The ‘Rankings’ heading has been floating around on my blog ever since I started it a few months ago, but until now hasn’t actually featured any writing.
The idea of ‘Rankings’ is that I group together my favourite dishes in a range of categories, ie, ultimate cake, ultimate chicken burgers etc etc.
Obviously it takes me a while to have tried enough of any one kind of dish to establish a solid top 10 or so, hence why it has remained blank for all this time.
But now I’m ready with my first in the ‘Ultimate’ series, and it’s my absolute favourite category – Street Food. Now what I mean by street food in this context is anything I’ve had literally in the street, at a food market/food truck, or even a food hall where the trader wouldn’t necessarily be considered a restaurant, but more like a small pop-up style eatery (think London’s Seven Dials/Market Halls etc).
This list is in no particular order – it’s hard enough whittling it down to a top 10 (or 15 in this case) let alone then having to decide which ranks as the absolute best of them all.
You’ll find their Instagram handle in brackets – do check out their amazing social media content to see more of what they do best!
So enough of the rambling, here are my favourite street food eats…
The Athenian (@theathenianuk)
Location: Boxpark Shoreditch
Cuisine: Greek
Dish: Lamb Gyro with Halloumi Fries
I’ve tried a few Greek places in and around London and The Athenian has to be my favourite. Their Gyros (finally worked out it’s pronounced ‘yeeros’) are second to none, and are absolutely packed with all the essentials i.e. meat (lamb in my case), chips, halloumi and salad. The pitta wrap was super soft and the halloumi fries on the side were delicious with a creamy, slightly sweet salad cream style sauce. An absolute winner.
Kottu Lanka (@kottulanka)
Location: Victoria Park Market
Cuisine: Sri Lankan
Dish: Mutton Curry
This was one of the first street food dishes I tried after moving to London and I was blown away. Rarely for me, I hadn’t had a look to see what traders would be at the market and so hadn’t decided in advance what I wanted to try. I think it was the idea of Sri Lankan food that intrigued me in the end – I’m always interested in trying new cuisines that I don’t know much about. I had their mutton curry and it’s difficult to put into words how much I loved it (to be honest if I had ranked these in order starting with the best, this may just be Number 1). The photo really doesn’t do it justice, but the meat was incredibly tender, the sauce on top was beautiful, and I loved the fact that there wasn’t a heavy curry sauce; the flavour just came from the spices and the way everything had reduced down and infused with the meat.
A Pie Party (@apieparty)
Location: Victoria Park Market/Greenwich Market/Canopy Market
Cuisine: Desserts
Dish: Toffee Popcorn Pie
I won’t say too much on this one as my last blog post was entirely dedicated to this amazing business, but as a reminder, my highlight is 100% the Toffee Popcorn Pie with its indulgent blondie-style base and sticky, sweet popcorn topping. A Pie Party is unique on this list, as an original and exciting dessert street food stall. The menu is regularly switched up, meaning there’s always something new to try, and you won’t see any pies like this elsewhere in London (or the country for that matter!).
The Mac Factory (@themacfactorylondon)
Location: Camden Market
Cuisine: Mac and Cheese
Dish: Pesto Mac and Cheese
Okay, so ‘Mac and Cheese’ is not typically considered a ‘cuisine’ in itself (lol) but the heading ‘cuisine’ sounds better than ‘type of food’ etc, so we’ll stick with that. The Mac Factory’s mac and cheese is my favourite that I’ve had so far and I’ve tried quite a few. They have lots of exciting combinations and toppings, making it quite difficult to choose but I went for the Pesto Mac and Cheese in the end. It was so creamy with salty pesto, and mozzarella balls to top it off. It’s as appealing visually as it is flavoursome.
Rice Brother (@ricebrotherlondon)
Location: Spitalfields Market
Cuisine: Chinese/Asian Fusion
Dish: Char Siu Rice Roll
I’d been on the hunt for sushi burritos for a while, and was struggling to find a mainstream option within London’s food markets. This isn’t technically a sushi burrito, as the recipes and ingredients are Chinese-inspired rather than Japanese, but it’s a similar concept, using sticky rice and nori (I think?) to fill out the roll and hold everything together. The Char Siu Roll had so much flavour – the meat was delicious and with the gelatinous rice, worked as a really filling, but not overly-heavy lunch, not to mention they’re super colourful.
2 Lads Kitchen (@2ladskitchen)
Location: KERB King’s Cross (and various other locations)
Cuisine: Afghan
Dish: Chicken Flatbread Wrap
Much like my experience at Kottu Lanka, it was the idea of Afghan cuisine that drew me in, having no idea what that really meant. As I approached the stall, the smell of the grilled meat wafting towards me was incredible. My first bite of the wrap consisted of literally just the flatbread, but even that in itself had so much flavour. After that, it was absolutely packed with chicken, a small amount of relish and lots of hot, spicy sauce (although you don’t have to have it so hot!).
OINK (@oinklondon)
Location: Various (I went to City Point)
Cuisine: Pork Burgers
Dish: Notorious P.I.G and Pepper Pig
THE best burgers I’ve ever had. Genuinely. You know when you eat something so good, all you can do is close your eyes and savour that deliciousness, hoping that it’ll never end. The Notorious P.I.G consisted of bourbon glazed bacon, a pork patty, bacon chilli jam, mozzarella, bbq sauce and apple slaw. Dreamy. And the Pepper Pig, Sriracha streaky bacon, pork patty, Monterrey Jack cheese, jalapeño salsa and avocado mayo. I loved that these two burgers were very different, as I sometimes find with street food burger stalls that they have a few different burgers that look and taste pretty similar. Can’t recommend these guys enough – life-changing food.
The Bucket List (@chipbuckets)
Location: Various/Cromer (I ordered via Deliveroo in Norwich)
Cuisine: Loaded Chips
Dish: The New Yorker
One of my rare experiences of street food outside of London, this ironically became the complete opposite of street food when I ordered it via Deliveroo to my hotel room in Norwich. I didn’t have time to eat out properly when getting ready for an evening out, so basically went by how interesting the pictures and descriptions looked on Deliveroo (which I now am no longer using due to them being useless when my account got hacked and orders were placed using my money. They failed to delete my account on 3 occasions to prevent access and I’m still waiting for my refund but more on that fun story another time!!!).
This was the unhealthiest thing I’ve ever eaten and admittedly I did feel gross after, but it was so incredible that it was worth it. The New Yorker is a bucket of chips (very decent ones at that, with a crispy, crunchy exterior) topped with umm, everything. Chicken nuggets, gooey, fried Brie, cheese fondue, bacon, bbq sauce and aioli (garlic mayo). If you haven’t had a heart attack just reading that then, congratulations. I’m still salivating.
Bill or Beak (@billorbeak)
Location: Camden Market
Cuisine: Chicken Burgers
Dish: American Fried Chicken Burger
Still my favourite chicken burger that I’ve had in London, they do both grilled and fried options, in case you want something a tad ‘healthier’ lol… but when would I ever choose grilled over fried?? It looks a little squashed because I refused to eat it until I’d taken it on a 45 minute journey home but this didn’t affect the taste and it looked wonderful when I first got it. The chicken fillet was huge and with a super crunchy fried batter. It was very simple, with American style cheese, lettuce and crunchy pickles, but in this case simpler was better. Really impressed, and great service from these guys.
Truffle (@trufflelondon)
Location: Seven Dials Market
Cuisine: Truffle???
Dish: Beef Shin Croquettes
I did have a couple of lovely burgers from Truffle, but what really blew my mind were the Beef Shin Croquettes. These were insanely delicious, with shredded, stringy beef with a crunchy exterior. I don’t actually know what the dipping sauce was but it was beaaautiful. These were heavenly. And I don’t think I have anything else to add.
Hanok BBQ (@hanokbbq)
Location: Victoria Park Market
Cuisine: Korean BBQ
Dish: Korean Chicken and Beef BBQ Bowl
This was an unexpected one. Hanok BBQ had never really been on my ‘desperate to try’ list, but after seeing a few amazing looking photos I decided to give them a try. Everything about this dish exceeded my expectations. I absolutely love sticky rice and so anything sitting on a bed of it gets off to a great start. I decided to indulge in the best of both worlds with chicken and beef, and the meats were sticky, smoky and super flavoursome. The kimchi on the side added that burst of flavour, unique to Korean food, and the side sauce (why do I literally never know what the side sauce actually is???) was AMAZING. It was probably some kind of sriracha mayo, it had that kind of feel/flavour to it, but who knows?
Breadahead (@breadaheadbakery)
Location: Borough Market
Cuisine: Doughnuts
Dish: Salted Caramel Honeycomb Doughnut
I’m labelling this as street food based on the fact that I got it from a stall, in the street, at Borough Market. Breadahead’s doughnuts all have a very uniform look, and their signature trading point is the way they really focus on the actual bake of the doughnut. Their dough is not heavy and is super soft. The fillings are generous and the salted caramel was delicious. The only thing I would say was that the honeycomb genuinely nearly broke my teeth so I couldn’t eat it, but the actual doughnut itself was beautiful.
Motherflipper (@motherflipperuk)
Location: Victoria Park Market
Cuisine: Burgers
Dish: Breakfast Muffin
I think I’d been scarred for life by the Mcdonalds breakfast muffins, which despite all the hype, I thought were kind of gross, but the Motherflipper one looked so good I was willing to try it. I was really pleasantly surprised – delicious sausage patty, oozing cheese, slightly crispy bacon and the perfect fried egg with a gooey yolk. Definitely worth the calories.
Seasoned: Street Food (@seasonedstreetfood)
Location: Hatch, Manchester
Cuisine: Various
Dish: Beetroot and Feta Fries
Fries are never my favourite side. I often leave them out in favour of more exciting options such as croquettes, mac and cheese, things like that. But these fries just sounded incredible. I really love beetroot and so the idea of beetroot flavour fries was really intriguing. The portion was huge and even I couldn’t finish them, but the beetroot dust was delicious, they looked incredibly striking, and the feta sauce on top added a creaminess that enhanced the flavours and textures.
Tarricrii (@tarricrii)
Location: The Market @ University of Manchester (open to anyone – when I visited they were located at Hatch in Manchester)
Cuisine: Arancini
Dish: Butter and Ham Arancino
The best arancino I’ve ever had. You can see how cheesy the centre was, and the rice cooked through beautifully. Massively creamy with a thin, crunchy outer shell, not to mention the size of it! This is really huge and would be a good side to share between two (unless you’re me and you eat it all to yourself).
WILDCARD
I’m going to finish with a Wildcard option, which will be a regular feature of my ‘Rankings’ post. This will be something that doesn’t necessarily fit in with the other options for whatever reason, but absolutely still deserves a mention.
Sai Woo
Location: Jalan Aloor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Ciusine: Malaysian/Chinese
Dish: Singapore Vermicelli Noodles
My top 15 have all been within the UK, but the irony is that the majority of the street food we see in this country, is inspired by cuisines from elsewhere in the world. A highlight on my trip to Malaysia was eating the fantastic food on Jalan Aloor, a street full of amazing freshly-made street food. This is also another kind of cheat, as actually this place was more like a restaurant, with the food cooked inside and brought out to you. But I’m going to treat it as street food, as the street itself is full of small stalls cooking dishes before your very eyes, and the restaurants are not restaurants in the typical sense. We ate here 3 times in a row, each time the food was absolutely beautiful, but my favourite of the dishes was this Singapore noodle dish, which I often have when eating Chinese at home. Deliciously spiced with the addition of pork, egg and veg, this street, and restaurant in particular are definitely one to watch if you ever venture to this wonderful country.
So, my round-up is complete. No doubt that week by week I’ll be frustrated at all the amazing new street food I’ve eaten but that I can’t add to the list, all for it being too late, but who knows, I may do an updated version in a year or so’s time! Definitely check out these recommendations, even if you’re not someone who would typically try this eating-in-the-street street food malarkey. Casual dining is becoming huge so stay tuned for a further post in a few months focusing a bit more on some of London’s most popular food markets and halls, rather than the individual dishes.
In the meantime, hop on a bus/tube/bike and…
¡Comemos!
xo
¡Comemos! 