Our Rating: ★★★ | ££££ (£88pp) - London's first Michelin-starred Greek restaurant, and honestly one of our favourite restaurants in the city (How we rate restaurants)

There are restaurants you visit and enjoy, and then there are restaurants that shift your benchmark for what a meal out in London can actually be. OMA is the latter. We've now been twice: once just after it opened in the spring of 2024, before anyone had handed it a Michelin star, and once again in 2026 with a group of four friends. Both times, we left feeling like we'd eaten at a truly special place. Both times, we sat outside on the terrace. And both times, we immediately started thinking about when we could go back.

Details

Website: www.oma.london

Instagram: @omalondon

Phone: +44 20 8129 6760

Email: hello@oma.london

Book well in advance for dinner, especially at weekends.

The entrance can be a little tricky to find. Look for the small sign in the passageway next to AGORA, just across from Padella.

Skip to our review of the food

Given how much we love the Greek islands — and if you've read our pieces on Milos and Sifnos, you'll know we really, really love them. A restaurant built around that world was always going to get our attention. But OMA isn't trying to be a Greek taverna in London. David Carter, the Bajan restaurateur behind Smokestak and Manteca, has described it simply as "a London restaurant inspired by Greece." That distinction matters. This isn't a replica. It's a love letter, written with a lot of intelligence and a very good palate.

The Story Behind OMA (and AGORA)

Carter made around fifteen trips to Greece while researching the concept, falling in love with what he calls the "remote serenity and simplicity" of the islands. That obsession eventually produced not one restaurant but two, housed in the same beautifully restored building on the edge of Borough Market. Downstairs is AGORA, an Athenian street-food spot with a two-metre souvla rotisserie and a retractable shopfront, inspired by the buzz of Athens' food markets and designed to spill out onto the street.

Upstairs is OMA: calmer, more considered, and focused on seafood and fire.

The name itself comes from the Greek word for 'raw', a reference to the stripped-back simplicity of the setting, sourcing, and cooking. That rawness runs through everything: the concrete kitchen, the natural materials, the open flames. The space features an open kitchen glowing with the fire of a charcoal grill, and a crudo bar that greets you with dramatic displays.

The kitchen is led by Chef Jorge Paredes, and in under a year from opening, OMA became the UK's first ever Michelin-starred Greek restaurant. A remarkable achievement, and entirely deserved.

One other thing worth mentioning: OMA has previously collaborated with Cantina in Sifnos, bringing Chef Giorgos and the Cantina team to London for a long-table feast recreating the spirit of that legendary island kitchen. For us, that connection means a lot. If you've been to Cantina, you'll understand why.

Both of our visits have been at a table on the terrace, a covered outdoor section that overlooks Borough Market itself. It's one of the best spots to eat in London. There's something about sitting above the market, surrounded by the sounds and smells of all that produce, that just feels right. It's lively without being loud, relaxed without being casual. The room inside is beautiful too, but if you can, ask for the terrace.

Service on both visits was warm, knowledgeable and well-paced. Michelin's inspectors noted that, despite a busy room, the team were impressively unflappable, always making time to answer questions and, crucially, getting the pacing right so dishes didn't all arrive at once. We felt that too. It's the kind of service that makes you feel looked after without ever feeling managed.

What we ate

Breads

Wildfarmed laffa
Açma verde

Spreads

Salt cod XO, labneh
Hummus, tahini, hot honey
Tarama, pickled cucumber, carob rusk
Babaghanoush, tahini, Jerusalem artichoke crisp

Crudo

Gilt head bream, jalapeño aguachile
Cornish sea bass crudo, fire-roasted chilli, lime
Tuna ceviche, citrus ponzu, tempura shiso

Sharing Plates

Hand-dived scallop, XO chilli butter
Charred lamb belly, hummus, shallot + mint saláta
Oxtail giouvetsi, bone marrow, beef fat pangrattato
Whole John Dory, XO chilli butter
Fennel + herb saláta

Dessert

Soft-baked mizithra cheesecake, gariguette strawberry
Chocolate cremoso, pistachio praline

Drinks

Espresso freddo martinis
Pomegranate Negroni
Bottle of Greek wine

We’ve circled our standout dishes in the list above.

Start with the breads and spreads. Don't skip them. The laffa and açma verde arrive charred from the grill, and the dips each have their own distinct character. The hummus with hot honey had crispy chickpeas running through it for texture. The babaghanoush was deeply smoky. The tarama was lighter and briny. The salt cod XO with labneh was the punchy one. Every single one of them was excellent, and the breads are the perfect vehicle.

The crudo section is where OMA shows its range. All three were beautifully balanced. Citrus-forward, clean and incredibly fresh, with the tempura shiso on the tuna ceviche being a lovely little textural touch.

Moving into the sharing plates, the charred lamb belly was incredible, cooked low and slow and finished on the grill, it's flaky, lightly caramelised and deeply flavoured, with the mint saláta cutting through the richness perfectly. The oxtail giouvetsi was exceptional too. Properly braised oxtail with a falling-apart texture, the orzo rich with deep, sticky flavour.

But the star of the meal was the whole John Dory with XO chilli butter. The fish was cooked perfectly, but what made it was the XO sauce, which OMA make in-house (and with no pork, so it works for everyone at the table). It was genuinely addictive, and we were mopping it up with the last scraps of laffa long after the fish was gone.

The one dish that didn't quite reach the heights of everything else was the hand-dived scallop. Good, but when you've had scallops at the level you can find elsewhere in England, this felt a touch underwhelming by comparison. A minor note in an otherwise outstanding meal.

Dessert finished things off brilliantly. The chocolate cremoso with pistachio praline was the winner, rich and indulgent, with the praline crunch doing exactly what it needs to.

What we spent

£353 between four, which works out at roughly £88 per head for everything — breads, spreads, crudo, sharing plates, desserts and drinks. For a Michelin-starred restaurant in London, in a setting that good, with food at that level, that's honestly remarkable value. Go with a group. Order everything. You'll leave feeling like you got away with something.