Bon Appétit: Eating Well in London

February 25, 2025

English food doesn’t have the greatest reputation. Beans on toast? Mushy peas? No thanks. Even fish and chips is a hard pass for me. But if you’re worried about finding good food in London, or the UK as a whole, know that the entire country, and especially London, has an amazing array of cuisines that you can easily find. Not only is there no short supply of good things to eat, but restaurants in the UK are also incredibly accommodating to dietary restrictions and allergies so that most people can find something that they would enjoy.

So, what about English food? It’s actually not all bad. These are the highlights:

Sunday roast at the Old Queen’s Head in Islington

Every Sunday, the Old Queen’s Head was packed with people trying to get a Sunday roast, and for good reason. They had a couple of options for meat, or if you’re vegetarian like me, a mushroom wellington. That was paired with Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes, carrots, parsnips, kale, and gravy. It made for a good start to the week.

English breakfast at Bill’s in Covent Garden

I hate beans on toast as much as the next person, but if you take the beans out of the picture, a full English breakfast is pretty good. At Bill’s, it came with toast, poached eggs with hollandaise, pickled red onions, home fries, mushrooms, tomatoes, avocado, roasted red pepper, fried halloumi, and beans (of course). Almost perfect.

Afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason

Fortnum and Mason is definitely a treat, but it’s a good one. You get your choice of tea and three tiers of food (savory, scones, and sweet.) You receive four finger sandwiches, two scones, and four desserts. Everything is unlimited and you can take leftovers home.

Personally, I tend to gravitate towards Italian food, and there are a lot of options in London.

La Brasseria Milanese in Marylebone

I had the rigatoni alla norma, which was a classic rigatoni with marinara and eggplant. Perfect size and tasted good. Can’t go wrong.

Spaghetti House in Covent Garden

This restaurant had a good arrabbiata. They offer a sharing size portion of just their spaghetti, but if you tell your waiter you have a nut allergy (which is true), he might use that as an excuse to get the arrabbiata made with spaghetti so you can share it with your friend.

Pastaio in Soho

If you try to go to the Dishoom in Soho and it has an hour long wait, turn the corner and go to Pastaio. Their focaccia was amazing. I ordered their aglio e olio with Aleppo chili, parsley, and garlic over linguine noodles and it was delicious. The table next to me ordered the whole lobster linguine and it looked insane (even though I’d never eat it). Don’t skip out on dessert here and order the tiramisu. I’m not a coffee person, but a good tiramisu is life changing and this one was good. I did find a small piece of plastic in mine, but it was so good that I had to finish it. They comped both desserts, even though my friend didn’t have any plastic in her tiramisu.

I can’t put the rest into categories, so here are my favorite miscellaneous eats:

Ima Sushi in Exmouth Market

I had an unpopular opinion about this place compared to other people who tried it. I loved it. All their food is 100% vegetarian, and I’ve already established that I’m vegetarian, so it was right up my alley. My go-to was their sweetcorn tofu firecracker roll, which had corn, tofu, avocado, cucumber, garden cress, mayo, and gochujang mayo. So good.

Mac and cheese at Borough Market

I was hesitant about the mac and cheese at Borough Market because I feel like it’s a distinctly American dish, but I was pleasantly surprised. It really hit the spot. Good luck finding a place to sit down and eat it, though.

It’s Bagels in Primrose Hill

A lot of places don’t get bagels quite right, but I thought It’s Bagels did a pretty decent job. I liked to get the egg and cheese on an everything bagel, add Cholula (didn’t know there was Cholula in the UK, but no complaints.) I’d go back here in a heartbeat.

The Breakfast Club in Camden Passage

This was a very American-style breakfast restaurant, and it was really good. My favorite thing to get was their avocado toast, which was huge and had mojo picon, avocado, pico de gallo, and green onion on top of a slice of sourdough. I chose hashbrowns and veggie chorizo for my sides.

No day is complete without dessert. These are the best:

Udderlicious

They make amazing ice cream. Their Malteser flavor has my heart. They also label all the allergens next to the flavors.

Doh’hut in Exmouth Market

I’d bet these are the best doughnuts in London. They had their permanent flavors and ones that changed biweekly. They sold something called the dagel which was an everything bagel seasoned doughnut filled with onion and chive cream cheese. That is what dreams are made of.

Chocolate covered strawberries at Borough Market