Fallow.

Fallow

Three London industry voices are on record about this room and they land in three different places: TOPJAW ranks its brunch second in the city, the Connaught's head of mixology comes for the burger, and a bakery owner names it her most overrated spot in London (chef-votes).

Why go

The kitchen cooks what other kitchens bin, and it does it at a technical level that makes the argument stick. A whole cod's head arrives split and glossed with sriracha butter. The steaks come off dairy cows, animals that spent their working lives milking. Dessert might be a Chelsea tart built from leftover whey or soft serve churned out of surplus Guinness, and the house cocktails run on the same trim (Great British Chefs).

Jack Croft and Will Murray met at Dinner by Heston, where Croft spent six years and Murray four, and Murray came through The Fat Duck, The Clove Club, Core and Royal Hospital Road on the way (Fallow). They founded the business in May 2019 with James Robson, who runs the growth side, ran a 12-week Heddon Street residency that lasted over a year, and landed here in November 2021 with 150 covers, an open kitchen, a marble chef's counter, a bar and a terrace. Some of the produce comes off their own smallholding in Esher.

Every quality verdict reachable points at the same meal. The Infatuation scores it 7.7 and signs off with stick to breakfast to have a truly memorable time (The Infatuation). Harden's Top Tip is breakfast and Saturday brunch. TOPJAW's industry brunch poll puts it second in London. Dinner is the bigger business here and breakfast is the recommendation.

Order this / avoid

• Order: cod's head with sriracha butter, corn ribs to start, mushroom parfait, and a dairy cow steak if you are staying for dinner. In the morning, the Fallow Full, the black pudding Benedict on a honey waffle, and the hash browns with mushroom ketchup. The croissant is pressed and browned and it is on more London lists than anything else they cook.
• Avoid: treating dinner as the main event, since the sources that rate it do not. And know the bill before you sit down: service runs 15 percent, bread is GBP 5.50 and a filter coffee is GBP 10.

What locals & experts say

• TOPJAW, industry brunch poll, April 2025, placing it second in London: In at number two, it might be no surprise to anybody that it is a beloved one of ours. Fallow produces a phenomenal brunch from 7:30 in the morning every week.5
• Agostino Perrone, director of mixology at the Connaught Bar, asked for London's best burger: love the burger in [Fallow].7
• Dee Rettali, owner of Fortitude Bakehouse, asked for London's most overrated spot: I'm going to say [Fallow]. Everybody's trying to work hard and do their thing, and I just had a bad experience.8
• Sinéad Cranna, The Infatuation, March 2024, 7.7 out of 10: Fallow is a sleek all-day spot serving one of the best breakfasts in London. You could come here at dinner and impress a client over a whole cod's head glistening with sriracha, but we think this British spot in St James's shines brightest when it's sending out buttery, branded croissant pucks. Her caveat is that the experience lacks some warmth and fun.3
• Harden's diner survey, current edition: Exciting dishes, all full of flavour with a sustainability ethos too, and it was voted as providing many best meals of the year in 2025. The sceptics in the same survey: I suppose if you knew nothing about the background, you'd just see this as a perfectly competent place between Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly. Me? I just see it as a lot of fuss about... what?2

Good to know

• Where: 52 Haymarket SW1Y 4RP, at the southern end of the street. Great British Chefs lists the same premises as 2 St James's Market, which is the other face of the corner. Piccadilly Circus or Charing Cross.
• Timing: Monday to Friday 7:30am to 11pm, Saturday 9am to 11pm, Sunday 11:30am to 10pm. Breakfast runs on weekdays as well as weekends.
• Booking: take one for dinner. The chef's counter is the solo seat, and one surveyor calls it his favourite in London for eating alone.
• Costs to know: service 15 percent, bread GBP 5.50, filter coffee GBP 10, wine from GBP 26 a bottle.
• Awards, as the venue states them: sustainable restaurant of the year from both Marie Claire and GQ, and a Caterer award for best new restaurant. None of the three is dated on the venue's own page, so they are reported here as claims rather than written into the record.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 4, Westminster, inspected 15 June 2026, FHRSID 1411862. The components read hygiene 0, structural 10, confidence in management 5, where lower is better, so the food handling scored perfectly and the mark is against the fabric of the premises.6
• Who runs it: two chef-owners out of Dinner by Heston plus James Robson, a career restaurant-growth operator whose firm handles openings and procurement. The group has grown beyond this address, which is worth knowing when you read a review of one of its rooms as evidence about another.

Verdict

should-visit — Worth the detour, and book it for breakfast. Fallow cooks the parts other kitchens throw out and makes an argument rather than a gesture of it: a whole cod's head under sriracha butter, steaks from dairy cows, a Chelsea tart built out of leftover whey, a soft serve churned from surplus Guinness, and house cocktails that use the trim. Jack Croft and Will Murray came out of six and four years at Dinner by Heston respectively and put 150 covers around an open kitchen with a marble counter you can sit at alone. The evidence points hard at one meal: The Infatuation scores it 7.7 and finishes with 'stick to breakfast to have a truly memorable time', Harden's Top Tip is the same meal, and TOPJAW's industry brunch poll puts it second in London. The same room draws real fire. Surveyors call it 'hyped by the media' and Dee Rettali of Fortitude Bakehouse names it her most overrated spot in the city. It sits at should-visit because the cooking and the idea are genuinely good and the value case is contested, with 15 percent service and a GBP 10 filter coffee, and because nothing in the evidence makes dinner the reason to cross London.