Tollingtons

This curious but brilliant North London restaurant comes from the same team behind The Plimsoll in Finsbury Park, the pub widely credited with serving London's best burger. Occupying a former fish and chip shop on Tollington Park, Tollington's is essentially a seafood-led bar with strong Spanish and Basque influences. The room still carries the spirit of a 1970s chippy, with stainless steel frying counters, tiled walls and Formica floors intact, but the cooking is far more sophisticated than the surroundings initially suggest.

The front section operates as a lively standing-room bar where guests lean against the old chip-shop counters with glasses of vermouth or Estrella in hand, while a compact back dining room offers a handful of bookable tables. The overall effect has often been compared to a slice of San Sebastián transported into North London: informal, loud, convivial and resolutely unfussy.

The menu changes frequently but revolves around impeccably sourced seafood, Spanish small plates and clever reinterpretations of chip-shop classics. Signature dishes include its cult chips bravas - beef-dripping chips topped with bravas sauce and garlic aioli - alongside battered cod cheeks with curry sauce or alioli, pickled anchovies, devilled crab, potted shrimp and grilled sardines. Larger dishes such as piri piri John Dory, monkfish with fennel and prawn bisque, squid on the plancha, lobster rice and braised cuttlefish with mash showcase the kitchen's ability to blend rustic British seafood cookery with Iberian flavours. Desserts continue the theme of comfort elevated, with dishes such as bread pudding with sherry butterscotch, flan and chocolate mousse with cold custard.

The drinks list leans heavily into Spanish drinking culture, featuring Estrella on tap, Spanish cider, fino sherry, vermouth served over ice with lemon and a concise, carefully chosen wine list.

The concept for Tollington's was inspired by the founders' time spent in Spain with their families. They wanted to recreate the relaxed, no-nonsense atmosphere of Spanish pintxo bars, where people eat standing up, share plates casually and prioritise excellent produce over formality. That ethos runs through every part of the restaurant, from the stripped-back interiors to the constantly evolving menu.