Towpath Café

Chances are, this isn’t the first time you’re hearing about Towpath.

Or if it is… just know that there is the most wondrous treat in store for you when you go for the first time. Regulars will actually be jealous that you get to have that moment of discovery (and by regulars, we mean the likes of Quo Vadis‘ Jeremy Lee, FKABAM’s Lee Tiernan and Keira Knightley).

Towpath sits on the ground floor of a warehouse-style building right on the edge of Regent’s Canal. It’s that lovely slip of London’s waterside that seems to be in perennial sunshine, where the flurry of people cycling or strolling past is balanced by a languid café culture where artists and bon vivants spend whole afternoons drinking and grazing. The shutters are only rolled open from early Spring until late Autumn, and there are worse places to spend the summer, watching the leaves turn golden brown and working your way through the wine list.

It’s all the brainchild of American-Italian food writer Lori de Mori and chef Laura Jackson, whose dishes here belong to the school of simultaneously refined and relaxed Modern British dining that London does so well. Dishes like roasted squash with dollops of ricotta and crispy sage; or smoked aubergine spiked with sweet piquillo peppers. Part of its seasonal, mood-led menu policy means that we can’t really tell you what’ll be scrawled up on the chalkboard when you get there, but just know that they are not afraid to serve you three entire bulbs of confit garlic on toast.

And you won’t be afraid to eat it.

NOTE: Towpath is now closed for the colder months, and will probably reopen next March. You can find out more HERE.

Towpath | 42 De Beauvoir Crescent, London N1 5SB

Waterside dining floating your boat? Check out London’s best restaurants by the river