Fiona MacLeod’s guide to the markets, neighbourhoods, and kitchens that reward the curious visitor
LONDON, UK – London’s food scene is one of the world’s best and one of the world’s least navigated by visitors. Fiona MacLeod covers London travel for Bohiney Magazine and for The London Prat, and this is her practical guide to finding the city’s best food without going where everyone else goes.
The Markets
Borough Market, on the South Bank near London Bridge, is the most famous of London’s food markets and is, despite this, still worth visiting: the quality of the produce, the range of prepared food stalls, and the concentration of artisan suppliers is genuinely exceptional. Go on a weekday morning rather than a Saturday. The Saturday crowds make movement difficult; the weekday crowds are manageable and the stall holders have more time to talk about what they are selling, which is one of the specific pleasures of a market of this quality. Borough’s website is at boroughmarket.org.uk and lists current traders and events.
Broadway Market in Hackney, which runs on Saturdays, is smaller and more local in character: the stallholders know many of their customers, the produce is seasonal and mostly from small suppliers, and the market is embedded in a neighbourhood that has excellent independent food shops and restaurants in the streets around it. The combination of the market and the surrounding Hackney streets makes for a better half-day than Borough alone can provide. Maltby Street Market in Bermondsey on Saturday mornings is smaller still, less touristy, and worth the journey from Central London for the quality of the producers. broadwaymarket.co.uk has current stall information.
The Neighbourhoods
Brick Lane and the streets around it in E1 constitute London’s most concentrated South Asian restaurant district, with Bangladeshi restaurants that represent some of the best curry cooking available in Britain. The restaurants that have been here longest are not always the best; the better strategy is to look for the ones with handwritten menus, small rooms, and primarily South Asian clientele, which correlates more reliably with quality than age or size. Tooting Broadway in South London is a less famous but equally good South Asian food destination, priced significantly below the equivalent in Central London and accessible by Northern Line.
Practical Eating Tips
For Chinese food, the restaurants serving Chinese rather than tourist clientele are in Colindale, Golders Green, and parts of Edgware Road, areas accessible by Tube and worth the journey for the quality difference. For Japanese food, the restaurants around Japan Centre near Piccadilly Circus and in the streets of Soho near Carnaby Street serve a predominantly Japanese clientele and offer quality that justifies the slightly higher prices. For anything else, the website Time Out London maintains the most comprehensive and current guide to London eating, with neighbourhood guides that are genuinely useful for planning. The one consistent rule: walk away from the major attractions before choosing a restaurant. The further you walk from the attraction, the better the food tends to get and the lower the price. This is not universally true, but it is a reliable heuristic for London. For London food recommendations, see Visit London.
The one restaurant Fiona MacLeod recommends to every visitor who asks for a single suggestion, knowing they will ask for a single suggestion and knowing the question is unanswerable given the city’s range, is Tayyabs on Fieldgate Street in Whitechapel. It is a Punjabi restaurant that has been open since 1972, that has a queue on most evenings, that does not take bookings, that charges prices that have not caught up with its reputation, and that serves grilled meat and dhal and bread in quantities that constitute a serious commitment. It is not fashionable. It is not written about frequently in the current food press. It is consistently the best meal that visitors who take her advice report having in London, which is not a coincidence but a consequence of the fact that it has been very good for fifty years without needing to be fashionable to remain full. That is the criterion Fiona MacLeod applies to restaurant recommendations: not fashion, but durability. The food that endures is usually the food worth eating. For more London food guidance, see Time Out London.
Eating Well on a Budget
London has excellent food at every price point, and visitors operating on a budget have more options than the tourist restaurant landscape suggests. The market stalls at Borough, Broadway, and Maltby Street serve food that is better than most mid-range restaurants at a third of the price. The Bangladeshi restaurants on Brick Lane and the South Asian restaurants in Tooting are the best value for quality ratio in London, reliably. The lunch menus at many of London’s best restaurants, which are rarely advertised to visitors, offer two or three courses at prices significantly below the dinner menu. The major department store food halls, particularly Selfridges and Fortnum and Mason, have cafe and dining options that are priced at mid-range levels while offering environments that visitors find themselves returning to. And the supermarkets, particularly the Waitrose on Baker Street and the Marks and Spencer Food at St Pancras, provide picnic supplies that are excellent for eating in the parks, which remains one of the most satisfying and most affordable ways to eat well in London.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
