Lolo.

Lolo

Three restaurants from one chef on one street, and Harden's reporters score the smallest and cheapest of them highest, which is the fact to carry down Bermondsey Street with you.

Why go

José Pizarro has been cooking in London for 25 years and Lolo is his seventh room here, his third on this street, opened in August 2024 next door to José, the tapas bar he started with (Harden's; HAL). His own rule for it, told to Hot Dinners, is that every opening has to do something the others do not, and this one runs all day and serves breakfast (Hot Dinners). The buying is where the seriousness shows: 100 per cent paleta Ibérica 5J in the bikini, Gadira tuna in the tartare and confit in the peppers, Catalina anchovies, razor clams and cockles from Los Peperetes.

The site was a charity office and is now one of the better-looking rooms in SE1, with counters at both the kitchen and the bar, a communal table and a terrace. The name is a nod to Pizarro's middle name, Manuel.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the bikini, which is 5J ham and melted cheese pressed with black truffle through it, and the tortilla vaga. Time Out's line on the omelette is the right one: a muddle of fast-fried eggs come topped with crisps, caramelised onion Ibérica jamon. Does it resemble something I would make if hungover and un-arsed to go to the shops? Yes. Is it also delicious? Definitely2. Then the Ibérico pork ribs, and kokotxas in pil pil if they are on.
• Avoid: the courgette carpaccio, perfectly pretty... but lacks the full-throttle flavour punch of the other dishes2. And avoid ordering across the whole menu, which is what the criticism keeps landing on.

What locals & experts say

• Jimi Famurewa, Evening Standard, 15 September 2024, in his final review for the paper, quoted by Harden's. The praise: a soft-lit daydream of playful, punchy drinking snacks and burstingly fresh, high-glamour sharing dishes. The caveat: the size and variety of the menu leave a meal prone to a kind of discordant formlessness, and his suggested fix was to order some languorous drinks, augmented by the great snacks.1
• Harden's survey, 2026 edition, which puts numbers on the same reading: Food 3, Ambience 4, average GBP 81 a head. Reporters: it's a calm yet informal space that seems to work well as a reliable place for some light bites of interesting Spanish food, with the caveat that it doesn't quite seem to know what it is: not quite a restaurant and not quite a tapas bar. On the same page, José up the street scores 5, Exceptional, at GBP 65.1
• Catherine Hanly, Hot Dinners, 10 September 2024, on the fit-out: The building itself used to be a charity offices but has been utterly transformed into one of the nicest-looking restaurants we've seen in a while.3
• Leonie Cooper, Time Out, 1 September 2024, on the arithmetic of one chef and three doors: Turns out that three restaurants from the same chef within staggering distance isn't as mad as it sounds. Frankly, we can't wait for the fourth.2

Good to know

• Where: Lantern House, 102 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3UB, halfway up the street, next to The Woolpack and opposite The Garrison. London Bridge is the station.
• Timing: all day. Breakfast runs Saturday and Sunday 9 to 11.30am, and Sunday service finishes mid-afternoon with a set feast from 12.30. Harden's lists the room open from 11.30am on weekdays and to 10.30pm at weekends.
• Groups: tables of six and over take a pre-order, and the terrace can be hired.
• Price: GBP 81 a head on the Harden's average for three courses with half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover and service. Wine from GBP 35.50. Service 13.5 per cent.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, FHRSID 1743919, inspected 23 October 2024, Southwark.6
• The honour nobody pinned: Harden's refers to recent high honours from the King of Spain for Pizarro's services to Spanish cuisine and names neither the award nor the year, so it is not recorded as one.
• Michelin: no standing. Checked against the cached 2026 London list, which holds stars only.

Verdict

could-visit — Go if you are on Bermondsey Street, and know that the better room is Jose, his tapas bar further along it. Lolo is Jose Pizarro's third restaurant on this street and his seventh in London, the first he has opened that serves breakfast, in a gutted charity office with counter seats at both the kitchen and the bar. The sourcing is the real thing: 100 per cent paleta Iberica 5J in the bikini, Gadira tuna, Catalina anchovies, Los Peperetes razor clams and cockles out of the tin. Jimi Famurewa, in his last review for the Standard, called it 'a soft-lit daydream of playful, punchy drinking snacks and burstingly fresh, high-glamour sharing dishes', then named the problem: a menu so broad that a meal is 'prone to a kind of discordant formlessness'. Harden's reporters put a number on the same reading, scoring the food 3 and the room 4 at GBP 81 a head, and on the same page they score Jose, the small tapas bar next door, a 5 at GBP 65. Food first is the principle, so that comparison decides it. A drink and snacks at the counter is the send here; dinner is the send at the older room.