Joké Bakare’s modern West African spot in Fitzrovia is one of the most innovative restaurants in London. Its two-floor space is spacious and cosy all at once, with terracotta tones and tasting menus featuring spices and sauces you’ll want to mainline. Start with a spiced okra martini—the restaurant limits just two per customer, such is its oomph—before enjoying cloud-like sinasir topped with crab meat and egusi ice cream for pudding.

Home to London’s finest jerk pork and chicken, as well as Crystal Palace’s finest tarmac dining room in the shape of the big Sainsbury’s car park behind, Tasty Jerk is the must-visit Caribbean takeaway in London. The stripped-back interior is most notable for its line of perma-smoking steel drums behind the counter that are carefully charring sensational hunks of pork belly and ludicrously smoky chicken. This stuff is best consumed with your hands outside the door.

Few restaurants have both food and feeling that make you go all warm and fuzzy inside, but there’s no doubt that Kaieteur Kitchen does. Owner and head chef Faye Gomes’ cooking and neighbourly hospitality will have you coming back to the excellent Guyanese restaurant in Elephant and Castle again and again. Staple dishes like oxtail and curry chicken are delicious enough, but it’s the specials you want to look out for.

Sharing is caring and there’s no doubt you’ll be doing lots of that when you eat at Zeret Kitchen. The Ethiopian favourite in Camberwell has excellent options for vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters alike. Warming shuro wot (roasted and blended chickpeas in a hot berbere sauce) and awaze tibs (lamb chunks marinated in peppers and berbere sauce) are regular orders from our side, but whatever combination you get, you’re bound to enjoy tearing and scooping with their excellent injera.

Time is thrown out the window in Ikoyi’s world on the Strand, and course after course from its tasting menu will leave you hopeful that perhaps it will never end. The fine dining restaurant leans heavily on West African influences and spicing. But with its glimmering bronze walls and the overwhelming sense you’ve stumbled into a gourmand’s nuclear bunker, it’s safe to say that this special occasion restaurant is unique unto itself.

Chuku’s is a Nigerian restaurant in Tottenham that will make your jolly little mouth troopers—formal title: taste receptor cells—very happy. The red pepper zing of the moi moi makes it the ultimate dinnertime entrance snack. The suya rub on the prawns and meatballs is a masterclass in steady spice and nuttiness. And the caramel kuli kuli chicken is the kind of crunchy peanut surprise that will make you say “hello poultry legend” out loud.

Honey, I’m home. That’s what we think every time we set foot across the threshold of Maureen’s Brixton Kitchen which also just so happens to be inside Maureen’s actual home. She’s at the heart of this Brixton catering setup where golden deep-fried chicken is passed around and seductive smoke rises out of the jerk pan in the yard. When the weather’s nice, there’s some seating outside but even if the weather’s rubbish, it’s still worth visiting to try some of the most finger-licking chicken.

Wolkite’s godin tibs—sizzling lamb ribs with crisply rendered fat—is superb. Especially with a few spoonfuls of spicy awaze sauce and a cold bottle of St. George lager. In fact, it’s this combination that has got us through a few years of paying to enjoy distinctly less fantastic stuff at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium that’s a hop and a skip away from Wolkite. The Ethiopian restaurant is a true great little place making generous and delicious food that insists on big groups tearing at its injera.

You don’t go to JB’s for frilly service or a fancy environment. You go for one thing and one thing only, and that is the food. The best jerk spot in Peckham is an in-and-out kind of place, even though its portions are never anything less than generous. A jerk chicken meal here is enough to silence even the most persistent of monologue deliverers—the char is present, the marinade spiced and fruity, and the plantain a satisfyingly sweet accompaniment.

If Ewarts Jerk was one of our permanently-on ASMR tracks it would be called something wonderful like ‘Eight hours of continuous smoking drum, cracking tinnies, reggae medley’. Housed in a shipping container in Dalston, this casual Caribbean spot is serving some of east London’s most legit jerk chicken. Get the freshly rubbed, smoky wings and fall hook line and sinker for the perfectly rendered fatty chunks of pork belly.

We have no idea how the lobster tails at Trap Kitchen got so large and in charge. Presumably they’re hitting the gym twice a day and squat the juicy bang bang prawns in their spare time. The seafood at this slick and rum slushie-serving restaurant in Camden tends to be supersized and super satisfying. Outside of red banquette seating and intimate little two-person booths, Trap Kitchen is also home to London’s most glamorous accessory: disposable lobster gloves.

And the award for the London restaurant with the best name goes to… well, you can probably guess. Fish, Wings & Tings is a 'does what it says on the tin' situation down in Brixton Village. The fish is of the salty fritter variety, the juicy wings come smothered in a sweet tamarind jerk sauce, and the ‘tings’ include huge portions of curried goat and a potent guava rum punch. It’s a one-stop serotonin hit with casual service, reggae tunes, and bright multicoloured benches.

Everything about this rum punch party of a restaurant in Acton makes us happy. The Frankie Paul hits that blare from the speakers. The bountiful portions of bone-sucking curry goat. And the fact that the owners—Don and Donna—are partial to ignoring their own 8pm closing time to watch the football with you over a beer. Outside of its infectious warmth, Ku Sheng Peng’s scotch bonnet-laced sweet chilli sauce and crispy, deep-fried escovitch fish are all excellent reasons to return.

The Somali lamb shank from Brothers Cafe doesn’t need much help falling off the bone. Its proximity to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium means that collapsing is in its DNA, but the vital point of difference between these two things in N17 is that the dish at Brothers is actually worth travelling for. The lamb and rice are both fragrantly spiced, mixing star anise, turmeric, and cinnamon with melt-in-your-mouth fat.

Al Kahf is a low-key Somali restaurant off Whitechapel Road, not obvious to the eye and nor to Google Maps but a quick search will tell you it’s very much known about—and you’ll be able to taste why. Their lamb shank is so tenderly cooked that a cursory glance at it will cause the juicy meat to fall from its bone. Pair with a sharp whack of basbaas (Somali green chilli sauce), a tear of smokily charred flatbread, and a scoop of sweet and lightly spiced bariis iskukaris.

This great little Nigerian spot in Peckham Palms is one big jollof-sponsored party and boring, Pantone-fearing minimalists need not apply. The hot sauce is a luminous, chilli-red, the fluorescent bottles of Nigerian Fanta could stop traffic, and the sound of afrobeats and sizzling plantain is a musical collab we want to listen to on repeat. Our move is to slather the sweet, toasted agege bread with garlic butter and then move on to the spicy, red jollof with peppery beef suya.

Little Baobab’s signature slow-cooked lamb mafe makes us use the word ‘wholesome’ like we’re on a shopping spree for cottages and crochet patterns. It’s thick, nutty, and so hearty that you’ll forget you’re in a converted car park. On the fifth floor of Peckham Levels, this Senegalese spot is one of our London dining comfort blankets, complete with grilled chicken yassa, golden fataya, and of course, that must-order lamb mafe.

Known for being Rihanna’s go-to Caribbean spot in London, this Shepherd’s Bush takeaway has everything from fish tea soup, to curry goat and oxtail, and excellent Jamaican patties for £2.50 a pop. There are a couple of seats inside, but the move here is to get some jerk chicken (with extra sauce) and a couple of the peppery, warming meat patties for the road. You’ll always find a queue, but the wait is usually short and the food is definitely worth it.

There are a few meals that, when done well, are worth crossing London for. And the jerk beef Sunday roast at Guanabana, a casual Caribbean spot in Camden, is one of them. The perfect bite includes spicy, tender jerk beef, the edge of a crispy roast potato, a caramelised baby carrot, a piece of sweet plantain, and an unevenly cut corner of a yorkshire pudding that’s soaked in gravy.

Stork’s food is a pan-Afro-Caribbean feast. It’s all about old favourites with a unique twist. Stork’s put-together Mayfair setting is similarly sleek. The dress code is fitting of their west London location and higher-end price point, so put on your finest—everyone else does. That being said, the plush interior with soft lighting and modern West African art avoids any stuffiness.

Entering Kate’s Cafe in Plaistow immediately feels like you’ve walked into an aunty’s or family friend’s dining room. The space does away with unnecessary decor and keeps it simple, but the dishes are a deep dive into Ghanaian cuisine. Grilled fish is served with swallows like omo tuo, pounded yam, banku, and kenkey. Make sure Ghanaian stews like the incredibly rich, peanut-based nkatenkwan and abenkwan are on your table, plus rich, tomato-based red red.

A typical Eritrean meal waits until all members of the family are seated before breaking injera. And at Adulis—an Eritrean restaurant in Vauxhall that’s over 25 years-old—togetherness is in every single bite. The casual spot is a place for gathering and sharing—splitting sour, tangy injera and scooping zighni (a heartily spicy beef stew) or hamili (a garlicky vegetarian spinach stew) that’s both comforting and refreshing.