The best restaurants in King's Cross

Zoya in King's Cross offers refined Indian cuisine that blends time-honoured flavours with modern flair, served in a striking three-storey space with bold interiors and a laid-back atmosphere. The menu features everything from tantalising starters and chef's signature dishes like citrus-spiced Zoya chicken and slow-roasted lamb shank to classic curries and tandoori grills. With a cocktail bar, shisha lounge, and prime location near St Pancras, it's a stylish go-to for everything from after-work meals to celebratory nights out.

Tucked away on a corner between King's Cross and Islington you'll find Little Georgia, a cosy restaurant offering a sample of everyday Georgian cooking. The interior is furnished with Soviet-era posters and other vintage decor, and the menu spans classic favourites from the Eastern European country – boat-shaped breads with melted cheese, stuffed dumplings, aromatic veggie stews, and more. Accompany your meal with one of the fine Georgian wines for a rounded cultural experience.

A popular choice for high-end Mexican cuisine blended with Spanish influences from Michelin-starred chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, Decimo boasts a plush interior with wide-reaching views of King’s Cross and the surrounding areas. The dinner menu is simple, offering meat, fish and vegetarian choices and headlined by the ‘grammable signature Decimo Tortilla, a quesadilla containing 50g of luxurious caviar.

Hoppers King’s Cross differs from its older siblings in Soho and Marylebone both in culinary inspiration and size – it’s the biggest of the bunch, with woven fabric panels and light wood furnishings segmenting the single space into different areas. The dishes, meanwhile, include exclusives such as slow-roasted Beef Poriyal, juicy Black Pepper Curry Leaf Prawns and String Hopper rice noodles.

The tiny but extremely popular Dim Sum Duck restaurant doesn't accept bookings, yet diners are happy to queue for entry. Inside, generously sized dim sum, freshly made by a chef with 30+ years of experience a wait. There's also a broad array of rice and noodle dishes to choose from, as well as flavoursome BBQ duck, hot pots and more. 

Yellow Bittern is a classic King's Cross lunch spot that's cash-only and feels like a tiny French village café hiding in plain sight. Chef Hugh Corcoran turns out an Irish–French menu of crisp radishes, buttery asparagus and stewed mustard rabbit. With its old-school charm and a bookshop downstairs, it's the kind of place you'll think about long after lunch is over.

Arguably one of the toughest places in town to get into, waits for a table at this humble basement eatery can last up to 45 minutes! The fabled Roti King serves comforting Malaysian specialties, headlined by the eponymous warm and fluffy rotis stuffed with cheese, chicken or other fillings, or served alongside your choice of kari. You can also order various other traditional dishes. Also, if you take them to go, you’ll free up space for the rest of us. Just sayin’.

Supawan Thai is one of King's Cross's best spots for proper Thai cooking. The menu swings from tom yum and massaman to seafood pad chaa, with a couple of house favourites like the prawn red curry and slow-cooked pork belly. Drinks are simple, with a few cocktails, plus homemade iced milk tea and lychee–lemon soda. The room is small, bright and packed with plants, and it fills up fast, so booking is definitely a good idea.

A modern take on the Taiwanese tea shop, Bao King’s Cross offers drinks and snacks in a bright and airy environment, with some outside seating as well. The menu includes a selection of meat, fish, and vegetarian steamed milk buns, tea snacks and rice plates with various toppings. You can drop in for a bubble tea or cocktail using Asian ingredients like plum sake and Taiwanese black tea, and there’s also a bakery counter with sweet and adorable buns.

This similarly compact Caledonian Road upstart certainly has its eyes claiming the top spot from the nearby Roti King, quickly picking up hype on London’s cut-throat roti scene with its flaky layered flatbreads that melt in the mouth. You can choose a veg, fish, lamb or chicken curry to go along with the bread, or go off-script with a stuffed dosa cone. Space is limited, in your tummy as well as the restaurant, so plan accordingly.

The bright and airy dining room and bar of the King’s Cross location of the Mildreds plant-based restaurants lets you enjoy international dishes throughout the day. Menus include breakfast, weekend brunch and a kids’ menu, with choices like vegan kofte, burgers, and nachos. Shout out to the potent gunpowder toastie and the flavourful signature cocktails.

The queues outside of Dishoom have been a fixture of King's Cross since it first opened in 2014. Drawing locals and out-of-towners alike with its lively vibe and tasteful setting, the extensive menu of Indian staples rooted in street food cuisine includes roti rolls, chaat, samosas and the signature black daal, slowly cooked over 24 hours. The buzzy restaurant also features a classy basement bar you can dip into for a hoppy butter punch.

Merkato sits a short walk from the busier part of King's Cross and serves generous spreads of injera with a rotation of stews that arrive fast and hot. The room is compact and filled with mismatched decor, which gives it a slightly lived-in, community feel, and it's not unusual to see a birthday group digging into a big mesob basket. Portions are built for sharing, and the prices are reasonable.

Paolina Thai Café isn't the fanciest place near King's Cross, but the food more than earns it a spot on the area's best-restaurants list. This BYOB classic is a short walk from the station and serves generous, comforting plates of pad see ew, massaman curry and other reliable staples that arrive fast and hot. The mixed starter platter is a highlight and easily feeds more people than it claims to. It's affordable, casual and consistently tasty, which is exactly why regulars keep coming back.

Tamila brings fragrant curries and South Indian comfort food to King's Cross. The menu focuses on rich dishes that go straight in with freshly made rotis, which arrive warm, flaky and ideal for scooping up whatever you order. There are onion bhajis, slow-cooked curries and a few rotating specials, plus a relaxed canteen feel that suits quick lunches or low-key dinners. The team also runs The Tamil Prince in Islington, and this King's Cross spot builds on the same winning formula.

Bubala's King's Cross outpost sits a little further from the station than most spots in the area, although the walk pays off once the plates start landing. The menu is entirely vegetarian but it keeps things bold, with dishes like a charred oyster mushroom skewer coated in tamari and coriander seed that feels far more substantial than you'd expect. The halloumi with poppyseed marmalade is another favourite and tends to convert even the most committed carnivores.

Island sits on the top deck of Mare Street Market and comes from Michelin-starred chefs Tom Brown and Brad Carter. The theme is surf and turf, although not in the pub-grill way you might remember. Oysters come with sumac mignonette, beef tartare arrives with prawn crackers that feel like supersized Skips and the chicken wings are stuffed with prawn mousse. Even the squid gets the treatment, packed with sobrasada.

The Coal Drops Yard outpost adds a terrace bar and daily specials such as soft-shell crab and lemon sole to the proven Barrafina open-kitchen concept and selection of fine Spanish wines and sherries. Catch a glimpse of the preparation of the tapas dishes that are a staple of Spanish cuisine, such as tortillas, ham croquetas and patatas bravisimas, and find out for yourself why the chain’s original Soho location received a Michelin star.

Casa Pastor serves tasty Mexican cuisine in a laid-back taqueria with indoor and outdoor spaces. Food here centres around fresh house-made tortillas with classic taco fillings such as al pastor, chicken, or mushrooms. It's a friendly spot where dogs are welcome and large groups can be accommodated.

Eschewing the raw fish we’ve come to associate with Japanese cuisine, Itadakizen was the first vegan and organic Japanese eatery to open in Europe. The compact King’s Cross restaurant is cosy and intimate, relying on authentic Japanese decor for the ambiance. The menu includes small plates like gyoza and vegan calamari, plus larger meals like tofu steaks, curries and soy-based ramen. The concise drinks list offers sake, cocktails and Japanese beer.

One of the original settlers of the redeveloped area, Caravan Coffee Roasters’ King’s Cross location features an industrial-style dining room in a grade II listed building with both indoor and outdoor seating. You can kickstart the day with the breakfast and brunch menus, or come later for the all-day menu that includes sourdough pizza and healthy grain bowls. Filter coffee here is bottomless for those days when a single cuppa just won’t do.

Morty & Bob’s or Sons + Daughters? Grilled cheese toastie or egg salad s+dwich? Whichever side of the great sandwich schism you end up on, you certainly won’t go hungry. Of the two most prominent sandwich purveyors in Coal Drops Yard, Morty & Bob’s offers a more sedate location with ample seating, additional dishes on the menu and an array of cocktails and wines over which to discuss the merits of various toasties and sandwiches.

Kimchee in Pancras Square brings a variety of authentic Korean dishes, marinated in traditional sauces and spices, to the table. You can choose from various rice, noodle and pot dishes on the menu, many incorporating the fermented cabbage the restaurant is named after, but it’s the dark-panelled downstairs dining room that you want to head to in the evening. The tables there come with built-in smokeless grills you can use to barbecue your dishes to your liking, making for a unique social experience.

The Granger & Co. at Pancras Square combines sunny Australian disposition and casual manner with trendy international fare and an elegant interior. The chain is known especially for its varied brekkies, though you can drop by for favourites from all over the world any time of the day. The cocktails definitely deserve a mention as well, as they’ll soon have you throwing out “g’day mates” in a terrible accent.