Ikoyi Restaurant St. James's

Jeremy Chan and Ire Hassan-Odukale opened this in 2017 with, as the award body that later ranked them fifteenth in the world put it, "little formal training between them" (The World's 50 Best).

Why go

The kitchen builds spice-led cooking on British micro-seasonality: vegetables grown slowly for flavor, line-caught fish, aged native beef, and a spice collection assembled since the day it opened (Ikoyi). Chan gleans those spices from across Africa and Asia and borrows technique from anywhere, and he calls the result "a journey through bold heat" (The World's 50 Best).

Two Michelin stars, fifteenth on The World's 50 Best in 2025, the Highest Climber Award that year and the One To Watch Award in 2021 (The World's 50 Best). The room moved out of its cramped original site to the corner of the 180 Strand building, where David Thulstrup clad the walls in copper, wove the ceiling in metal and set oak furniture on a limestone floor.

Know what it is now. The restaurant is named for the Lagos neighborhood Hassan-Odukale was born in, and Leonie Cooper's five-star Time Out review is direct that it "has gently moved away from its original west African culinary concept" (Time Out). The smoked jollof has held its place on the menu since 2017 and changes form with the season, and the guinea fowl suya is still there. Around them sits fourteen or so courses of something else entirely.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the menu is set, so the ordering decision is which one. Dinner runs GBP 395 Monday to Friday and the shorter lunch is GBP 180 Wednesday to Friday (Ikoyi). Look for the smoked jollof with lobster and scotch bonnet custard, the guinea fowl suya in its caramelized rice shell with black truffle, and the opening pepper broth built on an 18-hour chicken-wing infusion and finished with Sierra Leonean cubeb pepper oil (Time Out).
• Avoid: turning up on spec. Reservations drop at noon on the first of each month and reach two months out. Skip the full dinner if the price is doing damage, because the lunch is the same kitchen at less than half.

What locals & experts say

• Tomos Parry, chef-patron of Brat and Mountain: "Ikoyi is a West African-inspired restaurant with phenomenal cooking techniques. The flavour combinations are always mind-blowing, but strangely comforting and familiar at the same time - as a chef, it's truly inspiring." ref
• Niklas Ekstedt, chef-patron of Ekstedt, asked for the best restaurant in London: "[Ikoyi]. It's really that good. Yeah, I love it." ref
• Leonie Cooper, Time Out, January 2026, five stars out of five: "Usually in a multi-course tasting menu there are a couple of duff dishes. Not at Ikoyi, where every mouthful has been meticulously developed, as if it were silicon valley's latest big ticket app. This is finesse at the highest level." ref
• The one caveat anyone raises is the money. Cooper again: "At these prices it has to be." No source reached carries a negative verdict on a dish, which is worth stating plainly rather than dressing a five-star review as though it were contested.
• A supply-side signal, not a vote. The chef collective Hot 4 U, describing Billingsgate market for Trippin in 2022, name Ikoyi among the buyers the market's best fish goes to: "ready for dispatch to the likes of Ikoyi, Koya and other spots that flex that primo stuff." ref

Good to know

• Where: 180 Strand WC2R 1EA, at Temple. The master list still carries the old St James's site in the row name; the restaurant has not been there for years.
• Timing: dinner Monday to Friday, lunch Wednesday to Friday. Allow four hours.
• Booking: essential, and mechanical. Tables are released at noon on the first of each month, two months ahead. Email if nothing shows online.
• The room: tables for two to four, plus a private area for six.
• Price: GBP 395 for the full menu, GBP 180 for the shorter one, first-party as of August 2026. Time Out quoted GBP 380 and GBP 170 in January, so this has risen.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 24 February 2025, Westminster. Food hygiene practice scored zero, the clean end of the scale. FHRSID 1562744. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His raw saved-places export carries an empty Note against this row. The master line "Two Michelin stars; World's 50 Best; jollof and aged fish" is curation text rather than his words, and every part of it was rechecked against the guide cache, the award body and the venue before being used here.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — Plan the trip around it, save for it, and set an alarm for the first of the month. Jeremy Chan and Ire Hassan-Odukale opened Ikoyi in 2017 with almost no formal training between them, and it now holds two Michelin stars and sits fifteenth on The World's 50 Best, having taken that list's Highest Climber Award in 2025 and its One To Watch Award in 2021. The cooking is spice-led and crosses borders on purpose: Chan pulls spices from across Africa and Asia, borrows technique wherever he finds it, and buys the protein and produce British, which he calls a journey through bold heat. The opening bite alone is an 18-hour infusion of caramelized chicken wings poured over pork jowl, finished tableside with oil from a cubeb peppercorn out of Sierra Leone. Leonie Cooper gave it five stars for Time Out in January 2026 and made the point that matters at this price: multi-course menus usually carry a couple of duff dishes and this one does not. Tomos Parry of Brat calls the flavor combinations mind-blowing and inspiring as a chef. Two things to be clear about. It is no longer a West African restaurant, though the smoked jollof has been on since 2017 and is still the signature. And it is GBP 395 for dinner, which is why this is an occasion rather than the default send: the shorter lunch at GBP 180 is the same kitchen for less than half.