Ekstedt at The Yard.

Ekstedt at The Yard

The kitchen finishes the oyster with a flambadou, a heated cast-iron cone that melts beef tallow and drips it over the shell, which Time Out identifies as an ancient French grilling method2.

Why go

The kitchen runs on wood. The venue lists its equipment as a fire pit, a wood fired oven and a wood stove,8 and Time Out reported it relies entirely on wood-fired cooking, with no electricity or gas,2 a point a Harden's diner made in the same words1. What that buys is range: the current menu uses hay smoke on sweetbread, birch fire on trout, juniper smoke on lamb, embers on a fermented potato, charcoal on king oyster mushroom and turbot, and cold smoke on cuttlefish (venue). Niklas Ekstedt opened the Stockholm original in 2011 and this in September 2021, his first site outside Sweden, in the former police headquarters on Great Scotland Yard, now a Hyatt hotel (The Staff Canteen). Harden's editor calls him the godfather of wood-fired cooking, and the room took over from The Yard by Robin Gill. Head sommelier Daniele Arcangeli holds the ASI Sommelier Diploma, and Decanter has made him a World Wine Awards judge for 2026 (venue).

Order this / avoid

• Order: the flambadou oyster at GBP 14 first, for the tallow. Then the hay smoked sweetbread at GBP 34 with parsnip veloute, wild garlic and buckwheat, and the birch fired trout at GBP 32 with mangalitza lardo. For a main, the juniper smoked lamb at GBP 42 with black garlic and wood-oven braised shallot. Finish on the wood oven baked cep mushroom souffle with woodruff ice cream, GBP 17 (menu).
• Avoid: planning on the Immersive Journey unless you have the whole table. It is GBP 120 a head and sold for full tables only. Also come hungry rather than starving: Harden's diners have twice flagged the portions and the price.

What locals & experts say

• Harden's, most recent survey: Smoke and fire are used with pinpoint accuracy, the effect so subtle and inventive, and unique food that's amongst the most underrated in London. That year, only positive views were registered.1
• Harden's, the dissent, from earlier surveys: Even those who say the food is 'very good' however, can still feel it is 'very overpriced'. And: the occasional sceptic who feels the performance 'relies on the drama of the grill rather than the quality of cooking'. An earlier year's gripe was some rather mean portions.1
• Time Out (4 November 2021), Angela Hui, 4 out of 5 and Recommended, on the room: a very masculine Scandi dining room featuring a big exposed brick wall, lots of black hardware and bouquets of dried sage dangling from the vaulted ceiling.2
• Harden's editor on the chef: the godfather of wood-fired cooking, bringing old Nordic cuisine into a (very) open kitchen.1
• Hot Dinners, Gavin Hanly: applying Swedish techniques to the best of British produce, citing a Tunworth cheese baked in the wood oven and served with smoked honey.4

Good to know

• Timing: closed Monday. Tuesday to Saturday dinner only, 6pm to 9:30pm. Sunday is a single lunch sitting, 12:30pm to 2:30pm. The venue and Harden's agree.
• Booking: reservations through the venue's own site. Note the dining room sits inside the hotel and the walk in takes you through a corridor of preserved police records.
• Price: a la carte GBP 8 to GBP 46 a dish, with mains GBP 27 to GBP 46. The Immersive Journey is GBP 120 a head for the whole table. Wine starts around GBP 50 a bottle. Service charge is 13.5 percent per the venue and 15 percent per Harden's, so expect one or the other.
• Dietary: the kitchen's own statement covers a lot: we accommodate most dietary requirements, including vegetarian and vegan options, and we can also adjust our menu to work around allergies such as gluten or dairy. If you have any allergies or require a special menu, we kindly request 48 hours' notice (venue). Flag it with the reservation, not on arrival. Nothing published addresses cross-contamination, so celiac diners should ask directly.
• Michelin: the star belongs to Ekstedt in Stockholm. The venue's own site says "Michelin starred chef Niklas Ekstedt," and Time Out, Harden's and Hot Dinners all place the star with the chef or the original. The guide has a live page for this restaurant, but its award badge cannot be read by any automated route, so no star is claimed here.
• Hygiene: no FSA record exists under the restaurant's name. The host premises, Great Scotland Yard Hotel, is rated 5 and was inspected on 23 July 2026, FHRSID 1416957 (record). The register files that address as SW1A 2HW while the restaurant gives SW1A 2HN.
• Format history: seven and three courses at GBP 135 and GBP 75 in 2021; four and six-course Journey to Scandinavia menus at GBP 95 and GBP 120 plus a seven-seat chef's table at GBP 150 by 2025; a la carte plus one GBP 120 Immersive Journey now. Menus are described by the venue as samples that shift with the produce.

Verdict

should-visit — A kitchen with a fire pit, a wood-fired oven and a wood stove and, by two accounts, practically no gas or electricity, run by the man Harden's calls the godfather of wood-fired cooking. The interest is in how many different fires the kitchen uses for different jobs: hay smoke on sweetbread, birch on trout, juniper on lamb, embers on a fermented potato, cold smoke on cuttlefish, and a flambadou cone dripping molten beef tallow onto an oyster. Harden's reporters call the effect subtle and inventive and the food among the most underrated in London. It stops short of a trek because the same surveys keep returning two complaints, mean portions and overpricing, and because no award attaches to this restaurant, only to its chef's Stockholm original.