Brunch is my favourite meal of the day, and these are the seven London tables I go back to most, no two chosen for the same reason. Some Saturdays call for three unhurried hours at the table; others need somewhere polished enough for a client breakfast or memorable enough to book weeks ahead. Here’s what to order, who to bring and what’s worth knowing before you go.
1. LAVO, Marylebone
LAVO is not a brunch you fit into a morning. The Saturday Endless Brunch opens with an unlimited spread of antipasti, cheese, bread and pizza, followed by a choice of Secondi and Dolci. I ordered the penne alla vodka, creamy and rich in exactly the way an indulgent Italian brunch should be.
Their signature dessert, a 20-layer peanut butter cake (designed for sharing), is worth saving room for no matter how many courses came before it.
The room is buzzy in the way that makes three hours feel like one. This is the brunch for a Saturday with nothing after it, especially with the optional two-hour free-flowing drinks added on.
Saturday. Set menu £44pp; optional drinks package £35pp.
2. The Cinnamon Club, Westminster
The Cinnamon Club used to be a library, and it still looks like one: book-lined shelves rising over a dining room where, on Saturdays only, a jazz duo plays quietly enough to still hold a conversation. Where else in London can you say there’s jazz playing in a library?
Order the Rajasthani-style curried venison mince with fried egg and layered paratha if you eat meat, or the Bombay pao bhaji with spiced burrata and caper kachumber if you don’t. Burrata on pao bhaji isn’t something you come across every day, but once you try the combination, you wonder why it isn’t served like this everywhere.
Chef Vivek Singh has been working game into the menu for twenty-five years, and it shows.
Saturday. Set Jazz Brunch menu £45pp.
3. Delamina, Marylebone
Delamina is the one I recommend to anyone who wants brunch to feel easy rather than formal. Middle Eastern-inspired, herb-heavy, built for ordering several small plates and sharing them across the table. I went for the Jaffa-style brunch special, eggs arriving with hummus, tahini, smoky aubergine and labneh, though it’s the sweet roasted almond spread on the side that steals the dish.
The almond butter is delicious in its own right, unlike anything else I’ve had on a London brunch menu, and the Mimosa Blossom is the celebratory drink to order alongside it. Lamb and salmon are there for anyone who’d rather have meat or fish.
There’s a good outdoor spot when the weather holds, and nobody minds if lunch runs long or wraps up in an hour.
Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays. À la carte.
4. Brasserie of Light, Selfridges
This one is a business breakfast rather than a brunch, but it earns its place on this list because it has all the brunch feel without the weekend wait. The room is unhurried and art deco, built for lingering under Pegasus, Damien Hirst’s twenty-four-foot crystal sculpture. I’ve been taking clients and business contacts here for years, and it works precisely because it doesn’t feel like a business breakfast at all.
It opens at 8am on weekdays, which matters more than people think when you’re trying to get someone in and out before a 9.30 meeting. The vegetarian breakfast is my usual order, and a glass of champagne turns it into something else entirely if the occasion calls for it; otherwise the mixed berry smoothie is the better start to the day.
Weekday breakfast: Monday to Friday 8am – 11.30am. À la carte.
5. Caravan, various locations
Caravan works because there’s so much choice, and a branch wherever you happen to be in central London. The jalapeño cornbread is the dish people remember, and the wider menu borrows from everywhere, so there’s plenty for a mixed table. It’s also the easy, relaxed option on this list: most branches take walk-ins, so you don’t always have to book.
Brunch is served daily, so nobody has to be up early, and the plant-based dishes are properly thought through, not just a token gesture.
Brunch served daily until 4pm. À la carte.
6. Duck & Waffle, City
Duck & Waffle earns its place for the view alone: forty floors above the City in Heron Tower, with tables by the window worth requesting when you book. The restaurant’s named for its signature dish, Gressingham duck crispy leg confit with fried duck egg and mustard maple syrup, an unusual combination that works far better than it sounds; there’s a vegetarian version too, with crispy tempura oyster mushrooms standing in for the duck.
This is where I take anyone visiting London who wants brunch to feel like an occasion rather than a meal, and it’s just as good as a brunch date, since not many places hand you a skyline along with your eggs. The room is lively without ever feeling rowdy.
Saturday and Sunday, 10am – 4pm. À la carte.
7. HIDE, Mayfair
HIDE sits above Piccadilly overlooking Green Park, and the staircase alone tells you what kind of morning this is going to be. The breakfast menu takes the classics and gives them a proper lift: truffled scrambled eggs, a Full English done properly, granola made in-house, plus fresh bread and viennoiserie from their own bakery.
It’s Michelin-starred, which means it’s the one to book properly ahead rather than the morning of. It’s called breakfast on the menu, not brunch, but weekend service runs from 9am to 3pm, giving it the same lazy late-morning feel. This is the one I save for a birthday, or any morning that deserves marking properly.
Weekday breakfast: Monday to Friday, 7am–11am. Saturday and Sunday breakfast: 9am–3pm. À la carte.
Information and prices are correct at the time of publication and may be subject to change.
