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At Evelyn’s Table, Seamus Sam Leads an Inventive 12-Seat Tasting Menu Beneath a London Pub

Chef Seamus Sam draws on seasonal ingredients, global influences and London's dining scene to shape a Michelin-starred experience.

Down an alleyway in London’s Chinatown, discerning diners can venture into Evelyn’s Table, one of London’s most unassuming restaurants. It’s here that I find myself on St. Patrick’s Day—not exactly an evening typically associated with fine dining. But Evelyn’s Table, located in the basement of the Blue Posts pub, is an apt place to celebrate the impending arrival of spring, even if the bathroom queue is slightly longer than usual thanks to the drunken revelers congregating upstairs.

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But thankfully, the restaurant, which opened in 2018, has a cocoon-like effect, insulating its 12 guests from everything other than the two-and-a-half-hour tasting menu. The dining experience is the vision of Seamus Sam, the third chef to helm Evelyn’s Table since its inception. Sam took over from James Goodyear in the fall of 2024, but it was the prior team—brothers Luke, Nat and Theo Selby—who earned Evelyn’s Table its Michelin star in 2022. Sam spent four years as the head chef at Muse by Tom Aikens, and previously worked at Restaurant Story and The Clove Club. He was ready to embrace an opportunity to showcase his own style. Taking over an established restaurant, especially one that already had a Michelin star, was a daunting prospect. 

“You always have to believe in your own ability,” he tells Observer, speaking from Evelyn’s Table a few days after St. Patrick’s Day. “It takes a while until that feels natural when you come somewhere new. And it’s always evolving. I look at our menus, and there’s such a stark contrast to when I started. But sometimes you do need that fear to drive you.”

Sam has generally kept to the original menu format at Evelyn’s Table. It’s always been tasting menu only; the countertop holds a maximum of 12 diners per seating. Currently, the five-course dinner menu is £135, while the four-course Friday and Saturday lunch menu is £95. But Sam has also made the food his own. He introduced snacks........

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