The 10 Best Brunch Spots in London

London's brunch scene has evolved far beyond the full English, though a proper fry-up is still sacred. The city now offers everything from Japanese-inflected morning menus to Middle Eastern spreads, often in spaces that feel more like gallery openings than restaurants. These are the ten spots worth setting an alarm for on a Saturday.

If it is the fry-up you actually want, skip the brunch rooms entirely. Regency Cafe in Pimlico has been open since 1946, still shouts your order across the room, and does a full English for well under a tenner. E. Pellicci on Bethnal Green Road has been in the same family since 1900, and its 1946 marquetry interior is Grade II listed, which makes it the only greasy spoon in Britain with statutory protection. Neither takes bookings.

Dishoom, with locations across the city, serves a Bombay-style brunch that includes bacon naan rolls and a black daal that has been simmering for 24 hours. The King's Cross location in a converted Victorian transit shed is atmospheric enough to make the inevitable queue worthwhile. Get there before 10 AM or accept your fate.

The Wolseley on Piccadilly offers a more classic European experience. Housed in a grand former car showroom, the kedgeree and eggs Benedict are impeccable, and the service feels like old-school London without the stuffiness. It is where you go when you want brunch to feel like an occasion rather than a casual Saturday.

The logistics matter more than the menus at weekends. Dishoom does not take small bookings for breakfast and stops serving it before midday, so either arrive at nine or go on a Tuesday. The Wolseley opens at seven on weekdays, which makes it the rare grand room you can walk into without a plan. And Duck and Waffle, on the 40th floor of Heron Tower, runs 24 hours, so the table nobody can get at noon is empty at six in the morning.

Ottolenghi's Spitalfields location remains a must for its vegetable-forward plates. The shakshuka and the roasted aubergine with pomegranate are standouts. NOPI, Ottolenghi's sit-down restaurant on Warwick Street, takes things further with dishes like green eggs made with herbaceous zhug.

For something more casual, Atis in Brixton serves a Nigerian-British fusion brunch that includes jollof risotto and suya-spiced eggs. Pavilion Café in Victoria Park offers sourdough toasts and excellent flat whites in a lakeside setting that feels impossibly charming. And Sunday in Barnsbury does precisely one thing: a perfect Sunday lunch as brunch, with roasts and Yorkshire puddings that justify the name.

Bottomless brunch is a trap with a timer on it. The standard deal runs £35 to £45 for 90 minutes or two hours of prosecco, which means being sold a sparkling wine you would never otherwise order, at speed, against a clock. If the drink is the point, most of these places pour a good Bloody Mary for £12. If the food is the point, book a normal table and keep the £30.

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