Worth the journey
Where to eat in London: meals worth crossing town for
This isn't a ranking of London's best restaurants. It's a list of specific things to eat — the dish, the room or the ritual that makes the journey worth it, whether that's £4 or a proper occasion.
Congolese cooking in Tottenham, Sichuan in Chinatown, carbonara finished in a wheel of pecorino, a Turkish breakfast that takes two hours, and a Peckham pub where you can turn up alone and sit with strangers.
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Eat Congolese food in TottenhamCongolese and Afro-Caribbean cooking drawing on the food culture of the DRC — a cuisine barely represented on London high streets. Worth going for something you haven't eaten before.Tottenham N17·Group-friendly
Eat carbonara from a pecorino wheel beneath thousands of bottlesBig Mamma's Sicilian trattoria at 40–41 Rathbone Place, with walls covered floor to ceiling in bottles and pasta finished inside a wheel of cheese at the table. Book a long way out.Fitzrovia W1·Group-friendlyEat regional Indian food then find the cocktail den downstairsRegional Indian cooking upstairs at 79–81 Mortimer Street; Bandra Bhai, a dimly lit cocktail bar styled after a Bombay speakeasy, downstairs. Do both in one evening — that's the quest.Fitzrovia W1·Pairs/small
Try a jerk chicken dumpling burgerA fried Jamaican dumpling used as the bun, with jerk chicken inside. The kind of specific, slightly absurd thing worth crossing London for once.Citywide·Any (solo to group)
Eat proper Sichuan food in ChinatownSichuan cooking at 4 Leicester Street WC2H 7BL — numbing peppercorn, chilli oil and hot pot, cooked for people who want it as it is rather than toned down.Chinatown WC2·Group-friendly
Take on a giant Turkish sharing breakfastThe Shakespeare Serpme: cheeses, olives, eggs, sucuk, pastries, kaymak and tahini-pekmez spread across the whole table, with tea refilled throughout. A two-hour breakfast and a proper group activity.Cockfosters EN4·Group-friendly
Order a pizza by the metreSouthern Italian, family-run, and the pizza al metro arrives on a board as long as the table. Only worth doing with enough people to finish it.Chelsea SW3·Group-friendly
Eat ten floors above the CityAviary sits on the tenth floor of the Montcalm Royal London House, with a terrace looking across the City skyline. Cocktails on the terrace are the reason; dinner is the excuse.Finsbury Square EC2·Pairs/small
Build a Hong Kong bubble waffleThe Hong Kong egg waffle — a sheet of hot bubbles — rolled into a cone around gelato, fruit and sauce. At 24 Wardour Street W1D 6QJ.Chinatown W1·Any (solo to group)
Try beef birria tacos in DeptfordSlow-cooked beef birria and quesatacos, with a cup of consommé to dip them in. Market sites as well as bricks and mortar — check where they are before setting off.Deptford SE8·Any (solo to group)
Have dim sum with tea and patisserieA Cantonese tea house that serves dim sum and French-style patisserie in the same sitting, alongside a serious Chinese tea list. Lunch is the civilised version.Soho W1·Pairs/smallEat a Japanese soufflé pancake in ChinatownSoufflé pancakes at 108 Shaftesbury Avenue W1D 5EH — three inches tall, wobbling, and cooked to order, so expect to wait twenty minutes. Bubble tea and smoothies too.Chinatown W1·Any (solo to group)
Try Pan-African fine dining in MayfairStork, at 13–14 Cork Street W1S 3NS, puts ingredients and flavours from across Africa and the diaspora through refined European technique. A proper occasion restaurant — book ahead.Mayfair W1·Pairs/small
Build your own warm crumbleFruit crumble, warm, with custard poured over and toppings on top — a British pudding turned into a street-food counter. Borough Market, Spitalfields, Camden and Covent Garden.Borough SE1·Any (solo to group)Eat modern Ghanaian food on Old Kent RoadNamed for the year Ghana gained independence, at 660 Old Kent Road SE15 1JF. Traditional Ghanaian dishes alongside contemporary ones — a restaurant about a culture, not just a menu.Old Kent Road SE15·Group-friendly
Get an ice cream wrapped in candy flossSoft serve buried inside a cloud of candy floss, at 12 Tavistock Street. Engineered for a photograph, and it does taste of something as well.Covent Garden WC2·Any (solo to group)
Queue for a Balham brunchAn independent on Hildreth Street Market at 18–20 Bedford Hill SW12 9RG, with seasonal dishes, serious coffee and weekend pancake specials that change. Walk-ins only when we checked, so go early or go alone — a single seat comes up faster.Balham SW12·Solo-friendly
Eat Northern Mexican tacos in Stoke NewingtonSonoran-style tacos with tortillas made on site, at 208 Stoke Newington High Street N16 7HU. Walk-in focused, so go early or expect to wait.Stoke Newington N16·Pairs/small
Watch pizza dough fly through the airThin, crisp Roman-style pizza and theatrical dough-spinning between the tables. Silly on purpose, and better with a group than on a first date.Knightsbridge SW1·Group-friendly
Eat inside London's most over-the-top trattoriaBig Mamma's Shoreditch trattoria at 54–56 Great Eastern Street: maximalist interiors, an absurd lemon meringue pie, and a queue. Go early or book well ahead.Shoreditch EC2·Group-friendly
Boxpark (Shoreditch, Croydon & Wembley)Street-food halls + screenings & live events. Croydon CR0 is the flagship Boxpark; sister site at Wembley HA9.Croydon CR0·Group-friendly
Try Caribbean fine dining in Canary WharfFamily-run, and a deliberately refined take on Caribbean cooking — the food treated with the same seriousness any other cuisine gets at this price.Canary Wharf E14·Pairs/small
Have brunch on Green LanesIndependent neighbourhood cafe at 324A Green Lanes N4 1BX — brunch and coffee on a street better known for grills.Green Lanes N4·Any (solo to group)Gin / whisky distillery tourSipsmith (Chiswick W4) runs ~90-min tours with a G&T on arrival + tutored tasting, ~£40pp, 18+, selected evenings - book ~a week ahead. Beefeater & others also tour.Chiswick W4·Group-friendly
Eat on a rooftop looking at St Paul'sA rooftop restaurant and bar aimed straight at the dome. Book the terrace rather than inside, and go while it's light enough to see it.St Paul's EC4·Pairs/small
Try Afro-fusion grilling in New CrossGrilled food, suya-style spicing and seafood, cooked as contemporary fusion rather than tradition. Casual enough to go on a weeknight.New Cross SE14·Group-friendly
Home barista latte-art ladderJames Hoffmann free guides; progress hearts to rosettasAt home·Solo-friendly
Questions people ask
- Where can you eat alone in London without it being awkward?
- Chatty Patty at the Prince of Peckham exists for exactly that — a weekly lunch where you turn up alone and sit with people you don't know. Counter seats at Sonora Taqueria, Eggslut and Milk in Balham also work well solo.
- Where can you eat African and Caribbean food in London?
- Congolese at Deluxe Manna in Tottenham, Ghanaian at 19FiftySeven on Old Kent Road and Kate's Cafe in Plaistow, Nigerian at Enish, Caribbean fine dining at Ayanna's in Canary Wharf, and Pan-African at Stork in Mayfair.
- What's the most unusual thing to eat in London?
- A jerk chicken burger in a fried dumpling bun, a pizza served by the metre, carbonara finished inside a wheel of pecorino, or an ice cream buried in a cloud of candy floss.
- Where should you eat in Chinatown?
- Sichuan at JinLi on Leicester Street, Northern Chinese hot pot and barbecue on Gerrard Street, and Japanese soufflé pancakes or a Hong Kong bubble waffle for afterwards.
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