Nopi

Where the Ottolenghi Repertoire Meets a Proper Restaurant Kitchen

Nopi is a London restaurant in Soho from Yotam Ottolenghi, serving modern Mediterranean cooking with Middle Eastern and Asian influences. That association has since collapsed. A decade-plus of Ottolenghi cookbooks and column inches has helped bring produce-led Middle Eastern cooking into the mainstream. Nopi sits at the origin point of that shift: it is the restaurant where a publishing and food phenomenon was first tested at counter and table scale, and where the kitchen's ambitions were allowed to run past what a deli counter could contain.

The awards trajectory reflects a sustained presence rather than a recent discovery. Nopi has carried a Michelin Plate since at least 2025, and its Opinionated About Dining ranking in the Casual Europe category has moved from a general recommendation in 2023 to a ranked position of #413 in 2024 and #658 in 2025. Rankings in that guide shift with the field rather than in isolation, meaning the restaurant has held peer-set recognition across multiple cycles. A Google rating of 4.5 from more than 3,400 reviews adds a useful volume signal.

The Spread as the Point: Ottolenghi's Table Logic

Israeli and Levantine dining at its most considered is structured around abundance on the table rather than a single centrepiece on the plate. The mezze tradition, at its core, is an argument for plurality: small dishes, contrasting textures, competing acidity levels, and the kind of constructed sharing that turns a meal into a sustained negotiation between diners. Nopi does not operate as a traditional mezze house, but the underlying logic of the menu shares that architecture. The kitchen deploys multiple smaller dishes alongside individual mains, which means the table becomes active in a way that a conventional European three-course format does not encourage.

The menu features salads, direct vegetable preparations, and combinations that layer fish and meat against a produce foundation. The acknowledgement that vegetables lead even when protein is present is not a rhetorical position at Nopi; it is a structural one. Dishes cited in the awards record include crispy mushrooms with basil aioli and soy-glazed pork belly with pear mostarda, which illustrates the kitchen's habit of running Middle Eastern and Asian inflections through the same plate without forcing either into a supporting role. Sea bass with coconut sauce Véronique, also referenced in the awards data, shows a willingness to extend those influences toward Southeast Asian technique.

For comparison, Honey & Smoke occupies a more explicitly Middle Eastern register in London, while the Israeli restaurant format elsewhere, including 12 Chairs in New York City and Ash'Kara in Denver, tends to operate at a tighter price and formality tier. Nopi sits above that casual bracket in London without crossing into the four-pound-sign category occupied by venues like CORE by Clare Smyth, The Ledbury, Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library, or Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

The Room and the Dynamic

The ground floor is bright and animated, with shared tables on the lower level positioned so diners can observe the kitchen. That configuration is common in contemporary London restaurants that want to foreground technique without converting entirely to counter dining. The open kitchen view, in a room with communal seating, places Nopi in a category of restaurants that rewards solo diners and couples willing to sit alongside strangers, rather than groups seeking a private table arrangement. The light, open room contrasts with the darker, more enclosing format that defines much of Soho's older restaurant stock.

Planning Your Visit

If you are combining Nopi with a wider UK trip, the country's most decorated restaurant tables include The Fat Duck in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, Moor Hall in Aughton, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton.