The best dishes served in London in 2024, according to Time Out editors

Working at Time Out London isn’t a constant bacchanalian orgy of food, wine and sandwiches, but sometimes it can feel pretty close. This year our editors ate and drank our way around London with the giddy, golden retriever enthusiasm of Paul Mescal on one of his Hackney canal-side runs. 

We dine out so frequently, that we know a good dish when we taste one – and we don’t want to gate-keep. Below, we’ve identified eight amazing dishes we really, truly loved this year. Some are from London’s best new restaurants of 2024, others come from the city’s much-loved foodie mainstays and there’s a few pop-ups and residencies thrown in there for good measure. So, in no particular order, these are the best things we stuffed down our gobs this year.

The best things we ate in London in 2024

1. Scotched ’nduja olives at Sesta, London Fields

Funny looking, but heroically tasty things, these. Who’d have guessed that tubby, deep-fried nuggets of spicy sausage served like a scotch egg (but with an olive replacing the egg) would make for the ideal cocktail accompaniment? Sesta – which opened in September in the bones of much-loved tasting menu joint Pidgin – has head chef Drew Snaith conjuring up all manner of left-of-centre snacks that aren’t quite stunt food, but are, in the best possible way, unserious. Swede pakora and cod’s roe beignet might prick up your ears, but the scotched n’juda olives are the undoubted winner. Leonie Cooper, Food & Drink Editor

2. Chips bravas at Tollington’s, Finsbury Park

A good bowl of chips can make or break a meal. A crunchy palette cleanser or a sad waste of stomach space? At Tollington’s, a chippy turned achingly trendy tapas bar, you will be brought a string of near-perfect little plates (pintxos, tortillas, padrón peps with a slab of blue cheese), but your table will not be complete without their chips. Crispy, salty and fried in beef fat, they’re topped with intensely smokey salsa brava and a ladleful of aioli, and are served boiling hot, as a good chip should be. Chow down and burn the skin off the roof of your mouth, you won’t regret it. Ella Doyle, Guides Editor 

3. Chilli butter langoustine roll at Café Cùil’s Auld Hag pop-up, Angel 

When Auld Hag opened their brick-and-mortar Scottish deli at the start of this year, we knew there would be great times ahead. One of those great times was an evening with chef Clare Coghill of Café Cùil (formerly in Hackney, now on the Isle of Skye), who created a pop-up menu with foraged ingredients and Hebridean seafood. The langoustine rolls were an absolute stand-out: indulgent, garlicky deliciousness made with langoustine tails (caught fresh on the Isle of Skye the day before and transported alive to London), loaded onto a pillow-like brioche bun, slathered in generous heap of chilli butter and scattered with chives. Unfortunately, I’ll have to travel 636 miles from the Time Out office to taste these again, but it’s a journey I’m more than willing to take. Chiara Wilkinson, Deputy Editor 

4. Bombe Alaska at Midland Grand Dining Room, King’s Cross

This retro pud is one of the most joyful desserts I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. Here, a thick slab of tart blackberry ice cream meets its rich, almost-savoury-in-comparison, chocolatey counterpart. These are slathered in the silkiest meringue, which is then ceremoniously blow-torched in front of you, with the burnt sugar offering just the right amount of bitterness. There’s also a generous drizzling of glossy blackberry coulis. It’s hot and cold, sweet and tart, soft but charred – the yin and yang of puddings. India Lawrence, Staff Writer

5. Salt cod xo with labneh at Oma, Borough

Undoubtedly one of 2024’s finest new openings, this relentless buzzy Greek-inspired spot was also home to one of 2024’s most downright delicious dishes. A seemingly simple starter, Oma’s rich pool of silky soft labneh yogurt topped with a hearty dollop of crispy, oozy salt cod xo sauce swirled with dehydrated vegetables and a great big glug of oil was very much heaven. Leonie Cooper, Food & Drink Editor

6. Banana and cinnamon flatbread at FKABAM, Highbury

This iconic (terrible word, but justified in this instance) restaurant recently started doing brunch. So recently in fact, that when I popped in earlier this month there was almost no-one there. I imagine that won’t be the case for long, once word gets out about this thing. These days a hot dessert is a rarity in London, and this is one prepared and delivered with chef Lee Tiernan’s customary, eye-catching aplomb. Like every bit of bread that comes flying out of FKABAM’s oven, this is baking of the highest standard; light and fluffy yet substantial and flavoursome. The most over-powered, augmented and supercharged banana bread of all time. Joe Mackertich, Editor-in-Chief 

7. Burger at Whole Beast, Walthamstow

I’ll level with you. I am not a burger person. The bigger the burger, the more I shirk away from it. Towering meaty behemoths unnerve me. My ideal burger is a small slip of a thing. A six-bites-then-done proposition. Whole Beast, who are currently in residence at Exale Brewery and Taproom, have made a burger for people like me. That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot going on here; there certainly is. There’s an aged beef patty, bread and butter pickles, smoked bone marrow, tangy burger sauce, diced white onions and American cheese. All inside a soft, coy little milk bun. I might not be a burger person, but I’m definitely a Whole Beast burger person. Leonie Cooper, Food & Drink Editor 

8. Nancy’s caesar salad at Pizzeria Mozza, Fitzrovia 

It’s not often that a salad makes you want to weep with joy, but ‘Nancy’s Caesar’ is no ordinary salad. This deconstructed take on the classic dish is a signature of LA-based and Michelin-starred chef Nancy Silverton; a crunchy crostini slathered with pungent garlic aioli and topped with unctuous braised leeks, delicate slices of hard-boiled egg and fat, salty anchovies. It’s served alongside a glistening, immaculately dressed pile of crisp lettuce. I had the pleasure of sampling it when she flew over to London in the spring for a supper club at the London outpost of her Pizzeria Mozza, and I’m pleased to say that the James Beard Award judges and Chef’s Table producers who have sung her praises were right. The woman can really, really cook. Rosie Hewitson, Things To Do Editor