The best brunch in London

Northern Thai barbeque might not be your first thought at brunchtime, but Khao Bird’s weekend brunch menu (served from 11am-4pm on Saturdays, 12-6pm on Sundays) really hits the spot. The most ‘gram-worthy plate is the daisy egg tarts, but standouts in terms of flavour included the white corn ribs (juicy, salty, and messy to eat) and the khao soi with Burmese tofu (a gorgeously spicy bowl on a really chilly morning). The restaurant is cosy, and if you bag a window seat it offers great views for people watching over Borough Market, all from the building which featured in Bridget Jones’ Diary as her iconic apartment.

Don’t miss: The doughnut bao – filled with cinnamon Bermondsey ice cream, this is the perfect snack to cool your palate after all the spice.

An utter gem halfway up the Roman Road, Mae + Harvey has quietly been offering one of the best brunches in London for a while now. Chefs Daisy Matthews and Joseph Morrisey keep the menu constantly updated, and, in our experience, never seem to miss. The cooking is consistent, confident and extremely tasty. Don’t let Mae + Harvey’s cool, loose-limbed vibe mislead you: this is fun food, prepared by people who have a tangible love for what they do.

Don’t miss: The chicken sandwich is legendary (and one of the only things on the menu that never changes). Masterful deployment of celery.

If you insist on carrying Friday night’s party into the next morning, we can think of no better place to do it than at FKA BAM. Head chef Lee Tiernan gleefully launched his iconic Highbury restaurant’s weekend offering at the end of 2024 and we couldn’t be happier. Running 11am-3pm every Saturday and Sunday, start your day loud, with pig cheek and prune donuts, Vietnamese scrambled eggs, and banana cinnamon flatbread.

Don’t miss: Add a borscht back slammer if you need to cut through the hangover with more booze.

This is a fun-injected brunch celebrating the sights, smells and tastes of the Latin America diaspora. Created for the queer Latinx community, Club Bodega takes place once a month at Taquiza, the restaurant under the same roof as the nightclub The Carpet Shop (the restaurant also hosts a Saturday bottomless Birria brunch every week). You’ll get a bespoke Latinx-themed menu from midday, before a spirited daytime dance party next door, with DJs taking to the decks from 2pm and the dancing continuing until 8pm. When I went down, the theme was ‘carnival’, featuring an absolute stomper of a soundsystem and a Colombian-inspired menu. I feasted on succulent prawn payacones slathered with avocado salsa and pickled onion, salty fried pork belly, plus the zestiest guac with totopos. This is authentic cooking that does not compromise on taste, but the atmosphere is what you’re really here for. Expect elated, cheerful vibes around the tables, before heading next door to for big tunes, reggaeton and all sorts of other sounds to get your body shaking.

Don’t miss: You can’t leave without tasting one of Taquiza’s excellent, interesting mate cocktails.

This is brunch, Thai-Americana style. Head to The Hoxton hotel in Shepherd’s Bush for the endlessly delicious Chet's diner, which serves up a sublime brunch from 10am-4pm every day. If you're after something sweet then there's banana french toast with caramel-battered milk bread, pecan pandan cream, condensed milk and maple syrup. Or try spicy chicken ‘n’ roti waffles, a hefty pancake stack with blueberries and maple syrup, or a spicy pork patty scone with crispy chilli oil, thai sausage, wok fried egg and coriander. 

Don't miss: Throw a five-spice cinnabun onto your order or live in a world of regret.

Akub, chef Fadi Kattan’s Palestinian restaurant on an extremely cute residential backstreet in Notting Hill, does a serious line in brunch. Fresh mint and sage tea, as well as potent Arabic coffee accompanies decadent bowls of fatteh (short rib for the meat eaters, aubergine for the vegetarians), oozy slabs of grilled Nabulsi cheese drizzled with nigella seed oil, cauliflower and corriander fritters and rich fava bean stew.

Don't miss: The barkuk baklawa with phyllo pastry, plums and pistachio.  

Claiming to be the ‘the world's first Nigerian tapas restaurant’, Tottenham’s Chuku’s is the place to go in N15 for weekend brunch. For £40 per person you’ll get three sharing plates from the restaurant’s regular menu – add on thoney suya prawns or lamb ayamase for a few quid extra – as well as three cocktails. There are also puddings of chin chin cheesecake, plantain waffle, or yam brownies available.

Don't miss: Chuku’s most popular cocktail; The Eze. A potent tequila, lemonade, mint, and zobo combo. 

Lucky, lucky ducks. Not only do the web-footed locals of Victoria Park have a gorgeous lake (complete with nesting islands and a pagoda), they also get to snack on some of the best artisan bread of any park café in London. Yards of outdoor tables and smoothly pulled coffees make this a lovely watering hole for humans, too. Calorie-loaded American and British classics are cooked in a straightforward style using flavourful ingredients, many of them brought in from Borough Market. Brunch is served all day, every day, from 8am.

Don't miss: Specials such as the Sri Lankan brekkie complete with dhal and hoppers.

Think all brunches are twee affairs with checkered tablecloths and delicate, genteel vibes? Think again. Painted pitch black and with its walls slathered in band posters, legendary Camden rock ‘n’ roll bar The Black Heart offers a wilder sort of brunch every Saturday. Alongside a menu of no less than five different Bloody Marys – each so richly stacked with garnishes that you could fill up on those alone – are entirely vegan dishes towering with pancakes, waffles and arguably London’s finest fake meat. And it’s that meat substitute that’s really worth shouting about: chef LD’s signature ‘mocken’ is entirely made in-house and, from its ‘skin’ to its ‘gristle’, it’s everything you could want from mock meat.

Don’t miss: The chance to combine LD’s towering Grand Slam and a ‘Hellvis’ Bloody Mary. A lot of food, but a lot of good food.

You can’t help but feel quite smug sitting in Kolamba’s airy little courtyard on a Saturday. While you’re sipping on a chilli margarita and tucking into boiled eggs smothered in turmeric and coconut gravy, you’re getting eyed by flustered Carnaby shoppers, not to mention the hungry hordes queueing outside Dishoom next door. No shade to Dishoom, but they’d do well to jump ship. Kolamba’s brunch offering is faultless and full of surprises: there are punchy Sri Lankan takes on toasties and avo and eggs, plus an extensive menu of meat, fish and vegetables (the pineapple fry, a perfect sweet-savoury union, is by far the stand-out).

Don’t miss: Aunty Mo’s ‘Chatti’ Roast – not a roast dinner, but a melt-in-your-mouth beef stir fry starter. To die for.

This serene Aussie-style café-restaurant is something of a quiet classic in this part of town. Come the weekend, the standard breakfast menu (lots of eggs and avocado, as you’d expect) expands into brunch territory with a host of sizeable salads and burgers, waffles and pancakes. A perfect respite from the hordes at Tate Modern.

Don’t miss: The breakfast stack – a gargantuan pile of ham hock and chorizo baked beans on a toasted bagel, with two poached free-range eggs and hollandaise sauce.

If your idea of a gentle awakening in the morning is a nice cup of tea while listening to Radio 2, you’d best go elsewhere – you can hear the sound of deep house coming through Milk’s open french windows before you reach the Bedford Hill site. The coffee provides a good caffeine kick, and the menu lists some interesting hot dishes, such as a fish sando with panko fried red snapper and a pork-patty muffin with streaky bacon. Seasonal dishes include the likes of summery beef tomatoes and crunchy kale salad with pomegranate dressing.

Don’t miss: A blissful banana bread with halva butter and pumpkin seed tahini.

Brunch lasts all weekend at this Islington hangout ft. a garden: the dishes on offer will induce stomach-rumbling indecision, the prices are great, the service is sparkling and the food is magnificent. The menu comes stacked with things like sugar-dusted, fruit-filled french toast drizzled with salted-caramel sauce and avocados on sourdough toast with lemon, rocket, nuts and seeds... basically anything your brunch belly could want is on there. 

Don’t miss: The ever changing special; at last look it was Mexican chilaquiles with roasted tomato salsa folded through corn tortillas, topped with sour cream and queso fresco.

A row of waving Taiwanese fortune cats and a large gold gong greet you as you walk through the door of family-run Tooting restaurant, Daddy Bao. Given they’re both symbols of wealth and luck, I have high expectations for the lantern lit, flower-filled spot’s brunch menu. As fate, or the chef, would have it, I’m not disappointed as we tuck into sharing plates of sesame aubergine, szechuan cucumber, spring onion pancakes with salted egg yolk and bacon chilli crisp, and chicken dumplings. Then it’s on to the main event: the baos. The shitake mushroom and beef brisket dishes are drool-worthy, but it’s the familiar yet punchy prawn toast royale with gochujang hollandaise – a Taiwanese twist on eggs benedict – that’ll get bums on seats. You’ll feel like the cat who got the cream.

Don’t miss Did we mention the prawn toast royale?

Stepping inside this pretty pink restaurant feels like a warm welcome home; colourful cloths cover every table, there are plush cushions and faux flowers, while quirky artwork lines the walls. On top of this quaint interior come bold flavours and innovative brunch dishes from the kitchen of chef patron Ravinder Bhogal, which span Asian, African and Middle Eastern cuisine. Feast on prawn toast scotch eggs, butterbean and chorizo stew, fishcakes with mint stuffing and spicy hollandaise, and a long list of quirky cocktails every weekend. 

Don’t miss: The light and fluffy saffron malpuas, served with pistachio ice cream, which makes for a perfect sweet treat.

Swap the mopeds for Lime bikes whizzing past on the pavement, and eating on The Laundry’s terrace is a dead ringer for brunching on a Florentine piazza. A former Edwardian laundry is now an all-day restaurant and wine shop. When it comes to brunch, try The Dirty Laundry stack – made up of hash browns served with a roulette of sauces. There's also sautéed mushrooms with poached eggs, served on sourdough and slathered in creamed cheese. 

Don't miss: In the drinks department, the cucumber margarita hits the spot.