Where to eat at and around Sea Containers London

You are on the Thames Path between Blackfriars Bridge and the OXO Tower, the stretch of the South Bank that belongs to walkers, theatregoers and office workers rather than to any one of them. The hotel's own ground floor holds Gordon Ramsay's riverside room with a terrace you can enter from the walkway, Lyaness beside it and 12th Knot on the roof. Turn west along the water and Gabriel's Wharf, the National Theatre and Cornwall Road are all inside nine minutes; turn east and a riverside pub with St Paul's in the window is seven.

Worth the table

The tables at this hotel that are a reason to come, and how hard they are to get.

Gordon Ramsay at Sea Containers

All-day British cooking with a seafood lean, on a terrace over the Thames

This opened on 1 September 2026 in the hotel's old riverside dining room, a partnership between Lore Group and Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, with interiors by Jacu Strauss in the reds of Blackfriars Bridge and an open kitchen you can sit at. The menu leans British and coastal, Shetland mussels, Cornish cod and Devon crab alongside group signatures such as Beef Wellington and Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips. Breakfast runs from 7am, lunch from noon, and dinner until 9pm Sunday to Tuesday and 10pm Wednesday to Saturday. The River Terrace is the reason to book rather than the cooking, at least until the kitchen has a year behind it, and you can walk in off the Thames Path without going through the hotel. No head chef has been named publicly.

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Lyaness

Chef Ryan ChetiyawardanaIngredient-led cocktails from the Mr Lyan team, facing the Thames

Ryan Chetiyawardana's bar is the part of this building with a genuine international reputation, and the hotel's own page records it as the first bar to receive a 3 PIN award from The Pinnacle Guide. The menu is built around ingredients the team has made rather than drink names, which sounds forbidding and is not, because the staff are good at translating. It opens at 5pm Monday to Thursday, 4pm on Friday and 1pm at weekends, running to 1am on Friday and Saturday, with an over-18s policy from 5pm. Walk-ins are taken, but book if you want a table by the window.

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On our shortlists

Within ten minutes on foot

OXO Tower Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie
1 min walk
Rooftop British dining, two rooms · ££££
The building next door, on its top floor, with St Paul's across the water. Two rooms: the Restaurant, where its own site prices the set menu at 49 pounds for three courses with a glass of prosecco, the tasting menu at 115 and afternoon tea at 50, serving lunch Monday to Saturday from noon to 2.30pm and dinner to 9.30pm; and the Brasserie, open noon to 9.30pm on weekdays and from 11.30am on Sunday for the roasts. Sunday dinner in the Restaurant ends from 27 September 2026. Book either.
Book well ahead: tables go weeks out
Gourmet Pizza Company
3 min walk
Riverside pizzeria on Gabriel's Wharf · £
Three minutes west along the walkway, the pizzeria that has held the corner of Gabriel's Wharf for over 25 years by its own count. Pizza, pasta and wine with views of the Thames from the Gabriel's Wharf corner, and its own site gives hours of 11am until late every day, which makes it the answer for a quick lunch or a late plate when the hotel's terrace is booked out. Nobody dresses up.
Walk in56 Upper Ground, SE1 9PP
Mulberry Bush
4 min walk
Young's pub with Sunday roasts · ££
A proper pub four minutes from the door, on the hotel's own street between Blackfriars and Waterloo, run by Young's. Seasonal pub classics, roasts on Sunday and spritzes in summer, with a conservatory it hires out for parties. Its own site gives 11am to 11pm Monday to Saturday and noon to 9pm on Sunday, kitchen to 9pm and 8pm respectively, so it is the pint and the plate before the theatre rather than after it.
Walk in89 Upper Ground, SE1 9PP
Founders Arms
7 min walk
Riverside pub facing St Paul's · ££
East past Blackfriars Bridge, the glass pub on the river with St Paul's straight across the water and a terrace that fills on the first warm evening. British pub food, kitchen to 10pm every day, doors open at 10am on weekdays and 9am at the weekend, closing at midnight on Friday and Saturday. Its own site says most outside tables are walk-in and bookings are taken only for parties of 20 or more, so arrive early for the terrace.
Walk in52 Hopton Street, SE1 9JH
Forza Wine at the National Theatre
7 min walk
Terrace wine bar, Italian-ish plates · ££
The Peckham rooftop bar's South Bank room, on the National Theatre's riverside terrace with a wraparound outdoor space and seats inside. Natural and low-intervention wines, cocktails and seasonal sharing plates; its own site gives noon to midnight Monday to Saturday with the kitchen to 10.30pm, closed on Sunday, and says everyone is welcome; we would book for a table on the terrace. The right call for a drink before a show or a long one after it.
Reserve aheadNational Theatre, Upper Ground, SE1 9PX
Lasdun
7 min walk
Modern British brasserie, theatre hours · £££
Inside the National Theatre, between the Olivier, Lyttelton and Dorfman auditoriums, from the team behind The Marksman in Hackney, with a chicken and girolle pie to share, 55 pounds for two, as its signature. Its own site gives dinner from 4.30pm Monday to Saturday, lunch noon to 2pm on Wednesday and Saturday, closed Sunday, and a pre-theatre menu at 32 pounds for two courses, dessert 6 more, until 6.30pm. Book, and ask for a table after 7.30pm if you are not seeing a play, when the room empties.
Reserve aheadNational Theatre, Upper Ground, SE1 9PX
Konditor
9 min walk
Bakery and coffee since Waterloo · £
The original shop of the London cake bakery, on Cornwall Road behind the National Theatre, where everything is made from scratch each day. Coffee and a slice at the counter or a box of brownies to take back to the room; its own site gives 7.30am to 7pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday, which makes it the breakfast alternative to a 20 pound Full English.
Walk in22 Cornwall Road, SE1 8TW

Breakfast

Breakfast is not included on the room-only rates. The Plan Ahead with Breakfast rate was 50 pounds a night above room only for two people in both February and April, so about 25 pounds a head; the Cabin Suites and the Suite Dreams package include it. It is served at Gordon Ramsay at Sea Containers, from 7am to 10.30am on weekdays and to 11am at the weekend, and the restaurant's own September 2026 menu prices a Full English at 20 pounds, eggs Benedict at 17, the baker's selection at 7 and a speciality coffee at 5, with a discretionary 15 percent service charge on the bill. The river terrace is the reason to eat it there once. For the other mornings, The Den in the lobby does coffee, Gabriel's Wharf is three minutes along the walkway, and Konditor on Cornwall Road opens at 7.30am on weekdays.

What to skip

The chain restaurants and cafes with laminated menus along the riverside walkway between here and the London Eye, which price the river into every plate and serve the same food you could have anywhere. You are already paying for the river upstairs; everything above is one to nine minutes away and charges for the cooking instead.

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Questions people ask

Good questions about Sea Containers London

Where can I eat near Sea Containers London?

Where should I eat at Sea Containers London?

Gordon Ramsay at Sea Containers. This opened on 1 September 2026 in the hotel's old riverside dining room, a partnership between Lore Group and Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, with interiors by Jacu Strauss in the reds of Blackfriars Bridge and an open kitchen you can sit at. The menu leans British and coastal, Shetland mussels, Cornish cod and Devon crab alongside group signatures such as Beef Wellington and Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips. Breakfast runs from 7am, lunch from noon, and dinner until 9pm Sunday to Tuesday and 10pm Wednesday to Saturday. The River Terrace is the reason to book rather than the cooking, at least until the kitchen has a year behind it, and you can walk in off the Thames Path without going through the hotel. No head chef has been named publicly.

Our verdict

This is the choice for dinner, drinks and a film under one roof if you accept that there is no pool and pay up for the river side. Book the Riverview Deluxe and the building does the rest.

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Last checked: September 2026

Sea Containers London · From about

£279 a night

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