London's best street food

Some of London's tastiest - and best value - food is to be found in street stalls. Vietnamese? Ghanaian? Ethiopian? Find out where to grab the finest in these cuisines and more in our comprehensive guide to street food...

Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

Broadway Market
Rainha Santa
The whole roast pig is becoming ubiquitous in food markets, but this one deserves praise for ensuring our porcine pal was raised organically (and outdoors) before roasting. Marination in garlic, fennel and rosemary adds an Iberian twist – and it’s good value at £4.80 a roll. Finish off the Portuguese experience with a pastel de nata (custard tart, £1).

Ca Phe VN
We’ve recommended their unique Vietnamese coffee before, but they’ve recently teamed up with the family-run Banhmi11 to begin selling a superb banh mi – the French/Vietnamese sandwich we’re noticing more and more around the city (see our recent blog on the subject). Here, it’s made with own-made pork liver pâté, own-made pickled vegetables, cured pork, coriander and chilli, served in a baguette for an improbably cheap £2.50. If you’ve not tried one yet, you know where to go. There are a few rows of seats and tables on the street next to the stall to sit and watch Hackney go by, and on a hot day, a Vietnamese iced espresso goes down a treat (£2).

Broadway
Coffee lovers are also well looked after here – the outstanding Climpson & Son shop is usually packed, but on market days, buy one of its acclaimed espressos or piccolos from the stall outside the shop.

Il Carretino
A dinky little hand cart with a parasol, which sells Italian-style ice cream made in Hackney. There are only three flavours (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry), but the gelato is clearly made with love. Sprinkle chopped nuts over your tub or chocolate cone (£2.50).

Veggie Table
Up towards London Fields, on the left, the Veggie Table (also found at Whitecross Street) grills own-made vegetable/halloumi burgers (from £5) and also have big bowls filled with inspired yet simple salads, such as potato or cannellini bean (£4).

There’s also quite a bit of crossover up this end of the street with Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell – stalls which head to Hackney on a Saturday include Spinach & Agushi, Gujarati Rasoi and the Jewish Deli.
Broadway Market, E8 (www.broadwaymarket.co.uk). Cambridge Heath or London Fields rail. 10am-5pm Saturday.

Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane
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Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

Portobello and Golborne Roads

Spinach & Agushi

Grilled, Fried & Tagine Fish
Coming down Golborne Road from Westbourne Park/Elkstone Road, this is the first stall on the right (Friday and Saturday only). Perch on a stool and enjoy mini fish tagines, a platter of calamari, or a Moroccan spiced salmon steak for £5 – or walk away with a chermoula-fried sardine in a roll with owner Hmid’s special chilli sauce for £3. Next door is a burger van (Monday to Saturday), bearing the legend Moroccan soups written above the menu on the side, which is often surrounded by locals sitting and chatting. Try the spicy harira, or the milder strained lentil soup with a squeeze of lemon. Neither will set you back more than a couple of pounds.

Stalls
Along Golborne Road is an un-named kebab stall, a locals’ favourite, open Monday to Saturday, serving lamb, chicken or beef kebabs and some lamb kofte, all cooked to order on a large charcoal grill. These meats are served in a baguette with salad and sauce for £3.50. If it’s anywhere near lunchtime, expect a long wait.

Next door is a falafel stall – again unnamed – selling freshly fried falafels wrapped in flatbread with salad, chilli-peanut sauce and houmous. A small wrap costs £2.50, a large one £3. This is another Monday to Saturday stall, and another one where you should expect to wait.

Jerk Shack
On Saturdays, the space next to these stalls is occupied by Jerk Shack. This weekly stall opened following the success of a temporary stand at the Notting Hill Carnival in 2008. It’s proprietor offers jerk chicken, curry goat, snapper, rice and peas, coleslaw and fried plantain as well as sweet, sugar-dusted ‘festival’ buns. A hearty meal of curry, rice, coleslaw and plantain to take away or eat on the stall’s table costs £5 – gossip comes at no extra cost.

Ethiopian Cuisine
This newest of all the market’s stalls offers Ethiopian specialties such as the dahl-like lentil stew called doro wat, sour-tasting injera flatbread and lots of Ethiopian coffee. A full meal costs around £5.

Happy Vegetarian
After a run of fruit and veg stalls on Portobello Road, the first point of interest on your left is Happy Vegetarian (Monday to Saturday), which is another falafel stall selling similar wraps to the stall on Golborne Road, but with a larger range of salads and a shorter queue. You may pay 50p more because the market, like most things, seems to get more expensive the closer to Notting Hill you get.

Jollof Pot
Jollof Pot (Saturday only) outside the Electric Cinema. One of a small chain, it offers a range of Ghanaian stews, soups and rice dishes which are handily sitting in large open pans so you can get a good look before choosing. A small selection of rice and two stews costs £5 and is more than enough to satisfy.

Golborne Road and Portobello Road, W10/W11. Ladbroke Rd tube. Many stalls are there 9am-4pm Mon-Fri, but all are there for the main market on Saturdays. The market is open from 8am-6.30pm but many stalls set up late and leave early, so 11am-4pm is the best time to visit.

Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

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Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

Greenwich Market

Greenwich Market

Son of Pampa
At the market’s north entrance, one of the first stalls is Son of Pampa. There’s a hot grill on one side for Argentinian-style chivitos (barbecue sandwiches): they’re filled with imported grass-fed beef steak or free-range marinated chicken, chimichurri sauce and salad, and served on a hand-made ciabatta for £4.

On the other side, a little fryer is kept busy making fresh churros – deep fried sticks of dough, filled with dulce de leche (caramel sauce) or chocolate, rolled in sugar and cinnamon (£2). This colourful and bustling stall usually draws the biggest weekend queues in the market.

Sausages Ltd
A spicy Louisiana-style Creole sausage sandwich with roast peppers and onions for £4.

Goddards
At the far end of Fountain Food Court (near the Antiques Market) look out for this surviving outlet of the pie and mash business founded in 1890 in Deptford. Expect good-quality renditions of the traditional bill of meat pie and mash with liquor (£3), jellied eels and fruit pies – all at the loose change prices you’d expect for these age-old London victuals. Goddard’s is open at weekends from 9.30am to 6pm.

The Real Baking Company
Longstanding market favourite The Real Baking Company features picture-perfect display of beautiful home-made cupcakes and other sweet treats which start at £1.80.

Juicy Bar
Next to quaint Turnpin Lane there’s Juicy Bar, which squeezes combinations from its greengrocer-style display of fruit into a glass for £3.

Fountain Food Court
In Fountain Food Court there’s a few outdoor tables between small stalls offering cheap but rather undistinguished Thai, Chinese and burger bar-style options, although the recently opened Baguette & More deserves a mention for jointly pioneering the unusual banh mi Vietnamese sandwich (see Banhmi11, Broadway Market).
Greenwich Market, SE10 (www. greenwichmarket.net). Cutty Sark DLR. Food stalls open 11am-6pm Wed; 10am-5.30pm Sat, Sun.

Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

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Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

Exmouth Market

Simply Thai

Spinach & Agushi
Approaching Exmouth Market from the Farringdon Road end, the first stall you come across on the right is . This Ghanaian takeaway is one of the market’s best, as attested by its long queues at 1.15pm. Try the ‘small’ tub of jollof rice with two stews for only a fiver (the ‘large’ is very large). Jollof rice resembles a tomato-hued paella; the alternative carbohydrate is freshly fried plantain. Several stews bubble away on gas hobs right under your nose, so you just pick out the ones you like the smell and look of best – the lamb has a piquant flavour and spicy aroma, and there are at least a couple of good vegetarian options, including the delicious spinach and agushi (ground melon seeds).

Crepes
On the left (north) side of the street, is a crêpe stall that dates back to the French market

Simply Thai
All the usual Thai staples in plastic tubs for around £4.40.

Moro
This black-canopied tent, serves up a single dish that changes day by day – lamb kebab with Turkish salad; couscous, bread and own-made yogurt for a fiver; or perhaps aubergine, chicken and pilav rice.

Seed
A buffet-style vegetarian salad bar.

Gujarati Rasoi
One of our favourites, the appetising range of dishes is ‘pure vegetarian’ – no eggs, even – with a thali (£5.50) giving a choice of two curries with rice and sauces. They’re all good, and the snacks (samosa, bonda etc) are also fresh and well made. The Jewish Deli, with its prominent ‘Hot Salt Beef’ sandwich board. A traditional hot salt beef on rye with mustard and pickles costs £4.95, though there are also modern fusion oddities such as tortilla wraps filled with fish balls, or freshly fried chicken schnitzel. We’d stick with the fresh roast salmon on wild rice (£5).

Freebird
Easily identified by its Mexican flags, yep, this is a burrito place, and very popular, too, with chicken, steak, pork (‘carnitas’) or veg filling all costing a fiver, guacamole 50p extra.

Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QE. Farringdon tube/rail. Food stalls 11am-2pm Mon-Fri (though noon-1.30pm on Friday is the best time to visit, with the maximum number of stalls open).

Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

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Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

Whitecross Street

Veggie Table

Sawadee
At the north end of the market (off Old Street), a queue snakes around a single cart – Sawadee dishes out aromatic Thai curries, from your standard green to a mild massaman for a mere £3.50.

Ravello Italian
An outpost of the restaurant of the same name on Old Street, the array of pastas (£3.50 for medium and £4.50 for large) is enough to feed the 5,000. On our visit, we spotted some fantastic freshly cooked mussels to boot.

Veggie Table
Mosey on down and you’ll find that veggies are well catered for as well, what with the Veggie Table stall (also found at Broadway Market) across from Ravello selling some rather exciting veggie burgers – not your average hairshirt hippy patties. Choose from ‘heavenly halloumi’ (made with halloumi, carrot, courgette, fresh mint and coriander) or the ‘super veg’ (mixed veg, nuts and sultanas – totally gluten-free), both £5 with a side salad.

The Roast of Sharwood
Here they proudly proclaim to serve hearty ‘manwiches’ – fat slabs of ciabatta stuffed with slices of their herby hog roast (with fennel, garlic and rosemary). It’s £4 for a regular-sized bap; the macho eater can pay £5 for a heartstopping doorstop wodge of sarnie.

Hoxton Beach
Staff deftly roll up massive falafel wraps (from £3 to £4.50 depending on size) complete with moreish pickled radish, stained pink with beetroot juice.

Luardo’s
The most distinctive market ‘stall’ is Luardo’s, a retro turquoise van doling out larger-than-life burritos. The most expensive is beef cooked with chipotle (£5); add extras such as guacamole for 50p, or even chorizo.

Guarana
At the moment they serve rib-eye sandwiches (£4.50), though the Brazilian chef has been known to cook up a mean feijoada (pork and bean stew) as well as bake chewy pão de queijo (cheese buns).

Caribbean Food
Sells jerk chicken (in a wrap, or with rice and peas for £4 and £4.50 respectively)

Eat My Pies
At Andy Bates’s retro British stall you’ll find the likes of Thai red curry Scotch eggs (£3) and rare roast beef and Yorkshire pudding bap (£3).

Whitecross St, EC1Y (www.whitecrossstreet.co.uk). Old St tube/rail or Barbican tube. Speciality food market 11am-5pm* Thur-Fri; some stalls operate on other weekdays as well.

* Be aware that although the official opening times are from 11am to 5pm, we’ve found that most of the stalls pack up and leave soon after the lunch rush is over and the hordes have returned to their offices. We’d recommend getting there by 2pm for the best and freshest grub.

Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

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Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

Brick Lane, Ely's Yard

Dray Walk, off Brick Lane

Little Oranges
Owners Charlie Harvey and Danny Carolan May spend hours making their delicate Italian street food, which is ambitious and very different to anything we’ve come across at other London street markets. Try the crispeddi (anchovy and dill fritters) for £3, or the cazilli (little potato and cheese croquettes) for £3.50, or, of course, the arancini (‘little oranges’ of filled, deep-fried rice balls): two for £4.

Love Me Tender
It’s possibly the only hog roast named after an Elvis song (unless there’s a ‘Delicious Rinds’ somewhere out there), which does a great, herby pork roll with apple sauce and rocket.

De La Panza
Grilling prime Argentinian steaks for sandwiches (£4.50 for rump, £5.50 for rib-eye, and an extra £1 for melted provolone). It also does a sausage ciabatta (choripan) with roasted red peppers for £3.

Rootmaster
Not technically a stall (although being a Routemaster bus, it’s both mobile and temporary) this is a fixture of the market which has been serving vegetarian and vegan food for about two years.

Lipsmackers
For a quick sweet fix Lipsmackers provides freshly fried doughnuts for a wholly reasonable 50p.

Ely’s Yard, The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, E1 6QL (the market is just off Hanbury St). 11am-4pm Fri; 11am-6pm Sat; 10am-5pm Sun. Sunday is the best day to visit, as there are many stalls which are only there on that day.

Broadway Market | Portobello and Golborne Roads | Greenwich Market | Exmouth Market | Whitecross Street | Brick Lane

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