Local Area Guides
Where to Eat in Kensington: A Food Guide for Guests at The Cheniston
Staying on Cheniston Gardens puts you in a strange and rather wonderful position: a quiet, residential Victorian street, with one of London’s best-loved dining place just around the corner. You get the calm of Kensington’s back roads and the convenience of Kensington High Street, all within a two-minute walk. Here’s how we’d spend a few days eating around it.
MORNING
Start at The Muffin Man Tea Shop, right on the corner of Cheniston Gardens — about as close as a tearoom gets without actually being inside the building. It’s the kind of traditional English spot worth having on your doorstep: scones, a proper pot of tea, and a full breakfast if you need the fuel before a day of museums.
If you’d rather keep moving, Café Nouvelle is two minutes away for a quicker coffee and pastry.
Self-catering instead? Whole Foods Market is three minutes from the apartment, and every Cheniston kitchen comes fully fitted — oven, stovetop, dishwasher, microwave — so there’s no reason not to cook breakfast properly if that’s more your pace.
Right on the corner of Cheniston Gardens — Kensington’s oldest tea room, open since 1962. Scones, a full English, and a proper pot of tea before you’ve gone further than the end of the street.
View on map →A quiet, locals’ café tucked just off the High Street — the kind of place that doesn’t get overrun by the museum-quarter crowds. Good coffee, good breakfast, no queue.
View on map →Three floors of fresh produce inside the old Barkers department store building. The obvious stop if you’d rather cook breakfast in the apartment’s own kitchen than go out for it.
View on map →LUNCH & AFTERNOON
Dishoom, six minutes’ walk, is the obvious recommendation and the queues outside tell you why — Bombay café-style food that’s become a genuine London institution. Go early or be ready to wait.
For something quieter, Como Garden does Italian tapas eight minutes from the apartment — a good lunch stop if you’re heading toward or from the South Kensington museums.
An art-deco tribute to 1940s Bombay jazz halls, and one of London’s most-loved restaurants. Expect a queue at peak times — it’s worth the wait.
View on map →An olive tree grows through the middle of the dining room, and the menu is built around sharing three dishes per person — inspired by the gardens of Lake Como.
View on map →EVENING
Maggie Jones’s, also eight minutes away, is the one to book if you want a proper sit-down dinner — British farmhouse cooking in a setting that feels like it hasn’t changed much in decades, which is exactly the point.
For drinks afterwards, Kensington High Street has both High Spirit Cocktail Bar and Amaro Bar — neither more than a short walk from your door, both good for a nightcap before heading back to Cheniston Gardens.
A Kensington institution for over 40 years, tucked down a cul-de-sac off Kensington Church Street. Candlelit and rustic, named after Princess Margaret’s old dining-out alias.
View on map →A compact, music-led cocktail bar on the High Street — well-made classics and easygoing service, with a livelier soundtrack once the weekend kicks in.
View on map →An intimate, Savoy-trained cocktail bar with a black granite counter and a menu leaning into vintage and rare spirits — a quieter, more polished nightcap.
View on map →The Short Version
- Breakfast: The Muffin Man Tea Shop (1 min) or Café Nouvelle (2 min)
- Self-catering: Whole Foods Market (3 min)
- Casual / quick: Dishoom (6 min)
- Lunch with a slower pace: Como Garden (8 min)
- Proper dinner: Maggie Jones’s (8 min)
- Drinks: High Spirit Cocktail Bar, Amaro Bar — Kensington High Street
Whichever way you split your time between cooking in and eating out, the advantage of staying at The Cheniston is that you’re never more than a few minutes from either option — a genuinely useful thing in a part of London where a lot of accommodation forces a choice one way or the other
Staying at The Cheniston? View the apartments or read more about the neighbourhood in The Cheniston Edit: An Honest Guide to Kensington and 48 Hours in Kensington: How to Do London Properly