The best sustainable restaurants in London

Chef Chantelle Nicholson's Mayfair restaurant embraces eco-conscious practices not only in its dishes but throughout its entire space. The award-winning restaurant features elements like upcycled lampshades and uses its old staircase as part of a feature wall, aligning with its commitment to sustainability, responsibility, and regeneration. Recognised for its environmental efforts with a Michelin Green Star in 2023, Apricity also focuses on low-waste operations, offering a menu rich in British produce and innovative, zero-waste drinks.

Back in 2021, Jikoni, an Asian fusion eatery in Marylebone led by chef Ravinder Bhogal, became the first carbon-neutral independent restaurant in London. Committed to sustainability and an ethical approach in not just cuisine but staff management and other aspects of the business too, Jikoni provides a comforting space that celebrates maternal figures and family recipes, blending traditional Asian flavours with European influences.

The Culpeper is known as a classic East London pub with rooms, but it's the rooftop garden that stands out, used both for alfresco dining and cultivating vegetables and plants for the restaurant's menu. Visitors can enjoy a rooftop set lunch menu with vegetarian options and cocktails garnished with ingredients grown just steps away. The Culpeper's commitment to sustainability extends to external suppliers, too.

The Duke of Cambridge in Islington has been committed to sustainability since launching in 1998, and is certified by the Soil Association and highly accredited by the Sustainable Restaurant Association. The gastropub focuses on sourcing fresh, seasonal ingredients from local organic producers for both food and drinks, maintaining high environmental standards. The menu, influenced by global cuisines yet rooted in the British Isles, changes frequently.

The Gladwin Brothers are big on sustainability, taking advantage of their family farm and vineyard to source the ingredients for their Local & Wild concept. Championing a farm-to-fork lifestyle and finding inspiration through foraging in the wild, their London restaurants serve contemporary British cuisine that changes with the seasons, often featuring high-welfare and hand-reared meats from the Gladwin farm.

Now located by the river in Hackney Wick, Silo originated in Australia, where it was developed into the world's first zero-waste restaurant. The pioneering venture offers a contemporary zero-waste menu that changes regularly and spotlights intriguing ingredients such as coffee kombucha crème fraiche and black garlic. Silo's dedication to zero waste extends to the space and service as well, featuring a digitally projected menu and reclaimed or recycled furniture, cutlery, and crockery.

Named for its commitment to eliminating unnecessary waste, Edit is a sustainable, low-waste restaurant focused on vegetables. This intimate venue offers innovative plant-based dishes crafted from seasonal ingredients sourced from foragers and small-scale farmers. The dishes are accompanied by low-intervention wines, local beers, and ciders. The multiple-course tasting menus come with optional drink pairings.

Fallow specialises in creative, sustainable dining with a modern British twist, with chefs influenced by training with Heston Blumenthal. Considered one of the best restaurants in the city, Fallow practices conscious gastronomy includes eco-friendly features like its own mushroom treehouse and has been named sustainable restaurant of the year multiple times. Guests can enjoy their inventive dishes in the spacious, contemporary dining area or outside on the heated pavement terrace.

Nestled in the historic Smithfield Market and with views of the city's oldest church, Restaurant St. Barts offers tasting menus for both lunch and dinner. In 2023, it earned a Michelin star for its exquisite zero-waste cuisine that highlights top-quality produce from across the British Isles. The restaurant's decor mirrors its dedication to sustainability, featuring natural materials like wood and stone, soft fabrics, and custom-made ceramic tableware to foster an elegant, welcoming atmosphere.

Spring head chef Skye Gyngell is considered an environmental pioneer in the restaurant industry and strives towards responsible consumerism. Following the success of her innovative “Scratch” menu, available for just one hour daily and made from waste and surplus ingredients, Gyngell evolved Spring into the first single-use, plastic-free restaurant in London. The ground-breaking restaurant also serves seasonal à la carte options and set menus.

Dinings SW3 offers a refined and contemporary take on a Japanese izakaya, featuring sushi, sashimi, and innovative fusion dishes that blend European and Japanese culinary techniques, like mini steamed burger buns. The restaurant is renowned not only for its high-quality food and service but also for its commitment to sustainability and reducing food waste. They emphasise the meticulous sourcing of ingredients from local fisheries and ethical producers across Europe and Japan.

The Farmer J restaurants throughout London promote locally sourced ingredients, scratch cooking, sustainability, and ethical practices to deliver genuinely wholesome food. They are famous for their Fieldtrays, which allow customers to customise a box with different bases, mains, sides, and sauces for a hearty meal, as well as other nutritious options.

Board Barge East, a 120-year-old Dutch barge in Hackney, and experience casual dining in a chic rustic environment. The award-winning restaurant offers seasonal British cuisine using ingredients sourced from ethical suppliers and its own canalside gardens. The gardens double as one of the largest outdoor dining areas in the city.

The meat industry is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to pollution, so steakhouses have an even bigger hill to climb. It's a relief that Hawksmoor, considered one of the best steakhouse groups in the world, takes its responsibilities in that area seriously as well. The certified B Corp business emphasises regenerative, environmentally friendly policies, was the first restaurant group in the world to become carbon neutral, and continues striving towards net zero goals, among other sustainable practices.

Thanks to its quintessential British charm and lush garden setting, Petersham Nurseries in Richmond has long been a standout member of London's restaurant scene. Its eco-friendly ethos runs deep, covering not just its dining but also its gardening side. Organic gardening and sustainable sourcing are just the beginning—Petersham Nurseries leads the way with advancements such as an aerobic food digester to turn food waste into water, turning coffee waste into biofuel, using sustainable forest paper in the kitchen, and more.

Chef Adam Handling internalised the zero-waste ethos while in Japan in his youth. Having since become one of Britain's most famous chefs, his flagship restaurant in Covent Garden is a testament to minimising food waste. The upmarket chef's table experience, closely tied to Handling's life, helps spread awareness and educate people on sustainable cooking approaches.

It turns out Pizza Pilgrims' green branding is a pretty good indicator of where their priorities lie. The popular pizzeria group's Planet Pilgrim ethos pledges the business to constantly striving to reduce their environmental impact through various initiatives, both big and small. Their Selfridges branch is a big step in that direction – a sustainable pizzeria of the future that you enter through a hydroponic basil tunnel uses regenerative wheat for the dough and features interior elements such as vegan leather upholstery.

Going from pop-up to permanent at the famed Fortnum & Mason department store, Field serves a menu of seasonal, sustainable, and predominantly plant-based dishes. The modern space is adorned with tall plants and splashes of green for a bright and inviting atmosphere, and the sustainable restaurant in the heart of London is committed to discovering better ways of reusing and repurposing ingredients.

Fowl comes from the same fellas as Fallow and is billed as an off-the-wall chicken shop. They only use long-life, soy-free, and pasture-raised chicken from farms that use regenerative agricultural practices. Furthermore, the restaurant espouses a beak-to-feet concept, using every part of the chicken in its menu. This has resulted in dishes like the viral chicken head pie, garnished with an actual chicken head.

AT Feast is a welcoming neighbourhood eatery in St John's Wood, renowned for its family-friendly feasting menu. Adorned with a botanical theme, distressed brick walls, and a palette of natural tones, the restaurant provides a cosy setting for enjoying a mix of comforting classics and wholesome, lighter options. Chef-owner Maggie Bolger is committed to eco-conscious cuisine, offering home-cooked meals made with sustainably sourced ingredients and striving towards a zero-waste kitchen.

The Fallow team strikes again with this spacious venture in Canary Wharf. Besides expanding on its signature nose-to-tail, root-to-stem ethos, Roe boasts eco-friendly features such as the world's first plant-based, compostable 3D-printed interior and an aeroponic living wall for fresh veg and herbs. The menu also goes a step further, highlighting venison, the most sustainable meat available in England.

The Pig's Head, Clapham's first carbon-neutral pub, showcases its dedication to sustainability in every aspect, from its eco-friendly design—where most of the furniture is repurposed—to its waste-reduction practices, ethical supply chain, and community-driven charitable projects. The pub boasts a charming wood-panelled interior and a pavement-side terrace, offering a farm-to-table menu of British dishes with a refined twist. Regular weekly events, including pie nights, provide an excellent opportunity to enjoy the diverse offerings this environmentally conscious gastropub has in store.