2 Best Restaurants in South of the Thames, London

Renowned chef José Pizarro has managed to re-create an authentic, slightly rustic Spanish tapas-and-sherry bar. With just 30 seats and no reservations, it's always packed after 6 pm, but it's worth the wait for remarkably fresh, perfectly prepared, classic tapas plates like patatas bravas, croquetas, skewered prawns with lemon and garlic, and clams with fino sherry. Everything's impeccably sourced, from the peppery Marqués de Valdueza olive oil to the top-flight acorn-fed Ibérico ham; you'll also find more than 50 Spanish wines and sherries.

British-Sri Lankan chef Cynthia Shanmugalingam's interpretations of regional Tamil cuisine cooked on an open fire have won plaudits for the home-cooked feeling of her curries, rotis, and sambols (especially the one that combines chickpeas, parsley, and coconut). Main dishes include a creamy sticky chicken pongal rice flavored with saffron, coconut milk, poppy seeds and cinnamon, a red tamarind prawn curry, and a whole Jaffna crab curry, and they are mostly small plates designed to be shared. There's a set menu at £38. Reservations are recommended (it's busy and service, while friendly, can become disorganized), but some tables are reserved for walk-ins.