London’s best food & drink

An aristocratic habit started by the Duchess of Bedford in 1840, pausing for tea, cakes and sandwiches at three or four in the afternoon is a good old-fashioned English treat.

Although there are afternoon teas offered across the city (and just about everywhere and anywhere these days), for the authentic, traditional afternoon tea – as the Duchess would have expected it – you need to attend one of London’s historic, grand dame hotels.

The great and the good have been flocking to the grand salons of Claridges, the Savoy and the Ritz (among others) for over a century. Settle in among the glamorous surroundings for miniature sandwiches and cakes served on gleaming silver stands, with tea poured by elegantly-livered waiters. In most cases, you can up the ante just a little further by adding a glass of champagne to the package.

This 103-year-old, Richard Corrigan-led restaurant offers a shuckingly good selection of oysters and British seafood. At Champagne-fuelled morning sessions, long-serving staff give expert lessons in the art of oyster-opening.

A food market has stood beside London Bridge since at least the 12th century, and the current model – with Victorian architecture and railway arches covering many of the food outlets – has had a huge revival in recent years as London has become one of Europe’s biggest foodie hubs.

Stalls range from traditional fruit and veg to artisan bakers, charcuterie, cheese counters and chocolatiers, with some of the capital’s best restaurants in the historic streets that wind out from the main marketplace. Unquestionably London’s biggest culinary draw with over 100 stalls, it’s phenomenally popular with tourists, but local foodies also flock here for the fantastic street food, which ranges from artisan chorizo sandwiches to Egyptian curries, fresh pasta and Indian dosas, eaten on the go as trains rumble overhead.

A London lane once lined with 16th century brick kilns is now home to curry houses serving world-class Indian food, from tender Bengali lamb dishes to Balti, curry and beyond, plus some standout bars, clubs, bagel shops and smoked meat joints.

Among the new wave of noodle bars, bubble tea outfits and Korean grills, some grand Cantonese restaurants remain, along with such stellar supermarkets as Loon Fung, a Gerrard Street stalwart since 1965.

The Soho bar largely responsible for making gin cool again is home to 100 varieties of new era ‘mother’s ruin’, including tasting flights all served in a fittingly Victorian setting.

Great little foodie market filled with upscale food stalls, squeezed into an alleyway alongside and under converted railway arches beneath Tower Bridge. Open all year round on weekends.

The best British burgers, pizzas, tacos and wine from vendors at this industrial-look, indoor-outdoor food market.

A Covent Garden cheese hub since the 1970s, and a Borough Market pioneer in the 1990s, Neal’s Yard continues to offer a stupendous choice of cheeses supporting specialist makers across the UK and Ireland.

Since 2012, Street Feast has transformed some of London’s derelict spaces into buzzing food markets with stands selling everything from high-concept gelato to tacos, Taiwanese buns and all manner of craft libations.

An annual four-day feast of all things foodie, held in East London’s Tobacco Dock, with hundreds of stalls, tastings, talks and demonstrations by some of the country’s best-known chefs.

A hugely characterful cluster of subterranean bars and rooms, a pint at London’s oldest pub in the historic publishing hub of Fleet Street, takes you back to the 1660s.