister restaurant Agora, a discreet stairway leads to a calm, light-filled room. Huge glass windows frame views over the market’s Victorian ironwork on one side and the busy street below on the other. The space is elegantly restrained — stone and eucalyptus tones, clean lines, wood floors and gentle lighting — serene and considered, but never stiff.
OMA’s menu is divided simply: bread, spreads, crudo, clay pot and grill. What follows is food of remarkable precision and confidence. Cubes of raw tuna melt on the tongue like butter; seabass crudo, lifted with grilled chilli, sings with freshness. A quartet of dips — aubergine, tahini, salt cod and tarama — scooped up with Wildfarmed laffa bread, sets the tone: ingredients made to taste like the best version of themselves. The oxtail, slow-cooked and sticky, is quietly magnificent; the rice pudding with fig leaf borders on the divine. Service is exemplary: my waiter, only weeks into the job, knew the menu intimately but never over-explained. Behind the counter, a wood fire blazes as a chef dismantles a tuna head with unhurried calm.
Downstairs, Agora is OMA’s sociable foil — a more industrial, open space spilling into the market, with a charcoal rotisserie at its heart. Flatbreads, meze and spit-roast meats deliver hits of smoky, sunlit flavour.
Together, the pair offer everything one could want from modern dining: sophistication above, exuberance below. David Carter, the restaurateur behind Smokestak and Manteca, has outdone himself.
Oma and Agora, 2 - 4 bedale street, SE1 9AL, London
