The Best Restaurants in Hampstead Right Now

Hampstead's restaurant scene is smaller and more discerning than its neighbours in Primrose Hill or Islington — fewer big names, more neighbourhood staples, and a clientele that tends to know its own mind. Here are the places worth booking.

Chutneys — Drummond Street (The Hampstead Pick)

Technically just south of the village proper, but beloved by Hampstead residents for decades, Chutneys is a vegetarian Indian restaurant of the old school — vast portions, extraordinary value, and a dosa counter that draws a queue on weekends. The thali is a masterclass in restraint and generosity in equal measure. Cash preferred.

La Brocca — West End Lane

A neighbourhood Italian that has somehow avoided becoming complacent. The pasta is made fresh daily; the wood-fired pizzas are thin, charred at the edges, and topped with good ingredients rather than impressive-sounding ones. The room is warm, the service is attentive without being theatrical, and it's genuinely difficult to spend more than £35 a head. Booking essential at weekends.

The Wells — Well Walk

The gastropub that started the gentrification of the Hampstead dining scene and still does it better than most. The kitchen is consistent — particularly good with seasonal British produce — and the upstairs dining room, with its dark wood panelling and William Morris wallpaper, has become a fixture for birthdays and Sunday lunches among a certain kind of North Londoner. The Sunday roast is exceptional.

Jin Kichi — Heath Street

A Japanese grill restaurant that has been in the same premises on Heath Street for over 35 years. The yakitori is the main event — skewers of chicken grilled over charcoal to a degree of precision that few London restaurants approach. Small, determinedly unfussy, and reliably excellent. Bookings essential; they fill up weeks in advance at weekends.

Gaucho — Heath Street

The Hampstead branch of the Argentine steakhouse group is one of the quieter outposts of a London-wide chain, which is precisely its appeal. The steaks — ribeye and sirloin from grass-fed Argentine cattle — are as good as they've always been. The wine list, focused almost entirely on Malbec, is helpfully curated. For a celebration dinner, it's hard to fault.

Artigiano — Belsize Park

A small Italian café and restaurant that has won a devoted local following through sheer consistency. The pasta lunches are some of the best value in the area; the evening tasting menu (Friday and Saturday only) is a genuine surprise at the price. Not a destination restaurant — but the kind of local you'd be bereft without.