5 surprisingly delicious insect dishes you can try in London

The folk at Old Street bar Nightjar know a thing or two about quirky cocktails and they don’t come much more eccentric than this concoction. The classic Grasshopper is a mint-flavoured, bright green cocktail, named after its colour. But Nightjar takes it to the next level with an actual grasshopper balanced carefully on top. Creepy crawlies aside, this sweet, rich drink has comforting chocolate, carob, date and pistachio notes mixed with a refreshing punch of pisco. The crunchy bugs come in salt and vinegar, and chilli flavours – an ideal contrast to the velvety, sweet liquid below.

£12

Walk down the bustling streets of Bangkok and you’ll find plenty of market stalls piled high, pick ’n’ mix-style, with crispy deep-fried creepy-crawlies. Originally founded in the Thai capital, Fitzrovia fusion joint Greyhound Café has brought a taste of its home country’s incredible street food to its London outpost. Deep-fried silkworm pupae come served in a cute side dish beside a pile of wispy greens and glass jar of soy wasabi dressing in this take on a green salad. Whack it all together and think of the chestnut-brown bugs – brittly crisp on the outside and soft like gnocchi inside – like a kind of crouton. It’s a tongue-tingling Thai tapestry of tastes and textures. Try saying that through a mouthful of silkworms. 

£9.50

Decked out with fertility idols and giant peacock feathers, Fitrovia’s Archipelago looks straight out of Indiana Jones and has a menu to rival any dinner party in ‘The Temple of Doom’. Take its Summer Nights dish: pan-fried crickets are dotted over a vibrant swipe of chermoula butter, giving the nutty insects a warm, earthy edge. Game for more grubs? Pair it with the Love Bug Salad, a mix of leaves, spicy guindilla dressing, locusts, crickets and mealworms. Or, if you’re down for eating insects but can’t get over the fact that they look like, um, insects – try the locusts for dessert: they’re dipped in dark, milk and white chocolate.

Summer Nights, £10. Love Bug Salad, £7.50. Chocolate-covered Locusts, £8.

If the idea of eating creepy-crawlies fills you with dread then rest assured you’re in good culinary hands at Café Lao, London’s first Laotian restaurant, whose head chef Saiphin Moore co-founded Rosa’s Thai Café. She works her magic on this mushroom curry, which comes with the optional addition of ant eggs (gotta get those protein #gains somehow). The tiny pearlescent grubs, which look like rice, are served in a punchy aromatic broth. If you’d rather ease yourself in with a snack, order a side of Malang Tod: herb-fried seasonal bugs (grasshoppers, crickets and mealworms are the usual suspects) – way more interesting than prawn crackers, right?

£11, add ant eggs for £2. Malang Tod, £3.75.

Mexico is home to more edible insects than any other country, which means the locals are pretty au fait with eating bugs – and this dish is as patriotic as they come. Its creamy green guacamole, white queso fresco and red pomegranate seeds represent the colours of the Mexican flag and bang in the centre of it all is a glistening gold grasshopper. Chefs prepare the bug by toasting it with a small dash of mezcal before spraying it with edible gold paint. After being left to dry for three hours it’s ready to eat and has the texture of a particularly crunchy crisp – y’know, if crisps were gold (and made of insects). 

£8.