Breakfast in London.
Like breakfast in any other city, it’s the most important meal of the morning. But in THIS particular city it’s paid an almost religious reverence, with some of the finest day-breaking dishes available on planet Earth. Nailing down, however, precisely which is objectively speaking the best breakfast in London… well that’s an impossible task, as it all depends on what mood you / your wallet is in, and the time / calories you have to burn. So instead, we’ve narrowed down a shortlist of excellent breakfast spots in every area of London:
JUMP TO: NORTH LONDON | EAST LONDON | SOUTH LONDON | WEST LONDON
Central London
The Wolseley | Mayfair
David Loftus
The Wolseley is possibly London’s finest spot for breakfast. You’ll feel a million bucks as the top-hatted doormen usher you into the cool, monochrome marble dining room, where smartly dressed staff weave between tables delivering kedgeree, omelettes Arnold Bennett, full Englishes and more. Particular highlights include the haggis & duck eggs with whisky sauce, and the French toast – they even list it as pain perdu (forgotten bread) in the original French, and it comes with either bacon or berries. Top it all off with a Wolseley Imperial – a long espresso spiked with cognac and topped with chocolate & whipped cream.
Details: 160 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9EB | Book a table at The Wolseley
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HIDE | Mayfair
If you’re wondering how a Michelin Star restaurant run by one of the country’s most talented chefs tackles breakfast, take a peek at HIDE. The star on their breakfast menu – among dollops of caviar and a truffled croquet monsieur – is the creative birch sap croissant, which comes with an actual tree branch sticking out of it (don’t worry though, they aren’t too sticky).
Details: 85 Piccadilly, London W1J 7NB | Book a table at HIDE
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Koya Soho | Soho
For a total curveball, order the English Breakfast udon bowl at Koya Soho, where they slip egg, bacon and shiitake mushroom into the Japanese staple. There’s also porridge laced with mushrooms and house-made pickles, or a traditional Japanese breakfast of grilled fish, rice and miso soup. They do free refills of filter coffee, too.
Details: 50 Frith Street London W1D 4SQ | No bookings
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Regency Café | Pimlico
If you’re more into the old-fashioned, no-frills vibe then you’ll get a dictionary definition greasy spoon Full English from The Regency Cafe in Pimlico (which has been serving them since 1946). Its retro interiors are practically unchanged, and have been the setting for dozens of films & TV shows. Now it makes an excellent setting for you to enjoy old-school scratchy white toast, giant mugs of tea, and gargantuan helpings of folded eggs, with plenty of change from a tenner.
Details: 17-19 Regency Street, London SW1P 4BY | No bookings
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Berners Tavern | Fitzrovia
If you want a Full English that tips the scales of refinement all the way to the other extreme, then you should head to Berners Tavern – its version is served up with all the Jason Atherton-esque attention to detail that you’d expect from a Jason Atherton restaurant, filling the plate with the likes of Dingley Dell pork sausage, Stornaway black pudding, and Borough Market sourdough toast. And everything else they serve for breakfast here is just as lavish: the bacon sandwich comes with onion jam and a couple of fried eggs; orange marmalade & Chantilly crêpes arrive flambéed with Grand Marnier butter; and the smoked salmon & scrambled eggs come topped with salmon roe.
Details: 10 Berners Street, London, W1T 3NP | Book a table at Berners Tavern
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Maison Francois | St James’s
You’ve got to respect any culture which calls breakfast a ‘little lunch’. And at the wonderfully Francophilic Maison Francois, you can start the day the Parisian way with breakfast sandwiches packed with jambon blanc, fried egg, potato rösti and gruyère; eggs royale topped with caviar; and of course, exemplary croissants.
Details: 34 Duke Street, London SW1Y 6DF | Book a table at Maison Francois
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Imad’s Syrian Kitchen | Soho
What is it about Imad Alarnab’s crowd-funded restaurant that makes it so instantly appealing? Is it Imad himself, frequently spotted weaving through the room and greeting customers? Is it the cosy touches around his Kingly Court space, like the lampshades inspired by the Sidriyeh waistcoats of his homeland, which he was forced to flee? It’s probably all these things… but it’s definitely also a little bit down to the mouthwatering Syrian breakfast he serves, with halloumi & honey pastries, warming shakshuka, and the simple but instantly comforting pita with date molasses & tahini that’ll get your day off to the best possible start.
Details: Top Floor, Kingly Court, W1B 5PW | Book a table at Imad’s Syrian Kitchen
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Fallow | Mayfair
Fallow’s eggs royales are truly a bucket list dish. Fillings range from sausage patty with oozing cheese, bacon & walnut ketchup; a veggie-friendly battered mushroom with fried egg; or ex-dairy cow steak with béarnaise sauce and crispy shallots – all of which are then sandwiched between two mouthwatering pucks of fried croissant. If, somehow, that doesn’t appeal, there’s also black pudding Benedicts on honey waffle and a hearty full English, with the option to wash it all down with a piquant Paloma.
NOTE: Fallow’s sibling restaurant Roe in Canary Wharf offers a similar breakfast menu, including those precious royales.
Details: 52 Haymarket, London, SW1Y 4RP | Book a table at Fallow
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Fischer’s | Marylebone
If there’s anywhere more civilised to enjoy a breakfast fit for a European turn-of-the-century bon viveur, we’ll eat our hat. Followed by a double helping of Fischer’s paprika-fried potato & spinach gröstl; grilled kippers with mustard butter; smoked salmon & cream cheese pretzels and an Einspanner coffee (that’s espresso topped with cool whipped cream).
Details: 50 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5HN | Book a table at Fischer’s
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Lantana | Fitzrovia, Shoreditch & London Bridge
Lantana goes full brunch, even on a weekday. Their breakfast menu comes loaded with blockbusters like the chicken karaage French toast with chilli maple syrup; chorizo hash with pickled jalapeños and a fried egg; huevos rancheros on soft corn tortillas; and an outrageous breakfast bun with streaky bacon, fried egg, melted cheddar, Kewpie mayo and green sriracha erupting from a brioche bun. And the peanut butter, date, banana & cinnamon smoothie will send any hangover packing.
Details: 13 Charlotte Place, London, W1T 1SN | Book a table at Lantana Fitzrovia
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26 Grains | Covent Garden
There’s only one place in London that unequivocally serves the best porridge in the city: 26 Grains. With hot and cold bowls on offer you can top your almond milk oats with roasted peach, orange blossom cream and mint; banana, tahini, honey and cacao nibs; and gooseberry compote, rye granola, tarragon and yoghurt – from Neal’s Yard Dairy just across the way. At this point, you may be thinking – sure, but isn’t it just porridge? And you’d be right. But it’s undoubtedly going to be the best porridge you’ve ever had.
Details: 1 Neal’s Yard, London WC2H 9AW | No bookings
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Honey & Co | Bloomsbury
At the Middle Eastern-styled Honey & Co, breakfast starts out with a selection of dishes for the table to share (a bread basket with creamy hummus, labneh and za’atar; fig loaf with homemade jams; etc), then goes onto the egg course (have them as part of shakshuka, boureka, sabich or a Merguese sausage roll), and finishes off with a roll call of sweet treats including sour cherry buns and feta & honey cheesecake. And just opposite the restaurant you’ll find their pop-up bakery, for pastries to take home for later…
Details: 54 Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1N 3LW | Book a table at Honey & Co
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Dean Street Townhouse | Soho
The Full English has so many different parts it can come in dozens of different forms, each of which may please one palate more than the next – but one undisputed king of the scene is Dean Street Townhouse. They just do every element right, including the feta, spinach and bubble & squeak that make their way onto the veggie version. Even homesick Scots are looked after, with a dish of tattie scones & lorne sausage (which is made in an unusual cuboid shape), and the setting is dripping in old-school glamour, right down to the solid silver salt & pepper grinders.
Details: 69-71 Dean St, London W1D 3SE | Book Dean Street Townhouse
North London
Sunday | Barnsbury
Sunday isn’t just a weekend brunch treat: they serve envelope-pushing breakfast dishes every day of the week (except Mondays). The menu changes regularly and plucks liberally from across the globe for inspiration: Mexican-style chilaquiles, for example, or Japanese okonomiyaki savoury pancakes. But they also do the classics really, really well: these maple-glazed bacon chops come with corn & smoked cheese croquettes, fried egg and a sage, chilli & garlic butter.
Details: 169 Hemingford Road, London N1 1DA | Book on 020 7607 3868 (weekdays only)
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Dishoom | King’s Cross (and across London)
The undisputed king of London’s bacon sarnies: the bacon naan from Dishoom comes with smoked streaky bacon, layers of lightly torched naan, cream cheese, chilli tomato jam, and fresh herbs. It’s a thing of wonder, especially with a warming glass of their house chai to wash it down. And for non piggy-eaters, there’s plenty of other choices on the breakfast menu, from fried eggs on chilli cheese toast to the ‘Parsi power breakfast’ of spicy chicken liver keema with runny-yolked eggs and freshly baked buns for mopping.
Details: 5 Stable Street, London, N1C 4AB | Book a table at Dishoom
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Caravan | King’s Cross (and across London)
A vast warehouse-turned-roastery and all day dining spot overlooking Granary Square in King’s Cross. Where they lure you in with freshly roasted coffee, they’ll keep you with their famous jalapeño cornbread, poached strawberries & vanilla pancakes; and poached eggs with garlic whipped yoghurt. This breakfast might turn into a brunch…
Details: 1 Granary Square, London N1C 4AA | Book a table at Caravan
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It’s your prerogative as a self-respecting, tax-paying adult to have cake for breakfast when the occasion calls. And when it does, Kipferl will be waiting, with its plentiful array of Viennese treats: classic Sachertorte (it has apricot jam in it – definitely legitimately breakfast); ice cream & apfelstrudel; chocolate-glazed, rum-spiced maronitorte – it’s all here. As is the rösti-laden full Austrian breakfast, the mountain cheese omelette, and the holzhacker bacon French toast, if you want to be all ‘conventional’ about it.
Details: 20 Camden Passage, London, N1 8ED | No Bookings
East London
Pavilion has been perched on the lakeside of Victoria Park for two decades now, serving lavish fry-ups and freshly baked pastries in a reclaimed Victorian kiosk. The reason for their enduring popularity, however, has to be their famous Sri Lankan breakfast: a platter laden with dhal, coconut roti, string hoppers and sambol. Take a cardamom bun for later, too.
Details: Victoria Park, Old Ford Road, London E9 7DE | No bookings
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Duck & Waffle | The City
It comes as no surprise that the clue is in the name here: Duck & Waffle serves up duck & waffle 24hrs a day, and it’s superb – it comes with confit duck leg, fried duck egg, and mustard maple syrup. Of course, if you’re in a sweeter mood, you can always get The Full Elvis topped with caramelised bananas; peanut butter & jelly; Chantilly cream; and a brief pep talk from your arteries.
Details: 110 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AY | Book a table at Duck & Waffle
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South London
Where The Pancakes Are | London Bridge, Battersea, Fitzrovia
If you’re a pancake fan, you should make your way to the delightfully literal Where The Pancakes Are. It’s run by a Dutch chef named Patricia Trijbits who has dedicated her restaurant/life to creating the most perfect pancakes conceivable, and boy does she deliver. (Note: she doesn’t literally deliver, you’ll have to go down there to get them). Aside from the typical sweet and savoury toppings, there’s also Dutch Babies on the menu: enormous, Yorkshire-pudding style bowls enveloping the likes of melted goats cheese & honey or baked apples & ice cream.
Details: Arch 35a, 85a Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 0NQ | Book a table at Where The Pancakes Are
West London
Granger & Co | Notting Hill, Chelsea, Marylebone, King’s Cross & Clerkenwell
The late Bill Granger made his name thanks to his famously velvety scrambled eggs, which you can still enjoy for breakfast at his five London restaurants. Also worth a mention, though, are the ricotta hotcakes: the ricotta adds an extraordinary creaminess to the pancake’s texture, and there’s a little honey butter melted on top to bring it all together. At weekend brunch they sell like, well, you know.
Details: 175 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, W11 2SB | Book a table at Granger & Co
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Milk Beach | Queen’s Park, Soho
If you haven’t had eggy soldiers since the age of about eight, it’s time to rethink your position: at the Antipodean-accented Milk Beach, soft boiled eggs come coddled in a pot with sweet potato purée and lavishly buttered sourdough for dipping. It’s guaranteed to kick-start your morning with unfettered, child-like glee. Plus, there’s all the usual classics from down under: banana bread with espresso jam; ricotta hotcakes; sweet potato fritters and excellent coffee from their own London roastery.
Details: 19-21 Lonsdale Road, NW6 6DH | Ilona Rose House, Manette Street, W1D 4AL | Book a table at Milk Beach
Want some java juice to go with that? Here are the best coffee shops in London.