St John Bar & Restaurant Smithfield in Islington

Glorious culinary experience-one of the best of my life. The food was superb. I never thought I’d eat tripe, but glad I did! The venison & trotter pie was a pie-lovers dream. If you’re not sure about Eccles cakes then prepare to be convinced; however if you are a St John Bakery fan/veteran then branch out….prune loaf is like the best sticky toffee pudding ever & the trifle tasted like Christmas. The whole experience was enhanced by brilliant service. A particular shout out to James who held our “St John first-timer” hands & gave great recommendations!

Food was great and so was our waiter, James - thanks a lot!

Outstanding as always. Main courses of Lamb with white beans and green sauce, and duck with turnip and anchovy were stunningly full of flavour and textures. Service is perfect: staff are unobtrusive but responsive and so friendly. (And the buttermilk pudding is, quite simply, the best thing I've ever eaten...)

Very good ambiance and food. Good service. A perfect place for a date dinner or simply to enjoy great food around friends . Definitely recommend it

Exceptional and hugely enjoyable as always. The food and ambience are so special.

Absolutely excellent comme toujours! What can I say! Go!

We are not people who go fancy restaurants usually and feared feeling out of place at St.John, however, Ed (front of house) and the rest of the team made us feel so comfortable and answered any questions we had (no matter how silly). The food was delicious as expected and the atmosphere was lovely too. 10/10 would come again

One of the best meals I’ve ever had. Excellent service by Oz (tall, ginger guy) and the food was incredible. Thanks to all

Food was delicious and cooked to perfection. The atmosphere was very relaxed and service was great. X

The best bone marrow that I have ever had. I wish I could have tried more things.

Had a late booking which meant a couple of dishes weren't available. Staff cordial and helpful, service was fast. Still one of my favourite restaurants. A bit out of the ordinary.

Amazing food; please never take the lemon meringue roulade off the menu as that’s the reason we are coming back! Two tiny points: the soup spoon was slightly too wide and the dining room was slightly too cold.

Decent food but overpriced. Was expecting a more adventurous menu with the head to tail ethos.

You can find almost all kind of meat here. Closing time have changed from 7.30am to 6.30am.

This place is an amazing market and a rich seam in London’s history. You can feel the atmosphere and would be hard pressed to find a part of london which represents its historic past in such a living and vivid manner. Meat selection is great and very reasonably priced, though arriving well before 0600 if you want the biggest selection

I'm a regular at this restaurant in London and it's usually one of my favorites. However, last night's experience was disappointing. Here's why: - The portions of bone marrow were disappointingly lacking in actual marrow. - The teal dish was neither tasty nor visually appealing. It didn’t smell nice or was aesthetically appealing. - A table of six people nearby was disruptive, shouting and behaving in a childish manner. While this isn't the restaurant's fault, it might be beneficial for them to address such behavior. The ambience wasn’t great because of this.

We had an amazing dinner here. Service was excellent, food was beautiful and delicious, wine was also delicious. Highly recommend!

The Bonemarrow and Parsley Salad was the most sublime dish I've ever eaten.

Excellent beef tongue and lamb heart. Some doubts on the flavours of the snail salad.

Oz was the best, great recommendations and service

A real treat, excellent food, every dish was perfect. Great atmosphere and staff were excellent. Looking forward to coming back.

We love St John!!! Thank you so much to all the staff for incredible food and service!! Already planning our next trip back! Cheers

The best place to buy meat in London

Truly one of the most delightful meals we've had in a long time. Phillip and James were fantastic, the ambiance was really lively (even late on a Monday night!), and the food was spectacular. Bone Marrow was a given, but we loved the pie, the greens, the rarebit, and all the delicious desserts. Wine recommendations were on point. Looking forward to returning the next time we're in London!

Service was amazing and I really recommend it, portions bigger than expected too

Fantastic service and food! Thank you!

Wonderful place with a simple but lovely decor and with handsome and kind waiters . Outstanding English dishes, never tasted before. I will certainly return!

10/10 restaurant - I just love it here. Have been going for 10 years and hope to be going for many more. I've never had a bad dish but of course you can't go wrong with the famous bone marrow starter.

Just amazing,the mains are stunning. also, get the dateloaf!

Good was fine simple and to the point. Out of the box thinking for food, at least for the American diner. Was very excited to dine here and was not at all disappointed.

Excellent pot roast and mussels. Madelaines a must try.

One poor experience after good experiences. Not in a rush to return due to this - unlike in the past. Food exceptional as always

to much noise The best restaurant with especially English food I have tried in London

Always a joyful experience at St. JOHN. Impeccable food, service and ambience.

Simply the best! Faultless & delicious. Will be back

I wasn't a fan of the terrine but everything else was great. Our waiter James really made the evening. Extremely knowledgeable, took the time to explain all the dishes and answer any questions. Really was Michelin star service from him.

Exquisite all around. Worthy of its reputation. Finest meal of my life.

The peak of British fine dining. Not sure why you would go to a Michelin star instead of here if you’re non-vegetarian.

Amazing - would have loved to try some more dishes we saw on the website - everything we had was great!

This was one of those long-awaited dining experiences for which I had high expectations and then they were blown right out of the water. Perfect restaurant. Perfect experience. Can’t recommend highly enough. Unless you like cheesily decorated walls and/or boring food that is.

My favorite restaurant in London, extremely tasty and fresh produce. Fun ambiance. Love it!

Outstanding quality and presentation, beautiful restaurant setting. Can't wait to go back!

We loved our food. The ingredients were top quality and the dishes imaginative. Very good wine list. One thing we would have liked to see more of is game dishes, such as pheasant, partridge, deer etc. but were we happy with the selection.

Incredible food and drinks. Friendly, attentive waiters and hosts. A relaxed atmosphere. This place has it all.

A restaurant with a really lovely atmosphere, niche but wonderful menu and engaging staff. We arrived a bit late due to the underground not running, but were given a very warm welcome by the table staff nonetheless.

Fantastic lunch as always - look forward to visiting the pop-up at F&M

Always an amazing experience. The service was perfection and the food a delight.

This isn’t my first visit and it won’t be my last. Food outstanding and not stupid prices. The house is excellent value and the service is exactly what you need. There when you need them, but other unobtrusive. Can’t wait to go back.

A good meal at St John which is always a pleasure to visit

Thank you so much for having us. Lovely food and great service. Love to come back soon.

Brilliant meal The belly of pork was little bland but still nice Wines excellent Bread and butter pudding was delicious

A family favourite we always visit whenever our daughter visits us from the US. The food is always excellent, the service nearly always friendly and professional. On this visit, however, I think our waiter was coming off a long shift. Needed a rest. The bill showed an extra bottle of water and a £16 'cidre' that was not ordered. Pointed this out to the waitress who brought the bill and she said 'I'll remove them'. Not a word of sorry which kind of was expected. Even a perfunctory apology.

Yummy meat dishes; no frills good food. Cocktails and wine good too.

St John has been outstanding every time we have been. Couldn’t recommend it enough!

Every course was delicious, a total feast, friendly helpful staff

The one and only and the best. Our waiter Ed P was terrific.

We had a lovely evening and felt the service was very good. Particularly loved the desserts.

I took my partner to St John for a special occasion, and although the earliest booking we could get for a regular weeknight dinner time was almost 6 weeks away, it was well worth the wait! The space is very open and refined, with us both joking it could almost be like an old school or hospital, but in a nice unfussy way that meant it felt like everyone was welcome (as exemplified by the real mix of patrons of all ages, genders, informal and formally dressed). The service was great, with the waiter (Ian) helping us choose wines that would go with the food we were choosing, and being quick to reserve a special my partner wanted for mains while we were ordering as there were only 2 portions left. For food we had the bone marrow salad (of course) and deep fried cod cheeks with tartare sauce to start, and for mains the special (ox heart with beetroot and pickled walnut) and pigeon with celeriac, a jus of some kind and pickled walnut. Everything was delicious, nothing over complicated , just really good quality ingredients cooked very well. The desserts we had were twice baked chocolate cake, which was hugely decadent and gooey, balanced by some really nice sharp Creme fraiche, and the pear and hazelnut pavlova, the only miss of the meal as far as we both were concerted - the meringue was a solid block, as opposed to pavlova we’ve had before which is normally lighter, thinner and more balanced with cream and fruit. Because of the volume of quite dense (but not chewy) meringue, with the cooked pear and caramelised hazelnuts, it was very sweet with not enough cream to balance it out. Nowhere near enough to put negativity on the meal, but a bit of a shame as up to that point we had been in raptures - ah well, nowhere is perfect and we would still 100% go back for a special occasion or fancy date night! Prices were also good - for 2 with starters, mains, dessert, 2 glasses of wine and a glass of port and whiskey it came to £146 which I was happy to fork up!

We went to St. John for my partner’s birthday lunch on Monday. After having read amazing reviews about the place, I had high expectations. However, the overall experience was very mediocre. While the food was definitely high quality and tasty, our server was quite unfriendly and cold (not ideal for a birthday celebration-it really killed the mood). For a restaurant with such unique dishes, she did not make the slightest effort to explain the menu, and we had to inquisitively ask questions as it was our first time there. Though I understand the informal concept of the place, the table setting and service were too sloppy for a Michelin star restaurant. Despite the bakery being downstairs, the bread and butter were very cold. The dining room was dark and lacked proper ventilation, so it felt quite gloomy. Overall, the food is good value for money, but all other aspects of the experience fell short, making it a miss for me.

Genuinely quite possibly the best meal of my life, everything was perfect from the wine to the service to, most of all, the food. Incredible.

Fresh meat for good price? This is your place. Just walk around and soak up the unique atmosphere of this place early in the morning, see how busy the meat traders are. You can have coffee and breakfast around the market, and if you take your time to talk to people here, you can hear amazing stories from "the old days of the market"

Service was lovely but food was a little lack lustre

Fantastic ingredients that are well-respected. Great, friendly service in a relaxed environment.

Amazing lunch - great atmosphere, great food, and great service from Jake

St5.John always make me so happy. Delicious food, wonderful staff and great value. I just love this place.

The market is open from midnight to 7a.m. to the public. It has been on this site for over 800 years and is the largest wholesale meat market in the UK.

Great Service and food! We ordered bone marrow, head’s and potato pie and white rabbit 🤌🏼

Masterful. Absolutely exquisite cooking, with proper service. One of the best meals of my life. If it’s on the menu, get the ox tongue.

Best restaurant in the world. Wouldn't change a thing.

What a wonderful dining experience! As an Anthony Bourdain travel disciple, I knew I had to eat at St John for my first trip to London. I had the bone marrow and parsley salad of course, which was delicious and made me feel like I was finally trying the original of the many derivative bone marrow dishes I’ve had over the years. I also had the ox tongue and chips, which were the best chips I’ve ever had, reminiscent of fat fried roasted potatoes and their crisp outer shell and fluffy insides. The custard tart was recommended to me and it was simple and delicious and immaculate in its execution as was every single dish. The austere white minimalist dining room and tiny kitchen bustling with activity was the perfect setting for the meal. Thank you to the entire staff of St John.

The food, service, ambiance and experience here is just perfect. Every meal feels special, the food is interesting and beautifully cooked. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Had a lovely time for my birthday and we had great food and service!

The bone marrow on toast is probably my favourite meal ever, and this is probably my favourite restaurant!

Revisited one of my favorite restaurants in London. Stellar food, reasonably priced. Visit everytime I'm in London.

Amazing food and service as per usual. A bit disappointed that wine prices have increased- was always previously impressed and happy that house wine was very high quality and very good value for money compared to other (inferior) restaurants. But did not distract from the fact it was a lovely lunch. Thank you

Good market, we were there at 5am and it did not yet look like sellers were closing up. The selection disappointed me a bit. There was a stall with dry aged beef and beef in general had ample representation. Pork seemed to be a bit less well represented. Various non-traditional parts are still not as easy to find - e.g I could only find one place with pork knuckles (they only sold them in batches of 3 too). Overall many stalls have very comparable selection, it’s not like every stall has their own specialization or something. Birds are represented poorly in my opinion. There was some chicken as well as small whole birds but I could not find any duck at all. Prices were mostly reasonable - beef fillet was a bit on the high end but still of course much cheaper than in a butcher’s. You can pay with a card

The sooner you get here and unload, the better, there are a lot of buses arriving closer to the morning hours.

Delicious food, good service, cool vibe. Would recommend, love caoming back.

We’d been waiting to eat here for a month and it did not disappoint!

The best dining experience to date! The food is impeccable and the service 5 star. Classic British food of the highest quality.

They don’t miss! You can’t leave London without coming here.

The experience was excellent from start to finnish. Bone marrow and parsley is a must try.

I come here every year for my birthday and I shall do so for the rest of my life.

First time to dine here and just loved the whole essence of the restaurant. Fantastic bread to amazing triffle for dessert. Solid and delicious.

Returned to St John for our annual Christmas dinner and it was the best one yet. Fantastic menu, which surprised us with it's flavours and textures, despite, technically all those things being familiar. I had egg mayonnaise, cold Hereford on toast and pear trifle and nothing was even remotely mundane or expected. Couple that with superb wine, spot on service and a nice ambience and we are ready to book again for next year (if not next week). Thank you to everyone at the restaurant for looking after us and getting it just right.

Our 12th year to do the Turkey 🦃 run!

Amazing as always! The food is always top notch and the service was excellent, will definitely be returning!

Really lovely - welcoming and helpful staff. Exciting menu.

Incredible food, wonderful service and great vibes. Loved it!

A great place to go if you have room to store your meat in bulk!! The prices have gone up quite a lot since last year so be warned! Still cheaper than going to the supermarkets etc and much more fun! Pork, beef, lamb, turkey, gammon, bacon, sausages, tripe, trotters, black pudding, white pudding, sausage meat, salami, chorizo, hams, steak, top side, rump, sirloin etc etc. Lots to choose from and well worth the visit.

As usual, great food, drink & service, love calf liver & bacon and of course Eccles cakes & cheddar

Delicious food and drink. An absoloute institution.

Excellent food, service and ambience. Truly the perfect restaurant.

One of the truly great restaurants, it is iconic with very good reason.

The food was exceptional, the service somewhat less so.

We are visiting from the States and this restaurant was recommended. Four of us enjoyed every delicious morsel put in front of us and plan to return! Highly recommended!!

Excellent service, ambience and food at this established London restaurant.

Excellent as always, St John never fails to Disappoint

This was our first visit and we enjoyed our meal. We had parsnip soup followed by roast goose (served pink) and I had sherry icecream. It was served double quick so we were in and out in an hour! I liked the wooden pegs all round the restaurant for hanging coats. The walls are white tiles so sound gets amplified rather than absorbed.

Definitely one of the top in London. Staff is very nice and you won’t be disappointed with the food. You could ask for wine recommendations if you are not sure what’s best to pair with the food