"I'm A Food Journalist — Here Are My Top 5 Salads In London"

Salads. You love ’em, you hate ’em, you wish you were the kind of person who ate ’em. But salads, in all their scandalised vegetation, are one of my favourite dishes on this green Earth. While sandwiches, dumplings and steaks are admittedly and obviously better, they are dampened by an absence of a side salad, a cucumber salad, a veg. So, I love you, salad. Here are the many ways in which I do.

As a person with taste buds and eyes, I cannot speak on salads without speaking on my tried and true, my most loved, most visited, most tested salad…
Mallory, Junior Food & Drink Editor

1. Best affordable salad

Pret a Manger, Humous & Falafel Mezze Salad

In a verbal callout to the office, I asked, “What would you consider to be a good price for a salad?” I was wondering if 8.50 for a pret salad warranted the title “affordable”. Several people, without knowing the context, said: “You can get a good salad at Pret for pretty cheap”. Unknowingly, they justified my affordable pick for favourite salads as being the falafel salad from Pret.

Pret, I might never buy your battery acid coffee again, but I’ll always be back for salad.

There are several reasons for this. One: it is very filling. Two: it is very reliable. Three: It is very good. The falafel is usually not too dry, the dressing is citrussy and enough to bring flavour to the spinach, the hummus is light and dolloped generously, and the pomegranate seeds round everything out with a bit of sweetness. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about this salad often and fondly. Pret, I might never buy your battery acid coffee again, but I’ll always be back for salad.

Where: Multiple Locations
Website: www.pret.co.uk

2. Best expensive salad

The Palomar, Cucumber Salad, Soho

At £14, it’s steep, but in a world of cucumber salads, it is one-of-a-kind…

I simply cannot stop thinking about The Palomar. Perhaps I’m a bit behind this bandwagon, but it is a room full of gorgeously, geniusly prepared plates. The cucumber salad was of specific and remarkable note. It is piled high with perfectly plucked baby cucumbers sliced just thinly enough to become a bit pickly but not too thin to eradicate bite. Crispy chilli oil and candied almonds tease the grooves of the molars, waiting to meet the green tahini dressing, which will wash it down. At £14, it’s steep, but in a world of cucumber salads, it is one-of-a-kind, with a bonus of a bowl of dressing waiting for the fluffiest, loveliest bread in Soho to mop it up.

Where: 34 Rupert St, London W1D 6DN
Website: www.thepalomar.co.uk

3. Best new(ish) salad

Brasserie Angelica, Winter Endive Salad, Fitzrovia

You’ll read it in my review, but Brasserie Angelica was a shocking home run in my humble opinion. Whilst there are many phenomenal places to get steak frites in the city, what I am still thinking about, months later, is the winter endive salad. Still, I am waiting for the perfect moment to recreate it, anxious for the possibility that it may be impossible. Endives lightly drenched in a dressing which turned Danish blue to a lightly melted, soft coating for the bitter leaves. Grilled pear and walnuts for good measure.

Read my full review of Brasserie Angelica
Watch our reel on Brasserie Angelica
Where: 49 Newman St, London W1T 3EB
Website: www.brasserieangelica.com

4. Best looking salad

Hawksmoor, Caesar Salad & English Lettuce and Herb Salad

One of the more iconic salads in the city, which has now spread its web across the world, is the Hawksmoor Caesar salad. I was lucky enough to be a young chef in a Hawksmoor kitchen, plating these salads by the hundreds, and not a day went by in that chapter of my life where I was not grateful that that was the station that I was on. The Hawksmoor Caesar is a benchmark in caesars: simplicity, tradition, consistency, with one of the most gorgeous lashings of parmesan in the game. A lesser-known salad in the establishment, though, is the English lettuce and herb salad. A butter leaf head with a simple lemon vinaigrette showered in shallots, mint, parsley, dill, and more and more and more. One of the loveliest, lightest, brightest bites on the menu. Get both.

Not a day went by in that chapter of my life where I was not grateful that that was the station that I was on.

Where: Multiple locations
Website: www.thehawksmoor.com

5. Honourable mention

Gails, Beet and Hazelnut Salad

As a person with taste buds and eyes, I cannot speak on salads without speaking on my tried and true, my most loved, most visited, most tested salad. Despite my harrowingly shallow pockets, I have tried all, yes, all, of Gail’s salads. I have come to the very easy conclusion that the beet and hazelnut salad is far and away the best salad at Gails. It is also far and away one of the best lunches you could gift yourself during a grim workday, breathing in mouldy vent air. If the feigned and stained purple fruit is not for you, the chicken, remoulade & salsa verde salad is my runner-up. But, in all honesty, it’s time to grow up and eat the beets.