What to eat in London

London's table is not one cuisine but layers of arrivals, so it is eaten dish by dish rather than restaurant by restaurant: fish and chips, first put together in the city in the 1860s, the pie and mash of the working-class East End, the roast that exists only on a Sunday, and the curry that came from Bangladesh and settled on a single street. For each of them this page says where to try it and whether it is a lunch or a snack.

Fried fish was brought to Britain by Jewish immigrants from Spain, Portugal and Eastern Europe, and the first known shops to sell it with chips opened in London in the 1860s, among them Joseph Malin's. Salt and malt vinegar go on only when it reaches the table. The Golden Hind in Marylebone has served Londoners since 1914, and its fish, chips and peas at lunch cost €26. If it is your first time, take the cod or the haddock, which is the dish as it has been eaten in the city for well over a hundred and fifty years.

BudgetWhere a lunch like this fits into the daily total:What London costs →

A minced-beef pie, mashed potato and a parsley sauce called liquor began in the early nineteenth century among the dock workers of the first eastern docks, and jellied eels traditionally sit alongside, which you do not have to eat. M. Manze has served from Tower Bridge Road since 1902, with another shop in Peckham; such shops have fallen from about 110 at the end of the nineteenth century to 34 in 2024, so this is a dish to eat while it is still there.

A Sunday roast is roast meat with potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, gravy and vegetables, and the custom comes from the late eighteenth century, when a joint went into the oven before church. Beef goes with Yorkshire pudding and mustard or horseradish, lamb with mint sauce, pork with crackling and apple sauce. It is eaten in a pub at midday on a Sunday, so a plan for Monday or Friday leaves it out; if you have only one Sunday in the city, keep its midday slot for a pub.

The East End street nicknamed Banglatown got its curry houses from families from Sylhet in Bangladesh, who worked the docks and opened places to feed the workers, and today it is called the curry capital of Britain. You will find many Bangladeshi restaurants one beside the next, and on Sundays a market of bric-a-brac and produce.

Where to stayShoreditch and Brick Lane, and what it is like to sleep there:Where to stay in London →

Borough Market under London Bridge station is open Tuesday to Friday 10 to 17, Saturday 9 to 17 and Sunday 10 to 16, and closed on Mondays; entry is free. You come for the cooked-food stalls in the part called Market Kitchen rather than for groceries. Greenwich Market, under its roof, opens every day and gathers stalls from twenty-odd kitchens.

3 daysBorough and Greenwich markets in an hour-by-hour plan:London in 3 days →

For a quick, cheap meal

The supermarket meal deal costs €4.60–4.95 for a sandwich, a snack and a drink, and it is the lunch in the budget day plan. In a pub you order and pay at the bar and leave no tip, whereas a restaurant usually adds a 12.5% service charge, which the costs page explains.

Hidden gemsWhere to eat once you step off the main routes:London free and empty: a 35th-floor glasshouse and a sarcophagus →

Day tripsA lunch out of town, and which train gets you there:Day trips from London →

Getting aroundWhich line gets you to the market:Getting around London →

When to goWhen to go, month by month:The best time to visit London →

MistakesBorough Market on a Monday and seven more mistakes with days, tickets and hours:Mistakes everyone makes in London →

AirportThe first meal after landing, and the train to it:From the airport to London →

MuseumsAfter the meal, six museums with no entry fee and Friday evenings:Museums in London →