Beam
Jason Allen 16/12/22
Ever since our planet’s greatest scientists first discovered a meal between breakfast and lunch, no weekend morning has been complete without brunch.
And so now – in order to prevent you from ever having to suffer an incomplete weekend, ever again – we’ve updated our comprehensive list of only the very best brunch London has to offer. Here, we bring you our top five options in each category, plus links to longer lists if you want to take a deep dive.
So whether you’re looking for a boozy brunch, all-you-can-eat, or vegan brunches in London…
…it’s riiight here.
JUMP TO: CENTRAL | EAST | NORTH | WEST | SOUTH | BOTTOMLESS BRUNCH | VEGAN BRUNCH | ACTIVITY BRUNCHES
Honey & Co | Bloomsbury
Honey & Co serves everything that’s delicious and breakfasty from across the Middle East, from merguez sausage rolls, to shakshouka; puff pastry treats; and ‘dinosaur eggs’ on pitta. Fitting for a London institution that’s just been brought back from the edge of extinction itself.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? Yes | Bookable? Yes Timings: Tuesday – Saturday, 9-11.30am Address: 54 Lamb’s Conduit St, WC1N 3LW | Visit their website –
Hide | Mayfair
Ironically, there is absolutely no hiding Hide’s excellence, particularly where brunch is concerned. Sure, the photo above just looks like a plain pain au chocolat. And sure, at these prices it’s more of an investment than a meal out… but banana bread baked that morning, followed by oysters and a Michelin-starred full English inside what essentially feels like the middle of an intricately carved oak tree, means it’s definitely one worth making.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Weekdays 7.30-10.15am, weekends, 9-11am Address: 85 Piccadilly, Mayfair, London W1J 7NB | Visit their website –
Berners Tavern | Fitzrovia
‘Oh my…’ you’ll utter these two words a lot at Berners Tavern – not just because it’s a posh place, but the brunch here has the power of rendering you incapable of proper speech, particularly when faced with the mother of all full Englishes they serve up; a beautiful brown plate of constrained space that features (deep breath) Dingley Dell pork sausage, two eggs, smoked bacon, roasted tomato, portobello mushroom, baked beans and Stornoway black pudding. Admittedly, those 7-10am timings are early, there’s no two ways around it, but if there was ever anything to lift you out of bed before midday on Sunday…
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Daily 7-10am Address: 10 Berners St, London W1T 3NP | Visit their website –
Balans Soho | Soho
The best thing about having caramelised banana French toast with maple butter, lobster eggs benedict, and an absinthe fountain at 4am is that you can come back at noon, and have it all over again. Balans is Soho’s brunch stalwart, and for good reason.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Daily from 10am-5am (12.30am Sundays) Address: 60 – 62 Old Compton Street, W1D 4UG | Visit their website
Bombay Bustle | Mayfair
Hands down one of London’s best looking brunches in the city (everything from the chic, vintage railway-inspired space, to the meticulously crafted food), Bombay Bustle’s Weekend Chilli brunch lets you feast on an eclectic mix of modern Indian dishes – everything from rich, melt-in-your-mouth wagyu kebabs served on saffron-cashew parathas to Ghati-spiced prawns with garlic and fresh turmeric – washed down by an equally as thoughtful (and delicious) selection of booze.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? Yes | Bookable? Yes Timings: Saturday and Sunday, 12-3pm Address: 29 Maddox Street, Mayfair, Central London, W1S 2PA
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Christopher’s | Covent Garden
Their melted chocolate and ice cream-smothered crunchy French toast will ruin all other forms of bread for you, forever. But it’s the most delicious sacrifice you’ll ever make.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Saturdays 11am-3pm, Sundays 11am-3.30pm Address: 18 Wellington Street, WC2E 7DD | Visit their website
The Wolseley | Mayfair
The Wolseley’s brunch menu has fried haggis with whisky sauce.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Weekdays 7-11.30am, weekends 8-11.30am Address: 160 Piccadilly, W1J 9EB | Visit their website –
Fallow | Westminster
Fallow doesn’t do brunch on a Sunday – something that the traditionalists might turn their noses up at – but what they lack in conventionalism, they more than make up for with an unconventional but brilliant set of royales, sandwiched between their flaky pastry buns (fillings span from sausage, bacon and egg to smoked salmon belly and spinach to salted caramel and whey), plus the Haymarket hash browns with truffle shavings that are probably the most talked about hash browns in London right now.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Saturday 10am-4pm Address: 51 Haymarket, SW1Y 4RP | Visit their website
See all our recommendations for brunch in Central London
Morito Hackney Road | Haggerston
Seamlessly weaving influences from Crete, Spain and Northern Africa, Morito is where to head next time you get a hankering for chickpea pancakes drizzled with Cretan honey; Menemen eggs with sujuk sausage and flatbread toasties filled with piping hot graviera and feta cheese.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Weekends 10am-12pm Address: 195 Hackney Rd, London E2 8JL | Visit their website –
The Pavilion Café | Victoria Park
Avid Hills/Flickr
The Pav has been feeding Victoria Park‘s strollers for over a decade, and for the past five years its Sri Lankan breakfast (with string hoppers, dahl and coconut sambol) has earned its place as an East London mainstay.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? No Timings: Open Mon-Wed from 7am, Thurs-Sun from 8am Address: Victoria Park, Old Ford Road, London E9 7DE | Visit their website –
The Good Egg | Stoke Newington & Soho
Wisely, The Good Egg’s brunch menu contains sections titled ‘Breads’ and ‘Dipping.’ And if you need anything beyond that, you’ll find it in the form of smoked haddock hash with crispy capers, amba mayo & fried egg; Challah French toast; or a pitch-perfect pastrami lox bagel.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Daily, 9am-3.30pm Address: 93 Stoke Newington Church St, London, N16 0AS | Visit their website –
Bistrotheque | Bethnal Green
Bistrotheque’s brunch (accompanied by Xavior on piano) has a menu of almost a dozen brunch-only cocktails, and a slightly more condensed menu of dishes (Full English, French Toast, etc.). So at least they have their priorities straight.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Weekends 11am-3.45pm (live piano 12-3pm) Address: 23-27 Wadeson Street, E2 9DR | Visit their website –
Ozone | Old Street, Bethnal Green
An all day Antipodean brunch joint that takes its coffee seriously (they roast the stuff in-house, and supply literally hundreds of other coffee shops and restaurants around the world). And to go with it? How does eggs benny on bubble & squeak cakes; kimchi fritters with wild garlic; or banana bread with cultured butter sound…
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Weekdays only Timings: Weekdays 7.30-11.30am, weekends 8.30am-4pm Address: 11 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4AQ | Visit their website
See all our recommendations for brunch in East London
Common Ground | Finsbury Park
This little neighbourhood café, with its beautiful, spacious back garden, really will give you common ground. Because if there’s one thing everyone can agree on, it’s that this is one of the best vegetarian brunch spots in the city. And their dishes all go rather nicely with a Garibaldi cocktail and a slice of freshly baked chocolate babka…
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? No Timings: Weekdays 8.30am-4pm, Saturday 9.30am-4.30pm, Sunday 9.30am-4pm Address: 49 Stroud Green Road, London N4 3EF | Visit their website –
Sunday | Barnsbury, Belsize Park
Barnsbury might seem like a long way to go for brunch (unless you already live there, of course). But trust us, when you’re knee-deep in chilli beef with soft corn grits and fried eggs, that suddenly won’t seem to matter.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? No Timings: Tues-Fri 8.30am-5pm, weekends 9am-5pm Address: 169 Hemingford Road, N1 1DA | Rowland Hill St, NW3 2AD | Visit their website –
Norman’s | Tufnell Park
A newly-opened, old-school greasy spoon, where you can score no-frills ham, eggs & chips; cheese on toast and bacon rolls with change from a fiver.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? No Timings: Wed-Sun, 10am-3pm Address: 167 Junction Road, London, N19 5PZ | Visit their website –
Ottolenghi | Islington
Yotam Ottolenghi: political activist, gay rights campaigner, pilates instructor, philosophy and comparative literature major and multi award-winning cook-book writer. He also owns and runs Ottolenghi…and the brunch there is as great as he is.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? No Timings: Mon-Sat 8am-12pm, Sun 9am-1pm Address: 287 Upper Street London N1 2TZ | Visit their website –
Caravan | King’s Cross (and Exmouth Market, Canary Wharf, Fitzrovia, Bankside & City)
A London brunch classic, Caravan roasts coffee in-house, and dishes out numbers like vanilla pancakes with date molasses; chorizo and potato hash; and fried jalapeño cornbread with avocado and a fried egg. And the King’s Cross branch has a sizeable outdoor terrace overlooking the fountains of Granary Square.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Weekdays only Timings (King’s Cross): Weekday breakfast 8-11.30am, weekend brunch 9am-4pm Address: 1 Granary Square, N1C 4AA | Visit their website –
See all our recommendations for brunch in North London
Granger and Co. | Chelsea, Notting Hill, Marylebone, Kings Cross & Clerkenwell
Bill Granger made his name as a chef thanks to his scrambled eggs. Head to the sleekly designed Granger and Co. for brunch, and you’ll find out why.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | All you can eat? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? No Timings (Chelsea): Daily from 7am (8am Sunday) – 12pm Address: 237 Pavilion Road, SW1X 0BP | Visit their website –
Roof Garden at Pantechnicon | Knightsbridge
An essential addition to your brunch bucket list: the rooftop restaurant at Pantechnicon, the five-storey hub of all things Japanese and Nordic. With a beautiful conservatory-style dining room inside, and a suntrap terrace running its length on the outside, brunch settings don’t come any more joy-boosting than this. Pick from meticulously-prepared Nordic dishes like Atlantic prawns with melt-in-the-mouth cured trout; baked eggs with Västerbotten cheese and rye flatbread; and beautifully light whipped berry porridge, then cap it off with cocktails – from Cloudberry mimosas to the fermented tomato Bloody Mary – and a miso salted caramel brioche…
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Breakfast on weekdays 9-11.30am, weekend brunch from 11am Address: 19 Motcomb Street, London, SW1X 8LB | Visit their website
Los Mochis | Notting Hill
Mornings at Los Mochis start with breakfast quesadillas (packed with eggs, bacon and chorizo) and huevos al pastor (chipotle hollandaise-covered poached eggs on hash browns with pork al pastor) and then end with bloody mezcalitas and micheladas – or you could do that in the reverse (possibly not advised on weekdays), which would put a different spin on the stroll through nearby Portobello Market afterwards… Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Daily 8-11.30am Address: 2-4 Farmer St, W8 7SN | Visit their website –
Peggy Jean | Richmond
As if brunch on the top deck of a floating barge covered with frilly pink parasols wasn’t enough of a draw, Peggy Jean – the latest addition to the Daisy Green family – has played a trump card with award-winning banana bread; pillowy-soft pancakes; and cocktails served out of a whole watermelon.
Details: Bottomless booze? Yes | All you can eat? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Daily 8am-3.30pm Address: The Boat, Bridge Boathouses, Riverside, Richmond TW9 1TH | Visit their website –
Beam | Notting Hill, Crouch End, Highbury
Run by a mother and son team, Beam is home to London’s most generous brunch dish: the colossal Mediterranean breakfast with grilled halloumi; egg; feta filo pastry parcels; avo; sausage; more feta; olives; feta; and harissa yoghurt cascading off the plate.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? No Timings: Daily from 8am, be prepared to queue at weekends Address: 103 Westbourne Grove, W2 4UW | 40-41 Topsfield Parade, N8 8PT | 184 Blackstock Road, N5 1EF | Visit their website –
Dishoom | Kensington, Shoreditch, Carnaby, Covent Garden & King’s Cross
A selection of traditional Parsi appetisers and modern South Bombay street-grills in tantalising sharing plates. And that bacon naan. Wow.
Details: Bottomless booze? No | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: 8-11.45am weekdays, 9-11.45am weekends Address: 4 Derry Street, W8 5SE | Visit their website
See all our recommendations for brunch in West London
Brother Marcus | Borough, Angel & Spitalfields
BM will ply you with dishes like fried chicken & potato rosti; brioche French toast with bacon floss; and stacks of courgette and feta fritters with a poached egg. Just like a good brother should.
Details: Bottomless booze? Yes | Set menu? No | Bookable? Yes Timings: Weekdays 8.30am-12pm, Sat 9am-4pm, Sun 9.30am-4pm Address: 1 Dirty Lane, London SE1 9PA | Visit their website –
Milk | Balham
Trust us, the queue outside only serves to
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