Menyu

Local guide · Greater London, England

London restaurant owners: keep the printed menu, add one every guest can read

Greater London had 9,122,909 residents in mid-2025, and at the 2021 census only 78.4% of Londoners had English as a main language, the lowest share of any English region. Keep your printed menu for the dining room; a QR code on the table can open the same dishes in your guests’ languages, with each allergen marked.

Turn my menu link into a mobile menuWhat Menyu does and doesn’t do in the UK

Café table on a London pavement beside Georgian brick houses and black railings, with a red QR code stand, Keralan fried chicken with curry-leaf mayonnaise and a martini
AI-generated illustration

Key facts

London in figures

residents of Greater London in mid-2025, 0.29% fewer than a year earlier12
9,122,909
of Londoners had English as a main language in 2021, the lowest share of any region in England3
78.4%
overnight visits to London by overseas visitors in 2024, a figure still in development4
20.9 million
restaurants in the MICHELIN selection for London and its surroundings, 305 of them with vegetarian options5
395

Local rules

Pavement licences, one council at a time

The ONS tables split Greater London into 33 local authorities: the City of London, home to 15,631 people in mid-2025, and 32 boroughs such as Westminster, home to 212,367. Putting tables and chairs on the pavement outside your door takes a licence from the council where you trade.16

The City of London Corporation grants pavement licences for 12 months: £500 for a new application, £350 to renew before the licence runs out. The file counts as complete once everything is in its online portal and the fee is paid, and a public notice has to go up at the site.7

Westminster City Council charges the same £500 and £350 and decides within 28 days, but grants a licence for three months at least and six months at most. Holders of its old tables and chairs licence now apply for a pavement licence instead, and since 1 June 2026 applications go through a new system.89

Both work inside the national regime, permanent since 31 March 2024: fees capped at £500 and £350, 14 days of public consultation, then 14 days for the council to decide. An A-board is outside the licence and needs consents of its own.6

For your menu

Read your own council’s page before you order furniture: a licence lasts twelve months in the City, six at most in Westminster.

Growth

A population that fell for the first time since 2021

Greater London counted 9,122,909 residents in mid-2025. Births outnumbered deaths by 54,211 and international migration added 51,839 people, but 131,961 more people moved out to the rest of the UK than moved in. The population fell by 0.29%, its first fall since mid-2021.12

Londoners are younger than the country around them: a median age of 36.2 in mid-2025, against 40.6 for England as a whole.1

For your menu

Every year some regulars leave and new neighbours arrive who have never seen your menu: give them a way to read it before they walk in.

Visitors and languages

Residents with another main language

At the 2021 census, 78.4% of Londoners aged three and over had English as a main language, the lowest share of any English region; the North East had the highest, 96.5%.3

London also had England’s highest share of people with Romanian as a main language, 1.9% or 159,000 people, and in the borough of Harrow the share reached 7.5%.3

For your menu

A menu written only in English asks part of your room to guess what is in a dish.

Visitors and languages

Nearly 21 million overseas visits in 2024

Overseas visitors made 20,949,000 overnight visits to London in 2024, about eight times as many as to Edinburgh (2,559,000), the next town on VisitBritain’s list.4

VisitBritain warns that these 2024 town figures come from a survey still badged as official statistics in development, and that revised estimates were released on 4 September 2026.4

For your menu

A visitor may read your menu only once, at the door or at the table: it has to make sense at first glance, in their language if possible.

Local food

A MICHELIN selection of 395 restaurants

For London and its surroundings the MICHELIN Guide lists 395 restaurants: 6 with three stars, 15 with two, 64 with one, 50 Bib Gourmands and 260 selected addresses.5

The guide’s filters flag vegetarian options at 305 of them, vegan options at 225, gluten-free at 118, halal at 93 and kosher at 30. Of the 395, 107 have a terrace.5

For your menu

Guests arrive with a diet or an allergy in mind and expect the answer on the menu, before they have to call someone over.

With Menyu

What Menyu changes for a London menu, and where it stops

Menyu publishes your menu at an address that never changes, behind a QR code in your colours. For a London restaurant it helps most with languages and allergens, with prices in pounds once you choose them in the settings. It falls short on online payment and on the opening status, which reads in French; the next section says so plainly.

  • The 14 allergens UK law names, dish by dish

    Each dish can carry its allergens from the list of 14 that the Food Standards Agency sets out, the same list Menyu uses. Guests can then filter the menu to vegetarian dishes, or to dishes without the allergens they choose.

    • The 14 allergens, marked dish by dishIncluded
    • Filters: vegetarian, and one for each of the 14 allergensIncluded
    Build my allergen chart

  • The printed menu stays, the QR code goes on the table

    The QR code carries your colours and logo and opens a menu whose address never changes, so a dish or a price you rewrite shows up without a reprint. Choose pounds in the settings before you type your prices: Menyu shows them in £ and converts nothing.

    • QR code in your colours, with your logoIncluded
    • One fixed QR code, a menu you can edit at any timeIncluded
    • Prices in pounds, chosen in the settingsIncluded
    Make the QR code for my menu

Limits

What Menyu does not do

  • Your menu can show pounds, but Menyu bills its own plans in euros: €49, €79 or €149 a month.
  • The opening status at the top of the menu reads in French, ‘Ouvert · Jusqu’à…’, even on an English menu, although it follows the UK time you set.
  • No online payment for a UK restaurant: payment accounts can only be opened in France. Orders placed from the menu are paid at the counter.
  • The phone field at sign-up is optional and takes ten digits only, the French format: a UK number, eleven digits with its leading 0, is refused. Leave it blank.
  • Orders placed through Menyu carry no tip or service charge line.

According to the guides

Six MICHELIN picks, from Spitalfields to Shoreditch

All six are in the current MICHELIN Guide selection for London: a two-star tasting menu, three one-star restaurants and two Bib Gourmands, priced from £ to ££££, with regional Indian, Spanish and plant-based cooking among them.

These restaurants are not Menyu customers and were not approached. The list comes from the MICHELIN Guide; on 21 October 2026 each one’s own website showed its hours, menus or bookings.

  1. Gunpowder Spitalfields

    Spitalfields10 · Indian · £

    • Bib Gourmand 202610

    The first Gunpowder, with just ten tightly packed tables; the name refers to the chef’s spice mix, made every day, and the menu draws on old family recipes.10

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website11

  2. Kricket

    Soho12 · Indian · ££

    • Bib Gourmand 202612

    Soho was Kricket’s first permanent home after its pop-up days; the menu leans towards India’s southern states, with Keralan fried chicken and a curry leaf mayonnaise.12

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website13

  3. Trishna

    Marylebone14 · Indian · £££

    • 1 MICHELIN Star 202614

    Coastal Indian cooking, such as Dorset brown crab, and special menus for India’s festivals and seasons: in November 2026, a Diwali menu from the 2nd to the 8th.1415

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website15

  4. Sabor

    Heddon Street, Mayfair16 · Spanish · £££

    • 1 MICHELIN Star 202616

    Nieves Barragán Mohacho runs a counter with dishes from all over Spain on the ground floor and, upstairs, El Asador with specialities from Galicia and Castile.16

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website17

  5. Plates London

    Old Street, Shoreditch18 · Vegan, vegetarian · ££££

    • 1 MICHELIN Star 202618

    Kirk Haworth, who owns Plates with his sister Keeley, cooks a vegan menu; the restaurant says it cannot cater for nut, soya or allium allergies, which run through the whole menu.1819

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website19

  6. The Clove Club

    Shoreditch Town Hall20 · Creative · ££££

    • 2 MICHELIN Stars 202620

    Snacks with the house martini, then a tasting menu of British produce, from Cornish crab and sea bass to Cumbrian pork chop and Kentish strawberries.20

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website21

Questions

Questions and answers

Do I need a pavement licence for tables outside my London restaurant?

Yes, if the tables and chairs stand on the pavement, and it comes from the council where you trade. The City of London Corporation grants 12 months for £500, or £350 to renew, with a public notice at the site. Westminster charges the same, decides within 28 days and grants three to six months.

Across England fees are capped at £500 and £350, and a council that misses its deadline is deemed to have granted the licence for two years.678

Does my pavement licence cover the A-board?

No. The government’s guidance leaves advertising boards out of the pavement licence: they need consent under the Highways Act 1980 and express advertising consent under the Town and Country Planning Regulations 2007.6

Can Menyu show my prices in pounds?

Yes. Choose pounds sterling in the settings, then type your prices in £: Menyu converts nothing. Set UK time there too, and the opening status and lunch categories follow UK time; the status itself reads in French.

Menyu’s own plans stay billed in euros, €49, €79 or €149 a month.

See the plans, in euros
Which languages should a London menu be in?

Start from who sits in your dining room. At the 2021 census 78.4% of Londoners had English as a main language, and London had England’s highest share of Romanian speakers, 1.9%. Overseas visitors made 20.9 million overnight visits in 2024.

Menyu translates dishes into 25 languages, Romanian included; check them before you publish. The menu’s buttons stay in English.34

Can my allergen information sit behind a QR code?

The Food Standards Agency lets you choose paper or digital, but asks for another way in for guests who cannot use the digital version, and as a backup if it fails. A printed menu or allergen chart covers that.

On Menyu each dish carries its allergens from the 14 that food law names. The national rules are on the United Kingdom page.2223

Menu rules in the United Kingdom
Can guests pay or leave a tip through Menyu?

Not in the UK. Online payment accounts can only be opened in France, and orders carry no tip or service charge line. With Premium, guests can still order from the menu, to eat in or take away, and pay at the counter.

Are the restaurants on this page Menyu customers?

No. They come from the MICHELIN Guide, which lists 395 restaurants for London and its surroundings. We did not contact them, and each entry links to its source.5

Method

How this page was made

Written by the Menyu team, a publisher based in Montpellier, France, from the pages cited, all read on 21 October 2026: the Office for National Statistics, VisitBritain, the City of London Corporation, Westminster City Council, GOV.UK, the Food Standards Agency, the MICHELIN Guide and the restaurants’ own websites. The restaurants listed are not Menyu customers. The illustration is AI-generated and shows no real place.

Sources

  1. Office for National Statistics, Mid-year population estimates, England and Wales, mid-2025 (MYE25)ons.gov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  2. Office for National Statistics, Population estimates for England and Wales: mid-2025ons.gov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  3. Office for National Statistics, Language, England and Wales: Census 2021ons.gov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  4. VisitBritain, Inbound visits and spend: trends by UK townvisitbritain.org · accessed 21 October 2026

  5. MICHELIN Guide, MICHELIN restaurants, London and surroundingsguide.michelin.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  6. Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, Pavement licences: guidancegov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  7. City of London Corporation, Pavement Licencecityoflondon.gov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  8. Westminster City Council, Apply for a pavement licence: applywestminster.gov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  9. Westminster City Council, Apply for a pavement licencewestminster.gov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  10. MICHELIN Guide, Gunpowder Spitalfields, Londonguide.michelin.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  11. Gunpowder, Gunpowder, official websitegunpowderrestaurants.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  12. MICHELIN Guide, Kricket, Londonguide.michelin.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  13. Kricket, Kricket, official websitekricketrestaurants.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  14. MICHELIN Guide, Trishna, Londonguide.michelin.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  15. Trishna, Trishna, official websitetrishnalondon.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  16. MICHELIN Guide, Sabor, Londonguide.michelin.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  17. Sabor, Sabor, official websitesaborrestaurants.co.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  18. MICHELIN Guide, Plates London, Londonguide.michelin.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  19. Plates London, Plates London, official websiteplates-london.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  20. MICHELIN Guide, The Clove Club, Londonguide.michelin.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  21. The Clove Club, The Clove Club, official websitethecloveclub.com · accessed 21 October 2026

  22. Food Standards Agency, Allergen information for non-prepacked foods: best practicegov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026

  23. Food Standards Agency, Allergen guidance for food businessesgov.uk · accessed 21 October 2026