A British restaurant wave is taking over the US, one Scotch egg at a time

WHEN King Charles III stepped up to the lectern in the US House of Representatives in April to deliver the second-ever joint address to Congress by a British monarch, he opened with an Oscar Wilde witticism: “We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.” The chamber erupted with knowing laughter.

Behind the age-old joke, that centuries-long kinship still holds true. British culture, from James Bond and child wizards to Adele and Adolescence, has a long history with US audiences. However, the notable exception has always been British food. The perception that watery stews, pallid meat pies and other beige-adjacent staples constituted British culinary culture has been the butt of endless jokes across the Atlantic.

Yet, after making huge strides at home over the last three decades, the UK food scene is now so covetable and exportable that it’s taking hold in the US with a number of new ventures. Many feel less like imports and more like a serving of home away from home.

Since the end of 2025, several remarkable British-inflected restaurants and pubs have opened in a string of US cities, drawing hourslong queues and garnering rave reviews. They aren’t kitschy themed pubs, bedecked in Union Jacks and serving lacklustre fish and chips.

Instead, they’re personal restaurants shaped by chefs and owners who leverage their British lineage to evoke a genuine experience. It’s a wave powered in good part by the demand for conviviality and affordability that have become guiding principles in the hospitality world – and equally by social media and the stream of gravy-slicked #Britishcore content on TikTok and Instagram. 

Currently, the most talked-about establishment is Dean’s, a reimagined British pub in New York’s SoHo neighbourhood. Owners Annie Shi and chef Jess Shadbolt, who also run the popular Italian-esque restaurant King next door, named the place after the last remaining dayboat fisherman in Shadbolt’s English hometown.

British pub dishes come straight from the cottagecore AGA oven – like golden pasties bursting with bubble and squeak (cabbage and potato) filling, and stargazy pies with whole mackerel heads poking through the crust. There’s Old Speckled Hen pale ale on tap and an extensive English sparkling wine list. The look and tone of Dean’s shares DNA with the new breed of elevated London pubs that combine farm-to-table menus with the paired-back aesthetics of a country pub.

“It feels like a neighbourhood place, but like you’re in London, not New York City,” says Sanjeev Yadav, a Thursday night customer who works in finance and came downtown from his Upper East Side home. He was showing off images of the foot-long pork scratchings he’d had earlier as he considered whether to start competing in the place’s 500 Pint challenge, an ever-changing list of the spot’s top beer drinkers. 

Dean’s isn’t the first British-style restaurant to hit it big in the Big Apple recently: Dame and Lord’s, which opened in quick succession after the pandemic, in 2021 and 2022, respectively, as well as the British steakhouse Hawksmoor in 2021.

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But the instantaneous dam-busting acclaim for Dean’s has surprised many people, including co-owner Shadbolt. “People are craving places that feel more relaxed and sociable right now,” she says. “You can come in for a quick pint and end up staying for dinner. There’s also something people really connect to in British food and pub culture. When it’s done well, it feels generous and familiar at the same time.”

Also part of the UK wave is the influx of British members clubs, particularly premium food-focused Mayfair establishments. After Robin Birley (renowned for 5 Hertford Street & Oswald’s) successfully launched Maxime’s last year, advanced plans have also been unveiled for an Upper East Side outpost of Maison Estelle and a Meatpacking District iteration of the London institution, Annabel’s, whose menu includes classics such as a Full English Breakfast with blood sausage.

Across the country in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley, Dingles Public House is a similarly elevated riff on British pubs in a convivial room dotted with antique prints. Chef George Dingle, whose résumé includes time at Michelin-starred London restaurants, offers Scotch eggs with English mustard sauce, Welsh rarebit made with California cheddar and a beef-and-Guinness pie that’s accompanied by bone marrow and a pile of buttery mashed potatoes. (The handsome beer-battered fish and chips, with curry sauce and mushy peas, happens to match the green walls and brown leather banquettes.)

In Los Angeles, the success of British food seems even more improbable given the cliche of stodgy brown and beige pub fare contrasting with sunny California cuisine. Yet, Wilde’s opened in late October in a former Thai restaurant in Los Feliz and quickly became a feature in the neighborhood, drawing heavily on chef Natasha Price’s British heritage.

She and childhood friend Tatiana Ettensberger launched it as a neighbourhood restaurant: somewhere to stop by for a bacon sandwich with brown sauce and Egg Soldiers (boiled eggs with buttered fingers of toast) in the morning, sip on natural wines in the early evening and turn to bangers and mash and sticky toffee pudding for dinner. 

The 30-seat spot, with mahogany accents and flickering candles, has become a phenomenon. Lines form before opening, and the wait-list stretches to hours. Angelenos wanted Welsh rarebit and battered skate – they just didn’t know it.

“It’s like refined British pub fare meets LA bistro – definitely the first British-Californian fusion restaurant I’ve been to,” says Chris Rice, a British film producer who’s lived and worked in the city for 15 years; he was there for a friend’s birthday dinner. “Great local ingredients and a fun mix of influences.”

And then there’s the Selvedge Inn in Healdsburg, the most ambitious, explicitly Anglophile project of them all, from Tony Greenberg and Katina and Kyle Connaughton, the wife-and-husband team behind the three Michelin-starred SingleThread that’s also located in the Northern California city.

The roll call of British culinary references, which runs the gamut from English breakfasts to Sunday roasts to afternoon tea, pays homage to Kyle’s familial ties and the years the Connaughtons worked in influential UK establishments like Hind’s Head pub in Bray. 

The converted 1895 mansion will open to hotel guests in November with English-style gardens overseen by Katina, alongside 11 rooms whose designs are based on British art, history and fashion.

“The UK has this amazing food culture,” Kyle says. “Not only are there all kinds of different influences from around the world making it innovative and delicious, but that connectivity to seasons, heritage and history makes it comforting and homely.” 

What’s powering this cross-cultural moment happening right now? Credit the sheer strength of British soft power and social media, where the cozy aesthetics of the British pub – wooden interiors, faded upholstery, the ambience of an evening with no agenda – circulate on Instagram as aspirationally as an alfresco dinner overlooking Lake Como.

Likewise, the mechanics of brewing a perfect “cuppa” or the codes of behaviour in the local have become a source of fascination and a kind of whimsical shorthand for a low-lift hangout. And the music you’re hearing in the background comes from a new wave of lauded British artists, from Raye to Olivia Dean, who are taking their place alongside Charlie xcx and Harry Styles.  

Back in Washington, King Charles concluded his address to Congress by saying that whatever differences existed between the two nations, their shared values formed “an unbreakable bond”.

It was the language of diplomacy – careful, measured, deliberately sidestepping any discord over tariffs and defense spending. But it was also true. The bond between Britain and America has always had a strong cultural bent. It’s only natural that food belatedly join that fraternal fold. BLOOMBERG