Restaurant in Newington Green, United Kingdom
Order the tasting menu. Book ahead.
Perilla is a neighbourhood restaurant in Newington Green worth booking for the tasting menu. Chef Ben Marks takes classical formats and delivers something more subversive than the candlelit room suggests. Service charge is included in all prices and flagged clearly — the kind of transparency that makes budgeting straightforward. Book if you want ambition without formality.
Perilla is one of the most compelling neighbourhood restaurants in north London, and the tasting menu is the clearest reason to go. Chef Ben Marks runs a short, seasonal menu that reads familiar but consistently delivers something more interesting than expected. If you want a dinner that earns its place on a special occasion calendar without the formality or pricing of a Michelin-starred room, this is a strong answer.
The kitchen's signature move is taking a classic format and doing something oblique with it. The awards record notes a cauliflower mushroom carbonara that pulls together bacon, Parmesan and breadcrumbs into something closer to a mac and cheese and au gratin hybrid — the kind of dish that sounds like a gimmick but lands as one of the most satisfying things on the menu. A Devon duck breast main shows restraint when the dish calls for it: soft, pink, paired with celeriac and sauerkraut, it confirms this isn't a kitchen that subverts for its own sake. When classicism serves the plate better, Marks uses it.
Vegetables get serious attention here. The menu consistently positions plant dishes as full participants rather than supporting roles, and the kitchen's sourcing shows in the quality of what comes out. This isn't a vegetable restaurant in a dogmatic sense, but if you're eating with someone who wants a plant-forward menu, Perilla handles it without compromise. Desserts are deliberately limited: expect a sorbet and one proper pudding. The prune and damson doughnut filled with Armagnac cream is the kind of thing you order and then wish you'd ordered twice.
The room is candlelit with pot plants and terrazzo — it reads intimate without being precious. The atmosphere works for date nights and small group celebrations. The wine list is short and all-European, with a supplementary single-bottle list available on request. All prices include a service charge, which is stated clearly on the menu and the bill , a detail that removes the usual end-of-meal arithmetic and is worth noting if you're planning around a budget.
Perilla's format, a short menu, tasting option available, convivial room, does not lend itself to late-night drop-ins. This is a sit-down dinner restaurant, and the experience is structured around a full meal rather than grazing or drinks-and-snacks. If you're looking for somewhere to land after 10pm in the Newington Green area, this is not the right choice. Check our full Newington Green bars guide for options that work later in the evening. For the dinner window, though, Perilla rewards booking.
See the full comparison section below for how Perilla sits relative to London's broader modern British dining options.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perilla | This 'modern neighbourhood restaurant’ has fun with the formula. It looks the part – all candlelight, pot plants and terrazzo – but a subversive streak is not far below the surface. Ben Marks cooks the classics, but not as you know them. Consider panisse, lightly battered, cut into nigiri-like fingers with pungent salsa verde and presented on a decorative bed of raw chickpeas; or a take on vichyssoise (served hot in a scuffed metal dish) with punchy lovage as well as the more traditional parsley. The tastiest dish we tried was perhaps the ugliest – a ‘carbonara’ of cauliflower mushroom, its constituent parts (bacon, Parmesan, breadcrumbs) coming together to create a mac ‘n’ cheese/au gratin/carbonara hybrid. ‘Punk’ is perhaps too strong a word for food that’s so pleasurable and big-hearted, but it’s certainly the antithesis of all that is twee, tweezered and tasteful. Marks sources wisely and cooks well. A main course of Devon duck breast, soft and pink, pairs neatly with its celeriac and sauerkraut garnish (the chef can do restrained), while reginette pasta with a hearty ragù of girolles is comforting but unrefined. Desserts are limited to a sorbet and just one proper pudding: we plumped for the full-size prune and damson doughnut, oozing Armagnac cream. Pure Perilla. The tasting menu is the best of the carte, so it's well worth ordering. To drink, choose a wine flight or a bottle from the short, hip all-European list (also ask to see the extended 'single bottle' list). Note that all prices quoted include a service charge; credit to the owners for also flagging it unequivocally on both the menu and the bill.; Restaurant Perilla chooses to give vegetables a prominent place. The small menu includes pure plant dishes, vegetable-focused creations, and dishes where vegetables play a delicious supporting role alongside meat and fish. We admit, this isn’t exactly a vegetable restaurant pure sang, but what does appear on the plate is truly tasty. That’s why we choose to encourage them to expand their pure plant offering — we believe guests will embrace it wholeheartedly. What do you think, Perilla? “Green” is already written all over your address! | Easy | — | |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in Newington Green for this tier.
Order the tasting menu — the awards record is explicit that it represents the best of the carte and is worth the premium. If you're ordering à la carte, the kitchen's strength is in dishes that subvert a classic format: the cauliflower mushroom carbonara is the standout example, and the prune and damson doughnut with Armagnac cream is the dessert to choose. Vegetable-focused dishes are given genuine prominence here, so this works as well for non-meat eaters as it does for omnivores.
Bar seating isn't documented in the available venue information, and Perilla's format — a sit-down dinner restaurant with a short menu and tasting option — isn't designed for drop-in counter dining. Book a table rather than showing up and hoping for a bar spot.
Perilla is a neighbourhood restaurant on Green Lanes, N16, so capacity is limited and large groups may find the format a tight fit. For groups of 6 or more, check the venue's official channels before booking — the short, deliberate menu and convivial room are better suited to parties of 2 to 4.
Perilla is the most documented destination restaurant in the immediate Newington Green area, so direct local alternatives at the same level are limited. If you're open to a short journey into Islington or Stoke Newington, the north London modern British scene has several comparable neighbourhood options — but for Ben Marks's specific cooking style, there's no like-for-like substitute nearby.
Yes, with the right expectations. The room delivers — candlelight, pot plants, terrazzo — and the tasting menu gives the meal a clear shape. The cooking is confident and the wine list is short but considered, with an extended single-bottle list available on request. It's a better fit for a celebratory dinner between two than a large group milestone, and the all-in pricing (service charge included and flagged on the menu) means no bill shock at the end.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
