Eating & Drinking

The best restaurants in Borough

These are the best places to eat in and around Borough Market
The best restaurants in Borough
Alamy

London's oldest market is a warren of smoking street food, old-school fruit-and-veg shops, charming pubs and a rising number of excellent restaurants. Whether you want fluffy bao buns or plates of glistening homemade pasta, fresh sourdough pizza or moreish tapas, you will not go hungry around here. But with only so many meals in a day, here are our favourite restaurants and food joints in and around Borough Market, the foodie hub of south London. For more options, see our guide to the best restaurants in London Bridge.

How we choose the best restaurants in Borough

Every restaurant on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveller journalist who knows the destination and has eaten at that restaurant. When choosing restaurants, our editors consider both high end and affordable eateries that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination. We're always looking for stand-out dishes, a great location and warm service – as well as serious sustainability credentials. We update this list regularly as new restaurants open and existing ones evolve.

  • Rambutan
    Carol Sachs 

    Rambutan

    Cynthia Shanmugalingam, author of popular Sri Lankan cookbook Rambutan, has just opened her debut restaurant – and couldn't have secured a buzzier location. Slap bang in the middle of Borough Market, Rambutan is the perfect spot for a spicy Sri Lankan love affair. Guests can perch on seats by the open kitchen, or larger groups can slide into wooden benches. The namesake of the restaurant and cookbook is a sweet Sri Lankan fruit that Cynthia associates with her childhood. It’s used within many of her Tamil recipes along with plenty of punchy spices and traditional ingredients, some sourced from Sri Lanka and others purchased locally at Borough Market. The menu is short and sweet, and plates are made to be shared (we recommend six dishes between two people). Start with the highly recommended gundu dosas. These spongy, plump dumplings are filled with mustard seeds and served with a fragrant dip, and they’re just as delicious as they sound. We also loved the juicy beef and bone marrow rolls, coated in a crispy batter (warning: the spice levels aren’t for the faint-hearted). Mains of curries are served in traditional terracotta bowls and include the tempered turmeric potatoes with pandan; the sticky chicken pongal rice pot; and our favourite, the soft ray wing curry in mild mustard and turmeric sauce – best paired with a flaky roti for scooping up every last morsel of sauce. Already established as Borough Market's tastiest new restaurant, dinner bookings are hard to come by so snap one up pronto – you won’t regret it. Sophie Knight

    Address: 10 Stoney Street, London SE1 9AD
    Website: rambutanlondon.com

  • Marcus Cobden

    Berenjak

    This charismatic sliver of Borough Market is a second outpost for chef Kian Samyani, formerly of Gymkhana. If the convivial Soho original was a recreation of Tehran’s tiled kebab houses, this is busily styled as a Persian family townhouse, with framed photographs, a wrought-iron staircase and stained glass cabinets. Samyani uses British produce to write an updated love letter to classic Persian cuisine. Berenjak Borough recalls the sharing plates of elbow-to-elbow family gatherings in the Alborz Mountains, and their spices, dips, pickles and herbs. It achieves a cosy intimacy, with most diners seated at a counter overlooking the kitchen. A negroni with pomegranate gin was a bittersweet palate-cleanser for the Noon Panir Sabzi we devoured while waiting for mains. It was hard not to overdo it on oven-baked sangak bread, rich, salty, feta-like white Liqvan from Iran’s Azerbaijani region, and fresh herbs. Then came the charred smoky aubergineness of Mirza Ghassemi, and supremely good Kashk e Bademjoon – tomatoey aubergine topped with creamy whey and caramelised onion, which set the scene for warm conversation. A ghormeh sabzi stew with the right pop of fenugreek melted into limey lamb. My companion, an Iranian friend who is a picky restaurant obsessive, could find no complaint other than the orange garnish for his negroni was “too asymmetric”. Talk about clutching at straws. I had arrived distressed, after having received bad news. I left reassured by bustling friendliness and the warm embrace of superior Persian comfort food. Lydia Bell

    Address: Berenjak Borough, 1 Bedale St, London SE1 9AL
    Website: berenjaklondon.com

  • Barrafina

    Parrillan’s older sister Barrafina is known for its exemplary tapas and this latest outpost offers an impressively reliable selection of superior bites. Take a seat at the marble bar and order a classic oozy tortilla, bright garlicky gambas rojas, ham croquetas and crisp fried baby squid for round one, and then just keep going. There’s also a lengthy sherry selection to wash it all down.

    Address: Barrafina, 2 Dirty Lane, London SE1 9PA
    Website: barrafina.co.uk

  • Brother Marcus

    Picky bits are the order of the day in this casual eastern Mediterranean independent mini-chain. Go for a selection from the rips and dips – black garlic and lemon hummus, fennel tzatziki and smoky baba ganoush with fluffy pitta – and plenty of mezze dishes including the kefir fried chicken, grilled sardines with whipped feta and a pomegranate spritz or two.

    Address: Brother Marcus, 1 Dirty Lane, London SE1 9PA
    Website: brothermarcus.co.uk

  • Toby Keane

    Wright Brothers

    This renowned seafood restaurant is just as good for a quick couple of fat oysters during £1 happy hour (Monday to Thursday 3-6pm) as it is for an extravagant sit-down seafood platter. Nab one of the outdoor seats with a giant barrel for a table and watch the comings and goings of market life.

    Address: Wright Brothers, Borough Market, Stoney Street, London SE1 9AD
    Website: thewrightbrothers.co.uk

  • Greg Funnell

    Bar Daskal

    This small Spanish wine and sherry bar in Borough Yards is a perfect companion to neighbouring Parrillan and Barrafina (also run by the Harts group), but they also do a great selection of cold classic tapas if you fancy more of a snack to accompany the refreshing cocktails: spicy pickled gildas, salt-cured tuna with hazelnuts, goats cheese with quince, anchovies and tender Iberico ham. Pull up a bar stool and settle in. Walk-ins only.

    Address: Bar Daskal, 10 Park Street, London SE1 9AB
    Website: bardaskal.co.uk

  • Greg Funnell

    Parrillan

    Part of the new Borough Yards complex, grab a table on Parrillan’s outdoor terrace under the atmospheric Victorian brick railway arches and get ready to sizzle. Each table has a mini ‘parrillan’ grill in the centre where you can cook your own Iberico pork just how you like it. Go with a group to make the most of the impressive sharing plates: Spanish baked rice arroz al horno, whole john dory, wood-roasted shank of veal with olive oil mash and a piña Catalana for pudding.

    Address: Parrillan, 4 Dirty Lane, London SE1 9PA
    Website: parrillan.co.uk

  • Fish

    Steamed, grilled, fried, and served plain or slathered in garlic butter, since 1999 this restaurant has been specialising in all things fishy. With produce sourced directly from the market outside, their passion is poisson – whether you want a decadent lobster, a classic fish pie or wild halibut fish and chips, it’s all impressively fresh and respectfully cooked.

    Address: Fish, Borough Market, Cathedral Street, London SE1 9AL
    Website: fishboroughmarket.com

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  • Bao

    The latest addition to Borough Market’s Stoney Street front row (El Pastor, Elliot’s, Wright Brothers) is London’s favourite Taiwanese bun shop. There's a Suntory whisky and soda machine (only the second in the UK), which is used for the fruity Bao Hi cocktails. Strawberries and blood oranges – sourced from the market, of course – go particularly well with sake and Fallen Pony in the Wow-hi. There’s also a chicken-nugget bao served with spicy sriracha mayo and a deep-fried, lobster-roll-like version with prawns – both winning additions to the Borough-only menu. We also loved the cold-smoked aubergine, which comes with a panko-crusted bao for scooping. Downstairs, find Bao KTV, the brand’s first karaoke room – a great spot to host the next party.

    Address: Bao Borough, 13 Stoney Street, Borough Market, London SE1 9AD
    Website: baolondon.com

  • Hawksmoor Borough

    Hawksmoor has finally brought some of London's best steaks and cocktails – plus exceptionally nice, well-informed staff – to a warehouse-style space around the back of the market. And it’s all delicious. Everything.

    Address: Hawksmoor Borough, 16 Winchester Walk, London Bridge, London
    Website: thehawksmoor.com

  • Arabica Bar and Kitchen

    Order the Bosphorus Fisherman’s Breakfast at this under-the-arches Middle Eastern restaurant. But if grilled kipper with spice butter and poached rookery farm egg sounds a tad intense, there’s always buttered sourdough with fig, sesame jam and tahini.

    Address: 3 Rochester Walk, Borough Market, London
    Website: arabicalondon.com

  • Lupins

    Just down the road in Flat Iron Square, seasonal restaurant Lupins offers an exquisite selection of small plates, from Cornish Crab Thermidor to polenta-crusted anchovies with wild garlic, at a little dining counter or proper tables upstairs.

    Address: Lupins, 66 Union Street, Borough Market, London
    Website: lupinslondon.com

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