Martin Williams: My top picks for the Toast the City Awards 2026
The Toast the City Awards 2026, for which I am honoured to be a judge, is down to its final stage – the public vote! Now in its second year, the awards give you the chance to celebrate the most amazing places in the Square Mile (and slightly beyond). So to help inspire you to vote (which you can do by following this link), here are some of my favourite places from the Finalist list.
Last week I took 50 head chefs to Poolhouse, which is shortlisted in the Most Fun Experience category. You can imagine what a handful 50 head chefs in a room can be but they all loved it, which is high praise indeed!
The always-epic Liverpool St Chop House (which serves the best steak in the City) is nominated for Best New Opening and Best Restaurant, while Madison is up for Best Roof Terrace: either one would be a worthy winner. But my biggest recommendations…
ANGLER
I’ve enjoyed Angler’s cuisine twice in the past two weeks, first at The Evolv Collection’s Six Hand Dinner, served at Orrery in Marylebone, showcasing a joint menu from Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Franco Colapinto, Miller Prada, Pierre Minotti and Craig Johnston, the latter three having been awarded a Michelin stars in their positions as executive chef.
It was a beautiful feast, enjoyed with the most annoyingly talented (and handsome) restaurateurs in London; Joey Ghazal of The Maine in Mayfair and Richie Notar of The Ned (another Toast the City nominee in the Best Breakfast and Best Overnight Stay categories).
Back in The City, the rooftop terrace and impeccable service at Angler, situated at South Place Hotel, are amongst the Square Mile’s finest. Chef Johnston has retained his Michelin star at Angler for the past two years for good reason; it showcases the best of British seafood, with a modern innovative style that’s underpinned by his technical excellence. It’s little wonder: he learned under tutelage of Marcus Wareing and is a winner of the prestigious Michel Roux Scholarship.
Menus at Angler vary from a la carte to a seven course Signature Tasting Menu at £155. We opted for a five course Taste of Angler menu (£99), the star of the show being the native lobster raviolo. I doubt a better dish can be found in the Square Mile, particularly when topped and tailed by exquisite amuse-bouches and petit-fours.
Angler is also worth a visit to meet the restaurant’s senior sommelier John Le Bihan, a charismatic Frenchman who can boast one of the finest wine lists in the capital, with over 800 offerings. The perfect pairing with the lobster raviolo has to be our 2022 Chablis Grand Cru ‘Les Clos’ Louis Michel & Fils (£350).
LOS MOCHIS CITY
Take a leisurely stroll over to Liverpool Street and you’ll find Los Mochis, founded by Markus Thesleff, an admirable, unapologetically ambitious entrepreneur who has opened half a dozen brilliant restaurants in recent years, most recently MA/NA in Mayfair. I first met Markus at a CEO sleepout for the Only a Pavement Away charity. Always competitive and pushing boundaries of excellence, he raised the most money…
I was at Los Mochis for a birthday: it’s wonderful for lunch and the perfect setting to celebrate as you watch an entire six foot yellowfin tuna being delivered to the kitchen, while handsome waiters parade the beautiful roof terrace holding nine-litre salmanazars of Rock Angel above their heads.
The blend of Tulum and Tokyo could be a poor pastiche but the food here is authentic, high quality and imaginative. The tacos are divine and the raw bar also delivers (tuna tiradito with leche de tigre and aji amarillo, two of Rodgriguez’s signatures, are perfect, as is the sea bass aguachile.
Achieving critical acclaim, both Los Mochis and Angler have become destination dining hotspots, both well worthy of your votes as we Toast The City.
OMA
Okay so I admit this one doesn’t qualify for a Toast the City Award as it’s across the river in deepest darkest Borough. But OMA is the sophisticated Michelin-awarded big brother to Agora, which I glowingly reviewed earlier in the year.
Reminiscent of some Stockholm restaurants, sitting at the kitchen counter is entertainment in itself. Oma feels like a casual chefs table, with Chef Grumpy amusing my wife and I with his exacting standards and tempered frustrations. You get to watch whole fish being flapped over flames and gigantic cuts of meat being cooked directly over supersized coals.
In the early noughties, I brought Miami’s “Ceviche King” Douglas Rodriguez to the UK to introduce his South American dishes to my menu at Gaucho, where I was MD. The ceviche and tiraditos have since worked their way onto many a menu, a fresh and complex alternative to sashimi that’s far too often overcooked and made using poor quality fish, drowning its many sins in citrus juice. Oma’s sea bream ceviche with aguachile is a brilliant dish of which Rodriguez would heartily approve. The rest of the meal (mussels, lamb, cheesecake) was equally well executed and the signature salt cod XO with laffa is worth a lunchtime visit in itself.
The wine list is, of course, inspired by the seas: we were in the mood to be adventurous, torn between the Pacific Palomino Citrusdal from Swartland (£65) and a Mediterranean Santorini Ekho Assyrtiko (£170). The decision was too much, so we opted for Burgundy instead (no sea there to speak of) with a Joseph Drouhin Puligny-Montrachet 2021 (£280).
Who knows, perhaps next year’s Toast the City Awards will expand south of the river to include this little gem.