OZU /UNITED KINGDOM /LONDON /GUIDE
Eating in London
2 h route5 stopsBest: The roast, Sunday lunch. The curry, any dayUpdated July 2026
Let’s dispatch the cliché: British food is bad. It genuinely was, for decades, wartime rationing lasted until 1954 and wiped out an entire generation of cooking, but that stopped being true twenty years ago, and London is now one of the best eating cities in the world.
The thing is that the good part isn’t what you expect. The British national dish, declared as such by a minister in 2001, is chicken tikka masala, which was invented here. The best food in the city is Bangladeshi, Indian, Caribbean and from across the old empire, which came home. And then there’s the pub, where this country’s real cooking survived.
The route, stop by stop
5 STOPS- 01
The curry, and why it’s British
In 2001, British foreign secretary Robin Cook gave a speech declaring chicken tikka masala “a true British national dish”, and it wasn’t a joke: the argument was that the country had adopted and transformed it, and that this is exactly what Britain is.
The dish was invented here, probably in Glasgow, when someone asked for sauce with a chicken tikka they found dry and the cook improvised with tomato and cream.
London’s Indian food isn’t a tourist import: it’s home cooking from communities that have been here for generations, above all Bangladeshis from the Sylhet region. Brick Lane was the epicentre and still has its curry houses, though today the best is spread out: Tooting, Southall, Whitechapel.
It’s the most honest and cheapest food in the city.
- 02
The Sunday roast
The institution that dismantles the cliché. On Sunday lunchtimes, pubs serve a roast: beef, lamb, pork or chicken, with potatoes roasted in fat (crisp outside, floury inside) vegetables, gravy, and a Yorkshire pudding, a batter baked in a tin with hot fat that rises hollow, like a bowl, to fill with gravy.
Done well it’s a serious meal. It’s served only on Sundays, at lunch, and good pubs run out by three, so book or go early. Don’t order it in a central pub with photographs on the menu: find a neighbourhood one with a real kitchen.
It’s the most British thing there is and you can’t eat it anywhere else in the world.
- 03
Borough Market
A market has stood in this area for around a thousand years, beside the only bridge that crossed the Thames, and it’s still going. Today it’s a covered market under the railway arches with stalls of cheese, oysters, chorizo, bread, and stand-up eating from half the world.
It’s touristy, yes, and rammed at lunchtime. But the quality is real and it isn’t a set: chefs shop here.
The tactic is to go mid-morning on a weekday, or early on Saturday, and eat standing at three different stalls instead of sitting down at one.
- 04
Fish and chips, done right
Do it once and do it properly, because the gap between a good one and the tourist-centre version is enormous. The good one: fresh white fish, cod or haddock, in a thin, crisp batter that doesn’t come away, fried to order, with thick chips soft inside.
Eaten with malt vinegar and salt, with mushy peas alongside.
The sign you’re in the wrong place: it’s already made, waiting under a lamp. In a good chippy they fry it when you order and you wait eight minutes. The best are in the neighbourhoods and on the coast, not next to Piccadilly.
- 05
The English breakfast
The full English: fried eggs, bacon, sausages, beans in tomato sauce, grilled tomato, mushrooms, toast and, if you dare, black pudding. All on one plate, at nine in the morning.
It’s excessive and that’s the point: it was working men’s food to get through the day. You eat it in a caff (an old-school café, formica and tea in a mug) not in a hotel.
And tea comes with milk by default: if you want it without, you have to say so, and they’ll still look at you.
Frequently asked
Is it true you eat badly in London?
Not any more, and it stopped being true twenty years ago. London is now one of the best eating cities in the world, with the twist that the best of it isn’t classic British cooking but the old empire’s: Indian, Bangladeshi, Caribbean. The bad reputation comes from wartime rationing, which lasted until 1954.
What is the UK’s national dish?
Chicken tikka masala, and it isn’t a provocation: foreign secretary Robin Cook declared it so in 2001. It was invented in Britain, probably in Glasgow, and the argument was that it represents what the country is: something adopted from outside and made its own.
What is a Sunday roast?
The Sunday lunch pubs serve: roast meat, potatoes roasted in fat, vegetables, gravy and Yorkshire pudding, a hollow baked batter that catches the gravy. It’s served only on Sundays and good pubs run out: book or go early.