Comedian Derek Mitchell’s Guide to London’s Caesar Salads

The funny man shares his culinary obsession

O, Caesar salad: lush bed of greens cloaked in piquant, alabaster folds of hopefully mayonnaise instead of raw egg, pepper, lemon, anchovies, capers, and maybe other stuff whipped into a froth, dusted with a rock-hard cheese, commingled with (grating French accent) croutons and complemented with any number of sundries at the discretion of the chef. I love ye verily. And the ideally lightly charred chicken breast atop you. Sustenance. Manna. Elixir of the gods.

The great Caesar salad is one of my all-time favourite meals. It makes me feel like a lady who lunches, which is all I ever wanted to be when I grew up. It’s a classic that can serve as a dinnertime side or an anytime meal. I’ve travelled extensively sampling hundreds of iterations of its fundamentally straightforward – if surprising – list of ingredients. I’ve made it my business to become a Caesar connoisseur, and my heart skips a beat when I see it available on the menu.

I’m a comedian and am on the road a lot performing shows, and I find comfort in the Caesar’s familiarity, and adventure in the possibility of its reinvention. It’s also nutritionally balanced (I tell myself) and light – ideal for pre-show nerves and/or whatever cute little body image stuff I’m experiencing that day.

Putting together an hour of comedy is a bit like making a good Caesar salad. You must combine some obvious things, some surprising things, and some unpleasant things: like greens, anchovies and, historically, raw egg (for the Caesar) and jokes, characters, and being bullied as a teenager (for the comedy show). The unpleasant things should be hidden behind the other two things for balance.

According to legend, the recipe for the Caesar salad was developed for Julius Caesar himself. The legend, as they so often are, is wrong. The original Caesar was invented by Italian-American restaurateur Caesar Cardini in Tijuana, Mexico in 1924. It was the height of Prohibition when thirsty Americans flocked regularly to Mexico, and when faced with an ingredient’s shortage over the Fourth of July weekend (Yank alert!), chef Caeser whipped the salad together, which then still notably lacked anchovies. 

And, like all accidental trends, it spread first through Hollywood, then the rest of America, then the world. You may be wondering how London has embraced this now much-loved menu staple 100 years on? Well look no further, I’ve done the extensive research for you. Here are my favourite Caesar salads in London, according to a few different categories.

Best classic Caesar: Hawksmoor, Seven Dials

Hawksmoor’s Caesar is true to the original (though the dressing contains anchovies) and it’s delicious. I tried it because people on Reddit told me to and they, like people on Reddit often seem to be, were correct (oh god, do I live in an echo chamber?).

Original touch: Doddington cheese (Northumberland) instead of parmesan.

Most frustrating Caesar: Heddon Street Kitchen, Mayfair

This brings me to my first call-out, which pains me as I am a pacifist. But the restaurant is owned by Gordon Ramsay, so I’m sure they’re open to shoutey feedback rooted in a do-or-die passion for the quality of the food. 

Heddon Street’s Caesar is beautiful. It’s balanced, the dressing is exquisite, and the serving size is ample. However, I feel very passionately that anchovies – an ingredient that in fact married into the Caesar family, lest we forget – must be tasted ever so slightly, and never seen. 

As a born-and-raised American who has lived on this side of the Atlantic for half of my life, let me tell you this: all Americans will scream in horror when they see a whole anchovy in their Caesar because they know, culturally, this is simply not how it works. (Of course they will also scream for any number of reasons because this is their primary mode of communication.)

To me, full-blown anchovy in the Caesar is like a pizza chef serving you a pizza with a handful of flour on top. “We used flour for the pizza dough! So we also put a bunch on top here, too. Buon appetito.” No. This is not artful. This disrupts sweet Caesar’s divine symmetry. It’s a hint of anchovy we’re looking for! And I believe that Caesar artists across the UK and the Continent should take note because I have to tell you, I am seeing it far too much. 

Original touch: toasted parmesan crust makes for a gorgeous, smokey profile – unfortunately overpowered by the anchovy.

Best American-style Caesar: Hard Rock Cafe, Piccadilly Circus

This will surely be controversial because in this day and age, who wants anything to be American-style? Hardly this born-and-raised American. What’s more, it’s not often that someone puts the Hard Rock Cafe on their list of culinary picks of anything other than enormous margaritas that you can sip beside a crop top Rihanna wore at Wembley in 2009.

Hear me out. This Caesar is to die for and it’s a meal. You will have some to take home (probably, and if you don’t, go you)! So there’s real bang-for-your-buck quality here to be sure. This is also a good opportunity to mention that another way in which the Caesar is versatile is how easily it can be paired with a crisp Pinot Grigio or Sauvingon Blanc if that’s the vibe. If not? Honey, grab a sugar free cola why dontcha. Both will be refreshing and delicious and the fountain drinks at Hard Rock are, in that great American tradition, bottomless.

Honourable mention: Tiktokker @joeshw has also taken on the deeply noble task of locating the best Caesar salads in London, and he rates Italian-American style Grasso in Soho highly. I tried it and agree! But also agree with his review that there are ‘too few accoutrements – just the lettuce and chicken.’

Best bang-for-your-buck Caesar: It’s All Greek To Me, Paddington

The beauty of this dish also has to do with its simplicity: its advent was accidental, available ingredients mixed together resulting in a haphazard classic beloved by, I want to believe, billions. It’s fitting and important you be able to get your hands on a good Caesar at a realistic price.

Look no further than the Caesar salad – priced at just £8 – at this fabulous little Greek joint in Paddington. They’ve got lots of great Greek chicken preparations on their menu and a range of gorgeous Greek-style salads. So the Caesar seems at first a bit of an outlier. But as one TripAdvisor reviewer puts it, it’s “one of the best chicken caesar salads ever”.

This is I think down to the dressing, which strikes the tricky balance between richness and sharpness. It doesn’t overpower. It beautifully complements the salad’s other components, notably (compared to the others on this list), the many succulent tomatoes – a truly Greek touch. 

Honourable mention: Nando’s – I’m serious. It’s delicious and comes in at £8.75. And you’ve got the option to select your sauce for the chicken, a novel addition to the Caesar tradition. I eat a lot of this on the road.

Best vegan Caesar: Unity Diner, Spitalfields

Sometimes a vegan imitation tastes like an imitation. And sometimes it strikes on something radically new. Whether or not you’re full-time with your veganism, there’s absolutely lots everyone can love about Unity Diner’s take on the sacred salad.

It’s down to a perfect interpretation of the dressing sans egg products – I could not detect any difference, and there was something delicious and peppery about the dressing. But the piece de resistance here is the substitution of rich seared tempeh for chicken. It’s a filling, protein-rich meal that will leave you wondering whether it’s time to scrap chicken for good. Utterly delicious.

Original touch: cornbread croutons!

My favourite Caesar: Carlotta, Marylebone

I’m not a traditionalist. I’m a ‘I like it all mixed together-ist.’ Through the years (2024 was the Caesar Centennial, how did you observe it?) the elements of the Caesar salad have been examined, upturned, and revolutionised – indeed at some point someone said “it’s missing fish!” That is the Caesar spirit that I adore: in with the old and also the new, in a fun way! (Should I become a politician?) 

A friend recommended the salad at Carlotta, mentioning that the breaded chicken is great. I will (bravely) go on record stating I don’t always love breaded chicken in a Caesar! It can overwhelm and prevent the salad from telling her story. But Carlotta have hit the sweet spot here: all ingredients are balanced perfectly. The dressing is light and balanced, and the greens are fresh. 

This Caesar’s story is one of an exquisite afternoon with great company. Or a date night. A light meal, or a heavy snack solo while reading a Victorian novel, or maybe Zadie Smith. With a splash of white or a sip of cola. I’m in heaven at Carlotta, and I can’t wait to go again. But first I have some shows to do.

Original touch: prosciutto and light spice in the breading on the chicken.

Derek Mitchell is touring the UK and Ireland with his standup show Double Dutch from 28th February through the spring, and will be coming to Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Oxford, Sheffield, Manchester, Brighton and Dublin. He’ll also do a run of both Double Dutch and his narrative character show Goblin for a week at the Soho Theatre in London from 10th March.

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