I've lived near London's Borough Market for 13 years and often visit for a bite to eat. I've always wanted to take a food tour to get an expert's take on the best things to eat and drink and learn more about the market's storied history, so I was delighted when Eating Europe invited me to experience one of their London food tours.
Since I moved back to London 15 years ago, I've spent a lot of time eating my way around the city's increasingly diverse restaurant scene. To help me keep track, I started jotting down my favourites in a Moleskine notebook, which eventually evolved into a Google Sheet and then a blog post in 2016. An update was long overdue and here it is: my 50 favourite restaurants in London.
London's Borough and Bankside neighbourhood, on the South Bank of the River Thames, has long been popular with locals, tourists and food lovers alike. And in recent years, exciting new openings have made the area a specialty coffee destination in its own right. Whether you're after a post-market caffeine hit or want to elevate your lunch-break coffee game, my guide has you covered.
If you're partial to a perfectly brewed pourover coffee, there's never been a better time to visit London. One of the newer additions to the city's specialty coffee scene is Calico Coffee, a beautiful café in the Waterloo neighbourhood. I've visited several times since it opened in December, drawn back by the well-curated coffee menu, welcoming staff and peaceful design.
I first came across Scenery Coffee when I enjoyed one of their particularly delicious Colombian coffees at Loam in Brighton earlier this month. When I found out that Scenery's café–roastery is much closer to home, in London's Borough neighbourhood, it didn't take me long to visit. With a great selection of coffees served in an airy and spacious café, it was well worth the lunchtime walk.
With signs of spring finally arriving in London, it's the perfect time to share some of my favourite coffee discoveries from the past few wintry weeks. Whether you're looking for standout London cafes to visit or great specialty coffee to brew at home, this round-up will keep you well-caffeinated.
I mostly work from home, but once a week I head into the office in East Croydon. Until recently, there hasn't been much in the way of specialty coffee to discover on my lunch breaks, so I was excited when a new coffee shop opened earlier this month. After a couple of visits to TAO Cafe, I'm happy to report that it's a wonderful addition to the neighbourhood.
Bermondsey is one of London's best neighbourhoods for foodies. Yes, I'm biased: I've lived in the area since 2012. Nicknamed 'London's larder', Bermondsey is home to Maltby Street Market and Spa Terminus, where you can sample everything from kimchi to comté. But if you're looking for a restaurant or bar, look no further than Bermondsey Street. And if you're looking for a guide to the best places to eat on Bermondsey Street, you're in the right place.
I've been spending more time in and around Elephant & Castle since I moved house earlier this year and although there are plenty of great eateries in the area, there aren't a lot of specialty coffee options. So, I was pleased to come across a new location of Old Spike — the Peckham-based coffee shop and roastery — mere steps from Elephant & Castle Tube on one of my lunchtime walks.
Since I moved house in the summer, I often walk past Bricklayers Arms, a former roundabout with a flyover, which connects the Old and New Kent Roads. It's a historically important location — it was once a key stopping point on the pilgrimage route out of London — but isn't exactly a major point of interest these days. So, I was excited when I saw a sign announcing the impending arrival of Presse Books: a café, bookshop and arts venue.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may know I recently moved house. My new home is pretty close to where I used to live, but during the search, I also ventured into the SW postcodes more than usual. Of course, house-hunting is much better when caffeinated and luckily, there were plenty of great specialty coffee shops to visit, including the following three, listed from north to south.
The past two years have been among the most challenging for hospitality businesses, including specialty coffee shops, in London, and around the world. Keeping a specialty coffee shop in business in London is difficult even in normal times, let alone during a global pandemic, which has felt like a game of snakes and ladders with constant changes of rules, snap lockdowns and general uncertainty.
Unfortunately, some coffee shops have had to close permanently (please come back, Black Swan Yard!), but it's been encouraging to see how many new — and often exciting — cafes have opened in London in the past couple of years.
Sadly, Pedler Good Fortune is permanently closed.
One of my all-time favourite meals in London was the first time my friends and I visited the original Pedler on Peckham Rye. We were there for the neighbourhood eatery's soft launch in 2014, and with 50% off food and five of us present, we got to make that wonderful order: "We'll take one of everything." As predicted, we all returned regularly, celebrating birthdays, babies and boozy brunches, usually featuring a Little Bird gin cocktail (they're owned by the same people). But although the restaurant was beautifully designed, it could feel crowded even in the beforetimes, and unfortunately, after one lockdown too many, Pedler closed its doors for good.
Luckily, however, it has now reopened as Pedler Good Fortune (CLOSED) in a new location on Queens Road, still in Peckham but a mile northeast. The delicious food, great décor and excellent service remain the same, but when I visited one evening last week, there were some exciting changes too.
UPDATE: Lantern Coffee has now closed permanently.
While working from home during the past year, I've sought solace in my lunch-break strolls around Bermondsey and Borough, often stopping for food or coffee. Bermondsey has an abundance of specialty coffee shops and roasters including Monmouth and Watch House are based here (Pact too, although you can't normally visit).
One of my regular lunchtime haunts was Black Swan Yard, but upsettingly, it was recently shut down by the landlord with almost no notice. I hope they'll be back but in the meantime, I found myself on Mill Street, down by the Thames, where I happened upon Lantern Coffee.
The window seats at the original White Mulberries cafe may have one of the best views of all the coffee shops in London, especially when the yachts in the St Katharine Docks marina glint in the sunshine. London's specialty coffee scene has changed a lot since my 2014 write-up, but the coffee, all-day breakfast and sweet treats at White Mulberries are still great. White Mulberries' second location, in Hay's Galleria in London Bridge, is even closer to my Bermondsey home.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, Black Swan Yard is now closed permanently.
Most of my Caffeine Chronicles posts are about specialty coffee shops I've discovered recently. Not so with Black Swan Yard Coffee, which is one of the closest coffee shops to my home and one I've visited even more frequently while working from home during lockdown. Somehow, though, writing about the Bermondsey coffee spot has always eluded me, even as it's changed and adapted over the months and years, so I thought it was high time for a post.
I've been quite quiet on the blogging front of late, mainly because as you will have seen if you follow me on Twitter, I'm starting a new job in a new industry this week, and it's been a hectic few weeks handing over and signing off. But I had a few free days this week, which gave me time to visit Good as Gold, a new specialty coffee shop in beautiful Brockley, south-east London.
While the UK remains in lockdown, I've still been able to seize small moments of joy by getting a takeaway coffee during my allotted daily exercise. Last week, my walk-of-the-day took me to Nine Elms where I visited the closest of District's three Aussie-inspired cafes; the other two are in Parsons Green and Mayfair. Unsurprisingly, I've missed travelling a great deal over the past year, so it was nice to visit a small piece of Australia rather closer to home.
We're now inching closer to the end of an exceptionally challenging year. Despite everything, I know I'm very lucky to have remained healthy and in work (busier than ever, in fact, as I work for a science journal) throughout, but it's been such a difficult year for the hospitality industry, as coffee shops and eateries have had to adapt and then adapt some more in the face of constant change.
