What Will Be London’s Best New Sustainable Restaurants

All over London, in any given month staff will be putting on their server aprons for the first time at new restaurants, each one hoping to carve its own niche in the capital’s vast and varied culinary scene.

The question some will ask, however, is which of them might be offering some new opportunities for sustainable dining, either in their food, their general operations, or both?

Speaking about the autumn openings planned, restaurant review site Hot Dinners said of September: “London's restaurant scene is really heating up with the most new openings in a month so far this year.” So what has the first month of autumn brought?

There’s certainly plenty of variety, with multiple restaurants opening up at OWO (short for Old War Office in Whitehall), upmarket cuisine with added caviar at Bebe Bob in Soho, African food at Chishuru in the West End and Middle Eastern offerings at Honey & Co in Bloomsbury.

However, there doesn’t seem to be a lot on the overtly sustainable-themed front, though perhaps an exception is Bistro Freddie in Shoreditch. Its food is sourced from the British Isles and has a strong focus on local producers, so they definitely earn some points on the food miles front.

On this score, there are a few London restaurants that have opened this year to check out. For example, St JOHN Marylebone has a particular focus on British food, including haggis neeps and tatties from Scotland, Welsh Rarebit and the northern delicacy of Eccles Cakes with Lancashire Cheese.

However, sustainability can be achieved in all sorts of ways. If you are thinking of where to eat out on a visit to London, consider where their energy comes from, whether they recycle a lot and if their staff uniforms are the products of ‘fast fashion’. This can provide a broader picture of just how sustainable - or not - any restaurant is.