Updated February 2020
It is 20 years since I actually lived in London but I visit at least once a year and take a keen interest in what is going on over there.
Over the years American friends that are planning trips to London have asked my wife and I for recommendations of places to see and places to eat and our response has evolved from a few highlights to a fairly comprehensive set of notes.
After our latest trip I decided to put this post together, capturing some of our favourite places to eat and shop for food in the city.
This is a purely personal list, very much reflecting our tastes and interests.
I hope you find these suggestions useful. I would urge you to explore this great city to find your own list of wonderful destinations. Not only does London have a comprehensive and easy to use public transport system but it is a great place to walk around, making your own discoveries. You are never far from a coffee shop or a pub if you need to stop for refreshment on your travels.
Breakfast
It was British writer W. Somerset Maugham who famously said that “To eat well in England you should have breakfast three times a day”. Luckily the English food scene has transformed dramatically since his day and it is possible to eat well at any time of day but it remains true that you can find some great breakfasts in London.
Caravan has 5 locations around London and is an all day eatery with a strong breakfast game. The founders all previously worked at The Providores, a wonderful restaurant in Marylebone that sadly closed in 2019. Caravan also roasts its own coffee and you are assured of a great cup. The first Caravan location was in Exmouth Market and it is a comfortable spot with a few outdoor tables which are great for watching the world go by when the sun shines down on London. They also do a great fry up and their take on shakshuka, with a spicy ragout of tomatoes, peppers and chickpeas, is a great way to start the day.
Semolina porridge at L’Eto (picture from @rc_eav)
L’Eto Caffe has five locations around town offering attractively presented food with a Mediterranean twist. You can stop by for a coffee and pastry or choose lunch from their eye-catching salad platters, but their breakfast menu is definitely worth dropping in for. There are a lot of great choices available but the semolina porridge with blueberries is especially delicious and beautiful. If your itinerary includes a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Brompton Road branch of L’Eto is just down the street.
Indian cuisine has been popular in the UK for generations, with thousands of Indian restaurants across the country. Recent years have seen a shift away from generic curry houses to restaurants specialising in specific regional foods from across the sub continent. Dishoom pays tribute to the cafes of early 20th century Bombay, founded by Zoroastrian immigrants from Iran. It is a concept that has proved highly popular, with their eclectic decor, great food and sometimes long lines to get in, particularly for dinner. It can be easier to get a table for breakfast, although even then they fill up with busy Londoners holding breakfast meetings. Their breakfasts are wonderful, whether you opt for eggs on chilli cheese toast, a freshly baked naan roll filled with sausage, egg or bacon, or “The Big Bombay” featuring spicy eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes. Whatever you choose make sure you get some masala baked beans on the side.
Cakes and Pastries
If you worry that even a substantial breakfast won’t keep you going until lunch, fear not, as you are in the land of elevenses, the wonderful concept of a cup of tea or coffee around 11am, accompanied by a little sweet something. If you stop for elevenses you’ll be in good company as it was celebrated in the books of both Paddington Bear and Winnie The Pooh.
Konditor & Cook has five locations around London, and although started by a German pastry chef (konditor is German for confectioner), it offers a wide range of cakes and pastries including many British classics. If you visit around Christmas be sure to try one of their mince pies.
Victoria Sponge at Cake Hole Cafe
Cake Hole Cafe only opens on Saturday and Sunday but is well worth fitting into your plans. It is located on Columbia Road in east London, which is famous for its Sunday morning flower market, and even if you’re not looking for plants or flowers the market is worth a visit for the bustling atmosphere, glorious flower displays and the other quirky shops and eating establishments in the area. Cake Hole Cafe is hidden away in the back of a vintage homeware shop. If you can make your way through the attractive displays of vintage crockery and cutlery without being tempted you’ll find a warm welcome and some glorious home baked cakes with the emphasis on British classics like Victoria sponge and lemon drizzle cakes.
Travel west to the more genteel surroundings of Notting Hill and you’ll find
Biscuiteers, a boutique store famous for its hand decorated biscuits (and when I say biscuits I’m using the British defintion: cookies to our American friends). As well as beautiful hand iced biscuits in a variety of themes Biscuiteers has a small cafe space offering afternoon tea and runs many events and classes where you too can learn the art of biscuit decorating.
Some of the goodies at Biscuiteers
Being a cosmopolitan and diverse city, the sweet options in London extend well beyond traditional British pastries. A few minutes walk from Biscuiteers you can find
Lisboa Patisserie, an unremarkable looking cafe that sells a variety of Portuguese cakes but is best known for its
pasteis de nata, delicious and addictive golden custard tarts.
Swedish pastries at Bageriet
For a taste of northern Europe, pay a visit to
Bageriet, a beautiful, small Swedish bakery tucked away in a quiet alleyway off Long Acre, between Leicester Square and Covent Garden. Enjoy such delights as
äppelmazarin (almond tarts with apple and cinnamon) or
hallongrottor (a biscuit filled with raspberry jam). Another great Swedish option is
Soderberg in Soho, a bakery and comfortable café which is a good stop for breakfast or just for a mid morning coffee and pastry.
Morning Coffee at Soderberg (picture from @rc_eav)
Chocolate
London has had a love affair with chocolate since the 17th century, when it first appeared as a drink for the wealthy. It took another 200 years for it to become available in solid form and gain mass market appeal thanks to companies like
Cadburys and
Frys. Today, the British top the global
chocolate eating charts with an average annual consumption of over 8kg. As well as widely available popular commercial brands, London offers some fantastic artisan chocolate makers to tempt your palate.
Some of the options on Paul A Young’s truffle table
Paul A Young was a pastry chef at some of London’s finest restaurants before opening his first specialist chocolate shop in 2006. He now has 3 shops in London selling his wonderful creations. If you want to try your hand at making your own confectionery he runs regular classes at his Soho location. He has written a great
book on chocolate making, regularly appears on TV and has
his own YouTube channel where you can learn more of his chocolate making secrets.
The Rococo shop in Marylebone
Rococo Chocolates have 5 locations around London and make a wonderful array of chocolate goodies, ranging from artisan bars and truffles to elegant, thin chocolate wafers and salted caramel filled “seagull eggs”. All of their products are beautifully packaged so make great gifts.
Chocolates at Venchi
If you prefer your chocolates with an Italian twist head to one of the five
Venchi shops in London. A chocolate maker from Turin that recently celebrated their 140th anniversary, their most central location is in
Covent Garden, but they also have spots in Kensington, Hampstead and Richmond.
Markets and Food Halls
If you’re a foodie no visit to London would be complete without a visit to
Borough Market. Located near the southern end of London Bridge there has been a market in this area since the 11th century. In the 1990s, both the area and the market were in decline but then two of London’s finest food purveyors,
Neal’s Yard Dairy and
Brindisa moved into empty warehouses in the area, kicking off a rebirth of the market and the surrounding area as a speciality food destination. Today you can find a wonderful range of products, ranging from fruit and veg to cheese, meats, seafood, spices, oils and vinegars and artisan breads. As well as the market’s glorious 19th century building, the nearby streets are worthy of exploration with some great pubs, restaurants and other speciality food stores.
Produce at Borough Market
Wherever you are based in London, you probably won’t be too far from a
farmers market. We usually stay in the Paddington / Marylebone area so try and pay a visit to
Marylebone farmers market which takes place every Sunday from 10am to 2pm. There is usually a good range of vendors with an array of produce, cheese, meats and baked goods, so it is easy to pick up the fixings for lunch or a picnic.
Marylebone Farmers Market
Like many cities around the world London has embraced the food hall trend, seeing many old buildings and former industrial sites transformed into comfortable gathering spaces with many different food and drink options under one roof. One of the recent arrivals is the Seven Dials Market, built in a former banana warehouse near Covent Garden. Food options include ramen from Nanban, salt beef sandwiches and bagels from Monty’s Deli and vegan Mexican street food from Club Mexicana. On our first visit we couldn’t resist Pick & Cheese, the world’s first cheese conveyor belt restaurant, where plate after plate of artisan British cheeses and charcuterie pass in front of you and you grab whatever catches your eye. Each cheese is paired with a suitable accompaniment, such as Mrs.Kirkham’s Lancashire with an Eccles Cake, or Spenwood, a hard ewe’s milk cheese from Berkshire, paired with truffles poached potatoes. It’s a fun way to try some great British cheeses. There are also some great beverage options, including Square Root Soda if you want something original but non alcoholic.
The cheese conveyor belt at Pick & Cheese in Seven Dials Market
As the name suggest, Mercato Metropolitano originated in Italy but they now have two locations in London with two more planned. Their original London location is in an old paper factory near Elephant & Castle, a charming if slightly scruffy collection of buildings housing, amongst other things, an Italian grocery store, a German microbrewery, a wine shop and an interesting selection of food and drink options. One of my highlights is a London outpost of Badiani, my favourite gelato spot in Florence. If you get the chance, try their delicious “buontalenti”, a rich concoction with just four ingredients: cream, milk, sugar and egg.
Buontalenti gelato from Badiani at Mercato Metropolitano
Restaurants
As with any big city with high property prices and rents, restaurants come and go, sometimes with alarming regularity, so it pays to do a little research before you go, depending on which areas you plan to visit and what food you fancy trying. Over the last 20-30 years the London food scene has improved dramatically, so it is easier to eat well there now than it has ever been.
You will find Indian restaurants all over town, ranging from very basic to posh upmarket ones. As well as Dishoom, mentioned above, we like Roti Chai, a comfy spot not too far from Oxford Street and Hyde Park. It has a casual, all day street kitchen offering small plates as well as a more formal dining room, both of them serving traditional Indian dishes with a modern twist.
The latest addition to the restaurant empire of the influential Yotam Ottolenghi is Rovi, a light, airy space located, as the name suggests, in the Fitzrovia area, just a few minutes’ walk north of Oxford Street. Although the menu features some fine meat and fish dishes cooked over an impressive wood fired grill, the vegetables are the stars here, with lots of beautifully prepared and presented vegan and vegetarian options, including many pickled or fermented on the premises. Highlights include the tempura stems and leaves and pickles and ferments with Valdeon cheese. The butterbeans with smoked cascabel chile oil were spectacular and luckily the recipe can be found online so I’ve already recreated that one at home.
A delicious Cheese Bar sandwich of Cropwell Bishop Stilton, bacon and pear chutney
As the name suggests, The Cheese Bar in Camden has a menu that revolves around cheese. As well as cheese served straight up with appropriate accompaniments, the menu includes grilled cheese sandwiches, mozzarella sticks, fondue, cheese burgers and mac and cheese. They also have some wonderful wines, beers and cocktails to wash it down with. It’s a wonderful place if you’re a cheese lover. They recently expanded their mission to bring fine cheese to the folks of London by opening the Pick & Cheese conveyor belt restaurant at Seven Dials Market.
If you’re in the mood to splurge, Locanda Locatelli is one of London’s best Italian restaurants: a beautiful space with impeccable service and wonderful food and a price tag to match its Michelin starred status. The wine list is lengthy and full of gems, and don’t miss the fantastic breads, baked in-house. Our last visit was during truffle season, when you can order shavings of fresh white truffle, sold by weight, to enhance your dish. It is easy to run up a sizable bill but it tastes delicious.
Opened recently by a former Locanda Locatelli chef, Bancone is a relatively small space just round the corner from Trafalgar Square, specialising in pasta, which is made fresh daily on the premises. If they have it on the menu, the silk pasta handkerchiefs with walnut butter and confit egg yolk is definitely worth a try. If you grab a counter seat you can watch the chefs at work in the open kitchen.
Lina Stores is an iconic Italian deli in Soho that has been selling authentic Italian goodies for over 75 years. When I lived in London it would be one of my destinations for quality and hard to find Italian ingredients. Last year they branched out into the restaurant business, opening in two locations: Soho and Kings Cross’ Coal Drop Yards. We tried the Soho branch and the highlights were small plates of beautifully cooked pasta perfect for sharing, such as the tagliolini with parmigiano and truffle or the ricotta and herb gnudi with butter and sage.
Drinks
London is rightly famous for its historic pub culture but sadly the number of pubs in the city has declined by over 20% in the last 15 years as high business rates, property development and cheap supermarket booze take their toll. Luckily there are still some great places to drink in London, and the advent of new micro-pubs, micro-breweries and distilleries across the capital means the choice of tipple is greater than ever.
If we find ourselves in Soho when we’re in London we always like to drop into The Ship on Wardour Street. A cozy, wood panelled, slightly old fashioned pub, it sells beer from Fuller’s, an iconic brewery from West London that’s been making beer since 1845.
Also in Soho, close to the entrance to Chinatown, is De Hems, an old pub with a decidedly Dutch feel. Previously called The Macclesfield, in the late 19th Century a retired Dutch sea captain by the name of De Hem took over, and it became a magnet for Dutch folks in the capital. After becoming the unofficial HQ for the Dutch resistance in London in World War 2, it was renamed in honour of De Hem in the 1950s. You don’t have to be Dutch to drop in and enjoy a pint of Oranjeboom.
London was the birthplace of the gastropub: The Eagle in Farringdon was the pioneer of serving great food in an unfussy and informal pub atmosphere over 25 years ago and kicked off a revolution in pub cuisine across the land.
Dorset Crab with avocado, chilies and watercress at The Larrik
We’re fans of The Larrik in Marylebone, a comfortable, light filled space with great food and a good selection of wines and cask conditioned beers.
Also in Marylebone, Inn 1888 is a beautifully restored Victorian pub. If you’re in London in the winter it is worth a visit to enjoy a drink in the warmth of its open fires.
St.Pancras station and its adjoining hotel are worth a visit just to marvel at the architecture, which was almost lost when they were threatened with demolition in the 1960s. Luckily, in the early 21st century the station was reinvented as a terminus for Eurostar services to the continent, and the hotel, which had been closed since the 1930s, opened to the public once more after a massive restoration project. A great spot from which to enjoy the impressive station building is in the Champagne Bar, which offers a range of both champagne and English sparkling wines to wash down their selection of nibbles and small plates.
The Champagne Bar at St.Pancras
At the local farmers markets the produce scene is still dominated by winter greens and root vegetables and will be like that for quite a few weeks more.
This time I opted for blue cheese, which added a nice salty tang and depth to the mild earthiness of the turnips.
