After trying Common Breads’ musakhan manouche, we always have a niggling urge to stop off at this compact Lebanese cafe if we’re around Victoria. The tangy, sumac-heavy shredded chicken and red onion flatbread is a must-order. As is the lamb shawarma ka’ak, which is filled with tender slow-roasted lamb, pickles, and a creamy, smoky tahini sauce. Everything on the made-to-order menu hits the spot, and if you don’t get a tahini brownie for the table, you’re just going to have to go back.

Christopher’s serves the best french toast in London. Thick brioche with a soft gooey centre, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and melted chocolate—this is the reason you come here. But that’s not all this two-floor American restaurant has to offer. It’s got high ceilings, round tables with white tablecloths, and a menu filled with things like lobster mac and cheese, wagyu burgers (which is definitely an acceptable brunch), and a Texas grill complete with sausages and hash browns.

The theme at this charming Victoria bakery is ‘international baking’, which means you’ll find a selection of bagels, monkey bread, focaccia, ka’ak, and more. There are also inventive pastries like a za’atar and gruyère croissant. But the most important thing about this place is the excellent clay oven-baked flatbreads. Topped with delicious combinations like merguez and garlic aioli, or burrata and honey, these breads are what make this spot worth visiting.

Starting your day with peanut butter and banana-heavy french toast just because you can is what life is all about. That decision will lead you to places like Popina. This little Mayfair spot has scrambled eggs and all the other usual culprits on the menu, but there are some exciting alternatives that you should get involved in, like their house special ranchos with lime guacamole, green shakshuka, and raclette cheese melt.

Corrochio’s is a fun Mexican restaurant in Dalston that serves submarine-sized tortas for brunch, and, crucially, margaritas. If you’re with a group, we suggest sweet-talking the staff for one of the comfy booths. But on sunny days, the plant-covered terrace is the place to be. As well as the tortas, the chilaquiles should be on your table. The corn tortilla chips soak up the moreish salsa verde and come topped with tender shredded chicken and a fried egg that dribbles into the refried beans.

When you commit to brunch at Dobar, you commit to waiting in a queue. Whether that’s 10 minutes or half an hour really depends on how early you get there, but just know that there is always a wait at this walk-in only cafe. But it’s absolutely worth it for the XXL brunches at this Green Lanes spot. Whether it’s the hearty full English that arrives in a skillet pan, or the fluffy french toast covered in Nutella and fruit, this is the right way to start a Saturday. Or any day for that matter.

With Sunday, an all-day cafe in Islington, the clue is in the name. It’s the place to go for excellent, fluffy brioche french toast when you can’t be bothered to cook, wash away any apprehension about the impending week with smooth, frothy lattes, and have one last sleepy hurrah—courtesy a courgette fritter—before Monday hits. We’ve been solo and nursed a plate of scrambled eggs and with a friend—just choose someone you can trust to share the half portion of pancakes you ordered for the table.

If you’re a Stokey resident and you haven’t been to Esters then we’re about to change your life. If you’re from anywhere else, the same applies. Esters is a little cafe with a menu that changes daily, but is always very creative and very good. Think fried eggs with a fava bean masala, or an ice cream sando with a brown butter blackberry ripple. This is not your average brunch. It’s a no-booking, no-way-to-avoid-the-queue thing, but get there bright and early and you’ll be fine.

215 Hackney's manifesto should be “a friendly cafe for people who believe there’s life outside of avocado and sourdough”. And we'll happily go around Stoke Newington canvassing for them. The Middle Eastern spot takes London’s repeat breakfast offenders—bagels, french toast, jammy eggs—and adds a smear of tahini butter here, a chunky baba ganoush there, and liberal sprinkles of black sesame seed and sumac on every golden yolk.

The Allotment Kitchen is part of Stepney City Farm, and it’s the kind of leafy, fairy light-sprinkled oasis that draws nature-starved Londoners with the promise of aesthetic iced drinks. You’ll eat your orange mascarpone french toast sitting at a table fashioned from a tree trunk, as the friendly farm cat curls around your legs. The creative dishes are excellent—like confit garlic white bean mash with lemony leeks and crispy sage.

Bake Street makes brunch for people who wake up craving dinner. From the moment they open on Tuesday morning to their final crème brûlée cookie sold on Sunday afternoon, you’ll overhear Birkenstock-clad regulars deciding between which special to get, and change your mind five times as you get closer to the till. Let us help you out. Firstly come for the weekend-only specials. Secondly, do not, under any circumstances, leave without getting the smashburger or the Nashville hot chicken bun.

First and foremost Ozone is a bright and breezy coffee shop. But limiting it to just that feels like a serious understatement. Ozone Coffee and Food Emporium would feel more accurate. The menu ranges from miso granola and labneh to smoked fish nasi goreng. It’s pretty popular on the weekends and with harried-looking Shoreditch commuters on weekday mornings, so it’s all about timing.

Morito’s location on Hackney Road makes it feel like a neighbourhood spot, but once you’re inside, it’s immediately clear that it’s the kind of place that would murder the competition anywhere it opened. You’ll find a Mediterranean/North African twist on brunch, and it’s a good way to break the habit of standard avocado toast spots. The poached eggs with spinach and chilli butter is a must-order and the bougatsa—a Cretan filo pastry with fresh cheese, sugar, and cinnamon—is very good as well.

Proper, unanimous crowd-pleasers are few and far between—but the brunch at Mr Bao is one of them. Every weekend the Taiwanese restaurant in Peckham is packed with toddlers being placated with fried chicken, sparkle-wearing groups pausing mid-bite of hash brown bao to sing ‘Happy Birthday’, and those attempting to soothe sore heads with Cantonese scrambled eggs. Whatever the reason you’re here, the Bec Bao—char siu bacon, peanut chilli crisp, onsen egg, burnt cheese—should be on your table.

Unlike the tedious chore it’s named after, we can’t get enough of The Laundry. A perfect morning at the Brixton spot looks like excellent coffee and spicy meatballs on toast for brunch, a buttery, malty banana bread with honeycomb butter for afters, and then a restorative bloody mary on the spacious terrace out front. At some point, between eating comforting Antipodean-British dishes and admiring the mint green banquettes, you’ll realise you’ve been here for three hours.

Tashas is an all-day cafe, but this Battersea spot really thrives between 8:30am and 2pm when it serves breakfast. There’s a mix of proper hits like a sweetcorn scramble that’ll make you feel good about yourself, to creamy mushroom rigatoni that’s so satisfying it feels like a cheeky dinner dish hiding on a brunch menu. And if you’re a late riser, the spicy steak prego works just as well for brunch and is served all day. Inside, it looks like a Pinterest board called Beige Minimalist Chic.

A small Lebanese bakery slap bang in the middle of Fulham Road, Ta'mini makes excellent pastries. Their counter is full of freshly baked fatayer (a bready pastry with anything from minced meat to a tangy sumac-heavy spinach filling), and the menu of all-day manakish is perfect for a satisfying brunch. The bakery is bright and compact, with a small group table inside and a couple of tables out front.

In an area filled with excellent brunch options, this North African cafe on Balham High Road is the one that will have you searching for flats in SW12. A cosy spot that’s often packed on the weekend, this is the place to come for an excellent halal full English. Just about everything on the menu that includes the roasted seasoned potatoes is a winner, but stick with the full English with grilled mushrooms, beans, a halal beef sausage, halal turkey bacon, and scrambled eggs.

Juliet’s is the kind of exceptional brunch spot that makes us desperate for a condiment WikiLeaks just so we can find out exactly what’s in their 10/10 hangover sauce. On a busy stretch in Tooting, you can expect big, balanced flavours, top quality produce, and a sensational pork patty bun that is basically the breakfast butty in its ultimate form. The space is casual and a touch industrial, but it’s still perfect for a coffee date, a lowkey catch-up, or just soothing a hangover.

Milk is among the best spots for food in Balham full stop, as well as for brunch. There will be a queue at weekends, though staff will bring coffee while you wait and it’s a very nice place to sit outside and people-watch when it’s warm. Everything’s made with the same attention to detail that most restaurants reserve for fancy dinners—the banana pancakes with maple and pecan are killer, and even the sourdough with goats’ cheese and honey is something special.

Sometimes the brunches of London all merge into one big foggy memory of fried eggs. So if you’re tired of menus that appear to be holding a social experiment called How Many Ways Can You Smash An Avocado, head to The Apple Blue. This charming little Balham spot is home to dutch babies. They’re essentially an XXL vehicle for fried chicken that is part pancake and part yorkshire pudding. We promise this maple syrup-topped carb-fest will help you avoid any brunch deja vu.

In a leafy, residential part of Shepherd’s Bush, this trendy neighbourhood cafe has a bright, wood and rattan bakery-esque interior. Unlike a lot of brunch spots you can book ahead, or get a walk-in table fairly quickly. If it’s nice out, head to the back garden that feels like your mate pulled out some furniture from their garage. Our highlight of their brilliant brunch menu is the chicken schnitzel with caesar salad and a soft-boiled egg.

Akub is a charming Palestinian restaurant where brunch is the most important meal of the day. Mornings at the Notting Hill spot are wholesome, as the three floors of stone-clad walls and olive trees transport you to a courtyard in the Mediterranean. Brunch here is all about getting a spread: creamy labaneh sprinkled with aromatic za’atar, qalayet bandora (eggs in a rich, slow-cooked tomato sauce), and nutty cauliflower fritters with a tangy coriander tahini.

We always say we’ll stop standing in queues for things that involve eggs, but when we find somewhere like Tab x Tab, we’ll happily swallow our words. So much more than just a coffee shop, this Notting Hill spot has got some exciting brunch dishes. Halloumi sandos with the perfect balance of gooey centre to crispy edges, chicken thigh burgers that are tender and slightly spicy, and silky smooth oat milk lattes. The food is excellent and that pesky queue moves surprisingly fast.

Milk Beach will convince you that you're in a cool part of Australia—Manly Beach, say, on a warm day, with the sea winking at you in the distance—rather than down a cobbled street in Queen’s Park. First sips of blonde, frothy lattes lead to ordering plump, flaky croissants the same shade as the rattan light fixture bathing you in a fake golden hour glow. The food is excellent. We could go on about the strands of soft ham hock or the banana bread with espresso cream.