The 18 Best Brunch Spots in London (2026)

Covent Garden and the Strand. Balthazar is a Parisian-style brasserie in Covent Garden's old Flower Cellars building on Russell Street, a two-minute walk from the piazza. It's a dressed-up brunch: a big, high-ceilinged room with gold trim and a long bar. Weekend brunch runs from 10am to 4pm. Order the buttermilk pancakes with berries and Chantilly cream (£14), or the full Balthazar Breakfast (£19) if you're skipping lunch. The trade-off is price and polish over surprise: a flat white is £4.95 and 13.5% goes on the bill. Book, especially for a table after 11am, when the West End crowds arrive.

The brunch I'd point most visitors to near the river. Aram opened at Somerset House in September 2025, led by Imad Alarnab, a Syrian chef who ran three restaurants in Damascus before the war, arrived in London as a refugee in 2015 and made his name with Imad's Syrian Kitchen in Soho. The brunch menu runs from 10am to 3pm every day, which is rare. Get the sujuk eggs (£15.80), a fried egg over labneh with spiced beef sausage and Aleppo chilli oil, or the za'atar croissant plate with fried egg and glazed halloumi (£14.90); the baklawa pancakes (£12) cover dessert. Somerset House is on the Strand, four minutes from Temple station, and the one catch is that brunch stops at 3pm.

In Neal's Yard, the small courtyard between Monmouth Street and Short's Gardens, 26 Grains is a tiny Scandinavian-inspired café built around porridge. Its founder started it after a year in Copenhagen, and the five-grain porridge is still the thing to order: banana and tahini with honey and cacao nibs is £11. For something savoury, the fried eggs in chilli butter are £15. It's a light, cheap brunch by central London standards, and a good one for a weekday. The room is very small and there's no online booking, so at weekends expect to wait, and the kitchen closes at 4pm.

Fitzrovia and Marylebone. Riding House opened on Great Titchfield Street in 2011 and it's still one of the West End's most reliable weekend brunches, six minutes from Oxford Circus. Brunch runs 9am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday. The order is the malted deep dish pancakes (£17), thick as a cake, with berries and clotted cream or with bacon and blueberry compote; the cinnamon French toast with fried chicken and chipotle hollandaise (£17) is the savoury alternative. It's busy and the tables are close together, so this is a place for a lively brunch rather than a quiet one. Book at weekends; walk-ins are welcome if you can wait. The main floor is fully accessible.

Lantana was opened in 2008 by two Australians, and this Charlotte Place café was the first. The corn fritters, an Australian café classic, are the order: stacked with roast tomato and halloumi or bacon, £17.70. The crispy chicken French toast (£18.80) is the heavier choice. Weekend brunch runs 9am to 4pm. It's a small room over two floors near Goodge Street, and brunch gets busy, so book on OpenTable for Saturday or Sunday. A 13.5% service charge is added, and the kitchen closes at 4pm every day.

On Marylebone High Street, Fischer's is a Viennese café, styled on Vienna in the early 1900s, from the group behind The Wolseley. The weekend brunch menu (11:30am to 5pm) is where Austria comes in: spinach Gröstl, fried potatoes and onions with fried eggs, is £18, and the Kaiserschmarrn, a torn, caramelised pancake with cherry compote, is £14 and worth sharing. It isn't cheap. A Milchkaffee is £5.50 and 15% goes on the bill. Book, since only some tables are held for walk-ins; it's step-free with accessible toilets, and takes foldable buggies only. Baker Street is seven minutes away.

Notting Hill. Bill Granger, the Australian cook who opened his first restaurant in Sydney in 1993, made ricotta hotcakes his signature, and his Westbourne Grove restaurant still serves them: with banana and honeycomb butter, £19. The scrambled eggs on Dusty Knuckle sourdough (£14.50) are the other famous dish, and the sweet corn fritters are £21. The room is bright, with big windows. The catch is that there are no daytime bookings, only walk-ins, so at weekends arrive before 9:30am, and reviewers report being asked to finish up when there's a queue at the door. A 12.5% service charge is added. It's a ten-minute walk from Notting Hill Gate and makes a good start before Portobello Road.

A few doors along Westbourne Grove, Sunday in Brooklyn is the first international outpost of a Williamsburg restaurant, and it serves brunch every day. The dish everyone photographs is the Sunday pancake stack with hazelnut maple praline and brown butter: £15.80 for one, £18.70 for two, £21.40 for three. Some reviewers find the pancakes denser and sweeter than they expected, and the whole place a little overhyped, so if you're sharing, one stack plus the çılbır eggs (£16.50) is the better order. Unlike Granger & Co, it takes bookings on SevenRooms, and it also seats walk-ins at weekends. Bayswater is nine minutes away.

Down a small alley off the bottom of Portobello Road, Farm Girl is an Australian-style café with a courtyard, and the most useful brunch for a Portobello Market morning. The whole menu is served all day. Order the Seoul eggs (£13), an omelette with kimchi, feta and chilli oil, or the Cherry Ripe pancakes (£15), which are gluten-free like all its pancakes. There are two catches. It takes no bookings, and weekend queues can be long, so arrive at 9am when it opens. And the extras add up quickly: avocado, bacon and poached eggs are all priced on top, and an 11% service charge is added. Notting Hill Gate is eight minutes away.

King's Cross and north London. My single pick for brunch in London. Caravan was started by three New Zealanders, and its King's Cross restaurant sits in the Grade II-listed grainstore that gave Granary Square its name, with terrace tables on the square. The brunch menu borrows from everywhere: Korean-style buttermilk fried chicken on a kimchi pancake with a fried egg (£18.50), jalapeño cornbread with fried egg and chilli butter (£15), or vanilla pancakes with bacon and maple (£15). Weekend brunch runs 9am to 4pm and is walk-in only for groups under eight, so arrive at 9am or expect a queue. It's fully accessible, and eight minutes' walk from King's Cross St Pancras.

Esters is the one I'd make a trip for in north-east London: a small Stoke Newington café that bakes most of its own goods from UK-grown grains and sources from small farms in Cambridgeshire, Sussex and Kent. Brunch is Saturday only, 9am to 2:30pm; it's closed on Sundays and Mondays. On the current menu, the French toast with roasted plums, honey cream and walnut granola is £14, and the Bircher muesli £9.50. The rules are strict: no reservations, no exceptions, card only, and your table may be needed back after an hour. The café says the Saturday queue peaks from 11am to 1pm and averages 15 minutes. There's no Tube; Stoke Newington station on the Overground (London's suburban rail network, here the Weaver line) is 12 minutes' walk.

The City and east London. Duck & Waffle is on the 40th floor of 110 Bishopsgate, opened in 2012 and never closes: it's open 24 hours, every day. The signature dish is the one in the name, crispy confit duck leg on a waffle with a fried duck egg and mustard maple syrup, £26. Weekend brunch runs 10am to 4pm, and the breakfast menu starts at 6am daily, which makes a sunrise brunch possible. You're paying for the view, and a 15% service charge goes on top. Book up to two months ahead, and dress smart-casual: tracksuits, denim shorts and flip-flops aren't allowed. Liverpool Street is three minutes away.

Ottolenghi began with a small Notting Hill shop in 2002, and this Spitalfields branch is where to have its food for breakfast. Order the shakshuka with braised eggs and smoked labneh (£15.50) or the miso mushroom and leek rarebit with a fried egg (£13.80). The counter of cakes is hard to walk past. It's the best-value sit-down brunch in the City, with a flat white at £3.90, but the cooked breakfast ends early: 11:45am on weekdays and 11:30am at weekends. Book a 9am table on SevenRooms, then walk to Spitalfields Market, a few minutes away.

Bistrotheque has been in a converted building on a Bethnal Green back street since 2004, and its weekend brunch (11am to 4pm) is the grown-up east London one, with brunch cocktails and a Sunday roast from 1:30pm if you linger. Order the pancakes or French toast with brown butter, maple and crispy bacon (£15), or the eggs Benedict (£21) if you're hungrier. It's pricey, with the full Bistrotheque Breakfast at £25 and 15% added, and one reviewer warns it gets loud with large groups. Book online for up to ten. It's four minutes from Cambridge Heath on the Overground and about 15 to 20 minutes' walk from Columbia Road Flower Market.

South of the river. Brother Marcus is an East Med brunch group founded by Alex and Tas, and its Borough branch sits in the railway arches of Borough Yards, a few minutes from Borough Market. Weekend brunch runs from 9am on Saturday and 9:30am on Sunday until 4pm. Order the smoky shakshuka with labneh and zhoug (£15.50) or the fried chicken rösti (£17.20), and split a tsoureki brioche with tahini custard (£11.50). It's lively and packed at weekends, tables are timed, and a 13.5% service charge is added. Book online; the terrace is walk-in only. It's wheelchair accessible and card only.

Where The Pancakes Are makes pancakes, sweet and savoury, in a railway arch on Southwark Bridge Road, a short walk from both Borough Market and Tate Modern. The founder grew up in Holland, and the buttermilk batter is made fresh every morning. The Canadian, with streaky bacon, maple syrup and blueberries or banana, is £16.75, and the savoury pulled beef pastrami is £17.50. Unlimited filter coffee is £5.50. It's open until 6pm at weekends, later than most brunch spots, and keeps about half its tables for walk-ins, but weekend mid-mornings get busy, so book if you need a fixed time. The arch is step-free but compact. Borough station is five minutes away.

The Table opened on Southwark Street in 2005, and it's the easy brunch before or after Tate Modern, five minutes' walk away. Brunch is served all day, every day. The house dish is the Boujee Royale (£17.50): smoked salmon, truffled scrambled eggs and beetroot hollandaise on a waffle. The Full English is £17 if you want the classic, and the tomato chilli uttapam (£14.50) is the good vegan choice. It's straightforward rather than special, and it closes at 4pm. Book on its website at weekends. Southwark station is seven minutes away.

Milk has been serving brunch in Balham since 2012 and is the south London café people cross the city for, which is why it's worth the 25-minute Northern line ride from the West End. The menu has names instead of descriptions: the sweet maria is sweetcorn fritters with halloumi and avocado (£12.20), and the young betty is poached eggs with burnt butter hollandaise (from £13.50). Those prices are from the weekday menu; at weekends some dishes give way to a pancake special. It takes no bookings, the queue can run down the street, the room is tight, and it's card only. It closes mid-afternoon. Balham station is four minutes away.