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Restaurant · London, United Kingdom
St John
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Written by RuinMyTrip Editorial from published research and official sources, not from a personal trip. It is not a traveler review and is never counted in the community rating. How we research.
What it is
A restaurant near Smithfield market, open since 1994, serving whole-animal British cooking from a menu rewritten twice a day in a converted smokehouse.
Why travelers eat here
Because this is where modern British food started, and because it is one of the very few genuinely influential restaurants that has not drifted into being a museum of itself.
What is genuinely good
Bone marrow and parsley salad. A menu rewritten twice daily. Corkage at 32 pounds. Bread and eccles cakes good enough that people come only for those.
Downsides
A hard, bright, loud room. Heavily offal-focused. Smithfield at night is deserted. Booking is needed well ahead for supper.
Best for
Anyone curious about British cooking beyond the clichés, and anyone with a good bottle at home worth the corkage.
Consider eating elsewhere if
Offal is a hard no for you. The menu can be navigated around it, but you would be ordering the least interesting third of it.
Practical advice
Check the menu online after 11.00am for lunch or 5.00pm for supper, because it is not written before then. Bring a bottle: 32 pounds corkage on a good wine beats almost any list in London. The bar takes walk-ins.
Prices and reservations
A la carte, with prices in the mid range for central London. Corkage 32 pounds a bottle, 42 for sparkling or dessert wine, 64 for magnums of wine, 84 for magnums of champagne. Book ahead for supper.
Getting there
Farringdon station, five minutes on foot. St John Street runs north from Smithfield market.
Where it sits
Smithfield, on the edge of the City, beside the old meat market. Busy by day with market and office trade, and very quiet after dark.
How long to allow
Two hours.
The RuinMyTrip verdict
Bring a bottle, check the menu after 11am, and order the bone marrow. The most important restaurant in Britain and still one of the best.
Sources
Every figure above was checked against these before publication. If one has since changed, tell us and we will correct it.
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Corkage is 32 pounds for a bottle of wine, 42 for sparkling or dessert wine, and 84 for a magnum of champagne. source
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Lunch runs Monday to Sunday 12.00pm to 3pm, with last seating at 3pm. source
From the RuinMyTrip team
Written by RuinMyTrip Editorial from published research and official sources, not from a personal trip. It is not a traveler review and is never counted in the community rating. How we research.
St John serves lunch Monday to Sunday from 12.00pm to 3pm, a bar menu from 3pm to 5pm, and supper from 5.30pm, and it charges 32 pounds corkage for a bottle you bring yourself, 42 for sparkling or dessert wine and 84 for a magnum of champagne. The restaurant opened in 1994 and effectively invented what the world now calls modern British cooking: bone marrow and parsley salad, offal treated as a first-class…
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