The Quality Chop House
The à la carte is written in the kitchen every morning, and one dish has never been allowed off it: potatoes sliced thin, pressed overnight into a slab, cut into fat chips and fried in duck fat (The Quality Chop House).
Why go
Because it is cooking now, and the 1869 date has nothing to do with it. The National Restaurant Awards put this room at number 90 in the UK in June 2025, on a list decided by chefs, restaurateurs and food writers. Two working London chefs name it unprompted in our vote file: Richard Turner, who runs the kitchens at Hawksmoor and Blacklock, and Patrick Powell of Knave of Clubs, who told TOPJAW in September 2025 that leaving without the olive oil ice cream would be a serious error.
The place nearly did not survive. It closed completely in 2010 and spent 2011 as a meatball restaurant before Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau took it over in 2012 and brought in Shaun Searley from Bistrotheque (Hot Dinners). Searley has been on the pass ever since, which is fourteen years, and the kitchen writes its carte each day off farms and suppliers it has used for a decade.
The wine has a policy rather than a list. Burgundy and the Rhône at the top, rare bottles kept on blackboards, and at the entry level bottles bought deliberately with five to ten years already on them because that is what suits the cooking (The Quality Chop House).
The building has been a restaurant since 1869. English Heritage listed the frontage in the late eighties as a "unique example of early 20th Century working class restaurant", and the words "Progressive working-class caterer" are still etched on the glass. You eat in the original booths.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the confit potatoes, without discussion. Then whatever the day's board says, the Belted Galloway mince beef on toast if it is on, and the olive oil ice cream at the end because a chef staked his reputation on it in public. Ask what is on the wine blackboard.
- Avoid: arriving without a booking, and arriving late, since the kitchen stops at 21:45. Also avoid treating the unit next door as part of this: it is Quality Wines now, a separate registration with its own kitchen.
What locals & experts say
- Patrick Powell, chef-director of Knave of Clubs and One Club Row, TOPJAW, September 2025:
It's like Chop House, if you go there and don't have the olive oil ice cream, then you [redacted] up.
3 - Richard Turner, executive chef of the Hawksmoor group and Blacklock, asked where he eats:
Failing that Black Ax Mangal or Quality Chop House are both cooking up a storm.
The page carries no date and internal evidence puts it at 2019, so read the recency with that caveat.7 - Catherine Hanly, Hot Dinners, on the anniversary year:
It's a potent mixture of the history of the place and the work of the current owners and chef.
On one plate from that menu: a lamb skewer with fried onions and bacon,possibly the best iteration of lambs liver and bacon you're likely to try
.2 - The National Restaurant Awards 2025: number 90 in the UK Top 100, on a list voted by an industry panel. That is the current-quality evidence the institution rule asks for, and it is why the 1869 date sits in the body and carries no weight in the verdict.4
Good to know
- Where: 92-94 Farringdon Road EC1R 3EA, up by Mount Pleasant. Farringdon tube.
- Hours: dinner Monday to Saturday, kitchen down at 21:45. Lunch Tuesday to Saturday. Sunday is lunch only, to 15:30. Book.
- Groups: the first-floor private room takes seven to fourteen. Online booking handles up to six.
- Sites: one dining room. Number 90 next door is Quality Wines, a separate food-business registration in the unit that used to be the deli, butcher and wine bar. Its inspection and its reviews are not this restaurant's.
- The room: original booth tables and wooden pews, Grade II listed, with cushions added at some point in the last decade by people who had sat on them.
- Money: the venue's own page currently lists a three-course set lunch at £29, a weekday express lunch at £55, Sunday lunch at £59 and feasting menus at £90 and £125. Those cannot all be current, so treat the cheap way in as real and the exact number as unconfirmed.
- Who runs it: Woodhead Restaurant Group, which the venue notes was named one of CODE's Happiest Places to Work in 2025.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 12 November 2024.5
Verdict
must-visit — Build the day around lunch here. A restaurant has traded on this corner since 1869 and the windows still say Progressive working-class caterer, and none of that is the reason to go, because the place shut in 2010 and spent 2011 as a meatball restaurant before Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau took it on and put Shaun Searley in the kitchen. He is still there fourteen years later, the carte is written in the kitchen every morning off suppliers they have used for a decade, and the National Restaurant Awards put the room at number 90 in the UK in June 2025, judged by chefs and writers rather than by a heritage committee. Two working London chefs name it unprompted: Richard Turner of Hawksmoor and Blacklock said it was cooking up a storm, and Patrick Powell told TOPJAW in September 2025 that going and skipping the olive oil ice cream would be a mistake in stronger words. The confit potatoes are the one dish that has never come off, pressed overnight into a slab and fried in duck fat, and they are on more London must-eat lists than anything else in this batch. The wine is bought with an argument behind it: Burgundy and Rhone at the top, and at entry level bottles deliberately carrying five to ten years, because that is what suits the food. You sit in the original booths on Grade II listed pews. That is craft first, history second, and the history happens to be extraordinary.