For a fortnight in July every year, the suburban hideaway of Wimbledon, with its vast common, cosy pubs and chic village boutiques, comes alive in the name of tennis. And when visiting during the world’s most prestigious competition, which attracts a hive of hungry sports lovers, you want to make sure you’re reserving the grand slam restaurants before everyone else does.
There are a lot of places to eat out in Wimbledon, but for the most part, it's a shedload of uninspiring chains that offer mere sustenance and a heavy dose of harsh overhead lighting. So we’ve done the hard work and scoped out the best places to eat in the tennis-famous borough.
From the sun-dappled beer gardens serving up gastro pub food, Italian delicatessens catering to your arancini addiction and sushi spots slicing up prime sashimi, here’s our pick of the best restaurants to visit in Wimbledon, whether you’re in town to watch Nadal’s balls, or not.
Maison St Cassien
71 High Street, SW19 5EE
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One of the now few independent spots in Wimbledon village, Maison St Cassian serves up a sunny mix of Mediterranean and Lebanese food. It’s the perfect spot for lunch with a delicatessen-style counter filled with plates of salads like sharp tabbouleh jewelled with pomegranate, crispy shell lamb koftas and fluffy pitas. We’re not going to tell you what to order, but the Lebanese chicken marinated in yoghurt, tomato paste, herbs, garlic and lemon is a firm favourite of Andy Murray, who allegedly comes throughout the tennis championships for double portions. Whether you choose to get the chicken or not, there’s bitro seating out the front, which is perfect for morning people-watching with an espresso or twilight aperitifs with pals.
The Rose & Crown
55 High Street, SW19 5BA
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As one of Wimbledon Villages' quaintest pubs, The Rose & Crown is a good idea all year round with its cosy hearths, oaky interiors, craft beers and sun-soaked beer garden. The food on offer is a hybrid of hearty pub grub like steak and Guinness pie and mash, beer battered fish and thick cut chips and deep-fried whitebait with tartar sauce, alongside some more radical options like nduja sausage rolls, lamb kofte flatbreads and Moroccan chicken pie with harissa gravy. The Rose & Crown definitely comes into its own during the month of the tennis, with a marquee pop-up bar to replace the car park, free-flowing Pimms and live bands throughout the evening. Be prepared to get merry among the rowdy twenty-somethings who are at the Tennis, but rest assured it will be a joyous evening.
The Adega Restaurant & Tapas Bar
77 The Broadway, SW19 1QE
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Adega, which means wine cellar in Portuguese, combines the culinary traditions of Portugal and Spain to serve up a selection of ‘Iberian tapas’ alongside a great selection of wines. It’s very much a family affair, headed up by brothers Carlos and Luis Silva from Alentejo, South Portugal, who have racked up over 30 years in the industry. Expect to swoon over all your tapas classics like pimientos de padron, gambas and ajillo, croquetas de jamon and tortilla, often cooked up with beautiful British seafood and meat. Beyond the mainstays, there are plenty of lesser-known dishes worth consuming, like the grilled Portuguese sardines with boiled potatoes, pasteís de bacalhau (Portuguese salt cod fritters), monkfish tail and white bean stew and alheira à Portuguesa – a Portuguese sausage served with chips and a crispy fried egg.
Sticks’n’Sushi
58 Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19 7PA
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As one of Denmark’s most successful restaurant groups, Sticks’n’Sushi is an anomaly to the restaurant chain world in that the food is actually really good. With eight dotted around the big smoke, there’s one in Wimbledon town centre housed in a sleek glass front restaurant with stylish Scandi-minimal interiors. On offer is ‘sushi with a nordic touch’, which in practice is a menu of sushi, sashimi, salads, tataki, and yakitori with helpful accompanying images of every dish so you don’t confuse your tataki with your maki. The set menus on offer really take the agony out of ordering, and we love the Carpe Diem. It serves 2-3 people and features a lot of the Stick’n’sushi icons like the crispy crab croquettes with a wasabi caesar, duck rice paper rolls with goma and the salmon tataki with wasabi and ponzu.
The Lighthouse
75-77 Ridgway, SW19 4ST
The Lighthouse is a clean, light and modern restaurant just outside of Wimbledon village, serving up modern European fare from a daily changing menu. The food here treats good ingredients with minimal intervention to let them shine, and some highlights include the crispy duck with tart shaved fennel, roasted peppers, feta, parsley and jammy golden raisins, as well as the pan-fried calves liver with thick-cut chips and a soothing green peppercorn sauce, and lemon buttermilk pannacotta with passion fruit. Alongside well-executed food, there’s a decent wine list and an outdoor patio for lingering on with an aperitif. The warm neighbourly ambience here, alongside attentive service and a menu of totally devourable dishes, will have you coming back on the reg.
Diba Persian
87 The Broadway, SW19 1QE
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Diba is a leave-with-your-jeans-un-zipped kind of venture on Wimbledon Broadway, serving up Persian feasts in a warm and roaring atmosphere. Start your meal with a big pot of Persian tea loaded with cardamom and meander your way through plates of hot and cold mezze, including all your Persian classics like cooling mast mosir – a thick yoghurt with finely chopped shallots, vibrant fattoush, piles of Persian pickles (torshi) and of course the unmissable tahdig – rice with a crispy saffron top served with ghorme sabzi. The herculean plates of grilled meats are also not to be missed, including smokey lamb and chicken served over a heaped pile of citrussy salad and saffron-spiked rice. Ending with a plate of sticky baghlava is also non-negotiable
Prezzemolo & Vitale
4-5 High Street, SW19 5DX
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If watching tennis balls isn’t your thing, how does guzzling a dozen balls of arancini sound? If the answer is amazing, then head to P&V, an Italian delicatessen and food shop with seven stores in Palermo and four in London – one of these in Wimbledon Village. It’s the place to head to for all things Sicilian street food, charcuterie, sandwiches and dolce. We recommend taking a pew on the sun-soaked wooden terrace at the back and spending hours grazing through ruffles of bresaola, silky caponata, aubergine parm and crispy chicken Milanese. Or if you’re in a hurry, they’ll pop whatever you fancy in a panino to go. As well as an eat-in delicatessen, Prezzemolo & Vitale is one of the best Italian food shops you’re going to come across in London, so if you want to fill your belly whilst filling your cupboards with pasta, sauces, Italian cheeses, charcuterie, olive oil, and cannoli, P&V is the place to go.
The Orangery, Cannizaro House
West Side Common, SW19 4UE
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If you want a slice of quintessential Wimbledon (aka leafy suburban bliss), then Cannizaro House is where to head. Located in the eponymous park in the village, it's a 19th-century mansion set around 34 acres of verdant greenery. Although a hotel, there’s also a restaurant – the Orangery, which serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktails with an Italian-influenced menu. As the name might suggest, The Orangery is a glass-filled, sun-soaked dining room complete with expansive windows and views of the parkland. Some menu highlights include the comforting Sicilian roast chicken with polenta, baked sardines with pickled fennel and deliciously crispy fritto misto. It’s only a 20-minute walk from the Wimbledon tennis championships, so is the perfect spot for some pre-match sustenance.
hotelduvin.com/locations/wimbledon/bistro/
The Giggling Squid
26 High St, SW19 5BY
Having spread its tentacles across the UK, The Giggling Squid is a 45-strong force of restaurants, including one based in Wimbledon Village. As the numbers suggest, it's doing something right, and that thing might be its irresistible offering of bistro Thai Tapas which translates to tables rammed with fragrant curries, refreshing salads, noodle soups, platters of fried fish and steaming bowls of sticky rice. Giggling Squid best sellers should be firmly on your radar – namely the salt-and-pepper squid, Thai salmon nests, red duck curry and slow-cooked chubby cheek pork, plus the usual Thai staples like lamb shank massaman, chilli and basil gra pao, kefir lime packed penang curry and som tam (green papaya salad). To accompany your spread, there is a menu of dangerously drinkable cocktails with South East Asian twists on the classics, including a Thai-espresso martini with a hefty glug of aluna coconut coffee liqueur, the Me Time Margarita with a kick of ginger, lemongrass and a curry salt rim, and a lime and ginger cosmo.
