Borough Market is probably the most legendary food market in London. With some of the best fresh produce traders in town, and the likes of Brindisa serving up their famous chorizo and rocket rolls, Gourmet Goat cooking up stews and Scotchtails bringing you the fanciest scotch eggs in town, it’s defo not just a place to pick up some veggies and fancy cheese. The Borough Market Kitchen, the communal dining area inside Jubilee Place, also features 25 traders with a mix of old faves like Horn OK Please, La Tua Pasta and Rudie’s alongside newbies including Mimo Pintxos Bar and Mei Mei by Elizabeth Haigh.
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LONDONHOODS
LONDON BRIDGE & BOROUGH
London Bridge is home to actual proper landmarks, like The Shard, London Bridge (not to be confused with the much more photogenic Tower Bridge) and Borough Market so it’s very recognisably London in a way that some of the city’s peripheral neighbourhoods are not. That coupled with a number of historical attractions in the area and the fact it’s right by the river means there are often a *lot* of tourists around.
Given that one of the world’s most famous food markets calls this neighbourhood home it’s not surprising that there are a lot of good places to go for a bite to eat. From street food inside Borough Market itself to a range of bars and restaurants lining the surrounding roads, you certainly won’t go hungry here.
With Taiwanese buns from BAO, natural wine and pizza from Elliot’s, tacos from El Pastor and European small plates from Flor making up just some of the food and drink on offer, you’re spoiled for choice too. And there are plenty of other gems further out from the market, stretching both deeper into Southwark and over towards Tower Bridge.
BOROUGH MARKET
BAO
Bao has been one of the biggest success stories of recent years, going from street food to permanent sites with ease and commanding regular huge queues around the block. With two sites in central London plus their other restaurant Xu, they’ve gone south of the river for the third site, opening up Bao Borough right next to Borough Market. The food is absolutely knockout; it’s best to order one each of all the baos including the fail-safe classic pork and beef short rib plus our personal favourites, the deep fried cheese bao topped with curry sauce, and the prawn shia song, a mini finger bun stuffed with prawn and a buttery sauce. Other highlights can be found in the ‘Grill’ section of the menu, particularly the Xingjiang Miatake mushrooms, which came swimming in an almost drinkable cumin-laced rich sauce. The spiced beef butter scallops are also a must order as well as the aged beef slices which come on a bed of Taipei butter rice, which is almost creamy like risotto (almost).
PADELLA
Padella serves up hand rolled pasta dishes in Borough Market and Shoreditch. The casual spot has a small menu, but it definitely delivers and THAT pappardelle with 8-hour Dexter beef shin ragu is the absolute dream. All in all Padella is great value grub, made with love.
MONMOUTH COFFEE
££
2 Park Street The Borough London SE1 9AB
OPENING HOURS
- Monday: 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
- Tuesday: 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
- Wednesday: 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
- Thursday: 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
- Friday: 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
- Saturday: 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
- Sunday: Closed
Monmouth has become a Borough Market staple which means it’s often busy, but if you brave the queues you’ll be rewarded with one of the best brews in London. They do a mean espresso but it’s the classic single cone filter coffee, roasted down the road in Bermondsey, that’s the winner here. Buy beans whilst you’re there so you can feed your Monmouth addiction at home.
VINEGAR YARD
Vinegar Yard is an eating, drinking, art space and shopping market located a stone’s throw away from London Bridge station. It’s the second site from the team behind Flat Iron Square and has both inside and outside space. Food traders include Nanny Bills, Baba G’s, Sugo and Nik’s Kitchen and there are a handful of bars, including two on the mezzanine, serving local beers, wines and cocktails. The Yard is also home to a range of resident shops and the weekly Flea vintage market, and it’s been fully winter-proofed with a canopy cover and heaters.
GRIND
Grind will have you hitting up the coffee-come-cocktail bar for more than just drinks thanks to their modern British dinner menu, with small plates like salt cod brandade with garlic crostini, smashed sweet potato, spiced nuts and yoghurt, and hot apple crumble sundae. As usual, Grind has all your coffee and cocktail needs taken care of, the signature Grind Espresso Martini is a real winner…it’d be rude not to have at least one.
BAOZIINN
To cut right to the chase, BaoziInn has some of the best dim sum in London. The all-day menu features a range of Cantonese style dim sum but mixed with a few touches from Sichuan and Hunan. Across the board, the dumplings are well made, fresh, and delicious so you can’t really go wrong… but we do have some top tips. From the ‘steamed’ section get the Fragrant Chilli Pork Baozi in Beetroot Juice Dough, and the Ruby Prawn Dumplings in Beetroot Pastry. From the Cheng Fen rice rolls section there’s only two options, but the Dan Dan ‘Chang Fen’ with Minced Pork and Sichuan Preserved Sprout was a winner, and you should definitely get a plate of the classic pork wontons. There’s also a whole other massive menu of noodles and street food dishes too,
LEGARE
Jay Patel (former Barrafina and Koya City GM) and chef Matt Beardmore (ex-Trullo) are the dynamic duo behind Legare in Shad Thames, which is all about seasonal produce, fresh pasta and low-intervention wine. It’s a simple understated space with white walls, an open kitchen and plain wooden furniture and benches. Keeping it simple is the order of the day in the kitchen too – think stracciatella with sobrasada, gnocco fritto, orecchiette with fennel sausage & cavolo nero ragu, and stracci with crab, chilli & pangrattato. All of this is complemented by a tight wine list of natural and low intervention bottles, mainly coming from Italy.
NINE LIVES
There’s a zero waste policy at this basement bar so when you’re knocking back the cocktails, you can rest assured that you’re doing your bit for the environment. What we can’t promise is that this will lessen the hangover but sip on the Tequila Don Julio Blanco, pistachio syrup, fresh watermelon and white balsamic Pink Flamingo and find out.
PATTY & BUN
Flipping out some of the sloppiest burgers in London town, Patty & Bun are famed for their juicy patties, neon signs and bangin’ tunes. You can’t beat their ‘Ari Gold’ with an aged beef patty, cheese, pickled onions, smokey P&B mayo, ketchup, lettuce and tomato, all in a brioche bun. Add in some rosemary salted chips, coleslaw & a couple of beers and you’ve got yourself a damn good dinner.
HAWKSMOOR
They’re all about the steak of course and if you’re looking to splash out on beef, there’s really no better place to do it. Alongside the steaks are all sorts of other goodies including beef dripping fries, lobster mac & cheese and THOSE ‘Rolos’ for dessert. Breakfast is naturally a meaty one, with a smoked bacon chop, sausages, black pudding, short-rib bubble & squeak, grilled bone marrow, trotter baked beans, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and HP gravy. It’s meant to be for two but everyone likes a challenge, right? As you’d expect from somewhere that dishes up some of the best steaks in the city, Hawksmoor knows a thing or two about knocking up a bangin’ roast beef dinner… and yes it’s beef and only beef here on Sundays. Rumps of beef are started over charcoal before going in the oven to re-create that traditional spit-roasted flavour and you get a nice, fat slice along with duck fat roasties, carrots, greens, roasted shallots and garlic, a big ol’ Yorkshire pudding and plenty of bone marrow and onion gravy to drown it in, and you will want to drown it because that sauce is something else.
SHUK;
Shuk; (which means street market in Hebrew) is serving up a taste of Tel Aviv in the recently opened Borough Market Kitchen. It’s all about Israeli street food, which you can get in fresh baked pita or as part of a salad box, made using produce from the Middle East as well as the market itself. There are four pitas to choose from – fish tagine with chickpeas & amba tahini, sabich with roast aubergine & eggs, spiced lamb meatballs with chilli yoghurt (which is our fave) and a lunch special of slow cooked beef brisket with cheese and pickled onions – think cheeseburger vibes. If you wanna skip the bread, you can go for a salad box by choosing from the platters on the counter, which include the likes of roasted aubergine with labne & tomato compote or Israeli couscous with dried tomatoes, courgettes & pickled mushrooms, and you can add the pita fillings on if you want something a bit bigger. All the pitas are under a tenner and they are properly filling too, not to mention way more exciting than a bog standard sarnie.
LUPINS
Lupins was one of our favourite openings of 2017 – so good we went back twice in one week and ate most of the same dishes again – and it’s still very much going strong. Lupins offers seasonal British dishes – think white bean crostini with anchovy and lemon salsa, Cornish crab thermidor, hake with Nnjua risotto and chocolate mousse with seasame and salted caramel. The bad news is it’s seasonal so your favourite ones probably won’t be there on your next visit (thus our repeats), the good news is they’ve never hit a dull note on any we’ve eaten so far.
BAR DOURO
The family behind Churchill’s opened Bar Douro, first in London Bridge and then a bigger site in the City, dedicated to Portuguese tapas, wines, and port. It’s a great place to pop in for a glass of wine and a few small bites such as crisp golden salt cod cakes; milk fed lamb rolls; soft octopus with sweet potato; and hake belly with tomato risotto. And if you swing by around lunchtime make sure you pick up the daytime-special roast pork sandwich topped with oozing Serra cheese.
BOB'S LOBSTER
BOB’s Lobster made the jump from stall to perm site with a wine bar and kitchen unit in London Bridge station. Naturally their famous lobster rolls are on the menu alongside the likes of baked oysrters, tuna tacos, lobster mac ‘n’ cheese and fries with mussel chowder. And with Bedales of Borough helping on the wine front this is one you wanna get your claws into.
NEAL'S YARD DAIRY
A trip to a Neal’s Yard shop is heaven for fromage-ophiles – and yes, that is the technical term. Neal’s Yard is mainly all about British cheese, but you’ll find the odd French or Italian variety on offer, too. The company kicked things off in Covent Garden – in Neal’s Yard, natch – but went on to set up two more shops, one in Bermondsey and one in Borough Market, so all your cheese needs will be catered for. And it’s all about the experience: go in to buy one cheese but allow yourself time to linger as the cheesemongers – all dressed in wellies, white coats and hairnets – can talk you through your decision, cutting you little slivers to nibble as you go. That’s lunch sorted, then.
CLO&FLO
Unit 3, Brandon House, 180 Borough High St, London SE1 1LB, UK
OPENING HOURS
- Monday: 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM
- Tuesday: 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM
- Wednesday: 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM
- Thursday: 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM
- Friday: 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM
- Saturday: 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM
- Sunday: Closed
Chloe & Florence Bellas first launched Clo&Flo in South Kensington, a studio that combines their backgrounds in pilates and hairdressing, and now they’ve expanded to Borough with a second, very Instagrammable salon. It’s a space where you can get your hair done, have a manicure and work out in a pilates session all under one roof making it perfect for busy Londoners.
3TRIBES
Unit 1 - 3, Brandon House, 4 Marshalsea Rd, London SE1 1LH, UK
OPENING HOURS
- Monday: 6:00 AM – 11:00 PM
- Tuesday: 6:00 AM – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 6:00 AM – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 6:00 AM – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 8:00 AM – 11:00 PM
- Saturday: 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
- Sunday: 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Crouch End based fitness studio 3Tribes has expanded south of the river, opening its third location on Borough High Street. The site offers the same hot classes as Studio 1 in Crouch End, including hot yoga and hot pilates, as well as the signature barre class you can do in Studio 2. What sets the Borough branch apart from the North London studios is the fact that it’s also home to flotation tanks. Floating is great way to relax and reset both mentally and physically; as well as providing time and space to meditate, floating has been proven to improve sleep quality and speed up recovery from injury. Now you can sweat, stretch and zen out all under one roof.
FLAT IRON SQUARE
Flat Iron Square is a street food market that’s home to a full line-up of traders, including Baz & Fred, Breddos, Ekachai, Bittenclub, Edu, La Nonna, Katsutopia, Laffa, Mother Clucker, Lupins, Bar Douro, Where The Pancakes Are, and The Gentlemen Baristas. The Arch and Apres bars have the drinks covered and also provide some shelter in case the weather takes a turn.
OMEARA
Set up by Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett, Omeara sits between Borough Market and London Bridge in Flat Iron Square, the development where music, food and culture come together in 7 railway arches. The 320 capacity venue hosts gigs and one-off club nights with headline shows from rising stars and intimate gigs from big names.
FLOR
Chef James Lowe and GM John Ogier, the team behind Lyle’s in Shoreditch, are also the team behind wine bar, restaurant and bakery Flor. It’s like a little sister to Lyle’s so the philosophy will be the same – quality ingredients from many of the same producers and suppliers – but the menu is different. Inspired by the pintxos bars of San Sebastian and Parisian buvettes, all the baked goods, including brown butter cakes, croissants and kouign-amanns, are produced in-house using British wheat milled at Lyle’s. The evening menu features sharing plates like smoked eel skewers, burrata with persimmon & chicory, jerusalem artichoke & taleggio flatbread, and scarlet prawn rice. YUM.
EL PASTOR
££
7A Stoney St, London SE1 9AA, UK
OPENING HOURS
- Monday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
It’s fair to say that when the Hart brothers, the pair behind Barrafina and Quo Vadis, announced that they were to open a new Mexican restaurant called El Pastor, people got just a little bit excited. Not only are they top restaurateurs but Sam Hart actually lived in Mexico City for many years, operating a cult nightclub El Colmillo, so he certainly knows a thing or two about tacos. El Pastor is under the railway tracks in Borough Market, a long thin room with high tables and a bar at the front, and a small dining room and kitchen at the back. Whilst you should start with some guac with chicharron and the tuna tostadas, tacos are the main focus on the menu and you don’t want to miss the namesake al pastor, the baja and the epic sharing short rib served on the bone and with a bowl of fresh tacos to roll up your own. BOOM.
CASA DO FRANGO
Forget a cheeky Nando’s, there’s a new piri-piri joint in town. Casa do Frango, which bills itself as London’s first Algarvian restaurant, cooks up proper piri-piri chicken grilled over wood. Alongside those spicy birds you can chow down on bacalhau fritters, garlic prawns, African rice and fries with pasteis de nata for pud (obvs), and there’s be a Portuguese wine list (a mix of well-known and natural varieties) to wash it all down with.
THE MARKET PORTER
Given that this pub has a prime spot on the edge of Borough Market, it’s no surprise that it’s almost always heaving with drinkers often spilling out into the street. There are twelve rotating ales on at the bar alongside draught and bottled beer and a short wine list. It’s a traditional old boozer and a good place for a pint, especially when you can get a seat.
SANTO REMEDIO
££
152 Tooley St, London SE1 2TU, UK
OPENING HOURS
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Wednesday: 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Thursday: 5:30 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 5:30 – 11:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 9:00 PM
Run by husband and wife team Edson and Natalie Diaz-Fuentes, Santo Remedio is one of the best Mexican restaurants in town. They’re famous for their grasshopper-topped guacamole but everything on the menu is legit great, especially the soft shell crab tacos, the beef short rib with mole negro and the churros. They shake up a great marg here too and if you want to get your weekend off to a flying start, their bottomless brunch featuring free-flowing said margs, is the way to do it.
ELLIOT'S
££
12 Stoney St, London SE1 9AD, UK
OPENING HOURS
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: Closed
- Wednesday: Closed
- Thursday: Closed
- Friday: 12:00 – 7:30 PM
- Saturday: 10:00 AM – 7:30 PM
- Sunday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Elliot’s is one of those restaurants that does the simple things really bloody well. Being on the edge of Borough Market means the kitchen has access to some of the best seasonal produce, with much of it cooked using their wood-fired grill and oven. Must-orders include anchovy toast, Isle of Mull cheese puffs and potato flatbread with Irish trout roe and sour cream chive butter. Fresh bread and pizzas, made from flour from UK mills, come out of said wood oven and with toppings like taleggio, sage and brown butter; pepperoni, n’duja, and gorgonzola dolce; mortadella, olive, and pistachio it’s no surprise that these are epic too. Wash all that with bottle of natural wine and you’ll leave very happy indeed.
TACOS PADRE
The Borough Market Kitchen Padre, Winchester Walk, Jubilee Pl, London SE1 9AG, UK
OPENING HOURS
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: Closed
- Wednesday: Closed
- Thursday: 12:00 – 4:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 5:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 5:00 PM
- Sunday: Closed
Located in Borough Market, Tacos Padre is the Mexican spot from hot Irish chef Nick Fitzgerald who earned his stripes at Pujol, Mexico City (on the World’s 50 Best don’t ya know). The stall serves some of the best tacos in London, including beef short rib suadero with morita salsa, cauliflower al pastor with salsa macha and lamb barbacoa with gauc, alongside homemade bottled sauces, local beers and mezcal margs.
