Eat in London: Restaurants, Food Markets & Quick Bites

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: For one cuisine or dish, go to its ranked guide, such as Indian, pizza or Sunday roast. For a group that can’t agree on one, London’s Best Markets and The Best Street Food in London say which days each market and food hall exists. For under £15 a head, use Cheap Eats; for a celebration, Special Occasion Restaurants. For British dishes, start with Classic British Food.

💡 Five London meals to build a trip around.

1. A Sunday roast in a historic pub — thick-sliced beef, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Book by Thursday.
2. A Dishoom bacon naan roll with chai. Breakfast barely queues; the evenings do.
3. Grazing a covered market — Borough, Seven Dials or Old Spitalfields, where nobody has to agree on one cuisine.
4. Afternoon tea — finger sandwiches, warm scones and loose-leaf tea, from under £30 to well over £100.
5. Fish and chips fried to order, or pie and mash from a shop that has been doing it a century.

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Where to Eat Near Top Sights (Quick Cheat-Sheet)

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Choose How You Want to Eat

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💡 Essential Rules for Eating Out in London.

• 12.5% Discretionary Service Charge: Almost all London sit-down restaurants add a 12.5% discretionary service charge to the bill, so you do not need to tip on top.
• 100% Cashless City: Street-food traders, markets, food halls, and pubs are almost exclusively card/contactless (Apple Pay & Google Pay are accepted everywhere).
• Food Halls Need No Bookings: Covered food halls like Seven Dials Market, Arcade Food Hall, and Mercato Mayfair do not take reservations—just walk in, find a seat, and order via QR code or counter.
• Allergen Transparency: Restaurants must declare 14 major allergens, and menus usually carry GF (gluten-free), V (vegetarian) and VG (vegan) labels.

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Distinctive Settings & Views

• London’s Most Unusual Restaurants — strange rooms, from a converted public lavatory to dinner underground.
• The Best Views in London — Every rooftop and viewing floor compared, including which ones are free and which need booking weeks out.
• The Best Rooftop and Riverside Restaurants in London — The same roofs judged on the food, not the view, plus the riverside rooms, and what happens to the booking when it rains.
• Dinner and a Show in London — Jazz clubs that serve dinner, restaurants with a band, cabaret dinners and drag brunches, with what the show adds to the bill.

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Restaurants by Cuisine

Each of these is ranked by how many independent awards, critics and reviewers name each restaurant; see how we rank.

South and East Asian

• Indian — Michelin-starred Mayfair, Keralan vegetarian cooking in Stoke Newington, and Bombay-café classics in the middle.
• Chinese and East Asian — Sichuan heat, Cantonese roasts, Xi’an hand-pulled noodles and the Chinatown grid.
• Dim Sum — Trolley service, weekend queues and the rooms worth booking.
• Hot Pot — Sichuan, Taiwanese and Mongolian, with how ordering works.
• Japanese — Omakase counters at one end, ramen and izakaya at the other.
• Ramen — Tonkotsu, chicken broth and brothless bowls, with prices and which shops take bookings.
• Korean — Central barbecue rooms and the New Malden restaurants Londoners drive to.
• Thai — Isaan, southern and live-fire cooking.
• Vietnamese — Kingsland Road’s Pho Mile, and the Peckham room that took the only Bib Gourmand.
• Filipino — adobo, sisig and kare-kare, from a Bib Gourmand off Carnaby Street to a banana-leaf feast in Earl’s Court.
• Sri Lankan — hoppers, kottu and lamprais, and the outer-London clusters where most of it is actually cooked.

European and Mediterranean

• Italian — Regional pasta bars, family trattorias and the special-occasion rooms.
• Pizza — Neapolitan, New York, Detroit and Chicago, judged by style.
• French — Bistros, brasseries and the classical dining rooms.
• Spanish — Tapas counters through to Basque asador grills.
• Turkish — Ocakbaşı grills, mangal and the Green Lanes stretch.
• Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean — Levantine grills, mezze and plant-led menus.
• Greek — modern Greek dining rooms, Camden tavernas, Greek-Cypriot Palmers Green and souvlaki counters.

Africa

• West African — Nigerian, Ghanaian, Ivorian and Senegambian, from two Michelin-starred rooms and a Bib Gourmand down to the Peckham stalls.

The Americas, and by ingredient

• Mexican — Taquerias, masa pressed to order and the regional kitchens.
• Caribbean — Trinidadian roti, Guyanese stews and Jamaican jerk.
• Peruvian — Nikkei counters, criollo kitchens and ceviche bars.
• Barbecue — The smokehouses, what each cooks and the days they are shut.
• Fried Chicken — Taiwanese, Korean and Nashville.
• Burgers — Smash versus dry-aged.
• Steak — Dry-aged British beef, the chop houses and what the cuts mean.
• Seafood — Oyster bars, fishmonger counters and the whole-fish grills.
• Vegetarian and Vegan — Fully plant-based kitchens and the vegetarian menus worth crossing London for.

Two cuisines on one menu

• Fusion — Nikkei, Indo-Chinese, Japanese-Italian and Korean-European.

For eating to a certification rule rather than a cuisine, see Kosher restaurants, which reads the certifying registers together.

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Markets, Food Halls and Street Food

Markets and food halls suit groups: one roof, many kitchens.

📍 The Best Street Food in London compares the multi-trader markets, food halls and container yards on traders, variety, seating and which days each is open.

📍 London’s Best Markets is the wider guide, arranged by what each sells and which day it runs. Columbia Road is a Sunday. Broadway Market is a Saturday.

It covers:

• Historic food markets — Borough Market (produce and hot food) and Maltby Street.
• Indoor food halls — Seven Dials Market in a converted banana warehouse, Mercato Mayfair in a Victorian church, and Tower Bridge Collective, which opened off Shad Thames in October 2025.
• Street-food collections — Southbank Centre Food Market at weekends and Old Spitalfields most days.
• Shopping markets — Portobello, Brick Lane, Camden, Greenwich and Leadenhall.

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Quick Food in London

• Cheap Eats in London — places to eat well under £15, including Mumbai street food at Shree Krishna Vada Pav, South Indian dosas at Saravanaa Bhavan and the market stalls worth the detour.
• The Best Sandwiches in London — Salt beef, Japanese sandos and the toastie counters.
• The Best Bakeries in London — the ones worth queuing for, and which sell out by eleven.
• Breakfast and Brunch — From caff fry-ups under £10 to the rooms that need booking weeks ahead.
• The Best Coffee in London — Roasters and counters where the coffee comes first.
• Late-Night Eating — What is still cooking after midnight, by area.

Pre-theatre dining means 60-minute set menus served between 5pm and 6.30pm across the West End. The Soho and Covent Garden area guides list the rooms that run them.

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Places to Eat by Area

• Covent Garden — Seven Dials Market, pre-theatre dining and the Piazza.
• Soho — Chinatown, Kingly Court and the West End’s main restaurant streets.
• Westminster — Landmark sightseeing, with restaurants a short walk north.
• South Bank — Borough Market, Southbank street food and riverside dining.
• Bloomsbury — Independent cafes on Lamb’s Conduit Street and around the British Museum.
• King’s Cross — Coal Drops Yard restaurants and station dining.
• South Kensington — Museum lunches and the French bakeries on Bute Street.
• Chelsea — Duke of York Square market and King’s Road dining.
• Notting Hill — Portobello Road market food, Golborne Road bakeries and the Churchill Arms.
• Paddington — Little Venice waterside dining and the Bayswater restaurant quarter.
• The City of London — Historic dining rooms and Leadenhall Market, though quiet at weekends.
• Shoreditch — Brick Lane, Spitalfields and the Sunday food halls.
• Greenwich — Greenwich Market, pie and mash, and riverside pubs.
• Canary Wharf — Waterside dining at Wood Wharf and the Crossrail Place food court.

See the London Areas Master Guide before choosing your base.

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By Budget and Occasion

By Budget

• Budget (£): £8 – £15 per person (Food markets, dosas, street-food rolls, beigels).
• Mid-Range (££): £20 – £45 per person (Casual dining, Bombay cafés, gastropubs, pasta bars).
• Upper Mid-Range (£££): £50 – £80 per person (Refined regional dining, pre-theatre tasting menus).
• Destination Dining (££££): £100 – £200+ per person (Two-Michelin-starred tasting menus, Mayfair dining).

Full guide: Cheap Eats in London for the first band, and Special Occasion Restaurants for the last.

By Occasion

• Special occasions — What to book and how far ahead.
• Dinner and a show — Live music, cabaret and dining theatre, and which nights each runs.
• Cocktail bars — for before or instead of dinner.
• Speakeasy bars — the hidden ones, through a fridge, a bookcase or an unmarked door.
• Wine bars — The rooms the critics agree on, and the shop-and-bar hybrids where the same bottle costs less off the shelf.
• Ice cream — Gelato, soft serve and the cult queues, for afterwards.
• Eating outside — The yards, squares and waterfronts, which ones are heated in winter, and where you can sit down with food you brought yourself.
• Group feasts and food halls — sharing menus and communal seating; see markets and food halls above.

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Distinctively London

• Classic British Food — Dish by dish, from the Scotch egg to sticky toffee pudding.
• Sunday Roast — Ranked by guides, awards and critics. Most need booking by Thursday.
• Fish and Chips — The shops that still fry to order, and the one that still uses beef dripping.
• Afternoon Tea — with dress codes and prices.
• Historic Pubs and Dining Rooms — London’s oldest rooms, including Rules, Wiltons and the pubs that predate the Great Fire.
• Gastropubs — Which rooms take bookings and which shut on Mondays.
• Most Beautiful Pubs — CAMRA’s register of protected interiors, the gin palaces and flower-covered frontages.
• Craft Beer Pubs — CAMRA’s branch winners and the Bermondsey and Blackhorse beer miles.
• Wetherspoons — The landmark buildings, the prices and the case for the chain.

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Plan Food into Your London Visit

• 🏛️ Best Areas to Visit in London: Neighbourhood Guide
• 🗺️ London Itineraries by Days and Interests
• ⏱️ Three Days in London Itinerary
• 🗓️ Five Days in London Itinerary

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Every food guide on this site

By cuisine: Indian · Chinese and East Asian · Dim sum · Hot pot · Japanese · Ramen · Korean · Thai · Vietnamese · Italian · Pizza · French · Spanish · Turkish · Greek · Middle Eastern · Mexican · Caribbean · Vegetarian and vegan · West African · Sri Lankan · Peruvian · Filipino · Fusion

By dish: Burgers · Steak · Barbecue · Fried chicken · Seafood · Fish and chips · Sunday roast · Sandwiches · Ice cream · Classic British food

By time of day: Breakfast and brunch · Coffee · Hot chocolate · Bubble tea · Bakeries · Afternoon tea · Cocktail bars · Wine bars · Late-night eating

By dietary rule: Kosher · Vegetarian and vegan

By budget, occasion and room: Street food · Cheap eats · Special occasions · Historic pubs and dining rooms · Craft beer pubs · Wetherspoons · Unusual restaurants · Eating outside · Rooms worth photographing · Markets and food halls

By occasion and for paying less: Bottomless brunch · Dinner and a show · Restaurant deals · Off-peak booking apps · Discount cards · Kids eat free · Open on Christmas Day