Where to go in Wandsworth

21 places in Wandsworth, each one on the Guide on merit.

Balham

• Backstory

  Bookshop

  A South London bookshop with a bar, and an easy place to walk into on your own.

• The Wine Tasting Shop

  Wine bar

  Buy a bottle off the shelf, pay a small corkage and stay for the cheese.

Battersea

• Aspen & Meursault

  Natural wine bar

  Sunny Hodge brings the Diogenes the Dog philosophy to Battersea. Low-intervention wine with an argument behind every pour, for people who want the bottle explained.

• August

  Bakery

  Husband-and-wife bakery doing kouign-amann and miso-sesame sourdough; gone by late morning.

• Blackbook Winery

  Winery

  A railway-arch winery near Battersea Park where a husband-and-wife team make still Pinot and Chardonnay from English fruit.

• Folde

  Vegetarian restaurant

  Folde is a modern European vegetarian restaurant in Battersea that runs from breakfast through dinner. The goat cheese omelette comes topped with homemade crisps, the hash browns are the size of a paperback, and the focaccia with romesco dip starts dinner right. It works for neighbourhood brunches, third dates in the side-by-side seating, and birthday groups taking over the dining room.

• Kapihan

  Asian

  Philippine single-origin coffee and pillowy pandesal from a family who shut up shop, went travelling, and came back anyway.

• Paradise Cove

  Caribbean & Latin

  Paradise Cove is a Caribbean restaurant on Wandsworth Road with sunflower-yellow walls and a DIY feel. Chef Tarell McIntosh opened it in 2022 after a crowdfunding campaign. The menu runs from escovitch-salted chips and ital stews to foil-wrapped jerk chicken, plus plant-based options influenced by Rastafarianism.

• Rind

  Wine bar

  A little cheese and wine room in Battersea. Come for the tartare, stay for the deli fridge.

• Sinabro

  European

  Twenty seats, two people running it, and food worth the trip up the Rise.

Putney

• Home SW15

  European

  A modern neighbourhood restaurant in Putney, polished enough for a date and not chasing a scene.

• Ruth's

  European

  A Putney bistro that holds half its seats back for walk-ins, so the counter fills with people who did not plan to be there. Ed Baillieu cooks, after Pitt Cue and Kitty Fisher's. The bavette comes under bone marrow gravy.

Tooting

• Daddy Bao

  Asian

  Mr Bao's Tooting sister in dark wood, red lanterns and jade. The fluffiest bao in town, with cocktails to match.

• goldfinch

  Cocktail bar

  A tiny, flattering Tooting bar with a ten-pound negroni people cross the river for. Sit in the courtyard when it is warm.

• Good Measure

  Cocktail bar

  A small cocktail bar downstairs at Daddy Bao in Tooting, set among the storage shelves and inspired by the bars of Taipei. Worth the squeeze.

• Indie Wine Club

  Wine bar

  A proper market-stall wine bar where the list changes with the weather and nobody is precious about it.

• Smoke & Salt

  European

  Compact tasting-menu cooking in Tooting, with full veg and vegan versions, and reason enough to get off the Northern line down here.

• Tooting Market

  Food market

  Everyone knows Brixton Market. Tooting Market (covered, since 1930) and Broadway Market (1936) fly under the radar and eat better for the money.

• Turo Turo

  Asian

  Filipino fire-cooking with a banana-leaf feast worth bringing a crowd for.

Wandsworth

• Lowlu

  Sauna & bathhouse

  A Scandinavian sauna and cold-plunge bathhouse, independently run and carefully built, not a gym afterthought. SW London has wanted one of these for a while.

Wandsworth Common

• Chez Bruce

  European

  It has been in Wandsworth for years, never new and never chasing cool, and people with taste just keep going back.