Get a front row seat at some of the best chef's tables in London...

Kebab Queen

Hidden downstairs and through the prep kitchen of Covent Garden's Mason Bab is Kebab Queen and a chef's table with a difference. Leading guests through the dishes from the open kitchen, chef Manu Canales (previously at Le Gavroche) encourages an uninhibited approach to dining. Using his rigorous Michelin training Manu has created a seven-course tasting menu (of European-influenced kebas), which you can rip, tear and eat with your hands - in a ritual that pays homage to late-night kebabs. Each dish is served directly onto a bespoke, heated Dekton countertop with diners sat around the kitchen, perched on one of ten luxurious, cobalt blue, leather-clad stools. Dishes include: Foie Gras Kebabito; a two-bite kebab of BBQ’d foie gras and Doner Risotto -a  lamb jus risotto finished with classic garnishes and shavings of lamb tongue. The menu is priced at £60. Pictured.

Mãos

Chef Nuno Mendes 16-seater chef’s table in Shoreditch above what was formerly high-end clothing store Hostem. Mãos, which translates as “hands” from Portuguese, is a bookings-only 'kitchen, table and wine room' serving a modern European menu with a emphasis on Portuguese cuisine with Japanese influences. Designed around ‘promoting connection and conviviality’, the printed menu isn’t revealed until the end of the night. The actual menu changes regularly but could include: smoked Kobe beef with sweet peas and ramsons to wild turbot with seaweed sofrito & magnolia leaf, and a mushroom & kombu chawanmushi. "It is an intimate space to create. Culinary freedom, exploration and shared experience." Enjoy a three hour dinner costing £125 per head, while drinks are available at an additional cost. Mendes has been involved with several restaurants in the capital and is Executive Head Chef at the Chiltern Firehouse.

Kitchen Table by James Knappett

An intimate 20-seat ‘chef’s table’ restaurant in Fitzrovia. Inspired by the format of the Michelin triple-starred Brooklyn Fare, this intimate set-up for up to 19 guests only around an open kitchen is tucked away behind Bubbledogs - specialising in gourmet hot dogs and Grower Champagne & sparkling wines. Kitchen Table is the closest you can get to having two-Michelin-starred chef James Knappett cook for you at home. Hosted by chef-patron James Knappett (formerly of Noma and The Ledbury) to showcase his contemporary modern European cuisine through a daily changing 12-14 course-tasting menu - with a menu of meticulously sourced and foraged British ingredients. The menu is famously chalked in list form on the restaurant’s blackboard, with each course represented by a single word denoting its main ingredient. Much of the produce used is grown or foraged by Knappett himself, with a heavy focus on seasonal ingredients.  

Evelyn's Table at The Blue Posts

Located in the cellar of The Blue Posts on Rupert Street, Evelyn's Table is a unique dining space offering seasonally-inspired and locally-sourced Southern European dishes. Evelyn’s Table is the latest opening from Zoë and Layo Paskin, the siblings behind London's much loved restaurants The Palomar and The Barbary. The basement space has been lowered to house an informal 15-cover restaurant (open Monday to Saturday, from 5pm) where diners sit together on a single kitchen counter - and being headed by Luke Robinson (previously at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck), who is creating a daily changing Modern European menu of ten dishes. Sample dishes on the concise menu include Cuttlefish ragoût, Romesco, tapioca crisps and Smoked eel, potato blini, beetroot. A handful of seats are held for walk-in guests each night. 

H.O.M.E. by Jason Atherton

Celebrated British chef and restaurateur Jason Atherton (Social Eating House, Berners Tavern etc.) is opening a 16-seat restaurant in an intimate space next door to Pollen Street Social. The venue’s working title is H.O.M.E. and Atherton envisages it as a “purely creative outlet”, serving a set menu inspired by his travels around the world. Jason escribes the new project as his "Araki” – referencing the nearby three Michelin-starred sushi restaurant which has just nine seats.

Ideal For

Counter eating, interactive dining