Swallow Street is short enough to walk past without noticing. It cuts between Regent Street and Piccadilly, two minutes from the Circus, and at numbers 11–15 someone has been opening oysters since 1916.
Find them: bentleys.org · 020 7734 4756 · book on SevenRooms · @bentleysoysterbar
!Bentley's covered terrace on Swallow Street, with white tablecloths, wooden chairs and planters The covered terrace on Swallow Street
It started with a barrow in Clacton
Bill Bentley's family kept an oyster bed in Clacton-on-Sea and sold the catch from a barrow by the pier. He wanted more than a seaside trade, so he took the business to Piccadilly and opened a proper room for London's well-off. That room still has its original marble-topped bar on the ground floor, and oysters have been shucked on that exact spot since the doors opened.
Richard Corrigan started out in rural Meath, became a Michelin-starred chef, and had long admired Bentley's before he bought and restored it in 2005. According to the restaurant, he still oversees the kitchen, the menu changes and the suppliers himself.
Three rooms, three different evenings
- The Oyster Bar, ground floor: bright and busy, and the only room with the late-night Raw Bar. You can talk to the shuckers while they build your platter.
- The Grill Room, first floor: William Morris fabric on the walls, blue leather chairs and the original Victorian windows over Swallow Street. The set lunch (12:00–15:00) and the pre-theatre menu (16:30–18:00) are served here.
- The Terrace: covered and heated, open all year, with blankets in winter. Once a year it hosts the London Oyster Championships.
Sit downstairs
Our take: book the Oyster Bar, not the Grill. Upstairs is prettier, and the kitchen will send oysters up to your table, but the reason Bentley's has lasted 110 years is that marble counter.
The shuckers, whom Bentley's calls the Oyster Boys, open up to 1,000 oysters a day, and the restaurant says its list of British oysters is the largest in London: native and rock, wild and cultivated. At the bar you can ask which ones are eating best that week and try two side by side. That teaches you more than any menu description. If you've never had a native, our oyster guide explains how the flat native differs from the rock oyster and why natives are traditionally an autumn-to-spring oyster. October is a good month to start.
On Saturdays the same bar hosts a weekly Oyster Masterclass, which is a gentler way in if a dozen raw shells feels like a lot.
Beyond the shells
Menus change with the season. The dishes Bentley's picks out itself are Dover sole meunière, the Bentley's shellfish cocktail, lobster thermidor, Cornish fish stew and traditional fish and chips. Upstairs you might find wild Cornish mussels and seared sea bass next to prime British meat and, in season, roast grouse. There is a roast on Sundays.
The sourcing rule is short: wild, line-caught fish and traceable shellfish from British and Irish waters. That's the reason the sole and the fish and chips get as much attention as the oysters.
Getting there
Google lists Bentley's as open daily from noon: until 23:00 Monday to Thursday, midnight on Friday and Saturday, and 22:00 on Sunday. Piccadilly Circus station is about two minutes' walk away and Green Park is five to ten. Book on SevenRooms or call 020 7734 4756.
The map, hours and photos are on Bentley's FishRestaurants listing. If you want to compare it with other places, our London fish restaurant guide covers the rest of the city.