Exploring New York City’s Newest Crop of British Restaurants
Many Americans have long enjoyed listening to British accents and digesting gossip about the British royal family, but it’s fair to say its cuisine has not always been top of mind. That is starting to change, though, with a spate of British restaurants opening in New York City.
After the successful launch of their British seafood eatery Dame in Greenwich Village, Ed Szymanski and Patricia Howard last year opened 60-seat, nose-to-tail English bistro Lord’s in the same neighborhood, named after the famous cricket ground in London. Popular dishes at Lord’s include meat pies, curried lamb, Scotch eggs, oysters kilpatrick and duck stuffed cabbage. And let’s not forget the desserts — they include trifle, Guinness sponge cake and sticky toffee ice cream.
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“Part of it is I’m English and the chef of the restaurant so I wanted to cook the food that’s meaningful to me and that I grew up eating,” Szymanski says of his desire to open British restaurants in New York City. “Part of it is also that the city is awash in new French and Italian restaurants, new sushi spots opening every day. Some of them are really good and some of them are not so good, but they’re all sort of singing from the same hymn book. So I thought it would be fun to do something that was a little bit different.”
He adds that British cuisine has an unfair reputation of being bland, brown and stodgy, and believes that the London dining scene is just as exciting if not more so than in New York. That modern British dining scene is what Lord’s pays tribute to.
“A lot of critics and customers call us a pub, but the only person that would call us a pub is someone who’s never been to one,” he says, noting that there are no pork scratchings in sight.
Howard adds that for the group of New York diners who have been to London to eat and have gone to the nose-to tail restaurants St. John and Lyle’s, “I think they come to Lord’s and see the inspiration.”
Then there’s London steak house Hawksmoor, which made its American debut in the historic United Charities Building in Gramercy in 2021 as more of a steak house than a British restaurant with a slate of signature cuts including rib-eye, porterhouse and prime rib chop. However, it recently leaned into its heritage, launching a British Sunday roast. The dry-aged beef rump is served with beef dripping roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, carrots, buttered brussel sprouts, roasted shallot and garlic and “lashings” of bone marrow gravy.
“[The roast] has been really popular,” says Paddy Coker, Hawksmoor’s grill chef. “What’s been most interesting to see is the mix of people we get through the doors — a lot more families are coming in, a lot of people are seeing it as a nice alternative to Sunday brunch as well. It’s a lot more relaxed in terms of the atmosphere.”
The Sunday roast clientele has been a mixture of British expats and Americans, who are curious about it or are already fans of the British meal, adds Coker. “It has been a mix but very well received,” he says.
Another recent contender in the market is Gordon Ramsay’s Fish and Chips, which opened in Times Square in December as the celebrity chef’s only restaurant in the city. (There are already locations in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida.)
More of a fast casual spot, it leans into the British classic fish and chips, but also has its own spin on the dish, like sandwiching it in warm naan bread.
While Lord’s and Hawksmoor are understated, Ramsay’s restaurant screams British from the Union Jack serving boxes to the red phone booth door.
Each offering their own unique take on the cuisine — and decor — these restaurants join long-standing British eateries Tea & Sympathy, Jones Wood Foundry and the Clocktower.
Dame, 87 MacDougal Street, 929-367-7370
Lord’s, 506 LaGuardia Place, 929-398-5433
Hawksmoor, 109 East 22nd Street, 212-777-1840
Gordon Ramsay’s Fish and Chips, 1500 Broadway, 646-540-3560
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