Restaurant in London, United Kingdom
Serious kitchen, serious view — book it.
Oblix sits on the 32nd floor of The Shard and delivers a Modern European menu under chef Marcus Eaves that has earned back-to-back Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Europe rankings in 2024 and 2025. The view is the room's headline asset, but the kitchen holds its own. Booking is easy relative to London's comparable restaurants, and lunch is the sharper visit.
Oblix is worth booking if you want a Modern European meal with one of London's most commanding dining rooms built into the 32nd floor of The Shard. Under chef Marcus Eaves, the kitchen earns its place on the Opinionated About Dining Europe list — ranked #528 in 2024 and climbing to #623 in 2025, after a recommended debut in 2023. For a first visit, lunch is the sharper proposition: the view is at its most legible in daylight, and you get the full room experience without committing to a long evening. Booking is easy relative to most restaurants at this price tier, which makes Oblix a realistic option even on moderate notice.
The visual case for Oblix starts before you sit down. The 32nd-floor position inside The Shard means the dining room looks directly across the Thames toward the City, Canary Wharf, and beyond. In a city where most high-end restaurants compete on intimacy or heritage, Oblix competes on spectacle — the panorama is the first thing every diner registers, and the kitchen has to earn attention against that backdrop. For the most part, under Marcus Eaves, it does.
The food follows a Modern European approach that rewards diners who want considered progression rather than novelty for its own sake. Think a menu built around clean technique and seasonal framing rather than theatrical flourishes. The experience is better suited to a deliberate pace , this is not a room for a quick meal, and the format rewards diners who treat the progression of courses as the point rather than an inconvenience. If you are coming primarily for drinks and the view with minimal food commitment, the bar level at Oblix is a separate consideration from the main dining room.
For food and travel enthusiasts who want depth, the OAD recognition (Leading Restaurants in Europe in back-to-back years) signals consistent kitchen performance rather than a one-season moment. The 4.3 rating across 3,064 Google reviews adds a useful calibration: at this volume and price level, a 4.3 holds more signal than it might elsewhere. Oblix is not a flash-in-the-pan destination dining story , it has shown enough consistency across 2023, 2024, and 2025 to be taken seriously as a restaurant rather than just a venue with a view.
Oblix opens daily from 12 pm to 10:30 pm, Monday through Sunday, which gives you real flexibility on timing. Arriving at 12 pm on a weekday for lunch means you can read the full sweep of the city while the room is quieter. If you are visiting London from outside the UK and want to build an itinerary around the meal, The Shard sits at London Bridge, making it direct to pair with the wider South Bank. For a broader picture of where to eat, drink, and stay nearby, see our full London restaurants guide, our full London hotels guide, and our full London bars guide.
Booking is easy , this is one of the more accessible restaurants at its quality tier in London. You do not need to set reminders weeks in advance the way you would for CORE by Clare Smyth or The Ledbury, which is a meaningful practical advantage if your plans solidify late. That said, for weekend dinner with a strong table position (window-facing, ideally), book at least one to two weeks out to have real choice. Weekday lunch is the easiest slot to secure.
Oblix is the right call for diners who want the combined case of a serious kitchen and a London landmark setting , particularly for visitors who will not have multiple high-end dinner slots and need one booking to carry both the food experience and the room experience. It is also a strong choice for groups where not everyone is a committed food enthusiast: the view is immediately legible to anyone, and the Modern European format does not require prior context to enjoy. If you are London-based and looking purely for the leading Modern European cooking in the city without the location premium, venues like Casa Fofò or Aulis London will give you more kitchen focus per pound. But if the room is part of your criteria , and for many diners it should be , Oblix justifies the spend.
For context beyond London, the OAD Leading Restaurants in Europe list that Oblix appears on also includes UK destinations like Waterside Inn in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, and Moor Hall in Aughton , useful calibration if you are planning a broader UK food itinerary. Across Europe, comparable Modern European destination dining can be found at La Rei Natura by Michelangelo Mammoliti in Serralunga d'Alba and Oak Gent in Gent.
The database does not confirm specific dishes, so treat any menu advice from other sources as potentially out of date. What the OAD recognition and chef Marcus Eaves's track record suggest is that the kitchen is strongest on composed, technique-driven plates within the Modern European format. Order the full menu progression rather than grazing , Oblix is structured to be experienced as a sequence, and that is where the kitchen's approach is most coherent. If you are unsure between tasting and à la carte formats, ask when you book: the staff can clarify what is currently offered.
Oblix carries an easy booking difficulty rating, which is useful context for an OAD-listed London restaurant. For a weekday lunch, one week's notice is generally sufficient. For weekend dinner , particularly with a window table , book one to two weeks out to have meaningful choice. Peak periods (school holidays, major London events, summer weekends) may stretch that further, but you are unlikely to face the multi-month lead times required at venues like CORE by Clare Smyth. There is no allocation or waitlist system to navigate here.
Lunch. The 32nd-floor view is the room's primary asset, and it reads leading in daylight , the city's geography is legible, and the Thames is at its most visually interesting with direct light. Dinner shifts the focus to the lit skyline, which is atmospheric but less spatially impressive than the daytime panorama. Lunch also tends to be a quieter, more deliberate experience, which suits the food's pace. If your schedule only allows dinner, go , the room still earns its place. But if you have a choice, book a 12 pm or 1 pm lunch slot.
Three things: First, the location inside The Shard means you will go through building security and a lift to reach the restaurant , budget an extra ten minutes on arrival. Second, Oblix operates as a full-service restaurant, not a bar with food; if you want the view without a full meal commitment, the bar area operates differently from the main dining room, so clarify when booking. Third, the OAD recognition places Oblix in serious company for London dining, but it is not the most technically demanding kitchen in the city , it is well-suited to diners who want a complete experience (room, service, food) rather than those optimising purely for culinary edge. For that, consider Aulis London or Casa Fofò.
If Oblix is on your list, the following are worth knowing about in the same city: Chiltern Firehouse for a different room-led dining proposition; 10 Greek Street for no-frills value in Soho; and Bill's for casual fallback dining across the city. Further afield in the UK, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and hide and fox in Saltwood are all worth the trip. See also our full London wineries guide and our full London experiences guide for planning context.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Oblix | — | |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | ££££ | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | ££££ | — |
| The Ledbury | ££££ | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | ££££ | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | ££££ | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Oblix and alternatives.
Oblix runs a Modern European menu under chef Marcus Eaves, so the strongest choices tend to be protein-led mains where the kitchen's technique is most visible. The menu isn't listed in our data, so check the current offering directly before booking — but the format rewards ordering broadly rather than playing it safe. This is not a snacks-and-sharing room; expect structured courses.
Book at least two to three weeks out for dinner, longer for weekend slots when the view is at its most in-demand. Oblix sits inside The Shard at 31 St Thomas St, SE1, and the room draws both tourists and London regulars — prime tables with direct Thames sightlines go first. Lunch on a weekday is your best shot at shorter lead times.
Dinner wins on atmosphere and the skyline effect — the 32nd-floor room transforms after dark when the city lights are visible across the Thames. Lunch is the practical alternative: easier to book, typically better value if pricing tiers apply, and still backed by the same OAD-ranked kitchen that placed at #528 in Europe in 2024. If this is a one-time visit, go at dinner.
The room is the first thing you notice — the 32nd floor of The Shard means the view is part of the proposition before the food arrives. Oblix has been OAD-ranked in Europe every year from 2023 to 2025, so the kitchen is not coasting on the address alone. Plan for a full-length dinner rather than a quick meal; the setting warrants it. If you want a similar room-led London experience without the height, Chiltern Firehouse or Dinner by Heston Blumenthal are the closest comparisons worth considering.
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