London's best street food
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By Guy Dimond, Charmaine Mok, Ben Norum, Euan Ferguson. Photography Ed Marshall
Posted: Fri Jul 31 2009
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. Feature continuesAdvertisementThe 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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17 comments
Spinach & Agushi is very tasty but the prices are not what it says above its more like rice and 2 stews £6 small and also they have half prices deals at the end of the day where I got sick of the food they served me next morning, they need to warm the food before serving people.
Happy Vegetarian falafel stall in Portobello - the best, freshest falafels and friendliest service in London. And cheap to boot, highly recommned this one.
Goddards Pie & Mash- Are we referring to the one on Deptford High Street? If yes, then it is still open to business.
Just to let you know that Ca Phe VN has launched its own Banh Mi brand - BanhMi SaiGon from our Broadway Market Saigon Street Cafe.
We have ended our association with Banhmi11 and now will compete with them head to head at Broadway every saturday !
Let the Banh Mi Battle commence!
My partner Tuyen is back in the business after giving birth to our daughter Lotus last year & is preparing the ingredients for our excellent
South Vietnamese Five Pork Banh mi, we are also in the finals of the British Street Food Awards in September!
our press release below
Ca Phe VN has launched its own Banhmi – Banh Mi SaiGon – every Saturday at the Saigon Street Cafe – Benjamin Close, Broadway Market E8 10-5
5 pork, traditional Southern style baguette – excellent light bread with cha bong, steamed pork, cha, gammon ham, pate, pickled diakon & carrot, cucumber, spring onion, coriander, gravy, Vietnamese mayonaise & chilli.
Ca Phe VN 07780784696
The shop did close, but there is a Goddards stall in the Fountain Market near the railway, selling the pie and mash we have loved for years!
Goddard's in Greenwich closed in 2007 at least, if not earlier, and this review was posted in July 09! It was a sad loss that this review doesn't see fit to register at all. Does Time Out ever actually visit the places it reviews?!
Goulston St by Petticoat Lane has an embarrasment of choice when the market's on in the week (not sure about weekends) - 2 Thai vans, 1 Chinese, 1 Indian. And then there's the chippie and other delights like the Brazilian cafe nearby.
The sort of quality stalls they had in Spitalfields before it turned into Centreparks.
WE LOVE DE LA PANZA!!!!!
it would be useful to actually review some of these stalls. luardo's does wonderful freshly cooked burritos, with homemade guacamole, salsa etc at a very reasonable fiver. whereas Caribbean Food sells offcuts of terrible chicken in flavourless tepid water also for a fiver. Sunny's olive tree has 15 salads, all freshly prepared, offering a great variety of flavours and textures. In the summer, the most popular stall in the market...
What about the great Whitecross Street Food Market
Most of the markets are in East London except for Portobello.. how about stalls in Acton Market, Berwick Street, Ealing etc?
You missed out the Leather Lane market in Farringdon - Some great food from around the world...its right outside my office door!
Good point about Lower Marsh, I recently worked in the area for a few months and it's a great little street with a regular street market which has a good range of tasty food.
Spinach & Agushi is the best but it's also some of the spiciest food I've ever eaten.
Time Out missed out the REAL London street food .... those disgusting unidentified ingredient sausages frying with onions on illegal (but still rife) grills wheeled about the west end.