Reflections on the Best of London Restaurants: A Personal Approach
In an opinion piece published on 13 December 2025, Jonathan Nunn reflects on his personal compilation of the best of London restaurants, derived from about 3,000 meals over seven years. This list of 99 restaurants took two years to compile and serves as a counterpoint to traditional committee-driven rankings.
Nunn traces the history of restaurant lists, noting that The World’s 50 Best Restaurants originated from Restaurant magazine with judges like Gordon Ramsay, John Torode, and Aldo Zilli. However, such lists have faced criticism for homogenizing tastes and eclipsing established guides like Michelin. Early iconic picks such as El Bulli, Fat Duck, and Noma exemplify the era of these rankings.
He argues that modern restaurant recommendations are dominated by list-driven cultures and online formats, including Instagram accounts like Topjaw, which pose short-form questions about the best restaurants to chefs. Nunn posits that the very concept of a single ‘best’ restaurant is problematic due to the difficulty of comparing very different dining experiences—from a Ritz hotel restaurant to a local fish and chips shop—because of differing definitions of quality.
Advocating for personal, subjective lists over committee-driven ones such as Michelin or The World’s 50 Best, Nunn suggests personal lists better reflect lived experiences and invite debate rather than pretending to objectivity.
Nunn describes his publishing journey from writing for Eater London to launching Vittles, where he published his definitive 99-restaurant list after extensive research and tasting. Using his father’s eclectic list, which includes Ognisko, Survivor Jamaican takeaway, and a pie-and-mash shop, he illustrates that diverse experiences are valid interpretations of what constitutes the ‘best.’
He cites historical lists like Richard Collin’s New Orleans Underground Gourmet and Jonathan Gold’s passionate, arguable selections as inspirations that sharpen readers’ sense of quality.
Concluding, Nunn says the purpose of creating a list is to provoke others to make their own and that the exercise reveals the absurdity of striving for a single objective ‘best’ while highlighting London’s rich and diverse dining scene.
