Dining Out: Canal, Westbourne Park

A new Westbourne Park opening brings bold flavour and laid-back elegance to the water’s edge. 

The team behind Bistro Freddie, Crispin, and Bar Crispin have built a reputation for creating restaurants that balance sophistication with approachability. Their latest project, Canal, is no exception. Located in Westbourne Park, this ground-floor restaurant sits within the new Mason & Fifth property and looks directly onto the Grand Union Canal. It’s a spot designed to capture London’s appetite for easy elegance: a place where you can come for a glass of wine at sunset, linger over plates that celebrate the seasons, and watch the water glide by from a generous south-facing terrace.

The kitchen is led by Adrian Hernandez Farina, a New Yorker whose CV reads like a greatest-hits of modern dining: Humo in Mayfair, ASKA in New York, Chiltern Firehouse, The French Laundry. Here at Canal, he applies that pedigree to a menu that’s playful without pretension, mixing European produce with bistro sensibility and a touch of New World boldness.

Dinner began with Layla sourdough and smoked butter—the sort of opening move that tells you this kitchen cares about the details. Crisp-edged, almost caramel in its bake, the bread was lifted by butter smoked just enough to intrigue without overwhelming. Alongside, Mangalitza sausage with pickled chilli and apricot offered a perfect balance: rich pork, sharp acidity, and a hit of sweetness that lingered in a way that made you want another bite almost immediately.

Seasonality is everywhere on the menu, but it’s in the produce-led dishes where Canal truly shines. Grilled peaches with stracciatella and walnut tasted like high summer—smoky fruit against cool cream, the crunch of walnut adding a grounding note. It was the kind of dish that feels both simple and inventive, best eaten slowly with a glass of wine in hand.

The bistro heartbeat of Canal comes through most clearly in the larger plates. The table cheeseburger is something of a signature already: perfectly pink, stacked high, unapologetically indulgent. It’s the kind of dish that’s destined to anchor long afternoons when conversation runs late into the evening.

But it was the Cornfed chicken with charred corn and summer girolles that showcased Farina’s ability to let ingredients speak for themselves. Earthy mushrooms, sweet corn, and juicy chicken combined for something at once rustic and refined. The monkfish with datterini tomatoes and capers was another standout—a dish of bright acidity and meaty depth, as Mediterranean in spirit as it is London in execution.

Desserts here are anything but an afterthought. The brown butter cake with sour cherries was rich, nutty, and balanced with just the right edge of tart fruit, while the tiramisù managed to feel both classic and freshly interpreted—light, airy, and beautifully calibrated in its bitterness.

Of course, no modern opening is complete without a strong bar, and Canal has brought in A Bar with Shapes for a Name to curate cocktails. A brown butter old fashioned, unsurprisingly, is already drawing attention, while the wine list leans European but with enough progressive producers to keep even seasoned drinkers intrigued.

But what makes Canal stand out isn’t just the menu or the drinks. It’s the setting: a restaurant that lives up to its name, embracing its canal-side position with a terrace that seems tailor-made for golden hours. Inside, the space is relaxed, with that subtle Crispin-group DNA of unfussy style and warmth.

For a city that thrives on constant reinvention, Canal feels like the kind of restaurant London always needs: seasonal, confident, and quietly stylish. It’s a place that doesn’t shout, but rather invites you to sit down, take your time, and enjoy the view—both on the plate and across the water.

Book a table at Canal.