Our favourite tiny restaurants
Bigger isn't always better, so try one of these 25-cover-and-under London restaurants on for size
by Lydia Winter
Located on a London Fields street that's also home to a barbershop and a bike shop selling upcycled, er, cycles, Pidgin is as east London as restaurants come. Not that this is a bad thing: we can’t fault the weekly changing four-course menu (it's never repeated a dish in its history), and it seems neither can anyone else, as it collected a Michelin star last year. Expect to find dishes like vegetable cereal with mushrooms, artichoke, fermented tofu and truffle; and label rouge chicken with Jersey royals, foie gras fat, wild garlic, monksbeard and endive.
Seating 19 lucky diners around a U-shaped countertop, Kitchen Table – one of London's smallest restaurants to hold a Michelin star – is tucked away at the back of posh hot dog/champagne joint Bubbledogs, and is run by the same team husband-and-wife team, Sandia Chang and James Knappett. The idea, says head chef Knappett, is that people "feel like we're cooking for them at home." Erm, sure, because we often cook 14 courses of Michelin-starred food on a Friday night.
Sister to Soho favourite The Palomar, The Barbary was one of the biggest openings of 2016 – although it was also technically one of the smallest, as the restaurant only seats 24, occupying a space in the picturesque surrounds of Neal's Yard. There's a similarly Levantine feel to the menu, although The Barbary is specifically inspired by The Barbary Coast, an area in the Atlas Mountains that was once roamed by pirates. The restaurant leverages the region's romantic heritage to create dishes that showcase the flavours and cooking techniques of the Spice Route, from North Africa to Jerusalem.
25-cover restaurant Madame D's was designed to hark back to the run-down backrooms that were once common on Commercial Street, with high ceilings and distressed walls lit by smoky candlelight. Yet run-down is definitely not the way we'd describe the food here – it's the second site from the husband-and-wife team behind home-style Indian kitchen Gunpowder in Spitalfields, and you'll find the same level of care and attention paid to every part of the menu. This time, though, the focus is on the sultry, intoxicating flavours of the Himalayas, from India and Nepal to Tibet and China, with a menu of sharing dishes like pan-friend Tibetan duck momo, garlic and coriander steamed chicken and a twist on the classic prawn toast.
