Michelin Guide · Contemporary Indian · Mayfair
By Monty Khas, Anonymous Critic. Pays every bill.
Most chefs arrive in the kitchen by way of a culinary school, a family restaurant or a tough apprenticeship. Chet Sharma took a detour through a physics doctorate at Oxford, and you can taste the lab coat in the best possible way. BiBi, his small dining room on North Audley Street, runs on the kind of precision that measures twice and seasons once, and then surprises you anyway.
The name is a nod to the grandmothers who shaped his palate, and that family thread runs straight through the menu. In June 2026 Sharma also took on the job of global culinary director at Gymkhana, but BiBi remains his most personal project, with head chef Erin Jackson Yates running the pass day to day.
The room
You step in past a velvet curtain into a long, narrow space done in warm walnut and dusty pink, with a quiet art deco wink. It's plush without tipping into excess. Up front, a bar counter faces the open kitchen and its charcoal sigri; along the wall are snug four-person booths; outside, a heated terrace catches the Mayfair overflow. The counter is the seat to fight for. You watch the cooks work the fire, they talk you through what's landing in front of you, and dinner turns into a show with a running commentary.
What to eat
Dinner is a set menu in two tiers, and the upgrade is worth it if you're here for the full experience. Expect the opening snacks to set the tone: a cheese papad made with Somerset's Wookey Hole cheddar, served with a mango chutney yogurt dip that people talk about long after; raw Orkney scallop in a sharp nimbu pani, the Indian street lemonade reimagined as a dressing; and Loch Duart salmon tossed through jhal muri, Kolkata's puffed-rice snack, for crunch and heat.
Then comes Sharmaji's Lahori chicken, the family recipe regulars warn you about in advance: smoky, tangy with yogurt whey, rich with cashew, and so quietly confident it makes the case for the whole restaurant in three bites. A Swaledale lamb chop barra arrives lacquered with Kashmiri walnut and brick-red rogan oil. Khatti meethi cod plays sweet against sour the way a good achar does. A goat galouti kebab, melting and fragrant, comes rolled in thin roti. Achari British Wagyu is the plate that tells you exactly what Sharma is up to: Indian flavor logic applied to the best produce the British Isles can offer, with no apology on either side.
Vegetarians get a full parallel menu rather than a token swap, with dishes like chili-flecked paneer and okra salan that hold their own against the meat courses.
Drinks and dessert
The cocktail list is one of the most thoughtful in Mayfair, built the way the food is: spice used as structure, not decoration. The calamansi gola, a citrusy, margarita-leaning riff on the shaved-ice street treat, is the one to start with. Chai is on the list too, and it's the right call with dessert, where kulfi has long been the house signature, served like little chocolate-dipped ice-cream bars. The saffron, cardamom and pistachio version is the one to get.
Before you go
Book through the restaurant's online reservation system and ask for the counter. Allow a good two and a half hours; this is not a pre-theater dinner. Dress is smart but relaxed, the way Mayfair does casual.
What lingers after a meal here isn't any single dish so much as the sense of a point of view. Sharma doesn't try to cover the whole subcontinent. He cooks the flavors he grew up with, from Punjab and Lahore and family kitchens in between, and lets British farms and fisheries supply the raw material. Michelin lists BiBi in its guide without a star, which says more about Michelin's timing than about the cooking. A tasting experience, in a city full of them, that feels like it belongs to one specific person is the rarer thing, and it's why BiBi sits at the top of our list.
The Quick Fix
What to order: Wookey Hole cheese papad with mango chutney yogurt; Orkney scallop nimbu pani; Sharmaji's Lahori chicken; Swaledale lamb chop barra; achari British Wagyu; saffron and pistachio kulfi; the upper-tier tasting menu at the counter
Pricing: Splurge. Lunch is the gentler way in; dinner with cocktails is special-occasion territory.
Best for: Anniversary dinners, food-obsessed dates, and anyone who thinks they've already "done" London's Indian scene
How it compares: More personal and experimental than Gymkhana; more chef-driven than Jamavar; the most exciting tasting menu in the JKS stable
See where BiBi ranks: The Best Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Restaurants in London: Our Top 10 for 2026
The food was always this good. We're just paying attention.