London Lands One Spot on World's 50 Best — Its Worst Showing on Record

London placed just one restaurant on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list for 2025 — its worst result in the ranking's history. The awards were announced at a ceremony in Lima, Peru, on Wednesday 4 November.

Ikoyi, the two-Michelin-starred restaurant at 180 Strand, landed at number 48, a sharp fall from position 15 last year, when it also won the Highest Climber Award. Founded in 2017 by childhood friends chef Jeremy Chan and co-founder Iré Hassan-Odukale, the restaurant is known for tasting menus built on rare spices from Africa and Asia paired with meticulously sourced British ingredients. Signature dishes include grilled turbot with egusi miso, Nigerian-inspired suya with creamed peas, and lobster head smoked jollof rice.

London usually secures between two and four spots on the list. One is a first for the capital.

What does the ranking change for Ikoyi's business?

Plenty, according to Hassan-Odukale. "It has had a very positive impact on the restaurant and the business," he told Condé Nast Traveller. "Last year, in particular, we were 15th on the list, and there was a spike in bookings. We were generally busier in the year following the announcement than before it."

He said the recognition has also helped Ikoyi attract talent, both in the kitchen and front of house. By that logic, a slide from 15 to 48 could cool demand — though the list still delivers global visibility to a restaurant that resists conventional culinary categorization.

Where is London's 'second' entry hiding?

Twenty places above Ikoyi, at number 28, sits Trèsind Studio in Dubai — the first Indian restaurant in the world to receive three Michelin stars, awarded in 2025. The 20-seater dining room on Palm Jumeirah, helmed by chef Himanshu Saini, is not a London restaurant. But its parent group opened Trèsind Mayfair on Hanover Street, near Oxford Circus, in May 2026, giving the capital a direct line to this year's list.

The London outpost is not a replica of the Dubai original. Much of the menu is drawn from Trèsind Studio, with Saini overseeing a kitchen run by executive chef Amit Bagyal. Pricing is tiered:

• £138 full tasting menu
• £75 shorter tasting menu
• £42 lunch
• Downstairs cocktail bar Tryst, using Indian ingredients and regional flavors

Dishes transplanted from Dubai include the Khichdi of India, a rice-and-lentil dish presented on a map with ingredients from across the country's states; umami mushroom chai with truffle milk powder; and Bengali kosha mangsho, a slow-braised mutton curry.

How much should one ranking tell us?

The 50 Best list is compiled from roughly 1,100 international restaurant-industry voters and reflects where those voters have traveled and eaten over the preceding 18 months. It also skews toward rigid, exacting destination restaurants — a format that leaves out much of what London does best.

Hassan-Odukale pointed to the shift in the capital's market structure. "If I had to look for some light in London's dining scene today, it would be the rise of more upmarket casual restaurants like Mountain and Impala," he said. "It's great to have access to good cooking, ingredient sourcing and hospitality without the fine dining price tag. Definitely a good thing for Londoners."

That framing matters for operators: the demand signal is moving toward premium-casual formats with disciplined sourcing, while traditional tasting-menu destinations face a narrower international spotlight. Whether London recovers multiple slots in 2026 will depend on where 1,100 voters eat next.