Full English Breakfasts, Meat Pies, Afternoon Tea, and Puddings Galore: Where to Eat in London, According to Our UK-Based Contributors

London is a city that straddles both cutting-edge modernity and an ancient, imperial past—where Westminster Palace and the Eye can sit on opposite banks of the Thames and still somehow make sense; where posh Received Pronunciation BBC accents jostle with indecipherable-to-many Cockney slang just as formal tea houses rub up against endless kebab shops. You soak in the serenity of a walk through a primly manicured London park knowing that as soon as you leave you’ll be thrust into the hurried chaos, trying not to get wedged into the clockwork frenzy of people who stride forward like they’re the ones making the Earth turn.

You could have turned to any old guide to London, but you came to Serious Eats because you take your eats, well, seriously. And to ensure our travel guide to the city—part of Global Eats, our culinary travel series—is first and foremost a guide for and by food lovers, we didn’t hesitate to use our not-so-secret weapons: our team of writers, editors, recipe developers, and contributors, who make up some of the best minds and palates in the food business. For London, we turned to two people who know the city’s food scene like the backs of their hands because they live, breathe, and eat it every day.

Pastry chef, recipe developer and cookbook author Nicola Lamb lives in London and has one hell of a track record: She trained in New York City’s Dominique Ansel and London’s Ottolenghi, Little Bread Pedlar, and Happy Endings; started a pop-up bakery and online pastry school; and shares her wisdom and recipes in writing, including in her own newsletter, Kitchen Projects. There’s no greater source of excitement for her than discovering a great new place to get a trifle or an oven-hot brioche, no matter how pedestrian or posh the establishment.

Meanwhile, Serious Eats recipe developer Rebecca Frey is an American who was so mesmerized with London’s culture, entertainment, and food that she now lives there. 

“There’s always something happening, always something to see, always something to do,” she says. “In a city with a massive immigrant population, you’ve got great restaurants from all different countries and cultures. You can get anything you want, foodwise.”

And she should know: Frey’s got a Diplôme de Pâtisserie from Le Cordon Bleu London and an MSc in Culinary Innovation from Birkbeck, University of London. She’s also a veteran food stylist and food photographer.

 We’ve asked Lamb and Frey to share their favorite food haunts in the city, from markets where they buy their ingredients to the places they eat when they’re taking a break from cooking and baking themselves.

London Calling

London, once the seat of history's most far-flung empire and arguably the center of the world, is now a melting pot of cultural influences with a global dining scene to match. Today, from its serpentine, cobblestone alleys to its soaring, glass-ceilinged modern food halls, London is home to everything from greasy but beloved chippies to curry joints serving food that ranges  from almost fully Anglicized to ultra spicy dishes that could’ve come straight out of Tamil Nadu.

“One of the most interesting things I’ve heard about London and London’s cuisine is that London’s lack of food culture is actually one of its greatest strengths,” says Lamb. “It’s a place where you have this free movement between these amazing food cultures that come to London. You can go for a classic British food experience like cream tea or Sunday roast, but…you also have excellent places that have fried chicken bao and things designed for a Londoner’s palate, and at the same time, these crowd-pleasing dishes live on the menu alongside delicious pork bone noodles—you can get soup dumplings and a Sichuan tripe dish on the same menu, and it makes perfect sense because it’s London.”

Restaurants

87 Tower Bridge Road SE1 4TW

For traditional British fare like pie and mash, Lamb recommends M.Manze on Tower Bridge Road for a classic pie and green parsley liquor (never call it “gravy”). Since 1901, it has sat on an unassuming block on Tower Bridge Road, serving up savory minced-beef pies swimming in the thin, bright green liquid (once, but no longer, made from stewed eels). Lamb calls Manze a classic for a reason—as you’ll see once you walk into its white-and-green-tiled dining room, step up to the white-marble counter, and watch as one of the green-uniformed women plops down a heap of mash and ladles a viridian ocean of liquor over your flaky, meaty pie. Even herbivores can enjoy themselves here by ordering a vegan pie made with soy mince. It’s pretty much the closest experience you’ll get to entering a time machine and having a working class meal in 1950s postwar London.

252 High Holborn WC1V 7EN

For a more elevated and historical take on the working-class favorite, try the Pie Room at Holborn Dining Room. It’s a far cry from the cafeteria-like atmosphere of M.Manze, as the Pie Room sits inside the Rosewood, a posh modern hotel not far from Covent Garden. It takes the working-class staple and puts a simultaneously historical and contemporary take on it—expect “super intricate pâté en croute stuff that looks back at the history of Victorian pie molds,” Lamb says. 

The artful and precise dough designs adorning those pies are so visually appealing that they've become huge hits on Instagram, tailor-made with Saville Row–level skill for social media's visual food consumption. 

You could, for example, have a pie of chicken, chestnut mushrooms, leek fondue, and tarragon in a gloriously lacquered crust that looks more like the Gherkin skyscraper in London than anything that a Cornish working man might’ve taken down into the copper mines. And you’d get to do it on a fine marble table, red leather chairs, and paired with a £255 Meursault.

332 Bethnal Green Road,  E2 0AG

You can order a hearty weekend English breakfast at most hotels, but for an immersive experience, get your fry-up—with everything cooked on the same griddle in a proper “caff” (never “cafe”!)—at E. Pellicci, a bustling, postage stamp-sized diner and East London institution that’s been run for generations by the same family, Lamb says.

Be prepared to literally bump elbows with locals and trade quips with the owners as you scarf down eggs, beans, lightly charred fried tomatoes, and black pudding on a Formica table under art deco wooden wall panels and the watchful gaze of a verbose Pellicci sibling. Don’t even bother trying to get a table on weekends—weekend fry-ups at E. Pellicci are a religion for many East Enders. Lamb says it's better to go during the week, when you’re far more likely to find a spot.

“The service can be rude, but E. Pellicci’s so famous and fun because it’s a proper Cockney Italian family, and they argue with each other and shout Cockney slang that suddenly turns into very impassioned Italian,” Lamb says. “And I can get my fry-up with a slab of lasagne.”

124 King's Cross Road, King’s Cross St Pancras WC1X 9DS
No Website

To appreciate a small sampling of the cultural potpourri that is London, try Dim Sum Duck, which Lamb goes to when she wants to be reminded of the Brighton dim sum place she used to visit with her Hong Kongese father.

“My heart is in that dim sum place in Brighton that we went to, but the food at Dim Sum Duck is amazing, and they do amazing soup dumplings,” she says.

Operating out of an unassuming storefront on King’s Cross Road, this Michelin-recommended Cantonese restaurant often spills out onto sidewalk tables and has long lines on weekends. Inside, it’s elbow-to-elbow, brightly lit dining under a wall plastered with a black-and-white photo of a roast duck stall in a Chinese market. It may not be the most romantic meal, but your appetite will become ravenous by the plumes of steam of handmade buns billowing out of bamboo baskets and the fragrance of the excellent roast duck hanging nearby.

6 Crossway N16 8HX 
No Website

Sometimes the mere mention of a favorite restaurant is enough to get your tummy grumbling. For Lamb, that place is Umut 2000, her local Turkish ocakbaşi, or open-fire grill restaurant. In fact, just talking about the restaurant for this article was enough for her to dash off there for dinner right after our conversation!

It’s not a fancy place—"no frills" would be generous, with its simple, small blond-wood tables, which are dwarfed by the massive chrome venting system hanging over seemingly half the restaurant. But the real centerpiece is the long, rectangular grill, filled with glowing coals. Here, the grillmasters keep a fleet of skewered meats on the constant sizzle, flipping them just enough to develop that perfect not-quite-charred crust while ensuring a juicy, fatty bite inside.

Among Lamb’s favorites are the lamb ribs, dusted with spices like paprika and cumin and featuring that toothsome crust yielding to a juicy, meaty interior. She likes to offset that fire with the cool unctuousness of the “so smooth” taramasalata—creamy and complex but not too fishy.

Afternoon Tea

Brook Street W1K 4HR

150 Piccadilly W1J 9BR

For a genteel, archetypally English meal, there’s afternoon tea, though you should keep in mind that it’s less about the food than the ceremony.

“Afternoon tea is a show,” Lamb says. “You have to put your taste expectations aside. It’s about the scones with cream and jam and the pomp. Put on your fancy outfit and go somewhere where someone wearing white gloves will pour your tea, like Claridge’s or the Ritz.”

Claridge’s is an art deco masterpiece that’s played the role of home away from home for high-profile guests from Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant to Winston Churchill and the king of Yugoslavia. It’s a five-star affair with afternoon tea in the foyer and reading room, a grand, mirrored and cream-colored room with a flower-crowned chandelier and elegant tables that seem to dance around the room as if they’re performing a waltz. It’s the ultimate destination for future princesses to go pinkies up as they pour their Earl Grey into their warmed milk and pick out a perfectly rectangular cucumber sandwich or currant-dotted scone to have with clotted cream.  

Of course, if you’re intent on “putting on the Ritz,” you need to go to the actual Ritz London, the Mayfair institution that defined luxury for generations and gave us the word “ritzy.” A huge neoclassical building intentionally designed to evoke Paris’ Belle Epoque, it has welcomed royalty and some of the richest people in the world. Its famed Palm Court, a Louis XVI gilded room under a celebrated glass roof, is where the royal family used to take tea, as did Churchill, writer Evelyn Waugh, and actress Judy Garland. Afternoon tea is still served in the Palm Court under its elaborate golden statues and with elegant sterling silver teapots and tea towers. Tea at the Ritz is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion with loose-leaf tea, bite-size pastries, and, if it’s that kind of day, flutes of Champagne. 

Among the finest hotels in the city, both these luxurious institutions come with equally high-end prices, and the afternoon teas are perpetually in high demand—you’ll need to book a table weeks in advance if you plan on this being a highlight of your trip. Both also have strict dress codes, so read up on the requirements before you go so you’re not turned away at the door.

Desserts

26-29 Dean Street, Soho W1D 3LL

Londoners have fallen back in love with a good pudding. For example, the trifle, a British dessert at its most whimsical that Lamb describes as an “unapologetically decadent combination of wobbly fruit jelly, genoise sponge cake, crème légère, and whipped cream” in vibrant layers, had delighted English taste buds since the 16th century before falling out of favor. But now it’s enjoying a deserved resurgence. 

Around London, Lamb finds fine examples of classic British puddings, taking inspiration from places like Quo Vadis, a cozy but chic Soho club and restaurant that’s been a London favorite since the 1920s. It’s got a traditionally high-class look with lots of natural light and partially stained-glass windows that even the coolest London hipster and her picky, snooty mother could agree to have a civil meal under, all cared for by its energetic, charming, and seemingly ever-present owner, Chef Jeremy Lee.

“Quo Vadis is a gorgeous restaurant, one of those rare places where the proprietor is the real heart of the place and is there every day in the kitchen and in the dining room—everything he does is from the heart,” Lamb says. “It’s a romantic, chic, white-tablecloth place that definitely feels like a cozy kitchen restaurant, with a nice bar upstairs. It's a good place to experience that traditional, very British dessert.”

Somerset House, New Wing, Lancaster Place WC2R 1LA

For something more cakey, like her own genoise sponge, Lamb credits the restaurant Spring, in Somerset House, as having “the best pastry kitchen in London.” It has a rotating, seasonal menu that takes painstaking care in selecting only the best ingredients for each dish. Think springtime figs from a local farm that sells exclusively to Spring, or grilled sprout tops with quince, brown butter, and goat curd.

It also happens to operate in “one of the most beautiful dining rooms in London,” in Lamb’s opinion. She describes a bright, columned space whose white-on-white palette is broken up only by butterscotch-colored leather chairs.

“In the summertime, you get the most perfect strawberry cake or tart, and they’re going to marry the ingredients together perfectly,” Lamb says.

Spring’s also known for its less expensive “scratch” menu, consisting of a meal made with the produce that would’ve otherwise been thrown out at the end of the day, combined in creative and delicious ways, like walnut-and-citrus panna cotta with a remilled biscuit.

181 Piccadilly W1A 1ER

Calling Fortnum & Mason a department store is like calling King Charles III a former boarding-school student—this massive merchant has been supplying Londoners from its perch on Piccadilly since the 1700s and is an institution almost as hallowed as the royal family itself. 

Year-round, but especially at Christmas, it’s a bustling maze of goods branching out from a grand spiral staircase, including in-store restaurants. The Parlour, a pastel, whimsically decorated ice cream shop, is where Frey found the perfect model for her recipe for “the essential British sundae,” the knickerbocker glory, a tower of “vanilla ice cream; a fruit purée, syrup, or coulis; fresh fruit; swirls of whipped cream; and a fan wafer, all served in a tall glass with a long metal spoon,” according to her recipe.

Fortnum & Mason lays claim to the dessert’s invention, possibly named after the synonymous hotel in New York City. The iconic dessert is even a feature of some of the many, many nonfood wares the establishment sells. Frey recommends grabbing something for souvenir-hungry visitors from abroad.

“If somebody’s coming here as a tourist, they have great gift items—you can even get a Christmas ornament of the knickerbocker glory,” she says. “It’s a good place to get unique things to bring back to friends that aren’t cheesy tourist items.”

Markets and Shops

Borough Market, Cathedral Street SE1 9DE

Frey often shops for her recipes at the sprawling, open-air Borough Market in Southwark, which has been around in one form or another since the 1000s, when it started off as a ramshackle rabble of merchants hawking wares and produce near the south entrance of London’s Tower Bridge. It’s now under a grand, vaulted glass ceiling but is still filled with stalls and vendors offering everything from freshly butchered meats and produce to juices and coffees. Frey likes to wander the stalls to see what’s in season while sipping on a fresh-pressed orange juice or nibbling on something from Bread Ahead.

“[The market] really [has] everything,” she says. “You can spend a couple hours just browsing. If someone is coming to London and is into food, it’s a don’t-miss.”

Frey suggests both amateur and professional bakers buy a loaf or stay for a class, like she has, at Bread Ahead.

“They do amazing doughnuts, they do bread, and they do really interesting classes, like Ukrainian baking or just British baking or sourdoughs,” she says. “It’s a really positive environment, and the classes are short, like a half day or a day, so it’s something you can come and do on a trip.”

259 Kentish Town Road NW5 2JT

Lamb’s brioche recipe was informed by her experiences at many London bakeries, among them the Kentish Town’s Kossoffs, which began baking Londoners’ daily bread over a century ago until the 1980s before being resurrected in 2021 to much acclaim by the founder’s great-grandson. The trays behind the glass partition inside this Ukrainian Jewish bakery on the neighborhood’s busy high street are laden with delectable baked goods—from croissants to hearty sandwiches on artisanal, heritage-grain breads—but Lamb is a fan of the miniature brioches, which change ingredients with the seasons, like a recent early-autumn one topped with vanilla crème, fresh summer apricots, and demerara sugar. She notes the brioches are normally cracklingly crispy on the outside and meltingly soft on the inside when they’re fresh out of the oven.

“Go at 8:30 or 9 a.m. and eat it hot!” Lamb says.

2-5, Duke of York Square, 5 King’s Road SW3 4LY

Frey’s first stop when she’s looking for harder-to-find or quality ingredients—like the molasses for her shoofly pie—is Partridges, specifically the larger store on Duke of York Square in Chelsea. This family-run mecca of specialty foods includes long refrigerated counters for salads and prepared items, aisles of regional cuisines, and islands of seasonal treats. It’s a haven for chefs, regular Brits wanting to try something new, and immigrants in search of that one spice they need for a dish that reminds them of home. Looking for a new holiday chutney? How about an apple-ginger-sultana Boxing Day spin or apricot-onion-orange-cranberry Christmas version? Why not go all out with a cheese hamper stuffed with Stilton, Camembert, and a creamy Vacherin Mont D'Or? Other standout hard-to-find  offerings includeterrine of bison pâté and a lightly smoky Scottish heather honey. Frey comes here when she’s homesick for American comfort foods like Kraft macaroni and cheese or ranch dressing, but it’s a special destination around the winter holidays, when it’s a good excuse to stroll around and soak in arguably the most magical time of year in London.

“It’s in South West London and close to the Thames, so it’s not too far for going for a walk along the river, and the square has an outdoor food market on weekends and Christmas events around Christmas,” she says.

15-17 Calvert Ave, Bethnal Green, London E2 7JP

Lamb says to look out for the deliciously unique small-batch La Grotta Ices (think cucumber-sour cream or strawberry-melon) at Leila’s Shop in Shoreditch, which also has hard-to-find, high quality ingredients that depend on the tastes and whims of its owner, Leila McAlister. This tiny, community-focused store-deli-cafe is always crowded with produce and other ingredients that seemingly only McAlister can source, thanks to her “extraordinarily good” taste, personal connections, and uncanny knack for finding great sources around the globe.

“Leila’s one of those characters of London who has been doing it right for many years and has a very high standard,” Lamb says. “She’ll have figs in from Cyprus you don’t get anywhere else, or hop-infused panna cotta, and Leila’s is good for using very British heritage grains, which are more flavorful.”

Cool, Britannica!

It would take an encyclopedia-sized guide to get through all the wonderful foods London has to offer, but you’ll get a taste of the best of the best, by Londoners and for Londoners, following the advice of our local experts Lamb and Frey. Just remember to leave room for afters!

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