Is Retsina Still Open? Best Local Restaurant Update (Belsize Park, UK)

Part 1 — Season 1, Episode 9 Aired December 29, 2009

Retsina, a Greek restaurant at 48-50 Belsize Lane in Belsize Park, north London, scored 77 out of 100 against 63 for Doukan of Wandsworth in the heat shown on 2009-12-29 in the episode "Rest of the World" of Britain's Best Local Restaurant on Gordon Ramsay's The F Word (Channel 4), according to Wikipedia, which lists it in the second semi-final on 2010-01-06. Time Out, on a page dated 2021-11-12, describes a long-serving restaurant with a Hague Blue exterior and a hand-painted, gold-plated amphora, offering multi-plate meze feasts, grilled seafood, kebabs, moussaka and baklava, and Greek, French and Greek-Cypriot wines. Retsina's own website calls it an award-winning, family-run restaurant serving traditional Greek cuisine and offers pick-up orders. An OpenTable listing shows diner visits through 2026-08-01 and an owner reply dated 2026-08-18, with evening hours Tuesday to Sunday and weekend lunch.

Part 2 — Season 1, Episode 11 Aired January 6, 2010

On 2010-01-06, in the episode "Everything is On the Line", Retsina appeared in the second semi-final of Britain's Best Local Restaurant on Gordon Ramsay's The F Word (Channel 4), alongside The Pheasant of Keyston and Simply Thai of Teddington, according to Wikipedia's series table. The table says the semi-finalists had served signature dishes to panels of diners at their own restaurants and then cooked in a cook-off at Ramsay's Royal Hospital Road restaurant in Chelsea; it gives no scores or dishes for the semi-finals. Retsina had reached this stage by scoring 77 against 63 for Doukan in the Rest of the World heat shown on 2009-12-29. Time Out, on a page dated 2021-11-12, described Retsina's meze feasts and its Greek and Greek-Cypriot wine list, and an OpenTable listing shows diner visits through 2026-08-01.