“Bake Street is an unassuming-looking cafe that is actually incredible. They do amazing cakes and pastries. They do incredible burgers, like a Bajan fish burger with Scotch bonnet sauce and fried fish, and a makhani burger, which is a chicken burger with makhani butter chicken sauce, which is incredible. They also do amazing tacos and make the tortillas from scratch. I think the owner has one of the best palates in the city, but he keeps himself on the down low. It’s the best café in London.”

“It’s amazing. It’s such a beautiful, light, and airy room. It’s incredibly well-cooked food, but again, not too fancy. They really care about the ingredients they’re using and the suppliers and farmers they work with, and again, the wine list is incredible. It’s more classically modern European food, often using just British ingredients.”

“Xi’an Impression is a Szechuan restaurant. Very casual, a great place for a quick meal, the kind of place where you can just drop in. It’s a favorite among chefs and people in the food industry. It’s BYO, you can bring a really good bottle of wine and have amazing biangbiang noodles, Xi’an burgers, and amazing cold tofu dishes and cold chicken dishes. It’s very relaxed and laid back. It’s not a big affair—you don’t need to book or anything, just roll up and have a nice time.”

“This cafe is in a really special part of East London. It’s right on the canal, and it’s not open in the winter. It’s literally right on the water, so you can watch ducks go by, watch people paddleboating, or watch the barges and boats go by. The food there is very beautiful—again, a modern European menu, lovely wines, soft-serve ice cream. It’s just a really beautiful spot to watch the world go by. Every now and then, you see someone fall into the canal because the towpath is so narrow.” 

“This cafe is in the middle of Victoria Park, which is a really beautiful park—one of the less well-known parks in London. When you read about London, you hear about Hyde Park and Green Park, but Victoria Park borders the canal and has a little lake in the middle, and the pavilion is right on a lake. They do amazing pastries, amazing bread, and really great coffee. You can sit out there on the boat deck and look at the water.”

“They used to have a residency at a different pub, so they found this old-timey pub that had been empty for a while and did a Kickstarter to start this place. It’s a proper old London boozer—nothing fancy at all—but the food is absolutely incredible, and you can watch them cook it in an open kitchen. The boys who cook have skill and a no-nonsense attitude—they use odd crockery, and they’re so popular, they kind of need to rush you out. It’s great. It’s real London.”

“This is my favorite place to walk in London. It kind of feels like you’re in the countryside when you’re actually in London. There are these huge fields, and it runs along the River Lea, and there are cows there. There’s a café right near to the Lea Rowing Club. It’s a greasy spoon, and it’s a great place to have a classic English breakfast and coffee or tea on the canal.”

“Elliot’s is kind of new on the scene, and it’s on a corner in Hackney that’s one of my favorite places to sit in the sun. They do amazing margaritas and really lovely anchovy toast. It’s a great place for a drink and a snack before you go off and do London Fields or Broadway Market. It’s just a really fun new addition to Hackney.”