The Ultimate Guide For Where To Eat In Borough Market
Borough Market is one of London’s greatest places to eat, but with queues around corners and an overwhelming number of options, knowing where to spend your appetite matters. Beyond the stalls of cheese, bread and produce, there are Michelin-starred restaurants, some of London’s best tacos, Sri Lankan curries, Persian kebabs and oysters shucked while you wait. These are the Borough Market restaurants and food stalls actually worth navigating the crowds for.
The Ginger Pig
You could grab one of The Ginger Pig’s cult sausage rolls and continue your lap of the market, but if you have a little more time, the Borough Market butcher has launched a new Steak & Wine Experience that turns lunch or dinner into something of an education. Hosted by butcher Benny ‘The Meat Maestro’, the two-hour session takes just 12 guests through five cuts, from fillet and prime rib to onglet and feather blade, cooked in front of you and served on sharing boards. Tickets are £95 and include Koffmann’s chips, salad, condiments and, importantly, free-flowing Lirac red wine.
Where: 122-124 Druid Street, London, SE1 2HH
Website: www.thegingerpig.co.uk
Kismet
One of Borough’s newest additions sits upstairs from The Globe Tavern. Kismet comes from restaurateur Dom Hamdy and chef Keiran Mustafa, taking its cues from the meyhanes of Istanbul and Northern Cyprus. The menu arrives in waves of meze and mangal-grilled meat: think Atom yoghurt with chilli butter, fried lamb liver and beautifully charred kebabs, with plenty of rakı alongside. Dark wood, lace curtains, Turkish music and the occasional live set make it feel a world away from the market downstairs.
Where: Upstairs at The Globe Tavern 8 Bedale St — London
Website: www.kismet.london
Rambutan
Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s Rambutan is one of the restaurants that made Borough Market feel exciting again. Her cooking draws heavily on her Tamil heritage and the food of northern Sri Lanka, with ingredients sourced both from Sri Lanka and the market surrounding the restaurant. Go with enough people to cover the table in creamy coconut dal, sambols, curries and slow-braised black pork, then order plenty of rice and bread to get at everything left behind. Walk-ins are welcome too.
Where: 10 Stoney St, London SE1 9AD
Website: www.rambutanlondon.com
Some of the best, most interesting food London has to offer. A portal into Sri Lankan cuisine.
Mallory, Junior Food & Drink Editor
El Pastor
El Pastor has become a Borough institution in its own right. The original taqueria sits underneath the railway arches on Stoney Street, serving tacos inspired by founders Sam and James Hart’s time in Mexico. Order several for the table rather than attempting restraint, add guacamole, tostadas and a Margarita or mezcal, and settle into the noise. It’s particularly good when the market itself has started winding down but you’re nowhere near ready to go home.
Where: 7A Stoney St, London SE1 9AA
Website: www.tacoselpastor.co.uk
Agora
Downstairs from OMA is its louder, more casual little sister. David Carter’s AGORA takes inspiration from the street markets of Athens, with an enormous charcoal rotisserie turning at the centre of the restaurant and flatbreads coming from the wood-fired oven. Order spicy feta, hummus and hot crisps before moving onto pork souvlaki, lamb kebabs and whatever is rotating over the coals. It’s primarily walk-in too, making this one of my favourite options when Borough is busy and you haven’t thought remotely far enough ahead.
Where: 4 Bedale St, London SE1 9AL
Website: www.agora.london
Agora has been my go-to restaurant for years. It’s such good value for a place I consider top-tier in London. Everything is amazing, from their hummus topped with crispy potato chips to their spicy marg!
Caitlin, Senior Campaign Success Manager
Oma
Head upstairs from AGORA and things get a little more serious. OMA was awarded a Michelin star for its Greek-inspired cooking, with a menu that moves around Greece and the wider eastern Mediterranean while making very good use of the produce available downstairs in Borough Market. Flatbreads are a particular strength, but this is somewhere to order widely: dips, crudo, seafood, meat from the grill and plenty in between. Grab a counter seat if you can and watch the kitchen at work.
Where: 2-4 Bedale St, London SE1 9AL
Website: www.oma.london
Trivet
Technically a few minutes beyond the market itself, but two Michelin stars earn you a little geographical flexibility. Trivet comes from chef Jonny Lake and Master Sommelier Isa Bal, formerly of The Fat Duck, and combines seriously accomplished cooking with one of London’s most interesting wine programmes. Unlike plenty of restaurants operating at this level, there’s an à la carte menu for both lunch and dinner, and an adjoining wine bar if you simply want a very good glass and something to eat.
Where: 36 Snowsfields, London SE1 3SU
Website: www.trivetrestaurant.co.uk
Brother Marcus
For brunch around Borough, Brother Marcus is one of the easier answers. The Borough Yards restaurant sits underneath the railway arches with a terrace outside and serves its Eastern Mediterranean-inspired menu from breakfast onwards. Its Rip & Dips — fluffy pita with homemade dips — should probably hit the table whatever time you arrive, before moving onto mezze and larger sharing plates. If choosing sounds exhausting, Marcus’ Choice hands the ordering over to the kitchen for £42 per person.
Where: 1 Dirty Ln, London SE1 9PA
Website: www.brothermarcus.co.uk
Bar Daskal
Come here when you’ve finished eating but aren’t quite ready to leave Borough. Bar Daskal is the Hart brothers’ intimate Spanish bar in Borough Yards, inspired by their grandfather, artist Vladimir Daskaloff, and the family’s summers in Mallorca. The walls are covered with his paintings and sketches, while the menu sticks to things you actually want with a drink: jamón, Spanish cheeses, tortilla and gildas. The wine list is entirely Spanish, backed up by sherry, vermut and cocktails.
Where: 16 Park St, London SE1 9AB
Website: www.bardaskal.co.uk
Berenjak
Berenjak’s Borough outpost is bigger than the Soho original but retains the same wonderfully convivial approach to Persian food. Chef Kian Samyani takes inspiration from the large family gatherings of his childhood, so bring people and share. There are mazeh to start, followed by Persian stews and charcoal-grilled kababs, including lamb fillet with ta-dig and saffron chicken with sweet-and-sour barberries.
Where: 1 Bedale St, London SE1 9AL
Website: www.berenjak.com
My top menu rec at Berenjak is the dips. Specifically, the kashk e bademjoon (coal-cooked aubergine) for a savoury start to the meal and mast o khiar (cucumber and yoghurt) for something more refreshing.
Natasha, Digital Editor
Camille
Camille is one of those restaurants that feels as though it has been transported from a French side street and dropped onto Stoney Street. From the team behind Ducksoup and Little Duck, chef Elliot Hashtroudi’s menu changes constantly according to what’s in season, with British ingredients put through a distinctly French lens. Expect things like Toulouse sausage, tartare, turbot and excellent offal alongside baguette and butter, oysters and a bottle of wine. Simple on paper, very good on the plate.
Where: 2-3 Stoney St, London SE1 9AA
Website: www.camillerestaurant.co.uk
Bread Ahead
You can smell Bread Ahead before you reach it, which is perhaps the best advertising a bakery could ask for. Its Borough Market bakery turns out sourdough, filled croissants and plenty of sweet bakes, but the doughnuts are the thing that have achieved near-institution status. They’re generously filled, unapologetically messy and best eaten immediately while walking around the market pretending you aren’t about to buy another lunch.
Where: Borough Market, Cathedral St, London SE1 9DE
Website: www.breadahead.com
Nanna Fanny’s
For something considerably less delicate, head to Nana Fanny’s for a salt beef bagel. Ivan Lester’s family has been in the salt beef business since 1944, and the stall piles its soft pink beef into bagels or rye bread with thick pickles and properly sharp mustard. There are latkes, schnitzels and falafel too, but on a first visit I wouldn’t overcomplicate things. Get the salt beef.
Where: The Borough Market Kitchen Jubilee Place, Winchester Walk, London SE1 9AG
Website: www.nanafannys.co.uk
Richard Haward’s Oysters
If you’re going to eat oysters standing in the middle of a market, they should probably come from a family that has been farming them for generations. The Hawards have been harvesting oysters around Mersea Island for centuries, with their Borough stall serving Colchester natives and rock oysters from the family’s beds. Get them shucked in front of you, add lemon and hot sauce if you fancy it, and eat them there and then.
Where: 35 Stoney St, London SE1 9AA
Website: www.richardhawardsoysters.shop
Oroshi
Borough Market has plenty of things designed to be eaten on the move, but Oroshi’s Japanese robatayaki makes a particularly good lunch. High-quality vegetables, meat and fish — much of it sourced from traders around the market — are marinated, threaded onto skewers and grilled before being served alone or in bento boxes with rice, pickles and seasonal salads. There are seats at the bar if you want to stay put, where you might also find snacks like gyoza, tempura or whelk fritters.
Where: Borough Market Kitchen, Oroshi, Winchester Walk, London SE1 9AG
Website: www.boroughmarket.org.uk
