Mayfair is one of the most upmarket areas of London and there is a ton to do. There’s something to interest everyone in this popular destination, whether you want to soak up the culture in galleries and museums, breathe in the fresh air in Mayfair’s parks and squares, or indulge in a shopping spree.
I visited Mayfair several times and fell in love with this elegant district. In fact, my older son took his first steps in one of the historic squares in Mayfair just before his first birthday. It’s held a special place in my heart ever since!
To help you plan your own memorable Mayfair itinerary, I’ve picked out the best things to do in Mayfair, including the best places to shop, and the best restaurants in Mayfair.
Read on to discover the delights Mayfair has to offer!
Where is Mayfair?
Mayfair lies in the City of Westminster borough in the heart of London. Mayfair is bordered by Hyde Park on its west side and the Green Park on its south side, making this one of the most central and expensive areas of London.
Fun fact, if you play the UK version of Monopoly, Mayfair is the most expensive square on the board. In real life, Mayfair is an affluent area with Georgian townhouses, 5-star hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants, and designer boutiques.
Four of London’s most famous roads surround Mayfair: Park Lane, Piccadilly, Regent Street, and Oxford Street.
Mayfair’s central location is within easy reach of London’s iconic landmarks like Buckingham Palace and Marble Arch and popular attractions like the British Museum and the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square.
What to do in Mayfair
Whether you’re looking for things to do in a day in Mayfair or planning a longer stay, I’ve got you covered with my pick of the best Mayfair things to do.
Visit a Cigar Lounge
If you’re a cigar smoker, you’ll find that Mayfair has some of the best cigar lounges in London, and I visited some with my husband on our last trip to London.
These luxurious lounges allow clients of specialist tobacconists to smoke cigars in an indoor tasting room, and you’ll often find them in top London hotels.
We were both impressed by the service and selection of cigars at The Connaught Cigar Merchants at the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair. Another good option is The Garden Room at the Lanesborough Hotel, located on Hyde Park Corner, just on the outskirts of Mayfair.
Relax in Mayfair’s Green Spaces
Mayfair’s beautiful parks and gardens offer a peaceful space for relaxation in the middle of London.
Hyde Park is a large park to the west of Mayfair. It’s home to several famous landmarks, including the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain and the Serpentine Lake. You can take a boat out on the water, enjoy a leisurely stroll, or even go for a horseback ride in over 350 acres of beautiful green space.
Green Park lies south of Mayfair, and its name refers to the fact that it’s the only London park with no floral displays. It’s smaller than Hyde Park and a lovely place to enjoy a picnic lunch or just take a quiet moment.
Mount Street Gardens is a hidden gem in Mayfair, tucked away off Mount Street in the heart of Mayfair. It’s much smaller than Green Park or Hyde Park and the perfect spot to take a breather from the noise of the city.
Enjoy Afternoon Tea
Afternoon tea is an iconic British tradition. It was first served to the Duchess of Bedford in the 1840s when she asked for a light snack of cakes and sandwiches between lunch and dinner.
This taste of the high life traditionally includes a three-tier tower with dainty finger sandwiches on the bottom layer, scones with fruit conserve and clotted cream in the middle, and exquisite cakes and pastries on the top tier.
Luxury hotels like the Connaught, the Dorchester, and Claridges are some of the best places to enjoy afternoon tea in Mayfair. Remember that afternoon tea services are very popular and can fill up quickly, especially during peak tourist season.
Check out my son’s reviews for the best afternoon tea with kids!
Historic Squares
Mayfair has a rich history and is filled with elegant architecture. While visiting Mayfair, it’s worth checking out the area’s historic squares, surrounded by grand Georgian terraces.
Grosvenor Square is a public garden in central Mayfair that was once home to John Adams, the second President of the United States. The beautiful gardens and monuments in Grosvenor Square include a statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt and a September 11 memorial.
The iconic Berkeley Square is one of the most prestigious addresses in London, famous for its high-end shops and restaurants. This elegant square has had many famous residents, including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Harry Gordon Selfridge, the American entrepreneur who founded Selfridges, the historic department store on Oxford Street.
Museums and Art Galleries
Mayfair is also rich in art and culture, so it’s a great place for art lovers and culture enthusiasts to visit. There are many prestigious art galleries and museums featuring works by both renowned artists and up-and-coming names.
The Royal Academy of Arts is one of the most famous art galleries in Mayfair and was founded in 1768. It’s known for its Summer Exhibition, one of the world’s largest art shows that displays works by both amateur and professional artists.
Science enthusiasts will enjoy a tour of the Royal Institution. This scientific research organization houses several historical artifacts, including Michael Faraday’s magnetic laboratory, which remains exactly as it was in the 1850s.
For something a little different, check out Handel Hendrix House. This museum is dedicated to the 18th-century classical music composer Handel and the rock singer-guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who both spent some time living at Mayfair’s Brook Street.
Where to Shop in Mayfair
If you love shopping for the finer things in life, Mayfair is the perfect place to visit. It has a great mix of luxury shopping, quirky vintage stores, and cute independent stores.
You’ll find high-end boutiques featuring some of the world’s most prestigious luxury brands on New Bond Street, including Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Christian Louboutin. You’re also just a short walk from Oxford Street’s flagship stores and high-street brands.
Mayfair is also famous as the location of Savile Row, the famous street where you’ll find London’s best tailors. If you have the time and budget, you could head there to order some bespoke tailored clothes.
Other Mayfair shopping locations include South Molton Street for trendy stores and boutiques and Mount Street for luxury fashion, fine art, and antiques.
Here are some of my favorite places to shop in Mayfair and a few additional places you might like to check out.
Sotheran’s
One of my favorite travel habits is to buy an old book about each location I visit. I found a lot of vintage bookstores in Mayfair while I was shopping for my London book, but I totally fell in love with Sotheran’s.
Sotheran’s is the longest-established rare book dealer in the world, and they operate out of a quirky shop that feels almost like someone’s home. They sell antique books and prints on a wide range of subjects, and their staff are incredibly friendly and knowledgeable about old and rare books.
I had the most amazing time browsing through their store. Although many of the books were very expensive, they helped me find something suitable for my budget.
It was a pretty cool experience, and I highly recommend visiting Sotheran’s if you love vintage books. However, the store is moving to new premises on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster borough later in 2025, so visit their Mayfair shop while you can!
Strathberry
Another store I loved is Strathberry, a purse brand that has a store in the historic Burlington Arcade just east of Bond Street.
They create elegant leather bags in various styles and sizes at mid-tier prices. The bags are designed in Scotland and handcrafted in Spain using top-quality Spanish leather, and each bag takes around 20 hours to create.
The smallest bags I saw were around £450. That’s not cheap, but it’s nothing compared to the prices you’ll pay at the Louis Vuitton store, a 5-minute walk away on New Bond Street.
Strathberry is well worth checking out if you’re a keen fashion shopper.
John Lobb Bootmaker
Another cool Mayfair store to check out is John Lobb Bootmaker, which started making bespoke boots and shoes over 150 years ago.
As you can imagine, making bespoke footwear takes a long time and great skill. First, they take detailed measurements of your feet and use them to sculpt a mold from hornbeam wood. This mold is used to make a trial shoe, and then even more measurements are taken to ensure your shoe fits your foot perfectly.
This can all take up to a year, and although I don’t know the cost of bespoke shoes, we can assume it’s quite a lot!
If you can’t wait a year for your new shoes, John Lobb also sells a range of luxury shoes and boots in casual and formal styles.
Lock and Co. Hatters
You’ll find a few other custom tailoring shops on St. James’s Street, which is just a stone’s throw from Mayfair.
Lock and Co. Hatters is the world’s oldest hat shop, making classic and contemporary bespoke hats. They hold a Royal warrant to supply hats to King Charles III, and you may even have seen their hats in James Bond movies.
If you don’t have time to wait for a made-to-measure hat, they also sell a wide range of ready-to-wear hats.
Berry Bros
Around the corner from Lock and Co and next to St James’s Palace, you’ll find Berry Bros. & Rudd Wine Shop. The shop is just outside Mayfair on a street called Pall Mall.
The shop has been open since 1698, and it holds two royal warrants to supply wines to the Royal family.
In the Berry Bros. & Rudd shop on Pall Mall, you can sample some of the 5000 wines they sell. They also have around two miles of underground tunnels, which is where they store the oldest and most valuable wines. Unfortunately, that part of the shop wasn’t open when I visited.
If you’re a wine aficionado, it would be cool to check them out while you’re in Mayfair.
Where to Eat in Mayfair
There’s plenty to tempt your taste buds in Mayfair. If you’d prefer a fine dining experience, there are 19 restaurants holding one or more Michelin stars, including 3 restaurants with 3 stars.
At the other end of the scale, you can enjoy a casual meal in a converted church at Mercato Metropolitano, tuck into traditional British fish and chips, or visit the shops and pubs on Shepherd Market.
Here are my favorite places to eat in Mayfair and a couple of places we couldn’t get into when we last visited London. Popular restaurants get filled up quickly, so book early if there’s a Mayfair eaterie you really want to try.
Gymkhana
My favorite restaurant in Mayfair was Gymkhana, a landmark curry house with 2 Michelin stars.
It’s one of London’s best Indian restaurants, and I’d heard a lot of buzz about it, so I was very excited to eat there during our London trip.
With its stunning colonial decor and delicious menus, Gymkhana certainly didn’t disappoint.
You can read more in my full review of Gymkhana, but let’s just say that I would definitely love to eat there again!
Getting a table at Gymkhana can be tricky, so be ready to book as soon as dates become available, and try to be flexible about the date and time.
Gaia
The other Mayfair restaurant I loved was Gaia, an upscale Greek restaurant that serves the freshest fish and seafood you can imagine.
The decor is very ‘under the sea’ with lots of light blues and silvers, and the fresh fish is displayed on ice. Apparently, you can pick out the specific fish you want cooked for you, but we didn’t want to do that.
The food at Gaia was unreal, some of the best I’ve ever had. We ordered a seafood tower and then a bunch of sides, but we didn’t really need those because the tower was huge.
The fish was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth fresh, and the staff handled my husband’s gluten allergy really well.
They brought him separate gluten-free sauces to go with the sashimi and seafood and ensured he knew which sauces were safe for him to eat.
Overall, this was an excellent experience that I highly recommend!
Mercato Mayfair
Mercato Metropolitano is a great place to go if you’re looking for a more casual bite to eat in Mayfair. It’s like a food hall hosted inside a Grade 1-listed deconsecrated church, and it’s such a cool place to eat.
You can choose from a variety of food vendors, all serving delicious dishes made using sustainable ingredients and reflecting their different cultures. I had Thai food, and my husband had Mexican food, but I also spotted dumplings and ramen, pizza and pasta, and a lobster and oyster bar.
There are some great bars serving German beers and artisan gins, and the whole place has a very lively ambiance. It’s a bit chaotic, and the seating is first-come-first-served, but the food is good, fast, and inexpensive.
Highly recommended if you want a quick bite to eat in fun surroundings.
La Petite Maison London
We visited La Petite Maison for dinner one night, and although the food was excellent, the ambiance was disappointing.
LPM has restaurants in locations around the world, including Las Vegas, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
The Mediterranean menu features mainly French Riviera-inspired cuisine, and you’ll also find a few Italian dishes like risotto and gnocchi.
I really enjoyed my artichoke appetizer, and we had some delicious pasta dishes, too.
But the restaurant was very loud, and there was a drunk guy two tables down who was spouting racist comments and political rants at the table next to them. We complained to the restaurant staff, but they shrugged and said the restaurant was meant to have a lively vibe like a French club and was expected to be loud. I was wildly underwhelmed by the response to someone who was negatively impacting an entire section of the restaurant (our neighbors also commented on him!)
It spoiled our meal, so although I’d recommend the food at La Petite Maison, I will not return.
Two other restaurants that we didn’t have time to visit were Amazonico and Sexy Fish.
Amazonico serves a range of sushi, Brazilian-style small plates, and Asado grills. The restaurant has a very cool vibe that’s supposed to make you feel like you’ve been transported to the Amazon rainforest.
Sexy Fish has an Asian-inspired menu focusing on Japanese sushi, sashimi, tempura, and robata, a type of Japanese ‘fireside cooking’ similar to barbecue.
These are both very popular restaurants next door to each other on Berkeley Square. They’re hard to get into, so book early if you want to eat in one of these places.
That rounds up my selection of the best things to do in Mayfair. Where would you like to go if you visit this beautiful part of London?
Dont forget to check out my other posts around London!
