Frog by Adam Handling

Frog is the restaurant that built Adam Handling's name. The Dundee-born chef opened it in Covent Garden in 2017, on Southampton Street directly opposite the Savoy, and it has held a Michelin star since 2022 (retained in the 2026 Guide). The dining room is wrapped around an open exhibition kitchen behind a long Calacatta marble counter, where ten guests can take the counter seats and watch the pass at work beneath rows of copper pendant lamps. Cagni Williams (formerly Edward Williams Architects) kept the building's original cast-iron columns and laid reclaimed timber floors, then set a pop-art mural of a reimagined Piccadilly Circus along one wall; floor-to-ceiling windows open the front of the room onto the street.

The cooking is modern British and built around Handling's zero-waste philosophy, served as a tasting menu. Downstairs sits The Library, the restaurant's private dining room, lined with a floor-to-ceiling wine wall and centred on a long oak table for up to twelve, with its own chef and sommelier; a reuleaux-shaped chef's table within it seats six to eight. Below that again is Eve, Handling's subterranean cocktail bar, reached by a dramatic ribbon-lit staircase.

For an intimate music-led event, the draw is the lower-ground combination: The Library for a seated private dinner and Eve below for cocktails, caviar and a DJ set, both sound-contained beneath street level and bookable on full or semi-private hire. The whole restaurant can also be taken exclusively.