Lita

The chef who won this Michelin star walked out of the kitchen thirteen months ago, and the star is still on the door (The Staff Canteen).

Why go

Lita opened in March 2024 in an old Carluccio's off the top of Marylebone High Street and won a star eleven months later, in February 2025, under Luke Ahearne (The Staff Canteen). Ahearne left that July for Motorino in Fitzrovia. Kostas Papathanasiou arrived in November, was made culinary director in February 2026, and the star was retained in the same edition.

His route here matters for what comes off the pass. He was sous chef at The Fat Duck, cooked at The Ledbury and Nouri in Singapore, spent five years with Jason Atherton and ran Studio Frantzén at Harrods before going to Stockholm as executive chef of the three-star original.

The kitchen is open to the room and the fire is the middle of it. Sixteen chefs work about eighty covers a service, seven days, lunch and dinner, plus sixteen seats on the terrace. The menu moves with the seasons and gets named by its suppliers: Devon duck, Cornish cod, native Scottish lobster, Sicilian red prawns, Lake District beef.

The one thing to hold in your head is that nobody with a byline has reviewed this kitchen. Every quote below is about the room Ahearne ran.

Order this / avoid

• Order: pan con tomate, which is the plate three critics stopped on, with a whole anchovy over the top. Then the bluefin tuna crudo, and whatever is on the grill that day. For three or four people, the whole Cornish turbot.
• Avoid: the three-figure sharing plates and the kilo of Galician beef if you are paying. And do not assume the wine starts gently, because the cheapest bottle is fifty-four pounds.

What locals & experts say

• Jake Missing, The Infatuation, June 2024, scored 8.2: "This kind of lavish decadence could seem vulgar if the extortionate food wasn't so delicious." On where to sit: "this restaurant feels most fun at one the counters. Sit at the bar and drink impeccable martinis while snacking on lush pan con tomate, each with a fat member of anchovy royalty draped over it." ref
• Jay Rayner, The Observer, April 2024, quoted via Harden's: "completely besotted", in "heavenly raptures", and then the bill. "The two mouthfuls of tomato bread are £9." His closing line: "Lita sells itself as a sweet neighbourhood bistro. And it is, much as Buckingham Palace is a convenient townhouse." ref
• Jimi Famurewa, Evening Standard, April 2024, quoted via Harden's: the cooking was "nothing short of staggering" and the restaurant "an impeccably crafted, legitimate contender for launch of the year", set against "the vertiginous lunacy of a bill". ref
• Giles Coren, The Times, quoted via Harden's: "a very expensive restaurant in very expensive Marylebone", with a food bill topping £200 a head. ref
• Catherine Hanly, Hot Dinners, April 2024: the tuna crudo was "a standout crudo dish that may be the best we've tried in London this year so far". Her visit was hosted by the restaurant, which she declares on the piece. ref
• No industry vote. None of the 589 London picks in our chef-vote file names Lita.

Good to know

• Where: 7-9 Paddington Street W1U 5QH. Baker Street or Regent's Park.
• Timing: seven days. Monday to Saturday 12:00 to 16:15 and 17:00 to 23:00. Sunday 12:30 to 16:15 and 17:00 to 22:30.
• Booking: essential. Eighty covers a service in a starred room off Marylebone High Street.
• Where to sit: the counters. There is one at the bar and one facing the grill, and both reviewers who wrote about the room said the same thing about them. A front dining room, a middle of booths, a private room, and twenty seats on the terrace outside.
• Money: four-pound-sign pricing on the guide's own band. Wine opens at £54 a bottle and the sommelier list runs to grower Champagnes and old-world bottles well past that.
• Michelin: one star, first awarded February 2025, retained in the 2026 Guide.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Westminster, inspected 17 October 2025, FHRSID 1662342. ref
• Sites: one. A register search finds no second premises trading as Lita.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export carries an empty note for this row. The master CSV line "Michelin star within a year of opening" came from an earlier enrichment pass; it is true, and it is now thirteen months out of date on the thing that matters, so the row has been rewritten.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Worth rearranging an evening for, and go in knowing what it costs. Lita is a one-star Marylebone room built around an open fire, with sixteen chefs on a pass that faces the dining room, counters at the bar and at the kitchen, and a menu written off the seasons: Devon duck, Cornish cod, native Scottish lobster. The star landed in February 2025, eleven months after opening, and was retained in 2026. The catch a booking site will not tell you is that Luke Ahearne, who won it, left in July 2025 to open Motorino, and Kostas Papathanasiou took over that November after running the pass at three-star Frantzen. So the cooking is very likely still excellent and nobody has published a verdict on it yet. What holds this at should-visit rather than above is price and singularity. Jay Rayner counted nine pounds for two mouthfuls of tomato bread, the cheapest bottle is fifty-four, and Giles Coren put the food bill past two hundred a head. Fire-led modern Mediterranean is the most crowded lane in London right now, so there is no dish here you cannot find a version of somewhere cheaper.