Top Five Unusual Restaurants in London

If you've visited your local Chinese, Indian, gastropub and chippie more times than you care to remember, you might be hankering after something a little different. Our guide to the top five unusual restaurants in London will offer a new horizon for your senses.

Bunga Bunga - Battersea

This tongue-in-cheek Italian bar, pizzeria and karaoke joint is named after the term Silvio Berlusconi used to describe the naughty shenanigans which went on at his house. The interior references some of the greatest Italian icons through the centuries, all with an eccentric and comical twist, and is part of what makes Bunga Bunga one of the most unusual restaurants in London.


For example, their 'Sistine Stairway' features a painstaking reproduction of Michelangelo's Sistine chapel, while the bar is shaped like a gondola with Venice canals painted on the wall behind it. Their pizzeria serves authentic Italian dishes and beyond the eating area you'll find two private rooms, dedicated to karaoke parties.

Meat Liquor - Marylebone

Offering possibly the best spicy burgers available in the Capital, and at a good price, it's no wonder this unusual restaurant in London has a cult following. This Marylebone restaurant's humble origins only serve to add to its charm.

Founder Yianni Papoutis was cooking his Philly cheesesteaks and crispy bacon burgers from a van he called the 'Meatwagon' just over a year ago. Today the queues outside Meat Liquor could reasonably join those few earthly entities visible from the moon. And it's worth the wait.

Funky Asia - Spitalfields

This fun and highly unusual Pan Asian restaurant in London's Spitalfields has an eclectic menu, formulated by ex-Nobu chef Danh Huu Bui. Dishes seem to have arrived from a number of Southeast Asian locations, with Japanese-style gyoza, Thai chicken, Vietnamese honey soy cucumber salad and Korean-style lamb chops all making an appearance.

Turn up and enjoy a delicious, laid-back meal in an exciting space - the wild interior features brightly coloured lights, Chesterfields and steel cladding, helping to make it one of the most unusual restaurants in London.

Burger & Lobster - Mayfair

Gaining a reputation as one of the cleverest menu systems around, Burger and Lobster soothes the information overload of today's society by offering only two choices: burger, or lobster, making it fourth on our list of unusual restaurants in London. Each is £20, and then you can indulge in either chocolate or lime mousse.

The brilliance of only allowing these two options is that they have been able to fine-tune their preparation and consequently do them both extremely well. Burgers are generous and come with salad and chips, while a lobster will be chosen from the tanks which reside underneath the restaurant, and also served with salad and chips. There is even a viewing gallery if you'd like to see these creatures enjoy their free time before hitting the plate.

Archipelago - Fitzrovia

Located in a side street sandwiched between bustling Tottenham Court Road and charming Charlotte Street, Archipelago is an exotic, mysterious place where you can leave the City's perpetual hum behind you and enter a place where time stands still.

With a menu that includes crocodile (don't be tempted to ask them to 'make it snappy') and wildebeest for mains and scorpions for dessert, you will know to expect the unexpected from the moment you step foot inside this most unusual restaurant in London.